Perfection Reborn (Patreon)

The elven civil war and the desolation of Argentum into the Bloodland precipitated the single most drastic change to elven culture in Quintus' history.  Where humans, dwarves, and other raced had millennia to come to terms with the loss of the Ith, in many ways the elves were cast all the way back to the breaking of the world.  All the certainty they'd lived their lives on were now cast to the many human lands, several of which had suffered attacks from the Perfection going back centuries.

For the first time, elves found themselves in direct competition with mortal races, now themselves mortal, and many deficiencies in the elven character came to light.  Elves had little resistance to disease after so long without contact with germ centers.  Elves also had difficulty learning new languages and skills.  What would take a human hours to learn would take days for an elf, and many would need decades to pick up more advanced skills.  Once obtained, elves tended to perfect their skills and retained perfect memory of details, but those traits came after years of failures.

The biggest limitation for elves, however, was sexual.  Many were ignorant of its mechanisms, and many that learned found the entire concept distasteful.  While elves are cross compatible with humans and dwarves, the off spring of both, gnomes and helves, were only compatible with each other, not elves.  As a result, though myriads of humans were willing, most elves found the prospect of helven children alienating.  Dozens of temples dedicated to the lovers sought out educating elves on the realities of reproduction.  While the population initially skewed heavily female, this imbalance would eventually correct to a two thirds female population.

Once out in the world of Quintus, elves found many different receptions.  While there were first a consorted effort to evacuate as many elves from the Bloodlands as possible, once resettled, the diaspora found itself subject to the societies of the lands they arrived in.

The nation of Guldyrr, with its long history and close proximity on the islands outside the Perfection, was a natural first stop.  Gullsport's population tripled in weeks as rafts of elves desperately crossed the straits to reach the safety of the islands.  Tens of thousands drowned, and popular folklore claims the waters were cursed in their passing.  Guldyrr, however, was simply not in any position to home millions of displaced elves.  The king of Guldyrr reached out to every nation on the shattered sea for ships and assistance.  Thousands died of starvation, disease, violence, and shock.  While native Guldyrrians and the nobility sympathized, many feared starvation of their own families.

Fortunately, the dwarven domain forwarded a massive body of wealth to pay for food to be shipped to the islands and to remove elves from it.  Boats overloaded with elves sailed to Aran, Floria, the Pash, Ventaros, and Olderune.  The king and nobility set aside some land for elves to set up villages, but many found the prospect of fishing on the sea alien and lacked boats and docks necessary.  Still many elves set themselves to the task, aided by elven aristocrats that recognized the dangers of delay or obstinance.  

For Guldyrran elves, life is as close as possible to life in the Perfection.  Many elves still speak elven in their villages, and many simply continued the roles they'd had.  By the time the diaspora dwindled, Gulldyrr's population had almost doubled.  The explosion of half elves likewise would lead to the most elven land outside the perfection.  Young elves tended to be fascinated by the ever changing and chaotic civilization around them.  Guldyrran elves often believe theirs to be the most 'true' elven culture, but often find themselves slow to change and adapt.  Traditionalist and conservative, the elves of Guldyrr are grateful to the nation for hosting them, but are largely content to live apart.

In contrast, elves that went to the nation of Aran were forced to learn fast, something few of them were keen on in the merchantile kingdom.  While many nobles struggled to adapt, wild elves and commoners found the opportunity for advancement.  Many who could parley their skills into economic wealth soon were able to carve out small enclaves and neighborhoods where less adaptive elves could survive.  These villages, built on the outskirts of larger towns, became elven communes were elvish language was taught, but in parallel with Aranish.  Elves frequently worked in human shops and would retreat to the safety of their villages.  In time, many of these would become surrounded by growing Arani cities.  To preserve their isolation, the land around these villages were turned into public parks.  This helped ingratiate the elves to their more numerous human neighbors.

Arani elves suffer many of the slow learning difficulty of their peers, but learn 'the rhythm of man' and use their long lifespan to predict and prepare rather than react.  Arani learned the vitality of purchasing barony titles to help preserve their homes from more ambitious neighbors.  As a result, many Arani elves are more comfortable around humans than most elves.  Arani are more likely to seek companionship and friendships with humans, and some tend to adopt entire families, cultivating relationships as patrons and 'family friends'.  While some claim conspiracy, Arani elves simply wait for the rythm to change again.  Humans are creatures of habit, and if you know what people will want next year, you'll be ready to give it to them, and profit.

Florian elves, in contrast, received a much more difficult welcome.  Floria had largely accepted elves in return for dwarven compensation and to attempt to rival Arani efforts.  Once in Floria, elves received little protection or assistance.  Many were driven from the cities to fend for themselves, and those in the country suffered exploitation, abuse, and persecution.  Florians accused elves of being spies, assassins, and of moral degeneracy.  This in spite of the fact that humans were far more likely to be the perpetrator than the elven victim.  Elves gathered into mobile camps for their own safety, fleeing at the first hint of a mob or soldiers.  Raken and Estlan were even less hospitable for decades, trapping elves within a hostile land.

As a result, many Florians elves organized themselves into criminal operations.  Smuggling, theft, and vice were the focus of many of their activities.  Several exotic Argentum herbs proved to be refined into a variety of drugs that proved popular with nobility.  Brothels and crime rings proved highly effective at using magic and natural stealth and grace to fleece wealth from Florian merchants.  The elven criminal cells would work together to compromise their enemies, and while many elves were not actively criminal and simply wished to live their lives, for most being an elf or helf was indistinguishable from being a criminal.  Some elves would even make efforts to pass as human, and risk harm if discovered.

