The Moon Emblazoned in the Sky and the Sun Hidden Beneath the Horizon
The Birth of the First Elves
There is a story passed down among the Elven royals about the origins of the Nerifir family that sits the throne. To hear this, one must be privy to the gossip and conversation in the royal court of Camor Keep, for it speaks of the greatest threat to their family, the man who nearly ended the bloodline many times throughout history: the story of the first Queen, Meiriris Nerifir's birth, alongside her brother Dresmorlin Cobath. This is the legend of the Moon Emblazoned in the Sky and the Sun Hidden Beneath the Horizon. A tale of siblings, divinity, slavery, and rebellion.
Nothing else but beasts and Gods roamed Totania until the God Nergal decided to create the first Orcs on the banks of Lunar Lake in what would later be known as the Elven Forest.
Why did he do such a thing? Even this is lost in mortal retellings of the story. What spurred the Gods to create the first humanoids? To create life at all? We may never know.
The Elves, who are responsible for passing down this story, have little interest in Nergal and the Orcs.
Reasons aside, the Goddess Selene, jealous of Nergal for taking the initiative to do this as she knew he would get the credit if this went well, stepped in to copy him. She did not want to take too much risk, since there was the chance it could fail, so the very first Elf she created was a test, merely copying the nearest Orc she found.
The very first Elf, according to this story, was the secretive and sinister Dresmorlin Cobath, a trial run for all other Elves. Who he was copied from is lost, an Orc who may not have even had a name, and who made no mark on history, served as the template for the first Elf.
The Goddess Selene is believed to have spoken to the newly formed Elf, fully grown and conscious as he was, speaking some primitive language that she gave to him.
A World Before Elvenkind
There were few mortal species on Totania before there were Elves. The Giant Kingdom had fallen long before it, and while some Giants still lived scattered throughout Totania, there was no civlization standing at the time that housed them. Dragon Lords ruled over much of the world, and their children, the Dragons, took what they could, claiming dominion over what little the Gods themselves did not personally own. Beyond that, there may have been Mammen, Dwarves, and Tainuki, if one wants to believe the stories of other Gods. This is, however, unlikely.Dresmorlin Cobath by Jarhed
“My child, I give you life to populate this planet with my own image, for in that which is shaped after me, there can be bountiful love and plentiful beauty. There can be sheer perfection wrought upon this world to bring it what it desires most. There can be all that I dream of, all that you seek, and leagues beyond that. You are the manifestation of my own will, and exist to spread my love.”
Holy Rebellion
Of course, Meiriris Nerifir and Dresmorlin Cobath were true crucial figures in the Holy Rebellion, and this story may exist only to justify their roles in such a historic event. Meiriris was the one to lead the Elves (and Orcs, to a lesser extent, as she had to work alongside Amukk God Breaker to rally them) out of the bonds of slavery and against their divine masters. Some nobles who know of this story believe it to have been created to justify why Meiriris was able to stand against the Gods Mimir and Satanael: she was created to resemble a Goddess, and so she had the power to defy the Gods. Others say this proves her divine right to rule. Other early Elves are kin to the Orcs, but the Nerifirs alone are pure Elven, pure divine. Thus, only the Nerifirs may sit the throne, and this is why the story is only told to nobles and royals. It is to dissuade them from even considering any other ruler. As for Dresmorlin, some believe this justifies his resentment towards his sister. A resentment that would lead him to oppose her, funding and participating in the Dark Elven movement that led to him and a large population of young Elves abandoning Camor. Others say that this proves he and Meiriris were always in league, even when he vanished before the rebellion started. He and Meiriris were siblings, the first Elves, and so they had to have always been working closely together. Whatever the case, this story is intrinsicly tied to the Holy Rebellion, even if it remains obscured while the story of the uprising is one of the most famous historical narratives told around the world.
This is where this story begins to bring out the persona of the mythical Dresmorlin Cobath that most are familiar with. The strange and curious man whose sensibilities do not align with any other. The selfish, evil heart associated with Demon Magic. 
Selene by Jarhed
“Is that all? Is my existence purely for the purpose of love?”Dresmorlin Cobath had not understood it completely in that moment. He was still new to this world, and it took him hundreds of years of life to fully see the truth. Selene did not love him. Why would you love a being that you never intended to see live out its life? A trial run was not meant to be loved... it existed only so that those who deserved love would be safe. So that she was certain she could love all who followed it. And in his life, there would never be anyone who loved Dresmorlin Cobath. Not his wife, Darra Floshe Cobath, nor his child Farro Cobath. Not the Elven people whom he helped to free in the Holy Rebellion, for his involvement was largely a mystery. If there was ever love in his life, it was the love of his sister, Meiriris Nerifir. But Dresmorlin Cobath had been lied to by the Goddess of Love in his very first moments. He was lied to when it came to the love of his wife, who cheated on him, and the love of his daughter, who never saw him as her father. What reason did he have then to believe in love beyond that? Selene could not have known this in the moment of creation. Compared to other Gods, most know that Selene is rather immature and impulsive, but still, she knew she could not build Dresmorlin's life on a lie and a lie alone. So she had to give him something else. And so she gave him what would one day become the curse of the Elven people. A call to find meaning for himself.
“Why, of course not. No being exists solely for love; such a thing is only a force to carry them onwards to their lives. You were brought to life with love, but you may find meaning elsewhere in life.”While he pondered this statement, thinking of what purpose he could possibly try to give himself in life, Selene got to work on her true goal: the real first Elf, not a prototype. He was then the only one to witness the creation of the next Elf, alongside every one that Selene made after that in those first batches. Next was the only one of the first batch of Elves to not be made by copying any other mortal, especially not an Orc. Meiriris Nerifir was made, instead, in the image of the Goddess Selene herself.
“You shall not be alone… no good can come from solitude. If you were made from their image, let her be made in mine. Let the moon walk upon the ground, no different from the ants that she mingles with. For if she were anything beyond mortal, she would be me. That is forbidden.”Ripping a bone from Dresmorlin (perhaps a rib, though it is not named in the story itself), Selene turned it into a body. Into Meiriris Nerifir. The immediate feeling of Selene tearing out a bone, feeling her aura engulf him, was love, but seeing Meiriris squishing into place made Dresmorlin feel disgusted instead. Still, he needed a purpose, and he hoped to find it with Meiriris. She considered his way of speaking to be absurd, but he simply used the language imparted onto him by Selene. Still, the absurdity of his early days would carry over throughout the rest of his life, and so too would the relationship between himself and his sister, Meiriris Nerifir. Even after she died, she would haunt Cobath, but so too would he haunt the Elven royal family and its everyday citizens.
Meiriris Nerifir by Jarhed
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