Dusk Elf

### Distinctions

Tall stature, noble countenance, pointed ears, longevity, superior physical prowess, black hair

### Members

Elmer Twicefreed, Serenity Piers (half-blood)

> *“Belief made me a god in their world. And Greed took that away. I’m not sure which I prefer: The lustful abandonment of where mortals willingly give themselves to me, or... the chase. The thrill of the hunt. The rape.”*
>
>

> - The Lilin
>
>

## Dusk Elves of Westgate

Dusk Elves are a species conceived within the Void, their pregnant mother spat back out onto Terros in what is now Westgate. Shael Voidseer was a Dawn Elf obsessed with exploring the Void in search of the goddess Aradia. But instead, she was discovered by a demon, The Lilin, which called itself Lilinthvroka at the time. Entranced by this powerful demon, she was raped - both physically and spiritually, as The Lilin stole her memories and absorbed her experiences. In their place, The Lilin seeded Shael's mind and body with a burning desire to worship the demon and forget the Goddess Aradia.

Shael found herself on a high-cliffed rocky island when she was abruptly returned to the mortal plain of Aradia. She gave birth to quadruplets in the plains, and quickly set about making a home on that inhospitable island. The children were two males and two females, all pale as the moon's face with hair darker than night. Their eyes glowed with the light of distant stars, colors of the cosmos.

Shael and her children thrived in the caves and winding tunnels beneath the plains, and she told them of their sire, a powerful god - the Lilinthvroka. Before long, the children began having visions whenever they touched the waters of the Sorrows. These visions were from the Lilin, their faith in such a powerful deity giving it power to reach them. The Lilin made it clear to them that their mother could not receive these visions as she was no virgin - there was a weakness the Lilin could not shake. It could only speak through the Sorrows to the unsullied, the pure - and those of its blood. This drawback was confirmed when two of the children abruptly stopped receiving visions - one of the pair was pregnant by the other. Through the other two children, the Lilin made certain they knew this was no punishment. But the Lilin would need them to find a way around this.

Over the years, only the last male child remained a virgin and kept receiving these visions. But all four children, and soon their children, kept searching for a way to bring the Lilin's voice into the world of Aradia. In their experiments, their own mother was an unfortunate victim. Finally, the last male child gave in to his desires and was left without visions. Of course Shael's grandchildren received the visions, but they were unfathomably 'fuzzy' and almost nonsensical. Shael finally died as her children experimented with hemomancy, a magic they had been taught by their sire long ago. But as the years passed and their community grew, these Dusk Elves finally stumbled across a way to communicate with The Lilin.

They named the contraption after their language: The Voice of the Void - Thvrokavos. (In much later years, in the 900s AE, it would be called a Ravensyell.) This machine held crystals infused with the blood of virgin Dusk Elves, needed no power source, and created a mental image of both the Lilin, and the caller, which projected onto the surface of a bowl of water drawn from the Sorrows. The verbal component of the machine was sent and received through the water.

The Lilin taught its followers how to mask their home - telling them that they were not yet ready to meet the other races of this world. They must grow larger, mightier, and learn greater magics before they would be ready to enter the world. This great masking of their home was the illusion of dangerous reefs. But a very small sect of followers was known to disappear off the island, disregarding the Lilin's wishes. The Dusk Elves in Westgate never heard from them again and assumed they drowned in the Sorrows.

Although communication with their sire was now possible, the Lilin's true desire to manifest on Terros would go unrealized for thousands of years. The more the Dusk Elves bred, the weaker their connection through the Thvrokavos device became. Eventually only ancient elders would take up the role of priests or priestesses as they had the best ability to connect with their ancient foremother - a new term that cropped up after the Lilin began taking a more feminine form in its communications with its clergy.

It was discovered that tattooing oneself with the blood of an ancestor strengthened the connection somewhat. Eventually this ritual became a tradition among the Dusk Elves and the meaning behind it was lost to time. But those who practiced hemomancy did find their magic was stronger with 'living ink' sewn into their skin.

Finally, the high cleric in 830 AE revealed he had found a way to bring The Lilin to Terros. (Will fill in blank here later)

But with the Lilin's entrance to Terros, its great greed and desire for the rush of the hunt would become its undoing. It rampaged through its followers, killing and raping in rapid succession, destroying all within its past as it sucked up every one of the souls it killed. The desire for more was insatiable, and before a half-day had passed, almost all of the demon's children were dead. But the Lilin set upon a certain Dusk Elf named Sinmae, draining her of life, memories, and soul - but before it could finish, another being ripped the blood from this elf. A Dusk Elf named Taegath Faydroka, used hemomancy to put his wife Sinmae out of her misery and kill the Lilin in one fell swoop. But the Lilin was only killed on Terros - it was banished back to the Void, back to square one.

Only a smattering of Dusk Elves remained and all were in a terrible state. Their family, friends, deity, way of life, home, everything - was all gone. Taegath became an impromptu leader and it was decided by general consensus that it was time to find what laid beyond the illusions of reefs. A series of fishing vessels were bound together and crafted into a refugee flotilla, with enough supplies for a few weeks. But despite their great magics, these elves were not equipped for the harsh realities of the world.

These Dusk Elves were found exhausted and adrift by pirates. They were an easy target and quickly defeated. Taegath was badly injured in the struggle and his memory became fractured. He and the rest of the surviving Dusk Elves were sold into slavery.

As of 1016, very few Dusk Elves are known of.

## Dusk Elves of Caybourne

Those Dusk Elves which left their home back before the Lilin's arrival on Terros found themselves a new home on a larger island to the east (now Caybourne). These elves drifted away from the religion of their ancestors, realizing that the Lilin had no reach.

It turned out this island was a common stop for pirates and scavengers, and unfortunately these ruffians wanted nothing good to do with the Dusk Elves. After initial attempts at negotiation, the Dusk Elves had to defend themselves and their new settlement (Shael'enn). These attacks came several times a year from different parties, looking for slaves or simply to kill. There came a schism in the group when a family decided to capture several survivors instead of executing them - they made slaves of them. This split the group of Dusk Elves almost down the middle and the slave-owning group chose to leave the settlement.

The Shael'enn group created their own illusion so they would be unbothered in their new home - at least by sentient enemies. First, they tried to make the illusion of clear ocean - but kept getting shipwrecks and confusing the sea-life. So they also created an illusion of dangerous reefs like back home.

The other group forced their slaves to build them their own settlement of Roake'enn on another island they found just off the coast to the north (later Sylvie Isle). This island was rocky but there was still arable land and it reminded them of home. Crop failure led them to cannibalizing each other and accidentally producing the first Vampire - Cloven. She inadvertently wiped out a good chunk of her own people. She left Caybourne along with her oblivious companions Kavos and Eranea.

The illusion of reefs about Caybourne finally fell in 926 AE as the remaining elves dwindled to only one who was never taught the illusion magic. This remaining elf died to a freak lightning strike shortly after.