The End of the Beginning

I feel as if all of my life has come to this. A long life, spanning over a thousand years. I have seen the world change in such amazing and wondrous ways. When I was in my youth, I studied in cloistered universities; small repositories of knowledge of which I was woefully ignorant. It would be quite some time before I found out just how much, alas. Wars amongst the short-lived races have all but vanished, mostly. The catalyst, I believe, was the rebirth of elven philosophy. The elven race was slow to repopulate, and slower still to change our ways. It was not an overnight change; not by any means, but one that needed to happen all the same.
 
It wasn’t until She made us open our eyes, and really see the rest of the world that we came to understand what plagued us as a species. Long-lived as we were, we only spectated the lives of those around us - seeing them born, age, and die over and over again. How then, with their short lives, did these races come to contribute as much to the world at large as they did? When one of us could easily live 10 of their lifetimes, how did they come to affect the world so? It was because they were short lived. While a great many elves value the art of spell craft and knowledge, that is not, or was not, all that we are or were. Not all that we were known for. Elven craftsmanship was always known far and wide for its beauty, and was highly coveted. Elven architecture inspired awe across every race on the planet. And yet… we were always behind. All of our breathtaking structures were “ancient” by others’ standards. Where were the “modern day” craftsmen of our time? Ah, yes. Time. Time was the problem. What was the rush to do anything, to such long-lived people? What’s the hurry to write a book, or construct a building, or forge a new weapon, when years were as months to others. An unfelt lethargy had gripped our people since our progenitors, and only now - after it was laid bare before our faces - did we realize it. How grand could the elven race be, if we had the drive of the shorter-lived? Not thinking of would-be children in the next hundred years, but tomorrow? Not viewing the world as a footpath through a well-traveled glade, but a mad dash through a sandstorm of an unforgiving desert?
 
It had been long in coming, but we changed. My parents, were they alive now, would have told me such a changing of the elven world would be akin to the world itself coming undone at its seams. And yet we have come. I have come to see elven culture thrive and flourish, not just among the races that walk the planet, but within the halls of grand cities the size of countries that course through the sky made possible by elven ingenuity. Our numbers rival that of the most populous races. Our architecture and influence can be found the world over. Our exports are traded and bartered for in any city or town worth visiting. We have finally released ourselves from the shackles of apathy and inactivity that Time had placed upon us.
 
I reminisce sometimes about my younger days. Thousands of years ago, long before our Enlightenment - for that is what it was - I traveled with a party of allies as we fancied ourselves ‘adventurers’. So long ago I would never dream I would be where I am today, or even that such a shift in the world was possible. I sleep within one of the highest spires of the floating city of Zeal, watch the sun rise on half the planet, and work on a daily basis with magicks so powerful as to reshape the world. I sometimes wish I could send my younger self a message - just something to say that everything gets better. That the pain and hurt you endure will pay dividends in the end. That the world you fought for comes to fruition.
 
Ah, but I suppose I have rattled on for quite some length now. Sleep is of the utmost importance to me now, as I have a meeting with the Quorum tomorrow that could be the key to everything. I believe I have devised a spell, that, if done correctly, could free the entire world from the shackles of time itself. People with incurable illness could be suspended forever until a cure was developed. No longer would any race die from old age. The applications - and dangers, I admit - are simply unfathomable; the potential limitless! I need but present my discovery to the Quorum, and my family will be taken care of for literally eternity. Not I nor my wife and children ever need be without ever again. Never shall I ever want for seeing this beautiful sunrise ever again. I look forward to celebrating the Equinox with my family after the presentation is over...