High Elf
High Elves were for a time, the most dominate race in all of NOVUS. Leaders on the front of magic and geniuses of technology, they had no equal until Demons stopped infighting and gathered their forces against them. Due to their own hubris they wiped themselves out, with the only remaining High Elves forever changed. Now they are simply legends mostly forgotten or twisted, with many races evolved from them regarding High Elves as Gods or Demigods. Whilst they may be gone (mostly) forever, their powerful relics and the way they shaped history remain forever, a part of NOVUS.
Biology
Class
NeutralDiet
OmnivoreLife Span
∞Average life span
400 yearsAverage alignment
Lawful NeutralMale to Female ratio
50/50Status
DeceasedNature
Xenophobic, WarmongerDanger
Very High, NeutralAffinity
Magic, Ancient ArtsMain Languages
Alarian, Common, Universal
Appearance
High Elves are a race that do not age once they reach maturity. This time is around 70-100 years and in appearance, looks to be when a High Elf is 20-25 in human years. They have very clean and delicate features and are notorious amongst other races for looking very similar to each other. Whilst to a High Elf it was easy to tell between each other, as High Elves often wear very similar clothing, hair style and colour, build and height, it’s not a surprise other races find them hard to differentiate.
High Elves usually possess white or blonde hair, with rare instances of pastel green, blue and grey sometimes appearing. High Elves cannot have freckles, dense muscle mass, become overly skinny or obese. This is due to their bodies being highly made of magic; regulating their forms. Due to this magic, it is very difficult for a High Elf to get more unique features such as a beard (they only have hair on their heads and faces), but with the right concentration of magic and with enough time it is possible to grow one. On average it takes around 20-40 years to grow a beard, and both genders are capable of growing one. High Elves also do not sweat, instead using magic to regulate their body temperatures. They also have a very mild, almost non-existent smell, making them difficult to track by scent alone.
Male High Elves have a lean muscular build, with mild muscle definition. They on average stand at around 6’4 (193cm), and can have heights between 6’11 (211cm) and 6ft (183cm). Female High Elves have a lean muscular build with small breasts and long legs. They on average stand at around 5’11 (180cm), and can have heights between 6’4 (193cm) and 5’9 (175cm).
Both genders commonly have long flowing and usually straight hair, with members of the military usually being the only High Elves to cut their hair short. In some instances, female High Elves can be mistaken for young High Elf boys by other races, which can be a major insult. High Elves also look “young” compared to other races, and this is likely due to their natural baby faces.
Attributes
High Elves are extraordinarily proficient with magic, and it comes innately to all High Elves. Even High Elves who pursue more physical arts like sword play or martial arts, would still be more magically adapt than say a well-learned human mage. This is because High Elven society and the way it functions is also tied intrinsically to magic, where for them it is a very normal part of life. High Elves cannot die from old age, as magic forever sustains their appearance. Due to this if you were to somehow cut off the magic of a High Elf, instead of this resulting in them rapidly aging, the High Elf would just collapse into dust. High Elves also are immune to almost all kinds of sickness and poisons, unless they affect magic or are magical in some form. Corruption is their greatest weakness, for as soon as a High Elf becomes corrupt they can loose balance of the magic within themselves and if not fixed quickly, they will disintegrate.
All High Elves are born with a “thread” which is an innate magical proficiency that determines their strengths and weaknesses in a magical sense. For example, if a child is born with a “Elemental Thread” that child would become very adept at wielding elemental magic.
Culture
Marriage and Birth
One of the drawbacks of being so innately magically adept, is that it is difficult to have children as a High Elf. To make matters worse, the ease at which you have a child is determined by your compatibility with your partner. A High Elf’s “Thread”, which is their type, determines this compatibility. High Elves who have different Thread types find it difficult to have children and often pregnancies result in still births. This resulted in a system where marriages were formed based on Thread compatibility and Thread Clans were formed. Whilst it was common for High Elves to have mistresses and casual lovers on the side, they could only have “legitimate” children with their Sworn Spouse who was chosen by their Thread Clan elders or other governing facilities. Whilst it was not illegal to be homosexual or asexual, it was looked down on and High Elves who chose not to have Sworn Spouses were often shunned and ostracised. In the case of two Sworn Spouses conceiving a child, it took between 1-5 years to inseminate successfully and 20 years to grow the baby. Once the child was born, unless born to Nobles or Royalty, the child was “given” to the Thread Clan to be raised by everyone. Whilst children could have close bonds with their biological parents, it was very common for them to develop closer bonds with other members of their clan. All children born to their Thread Clan were treated as siblings, even though it was common for them to marry each other for Sworn Spouse purposes. Often a child would have their Sworn Spouse chosen before reaching maturity, and in the cases of Royalty or Nobility this could happen earlier.
