Grey Folk

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The Grey Folk were one of the first races to inhabit Alagaësia. It was believed that they arrived after the dwarves and dragons, who were native to the land, but before the elves and humans. They were the first to utilize magic.

At the time of the Grey Folk, magic was difficult to control, because magic was controlled by thinking, and not speaking the words. A stray thought while conducting magic could be devastating. One of the magic users nearly destroyed all of Alagaësia with magic because of this problem. The surviving Grey Folk used their language, the Ancient Language to bind magic so that it was controlled by speech. The powerful language also prevented the speaker from lying. It is not known how they completed the spell, but many of them pitched in to ensure success. Because of this enormous change in the nature of magic, the energy toll was great, and the Grey Folk were consequently diminished as a people.

No records remain of the Grey Folk, so relatively little is known about them. Paolini said that we may see descendants of the Grey Folk in the last book.

[edit] Speculation(s)

We first learned of Grey Folk when Eragon was being trained by Oromis. Little was known of this race, despite their importance. They have become a fan favorite, perhaps because of the mystery surrounding them, and the use of 'Wild magic'. Some fans believe that the Grey folk might be the Gods who the dwarves believe created Alagaësia. Another theory is that Tenga, the hermit spellcaster Eragon met while on his way back from Helgrind, used magic inaudibly, for the purpose of lighting a cookfire. Eragon was shocked at this, because Tenga could easily have destroyed everything in an enormous radius with a stray thought. More evidence of this is that Angela, his former apprentice, knew very little of the Ancient Language, perhaps only learning the use of magic and Fortune-telling from Tenga.

A bit of speculation here is that the Grey Folk after fading became human and fled to Kuasta. On Brisingr, pg. 289, it mentions Arcaena. Tenga might be a member of this order. It also says they are protecting knowledge from an unspecified disaster.

Others speculate that the Grey folks' decendants are the Urgals.