Threats To Eden VI: The High Elves

Before the tumult that began life in Adel, the Elves had a culture developed over untold thousands of years, and the knowledge and power commensurate to such a state. They had conquered all the deprivations that nature would force upon them in the wild. Along with the humans at their side, the elves prospered into an egalitarian and scholarly culture, leveraging high magic to serve all pragmatic need. But that world is far, far gone. The Elves could not have foreseen that the magic they used was not free, and that its cost far outweighed even all the good works they had done. The Cataclysm left but a decimal of their glorious population, and with none of the culture and power they possessed. They had nothing in a new land that they saw as being worth nothing.

But slowly, they came to discover, to grow again. Unfortunately, they grew not into the kind culture they once were. The elves grew contemptuous, arrogant, xenophobic, and forced themselves to stand alone against a world and its cultures, to “save” their own.

The Fated Divide

The early history of the elves is greatly clouded. Today, few elves know anything about the Pre-World, but that’s not what’s meant here by early history. In fact, the elves may know more about the Pre-World than they do of their history on this world. It is believed (by Iomadi scholars – many elves vehemently reject this) that the Elves were once part of the early cultures of the Iomadi. Once the cultures united into the Aptoan Empire, elves became a bit more prominent in history. During the Age of Discovery, they made their first appearances in historical texts, having made many discoveries in ancient ruins around Adel. Elven scholars are credited within the group that helped piece together the Old Aptoan standard of arcane magic, the beginnings of the prosperity to come for Adelians.

But during the Intolerable War, the Elves had a breach within their own kind. Many elves now had knowledge of the Cataclysm and the creation of the current world. They had delved into the forbidden places of Adel, and helped the Adelians piece together the past. The Adelians felt unconnected to this past, and they wanted merely to exploit it or to bury it as they saw fit. But many elves felt themselves connected. How was it they had more proficiency for the dead languages than the Adelians? Why was it that artifacts resonated more with them than they did with the Iomadi? The Elves were coming upon the truth of their past – that those long-lost ancient artificers were their own ancestors. While there were scarcely any humans left, the Elves still existed, reduced as they were. Those elves who wanted a piece of the Intolerable War’s bounty – they wanted a nation, a place for them, autonomy and power to seek their past – called themselves the High Elves. They pejoratively named others “Low Elves”: those who thought in terms of the Iomadi, in terms of this community of alien beings (for so they called the Iomadi and other races originating in Adel). Those who wanted to live with them, fight with them, even breed with them and produce half-elven offspring (to the High Elves, this was an inexcusable sin).

Like the Sorians, however, the elves would not have their wish. The High Elves sought the jungles of Selvage as their nation, but in the end, they could claim but a piece of this hostile wild. They underestimated the Spirits and beasts that thrived in this place, and underestimated the Adelians. The High Elves crafted a city-state named Lisishtiel (the elves say it means “Elvenhome” but it is actually a nonsense word, the meaning of which is fabricated, and not part of any language) within Selvage, and in time, they have tamed some of this place, but they ultimately cannot, and will not, have all of Selvage. The High Elves of Lisishtiel ceased to worship the spirits, and began to worship their own gods instead. They have since attempted to stake claims to the land, but Vedaria, who also wants Selvage for its own purposes, has stifled them. Vedaria has gone as far as to break into Lisishtiel and defeat the elves in their own homeland.

The Low Elves became just another race in the great coalition that forms every other Adelian nation. Their culture is the culture of Adel. To the High Elves, this is a pitiable state. They are forever in search of what makes them Elves, and the power and culture that was once unique to them. They will accept nothing more than to be a perfect, pure race away from the miscegenation and dilution of races that they see in Adelian culture.

