elves, too, Janet. That, or you'll rolleyes at me. Who knows?
ELF
What is commonly called the “Elf” is actually but one of a large number of offshoots of the same type of being. Thousands of years ago, during the Reformation of Life, after the Great Cataclysm, there were several types of Elves, one for each of the elements. Each Elven civilization attempted to strike out on its own, but the Elven homelands were confined by dangerous wilderness and looming mountains on all sides. As the Elven borders clashed against one another, the Elves turned inward against one another. Peaceable leaders were ousted in favor of warriors with lavish promises, and negotiations ground to a halt. The result was known as The War of the Crimson Leaves.
The great Elven war raged for over a decade, each province taking and losing land daily. The populace was crushed under the constant tide of ever-changing warmongers and ever-present sieges. Rebellions were dealt with swiftly and mercilessly, leaving the people at large disheartened, forcing them to bow to the increasingly bloodthirsty whims of their warlords. Eventually, a rebellion formed of Elves who had infused their bodies with black Chema. This made them powerful warriors, but warped their minds, crippled their natural lifespans and diluted their self-control to almost nothing. They became feral, wracked with a bloodlust never before seen. Wherever these “corrupted Elves” went, nothing but ash and bones remained. Thousands of Elves willingly contaminated themselves to rebel against their warlords, but the consequences were more widespread than anyone could have imagined. Save for a handful of lucky survivors from each other province, within a year there were only the Elves of Corruption.
The descendants of these monsters are not as nightmarish as could have been. The Chema infusion of the ancient Corrupt Elves is slowly weakening, granting more and more normalcy to the Elven society, but the Elves will always be shunned by the greater civilizations of the world. The Elves are still bloodthirsty, and often go out of their way to engage in combat of any kind. Children are taught to fight from the time they are able to hold a weapon, and are never given a name. Those nameless Elves must earn their names, by stealing them from an enemy that they have felled. Children are taught to be ruthlessly efficient in combat, as clans of Elves are constantly at war with one another, and may strike at any time. There is also the threat of the rest of the world, which is to be taken head on, as brutally as possible. It is rare for an Elven warrior to take prisoners, but there are occasions when they do. The only reasons for an Elf to take a prisoner is to sell the poor person to slavers, or to keep for themselves as food. Elves do not see other lineages as equal to themselves, and will happily take Humans, Goblins, Gnomes, and even Elves from other clans as food.
Elven settlements are usually no more than a few ramshackle huts strewn across a patch of land. They are meant to be temporary, as the clan will eventually move on when they have exhausted the easily used resources of the area. Occasionally, an Elven clan will come upon a ruined settlement and reclaim it, which can be difficult for the clan, as there is no central leadership at any level for Elven society. More often than not, Elves that have taken up permanent residence somewhere immediately attempt to conquer everything within their grasp, and are driven out by more powerful militaries that eventually hear of the news. The world would tremble if ever the Elves could organize an army.
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Topic: Things that made you RRRRRRAAAAGGGGEEEE today: Trust-o-nomics Edition (Read 3781558 times)