Elves
Children of Eternity
"Elves have always believed themself to be the first to master the art of magic. Truth is that they were the last to do so, their unending ignorance blinded them. Despite this lack of sight for what was around them, they were still the first to truly understand the nature of magic": Noritë "Our brothers in the north have fallen, our brothers in the west have forsaken their mission. Only a few of the Geleter are fighting a lost war. We are the last civilisation, we are the last to carry burder of eternity": Timan VIII.
Biology
Elves are the species closest to Humans s. Both physically and mentally and in many ways also cultural. Many arguments can be made that elves and humans are in fact only subspecies of one species. Especially the existence of Half-Elves, which are in most cases fertile, makes for a good case to consider humans and elves one species. Differences in biology might just be the result of selection, especially due to magical abilities among elves.Physical
The first noticeable difference to humans and Dwarves is height. Elves are on average slightly larger than humans and much larger than dwarves. Noticeable among their physiognomic features are their eary and eyebrows especially, which are considered unusually sharp by humans. There is overall less phenotypical variation among elves. Different elven groups also vary in skin colour. The elves of the Aldrim are very pale and light-skinned, while the Elves of Kenatan exhibit a darker skin colour, while the Yupanki appear in an almost bronze-like skin tone. There is overall less variation than among other species. This is where the purely physical ends. Elves also vary in strength and longevity, yet these differences might not be physical in origin, but could be derived from their magical abilities also. A lot of elven mages have used their magical abilities to prolong their life for extreme durations, with some, called the Undying living for more than a thousand years.Mental
Elves are among the intelligent species most proficient in the magical arts. Since it is believed that the Gift of Magic exists in all intelligent beings, it is unlikely that elves were the first to discover magic. They were however the first to professionalise it, to discover its true potential and to school and train Mages to become evermore powerfull. It is noted that the frequency of elves having the Gift of Magic is much higher than among other species, this is likely due to selection from early on. Elves place a very high value on longevity, as it has become an integral part of elven mages to prolong their life. As such they place both a high regard on memory and all their authority is derived from age and ability.Culture
Nations
Elven oral history tells us, that in the beginning there were ten nations of elves living in the western part of the world. Each of these nations had their own customs, language and especially their own traditions in magic. Their names are Aldrim, Geleter, Ishmak, Dumul, Shatun, Kenatan, Kaolai, Yupanki, Eandu and Kutek. It is unknown how far back this division goes, yet it is cited that there were none before. These nations also predate the first elven empire and the true professionalisation of Magic. The Aldrim are the children of the northern forests, closests to the humans of that area they developed a similar magic, yet their ways were different, they did not seek to bargain with nature, but to controll it. The Dumul build their cities in the desert and venerated the stars of the night sky, but their magic was most martial in nature and they were known for their warriors. The Geleter seeked to live in eternal splendor, to create a world of nothing but beauty and light. Their Queen was obsessed with her ideal vision of a world without suffering, that it eventually became her downfall. The Kaolai live on the western islands and have tamed the winds and the seas to venture forth across the oceans. The Ishmak live between the fiery mountain tops of the south, their realms are the windswept peaks and volcanoes. They have tamed fire and metal and are known as the most powerful pyromancers there are. Below the nightsky of the Dreamless Sea live the Kenatan in their mighty slumber they drift across the waves below the light of the moon. The Yupanki live in the south-eastern mountains and venerate the sun. Their astromancers guard their might realm for it is the last of the once great elven empires. Before the Age of Askareia, the two nations of Eandu and Kutek vanished and nobody knows their fate. Then the Queen of the Geleter became the Empress of Eternal Spring, which ruled for four thousand years, until it was destroyed by the Champion of the Dumul. During the Age of Askareia these eight nations lived in peace, yet with the emergence of the Second God, war broke out and the nation of Shatun sided with the Second God. The Shatun became dreadful and turned into nightmarish beings known as Dark-Elves. Yet such a simply names does not capture the horror, which they have become.Society
Elven society is mostly dominated by Mages. The nations deeply define themself by their magical traditions and society is lead by the most powerful mages. While human realms are often patriarchical and dwarven societies are matriarchical, elves tend to be egalitarian in that regard. They are still very hierarchical and meritocratic. The oldest and most powerful mages rule over the nations. These mages are often Undying Ones, mages who have lived for over a thousand years. To reach this feat they spend often years or decades in deep meditation. The day to day business of leadership is generally done by lesser mages. The oldest ones however still hold most authority.Religion
All elves share a common faith, which posits every living being as part of a larger whole. This does not merely include living beings, but every being which is sensitive to magical energies, such as the sun, the moon and the stars. These are the elements of nature they serve, but also seek to controll. Everything is one in magic, as all power originates from one. This is their God, their ultimate truth. They do not seek service nor mercy from this God-of-all-beings, but they see it as an eternal mystery, which has to be solved. Magic has to be controlled and life is a struggle against adversaries. This God is not a being like they are, but a challenge to them. The differences among the elven nations lie Apart from this pantheistic view of nature there lies a Second God. When they encountered this being first, it was too foreign and strange to them. They saw it as an antithesis to all they had known in the world so far. They dubbed it the Second God for this very reason as it was an equivalent, totally different, to their view on nature.Language
