Time for a little elaboration on the nature of the Elves of Eldwan. This has changed quite a bit from their original design, and it is likely to continue its metamorphosis in the future. Whatever it is, I'll record what I understand of them now. After all, that's what a developmental diary is for.
One element of the identity of the Elves that has remained essential is the idea that the Elves are humans who did not partake of the original rebellion. As a result, they are not subject to spiritual death or bearers of a sinful nature. Their pure hearts are not easily tempted by the lies of Alero, for they hear Eleyon's will strongly and fear to disobey Eleyon's instruction, particularly after seeing the consequences that came to their siblings who rebelled.
I've come up with a reverse etymology for the word Elves, which need not be known to enjoy the story, but gives me a good excuse to call them Elves instead of coming up with another default name for them. 'ves' has been delegated the meaning of a being, an independent will. Elves is simply a combination of 'el', the descriptor of Eleyon, and 'ves'. On that note, it would be perfectly valid to call the Radiant the 'Alves', and the Fallen who repent the 'Ilves'. They are the people of Eleyon, Alero and Ilvesu respectively. A final point on the name of the Elves - it would be more accurate to pronounce the word el - ves, as two distinct syllables, instead of elvz, as you would probably be accustomed to.
The High Elves are the greater of the two groups of the Elves that result from the events of the Rebellion. They are the untarnished people who chose to leave with the Garden instead of remaining to assist the Fallen in their struggles and suffering. Because of this, their purity is the best preserved, for they have neither sin within their own hearts, or observe the consequences of sin first hand. On the other hand, the Ward Elves made the decision to stay with the Fallen out of their compassion. This second group was fewer in number, but courageous and wise beyond the average Elf, and Eleyon was pleased by their concerned love for the Fallen.
The High Elves were transported to the Far Continent, removed from the immediate reach of the Fallen. At the time of the Rebellion, the lands that were once all united as a supercontinent were struck apart, and the Far Continent was in the opposite hemisphere from the continent around the Cradle, where the Fallen dwelt.
There, they dwelt in bliss, continuing to abide by Eleyon's will and eventually reaching a level of maturity that allowed them to safely drink of the Spirit Cup, the very item that was so central in the Rebellion. The Spirit Cup was remade for the Elves because the first was tainted by the deadly dust of Ilvesu's designing. As the Elves fulfilled Eleyon's design for their lives, they become the earliest fully awakened humans who attain the state the Eleyon intended for them in the first place. This state is one where humans, while not equal to Eleyon, are like Eleyon in glory and can dwell in communion with Him while His majesty is unveiled. This is the state wherein humans are higher than the Wevel and even the Cilzhen Yel, or as we know them, the angels.
The High Elves represent society as it was meant to be. They were peaceful, harmonious, in tune with nature and most importantly, in pure fellowship with Eleyon. Free of the daily labour that the Fallen are subject to, they pursue all the higher arts of life : music, poetry, dance, worship, and care of plants and animals. Taking a cue of Genesis, the Elves were vegetarian, and in the lands under their dominion, there were no beasts or birds that devoured the flesh of another. The High Elves spread out from the Garden and out over the other lands of Eldwan during the Age of Light and the Age of Water. Under their care, the land flourishes, with all manner of animals and plants. Their cities were integrated into the natural structures of habitats they encountered, and functioned by a delicate balance of symbiotic relationships. They were the true stewards of the earth, for a guardianship of nature was one of the tasks Eleyon assigned the Evezhen, and the Elves remained true to it.
Magic is freely available to the High Elves, and this is what reduces much of the need for manual labour, and also eliminates the need for tools. Ambitious as it may be, this allows me to use the High Elves as a potential source of hominid fossils found elsewhere on the globe which are not strictly Homo sapiens. As they used magic instead of tools, it would be expected that what tools they did make which were not magical in nature were rather primitive. When the High Elves departed, they would not have left any enduring remnants of what we would recognise as advanced technology. Most of their technological genius would have been embodied in biological systems or in their magical repertoire, which would have faded without the presence of the High Elves.
