loreweaver-universe:

Today, I’m going to give you another look at Starheart and tell you about the elves of Evria.

In the western reaches of the southern continent (the same one that the orcs live on) is a vast forest, one presided over by an unnatural calm and sense of peace.  This is the home of the elves of Evria.  Near what would be the geometric center of the forest is a great tree, the center of elven civilization; surrounding it is the one true elven city, a masterwork of architecture blended with guided growth.  This is the heart of elven civilization, but not the full extent of it; in all four cardinal directions, equidistant from the great tree, there is a small settlement of elves, and beyond that another, and another, laid out in four great spirals that extend outwards to the edge of the forest.  Where these spirals meet the ocean, aquatic settlements are built and grown to maintain the pattern.  Each of these settlements is small, tended by a small group of elves that live there on a permanent basis, but few elves truly have a permanent home, as most suffer from an extreme wanderlust when not in the service of another.  Elves can thus be found on all three continents and scattered throughout the eastern island chains, always wandering, always searching for something they cannot define.  Those elves that remain in their great city have turned it into a center for the arts and mathematics, where many of Evria’s keenest minds come to compete for the attention of thousands.

Elves are, as a species, sterile.  When an elven couple–and this only works for elf-elf couples–desires a child, they return to the great Tree, to which they pray.  If the Tree deems their union worthy, a flower blooms from its bark, and inside this flower is an elven infant.  Most elves worship not the nine Gods but nature and their grand tree instead.

There are many secrets about the elves, ones I cannot share with you this early in the story, but you’re not the only ones seeking to uncover them.  A young druid currently studies under a reclusive troll on the edge of the elven forests. Ostracized by his peers for seeking to understand the mechanisms of the Tree (yes it needs a name I’m still trying to decide on one), he fled his society in shame and now hides from the other elves in his studies.  Soon, an encounter with a paladin chasing a vision of the end of all life will draw him from his self-absorption, and make him stop running from the mysteries he once sought to understand.

SECRETS!

I’m not sure there’s a lot I can say here.  There does seem to be an interesting angle on self identity and what that means when you’re an elf.  When your very existence is tied to The Great Tree, and finding a purpose outside of that is seemingly cause for exile, all the while with a great desire to wander.

When I think of elves, I like to think about some of the older legends about Fey and fairie folk, especially Arthurian era.  They tend to be still as graceful and ethereal, but a lot meaner and weirder than most people come up with on there own. Some variant of Tolkien elves seems to creep in a lot with other people’s works (which are also basically more or less, also DnD elves).

Also just general fantasy worldbuilding, but every time I think of elves I think of this survey.  While searching for that, I found this article too, which is also really good.