Ayleid

The Ayleids, also known as the Wild Elves or Heartland High Elves, were the first race to establish an empire in Tamriel. They lived in a tribal society, with each "tribe" being different from the next. They were the first inhabitants of the Imperial City and apparently spoke a variation of Old Cyrodiilic. Because they lived so long ago and their language is largely undecipherable, little else is known about them. Throughout Cyrodiil many Ayleid ruins can be found. These ruins are filled with dangerous traps, monsters, bandits, and undead. Many would-be treasure hunters have died trying to plunder these lost ruins of the Ayleids.

At one point the Ayleids controlled the entirety of the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil, and enslaved the Cyrodiilic and Nordic populations (which at that point were both part of the same prototypical race of men). During this time, the Ayleids made great strides in the arcane arts. The downfall of the Ayleid civilization was a combination of cultural hubris and fermenting revolution amongst their slaves. With the blessing of the Aedra, a slave named Alessia led a revolt that resulted in the inexorable destruction of the Ayleid civilization. The surviving Ayleids frequently showed up as civil servants to the nobility in the Alessian empire, or fled to Valenwood and interbred with the Bosmer. The last known King of the Ayleids was the ruler of the city of Nenalata who controlled eastern Cyrodiil.[5]

Also, in the expansion to TES IV: Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, it is revealed that the Ayleids held a close relationship with the Daedric Princes. It is implied that they used the Daedric magic to increase their strength to the point where they could conquer the Cyrodiilic and Nordic races, as mentioned above. This could have been a contributing factor to the Aedra giving their aid to the human races against the Ayleids to help destroy or otherwise cripple Daedric influence in Nirn.

White Gold Tower, the central spire of the Imperial City in Cyrodiil, was the central temple of the Ayleids. It now serves as the Imperial Palace for the Tamrielic Empire. The rest of their capital city was either razed or buried beneath the Imperial City.

By the Second Era, the Ayleids were driven into a state many would regard as "primitive" (hence Wild Elves) and lived deep within the forests of Cyrodiil, though little is still known of modern Ayleids and their culture. Their tribes apparently possessed wildly disparate cultures, but shared a thread of xenophobia, likely remaining from the Alessian Reformation when Ayleidic culture was nearly destroyed. The last reported sighting of an Ayleid occurred nearly a thousand years before the events of the Elder Scrolls games. It is unknown whether a few Ayleids still survive in the wilds of Cyrodiil, or whether their ancient race finally expired and passed into memory.