Despite the difficulty of High Elves producing children of their own race, they easily bred with other races that were of the “neutral” type (humans, dwarves, etc). This resulted in a lot of half High Elves that usually became isolated as neither race would allow them to live (even more so with High Elves as they believed in the purity and supremacy of their race). Whilst it was no secret how many half bloods there were, it only became an issue and scandal when a High Elf decides to take a half blood in to join High Elven Society. In a rare case of this, the half blood would have to make an appeal to the King/Queen of whatever kingdom they wished to join and that monarch would have to personally allow them to join High Elven society. Due to this, individual’s that where half blood and allowed to live within the High Elven walls where individuals of high renown, skill or competence (even though they may have unique skills and abilities they would still be looked down upon in most cases).
Childhood
When a High Elf is born they are given a Silhven Wand as a gift. This wand will shape and change alongside the child as they grow, and the wand will reflect their users personalities, skills and aesthetics. They will have this wand for the rest of their lives.
When a High Elf is a young child they are taught history, magic, culture, science, mathematics and etiquette. During this time they are often taken to various establishments in their kingdom and shown various jobs they can pursue as adults. Once they turn 20, they undertake a ceremony called “The Weaving of the Threads”. Here, children have their threads examined (as by this age threads are fully developed) and see what proficiency that child has as well as what type of thread they possess. Whilst it is common for a child to inherit the threads of their parents, often children will have different and random thread types. If a child has a different thread to their clan, they will be moved to a different clan to meet the elders and live there. This does not mean the child will be unable to meet with their previous clan members, but rather live on a different property and answer to a different elders authority. In the cases of a rare thread child being born they could be transferred to different kingdoms to live with other Thread Clan members of their type. In extremely rare instances a thread could be of a type not belonging to any clan. In that case the child has a rare opportunity. They could either remain in their current Thread Clan or found a new one. Threads are also usually only seen within High Elves, but there has been instances of half bloods possessing threads and even other races manufacturing fake Threads.
Once your thread is determined and you are in the appropriate clan, children can either choose which job they think they would like to spend the rest of their lives working for, or if they are indecisive they can ask their Thread Clan Elder to choose a job for them. After that the child will begin training at that job until they mature and officially join that carrier. During this time the child can change what job they wish to do at any point before maturity. If they wish to change their job after maturity they would need to seek the approval of their Clan Elders or in some case the local Nobility or Monarchy depending on the type of job the High Elf wishes to have. All jobs are seen as equally important and respectable in theory, but jobs involving the royal family, magic studies and crafts and the military are usually the most respected and sought after. In a lot of cases, jobs involving diplomacy, travel or anything outside of High Elven society is looked down on as interacting with “lesser” creatures and realms is frowned on.
Nobility
As a noble, it is your job to govern small areas of a kingdom you live in. Nobles are appointed by the Monarch of whatever kingdom you where in, and whilst the job of a Noble was usually passed down from generation to generation, there are multiple instances of Monarchs choosing exceptional individuals such as Arch Mages, Military heroes and the like to be Nobles. As a kingdom grew new nobles needed to be appointed as well, and nobles houses (unrelated to the authority of their connected Thread Clan) were formed. When a child was born with an opposing thread, instead of sending them off to a different Thread Clan, one of 2 things could happen.
Royalty
Unlike other High Elves, royal High Elves always had the same thread type. This was due to the god of Magus’s blessing, which was always given when a royal child was born. This thread type was known as a “True Thread” and True Threads where able to have a child with any thread type without issue and their child would always have a True Thread (If Magus blessed them, which is what usually always happened). Due to this, most royalty have the freedom to love whomever they like, though homosexuality is heavily frowned upon, as having a child is usually one of the main goals of Royalty.
One some rare occasions Magus will bless a random (or thought to be chosen) child with a True Thread. This signified the “Birth of a new Nation”, where that child was expected to found a new High Elven kingdom starting with their line. When this happens, the child will shadow their current kingdoms monarch and will be gifted a Arch Mage, Military General, a Thread Clan of their choice and several resources and gifts to found a kingdom where there choose. Following this a great ceremony would be held where a new “Moonlit Noon Gate” will be created; a gate that will connect this new kingdom to the networks of other kingdoms.
Clothing
In High Elf society, lavish, high quality clothing is a must. High Elves utilise rare materials they only have access to (unless under rare trade or gifting circumstance) and craft delicate and intricate clothing from said material. Their style is conservative, often showing little skin and leaning towards practicality over needless flamboyance. The High Elves showed their wealth through the fabric they wore, and so many fashion trends included having many layers of rare and exquisite cloth, often as capes or skirts trailing behind them. Children wore more freeform clothing usually, allowing for more movement. However, it was also common to dress children as adults (or in similarly complicated garbs) to cement their place in society, show off their children or simply because the parents like that style.
