Elves

Elves were the first people of Valerna, born from the magic of Protogons during the earliest ages of history.

The first elves ruled western Valerna from their fabled Ellari Kingdoms - enchanted realms built out of Dream Magic, whose wizard-lords wrote reality as they saw fit through their ancient art of Dreamshaping. For millennia these realms withstood dragon incursions, human invasions and monster attacks, until a magical cataclysm known as the Dreambleed destroyed the ancient world, and elven civilization with it.

After the Dreambleed hit, many elves escaped Valerna, by sea or by the dark paths of the subterranean world, and were lost to history. The few surviving Ellari kingdoms were forced to strike a truce with their human neighbors, founding the human-elf states that would become the Kingdom of Allaria. Today, no large-scale elven nations remain on Valerna outside of Allaria in the Westerlands, and the Sikarian Dominion in the North Sea; but they can be found everywhere as travelling artists, daring explorers, dedicated researchers or mighty wizards.

While mortal, elves remain the most long-lived, carefree, patient and untroubled of all peoples. Slender and delicate, they like beauty in all its forms, particularly if it comes from art or nature. Their Vaala tends to be stronger in the Fai aspect, and their innate abilities lend themselves to Dream magic, but they can become very powerful in any form of spellcasting.

All elven breeds have lifespans of hundreds of years, which gives them rich lore and culture. For the same reason, their customs are varied and colorful, with as many different elven cultures as there are elf settlements in Valerna.

Allai
Allai, or honor elves, are the most urban and sedentary of their kind, and many are at least half-human, as their kind was born of the first union between humans and Ellari. They live a little less than other elven breeds, and so place great importance in their ancestry and lineage.

Most honor elves are distinguished by their dark hair and golden skin, and a thicker build than other elves, while still much more slender than humans. Like the latter, some Allai also sport beards.

Honor elves rule the mighty and lawful nation of Allaria, where they display the best of both human industriousness and elvish inspiration in their art, architecture and philosophy. They like baroque arts, complex philosophy and monumental architecture. In combat they are strict and organized, fighting as one individual with a single purpose. While they have a decades-long history of prejudice against their silver elf kin, many Allai try to reconcile and live side-by-side as equals.

Allai elves developed the magic pathway of Eliadu, based on a set of orderly values and life ethics that turns discipline and dedication into magical power. By the laws of Eliadu, dreams and ideals are focused and turned into strong, reliable tools for improving real life.

Common tongue: Allai, Common

Ellari
Silver elves descend from the first of elven peoples, which were the first of all Valernian peoples. Tradition holds that they were dreamed into being by the lingering power of the Protogons.

Once, glorious Ellari kingdoms dotted Valerna, each more splendorous and peaceful than the rest. But they fell during the cataclysm known as the Dreambleed, and they dwindled as other peoples rose to power. Today most Ellari live in human or Allai realms, save for small forest clans that retain their ancestral identity at a much smaller scale.

Most Ellari have pale skin and white hair, which they traditionally decorate with natural dyes. Their eyes are white with no pupils inside the iris.

All Ellari have the ability to share their dreams with others of their kind, a gift they once used to communicate and establish bonds across their civilization. The elvish magic of Dreamshaping is, in fact, based on this ability.

Sadly, dreams were one of the most common gateways for the devastating force known as the Null to manifest into the world. After the global conflict known today as the First Null War, the Allarian Kings blamed silver elves both for the Null Invasion and the Dreambleed itself, using the Ellari’s pupil-less ‘Null-eyes’ as proof of their ‘innate’ tendency towards nightmare and unlife. Thus, most silver elves in Valerna were made to ‘pay their debt’ through forced labor, and subject to the Dreamless Treatment, a magical drug that inhibited their ability to communicate through dreams. This situation lasted for centuries until the rise of the Ellari Dragon Queen, who abolished the Treatment and restored rights to the oppressed Ellari.

While they can be found all across the Westerlands, Ellari are most numerous in Allaria, where they are free citizens by law, but still vassals in practice. Most Allarian silver elves live as humans and among humans, and many still carry the sequels of the Dreamless Treatment across generations of their ancestry.

