The Elves—referred to by mortals as “High Elves,” and among themselves as “Light’s children”—comprise a remarkably ancient, stable society that has existed since 3000 BE. At one time, their territory spread across the whole of Terra’s southernmost tip, but a particularly bloody raid in 142 RE, which resulted in the death of over half of the elven population, caused the Elves to withdraw into their capital city, Lisht. It was never determined who exactly was responsible for that fateful attack; only that the raiders were mortal. Lisht has remained stalwartly closed to mortals ever since, who are allowed only onto the docks for purposes of trade.
Although some people have been known to sneer at the elven arrogance of remaining aloof in this fashion, the Elves do have their reasons. While they live extraordinarily long lives, often boasting of ages above one thousand years, the Elves have a rather peculiar system of death. They never die of old age, illness, or other “natural” deaths; however, they can be killed by violence. Should an Elf go to his final death in this way, a piece of his spirit is left over, which his next-of-kin must carry to Mother Light. In her turn, Light takes the spirit-shard and gives it to an elven couple who have expressed the desire to have a child. Only once the couple has such a spirit-shard are they able to reproduce. Thus, small parts of every elven spirit are saved and, in a way, reincarnated; and although this prevents the Elven population from ever growing too large, the system is also greatly susceptible to disruption should wide-spread violence occur.
The preservation of parts of a spirit have other implications, of course. Most notably, every newborn Elf exhibits some amount of innate talent for the skills of the deceased Elf. This, combined with the fact that Elves enjoy such long lives, allow them to develop and hone their skills more or less to perfection. It should come as no surprise, then, that many adult Elves hold extremely powerful or rare titles, such as Archmage or Grandmaster. Memories and other, more personal aspects do not seem to transfer over from Elf to Elf.
Because they were created by Mother Light, the Elves hold her in highest regard, although they tend to pay great respect to the Spirits in general. Interestingly, they have their own way of referring to the Spirits, applying a name and an epithet to each. There is some speculation among mortal scholars as to the source of the names—are they names that the Spirits themselves have used in the past? are they, in other words, the Spirits’ “true” names?—but the Elves refuse to clarify or otherwise comment on the matter, leading to some amount of frustration among those scholars. The list of elven names for the Spirits is as follows:
Lana the Capricious – Light
Gethin the Methodical – Darkness
Nazakat the Veiled – Shadow
Neith the Translucent – Water
Eade the Unyielding – Earth
Bero the Mesmerizing – Fire
Gwenlian the Fleet – Air
Iseult the Solitary – Ice
Peles the Inexorable – Magma
Jyori the Reticent – Mud
The One whose name was stricken to ash – Lightning
Another source of scholarly frustration is rooted in rumors that tell of ancient, hidden manuscripts that date back before the creation of humans. These manuscripts are supposed to contain stories from creation, tales written by the Spirits themselves, and even copies of the legendary Book of the Dead. However, no mortal has ever seen any of these manuscripts, and—as is their custom—the Elves refuse to substantiate the rumors of their existence.
Due to the sheer amount of time on their hands—in addition to their long lives, Elves do not sleep, although they do engage in a sort of mediation or trance-like state when they need to rest—Elves are well-known for their advances in art, medicine, and magic. Among other things, they are accredited with the development of ritualism and its off-shoot, rune magic.
Politically, elven society is presided over by a pharoah, who is purportedly hand-picked by Mother Light in a process that has never been made known to mortals. The pharoah is supported and advised by a council of viziers—appointed ambassadors from each of the four houses. Although the council can be very slow to reach a decision, it is known for its fairness and justness, and this fact is partially responsible for the seemingly unshakeable stability that characterizes the civilization.
Another contributing factor is, of course, that the elven lifestyle allows its populace to pursue their own particular interests. Should an unpleasant or undesirable task present itself, the Elves share responsibility for undertaking it, assigning each house to that task on a rotating basis. Thus, while everyone must do his part at some point, the rest of the time is left open to study, read, train, or other amusements.