Elf (ToF)

**Elves** are a race in the Tides of Fate universe. Like the humans, they are one of the recurring species in Carokiiv, and is native to their continent of Kyrsides, the southernmost landmass. Unlike the other races, they have more than one type of their race, which distinguishes them from the rest of the dominant species of the planet.

Elves are considered the other race with high magical potential similar to humans due to the advanced and powerful (but more traditional) usage of the many schools of magic which also forms a central core of their civilisation, which has also been built around magic.

## Origin and Early History

Elves originated as natives from the lands of Kyrsides, before the Beast Races appeared in the continent. During the era of the latter races, the elves were enslaved by the Beast Races, much like all the other Near Human races of that time, before magic existed.

Upon the arrival of the legendary "Advent of Magic" Elves and the other Near Humans throughout the world were granted the gift of using magic that they never possessed before. Using this newfound gift, the Elves gained newfound strength which the Beast Races could not imitate or exceed despite their natural given strength as part beast.The Beast Races performed heavy purges of all the Near Human races, but the elves managed to turn the tides of battle with their use of combat magic, which was soon developed.

The elves, like other Near Humans, enslaved the defeated Beast Races and eventually drove them to extinction overtime, using the newfound slave labour to rebuild the cities of the Beast Races with their own architecture and styles.

## Acceptance of Magic

### Dawn of Civilisation

The elves were quick to embrace magic, having immediately seen the huge effect it had in tipping the balance of power in the world. They became greedy for more power via the use of magic, and immediately powerful clans were formed from magic users banding together. These clans worked most of the Beastfolk slaves that the elves captured up to that point, and elves who were not part of the clans clamoured to join them for prestige.

The various clans evolved over time to become the monarchies of the elves, and then began to grow strong within their borders, splitting up their peoples into various strata and roles based on merits, productivity and maximizing the use of all resources. This made their kingdoms strong, but also meant the social stratification over time became more and more severe, with everyone eventually centered around a magocratic monarchy. However, this also made their society incredibly efficient, and everyone worked like puzzle pieces in a puzzle board, with discontentment being frowned upon.

When the elven civilisations in Kyrsides grew stronger and stronger, they began to seek dominance not just of their immediate lands, but of all elvenkind and even the whole of Kyrsides in time to come, as they always had a drive to conquer and dominate. Thus, the once peaceful lands where each nation advanced on its own would soon break down into war and political machinations.

### Age of War

The Elven Kingdoms in Kyrsides soon entered into a state of war against each other when they felt that they have outgrew the boundaries that constrained the various nation-states that existed within it. This soon caused untold misery within Kyrsides as war caused destruction on a massive scale. However, desperate to put one over each other, the elves went across Carokiiv to seek the strongest magics, and they began an arms race as to who had the strongest magic in the nation. Looking towards humanity for inspiration, the elves learned how to draw magic crests and the High Elven Monarch, King Levin Felsionn II decided to take a human bride from a powerful mage clan for his descendants to inherit his new queen's crest.

This led to the birth of the first tactical class mages with the power to hold sway over entire battles with their immense powers, and in fact elves are rightly credited with the development of high yield tactical magic via incantation, a leap in magic that proved that it was perhaps one of the most powerful weapons of war. These tactical mages increased in number and became an object of both reverence and hatred, their allies looking to them as holy warriors who brought victory, their enemies endlessly finding ways to kill them and secure victory.

The infighting soon proved disastrous to the Elven states, and while the borders were redrawn many times, the elves only lost fighters and resources fighting each other, and thus eventually a temporary truce was called upon to stabilize the situation, so that the various states could recover. While it didn't take long for recovery aided by magic, the memories of war didn't fade and some elves began to emigrate to Betoriv to seek peace, bringing with them the news of tactical magic and the secrets to it, for among the refugees were a few tactical class mages.

The tensions between the states never abated, and they turned to diplomacy to deal with each other, as they began to set their sights outside of the areas that the Elven Kingdons occupied. They looked south to the Dryads, especially, for they regarded the magically inept Dryads as easy prey.

## Modern Age

The elves have come a long way since they embraced magic. They continue to squabble among themselves due to the fact that they are formed of many constitutional monarchies with multiple warring factions, rarely seeing eye to eye with each other. Magic is seen as a godsent gift by almost all elves, and the Monarchies of each nation - state in the elven lands are definitely comprised of mages.

The elves are used to political intrigue and fighting wars against each other. In the unstable collective known as Kyrsides, alliances are constantly formed and broken, as the political elite and ruling classes seek to put one over each other and assert their Hegemony of Kyrsides. Political assassination is not uncommon, and sometimes even the rich will want their say. As Kyrsides also has Dryads who live in the forested regions, the elves have long attempted to conquer the Dryads.

Due to the Constitutional Monarchies, the quality of the government really depends on who inherits the throne in a particular kingdom, and how long lived that person is while sitting on the throne. Short Reigns are not uncommon after all.

