Elf
Elves are the second-most common sentient species in Aefareth, following after the humans. They inhabit the distant The Elven Islands, and live peacefully alongside dragons, forming bonds of companionship with them. Most elves now live with a dragon companion, although it is disrespectful to call these companions 'pets'.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The elven body is almost identical to the human body in both the extyernal and internal states. The external body consists of a head, hair, neck, torso (which includes the thorax and abdomen), genitals, arms, hands, legs, and feet. The internal elven body includes organs, teeth, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and blood, lymphatic vessels, and lymph.
The body has four limbs (two arm and two legs), a head, and a neck, which connects to the torso. The body's shape is determined by a strong skeleton made of bone and cartilage, surrounded by fat, muscle, connective tissue, organs, and other structures.
Biological Traits
There are not many differences between genders besides the anatomical differences; male and female elves are mostly of an equal height, with only a few inches difference. There is a more significant difference in the weight between genders but due to the slim builds of elves, both male and female elves have fairly low weights (in comparison to their heights). Both heights and weights are shared amongst all types of elf. On top of the heights and weights, all elves also have a distinct lack of body hair, apart from the hair found on their heads, elven men also do not grow beards, and all elves have a lifespan of about 600 years, with the average life expectancy typically being between 570-590.
The most major differences in regards to the biological traits of elves are the ones between the different types of elves. There are eight types of elves, and, although not all do, some have distinct and unique biological traits. Among these are the gils that allow Ocean Elves to breathe underwater, the pale appearance of Moon Elves and the golden appearance of Sun Elves, and the Fire Elves' resistance to heat and immunity to burns. These biological differences are a result of the elves' descending from Elemental Spirits and being closely linked with the flows of the different types of magic, being akin to conduits for magic.
Genetics and Reproduction
Elven reproduction takes place by internal fertilisation via sexual intercourse, or through a rarely used blood ritual (rarely used due to the amount of energy required for it). Unlike human gestation, elven gestation is 20 weeks, or five months, as elven babies develop at a faster rate due to magic. Elven embryonic development covers the first five weeks of development; at the beginning of the sixth week, the embryo is termed a fetus.
Although elven gestation is shorter, allowing for more consecutive elven pregnancies, there are less elven babies being born than human ones due to the long lives of elves and a lack of natural predators.
Growth Rate & Stages
Elven development is mostly identical to human development apart from the concept of physical and social maturity. Development begins with fertilisation in the womb, where an embryo, later fetus, develops until birth. Growth and development occur after birth, and include both physical and psychological development, influenced by genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors - among others. Development and growth continue throughout life, through childhood, adolesence, and through adulthood to old age, and is referred to as the process of aging.
After birth, the three main stages of growth are: infancy and childhood, puberty, and adulthood.
Infancy and Childhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In development psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood (learning to walk), early childhood (play age), middle childhood (schooling age), and adolescence (puberty through post-puberty).
- Prepubescence
- Neonate (newborn)
- Infant (baby)
- Toddler
- Play age
- Schooling age
Ecology and Habitats
Elves are best suited for living on their islands, north of the Eastern Continent and the Continent of Aefareth, due to the islands being hotspots for the different types of magic, and also the homes of the dragons. They do their best not to disturb the natural state of the islands; as such, the islands are still largely covered in foresty. They prefer to build their settlements inside clearings throughout the forests, and their settlements, even their cities, are only small in size as a lot of elves live outside of the settlements in the forest proper, so as to further minimise the effect they would have on the state of the land and lessen any disruptions.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Elves are predominately vegetarian. It is against the culture of the elves to kill an animal or fish themselves for meaty, and so most elves live off the fruits, plants, and vegetables that they either grow themselves, forage for in the forests, or buy from the markets in each town or city. However, there isn't any cultural rules about the consumption of meat or fish; as such, elves are capble of eating meat or fish acquired through trade with the human kingdoms or that was hunted for them by their dragon companions (which are, culturally, allowed to hunt).
Biological Cycle
Elves do not experience the passing of time in the same way as humans. Their lifespans are significantly longer, several times that of humans, and their aging after reaching physical maturity is slowed. Elves only begin to grow old around the age of 500, and the duration of their elderly period lasts for 100 years, compared to the 20-30 years for humans.
Behaviour
Elves are a mostly peaceful species that get along well with the other species that inhabit the world of Zurith. They have a history of helping the humans to build their kingdoms in Aefareth, with each island chose one kingdom to integrate their bloodline into - apart from the Lyalume, the Island of Magic, which integrated bloodlines into all of the human kingdoms that weren't chosen by the other islands. However, there are a few groups that the elves are on bad terms with. The Faeries are considered the mortal enemies of the elves, as they introduced dark magic to the humans thereby introducing a destructive nature into the world. The other group is the Arcane Elves of Lyalume; this is because the Arcane Elves didn't shun the users of dark magic like the other elves did, and even took in dark magic users who were exiled or shunned from the human kingdoms. When the Island of Magic was destroyed and the surviving Arcane Elves fled to Ayuipan, later integrating themselves with the humans there, the other five elven islands made no attempts to assist them, and, to this day, do not interact with the kingdom of Ayuipan, formed by the descendants of the humans and the Arcane Elves, as a result - despite Ayuipan actively shunning any and all dark magic users now.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Elves primarily live in solitary households in order to lessen their impact on the forests of their homes. But, as a social speices, they have also formed several settlements per island, ranging from cities to towns to villages. The Elven Islands are ruled by monarchies, and each island is technically considered a kingdom, and are referred to by the unofficial names for the islands. Below the monarchy are the elven nobiliy, similar to the structure of the human kingdoms.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Elves are primarily found in the Elven Islands and they very rarely exist anywhere else, due to the potent magical energy found on the islands. However, while the elves only live on the Elven Islands, their hybrid descendants are instead found in the human kingdoms of Aefareth.
