Been working on the world that those RPG maps I'm making will be set in...

[Black_Lightning]

Please give opinions, critique, etc.. Here's some excerpts on the races.(One, two, better not sue!)


Elves
"Hehehahaha, I've been in my glory years since before your fathers' father was born. Do you really think you can stop me, little human?"~Prof. Veldrin

The elves are a species of graceful, frail, immortal humanoids, whose advanced kingdoms predate the earliest human kingdom by several thousand years.

Although elves, as with humans and other species, are all different and each their own to a degree, the culture of all subgroups is often arrogant, aloof, and horrifyingly ruthless.

Elven nations generally resemble text book example opressive aristocracies, the elven noble houses openly promote incest to 'keep the house bloodline pure'. Elves are well known(AKA: stereotyped) for having massive god complexes, and for not being able to get sick or anything in the first place.

Physiologically, elves superficially resemble humans, though they are generally taller, lithe of limb, and fit, with eerily luminescent eyes, sharp features, a genetic lack of body hair, and long, pointed ears.

While visually similar at a distance, it has been suggested that the most striking topical difference between humans and elves, besides their unique skin and hair colors, can be seen when the elves move, exhibiting an extremely graceful and intentional manner that is not exhibited in humans.

An elven body contains no fat and their muscle fibers are dense and springy to support their agility and grace, along with bones that are lighter(and weaker) than human bones (and without marrow).

The internal organs of an elf do not have any direct correlation to human organs, and display an aesthetic cleanliness and tidiness about them. The elven abdominal cavity contains bony plates that function as a secondary ribcage protecting the digestive and reproductive organs. However, there are no chemical enzymes or digestive fluids present in the elven "stomach".

Elven reproduction, besides depending on population(AKA higher pop. density=lower fertility, and elven nations rarely exceed 10000), is speculated to be progressive, so that the gamete delivery would occur in stages.

And the elven brain has an extreme density of cerebral matter with sorts of ganglia and the teeth are outgrowths of the skull, unlike human teeth which are separate from the skull fundamentally.

An elf has extremely advanced reaction skills compared to a human, their movements and reactions are almost too fast for human eyes to follow. An elven mind is said to process problems, emotions, and feeling in split seconds, much faster than a normal human.


Elves, being the direct children of the closest thing in the universe to God, have a unique 'plateau' aging effect. AKA As they grow older, their aging gradually slows, until they hit puberty between human years 26 and 42., and it slows to almost nothing.

Originally, thousands of years ago, there was only one race of elves, the Ust'Ussen(Elvish, tr. First Ones). They were said to have skin with the texture and color of polished gold. They were absurdly advanced and powerful, and held the entire universe by the throat.

(FUN FACT:Elves made Orcs, Trolls and Humans from apes to be slaves. The slaves escaped and made kingdoms and stuff. The elves were too cool to care, and in fact later turned the slaves against one another.)

They lived on the massive, mechanical flying continent of D'issan's Ssin, which is powered by steam and magic(AKA bound spirits). This continent is now home to only the High Elves.

But then, about 50,000 years ago, war broke out between several different factions that made up the old Ust'Ussen, the war lasted about 25,000 years, ravaging the world, and splitting apart the continents.(Prior to this, there was just one unbelievably large continent.)

Then one day, the leaders of these groups, weary of the endless war, split up, each traveling in different directions across the world, until each settling down and making a kingdom.

Those different groups have aesthetically and culturally evolved greatly to match their new environment, yet still all have their unique features like long pointed ears, unnaturally intense stares, and lack of body or facial hair...
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Orcs
"I've lived my life a fugitive of old, pointless hatreds... I refuse to let myself or my family live such a life for another day."~King Ingvarr

Orcs are sophisticated barbarian beast peoples of the northern steppes and highlands and are noted for their unshakeable courage in war and their unflinching endurance of pain and hardship.

In the past, orcs have been widely feared and hated by humans and elves(Who actually just got bored and wanted their old creations to rip eachothers throats out).

It is said that they have, several times in the past, attempted to unite as a people and build a nation for all orckind.

Yet, every time they have attempted, it was quickly ambushed and destroyed by united human and elven armies, and captured builders killed or imprisoned.

Niether species remembers exactly how it started. Some accounts say that an elf told a large human warband that some orc had kidnapped his daughter.

