Elves
There are no beings save for the Lysi themselves spoken of with greater reverence than the Oli Kuelve, the Elves. They are believed to have been the first race not born directly from the gods to awaken upon Oliel, and the closest of all peoples to the creative works of the Lysi themselves. Unlike the Faekind, whose origins lie in the Harmonic Overtones of the Divine Chorus, the Oli Kuelve arose from the refraction and reflection of divine radiance after it had passed through and shone upon the beauty of Oliel itself. Thus they are not merely creatures of light, but of light transformed through creation.
Contents
1. Elven Foundations
1.1 The Subtle Fire
1.2 Elven Nature
2. The Elven Realm
2.1 Kuepothys
2.2 Vaethyriel
3. Elf Magic
4. Time on Oliel
4.1 A Note on Physiology
4.2 Departure from Oliel
The Subtle Fire
The Subtle Fire is neither the fierce flame of Ze-Nyt's own heart nor the consuming fires known to mortals. It is divine radiance returned upon itself after passing through the beauty of Oliel. Reflected off of rock and tree, and refracted through rivers and clouds and crystals. This divine light became a gentler sort. The Oli Kuelve are living vessels of this Subtle Fire, and through it perceive creation as no other mortal folk can.
Elven Nature
To an Elf, every object is but one visible expression of a far greater pattern whose hidden relationships stretch throughout all creation. Where a human sees a tree, an Elf simultaneously perceives the branching geometry that shaped it, the waters that nourished it, the celestial cycles governing its growth, the harmony by which it lives, and the countless relationships that bind it to every living thing around it. To them, the tree is not merely an object but a visible expression of a far greater pattern. They perceive recurring geometries woven throughout creation itself: in patterns within rivers, leaves, stars, etc. that reveal the hidden architecture by which Oliel is sustained. The Oli Kuelve are the Subtle Fire made flesh. They are its living expression as well as are able to wield it.
Elves peer into the deeper aspects of the natural world and down to the fundamental elements that drive reality. They perceive the hidden geometries already present within creation and gently persuade those patterns to assume another expression. To Human observers these acts appear miraculous, yet the Elves themselves regard them as little different from redirecting the course of a stream.
Kuepothys
Kuepothys is a realm made from fractals and stardust where the Oli Kuelve reside. The realm is said to be bright and heavenly. This realm is different from that of Aurínvascil, where the gods reside in their halls of starlight. Kuepothys, the Realm of Subtle Fire, is a place of peculiar resonance where those born out of the First Light of the Primordial, Ze-Nyt live and thrive. A realm where djinn and firebirds and other higher spirits come from.
The Elves have hidden away their kingdom of Vaethyriel in this realm.
The Realm of Subtle Fire
Vaethyriel is the elven kingdom within Kuepothys said to be created from crystalline towers, and floating spires all set within natural grandeur of endless iridescent skies. Imagine if Escher designed Rivendell; Its towers possessed no true corners; Stairways returned to themselves without ever turning; Windows looked outward upon distant stars yet inward upon the same room; Crystal spires divided sunlight into living rainbows that drifted like birds through the city; Entire districts slowly rotated around one another in harmonies too gradual for mortal eyes to perceive.
Vaethyriel
An Elf does not regard magic as the imposition of will upon creation, but as the gentle restoration of creation’s hidden order. They unfold colors hidden within ordinary radiance. They restore flesh to the harmonious pattern it possessed before injury. They encourage existing matter to become another part of its nature, thereby transforming the thing. Even movement itself may be altered, not by force, but by reshaping the invisible relationships that govern motion.
Elves can see the mathematical patterns that make up reality, they have learned to bend them around themselves, and can create beams of light and rearrange light how they wish, though to an extent. More powerful Elves learn to alter the motions of living things by reshaping the hidden harmonies governing movement itself. The eldest Elves are said to establish lattices of living light through which creation briefly accepts another possibility. Within these sacred geometries distance may fold upon itself, gravity may forget its direction, wounds may be undone, and impossible architecture becomes momentarily natural. As one can imagine, Elves are considered the most powerful beings under the gods and their children, the Vaelhyria and Morroughs.
Realizing that the Ari Umani could not endure the full brilliance of the Subtle Fire, the Lysi granted the Oli Kuelve a gentler appearance through which they might walk among mortals. Though this guise resembles a strikingly beautiful humanoid, it is only an accommodation to mortal perception. Their true forms remain beyond ordinary sight, glimpsed only as impossible geometries, shifting radiance, and living refractions of light. Their eyes glow like bioluminescent spheres. They don’t often leave footprints. And on rare occasions, they appear older and younger simultaneously.
A Note on Physiology
Unlike the rounded ears of Humans and Thraelli, the tapering ears of the Oscil Feiyu'tse and the Oli Kuelve are not merely organs of hearing but living instruments of resonance. Their elongated form is a physical adaptation by which they perceive the subtler harmonies woven throughout creation. More than simple ears, they are refractive structures of living flesh, shaped according to the sacred geometries that govern the Divine Chorus itself. Their graceful curves recall both the rising tongue of a flame and the crystalline pathways through which light is divided into countless colors.
Though differing greatly in origin, both peoples naturally perceive aspects of the Divine Chorus beyond mortal comprehension. The pointed ears of the Faekind attune them to the Harmonic Overtones of the Song, allowing them to sense beauty, symbolism, emotion, and the countless echoes that accompany creation. Their ears are therefore pointed, yet comparatively short, reflecting their affinity for resonance rather than refraction.
The ears of the Oli Kuelve are longer and more pronounced still. Born from the Subtle Fire, the Elves perceive not merely the Song itself, but the innumerable refractions hidden within every note. Their ears are among the many living geometries through which the Subtle Fire flows, allowing them to perceive relationships of light, harmony, motion, and form that remain forever beyond mortal understanding. To an Elf, these structures are as much a means of perceiving the architecture of reality as Human eyes are for seeing light.
Departure from Oliel
For more than eight centuries, no verified sighting of an Elf has been recorded anywhere upon Patalia. The prevailing theories differ greatly. Some maintain that the Oli Kuelve foresaw the coming of mortality and withdrew before its sorrow could touch them. Others contend that they departed only after Humanity inherited stewardship of Oliel, believing their own age had come to its proper conclusion. A minority insist the Elves never vanished at all, but merely ceased to reveal themselves except under circumstances of extraordinary need. Yet their works endure. Artefacts, ruins, art and music all remain in the Human world.