The Elven Perfection (Patreon)

Prior to the Shattering, Elves were the Lieutenants of the Ith.  Commands were given, and the Elva went forth to make them reality.  Elves were the pinnacle of Ith fleshcraft.  Practically immortal, inherently magical, beautiful, Elves were the showdogs of the Ith's creations.  Many were treasured pets, or even consorts for truly radical or depraved Ith.  The elves, however, were a race virtually incapable of resisting the commands of their creators.  Free will was never a high priority for the Ith.

However, while many worked with the Ith and slavishly loved their creators, some worked with humans, dwarves, and other mortals and saw the harm Ith excesses caused.  Millions killed in blood sport.  Entire species created and then slaughtered for an Ith's latest fancy.  And the elves were frequently the ones tasked with the slaughtering.  Those that questioned their creators were cursed, their skin blackening, eyes turning red and so sensitive to light they lived in darkness.  And they were the lucky ones.  Others were used as host for even more terrible Ith creations.  The rest were simply slain.

Still one elf made the attempt to explain the plight of their creations to his Ith master.  The Ith nodded thoughtfully, listened to every word, and then smiled and said if he ever mentioned anything so silly again it would replace him with a more serious him, then went away.  It just so happened that that Ith was in charge of the arcane armory used to outfit some of the most violent tournaments seen.  Those keys were now in the hand of the very shaken servant who now knew only one way to stop the violence.  He passed them to the mortals, who armed themselves with weapons meant to slay dragons and attacked the Ith's heartland.

That elf, and most others, perished in the Shattering.  Of the survivors, the largest and most organized were on the Arges peninsula to the east. Shielded from the wave by a Himalayan sized mountain range, the region survived the calamity somewhat intact.  With the Ith heartlands annihilated, the elves attempted to nurse and sustain the handful of survivors, but without their gene pools, their Ith showed genetic decay.  The last of them begged the elves to ensure that such a disaster could never be repeated.  The elven Primus took this order to heart.

However, the order of the day was survival.  The innate magical ability of the elves helped them immensely from the storms, tsunami, and rain of rocks that pelted the land.  As the seas cooled and stabilized, they fortified the shores with enchantment and construction.  Within, cities were organized and food secure.  Soldiers were trained.  Arcanists and intellectuals who would determine the cause of the Shattering and how to prevent it.  And when all this was achieved, the Primus smiled and announced that it was perfect...

And the elves stopped.  At that point, every elf in every job and duty was given a place in society and a role and an identity to follow.  Routine was the norm, mandated.  If an elf died, replacements would be carefully bred to share the traits of the dead, and the child would be raised not as an individual, but to become the individual who had died.  An elf that failed to do so would be killed, or worse, exiled.

Yet to the Primus, perfection was achieved.  Whenever a human mage would dabble with piercing the barrier between the world and the infinite, elves would be dispatched to kill them.  If a city dared sponsor such research, it would be destroyed in fire or flood or disease.  If a nation pursued forbidden magic, that nation would find every hostile host and ill fate falling upon it.  Diplomacy was abandoned simply because whatever one generation promised, the next one would ignore.  Especially in regards to humans, who seemed determined to meddle.

Thus were the elves of Argentum responsible for nearly five thousand years of technological failure, plague, famine, war, and misery.  The Primus out and out wished to eliminate humanity from the face of Quintus, seeing them as the critical point of failure that lead to the fall of the Ith, but intervention by the dwarves prevented such an act.  Dwarves made it clear that should the Elves attempt such, the dwarves would unleash a magma plume under the elven homeland.  The Primus took the dwarves at their word.

However, humanity was ALWAYS a problem.  While the continent was enchanted to turn humans into animals, that enchantment ended at the sea, and Argentum had a number of large islands off shore that humans kept trying to settle.  After countless waves, the Primus was finally forced to let one group remain.  Determined to make certain they followed his rules, the Primus dispatched elves to help administrate.  These elves and their human partners grew close.  some interbred.  It's said that when the primus heard of the first helf being born, he was violently ill and only his entire court prevented him from eradicating humans entirely.

However, elves soon were acting as agents elsewhere in the world.  Despite frequent attempts to monitor and control these agents and spies, some would inevitably stray.  Those that lingered too long, or who chafed under the restrictions and left without permission, or were unable to assume their role in society, became 'dhrow'.  Literally 'excrement'.  Elves made it abundantly clear that killing this 'social waste' would earn their favor.  Despite all that, drow were able to survive and in a few places, thrive.

The Elven Perfection is hierarchical, devided into 'noble' and 'common' elves.  At the top is the Primus; eternal, immortal, and most intelligent of all.  While he is never wrong, his plans may be so marvelously intricate that lesser elves may fail in taking them out.  He dictates the weather, can reshape life and matter to suit his needs, is so intelligent he accurately predicts the future, and any order from his lips an elf must follow.  While the Primus may eat or drink, he survives off raw magic alone.  He rarely takes consorts, finding even the most beautiful and intelligent elves to be as ugly children.

