Dasi

History
The Dasi was an ancient Eqyptian cult that worshipped the dual powers of Ahmik and Anhamriak. Ahnmik is the god of control, power, manipulation, cold, sleep, silence, and peace. His gifts to the world included bondage and mastery and Anhamirak is the goddess of fire, love, life, beauty, passion, chaos, and destruction but above all, freedom. The head of the Dasi was a woman named Maeve. It was her task to maintain the balance between the two sides. The Dasi was a group of thirteen men and women. Maeve, Kiesha, Brassal, Danuta, Isadora, Landon, Nalini, Donte, Nikhil, Cjarsa, Araceli, Syfka, & Servos. Kiesha was the high priestess of Anhamriak, opposite her was Cjarsa the high priestess of Ahnmik. The lesser priests and priestesses of the Dasi were known as the Rsh, they spoke to the people whereas the thirteen Dasi leaders spoke to the gods.

One day a creature named Leben approached Maeve and asked her to worship him. She knew that doing so would destroy the balance but she was afraid to refuse as Leben was very powerful. So she seduced him and he gave her the second form of a white viper. She also ordered that he grant her people of the Dasi second forms as well. Kiesha and her followers were given forms of snakes while falcon forms were given to Cjarsa and the other worshippers of Ahnmik. Eventually Anhamirak's followers drove the falcons out because of their infatuation with the void was dangerous and thus the balance was destroyed. After the encounter with Leban, Kiesha eventually couldn't trust Maeve because of what she thought was Maeves betrayal. Eventually a rift between Maeve and the other serpents developed, and she was driven out for practicing black magic. (Her reasons are better discussed in Wolfcry.)

Kiesha reluctantly rose to power over the new Serpiente people and Maeve was taken in by the Rsh. Kiesha's son, Diente, became the first of the royal Cobriana line and the serpent title for king comes from his name. Maeve also had children who survived as the Obsidian Guild. The four original falcons are all still alive though their situation is slightly changed in Falcondance. They inhabit an island that shares its name with their god and which they rarely leave because the Island keeps it's people from falling to Ahnmik's silence.

It is revealed throughout the books that the Falcons began the war between the Serpiente and the Avians. After Maeve left, Kiesha's power became too great, and it was said that she could kill just by looking at another, and her dance, which once brought rains to fertilize the crops, would instead cause floods and kill hundreds of people. The falcons then decided that, to protect their people, her magic must be split. So they found a small girl named Alasdair and gave her the form of a hawk. Then they split Kiesha's power and gave half of it to Alasdair. They then raised Alasdair to be the ruler of the Avians. Later on, she was introduced to a Serpiente, and through falcon magic, the Serpiente murdered Alasdair. The hawk's people were so distraught that they began the centuries-long war between the two species. All this was put in place so that the magic of the two people could not be united, and again bring about unimaginable destruction akin to that of Kiesha in the days of the Dasi.