So the warband journeyed into the freezing highlands and, upon seeing a village of orcs from afar and being horrified by their 'savage, yet disturbingly human visage' as the historians put it, quickly rained down on the orcish village(which didn't have the girl).

They used... less-than-honorable tactics to slay the entire village, down to the last woman and child, then burned it to the ground and sowed the fields with salt, believing the orcs to be hideous demons.]Who's the real demons?

A single orcish mother escaped into the forest with her infant, to the village of the Bjorn Clan, and told them of what happened. The Bjorn Clan, shocked by the tale, and by the description of the humans, believed the humans to be demons, and launched a bloody attack on a nearby human village, and things quickly escalated out of control after that.

Orcish armorers are prized for their craftsmanship, and orc warriors in heavy armor are said to be among the finest front-line troops in Illivicia.

Despite recent peace treaties doing an admirable job at severely reducing the old hatreds orcs and humans have for one another, most humans still regard orc society as rough and cruel, but there is much to admire in their fierce tribal loyalties and generous equality of rank and respect among the sexes, and most orcs still view humans as arrogant and soulless.

However, since the signing of the Treaty of the Unjaag 50 years ago, the orcs have built for themselves a home kingdom, Orkheim(lit. means Orc-home), dedicated to all of orckind, and all other scorned, vilified peoples as long as they show themselves capable of honor, courage and mercy.

They have attempted to unite as a people under the banner of their proud, charismatic king, Ingvarr. However, many rebellious orc clans who did not accept Ingvarr's peace treaties now wander the land, sticking to the old nomadic bandit lifestyle that many orc tribes resorted to.

Also, many human and elven scholars claim that their original so-called 'vilifying' of the orcs was justified, saying that the old orcish tribes made livings raiding and ravaging the countryside.

The orcs rebuke this, claiming that, with a few exceptions, the old tribes maintained peaceful farming and hunting economies, and that the tales of 'big bad greenskins with spooky axes pillaging the land or whatever.' are nothing more than ridiculous and insulting exaggeration with no actual grounds. But it can't be known now...

Orcs have no written history, or writing system. Their history has been, for generations, passed on through the generations in the form of intricate tales, songs and (spoken)poems. As such, many humans still do not trust the orcs accounts of their ancestry, as they have no actual written history.

However Ingvarr has been considering having a written orcish alphabet made, something the majority of his councilors and advisors strongly advise against, believing that many orcs would fear it to be the first step towards losing their culture. The currency of Orkheim is called Steinns.

Orcs have a very distinct case of sexual dimorphism. Physically, orc males resemble, in the face, apes with piggish noses. They are, generally, noticably larger than humans. Unlike orcish females, who are known to be only slightly, almost unnoticably larger than human females( having dense, springy muscle fibers somewhat similar to elves), lack the apish or piggish faces, and infact, often be attractive by human standards, somewhat resembling green elves, to a degree.(I'm not sure about this part.)

Orcs(of both sexes) have sharp teeth, pointed ears, sharp features, and skin that generally ranges through various shades of green and greenish tint, but other than that they unquestionably resemble humans.

 

[Mini-Me]

Please read the rules.

 

[Black_Lightning]

Sorry. I'll fix that.

EDITone. Some of the buttons don't seem to work, but I don't know why, or how to fix that.

 

[Mini-Me]

Maybe I should clarify. The problems with this thread:

1. Thread name is invalid.
2. No info about the map.

If you accidentally posted your story here, I can easily move it to the Screenwriting, Storyboarding & Concept Creation forum.

 

[Black_Lightning]

Yes, could you please move it to Storyboardings & Concept Creations?

 

[Mini-Me]

As you wish. Moved.

 

[Jattenalle]

What the hell? Am I the only one seeing just a bunch of buttons saying %1$s?

 

[Black_Lightning]

WTF!? Why does everything say 1!? That's really wierd. Wierder than some of the buttons not working. No wonder the button command is [broke].


EDIT:Fix'd

 

[brad.dude03]

It's because of a bug moron >.> Interesting concepts.... if a little basic...

 

[Black_Lightning]

Thanks. Also, I knew it was a bug, the WTF was b/c I didn't like the bug, and the [broke] comment was a joke.