Average Intelligence
Elves are a sentient and highly intelligent species. Similar to their sensory capabilities, their intelligence is superior to that of the human species, but inferior to that of the dragons'.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Commonly recognised sensory systems for elves are vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, balance, and visceral sensation. Elves have superior senses to humans, on par with and sometimes even greater than animals, but inferior senses to those of dragons.
Civilization and Culture
History
It is unknown exactly when or how the elves came into existence, only that it happened long before the founding of Aefareth, when humans still inhabited the Old Lands, and that they descended from the ancient elemental spirits. It is theorised that they came about when the elemental spirits bred with the humans living in the Old Lands, but this theory is unproven and not even the elves have any details or records about how they came into existence other than what is commonly known.
The elves lived a mostly peaceful existence at first, even getting along well with the faeries on the few occasions that they came into contact with them. However, after several centuries of peace, this peace was disturbed by the arrival of humans on the continent later known as Aefareth. Although the Elven Islands are, geographically, not close to the continent of Aefareth, the elves were familiar with the land; it was considered by them to be sacred land, in the sense that it was home to ancient earth spirits that were the kin of those that the Earth Elves descended from. Because of this, the spirits of the land of Aefareth came to the Elves to alert them to the humans that were now occupying their land.
The Elves travelled to Aefareth and introduced themselves to the humans. They learned then that a great tragedy had befallen the Old Lands and the humans who arrived on Aefareth were one of two surviving groups from the Old Lands. They expressed their wishes to rebuild their civilisations on Aefareth and settle there, and the Elves found themselves sympathising with the humans' plight. They brought these wishes to the spirits of the land, and asked if they would grant their permission. The spirits were hesitant at first, but also sympathised with the humans' story, and so granted their permission, so long as the humans did not disrupt the land more than necessary, and paid due respects to the spirits for the damage that would inevitably be caused.
The Elves returned to the humans, and relayed to them that they were allowed to build civilisations but warned them to respect the earth and the land, or it would retaliate. As the kingdoms began to appear, the Elves were pleased to see that the humans were heeding their warnings, planting new trees for every one they cut down, and only disrupted the land where they had to. To reward them, the Elves began to provide their assistance, increasing the speed of the building exponentially, and also increasing how many replacement trees could be planted. They also offered to provide select humans with magic by integrating their bloodlines with them. The humans chosen for this integration were those that were to assume the positions of royalty in each kingdom. For five kingdoms, the elven bloodlines that were introduced were also royal, and the types of the elves in question later helped to define what those five kingdoms became known for. However, the Arcane Elves instead used noble bloodlines, and integrated these bloodlines into the royal families of the rest of the newly formed human kingdoms.
Things continued to progress in peace after this, until the faeries chose to visit Aefareth and see what was happening. They learnt that only the royals in each kingdom had magic and stirred up conflict in the nobility and commonfolk by inciting them to want magic too. Then, to mess with the elves, they soothed the conflict they started by showing the nobility and commonfolk how to use dark magic and giving them magic affinity.
The spirits of the land quickly came to the elves soon after to inform them of the humans using such destructive magic where they shoukdn't have been able to do so at all. The Elves rushed to see what was happening and, upon witnessing the situation, quickly made their presences nown to the humans. The humans were eager to show off their new powers, not knowing the true dangers of it, but the elves stressed to them that dark magic was a destructive force and too much would tear the land of Aefareth apart. Most of the new magic users agreed to give up their magic affinity after this, but some didn't want to lose their magic and so lied about having it in the first place. Later, when kingdoms were built in the remaining section of uninhabited land towards the north that disrespected the land's spirits, the spirits made good on their promise of retaliation; they turned the land into inhospitable deserts, glaciers, and wastelands, and transformed the animals that once lived there into dangerous, bloodthirsty monsters that hunted down the humans that had relocated there. The Arcane and Earth Elves, to prevent these monsters from ruining the kingdoms of the southern area that had heeded the warnings of the Elves and the spirits, erected an impassable mountain range that separated the northern section of land from the southern area.
Initially, the elves intended to bring the humans over the mountain range, back into the southern area, but they were stopped by the land's spirit, who forbade them from doing so as the humans had to 'pay for their sins'. Instead, the elves settled on a compromise with the spirits; they convinced the spirits to leave a few areas of land partially fertile and habitable for the surviving humans to build kingdoms on, so that they and their descendants would be forced to live in barely hospitable land and atone for their sins for the rest of eternity. The spirits agreed and the elves helped the surviving humans build their kingdoms, although they didn't bestow them with magic (unaware that some of them used to be dark magic users and had secretly kept their magic). In the years following,
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
580 years
Average Height
172.7 cm - 190.5 cm
Average Weight
56.4 kg - 68.6 kg
Average Physique
Elves usually have very slim bodies with very little visible muscle build, although shouldn't be mistaken for weakness. Even though elves don't physically appear strong, they possess strength far exceeding even that of the humans of Caelestis and Tuntemattomaan.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Geographic Distribution