Elven

### Origins

Elven is a magically-created language severed from Thelanin. When Elven was first created, it could only be understoon by elves, but that magic has since weakened.

### Ancestors

Thelanin

The **elven** language is the language spoken by the elves of Aerenal and Valenar. Elven is a magical language tied to Thelanis, though only elves can access this innate fey power. Every elf is born with an innate understanding of the Elvish language.

## History

When the giants of the Group of Eleven first enslaved the eladrin, magebreeding and time spent on Eberron fundamentally changed them. Compared to elves, eladrin have sharper faces, larger teeth, and much more rigid ears (differences also found between humans and apes, or dogs and wolves). Living in the mortal world also changed elves’ connection to the Sylvan language; the first elves spoke Thelanin innately, but its use was surpressed by their giant overlords. Even if the elves were unable to forget their native tongue, becoming separate from the land of stories made the language subtly twist and mutate.

Eventually, these linguistic deviations became dramatic enought that the elves were able to weave them towards their own ends. The Aeren language was created when ancient Phiarlans developed mystic rituals to magically sever the its connection to Sylvan and create a language that was uniquely elven. At that time, the languege could *only* be understood by elves; either through mundane means or through magic like Comprehend Languages. 50 millennia later, that magic has weakened enough for anyone to learn the language, but it was an edge that gave the elves a means of organization during the Age of Giants.

Thanks to this ancient ritual, every elf is born with an innate understanding of the Elvish language. It doesn’t matter if they're an orphan born in a Sharn gutter or a proud Aereni. A young elf doesn't need to be taught; the language is already a part of them, they simply need to remember that they already know how to speak it. It is impossible to be an elf and NOT understand Elvish; all elves are united by their common tongue. Fey creatures also innately know elvish; to them, it's simply a lesser version of Sylvan... but this does not hold true for mortal creatures who learn the Sylvan tongue.

So this raises another interesting question… what happens when you need a new word? When a situation arises where there’s a concept that’s never been expressed in Elvish, or a poet is expressing an entirely new concept, the poet doesn't *"create"* a new word the way a human poet would. The elf realizes that they *already know* whe word, even though it's never been spoken in Elvish before. And once spoken, every other elf and fey creature also knows that word. Elvish isn’t just a mundane, mortal language; it is an immortal, magical language tied directly to Thelanis. An elf knows Elvish because fundamentally, they are fey, and being fey means knowing Elvish. The language evolves as it is needed, and all fey creatures know the language. What this does mean is that any creature *without* Fey ancestry who learns Elvish will find that new words occasionally appear and they’ll have to learn their meaning, because without Fey Ancestry, they don’t get those automatic dictionary updates.

give themselves a means of communication that could only be understoon by elves; that couldn't be understood

its use was observed by giant diviners.