The main cloth they use is referred to as “Ceaelle Fabric”, or simply “Pure White”. This cloth is extraordinarily hard to manufacture as the threads of this clothing is made of concentrated magic. When creating Ceaelle Fabric, depending on the concentration of magic outputted, different colours can emerge with different properties. White is the most common colour, followed by light (in some cases aqua) blue, royal blue and in rare cases black. As different colours are rare, usually only royalty, nobility, high ranking military officials and unique persons of interest have access to these alternative colours. Whilst it is not unheard of for a regular High Elf citizen to possess some of these rarer fabrics, they are very expensive and so one would need to save a great deal to purchase one. Ceaelle Fabric is also highly resistant to any kind of physical damage and base magic, with only highly powerful and potent magic and corruption able to break its fibres. Due to this, outside of intense war it is quite rare for clothing made of Ceaelle Fabric to break or tear.
Alongside Ceaelle Fabric was the use of White Silver (also known as “Magus Heart”). This metal, similar to the Ceaelle cloths, was formed using magic, just under different processes. Unlike this fabric, where the threads were magic itself, White Silver utilised a base metal such as Mythril and imbed it with concentrated magic. This new metal was stronger, impossible to stain and had almost impossibly light qualities whilst being very dense. In some rare instances this process can form White Gold, which has no different effect but is harder to create. White Silver is very commonly used in accessories, details on clothing and used as armour for people of a military persuasion.
Other rare materials, such as leather from powerful beasts were also present in High Eleven clothing, but never as a main piece of the outfit and rather as an accent or for some kind of practical form. Young trainees in the martial and swordplay arts would often use leather as armour before upgrading to White Silver.
High Elf Technology
Noon Gate
Noon Gates are teleportation gateways that allow High Elves to travel anywhere where there is another Noon Gate. To use them you must possess a Thread. There are multiple types of Noon Gates;
Silhven Wand
A long thin branch of a fairy tree tipped with White Silver. These act as magic conduits and can be changed into a magic based sword, mage staff etc. All High Elves will be given a wand as a birth gift and the wand grows and changes based on the person who holds it. No two wands are alike as a result of this, and once a wand is lost or broken, you cannot borrow one, you must grow a wand again from scratch which can take several years.
High Elven Kingdoms
First Great Elven Kingdom of Fylnor Edhil
Second Great Elven Kingdom of Syllelorn
Third Great Elven Kingdom of O’ha Shae
Kingdom of Knowledge Entheas (Torchlight)
The Floating City of Commerce En’Thae Thalor
Jade Kingdom of Othyr
The Underwater Kingdom in service of Magus, Nyvertius
Legacy
As a result of High Elves having copious misadventures fraternising with other races, an enormous amount of half-blood children were produced. From these half-bloods many races were formed, and once the High Elves vanished, these races were all considered their own rather than hybrids. Whilst there are many of these elf races, there are 7 main Elf races.
Elf (Sandidus Asel)
These were the most common half-bloods. Sandidus Asel’s, later to be known as just “Elf” are the combination of a Human and a High Elf.
Neon Elf (Amissara Alari)
Unlike the other Elf Races, the Neon Elves were a result of High Elves merging themselves with technology after they accidentally banished themselves to a pocket dimension.
Fell Elf (Mahon)
Fell Elves are the most magically similar to their forefathers compared to other Elf Races. Whilst they have incredibly short ears, making them less elf-like compared to others, they are the only other Elf Race that can make themselves immortal (in the same way as High Elves) using copious magic actively. They are the combination of Fae and High Elves
Wood Elf (Lihnum)
The shortest of the Elf Races in both appearance and lifespan, the Wood Elf is almost as common as the regular ‘Elf’, save for the fact that they are only located in heavily forested and nature-oriented regions. They are the combination of Halflings, Gnomes, and similar races with High Elves.
Desert Elf (Ghelkeck)
The tallest and most physically focused of the Elf Races, Ghelkeck are fast, intelligent and highly athletic. They are the result of High Elves and assorted Desert Folk (such as Gemen).
Ice Elf (Zamora)
By far the strongest of the Elf Races, Zamorens are stupidly powerful physically and have access to very powerful ice elemental magic. They are the combination of High Elves and Ice Elementals.
Alpus Elf (Drenus)
The more rare and versatile of the Elf Races, the Drenus do not possess a normal digestive system and instead consume souls and magic to survive. The more they consume the more powerful they become. They are the combination of High Elves and Demons.
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