The Elves do not die, at least not in the conventional sense. Their bodies are not subject to the same biological degradation of their Fallen counterparts. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Elves have 24 pairs of chromosomes instead of 23, and perhaps as a result of these additional genes, they do not grow feeble with the long count of years. Additionally their metabolism would find the fruits and seeds of plants sufficient for their nutritional needs. They would remain, in appearance and health, at an age of about 20 to 30 by normal human standards.
Nonetheless, the Elves do depart from the physical realm. As part of their progression and growth in their comprehension of the world, the Elves are given sight and control of the higher realms of energy and eventually ether. This is not a collective revelation, but rather an individual step, taken when Eleyon deems each person ready. In general, the older Elves are more advanced in their progression, but age and maturity, just as with ourselves, are not directly related. At some point, an Elf will undergo a transformation known as ascension. In this process, the primary realm of the individual changes from the realm of the body to the realm of the soul and their awareness and presence undergoes a major shift. The body of the Elf appears to die, but the soul leaves in a bright glow of light. After this, the Elf may still manifest itself in the physical realm, just as the Wevel can, but they rarely do so.
The Yegül, Oleri and Uleva, are the guardians of the Elves, while Alero and Ilvesu have their fates bound to the Fallen. As such, Oleri and Uleva largely fade out of the main course of human history, but they continued to guide the High Elves until the end of the Elvish dominions. Incidentally, this is how I'm resolving the fact that Oleri and Uleva don't appear too much in the central stories of the Ages of Light and Water.
The time of the High Elvish dominions comes to an end eventually, to give way to the dominion of the Fallen. In the Age of Rulers after the Age of Water, the Fallen are truly scattered and almost seem to swarm out over the face of Eldwan. The Elves, as pacifists, have no choice, and are commanded by Eleyon, to depart from their dominions and return to the Garden, and eventually just about all the Elves ascend and leave the physical planet of Eldwan in the care of the Fallen. The Elves had no history of violence and quite possibly, some die brutal deaths at the hands of the war-mongering Fallen.
Thus it was that as sinful humans spread out over the face of the earth, the dominions of the Elves fell and were lost, region by region, and many mass extinctions followed in the wake of this succession. The Fallen had forgotten their task as stewards of nature, and so the intricate systems that the Elves had designed quickly spun out of balance and were ended.
This conception of the High Elves helps me deal with the disappearance of other hominids, anthropogenic extinction events, and the lack of apparently advanced early technology. They represent an ideal society, not communist, not a democracy, not a monarchy, but a theocracy.
I've come up with a reverse etymology for the word Elves, which need not be known to enjoy the story, but gives me a good excuse to call them Elves instead of coming up with another default name for them. 'ves' has been delegated the meaning of a being, an independent will. Elves is simply a combination of 'el', the descriptor of Eleyon, and 'ves'. On that note, it would be perfectly valid to call the Radiant the 'Alves', and the Fallen who repent the 'Ilves'. They are the people of Eleyon, Alero and Ilvesu respectively. A final point on the name of the Elves - it would be more accurate to pronounce the word el - ves, as two distinct syllables, instead of elvz, as you would probably be accustomed to.
The High Elves are the greater of the two groups of the Elves that result from the events of the Rebellion. They are the untarnished people who chose to leave with the Garden instead of remaining to assist the Fallen in their struggles and suffering. Because of this, their purity is the best preserved, for they have neither sin within their own hearts, or observe the consequences of sin first hand. On the other hand, the Ward Elves made the decision to stay with the Fallen out of their compassion. This second group was fewer in number, but courageous and wise beyond the average Elf, and Eleyon was pleased by their concerned love for the Fallen.
The High Elves were transported to the Far Continent, removed from the immediate reach of the Fallen. At the time of the Rebellion, the lands that were once all united as a supercontinent were struck apart, and the Far Continent was in the opposite hemisphere from the continent around the Cradle, where the Fallen dwelt.
There, they dwelt in bliss, continuing to abide by Eleyon's will and eventually reaching a level of maturity that allowed them to safely drink of the Spirit Cup, the very item that was so central in the Rebellion. The Spirit Cup was remade for the Elves because the first was tainted by the deadly dust of Ilvesu's designing. As the Elves fulfilled Eleyon's design for their lives, they become the earliest fully awakened humans who attain the state the Eleyon intended for them in the first place. This state is one where humans, while not equal to Eleyon, are like Eleyon in glory and can dwell in communion with Him while His majesty is unveiled. This is the state wherein humans are higher than the Wevel and even the Cilzhen Yel, or as we know them, the angels.
