Elf

Refugees from a broken land, the elves are the victims of no one but themselves. In ages past, the elven people existed in the Wild Mirror among the other Fairfolk. It is unknown if they were worshipped as some cultures venerate the faeries in the modern eras, as elven historical records make little mention of their time as spirits of freedom. They were children of the god of the elves, a being with no permanent shape, a perfect manifestation of freedom and chaos, a god known as Ibonala. To attempt to name Ibonala's form is a practice in futility, for they are the purest personification of chaos and free will. The other elven gods found joy and whimsy in their antics and always accepted their forms no matter how archaic they might have been. All except for the pitiable goblin gods, created by another elven god to be servants to the elves. Embittered by the hypocrisy of the chief god of the elves personifying free will when they kept goblin servants, the goblin god Arawan struck out at Ibonala, and used the ensuing chaos to gather his kin and escape the elves. The blood that spilled forth from Ibonala's wound is said to be the birth of the first elves, elves who were more like Ibonala. Chaotic, free, without any singular 'true' form. The legends from this point branch into many different ideas about what happened next, some say Ibonala favored certain members of these primal elves and bestowed upon them great power while the rest grew jealous, others say the elves were tricked by the goddess of spiders, other tales speak of the elves' growing desire to make meaningful change in the world, and many other explanations as posited by elven scholars. Whatever the engine for this shift might have been, the result is always the same across all the legends. The elves lost, or gave up, their changing forms for permanent bodies. This was the first chip in a rift that would grow wide between the elven peoples and Ibonala. Deeply offended that they threw their gift away, Ibonala cast all the elves out from the realm and into the Material. The only exception to this were those who would come to be known as the wyld elves or the wood elves. They had refused to give up their forms, but were cast out with the rest of the elves despite this. Not entirely unforgiving, Ibonala allowed the wyld elves to keep some of that spark of freedom, with the wyld elves being more likely to carry the gift of Ibonala. A gift that allows elves to shape parts of their body at their whim.

After this exile, the elves had to find their way on their own. Their gods had turned the cheek to them, at least until they could atone for wounding Ibonala so deeply. For a time, the elves did nothing but work towards this goal. While Ibonala and the other gods do not shun them so completely anymore, the elves are still banished from their heaven until Ibonala can truly and completely forgive that dire transgression. Something that is unlikely to happen in any expedient manner, for the elves would soon anger their gods again. After centuries, or in some stories millennia, of working for atonement, it is said the elven people grew tired of it. The elven high mages formed a new plan, a new way to get back into heaven. A heaven without their gods. The exact methods of the ritual are unclear, but a few key factors are well known. For one, it involved a mage from each elven culture to complete, though some stories say the wood elves still did not participate in the ritual much like they refused before. It also involved what is considered to be the largest casting of magic known in written history. And finally, the elves soon to be known as the drow spoiled it all. The elves planned to break a piece off of their heaven and wrench it down to earth so they might live as they once did, but the drow sabotaged the ritual. The ritual collapsed part way through, and the continent the elven people had called home for many of their very long-lived generations was sundered. In an instant, it became a wasteland of broken reality and wild, uncontrollable magic. The elves fled their home, left with no other choice, but refused to take the drow with them. The drow were left stranded on the old continent, and the elves set off on refugee ships. They landed in Irulia, and found kinship in the Shapeshifters of Carne, recognizing their similar gifts even if the elves' gifts were suppressed. The Carnish people agreed to give the elves a slice of land and some islands to make into their home, and what was once a sprawling empire became a thin spit of land for all elves to commune.

The many different elven cultures do not always get along, for their differences are vast and many just like the humans that occupied this new continent. But they began to find their footing again. The sun elves still hold their position at the top of the food chain in elven kind, being considered the leaders of their people. They exist primarily upon the islands given to them by Carne. The wyld elves occupy the forests of the soon-to-be-named Kaluyan, however they spread out far across the continent. Especially within the bounds of Carne and Lhynoon. The sea elves make coastal villages along the shore of Kaluyan, but predominantly exist underwater, enjoying the coral reefs in the area. The moon elves sequester themselves high in the mountains, closer to the stars. The elusive and storied mithral elves, also known as star elves, went with the moon elves originally, however they were few and only occupied one city. One day, that star-studded city vanished. Not only the people of the city, the entire city itself was gone. Not even the remnants of the city's foundation exists, trees grew in it's place as though it never existed at all.

Refusing to be forgotten, the drow found their way to Irulia as well. Although their journey was more perilous and much longer, having to navigate underground passageways that threaded under the oceans. The drow now occupy a large swath of the Underdark, coming into frequent conflict with the dwarven peoples. The drow are rare to see on the surface, for centuries trapped underground have warped them into something different, something anathema to sky and sun itself. Their hatred runs so deep for the other elves the drow even go so far as to inject themselves with a specially curated spider venom, laced with cold iron, to strip themselves of their fae ancestry. What exactly happened to them on their underground odyssey to Irulia is unknown as they are deeply hostile to any attempts to have any form of mutual exchange. What is known, however, is that they have become shackled by a trio of elven gods who long since abandoned the others. The spider god, the bat god, and the eel god. Other, more minor, deities followed with, but the trio of gods are most prominent. A hatred for all over elvenkind, and to an extent all of the Fairfolk, has festered within drow society, for the generations have never let them forget.