 

[Edhel-dur]

Hmmm its nice , its usable in a RPg Scenario , i have noticed you did not include demons (maybe yet). What you did now is your own "Sillmarillion"if you know the book , if you do not il just say thats its the book in wich the father of fantasy (Tolkien) explained how it came too be that races like orcs / elves dwarves and so one , races existed , who is Sauron , and what is The One Ring. I like it its nice , i think you can it better if you include some Magic motives from wich things happen . For istance , in the Warcraft Lore you learn that Night Elves are actually Trolls who have lived near the Well of Eternety and got influenced by its arcane magic and thats why. . .Burning Ligeon comes to Azeroth , Illidan gets locked up for "the rest of his eternal life" because he "saved" the waters of the Well in three vials and he made another Well of Eternety using two of teh vials , The High Elves were still using because they used a vial of the Wells Waters and they created The Sun Well , and because they lost The Sun Well . . .etc. Of course i am not saying that you should copy their style , but how will you explain the magic that will occure in your RPGs , i have a storyline in wich i speak of each races creation , and i also speak how the lower races (elves , humans , etc) learn their magical capabilities. Anyway like i sayd Good Work in my opinion , waiting for your next races.

 

[Black_Lightning]

Thanks. Haven't thought of much for the other sentient species (besides humans, elves, and orcs. The other two are rhazzt and trolls. But I've got a lot of other things to elaborate on the world and stuff like magic and the supernatural while I come up with things for the rhazzt and trolls. Also, I haven't written up a description of humans(as a species) per se, but I'll start writing it up immediately.)

Anyway, to elaborate some more, there's two planes(universes), the Material Plane and the Astral Plane(AKA the Spirit World), each is, more or less, infinite. Magic comes from here, and the Elves and Dragons have strong ties to this plane. The Astral Plane has some loose connections with the Material Plane, and is the home of things like Gnomes, Faeries, Fiends(AKA daemons, or unclean spirits) and Devils(Most of the Gnomes and Faeries are in the Material.), and other divine beings.

Magic works by channeling the powers of the supernatural and the unseen(AKA the Astral Plane and most of its inhabitants) and is usually attained by mortals(Non-elf, non-dragon inhabitants of the Material) in one of two ways, either by being granted by powerful supernatural beings(usually through either doing them a favor or, for more powerful beings, worshipping them(which strengthens beings from the Astral)), or by (with great difficulty and requiring great study)drawing and channeling it directly from the Astral.

The Elves used magic to create Trolls(which in my setting are like the ones from Scandinavian mythology), Orcs, and Humans(in that order) from apes to be their slaves. They also created Rhazzt(Basically anthropomorphic rat people) from rats to be their slaves, too. Eventually, the Trolls, Orcs, Humans and Rhazzt escaped during the last years of the war and forged civillizations and stuff. This was the end of the First Era.

The planes, the dragons, the elves, the animals, and the inhabitants of the Astral(except the Fiends, Devils, Faeries and Archons) were created at the beginning of time by this... Being, named Rsao, of a class now called the First Gods... She had a 'brother' of sorts, named Deil-bboaqua, who's, bad, bad news, the 'brother' is basically like an Elder God, but more powerful. The 'brother' was eventually sequestered by the Great Old One(The Old God of the Elves) for being irredeemably mad(der than the others), and destroying many of the planets of beings that they created. This angered Deil, so he found and used the Great Old Ones neonomic(true name) to make him sleep(in a very light rest) deep under the world of Illivicia(where the setting focuses on)for the rest of eternity, then he fought his sister, who 'reported' him, shortly after she created everything and he promised to destroy it.

They ended up killing eachother, and their blood spattered the Material and the Astral. Her blood became the Archons and the Faeries, His became the Demons and Devils, and where their blood intermingled, that became the stars.

Also, the Great Old One was very bad and, although the Ust'Ussen worshipped him before 25,000 Year War, if he is awakened everything will die. Also, Illivicia is where the setting focuses on. It's where the games and stories will obviously take place, it's where most known living beings in the Material exist.

As for that war(the 25,000 Year War), no one, not even he Elves remember how it started. But basically it was vicious and tore across Material, it split up the continents(prior to this Illivicia just had one massive supercontinent.) and would have ended the universe. So, the pointless war ended when Aster'Lac'nala(the old leader of the faction that is now the Dark Elves. He was not evil, good and evil are just concepts. He believed the ends justified the means.) and his high court made a pact with a very bad being named Asheron and summoned hordes of Fiends into the world.