A few silver elves managed to establish hidden forest communities during Allarian rule, and never submitted to the Allai’s civilization or their Dreamless Treatment. Today, these sylvan settlements are no longer outlaws, but they still refuse Allarian rule, and many urban-dwelling Ellari are seeking their freedom in these remote communities rather than in the cities where their ancestors suffered.

Common tongue: Ellari

Sikari
The only elven breed that was created by their own hand, the Sikari were Ellari that mutated themselves through the life-altering form of alchemy they call Zoethurgy, or Creature alchemy.

The first Sikari were silver elves during the Allarian oppression, who fled the Dragon Kingdom and sought shelter in the neighboring nation of Nahuac. There, they misused Nahuac sacred magic to alter their own nature, shifting their magic power from Fai to Source and becoming a new breed altogether - the Blue Elves.

Sikari have a passing resemblance to Ellari, but their skin and hair have become vivid blue, their bodies have become amphibious, with gills and webbed limbs, and they have greater sailing, swimming and alchemy skills than other elf breeds.

Exiled from both Allaria and Nahuac, blue elves migrated to the arctic poles of Valerna, where they established the Arkane Dominion of Sikaria, a nation of independent research centers that double as opulent cities. There, the Sikari experimented on other lifeforms with zoethurgy, building their own civilization through study and research.

Besides their variant appearance, Sikari like to use magic to further modify their bodies, giving themselves small alterations such as ornamental tentacles, skin pouches, nictitating eyes, tails, or even additional arms or legs. No two blue elves are alike, and no blue elf resembles anybody else.

Common tongue: Ellari, Sikarian

The Fell
The strangest and least known elven breed in Valerna, the Fell, or Faari (Dream Elves), are so connected to Fai that they are not actual living creatures, but pure Fai entities, more related to fey than to mortals. They, however, live and behave as an elven society, even if their culture is much weirder than that of any living people.

Like their Fai home, the Fell are mysterious, dark and strange; looking beautiful one moment and terrifying the next. They resemble elves on the surface, but they are living dreams - memories and ideals that refuse to disperse back into the Fai. Thus each Fell clings to its identity with fierce determination. Dream elves look like basic Ellari stock, perhaps even paler, and they dress in outlandish fashion that they conjure from the dream itself.

Being made up of pure Fai, the Fell are the true embodiment of the “ideal” of silver elves: silver skin, empty eyes, ageless bodies, exquisite finery, magical and gorgeous to behold. Their beauty and charm can transfix an impressionable mortal instantly, and even the strongest wills have trouble taking their eyes off The Fell.

Although the physical traits described below apply to a certain average, Dream Elves may alter their body type, skin or hair color, and even their gender, at will, experimenting with different combinations according to their mood or whims.

Common tongue: Fai, Ellari

Z’aari
The elves of the underworld, created by the dark forces of the Hollowdepths, Z’aari are ruthless hunters and able sailors, with magic floating ships by which they sail the great underground oceans, caves and chasms of the world.

Z’aari resemble tan-skinned elves with natural ‘tattoos’ or skin marks, like those of amphibians, and eyes adapted to see with no light sources. They favor armor and clothes made of underground roots, and use dark, ancient forms of source magic to move their ships and track their prey.

Once Ellari survivors, who went underground seeking refuge from the Dreambleed cataclysm, the Z’aari fell under the sway of the Daimos lords of the Hollowdepths, which twisted them into a violent, savage people.

After centuries of slavery under the Waada, the Z’aari rebelled and created their own civilization, dedicated to ‘sailing’ the great caves below the Earth and hunting their former masters - the Daimoi and their servants.

There are two separate, competing Z’aari civilizations - Clear Z’aari, who are freedom-loving and violent, and Haze Z’aari, who are introspective and domineering. Clear Z’aari follow the immortal warlord known as the Autarch, and Haze Z’aari worship the rule of the manipulative, pragmatic Magisteria. Both tribes live to outdo the other’s in their hunting methods and results.

Common tongue: Wadeep