Elves: The Ancient Schemers

Elves were the masters of the world, or so they believe. According to their histories, they were kings and queens of vast, infinitely ancient forests in the lush paradise of the Lost World. The Cataclysm took from them everything they rightfully deserved, and attempted to destroy their culture and lifestyle and replace them with those of the inferior Adelians races like the Iomadi and the Cuporo. After the Cataclysm the Elves rejected the dawning world and set about to reclaim their old ways, to dig deep and travel wide, saving every old seed and selectively breeding plants to reproduce the ancient megaflora upon which they depended. Deep in Noshiki, the Elves grew a forest hundreds of feet tall and rebuilt.

This historical narrative is quite selective and favorable to the Elves. In fact, all of it, and all of Elven culture, is entirely manufactured and conjectured by them. They know very little of the truth of the old world, because in their arrogance the Elves blind themselves to any truth that does not fit their ideal view of a pure, elven society in Adel.

Origin of the Threat

The Elves have no idea about their true ties to the Lost World. They were not even within arm’s reach of royal power. The Humans and the Old Masters ruled over all of the world. Elves were not rulers. Like the Angels, the Elves were servants to these powers. They were bodyguards, and entertainment of various, cruel forms. Elves were never born – they were made a species by the aberrant powers of the Old Masters. Many of the elves’ peculiarities from the Adelians arise because their biology was inherently pulled and stretched to act as it does now. They are not “natural.”

After the Cataclysm, the surviving Elves were cut off from the control of the Old Masters. The Angels were machines, and had a directive (however scrambled it has become with time) implanted in them. But the Elves were thinking creatures, and without the active presence of the Old Masters, they lost much of their memory and sense of being. While the Spirits rebuilt the world and sublimated the Adelians, Elves wandered the defiled wasteland of Noshiki, the one place in the world that the Spirits could not purify or reach, due to its utter corruption even after the Cataclysm.

Within Noshiki, as the Adelian tribes grew and played out their drama of history, the Elves found remnants of the old world before anyone else did. Theirs was the true Age of Discovery, preceding that of the Adelians by nearly a thousand years. In this wasteland they discovered monuments, literature and other artifacts belonging to the Lost World. They discovered themselves. The Elves, empowered by what they saw, banded together as a people once more. They recovered ancient flora from the deepest and most preserved Pre-Cataclysm places in Noshiki, and regrew the vast megaflora of the old world, trees reaching hundreds of feet into the sky, carnivorous plants, and alien bulbs and fruits. Within the horrific wasteland, alien beauty now grew. The Elves grew a forest where nothing could have ever grown – nothing natural anyway.

The Elves deciphered some of the Lost World’s texts, nurturing a unique culture taking after what they believed to be their heritage. Unlike the Adelians, who took the texts of the Lost World as a warning, the Elves took it as an example. Their culture grew proud, imperialistic, ragingly xenophobic. Unlike the Adelians, who promoted freedom to love and to differ, the Elves required total orthodoxy to Elven standard and forced reproductive quotas. Those who differed were a danger to the whole, for the Elves had no friends but Elves – they viewed the whole world as an enemy.

The first contact between the Adelians and the Elves was during the Aptoan Empire’s Age of Discovery. The Elves cloaked themselves in the guise of diplomacy, and inculcated themselves into the Aptoan hierarchy. They lavished gifts upon the Aptoan Officials in various regions, and gave them poisonous advice and intelligence. The Elves sought to divide the Adelians, to sow discord and decadence in their culture, to make them strike against each other. The Elves had much of their work already done, for by themselves the Adelians were already straining their once accepting and communal culture, but the Elves’ push certainly did not help matters. Eventually the Elves realized their wish – the Vedarians attacked the Aptoan masters in that region, after years of excess and abuse. Soon the Intolerable War had begun.

To the Elves’ horror, the Aptoan Empire failed. They were destroyed, and the Five Nations rose even stronger and more unified within themselves than before. Adel reversed most the tragic failings of Aptoan culture and returned to their traditional beliefs. The Elves wanted to see a people hateful, xenophobic, decadent, broken, incapable of love and tolerance – unable to see themselves as this. Instead they saw a resurgence of the Adelians, and the beginnings of a better global culture, and stronger international peace. The Elves had completely failed, and soon found themselves against the claws of an Adel even more powerful than themselves. The Elves fled, having lost many of their own to the War.

Makeup And Modus Operandi

The Elves are one monolithic culture within the megaflora forests of Noshiki. In this haven, they are incredibly difficult to assail. Since the Intolerable War, the Elves became divided within their society as to what path to take to regain control of the world as (they believed) was the will of their Elven gods (who were unbeknownst to them, the dead, aberrant Old Masters who created them). The common Elf organizations are discussed below.

Some Elves believe in armed, guerilla campaigns against the Adelians within their own territory, composed of 25-50 fast-moving Elven warriors. These warbands are led by Elven Warlocks, and are in the minority. Most Elves recognize that such tactics will only squander their limited population. There are perhaps only 10,000 or so Elves left. Because Elves reproduce very slowly, even with enforced reproductive couplings and a stamping out of sexual “deviancy,” and because their children also mature slowly, they cannot recover from losses very easily. The Intolerable War cut their 20,000 strong population in half – that was intended to be their final war, where they usurped control.

