The Driftfolk

Unlike the highborn elves of fantasy novels and legend, the Driftfolk are a rare elven people who live throughout Veneros, with the highest concentration found in Eterna City. Even rarer still are those who dwell within the walls of the Blue Lotus Hotel. They are not lords of forests or timeless courts, but semi-nomadic urban dwellers who thrive where others falter. Born of collapse and adaptation, the Driftfolk have learned to reclaim ruins, endure scarcity, and carry memory in their very blood.   Elves are considered Etherians, as their ancestors came through the Nexus gates, and they are among the common species known to cross into Veneros. Culturally, they have adopted the moniker “The Driftfolk” as a unifying banner, a name that grants them a sense of community and shared heritage once settled on this world. Each generation learns from those who came before, adapting to the rhythms, rituals, and traditions of the elves who first found sanctuary within Luminara and the Hotel.   While Etherians flock to Luminara for refuge, elves are among the rarest and most enigmatic arrivals to Eterna City. Most hail from far-flung realms now sealed off or fractured by magic wars, collapsed pacts, or fading ley-lines. Luminara’s promise of renewal appeals deeply to them—but so does its permissiveness, neutrality, and lack of divine oversight in daily affairs.   Their long lives make them both wistful and wary of the Nexus. They are not easily charmed by the idea of fresh beginnings—but they are drawn to the possibility of healing old wounds, reclaiming fragments of lost cultures, or forging connections across borders and realms long severed. For some, the Nexus represents hope; for others, it is a reminder of doors once shut forever.   Driftfolk are marked by their regenerative gift, a rare ability to heal themselves by reverting their own cells to earlier states of health. Yet this magic has limits. Overhealing exhausts them, and when their biology falters, it leaves scars—permanent testimony of survival. Where humans wear wrinkles with age, the Driftfolk wear scarred flesh as honor. Such marks elevate an elf to elder status, symbols of endurance and battles endured.   This healing cannot be freely shared. Only in rare cases—when blood is a match—can an elf’s essence accelerate healing in another, and even then, only as an echo of their true gift. Blood donation is a carefully guarded secret, strictly forbidden to outsiders. Instead, artisans among them brew potions that mimic regeneration, expensive luxuries sold sparingly in Luminara. Useful, yes, but never equal to the blood-born essence itself.   The Blue Lotus Hotel, with its labyrinthine corridors, shifting illusions, and enchanted gardens, offers the Driftfolk something unique: the ability to travel without traveling. The hotel itself becomes their circuit. They wander mirrored halls as though tracing ley lines, rotate between suites as if keeping seasonal anchors, and immerse themselves in illusionary landscapes that mimic deserts, oceans, or far-off skies. To them, stillness becomes motion.   The Hotel’s ethos of consent and neutrality resonates deeply with the Driftfolk, who treat choice and personal sovereignty as sacred. They rarely engage in public displays of sensuality, but when they do, intimacy is approached as a ritual of trust rather than fleeting pleasure. In this, their culture aligns seamlessly with the values the Lotus protects.   Even so, the Driftfolk remain rare residents. Those who do stay are most often scarred elders seeking refuge, guardians bound by oath to the Nexus, or exiles estranged from their wandering kin. It is rarer still to see one employed at the Hotel, and when it happens, it is never as routine staff but in elevated roles: as ritualists during Nexus ceremonies, artisans crafting elixirs for exclusive guests, or—most rarely—as contracted companions whose presence is treated like myth made flesh.   To outsiders, their permanence in one place is almost unthinkable. To see the same elf twice in the same suite becomes a whispered story among guests and staff alike.   In the Blue Lotus, the Driftfolk embody resilience and transformation. They are survivors who endured the fall of realms, Etherians who remade themselves in exile, healers whose blood carries memory, and wanderers who find in the Lotus a place where even stillness moves like a journey.