He planned on using them to wipe out the other factions, but he lost control of them and they nearly wiped out everything in the universe, before the factions banded together and, after another long, costly war, banished them back to the Astral. Following this, the leaders of the surviving factions gathered to discuss peace, and each cursed their God, ventured to different corners of the war ravaged planet to rebuild the world and build new, individual nations, and forget the horrible cost of their petty conflict, and perhaps see what they can do with their recently escaped former slaves.

One faction, the one led by Aster'Lac'nala, was cursed with red eyes and violet blood(causing violet skin. Also, the Fiends had violet blood.) so that they may never forget their terrible crime, and banished. They became known as the Olath'Darthien(Dark Elves), and traveled to the deadly, wild land of Cha'kohkev Thac'zil(lit. Cursed Land), to redeem themselves.

(The land is not inhospitable, it has farmland. It is deadly because of the fearsome beasts that inhabit it. Also, 45% of Cha'kohkev Thac'zil(mostly central) is ash-covered wastelands(due to the massive, now inactive volcano in the middle.)).
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Fiends(from a place in the Astral called the Pandemonium) and Devils(from a place called Tarteri) are locked in an eternal war(called the Hell Wars), niether side remembers how it started, but regardless, they now have a kill-on-sight policy. I'll get into the two some other time, but I will say this; both are powerful, and are as different as day and night. Stay tuned!
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As for Orc civilizations, there are hundreds of clans, about 86 or so make up the nation of Orkheim. Many of the old clans turned to nomadic bandit lifestyles, and either refuse to be under Ingvarr or have been banished from orcish lands for horrible crimes. Orkheim, having been founded 50 or so years ago, is relatively new, so things aren't fully fleshed out. There's a lot of civil unrest, and humans are just barely allowed within its borders. There are few criminal organizations, and names like the Thieves' Guild are all but unheard of, however there are many rebel factions that inhabit the kingdom. As for political parties, Orkheims political parties are the clans that form it.

Orkheim was built as the result of a number of peace treaties reluctantly signed by both sides. Most of Orkheim is individual villages, farmlands and cities built closely together that form what resembles one massive city, expertly built around(and in parts, into) the Unjaag Mountains, with intricate walls, gates, towers and bridges guarding and connecting everything. Orkheim is bordered by the Noble Principality of Zion(Zee-on) to the east, the White Dragon of Engur to the west, and the Glorious Principality of Swygica to the south. The capital of Orkheim is the citadel of Friorgerd, in which, ironically, despite being built in dedication to the ending of old hatreds and the founding of a new alliance between humans and orcs, humans are, by the majority, barely tolerated within its walls, reactions from most inhabitants ranging from odd looks and increased prices to utter disgust.
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About human civillizations, there are many nations, most of the nations are divided into one of the following groups; The Mystic Sun Federation, The Seven Lords of the East, The Unjaag Principalities, The Sararcusian Empire, and The Merchant Kings of the South. There are other, independant human nations as well, obviously.
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As for organizations of note, there's the Fighters' Guild, formed roughly 20,000 years ago to monitor the hiring of mercenaries and soldiers and keep the lands relatively safe. However, it has, as of late, become corrupt, delving from practicing honorable combat to practicing whatever it can get away with that gets it the most profits.(Prior to this, the human lords usually didn't have their own armies, instead hiring freelance warriors to defend them and fight their wars. This effectively left them at the mercy of said warriors, who one day formed an army and made human civilization their bitch, so to speak(can I say that?). To counter this, they got some expensive help from the elves to fight back the armies, and King Lysander of the old Telosian Empire founded the guild, to monitor the hiring of mercenaries and soldiers to prevent that from ever again happening.).
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There's also the Wizards' Guild, a guild of scholars dedicated to studying and harnessing the powers of the supernatural and the unseen. It was founded by Arcturus the Spellweaver, arguably the greatest human wizard in existence, after he decided that he wanted the knowledge of the Astral Plane to be available to the masses.
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There's also the Merchants' Guild, which functions to monitor the mercantile trade, but tends to act as more of a government-funded mafia. The Merchants' Guild has a long history of corruption, and is up there with the Thieves' Guild and the Abandoned when it comes to crimes and manipulating governments.
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Where there are laws, there are crimes, and where there are crimes in human cities, there is often the Thieves' Guild, which is one of the bigger names in crime in human lands. Its influence reaches far, and it encompasses most profitable illegal things(except for demonically bad things like dealing blood-honey).(murder, extortion, larceny(obviously), robbery, burglary, prostitution, piracy, etc.) The Thieves' Guild, while not officially founded by any government, has large holdings in most major cities, and has many kings and governors on its payroll.

