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Aethe is the legendary founder of the first school of the Adem and, by extension, Adem culture.

In the Chronicle[]

His weapon was a bow of horn, with a string made by Rethe from strands of her hair, and a sharp and single arrow with a white feather fletching.

Aethe was known to sometimes strike a foe through the leg rather than kill them. According to the legend, Aethe sought mastery over the bow. He became so good that he could shoot both apple and burning candle wicks from one hundred feet away. He learnt the name of the wind so he could hit a piece of silk billowing in it. Word of his skill spread and people came to be taught by him and to challenge him, but none succeeded.

Rethe, one of his students, became very close to him but they had an argument, which culminated in her challenging him to a duel for control of the school. Aethe chose to fight the duel in a grove of trees while Rethe sat unarmed on a hilltop. Seeing this, Aethe became enraged and shot her in the inner curve of her left breast. She wrote four lies of poetry on a ribbon of white silk with the arrow's white fletching in her blood. She let go of the ribbon and the wind carried it to Aethe.

"Aethe, near my heart.
Without vanity, the ribbon.
Without duty, the wind.
Without blood, the victory."

After reading this, Aethe felt remorse, and tended to her for three days before she died. Rethe told Aethe the ninety-nine tales of the Lethani, dying before she could tell him the final story. Aethe continued the school, now teaching the Lethani as well as the bow. He died forty years later after and never killed again.

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