The Masters Of Long Ago

The High Elves’ ultimate goal is to truly rediscover and reignite the great society of their past, upon what they see as a fallen and backward world of Adel. This makes them dangerous, as their arrogance has become endemic. They do not understand at all what their great society was about. They have constructed a fable that makes them the fallen overlords and overseers of all they behold. If they knew just how anathema their current conduct was to the real Great Society of their past, they would collapse with shame. The Elves overestimate their potency. They do have better understanding and control of the artifacts scattered around Adel, but what they fail to understand is that it is not by dint of being elves that they can control the various ruins and items of the Pre-World. Elven-ness is not a prerequisite and not a boon in such endeavors: the crude, superstitious ways in which the Adelians operate ultimately produce results too. The elves’ cold, secular ways produce them faster, and they are naturally disgusted with what they see as child-like mysticism the Adelians show. But the Elves now are not the Elves of the Pre-World. They lack those untold thousands of years of growth and experience. By believing themselves just as powerful, by attributing their power to their elven race rather than to knowledge and process, the elves tread dangerous ground whenever they play with Pre-World objects.

The Elves don’t care for the Adelians, and they don’t care for their “Low” brethren. In fact, they are prone to harming them when they find them, and they absolutely will not stand half-elves. This is unfortunate, because the Low Elves still try to aid them in international conflict where possible, particularly Andaliel’s elven senators. But their care for their brethren is one-sided. The High Elves have little but contempt to give back. The High Elves will lie, cheat and manipulate with great subterfuge if it will give them time alone with an artifact site. They have surreptitiously begun conflicts between various organizations and even nations, just to divert attention from a particular stone henge or ancient temple or long-forgotten cavern that they wish to inspect. But the elves are not perfect. They have been traced back, and they have been beaten before. To this end, Lisishtiel must always be inculpable in their crimes. High Elves deploy cadres of delvers, led by a high mage or by a prelate of their religion, to decentralize their operations. The elven civilization is never the one blamed – it is the cadres that are.

If the elves had their way, the Adelians and their Spirits would all be destroyed, and they would be the gods of the world as they once believed themselves to be. They behave in exactly this way – all adelians are expendable, worthless primates to them. It doesn’t matter to them if an artifact site sends a pulse that kills all unborn Adelian children within 10 miles (or other bizarre effects of tampering with them), or if they unleash Angels trapped underground, or stir Sorians to attack. Adelian lives are lower than low to them.

The Elven Cadres

A Cadre is a group of 100 elves trained in a variety of roles in the exploration of ruins and capture of artifacts. They are led by either a High Mage or a Prelate, depending upon the nature of the expedition. Prelates are keepers of elven history and religion. Whenever their Gods might be involved, they will go. High Mages are ordinary commanders, used for any expeditions not related to religious elven relics. Elves have some measures of sophisticated divination, better than those of the Adelians at least, so they usually deploy the proper Cadres for whatever expedition is being undertaken. Cadres of elves have no spirits and employ no spirits. But each elven life lost is a precious setback, so to bolster their numbers, elves have a variety of minions and objects at their disposal.

Their most common minions are Trolls. Trolls are misshapen humanoids with long limbs and green skin, grown like plants. Trolls come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and serve the elves as mostly mindless laborers and warriors. Trolls are sluggish and ineffective compared to the average Iomadi soldier, but make good cannon fodder, particularly because of their regenerative properties. They also need not feed as long as they get sun.

One of the more intricate creatures serving the elves are the Simulants. Discovered in ancient ruins, the Simulants are a creation of the Master Aberrations once worshiped by the elves. The elves know nothing of this – they’ve fabricated new Gods and stories about them from crude interpretations of Pre-World texts. They don’t know their true Gods were horrifying, otherworldly creatures, and they don’t know the connection the Simulants have to these. The Simulant is a worm-like creature that takes up residence in a fresh corpse. It commanders the corpse and restores its organs to function, making itself the brain. It has a limited ability to customize the body, often by stretching its worm body towards the corpse’s arms, so that its tails can be wielded as weapons hidden inside the corpse’s hands. The corpse seemingly rises anew, a clean slate. Simulants can then be taught numerous things as they are intelligent and willing to follow commands from the elves. The Elves believe this is reincarnation of a sort, and many Cadres include dozens of Simulants in elven bodies. This is, again, elven hubris – these are bugs reaching adulthood, not brethren returning to life. But the Simulants are quite thankful for the aid. Simulants reproduce by, seemingly asexually, coughing up more worms once during their life.

