1. This is the Nature, History, and Doom of the El-kani:
2. In the days when they ruled Creation, the Primordials said amongst themselves, Let there be servants to amuse Us, and create trinkets that we may find pleasure in. Thus they made the El-kani to be their jesters and tinkerers. They were created without bodies, but were Makers, and so forged for themselves at the moment of their birth shapes to wear in Creation.
3. This is the form of the El-kani: A wooden pole, six feet tall and thick as a man's fist, from which are attached other wooden rods to form arms, legs, and seven-fingered hands. Their faces are wooden masks, and every joint of their body is of iron. The El-kani are not automata - they are Makers, who constructed bodies to inhabit and bound themselves into them.
4. The El-kani in those days were mighty, and skilled, and proud of their place at their masters' sides. But three days after they were made, the Games of Divinity came into being, and the El-kani were discarded. This was the first betrayal of the El-kani, and they will never forget it, nor forgive it.
5. They left the company of the Primordials, and dwelt for a time in the city of Bagh-hara. Let nothing more of that time be written here, or elsewhere.
6. In time, the Gods rebelled against their creators the Primordials, through their Chosen warriors, who slew the unkillable. And the El-kani said to one another, Come, let us forge mighty weapons for these Exalted, that in the eyes of their creators the Gods we might gain favor, and power in the Age to come.
7. So did the El-kani make great swords, and mighty bows, and many-bladed walking things, and other weapons stranger and more terrifying. These they gave freely to the Chosen of the Sun, who gave them out among their ranks, and even the least of these were granted to the Terrestrial Exalted, whose numbers are many. In thanks, the Solars promised that the El-kani would be the weaponsmiths of all the Exalted, until there was no more need to fight, and then their works might grow mightier in peace.
8. Yet, in time, even the great weapons of the El-kani were surpassed by weapons forged by the Chosen of the Sun, with skill borne of Autochthon's teachings and their own great workings of Essence. And so it came to be a known thing among the Exalted that while El-kani work might suffice for the great Host of the Chosen of the Elemental Dragons, whose numbers are many, only the creations of an Exalt were suitable for the great Chosen of the Sun. This was the second betrayal of the El-kani, and they will never forget it, nor forgive it.
9. Those Primordials who fell to Exalted hands became the Malfeans, dead and dreaming.
10. Those Primordials who did not fall were bound by mighty oaths on their own names, and remain bound to this day, and will be bound when time has fled Creation, and beyond. Two escaped this - Gaia, who resides today with the gods, and Autochthon, who has forsaken Creation for his own workshop. Of these, more is written elsewhere. Thus did the gods triumph over their creators.
11. The El-kani came to the dwelling-place of the gods and said, Behold, it was we who forged mighty weapons for your Chosen, and we demand our rightful honor as allies of the gods. But the Celestial Incarnae were then busied with the Games of Divinity, and said only, You are undying things made by Primordials, which are now slain and imprisoned, and We trust you not; thus you may leave Our sight, El-kani, and dwell within Creation as servants and subjects of Our Exalted, and this shall be your reward. This was the third betrayal of the El-kani, and they will never forget it, nor forgive it.
12. For a time they resided in the land of Taka, in the deep South, and made there a city filled with wonders and glorious palaces, forged from mists and gossamer. Yet in their souls dwelt bitterness. Then came unto the El-kani a shape shrouded in Oblivion, who entreated them, saying: Do you wish to slay your enemies, O El-kani? To destroy those who have wronged you, and take your rightful place in the world?
13. They said to the ambassador, Yes, but how may we do this? And the formless not-thing that spoke to them said, Merely swear an oath to serve Oblivion, which is the enemy of Creation which the Exalted rule in the name of the Gods.
14. And so blind were the El-kani that they did not think on this but swore the oath straightaway, and as the words of the oath left their carved lips, they found their wooden forms clad in leather, blacker than night, made from the hide of a creature that was never born. And the thing of Oblivion laughed. Now you serve the Malfeans, it said, and as you betrayed your creators, so shall you suffer. From now until the end of time you shall never create, never invent, never make. All your works you shall destroy by your own hands, and even your bodies are forbidden to you now, shrouded in the black leather of neverborn things, which you may only hide with the skins of my masters' enemies. For this you shall be granted soulsteel claws forged by hands not your own, with which to tear the skins and souls of the Exalted.
15. Thus it is to this day.
(Note that most of the El-kani have managed to get themselves destroyed over the past couple of thousand years; the few remaining ones continue to do the Malfeans' bidding, which generally means ripping off the skins of Exalted and rampaging around Creation, wreaking havoc. While they aren't terribly strong in and of themselves, while wearing an Exalted's skin they steal much of her power, and are indistinguishable from her except by their twisted Essence flows and utter lack of caste mark or anima banner. They gain half the Attributes, Charms, and Abilities of their victims (including Craft - part of the Malfeans' punishment of them is that they remain craftsmen second only to the Twilight caste, but are forbidden to create). Exalted generally survive the experience of having their skin torn off, and with First Age assistance can fully recover, but will be in extreme pain until they do.)
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