High Elves
[Picture of Aldir'tor here]
| Nicknames | Anypsóste (The Exalted) - Azari’Lefká (White Elves) |
|---|---|
| Spoken Languages | Azari Linguae (Lost Elven Language)
The common tongue |
| Average Height (Meters & Feet) | 1,87M - 2,20M (6’1ft - 7’2ft) |
| Average Weight (kg & lbs) | 75 KG to 90 KG (165lbs -198lbs) |
Appearance
● Elves are known as the tallest race on Eden. There are some recorded cases in which an Elf had grown to about three meters. This is of course an extremely rare case, as most Elves grow to about 1,95 – 2,00 Meters. Women are generally a bit shorter than males.
● The skin of a High elf is, generally speaking, very pale.
● This is usually paired with White, silver or blonde hair. There is a very small minority of Azari’cill with black hair. These Elves are generally looked down upon because of black hair is usually a sign of inbreeding with the Azari’lunn, which is unacceptable in Azari’cill culture.
● The Eyes of High Elves are almost always blue or green. In some rare cases, silver eyes have been reported. This is seen as the most pure colour and it is very rare. The Silver eyed elves are seen as personally blessed by the mother. Elves do not have facial hair.
● The ears of Elves are the longest of all the living creatures in Eden. The ears generally form a point-like shape at the end. Elven ears can grow up to 15 – 25 centimetres in length. The Elves of Aerial believe that the length of the ears reflects the wisdom of the elf
●The Azari age significantly slower than the other races on Eden. One Elven year roughly translates to around 5 human years. Elves can live up to around 100-120 Elven years, or 500-600 human years and reach adulthood at 18, or 90 human years. The children of the mother keep their young appearance for most of their lives. Only starting to show visible aging around their 90’s.
Language
Elves generally speak the common tongue. This language, through its extreme popularity, has been adopted and normalized in Elven culture. A dialect has sprung up in Aerial of a combination of Ancient Elvish and the common tongue.
The ancient elven language is a mostly forgotten one. Scholars in Aerial are trying to rediscover their ancient language and bring it back to the vocabulary of the Elves. Often used ancient elven words that found their way into common speech:
Greetings:
Vale Hello/Greetings
Vale’tar Farewell
Fílo(s) Friend(s)
Races:
Azari Elf
Azari’cill High elf/pure elf
Azari’cerr Wood elf/wild elf
Azari’lunn Dark elf/Moon elf
Azari’soll Fire Elf/Sun Elf
Dur’arum(s) Denur
Vari(s) Human(s)
Ghesiri(s) Faulskins(s)
Titles
Bessi’inn Blessed one
Scin (Young) Student
Scini (Older) Student
Scinar Priest
Scinari Priestess
Scinar(i)’cilus High Priest(ess)
Ar’mágoi Mage/Magic user/Spellcaster
Ar’mágoi’cilus Arch-Mage/Magic user/Spellcaster
Visera Minister
Nobicilus Noble
Pricecilus Prince
Therri’cill Guardian of Purity/King
Aeri’cill Mother of Purity/Queen
Khari’cerr The Wild Father/Chief
“Cilus” is a word without a specified meaning. When someone bears a title with the word “Cilus” in it, it is generally seen as a high ranking person.
Culture & Society
Structure of Elven society
Modern Elven society is centered along the lines of progress and purity. All Elves are part of a bigger whole and no Elf is more important than the progress of the nation. Since the Elven race is flawed from the very core, they need to reinvent themselves. The Elves need to be reborn into a more aware being that will be able to see the magic that fills the air. Which will, in turn, help them reach opportunities once seen as impossible to grasp. They need to become the “Scions of Illumination”. All this is done because the Elves of Aerial know that when they reach the highest, most pure levels of existence, clean of their flaws and impure cousins, only then will the Elven Pantheon of Gods return to Eden to guide their people.
Every Elf is constantly trying to improve him/herself, always trying to be the best of the best. Elven life is split between constantly learning and improving yourself and excelling in your craft. Whether it is Archery, swordsmanship or being a scholar teaching the new generation, all lives are valued equally in Elven society as long as you are trying to reach the most enlightened state of existence.
Outside the times of war, the Azari are at peace with the mind and soul. These are times of celebration and joy. Every Elven year, the disciples of the Pantheon organize the Wine Festival. The gates of the silver spired city swing open for all of Eden to arrive and celebrate a new year of harvest. The newest wines are sold during the celebration while old bottles which have laid around for dozens of years, are finally opened for this special occasion.
Romance and marriage:
Azari are massively focused on procreation. The gifts of Mothers and Daughters sprawl through elven society and its populace. It is very common to see Elves pair with each other when they reach adulthood. Elves are creatures that are easily captured by the sin of lust, which can be seen in their lives, where elves tend to switch partners a few times in their younger years before finally settling down. When Elves finally decide to get married, the entirety of the Silver City rejoices at the dawn of a new generation. An Elven wedding is quite the affair, which can last for even a week when it is a person of importance.
Marriage in Elven society is final, as it is a promise before the face of the Pantheon that you will serve them and will safeguard a new generation of Elves. Divorce is therefore unheard of; it is seen as the ultimate betrayal in the face of the Pantheon. The families of the divorced couple will be looked down upon for the foreseeable future and the pair will most likely be executed. The only way to ask for forgiveness of the Pantheon, after committing this crime, is to give them your most valuable possession: your life.
