Legends: The Elves

The Elves were a race of people who lived in the time of the Gods.  Contact was lost with them sometime after the God’s disappearance, and they are presumed to have died out in the intervening thousand years.

Knowledge of the Elves as a people is limited.  Texts say that they were a slave race of the Ishari, kept separate from other races during their empire, and liberated by the Gods.  The God of Forests and Sun took them under his wing, helping them establish their place in the world.  They called him Valya Vara, and he took this as his name.  What it was before this is unknown.

Physically Elves were very similar to humans, with three major exceptions.  They were a lot slimmer than humans, some illustrations show them looking almost emaciated, though these may date from a time shortly after their liberation.  Secondly, their ears were larger than a humans, long and slender, with little to no earlobe present.  Finally their eyes were more almond shaped than a human, and their pupils were vertical slits, much like a cats.

The Elves took their place in the forests of the world tending to keep away from the other races, being a reclusive people, probably because of their time as slaves.  They took to magic naturally, and some religious books of Valya Vara seem to indicate that they may have been the race most naturally inclined to magic, almost like it was a part of them.  Many scholars point to this as the cause of their disappearance, the magic that was so much a part of them turning against them like it did the other races.  Others think that they may have ascended to a higher form of being, becoming more magic than mortal.

Whatever happened, the Elves are considered a lost race, and with their penchant for basic living in their forest homes, the answer may never be found.

Professor Adrian Pageguard, University of Dertrel.