Florian elves are more reserved and secretive, adapting elven into a criminal slang to elude human authorities.  Cells work to compromise aristocrats through blackmail, drug addiction, or sex to ensure protection from peasant mobs.  Elven music, art, and cuisine are kept hidden away, shown only to the most trusted of friends.  The criminal cells often cultivate long ties with human families, and while there are still occasional anti-elf purges and riots, most live a strained relationship with their human hosts.

For the elves who travelled to Ossia, the diaspora proved most shocking.  The deserts, dry lands, and savanna of the Pash was as alien to the elves of verdant Argentum as if they'd travelled to the moon.  And yet in this land of blazing days and dark nights, many elves found themselves free to invent themselves as they saw fit.  It helped that many pashas and princes studied elven as a sign of cultural distinction, aiding integration.  Another assist was that elves did not fit neatly into the social castes, and thus were able to move more freely than human families as their situation changed.  Since elves were not sworn to any one Pasha, they could travel to new towns and cities as needed.

As a result, the elves of the Pash came to integrate more fully than anywhere else in the world.  A elf could be found in the dregs of the Unwanted or serving as a concubine of a Pasha.  Since elves could never occupy the apex of political power in a city, nobles felt little worry of political intrigue; and thus many elves learned how to play the rulers of cities to their own ends.  The sexual libertine culture of the Pash helped as well, with humans more than eager to 'make friends' with elven neighbors.  Having an elven friend was a mark of societal distinction, and having an elven lover even more so.  Helves were also highly treasured as wives, lovers, and concubines.

Pashan elves tend to be the most diverse of all elves, seeking a comfortable place in a city that meets their comfort and cultivating a social network linked by business, friendship, and sex.  Elves frequently find themselves connected to many family circles simply by outliving them.  The Pashan love of magic also has encouraged many elves to maintain their magical roots and study how their immortality may yet be obtained.  While elven immigrants are often shocked by the large, open, desert vistas, they quickly find a place with the amiable population.

Ferria has a far smaller population of elves due to the Irrynian Empire's refusal to admit any elves during the diaspora.  The only sizeable population were several thousand elves admitted by the Ventaros Empire, and then mostly as a snub to their imperial rivals.  Yet these few thousand included the aristocrat Aphelia Archen, who very ardently seduced empress Contensine the second and won for her efforts the establishment of house Archen.  This title served as a foot in the door of Ventaran civilization, and the more placid cultural pace allowed elves that joined her house to adapt and find their place.  House Archen is comprised almost exclusively of elves and helven offspring, and has used longevity, beauty, and magical skill to carve a position amid the top five houses of the Empire.

While most distinct, smaller groups of elves would travel across the Riverlands to settle in Ambernathis, Lyonesse, Chalda, and Dyne.  These populations would barely break individual levels, mostly of refugees unable to stay elsewhere.  Ferrans tended to look upon elves and helves as curiosities, but inhuman.  Elves frequently were not covered by law, and many domains passed laws that would bar them from owning property on fear that elves would simply outlive human inherence.  Other places, such as Dyne, simply changed too fast for any but the most mentally adept elf to thrive in.  The few that did found positions in institutions like the Dynehouses, where it was possible to guide the institutions instead of reacting to the street.

The final home for elves was in the Kingdom of Olderune.  Though smaller by far than the other powers, Olderune had the advantage of space and a need for people to fill it.  While the Kingdom could offer less in terms of support, many elves flocked to the opportunity to establish themselves in a multitude of villages.  In was in these wilderness areas, however, that elves ran afoul the dark fae that long inhabited the land.  While the Runish had placated them, the elves had few offerings they were willing to give, and thus found themselves in increasing conflict with the psychic terrorizers.

Unlike the Runish, elves had exposure to the mind tricks of the Dream Knights, and several of that order gravitated to the region to do battle with the monsters of dream.  They were successful at toppling a vicious dream eater named The Keeper of Smiles that had driven many of the royal family to despair.  For this service, several villages were granted noble status by the monarch, cementing their place in Runish life.

Runish elves are often the most normalized of elves.  They lack the etherial timeless lifestyles of the Guldyrrian elves and the exotic distinctiveness of Ossians, and the struggle to maintain identity that the Arani elves face.  Runish elves simply live their lives according to the agrarian Runish lifestyle with a few magical embellishments.  Half elves comprise a fifth of the Runish population and there is little animosity between 'short neighbors' and 'tall neighbors.'

The elven population that has had the greatest shift was that of the drow.  Previously regarded as 'dark', 'cursed' or exotic, drow rapidly saw themselves normalized as 'elves' by human population.  The dark skin and eyes are materialistically dominant, perpetuating the trait in populations.  Most were already semi-integrated in Guldyrr, Aran, and the Pash and were critical in assisting refugees.  The elven philosopher Kitain Keilstel once gravely pronounced 'we are all drow now'.

History, however, would prove that false.  The label of drow shifted from those exiled to those who resigned themselves to stay in the Bloodlands.  The magical curses that had marked drow had warped and became mobile, and many elves remaining found themselves transformed.  Black skin and red eyes were the most common, but some of the warped spells gave red, blue, or green skin, chaotic hair and eye colors, and even occasionally fangs and claws.  These elves embraced the worst of the drow stigma, many driven mad by grief and trauma and existing by raiding and defiling their rivals and any who had fled the collapse of society.  By their efforts, any attempt to stabilize Argentum was rendered impossible for the foreseeable future, though in time elves and adventurers would come to reclaim the land.

From the apex of social perfection and isolation into a disparate and distinct people, the elven race has been forced to rapidly adapt to trial, loss, and recovery.  Through great effort, they clawed back some of the dignity lost in their flight.  They would not, however, be the only ones that would have to do so, as a mere two centuries would see the fall of the other major power in Quintus: the Dwarven Dominion.