The High Elves represent society as it was meant to be. They were peaceful, harmonious, in tune with nature and most importantly, in pure fellowship with Eleyon. Free of the daily labour that the Fallen are subject to, they pursue all the higher arts of life : music, poetry, dance, worship, and care of plants and animals. Taking a cue of Genesis, the Elves were vegetarian, and in the lands under their dominion, there were no beasts or birds that devoured the flesh of another. The High Elves spread out from the Garden and out over the other lands of Eldwan during the Age of Light and the Age of Water. Under their care, the land flourishes, with all manner of animals and plants. Their cities were integrated into the natural structures of habitats they encountered, and functioned by a delicate balance of symbiotic relationships. They were the true stewards of the earth, for a guardianship of nature was one of the tasks Eleyon assigned the Evezhen, and the Elves remained true to it.
Magic is freely available to the High Elves, and this is what reduces much of the need for manual labour, and also eliminates the need for tools. Ambitious as it may be, this allows me to use the High Elves as a potential source of hominid fossils found elsewhere on the globe which are not strictly Homo sapiens. As they used magic instead of tools, it would be expected that what tools they did make which were not magical in nature were rather primitive. When the High Elves departed, they would not have left any enduring remnants of what we would recognise as advanced technology. Most of their technological genius would have been embodied in biological systems or in their magical repertoire, which would have faded without the presence of the High Elves.
The Elves do not die, at least not in the conventional sense. Their bodies are not subject to the same biological degradation of their Fallen counterparts. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Elves have 24 pairs of chromosomes instead of 23, and perhaps as a result of these additional genes, they do not grow feeble with the long count of years. Additionally their metabolism would find the fruits and seeds of plants sufficient for their nutritional needs. They would remain, in appearance and health, at an age of about 20 to 30 by normal human standards.
Nonetheless, the Elves do depart from the physical realm. As part of their progression and growth in their comprehension of the world, the Elves are given sight and control of the higher realms of energy and eventually ether. This is not a collective revelation, but rather an individual step, taken when Eleyon deems each person ready. In general, the older Elves are more advanced in their progression, but age and maturity, just as with ourselves, are not directly related. At some point, an Elf will undergo a transformation known as ascension. In this process, the primary realm of the individual changes from the realm of the body to the realm of the soul and their awareness and presence undergoes a major shift. The body of the Elf appears to die, but the soul leaves in a bright glow of light. After this, the Elf may still manifest itself in the physical realm, just as the Wevel can, but they rarely do so.
The Yegül, Oleri and Uleva, are the guardians of the Elves, while Alero and Ilvesu have their fates bound to the Fallen. As such, Oleri and Uleva largely fade out of the main course of human history, but they continued to guide the High Elves until the end of the Elvish dominions. Incidentally, this is how I'm resolving the fact that Oleri and Uleva don't appear too much in the central stories of the Ages of Light and Water.
The time of the High Elvish dominions comes to an end eventually, to give way to the dominion of the Fallen. In the Age of Rulers after the Age of Water, the Fallen are truly scattered and almost seem to swarm out over the face of Eldwan. The Elves, as pacifists, have no choice, and are commanded by Eleyon, to depart from their dominions and return to the Garden, and eventually just about all the Elves ascend and leave the physical planet of Eldwan in the care of the Fallen. The Elves had no history of violence and quite possibly, some die brutal deaths at the hands of the war-mongering Fallen.
Thus it was that as sinful humans spread out over the face of the earth, the dominions of the Elves fell and were lost, region by region, and many mass extinctions followed in the wake of this succession. The Fallen had forgotten their task as stewards of nature, and so the intricate systems that the Elves had designed quickly spun out of balance and were ended.
This conception of the High Elves helps me deal with the disappearance of other hominids, anthropogenic extinction events, and the lack of apparently advanced early technology. They represent an ideal society, not communist, not a democracy, not a monarchy, but a theocracy.
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