Elf

The elven race is one of the most ancient mortal races on Adoria. Although it is widely believed that the elves were created by the Gods, their origins still remain much of a mystery. Elves are mostly known for their spirituallity, honour and their skill with magic. As of today, the elven race is split into three main branches: The Aori, the Shadar and the Whites.



History
The races of elves we know of today are all descendants of one race, named the Kadon. The Kadon were once native to a grand isle named Ilia. On this isle, the Kadon discovered the Pillar of Light. Exposure to this Pillar´s tremendous magical energies caused the Kadon to experience a rapid evolution. Their mind and senses expanded, in favour of their body size. The Kadon learned to control and manipulate the Pillar´s magic, and found luminism. All of this made them far superior to other natives on the isle, and the Kadon decided to wipe them out. By this point, the race had changed so much in comparison to their ancenstors, that they had evolved into a new race: the Arasei.

Luminism
Because of the influence of luminism on their culture, their adaption of light magic and their strong nation, the Kadon started to call themselves the Arasei, meaning 'Children of Aras'. In early luminism, Aras was said to be the main watcher of the world, in the form of the sun. He saw all the light reached. Aota, sister of Aras, would watch over the world when Aras needed rest. Aota her power was a lot weaker, and couldn't see all. This made the night very dark. Arasei believed monsters lurked in the dark, because Aras and Aota couldn't see them there. This information might seem unnecessary, but it will be important later on.

Arasei
The Arasei, being very intelligent, constructed a fast infrastructure on the island. Population grew, and so did the commerce on the island. Over time, the Arasei discovered advanced ways of sailing and writing. This let to a cultural and intellectual boom. The Arasei quickly discovered small island around Ilia, and started inhabiting them. Natives were usually either killed or enslaved. Ilia became a fast empire. Because of the arrogant nature of the Arasei, they named their empire Re'aras, or 'Second Sun'.

Elf
Over the course of a couple hundred years, the Arasei expanded their borders further than any race had done before.

Post-ancient_Elf.jpg
The numbers of their small islands was endless, and so was their wealth. The earliest record of the word 'Elf' derrives from this time. It was used to describe their own race, in favor of Arasei. The name Arasei was now used to mostly describe the upper class.

Ulah
One day, an exploring ship discovered a rather large landmass: the land now known as Ulah. The elves were staggered by the huge size of the land, and send a large army to conquer it. Upon exploring the isle, the elves stumbled upon a lizard-like race, the drakari. These descendants from dragons had a tough skin and huge double-bladed weapons. The elven army defeated the drakari almost unscarred by presenting themselves as friendly before stabbing them in the back. One of their dirtiest tactics at the time. The elven army, being victorious, returned home. This was, until reports came in that settlers were under attack by flying, fire breathing beasts. The elves turned their fleet around, and, once again, landed on Ulah. This time encountering dragons. The fleet, armed with only minor ranged weapons, was unable to defeat the beasts. In Re'aras, better ranged weapons were quickly developed to be able to counter the dragons. This was the start of the elves their adaption with ranged weapons.



Drak'tharim
The fleet soon rearrived on Ulah. Highly trained rangers with advanced bows shot the dragons down like they were balloons. Ulah was quickly recaptured and resettled. Searching for the source of dragons, they found the landbridge between Ulah and Drak'tharim. They could see the massive drakari army gathering on the other side. A great battle erupted. The largest in elven history. Eventually the elves defeated the Drakari army and pushed landinward. They discovered a small city next to a spiraling tower of crystal, far to the south-east. Unlike Ulah, Drak'tharim was a cold, dark place. Many soldiers wanted to leave Drak'tharim to the drakari, but their general refused. The unrest under the troops made capturing this small city far harder than expected. Certain captains even turned against eachother. But the battle for this city was worth it. The tower of crystal turned out to be the Pillar of Creation, source of arcane magic.

Final Stand
After capturing the crystal pillar, the elves pushed further landinwarts. They defeated the drakari with ease, until they encountered a massive dragon: a broodmother. These ancient beasts were atleast five times as big and strong as regular dragons. After a bloody, tiring battle, one elf named Horin slew the dragon with an enchanted silver dagger. The dagger is still lost to this day. After this battle, many of the remaining drakari fled Drak'tharim. The battle became to be known as the drakari's final stand. The elves were victorious.

Whites
Elves from Re'aras soon came to colonize the continent, especially near the crystal pillar. For two generations, peace remained on the continent, and the elves settling near the pillar started to develop better magical skills and senses. Their skin became whiter, their hair became blond and their pointy ears retreated. The Arasei elves became Whites, and their capital became Arcana, city near the pillar.

Azit
Even after two hundred years, the elven army still felt the losses of the drakari's final stand. Because of the huge lost of man, the general public lost trust in the army. Together with the hugely increased borders that needed to be guarded, the empire grew weaker. The azit, natives to the continent of Azin, noticed this. They launched a huge attack on the farmlands of Ulah and easily captured it. The elven army managed to stop the azit at the landbridge between Ulah and Drak´tharim. Whites magicians created powerful runestones to conjure a magical wall to hold off the Azit. This worked, and so the two continents were no longer connected.

Aotani
The elves had been aware of the ogre empire for a long time, but never really liked them. So, when the elves noticed that a ogre province on the westcoast of Qilan was nearly unguarded, they invaded. This, ofcourse, sparked a war between the two empires. The elves their army was quickly positioned in Qilan, which made Arcana on Drak´tharim, once again, very vulnerable.

Wrath of the Drakari
Not long after the army left Arcana, a huge drakari army invaded Drak´tharim. The Whites stood alone against the overwelming numbers of the drakari. They used their advanced magics to defeat the drakari. This worked, but, as an act of revenge, the drakari general cursed the continent with dark magics. The continent grew colder. Farmlands froze and forests died. Together with a deadly disease, the Whites stood no chance. Although the drakari was, once again, pushed back to the land they came from, the elves still lost the continent of Drak´tharim.

Shadow
Legends say the place was never to be found. A lone ship, sailing through thick mists north of the elven empire, stumbled upon an unknown land. The explorer present on the ship, Tirios Mados, described, in his notebook, the land as 'The land that Aras never reached'. The crew encountered dark-skinned creatures wielding powerful, dark magics. Suprisingly, they were friendly. The creatures took the lost crew in and guided them to a pitch-dark valley. In the middle of it stood a tower of total darkness. Mados was allowed to catch some kind of black smoke, present in the valley, in a jar. They were then guided back to their ship, and provided with a map. Back home, Mados published his notebook with all the details about the journey. People started talking about the black mist. They said it was the blackest of magics. The land had to be purged in the name of Aras! A huge army was rallied. Although Mados cried out that the land was peaceful, his words were not listened to. A couple months after the founding, tens of thousands of elfs stormed the misty shores of the mysterious land. They encountered the dark creatures. Went to confront them in an marshy battlefield. In the name of Aras they charged. But, Aras left their hearths, when they felt an axe thrown in their chests. The elves had been slain! The name of Aras had not conquered! From this defeat rose an entire new ideology: Aras was not superior on the world. On Drak'tharim the elves could barely see the sun, and here on this new land the creatures wielded shadow magics. The army of Aras had been slain by it! Beaten back to their sun-coated lands. In many elves rose a respect for the shadow. The dark was superior to the light! Elves started to experiment with shadow magic. Popularity started to grow in the western side of the empire, and it quickly spreaded. The empress, a true believer in Aras, banned the practises. The public cried out, and a civil war started.