The most common Elven organization is known as a Conspiracy. A Conspiracy of Elves is led by a Druid, a high priest or priestess of the Elven religion, and their work is to discover and reactivate ancient systems and artifacts of the Lost World. They believe that among the rubble lost deep in the wilderness of the Adelian nations, are weapons and items of devastating power. One such activation could be all it takes to wipe out the Adelians forever – or so the Elves believe. The Conspiracy is often 20-50 Elves in strength, or up to 100 if the Druid leading them had greater political pull within his or her people. Whenever Adelians encounter Elves, they are typically fighting a Conspiracy of them.

Not much is known about the Elven political system by the Adelians. The Adelians don’t even really know where Elves come from, except it’s somewhere in Noshiki. They don’t know that the Elves played a role in the Intolerable War other than fighting in it. They only know about Elves from a philosophical perspective: that they are very rigid and prejudiced, that most Elves are dangerous and that most Elves despise them for unknown reasons.

Despite this, Elves are allowed to settle within Adelian communities if they come peacefully, just like with Sorians. A few elves, often those who differed too greatly from The Elven Standard, have escaped from Elven civilization and gone to live within Adelian villages. Elves don’t often inform upon their own – they don’t want to betray the Elven civilization. They merely wish to live peacefully, somewhere, and wished it could be with other Elves. Since that is not to be, they partake of Adelian civilization. Adelian governments don’t really interact with Elven immigrants. Elven immigrants settle in rural villages, are grudgingly allowed (and perhaps ultimately accepted) by the locals, and then a Census comes and they are written down as “[Name], Elf” in a Census document that is unlikely to ever be read again by anyone.

Certain unscrupulous Elves see great opportunity in this.

Powers And Abilities

Elves are slender creatures of incredible beauty, and great swiftness. They were bred such that their bodies were be pleasing to the Humans and the Old Masters, but also to make them apt combatants in case of danger deep within the Citadels of the Lost World. However, they are fragile compared to Adelians, and their style of fighting is not as varied as the multitude of martial arts styles and weaponry that the Adelians have at their disposal.

Aberrant wood and plants make up the Elven arsenal. Elven blades are entirely wooden, yet sharp and powerful as iron. Their firearms are known to the Adelians as Thornthrowers – they are plants grown in a shape that can be held, aimed and fired comfortably and that launch needles, often poisonous needles, at high velocity. Elven armor is composed of green and red interlinking leaves of hard plant material. However, most Elves don’t trust armor much, and feel restricted by it. As such their armor tends to breathe more than Adelian armor and is less covering. This may be a remnant of their psychological conditioning at the hands of the Humans and Old Masters of the Lost World. Elves tend to depend instead on speed and sometimes stealth to overtake Adelian combatants. Even then it is a tough battle for them.

Elves have Arcane magic comparable to the Adelians’ own, but they cannot gain the Voice of the Spirits and utilize Divine Magic, since their own Gods are dead. Despite their assumed heritage, Elves have a hard time accessing technology from the Lost World. The Adelian’s Divine Hymnody can communicate with Lost World technology to a greater extent than the methods the Elves have devised. However, the Elves have a scientific approach to technology that, given time, allows them an ultimately better understanding of Lost World technology. An Adelian might be able to power a device with proper Hymn, but he or she is unlikely to understand what it does. For the Elves, operating it is the struggle.

A number of useful monsters are bred and domesticated within Elven citadels. Elves breed Trolls, plant-like creatures that constantly regenerate and grow stronger unless burnt to ashes, and Treants, golem-like ambulant trees. Both these creatures are no answer to Adelian Golems, however. An Andalian Kasowari golem can make mince of a Treant or Troll with its cannons. The Elves’ counter to Adelian golems are their own breeds of Plant Dragons. Winged or wingless carnivorous plants in the shape of Dragons, these beasts serve as steeds and, at least in size, are the equal of Adelian battle golems. Their breath weapons are potent acid that can eat away at the thick hide of Adelian golems – but the problem remains that a Kasowari or a Vedarian Antlion golem can blow apart Plant Dragons in a prolonged engagement due to its firepower.

Elves sometimes ally with Angels. The Elves see the Angels as a sign that their Gods still exist somewhere, but they seldom seem to realize that the Angels are in charge within these alliances, and how easy it would be to provoke the Angels to break alliance. Elves often instigate Sorian attacks on Adelian communities, using the Sorians as a smokescreen to carry out whatever expedition they wish to undertake. These plans can backfire if the Sorians are smart enough to tell Adelians apart from Elves, or if both instigated sides wise up to the real enemy hiding behind the curtains. Perhaps the rarest alliance is between Elves and Erinys. Both sides are always ready to backstab the other, and hope to be the one who backstabs first. However, Erinys often survive even if backstabbed first. The Elves are never so lucky, and they know it.

Elves As Antagonists

A Conspiracy of Elves is very aptly named. Elves will often try to create some kind of smokescreen to divert Adelian attention away as they try to dig into an ancient volcano lair, or attempt to revive a dead lovecraftian God, or find an ancient nuclear missile stashed away at the bottom of an flooded cave system. When discovered, the Elven efforts quickly turn desperate, and the battles against them often begin just moments from catastrophe.

The Elves are a tragic picture for the Adelians to consider, the complete reverse of what Adelian civilization stands for. Elven “culture” is ignorant, closed-minded and cruel, enforcing a siege mentality upon its people. Elves have rejected every idea and philosophy in the world and fabricated their own analogues, all stemming from the idea that they are the one true master race, descended from the ashes of a fallen world they do not understand. They view the Adelians as beasts unfit to care for the world, and seek to return to bygone days. The Lost World was not the paradise they think, but their fantasies are their strongest motivation to continue. If Adelians and Elves ever interact peacefully, the stark difference in their value systems should come into play.