Ailenti

The first elves. The original race of sentient inhabitants on Aelftien.
~200,000 the years ago the high priests and wizards of the Ailenti Conclave devised an astoundingly powerful ritual to make their race immortal.
Some few clans renounced their positions within the Conclave and departed to the remote areas of Aelftien when they learned of its horrific cost: the destruction of entire realms.
The ritual worked but the newly immortal Ailenti soon learned that they had cursed themselves with infertility. Throughout the ages, they have sought many times to remedy this failing and prevent the inevitable waning of their kind by attempting to recreate themselves. These rituals have drawn upon and devastated countless other realms, but have seen some limited success.
The native races of Aelftien, the Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Goblins, Orcs, Goliaths and Humans were all born of these rituals. Humans are the most recent, and some believe most successfull, attempt. Their ability to produce viable offspring through coupling with the remaining Ailenti is seen by some as proof that their efforts through the eons have not been in vain.
Others see their ability to acquire such heights of power without the requisite wisdom that longevity provides as a threat. It is rumored that these camps were behind the resurgence of the Orcs and Goblins that relentlessly assailed the borders of the faltering Renul Empire.
There are many other races to found peopling the lands of Aelftien. But these are all the descendants of desperate refugees that were able to cross into this realm as the Ailenti used their homeworlds like so many logs on a fire. They are scattered and generally few in number.