## Types and Traits

### High Elves

High Elves are generally the most refined of the three elven races. They possess fine, sharp features, fair skin and a generally more beautiful appearance. Male High Elves are known to grow very little facial hair, if they even grow it at all. Like other Near Human races, aside the Asterians, they are capable of interbreeding with no barriers with Humans, Dwarves, Dryads and other kinds of elves. The appearance of a High Elf can be very variable, but a distinguishing feature is their eyes, which have irises that are always golden, amber or some other bright yellowish shade (If they are pureblooded and not descended from any other race). They tend to have fairer coloured hair as well, in shades like light brown, blonde or even silver.

Like humans, High Elves are strongly attuned to magic, and they also possess considerable skill and affinity for casting of spells of many different kinds. They are skilled in both flash casting as well as incantation to perform the invocations. As elves generally prefer invocations, the High Elves have mastered speaking magic words to the extent they do it incredibly fast.

There is a strong variance of magical talent among the High Elves, but almost all of them are able to grasp the theories of low tier magic, and thus the average High Elf is likely to be able to cast more spells than an average Human due to increased knowledge of spells. High Elves can possess few circuits, and more often than not their circuit count is just about similar to an average human, but at the maximum, they can easily reach slightly less circuits and mana than even the greatest human mages, granting them similar levels of power in magic. It is very rare for a High Elf to have no circuits.

Due to the strange connection the High Elves have with magic, and how they speak magic into physical qualities, weapons used by High Elves feel somewhat magical on hit, and their spells somehow cause part of its effect as physical interference, making it hard to defend against their attacks completely.

Elves can utilize their power over invocation to rapidly use a silent invocation to summon a powerful sphere of light that can be used as a grenade, or use the runewords they know to enchant their weapons temporarily and increase the magical power of the weapon. Words can even be used to subtly change social interaction to change the mental state of a target, although this often leaves the target slightly resistant to a second suggestion.

By focusing completely on their incantations, some High Elves are able to complete them in extremely fast speeds and even increase the general power of the incantation by slipping in multiple lines. Others can use their high speed rune words to summon blessed land that calls forth guardians to protect anything within it from opponents. As this tires out their voice, it can only be done once a day.

### Dusk Elves

Dusk Elves are known to be the most powerful race in terms of physique where elves are concerned, and they generally are focused more on martial prowess that sheer magical power. Dusk elves tend to possess more rugged features than their High Elf cousins, and their males do grow facial hair. They tend to have more tanned skin compared to a High Elf, and also a stronger, more muscular physique. Like other Near Human races, aside the Asterians, they are capable of interbreeding with the non Asterian Near Humans.

Dusk Elves possess quite a good connection to the magical, but they aren't as good in general when directly compared to a human or high elf. Still, their proficiency in spells is not to be underestimated, and they have equal skill to their High Elven cousins when Flash Casting is concerned, losing out only in terms of invocations. This causes Dusk Elves to prefer Flash Casting more, but they are easily on equal terms with a human when invocation is concerned.

Dusk Elves have a spread of magical talent, and the average Dusk Elf is about as skilled as the average human with magic. Their circuit count for the average Dusk Elf is somewhat less than the average human, although many talented Magi do have high circuit quantity and quality. Dusk Elves can be born with no circuits, but their strongest mages are in fact on par with the strongest of High Elf mages in terms of natural power, losing out again just on the invocation front, although they tend to be slightly more skilled in flash casting.

Dusk Elves have always taken pride in their physical prowess, and tend to reinforce both their bodies and weapons with the barest whispers of magic to improve their function. It makes them hit harder with swords, aim more accurately with bows and hold shields more firmly.

Dusk elves have a good control over their internal balance of energy, and so can flow their magic and stamina as if it was one resource. Some also can harden magic into ghostly otherworldly arrows without even calling upon their circuits, and the most observant can read the flow of energy around them, allowing them to detect stealth foes, and counter them with impunity. By using their magical flow, Dusk elves can activate their internal endocrine glands with magic, allowing them a huge advantage in melee or ranged weapon combat, although the strain of this on the body will limit it to once a day.

### Dark Elves

Dark Elves are the last type of elf, and they have the greatest affinity with the shadows, making them the greatest thieves and assassins among the elves. Dark elves aren't dark skinned or associated with darkness. This name is given to them due to how they all have extremely dark shades of hair and eyes, which provides an eerie contrast against their pale skin, even paler than that of a High Elf, which can make them look sick at times.

Dark Elves do have a strong connection with the magical side, like their other elven Brethren and the human races. Their proficiency in spells is actually quite high, as with the other elven races, and this allows them to flash cast similarly to a human or the other elven species. Due to how the Dark Elves tend to fight in smaller battles, they do not normally use invocation and thus their invocation is poor. Their advanced Flash Casting is a direct consequence of something to compensate. Dark Elves have inferior skill with invocation even compared to humans, and so use invocation only under the safety of stealth, or use shorter invocations.