Beneath him are the aristocrats.  These elves exist to provide contrarian views, differences of opinion, chaotic data, and practicalize plans.  Many assume the perfection is utterly static, but the aristocrats engage in constant high stakes struggles against each other to attempt to earn the Primus's attention.  Sex, magic, art, wealth... all are part of the great games the nobles play against each other.  This static of chaos is used to counteract the stagnation many expect to find in the Perfection.

Beneath the aristocrats are the Knights.  These elves serve many security roles in the Perfection.  Eliminating aristocrats that fall too far out of favor, quelling any disruption that threaten the Perfection, and occasionally going out to slay threats to the Perfection, these elves maintain potent tools.  They can shoot lightning at will, summon blades of moonlight, or conjure blazing auras.  All can fly and many supplement their innate magic with even more enchantments.  Knights eschew armor and clothing, using runic magic to protect themselves from harm and carrying only those magical devices that are critical to their mission.

The various knights and their power are a source of intrigue and rivalry all its own.  Storm knights fly and rain down lightning from above.  Flame knights are walking bonfires, burning any that come within arms length with their flaming coronas.  Dream knights invade the thoughts of others as they slumber, and can doom the dreamer to eternal slumber.  Death Knights, not undead themselves, are masters of necromancy and negating those who are.  There are many others.  And within each order are rivalries that are the bread and butter of aristocratic drama. 

The Sages operate below the Knights, masters of lore and information.  These individuals not only have the burden of fitting into their role, but of learning colossal amounts of knowledge.  Spells designed to transfer whole lifetimes of knowledge cause mental trauma that persists for the rest of their lives.  Sadly, exile for sages results in a complete collapse of their minds, a fate worse than death for most.  Never the less, countless sages maintain records and are ever vigilant for signs of the barrier being breached again.

Artisans occupy the next tier.  These elves are responsible for the countless goods and wonders crafted for use in the Perfection.  From bows to spells to furniture to buildings, Artisans serve as both engineer and as craftsperson.  An artesian is expected to be able to create flawless works in the style of the artesian of old.  Magical hands whisk material through the air, and every piece is treated as a unique wonder.  The idea of mass production is anathema.  Only if items are part of a set, say twelve swords for twelve knights, are such similarities tolerated.  Many artisans suffer to attempt to ply a unique style, while others leave for sabbaticals to study 'flawed' outside work.

Functionaries were the next unenviable task.  Countless hands moving around goods and doing all the menial work that kept the Perfection clicking along.  Unlike other roles, functionaries are nameless, expected to be personality-less, and are expected to execute whatever need their betters have for them.  More of a slave class than others, functionaries are invisible and vital, serving the role of messenger or courier, spy, entertainment, accompanyist, or any other job others need them to fulfill.  They wear blank masks, marked with runes that denote their duty.

Beneath the functionaries are the ranks of 'common elf'.  These elves live in villages that support the nobles in their endeavors, rarely leaving the confines of their homes.  Unlike nobles, the magic of common elves are fairly mundane; mending broken tools or pots, cleaning stains and spills, or slaying vermin.  To most common elves, the nobility may as well be another species altogether, and occasionally ferment resentment and anger at the upper class.  However, the Knights ensure that any rebellion is short lived.  Dream knights in particular are feared by commons.

While the commons are beneath the nobles, they mimic the hierarchy established by the nobility.  Mayors and village leaders replace the aristocracy.  Village guards mimic the knights.  Local wisemen and women retain village lore relentlessly.  Craftsmen try to produce the best goods they are able.  And those without specialization maintain the fields and crops to ensure none starve.  It is their sincerest of hopes to be recognized for their service and elevated into the ranks of nobility.  Those that are soon realize the realities of their ambitions.

The final elves are the wild elves.  They patrol the edges of perfection with magically uplifted animals that serve as scouts and companions.  Ironically, they enjoy the greatest freedoms in the Perfection; so long as monsters do no proliferate and so long as humans never set foot in Perfection, they are free to do as they will.  The rest of elven kind regard them as savage, lewd, and lazy; only one step above drow.  In reality the rangers and druids of the Perfection keep the peace and so long as the Primus has no complaints, they are free to execute their duties.  Some wild elves are so bold and impressive, despite their minimal innate magic, that they can be elevated to Knights.

For millennia, elves were responsible for the technological and social stagnation of Quintus.  No matter what threats the Primus made, humans would inevitably discover the barrier, and would inevitably seek a means to pierce it as the Ith attempted long ago.  But so long as the Primus and the Perfection existed, that could never happen.

And then the Primus was killed.