Elves

The Elves of Teiravon 3

The elven race is a timeless curiosity in Teiravon, living without aging, free of a finite lifespan, yet blood and flesh mortal just the same. The exact origins of the elven race is a point of contention and speculation, even among their own kind, were they once Fae, or have simply always been? Their ageless state lends themselves to an easy fraternity and a certain patience for taking a lengthy view of things. But not all elves found this longevity a blessing.

Other creatures, they noted, seemed to grow and adapt with each new generation. They could watch in stunningly short time as populations of creatures were transformed by their surroundings. Hair grew darker or lighter, nostrils flared fuller to take in more air in mountain climbs, skin grew darker or lighter as their habitat dictated. Yet here stood perfect and permanent elves, a new child born perhaps once a decade among their population. Elves could see no particular difference between the eldest of their number and those barely a century aged. Surely what ever forces augmented these other races must be studied in depth. And so began their great work, they called it “Tenrimere”, “what time desires” and set to work. Could man or beast be made like elves given suitable habitat?

What were the limits of this transformation? And indeed could elves themselves benefit from its secrets. All these questions were central to the project, but the results would leave the elves torn deeply, shattering the easy fraternity which was, unknown to them, their greatest accomplishment. Celestial, Terrestrial, and Sidereal.

Through a period of several hundred years, the elves of the Tenrimere began to change. By selecting for the most keen mind, the most graceful symmetry, the best and brightest of each generation were paired off to immediately set to work on the next. A culture of exceptionalism grew into a steady idolization of the Sun itself. Struck upon as some ancient form of tribalism it received a new awakening as the elves of Tenrimere took on an increasingly golden skin tone, dubbing themselves Celestial elves. It was not long until this fascination began to strongly impact the society and the selection process determining pairings. Through each successive generation of Celestial elves there would be those who were not deemed suitable to proceed as progenitors of the next generation, those the project determined it was ultimately detrimental to their goals to permit to sire any children. They had sought the sun but missed the mark and would forever only be one among the thousand twinkling stars, known as Sidereals.

Sidereal elves naturally tended to quickly make up a significant majority for much of this intermediate period, they were born into the midst of the Tenrimere project but were not considered suitable for its grand designs, they were relegated to lesser citizen status. As sidereal numbers grew however it began to be noticed that the original Elven population appeared to be thinning, not only in their percentage of the populace but in real numbers. Something very wrong was happening to the elves, though many Celestials argued it was simply the simple principles that those of inferior physiology would die out disproportionately to those superior celestial elves it was clear that fewer elves lived now who could remember a time prior to the Tenrimere project.

In secret a conclave of the last remaining elves who predated this time met to discuss the future of their people. The time had long since passed to hope to reverse this course but steps needed taking to preserve the sanctity and nobility of the elven people. It was decided then that the remaining elves would abandon their home in the Twofork river delta, leaving the extents of elven civilization and trekking back in to the wilds, to commune once more with their natural state and the spirits which were their forebears, and perhaps to atone for what their race had done. These elves would be known by those they left behind as the elves stuck down upon the earth, the Terestrials.