Dark Elves have a certain talent for Flash Casting, which makes them generally more skilled than a High Elf with Flash Casting, on par with a human mage where speed and power is concerned, although they lose out in invocation. Dark Elves are almost all born with Circuits of appreciable quality, although this high average standard is compensated for the fact their strongest mages do not compare favourably against the Dusk and High Elves' top mages, and will not compare against a top ranked human mage either. This makes Dark Elves generally mid tier spellcasters with less standard deviations.

Dark Elves have always been savvy with assassination and usage of other covert techniques. They are extremely skilled at blending into the world and move without even the slightest whisper, their breaths proving slow and silent. Even their eyes have adapted to seeing in dark conditions, while still proving resilient to blinding light.

Dark Elves are entwined with shadows and illusory reality. They have abilities to phase into an astral form for a few precious seconds, gaining a speed boost, although this strenuous ability taxes them and makes them unable to perform it for a short while. They can shed their shadows to leave behind a confusing doppelganger that doesn't move or fight, while they slip away into the invisible spectrum for the moment. Lastly, a path can just be opened by force, by opening a lock with an ancient doorway power using mana.

Should the Dark Elf be confronted by multiple opponents, they can call upon their immaterial magic and create a field of confusing doppelgangers that cannot attack, but are intangible. Swapping positions freely among the doppelgangers, which can move, the Dark Elf can attack omnidirectionally or make their escape. Otherwise, a powerful mental skill can be used to stimulate the pituitary and pineal glands, forcing the up to three opponents to sleep if they are not resistant, thus evening the odds and potentially causing threats to become prey. The strain of these skills due to their unnatural nature places great strain on the caster and they become unable to replicate them for a day.

## Other miscellaneous details

The elves are one of the proudest races on Carokiiv, of not the proudest. This is due to their long standing history with magic, being the first civilisation to embrace and utilize magic to build their civilisation's core. As the elves rival humanity in magical aptitude and potential, but started embracing magic much earlier, they generally see themselves as the most advanced of people. Elves are known to have great pride and are generally uncompromising on many fronts, which is what led to the wars between the various kingdoms of Kyrsides.

Many elves are known to dislike other races, due to how they see them as weak, although the converse is true for the mage clans, who are more than happy to obtain brides of any race, so long as they have potential in magic. Elves have a poor opinion of humanity (except those who bring magic into their clan), who they see as not capable of intelligent dissent due to how humans in general accept the laws. They also view Dryads as backwards nature lovers that need to be conquered and Dwarves as inept fools conforting themselves on technology. They do not view having a good relationship with other races as something positive, and many a times family members who are open minded are disowned. Kyrsides is therefore closed to most outsiders except the bravest or most foolish. There are of course many exceptions to the rule, although most of these live in other nations like Setora and Betoriv rather than Kyrsides, or are simply unaware of public sentiment, such as younger clan mages.

Due to the fact the Dryads live on Kyrsides and are seen by elves as annoying protectors of lands that should belong to them, the elves have repeatedly led more or less successful incursions against them, and met with an equal number of failures to capture any territory. This has led to a very bad relationship between both races due to the amount of wars between them. It does not stop the elven mage clans from procuring many Dryad brides, which they do either through plunder or more mundane methods.

Elves in general are a very conservative bunch in their natural state, and have high levels of pride in their tradition, especially clan elders, which has led to them sometimes sticking to archaic forms of magic when a better modern form is available for use. This has sometimes created rifts between the younger generation of progressive mages and the traditionalist elders, which has caused much unhappiness. It is especially rampant in the Felsionn clan due to the strong generational ideological divides.

Draconian laws are imposed by the monarchies in many forms, although the enforcement of them tend to be affected by the monarch in power. The elves tend to enjoy making war and political machinations, thus even if free speech is normally clamped down upon, there are always elves willing to make "intelligent dissent" of questionable content.

Elves have long seen magic as integral to their lives, and tend to have anything between a strong drive to be a mage to an unhealthy obsession with magic. There are elves who are even willing to suck up to stronger mages due to how they view magic, but are more than ready to dispose of their mentors once they exceed them in terms of power. Elves treat having Magic Circuits as serious business, and use tests to determine the circuit counts of their children. With no exception, all infants born with no Circuits are given the elven form of Soul Surgery to draw Circuits, which leads to high mortality rates among such individuals, due to how weak an infant soul is.

Elven names generally follow a rule, where they take the last name of the "highest class" parent, which is generally also the most magical parent. Thus, large, powerful clans expand continuously as all children born of them are named after their clan last name, be it to their daughters or sons. A lower class woman will take her upper class husband's last name, and a lower class man will take his upper class wife's last name. If both partners are in the same social stratum, they get to decide which name to take, but they can only retain one. Elven names tend to have anywhere between two or three parts, and otherwise follow similar rules to humans.

Elves have a custom where the whole clan must be linked via inheritance from a common ancestor. Thus, should a person from outside the clan marry in, and later be widowed, if they have children with their spouse, they will be allowed to stay as part of the clan and keep their names. If not, the marriage would be void and the widowed is forced to leave the clan.