Elf
"The gods found the virgin world beautiful beyond comparison, but saw that it lacked beings which could commune with them and so they set about to create their perfect representatives."The Elves, or "Ye" as they call themselves, are one of the two "civilized races" on Massaolo alongside humans. Elves consider themselves the firstborn of the mortal races and many take a rather dim view of the current status quo of human dominance over much of the world, longing for a return to the legendary Dominion, though there are just as many who seek to make their own place in the current world rather than cling to past glories.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Elves are bipedal humanoids with a similar appearance to humans. They are taller than humans on average and most are of a leaner build.
Genetics and Reproduction
Elves reproduce sexually with a male and female engaging in intercourse to induce pregnancy in the female. The child will develop within the womb over a period of just under a year.
Growth Rate & Stages
Elves are born after just under a year of development within their mother's womb. After birth, the elf will develop to adolescence by age fifteen and to sexual maturity by the age of twenty How long the elves live is dependent on their type but most live around one hundred to one hundred and twenty years with Mimye, living notably longer on average, sometimes up to four hundred years, if their self-reporting is to be believed. Elves reportedly lived far longer during the Serene era, with some living for several millennia.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Elves tend to organize themselves into family units of a mother, father, and children at the most basic level. Social structure beyond this varies wildly from one elven society to the next.
Facial characteristics
Elves tend to have higher cheek bones than humans as well as slightly larger and darker eyes.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Elves can be found throughout most of Massaolo, but are primarily concentrated in the few pockets that were able to resist human occupation during the great invasions.
Average Intelligence
Elves are roughly as intelligent as humans though they are known to keep their intellectual potential far later into thier lives than humans, allowing them to accumulate more knowledge on average.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Elves have the common senses of Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Balance, etc. They are noted to posess superior balance and sight when compared to humans.
Civilization and Culture
Relationship Ideals
Most elves favor monogamous heterosexual relationships but this varies across groups.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Elves speak a variety of dialects of the Zivian tongue. Elves are distinct from humans in that all elven languages are considered to be a part of the same language family and, mostly for political reasons, this family is usually considered a unified language despite the variation between any two given dialects.
History
Elven history is shrouded in myth and legend, with few writen records from the Serene Era surviving to the modern day. This makes separating the history from the mythology of the elves a difficult prospect and the veracity of several notable events in elven history are a topic of fierce debate among scholars.
Origins
The elves were supposedly created as the first of the sapient mortal races of Massaolo. After the creation of the god Ziv, the other divines turned him into the communal soul of all elvenkind. With the soul of a divine the gods believed that the elves could truly commune with the divines and be a fitting representative within the mortal plane. With lifespans of thousands of years and seemingly limitless magical power at their fingertips, the elves quickly dominated the world; conquering Kedizlim, Sobjiu, Ikeyanu, and Didevon, culminating in the creation of the legendary Dominion. The elves eventually created the races of men to act as a slave race, allowing the elves to live lives of leisure and to pursue their own passions while manual labor was delegated to the humans.Rebellion
Despite their good fortune, some elves desired more. Some yearned to leave the mortal world behind and to return to the heavens as the divine Ziv. This desire came to a head when the elven queen Vumeya declared her intention to utilize The Phoenix Tower to ascend to divinity herself. The gods suposedly punished the elves with the Great Rot, a Rushwa plague that killed up to 70% of the elven population, allowing the fledgling human communities to come to dominate more and more of Massaolo, even pushing elves out of some major cities. Despite the brutal discipline, Vumeya's desire to ascend only continued to grow. With the Queen's continued pursuit of divinity, the gods had had enough and they rallied the humans to invade the remaining elven lands in the Great invasions.Fall
As the Queen and the most powerful of the elven mages gathered in the Phoenix Tower, the Divines struck it with a meteorite, immediately killing all within the tower save for Vumeya herself and deactivating the tower permanently. The elven lands were left crippled and leaderless, the humans set out to conquer the remaining elven lands. After three decades of brutal warfare, the age of elven domination over the world had come to an end and humans became the dominant mortal race. Elven power died with the Phoenix Tower, reducing their magical abilities to insignificant fractions of what they once possessed and reducing their lifespans dramatically. The surviving elves reorganized into new communities and were forced to decide how to live in the new age of human domination.Historical Figures
Vumeya: The legendary queen of the elves who oversaw the downfall of their dominion.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Despite being nearly six hundred years later, the great invasions and downfall of the elven dominion have left a bitter taste in the mouths of elves when concerning humans. Some elves do live in human lands and vice versa and varying levels of tolerance exist, but buy and large elves and humans tend to prefer their own company to that of their counterparts.
Hybrids, such as centaurs, nagas, and arachtaurs are despised by the vast majority of elves as unnatural abominations, fit only to be slain.
Lifespan
100-120 years
Average Height
200 centimeters (male)
190 centimeters (female)
Average Weight
70 kilograms
Average Physique
Elves are leaner than humans on average and are physically weaker relative to their size. They also lack the impressive endurance of humans but are significantly more flexible.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Different varieties of elves have a variety of skin tones, from onyx to amber to silver colored and everything in between.
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
Related Materials
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