Like the Adelians, Elves have golem-making as well. Their Golems are made from the “sacred trees” of their homeland in Lisishtiel. Their golem magic is very sophisticated, so these wooden trees can be small and agile, or large, flying beasts. They are not the boxy, hard-limbed things Adel produces. Unlike Adelians, elves also have little superstition about the process, so they can make one golem a day as opposed to one golem a week or month (or year), since they spend little time in prayer or burning incense. However, being made of wood, Adelians have various creative ways to destroy them. That seems to be a norm with elven technology – beautiful and frail, even if advanced.

The Elves in a Cadre are very multi-faceted individuals, each knowing both sword and spell. However, they are frail and usually do battle only if their minions have been defeated. Usually, the Cadre will split into groups, with the elves overseeing the activities of minion creatures. This way, a group lost does not mean the end of the Cadre or loss of more precious elven lives. The end of a Cadre comes with the death of a High Mage or Prelate. If such a thing occurs, the rest of the elves must scatter and protect themselves. Elves have a similar level of technology to the Adelians, as far as armor and weapons are concerned, except they refuse to use Prisms, Shotwands, Shotstaves and other “tainted” technology Adelians have created as a result of their “childish experimentation.”

Relations

•Sargasso: Though Elves have a great distaste for all of Adel, their relationships with certain nations are noteworthy. Particularly, Sargasso is a land rich in artifact sites that they have outlawed expeditions to. When these are tampered with, it is by the elves, and will inevitably lead to conflict. Sargassans hate elves, as elves have set off more than one inconvenience within their borders. Often, Seraphim clash with elven Cadres – and massacre them to the last elf. The Elves decry the Seraphim’s magical armor, weaponry and potent hymns, but they know for a fact Seraphim are much more than the average Adelian, and must tread very carefully in this land.

•Andaliel: Another land with a high concentration of artifact sites and links to the Pre-World, like Sargasso. However, Andaliel is concerning to the elves, as they have slowly begun exploring these places, having set up the Andaliel Archeological Survey in 1170 to lead small explorations of these places. Andalians have elves in the senate who vehemently try to legislate in favor of Lisishtiel, but the rest of the senate holds them, and Lisishtiel, in great contempt. High Elves are likely to brush with adventurers hired by the Archeological Society, and more than meet their match against these brave, foolish people. It has been said that companies of 10-15 adventurers have scattered a whole Cadre once – perhaps exaggeration, but it attests to the power the Adelian soul and will has that Elves discarded.

•Vedaria: The only nation to attack Lisishtiel – and so, the only nation to win against it. The Elves hate Vedaria most of all, and its desert holds secrets they desire, but Vedaria is not like other nations. Vedaria’s military forces are brutal, and Magdalena Keehl does not make token gestures to peace and decency in a time of war. She will eradicate any elf cadres who intrude upon her territory, and the army will be glad to do it. High Elves tread very, very lightly in Vedaria, and pay highly if they do not.

•Sorians: Both being large racial groups that failed to get their piece of the Adelian pie due to their distaste for communing with the Adelians, one would think the Sorians and Elves might find something common. But they usually only find a mutual desire to kill one another. Sorians are typically more successful than Elves at battling Adelians, mostly due to their brute strength, incredible endurance, higher numbers and reckless attitude, so the Elves try not to confront them, and instead try to egg them into attacking Adelians.

•Spirits: Elves do not worship spirits, or at least, they think they don’t. Their obeisances to nature and to their false gods, however, are basically offerings to spirits of creativity and the natural world. Elves do not associate with Spirits, and Spirits think little of elves, but that they are deluded beings on a path to their own destruction.

•Furies: The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy. Furies and Elves rarely have contact, but when they do, the Furies will attack the elves as they attack anything, and unlike Sorians, Furies are intelligent and well-versed in manipulating events to their favor. Elves try to steer clear of them – even without being spirit worshipers, they can see the taint in a Fury’s aura and feel disconcerted all the same.

•Angels: Elves often come into contact with Angels as they awaken ancient sites where the machines are trapped. Oddly enough, unlike the Seraphim, Elves see using pieces of these machines as a taboo, despite these beings once belonging to them. But the Angels no longer see the Elves as masters. Their true masters were always the Aberrations, the Gods once worshiped by the Elves, that even the Elves have now forgotten. The Directive is absolute, and the Elves cannot (and do not want to) gain control of these beasts.