(In most places that have no large Thieves' Guild holdings, htere are usually many other crime families and gangs vie for control, warring endlessly.). The way recruitment is handled is as follows; they have members called watchdogs who find those who commit very impressive crimes, then, as soon as they go to sleep, wake them up at dagger point, telling them, more or less, to join, die or get out of town and never come back. They also have people in most prisons and dungeons, as well as crooked guards, who let those with steep sentences who show interest in joining the Thieves' Guild and promise not to talk about the Guild walk scot-free, and join the Guild. The Guild is mostly exclusive to human, rhazzt and (non-dark elf)elven lands. Orcs have some rebel bandit clans, and the native crime syndicate of the land of the dark elves is the Velven d'lil Wahvenen(lit. Blades of the Wastes).
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The Abandoned, another prominent human criminal(actually more of terrorist) organization, founded by several orphan streetrats, outcasts in the human aristocratic city-state of Westhaven, too big to notice its trash, like many other cities. It was founded, admittedly, with malice,and the intention of wreaking vengeance upon the aristocratic houses and protecting people the aristocrats threw away like trash.

Despite the seemingly noble goal of protection, it is, more or less, a terrorist organization with a strict honor code, when you get right down to it. The abandoned take their code very seriously, and despite them being terrorists and, often, dark sorcerors, there is much to respect in their strict code.

The code of the Abandoned is as follows; 1. There are no Secrets - All members of the Abandoned are expected to have no secrets from each other. This does not include information that an orphan is not likely to know about themselves.

2. Perfect Yourself - Each member of the Adandoned is expected to find what he or she excels at and stick to that path. Thus an Abandoned with an innate talent for channeling the unseen would be expected to study magic until mastering it, while a skillful tracker would have.

3. Do not Shun - Members of the Abandoned are expected to accept each other absolutely unless they break a rule of the Abandoned.

4. Unity in all designs- The Abandoned always work together as a collective. This is because they believe that they will function better if their abilities are unified to cover their weaknesses. This rule has some flexibility if it is done for the absolute benifit of the Abandoned.

5. The Blood of One is the Blood of All- The Abandoned consider themselves not to be individiuals but aspects of a greater whole. Thus the enemy of one Abandoned is the enemy of all Abandoned even if they were not yet Abandoned. For example a noble that shunned a starving orphan that was later accepted into the Abandoned may very well be targeted for assassination.

6. Traitors abandon their souls - An Abandoned that betrays the Abandoned of his or her own will is, without question, killed by the Abandoned and raised as a zombie to serve as an example. These punishments are very rare since most Adandoned never betray eachother as they are usually afraid of becoming lost again. This rule is normally connected to rule three.

7. Nobility is the enemy - The Abandoned work to ruin the lives of those that are better off than them simply because they were born lucky. The Abandoned, although orphans, do not accept those made orpans by their actions as they still have the mark of the nobility that all Abandoned hate. Although their descendents or even their children might be recruited later on if the Abandon deem them fit for the group, anything before the fourth generation of losing their fortune would probably be refused.

8. No Self Recruiting - Even if a member of the Abandoned believes that a certain orphan would do well in their group they can not mention the group to the orphan. They are expected to tell the nearest branch about the Orphan. If the branch agrees with a yes of at least 70% the orphan is aided until they believe they can safely recruit them. Orphans that are told by members that did not have the authorization or that rejected the group are usually forced memory-affecting drugs. This preserves the Abandoned secrecy while allowing possible future recruitment.

9. Repay all debts that are not depts of mockery - The Abandoned believe that they should repay all debts other than those that they believe were done to deliberately mock them. For example, an adventuring party trying to overthrow a tyrant that helped an Abandoned during one of his or her missions might find themselves the owners of a coveted item which belonged to the tyrant and is important enough to inconvinence the tyrant but not important enough to put the adventurers at a siginifigantly greater risk. On the other hand an aristocrat that gives a member of the Abandoned a handful of copper coins would find him self for the next target of assassination.

10. Swear no fealty - The Abandoned agree that they will not serve anything but the will of the Abandoned, and will not try to manipulate the Abandoned to become above the rules.

