The elves are a people apart, as they are quick to remind others. They were not the first settlers of the forests and fields, but they taught humans and dwarves and others the arts arcane and the art of civilization. The empire they founded at Thorn and in the Arbonesse, which later spread as far east as Sephaya and south to Valera, was a wonder for the ages. Its magical roads, its slim towers, and its speedy and lethal armies maintained an age of peace that lasted until a few centuries ago.
Now the elves are in retreat, and a splintered race. A few with mixed elven/human blood—the so-called elfmarked, who are dealt with in their own section—remain and can claim descent from the great elves of old, despite being as much human as elf. True elves are rarely seen, and are confined to three groups: the windrunner elves of the Rothenian steppes, who are so few in number and so reclusive that they may as well be myth; the shadow fey of the Realm of Shadow, who are discussed separately below; and the reclusive river elves of the Arbonesse, who are the strongest and wisest of the three groups.
RIVER ELVES
The river elves are what remains of the elves of Thorn, with the River King retaining only slight contact with the Domains of the Princes. The Arbonesse forest is their homeland and the river their highway, and their borders include all the land where the leaves’ shadow falls. The river elves sometimes exile one of their number to wander the world for a time (a span defined in decades), but otherwise, the other races rarely see the elves who built so many castles, roads, and cities throughout Midgard.
River elves have the traits of high elves.
ELVEN NAMES
A true elf of the Arbonesse lineage has three names. The first is a birth name given by parents, the second is a common name adopted by the elf upon maturity, and the last is a lineage name, akin to a family name among the humans but taken from a list of a few hundred great heroes of the Elflands known as the Wild Hunt, who harried the demons back to their hells. The most common lineage names include Aynwyn, Sheoloss, Kalthania, Derina, Dammung, Rexthathus, and Larentil. Elves with the same lineage name might not be related at all, which leads to confusion among humans. Elves reveal their birth names to their own kind and trusted friends, and their common name to all others.
By Dornig law, only individuals with clear elven heritage are allowed to take an elven lineage name. There is a brisk trade among up-and-coming gentry for genealogists who can trace a person’s ancestry in a way that establishes such
a link. Some of these geneologists are very creative.