Life & Reproduction:
After a wedding, the first task for a newly founded elven family is to put a child on Eden to further their family name. Elves, however, have an extremely complex reproductive system. Female Elves are only fertile one week per elven year and only become fertile around their 25th. Most elves are eager to see if the mother will bless them with a young life each year. Reproduction is so important in elven culture that once per year, a giant festival will be held to celebrate a new year of elven fertility.
Death & Funerals:
Elves, despite their extremely long lives, can die due to natural causes. When they die, a huge burial ceremony will be held by the family of the deceased elf. Elven bodies are burned after death. This is done to return the body and spirit to Aerièlle so that it may live on forever in the pantheon. Elves believe that the spirit is trapped inside the body as long as it is still on Eden.
History
The Age of Enlightenment (Origins)
The origins of the Azari are mostly unknown. It is commonly believed that the race of Elves was gifted with life by the gods of the Elven Pantheon. The elven race has its roots in the Valley of Dragons, also known as Arda. This time is known as the Age of Enlightenment.
It was in this age that the Gods of the Pantheon walked among their children, giving the Azari a piece of themselves to help shape them.
The Father, Kharash, gifted the Azari strength, courage, and Fatherhood.
The Mother, Aerièlle, gifted her children the wisdom of Enlightenment and the ability to wield the sacred blessings of Eden in the form of arcane magic.
The Daughter, Aestaena, gifted her children fertility, love and the need to procreate.
And at last there the Son, Fineall, gave his children challenges in life, as he despised his parents because they favoured his sister. He wanted to take a slice of the souls for himself to create a race shaped in his image. A race that would one day take down the pantheon.
The Age of Fallen Spires
The Elves of Fineall knew only anger, jealousy, perversion, and lust. His children were tainted and foul, as they despised their more gifted and enlightened kin who looked down upon them as abominations. The other Gods of the Pantheon also looked upon the Dark kin of Fineall with disgust and tried to destroy them in body and soul.
Despite their best efforts, the Gods could not destroy the Azari’lunn or Dark Elves as they became known as in the common tongue. The conflict sparked a massive civil war between the Azari children of the Gods. Many cities were destroyed by magical barrages from the Arch-Mages of both sides. The children of the Daughter, the Azari’soll, were completely wiped out by a surprise Dark Elven assault on their homeland nearing the end of the war. Towards that end, as the Azari’lunn saw that they could not overcome the endless legions of the Azari’cill, The Son blessed one of his most enlightened servants, Noctis. He became the leader of his children and ordered him to disappear from the face of Eden with the remaining Dark Elves until their time would come. Fineall took it upon himself to battle the rest of the Pantheon in the heavens for the rest of eternity to make sure that the other Gods would never be able to return to Eden and destroy his children.
As a direct result of Fineall’s war in the heavens, the Gods of the Pantheon left their children in Eden. Without their Gods to teach them the ways of enlightenment, the Azari were truly lost and their kingdoms descended into anarchy. The old order of the Elven Empire was completely toppled in the years of the Fallen Spires. The remaining races started to accuse each other for the war and were preparing for another wave of uncontrolled violence toward one another. The children of Kharash were horrified by these events of pure barbarism and isolated themselves in Myln Arbor. They did not completely cut ties with the Azari’cill but they would not actively seek any contact with the other Azari for the foreseeable future. The children of Fineall had exiled themselves from the Valley of Dragons.
The remaining Azari tried to find a sign of their Gods, a reason to live and to continue on the path of enlightenment. It was at this moment that the Silver Phoenix flew over the Glade of Dragons. In other realms, the Silver Phoenix is simply known as the Priscus of the Skies, but to the Azari it was the avatar of the Mother. It was a majestic beast that gave the Azari a reason to reinvent themselves. They built temples to the Phoenix and tried to find ways to communicate with the elemental spirit of the skies. The Scinari Caste was tasked to collect and translate the ancient texts of the gods and lay out a path for the Azari’cill to follow. This is the path that would eventually lead to reunification with the Mother.
The Reinvention:
Years passed as the Azari’cill rebuilt their broken realm. No longer were their attempts at founding the perfect order haunted by cursed anatomies or hollow souls. The Azari’cill created a culture of betterment that founded the new city of Silver, dedicated to the Mother of all Elves, Aerièlle.
The Azari’cill spread their influence across the great nations of Eden with sublime efficacy. It was child’s play for the Elves to learn new languages, sciences, and forms of art. Some sought to conquer the vistas of the mind, their bodies seated cross-legged as their spirits roamed far and wide. Others travelled the lands, making beautiful tomes of the knowledge they found in the fields of cartography, biology, botany, history, and more.
The people of the Valley of Dragons wished to reach true enlightenment and sought to spread it to the lesser nations. Missionaries moved far and wide to educate lesser races in the ways taught by Aerièlle, hoping to one day bring the lesser races to the same standard as the Azari. These pioneers did not slaughter those monsters and savage creatures they encountered, for they considered such tactics barbaric. Instead, they tamed the beasts of the land where possible, and left them to their own devices if that was not viable. If the creatures were particularly predatory, they instead maneuvered them through the Phoenix gate to other, less enlightened lands.
The Reinvention brought forth an age of prosperity for sure, yet the Elves of Arda still have a long road to travel on. The recent so-called “Rotting plague” devastated most of the missionary work and significantly thinned the mostly imported food supplies of the Silver City. Nevertheless, the Azari race endured and are now eager to continue their effort to educate the lesser races and to uncover new knowledge.