THE ELVES:
Courtesy CD Mjollnir

It is commonly known among the scholars of the races that the Elves sprang up from under Faeterna, the Tree of Life, and were the first race to be created aside from the Ancient ones. The music of Bewresha is instilled into the souls of the elves, and their music is inspired by Her song. They are the blessed of the Known World.

Once they came into being, they danced for days, but then they calmed down and began looking for a place where they could dance when they chose and listen to the music of the world. Bewresha had already taken the spot under the Tree of Life, and so the elves had to find other trees to live near, in rememberance of thier creation.

The elves spread over the world, and unlike other races, there was little difficulty with where they went; their expansion was slow and steady. By the time the next race came around, the Elves were pretty much established, writing songs and creating beautiful things.

But all was not beautiful in the lands. The dwarves were the first race to be created after the elves, and they soon developed an instinctive dislike for each other. The elves knew the dwarves did not have the same appreciation for trees that the elves revered, and the dwarves did not trust a creature that did not seem to appreciate any difficulties in their lives. After the dwarves came other races, and each race needed a place to live. The other races were often resentful of the elves' place as the blessed race, and gradually, the elves were pushed back.

The elves never really bred quickly, and most of the other races bred at least twice as quickly as they. Each elf lost was more terrible, because there was no one to take up the arms of the fallen. Skirmishes, battles and even wars were waged for territory and took their toll; the elves not wishing to give up their lands, the other races needing to find a place to live. And so the elven race diminished.

A great hero whose name is no longer remembered then found the place where the elven race now resides; Lirynn. The forests there were dense and the other races did not have the woodlore the Elves did. This was the place they made their final stand, and they managed to keep the borders stable. The elven race withdrew to this area and fortified it, and thanks to the location, the elven race was able to withstand the other races. The other races expanded as was their wont, battling each other and occasionally making incursions into Lirynn, but the elves stood fast.

They had, however, lost a great number, and elves did not breed swiftly. Lirynn, therefore, has always been somewhat insular and protectionist, even though expansion wars are rarely engaged in nowadays. Only a few elven cities are known by other races, and the human traders travel only a little way into the forest. Rarely do the elves come out of their forests, always remembering the costs of the earlier wars and the sacrifice of the hero who died to find them their present home.

-- By the hand of El'ian Bjor'dian, Bard