11. Do not forsake - This rule is not set in stone like the others but is normally followed as closely as possible. The Abandoned will, if possible, not allow their members to be killed, forgotten or ripped from their protection. Each abandoned is expected to be willing to give their life for one another, and to do everything in their power to protect one another.

There are many, many other guilds and organizations(hundreds of thousands) throughout the lands(not just human and rhazzt lands, but all the lands), but they cannot possibly all be listed. Also, remember, most of the large organizations are deeply corrupt.
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For those who want to know, the sentient species(so far) are the elves, humans, trolls(haven't thought of much for them besides them being like the classic myth ones), orcs, and rhazzt(haven't though of much, besides them living underground.). The elven subgroups are the Sssiks'Darthien(Sun Elves)(extinct), Drejan'Darthien(Frost Elves)(extinct), Llandwy'Darthien(Wood Elves), Drathir'Darthien(Moon Elves), Obok'Darthien(High Elves), and Olath'Darthien(Dark Elves).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I haven't thought of much for the rhazzt and trolls. But in the meantime, here are some excerpts on the elven subgroups;

Dark Elves(Olath'Darthien)
"What about dark elf women? I dare you to say that to my face, you filthy outlander."~Dark Elven noble

The elves who followed the prophet Aster'Lac'nala into the desolate, wild land of Cha'kohkev Thac'zil. During the War of the First Ones (that big war mentioned earlier) this group commited a crime against nature of unimaginable attrocity. What this crime was is still unknown, but regardless, in payback, they were cursed with their current purple blood(and as such, purple skin) and red eyes, however it should be noted that modern Dark Elves seem to take pride in their alleged 'curse', believing it signifies Olath'Eldalie strength of will, and choice over their own destiny.

In past ages the Dark Elves, due in part to the geographical isolation of their land, yet still being known to exist, were universally loathed and feared among non-Elves, humans in particular, who thought them evil, while a myth pervaded among the various human kingdoms, with no grounds except, as lord Zhennu'Waer'honglath put it "Idiotic, insulting human day dreams and 'that would be neats.'", that Dark Elven women were as a rule unchaste, the myth is entirely without merit of course, with, obviously, a few exceptions, no more, however, than any other species.

So is the one about them being evil, and since trade began to occur as a result of a treaty signed between Dark Elven and Human diplomats to prevent a long, costly war(the humans of the kingdom that signed the treaty outnumbered the Dark Elves by 5 to 1, but the dark elves had a far superior grasp of magic as well as light, yet versatile and incredibly protective armor, made from 'the shells of the giant native crustaceans folded and layered many times over, crafted with unmatched skill and expertise, and covered in the tougher leather and scales of the various giant reptiles that inhabit the strange, alien land of the Dark Elves.') both myths began fading away, yet not as quickly as either side would hope, due to the land of the Dark Elves being well known for its geographical isolation, due to high, steep mountains surrounding it, and the fierce inhospitability of its native fauna.

High Elves(Obok'Darthien)
"Don't you have a banana to eat? Silly lttle round-eared monkey human. Now polish my spear!"~Some High Elven

The elves who changed the least from the Ust'Ussen, still appearing to be made of gold. They kept their civillization on the old, mechanical flying continent where the old kingdom (D'issan's Ssin) began, and consider themselves as being the group chosen to continue the old kingdom. And as such, they are known for being ruthless in their pursuit of perfection, like, beyond just selective breeding, it's a popular rumor that nine out of ten high elven children born are euthanized for not matching this image of godhood. Although this is mostly ignorant myth, high elven culture is ruthless in its pursuit, but they only euthanize children who are only half high elven or, more commonly, are born of the union of a noble and a commoner, and either way would surely have a very difficult life with no chance of success as long as they stayed among their house, or high elves in general, because of their 'impure' bloodline, and they usually consider it as being in the best interest of the child, more merciful than letting them face a life of non-stop hardship, discrimination and inevitable murder or suicide.

High elves are, as a rule, cold, horrifyingly depraved, arrogant and aloof, even by old elven standards. However, as with all beings, stereotypes (such as the disciplined soldier moon elf, or the ruthless, barbaric orc.) don't always ring true, in fact quite a few high elves, particularly of the lower class, as well as nobles with sympathy for the oppressed lower class(Actually, the lower class are full-on 1800s style slaves.), a trait generally considered a mental illness in high elven culture, actively deny the arrogant, pretentious high elven aristocracy who, because they don't have a word for sell out, simply consider the rebels to be ignorant fools and savages who cannot be civillized, who in fact were born in perfect civilization and turned their backs on it. Also, they are known for, overall, having some of the most powerful mages on the face of Illivicia.