Like human and dwarven nations have elves their own languages. Most elven nations speak a single language, sometimes several dialects of a common origin. Not all elven languages are related. The Geleter language seems to be related to that of the Ishmak and Dumul, yet only distantly. The Yupanki language might be distantly related to the Kaolai language too. The others are apparently isolated. Elves don't have a written language and they consider it a direspectful act. Writing implies a lack of trust and respect towards their elders. Thus nothing is really known about the language of ancient elves, but what their elders report. Information on the extinct elven nations might be entirely wrong. Few outsiders learn elven languages as they don't find much application, but among themself. Physically and mentally however every human and dwarf could be able to aquire, learn and speak an elven language much like their own native language. Linguistically there is no inherent difference between elven, human and dwarven languages. Elven languages are therefore only recorded in modern times. Some adventurers, who have traveled to the Kaolai, Kenatan and Yupanki have gathered some information on their languages. Yet elves often outright reject speaking in their own tongue to outsiders. The only elven language, which has something akin to a written tradition is Aldrim or Aldršłhé. The authors of these works written in Aldrim are however only Half-Elves, who learned the language later in life as a matter of prestige.Magic
History
Legend tells us of an individual called the Old Master. This person, of unknown origin, was the first true mage. He the first, who stood up from the murky depths of ignorance in which a mage was simply a trickster, merely a stranger to their own kind. The Old Master saw the potential of what could be achieved. He travelled trough the lands and searched for other gifted individuals, his pupils. Among them was a noble woman of the Geleter nation. As their powers grew, she had a vision of a future in which mages lead civilisations. She saw it as her mission to lead her people into a better future. The Old Master did not want this, he wanted magic to be a pursuit of the gifted ones, a society on its own. In his vision they had to live like monks studying and perfecting their abilities to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The woman gathered other pupils, who also had her vision and attacked the rest. They killed the Old Master and those who supported him. With this act, she herself become the only herald of magic in the world. She began calling herself the Empress of Eternal Spring and those most loyal to her the Guardians of Eternal Spring. They set out to conquer and carved the first Empire, the Empire of Eternal Spring. Their reign lasted four thousand years. In this time elves advanced to previously unknown heights, but her dream to absolve them from all suffering never came true. Eventually she became distant and bitter and her Empire declined. The Empire ended with her death by the hands of the Champion of the Dumul. Even after her death, her story remains one of caution and aspiration. Mages nonetheless continued to ruler over the affairs of elves. Something which never changed throughout elven history. Their attitude towards magic also never considerably. They regard magic as a mystery to be solved, a challenged to be mastered and a force to be mastered.Types
Elven Magic is most often elemental magic and aims at controlling one or more elements. These aren't necessarily physical elements, but parts of nature as observed to be categories by a certain elven tradition. Pyromancers don't controll any physical element, but they controll heat and thus can ignite oxygen in the air for example. What is deemed an element in this context thus depends on the focus of a particular tradition. A hydromancer may controll water, but what they ultimately do is not much different from an aeromancer. Different is their focus and schooling, which leads to them regarding them as one category of nature. As magical abilities are always specialised, mages are often not aware whether their abilities might actually amount to the same as they develop a special focus hard to escape from. Very skilled mages are of course able to bridge these and make correct connections in these regards. Another subset of types is concered with life and the energies carried by living beings, most notably biomancers and necromancers. They are similar to primordial human mages in many regards, yet their treatment fundamentally differs from said human mages. Like anything else they treat lifeforce as something to be controlled, rather than something inherent to a living being. It is for example a longstanding question what a soul is and whether it even exists. Human mages, both modern and primordial do not deny the existence of an immortal soul of every living being, even if this soul is just a vestige of lifeforce, like a corpse is the vestige of a body. Biomancers simply do not care, lifeforce is everything, if a being is alive it carries it, if not they are dead. Necromancers concerned with reanimating the dead treat it as very difficult topic. Some clearly believe in the soul as something immortal, which can be retrieved from a dead body. Other believe this retrieved soul is merely whatever memory of a sliver of lifeforce is left in the body or just a construct of the necromancer. As such a soul can be simulated as with any other artificial being. Other forms of magic have more fickle subjects. The Kenatan elves practice Oneiromancy, among this is the art of conjuring the dream into the material world. As such a dream is seen as a reality. Thus they do hold the belief in the existence of the immaterial truth. Others are the argyromancers, which do merely use silver as weapon, but use its reflections to create visions. One of the most complicated arts of magic is Chronomancy. Both in regards of conjuring visions of the past and future, but also in regards to changing coming events and revisiting past events. Ultimately to change the progression of time and turn back time.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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