Moon Elves(Drathir'Darthien)
"We can get into species semantics about this that and the other all we like, but we've got hostiles preparing an counter-assault. Now, I thought I said move out!"~ Admiral Noxka

the elves who followed Edonil'Velve. They traveled northeast, to a forest-covered land known for supernaturally long nights and short, almost non-existant days. They called this land Thac'zil d'Edonil (Land of Twilight), the natives called it, ironically, Land of Twilight for centuries before the elves touched it. But, in particular, they made their capital in a deep part of the dense forest called the Lunaas Woods, these elves sought to use the almost eternal night of this province to protect themselves. However, the Drathir'Darthien(moon elves), as they came to call themselves, were not aware that the woods were plagued by lycanthropy, a strange, unnatural disease/curse of obvious magical nature that turns sapients into beasts, many animals in the woods had caught it several generations ago, and it kept spreading.

At first, because elves have a natural resistance to most diseases, the moon elven hunters, healthy adults, were mostly immune to the strange disease, until a drunk half moon elf was mauled by an animal infected with lycanthropy, barely escaping with his life, and was infected with the disease, which, while on beasts it has a similar effect to rabies, on intelligent creatures, it turned them, every night(which was basically always in the land of twilight) three days after infection, into abominable humanoid whatever the animal carrier was. A human outpost took him in, and attempted to cure his wounds, not knowing of his affliction, and were horribly murdered. Eventually, rumors and legends about what had become of this half-elf; a fierce, six-foot tall bipedal wolf with red eyes that gleam with a sinister cunning and intelligence, but with a madness and predatory instinct, despised by the Gods, and only able to be harmed by magic or pure silver, that stalked the forest, slaying and eating all who crossed its path, and turning wayward mortals into its cursed kin...

And ever since a few decades after, the moon elves have been locked into an eternal war with the lycanthropes(who formed a kingdom) and as such, generally regard mortals with a welcomeness and, sometimes even trust, unheard of among elves, infact sharing the province with the human nation of Steredenn, whom they have a mutually beneficial arrangement, almost being a symbiotic relationship, with. And over all, because of centuries of combatting the vicious lycanthropes, they have become much more militant than other elves, and the civillization is known for discipline, efficiency, incredible grasp of strategy, and knowledge of combat, making them widely sought after mercenaries and tacticians. And as a result of the perpetual night, Moon Elves are often pale, also, because of the unnatural atmosphere of the province, strange hair colors such as blue, purple, white and silver are far from unheard of.
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On lycanthropy; During the 25,000 Year War, the elves were coming up with new magical weapons. The magical, artificial disease of lycanthropy was one of them. They infected large animals with it, used those animals to infect their human/orc/troll/rhazzt slaves with it, and sent teams of survivors into enemy territory to be 'captured'. It was an effective weapon, and after the war, it was outlawed, and all mortals who could've been exposed to the disease(about 75%) were exterminated.
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On religion; Most current religions are polytheistic, and worship pantheons of powerful supernatural beings(made more powerful through worship). Generally each nation has a pantheon and, although most of these pantheons either lack the ability or the intent to bring the souls of the dead to live in any of their dieties realms(at least with their memories and sentience intact), no 'diety' admits this, and only a few non Astrals know this, most believing they'll go to the realm of their pantheons collective Gods. The reasons for this vary from benign to completely pragmatic.


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[Edhel-dur]

Hey its a very nice Lore , i think you were inspired by all the cool games / storyline games you ever played. Anyway has for a Lore its good , but has for a Storyline , no character description , no problems based on pride , well maybe they are just not out yet. I noticed that mainly , the Elf races were made because some of them followed a leader , the others another leader. . . , and you do not explain why the genetic differences between lets say moon elves and high elves apear , or the moon elves simply grew apart from the HE because of their adaptation to the new soroundings. You also should know , thats just an advice if you didnt knew , the psihological profile of a person is based by few characteristics wich in time evoulve to many other feelings and behaviours. Well Good Luck and hope to see more. . .