History and Language of Dark Elves (lecture)

This lecture was given at the Faendryl Enclave symposium on 8/9/5120. It is a synthesis of many of the documents and in-game locations. It makes some minor embellishments or extrapolations, such as leaning into how GMs have used real-world languages like Gaelic and Old English and Latin. There are a few throwback references to archaic lore, but those are not important. This was shortly after the Dark Elf restrictions were removed from inns in Ta'Illistim, but before the removal of the papers system in Ta'Vaalor. The gist is the character is arguing the term "dark elves" has a religious dimension in the human languages that mixes with southern racism, and that the term "dark elves" in elven is an ideological condemnation rooted in concepts of chaos, using what is known of the ancient elven languages.

[Alabaster Spire, Library]
The spacious room is crowned by a high, vaulted ceiling of lapis lazuli tiles traced with silver lines, its intricate patterns echoing those of the mosaic floor. Towering bookcases and armaria line the walls, with champagne silk-covered divans positioned near each. Four pillars, carved to resemble sturdy lor trees, stand guard over the large, rectangular table and velvet-padded chairs in the center of the room. You also see an arboreal alabaster-set archway, a miniature encaustic portrait and a gilded manuscript page.

You see Xorus Kul'shin the Warlock.
He appears to be a Dark Elf.
He is tall and has a gaunt frame. He has scintillating Eye-of-Koar emeralds for eyes and dark skin. He has shoulder length, flowing silver hair. He has a black leather mask contorted into the visage of a vruul over his face and a spider-shaped birthmark on his wrist.
He has old battle scars on his left leg, an old battle scar across his chest, an old battle scar across his back, and old battle scars on his right leg.
He is holding a glass of dry Rhoska-Tor merlot in his right hand and a black vruul-hide tome in his left hand.
He is wearing a shadowy black hood, an ora-chained dark obelisk crystal embellished with an attractive Scalu symbol design, a high-collared black leather coat, a fragrant white lily, a black vruul skin button with a three-lobed burning eye reading, "Obey Xorus", a veniom bound vruul skin weapon harness inlaid with urglaes fangs, a xenium-threaded backpack, some dark double leather, a hammered white gold armcuff, some blackened glaes vambraces, a reticulated silver bracelet, a pair of vaalin-runed black silk casting gloves, a dark glaes band, a twisted black faenor ring, a carmine and jet spidersilk bag, an ebon suede pouch with sunstone-beaded drawstrings, a gold-trimmed xenium scabbard, a pair of loose stygian black leather trousers, a tiny xenium stitched ankle sheath attached with small razern-etched bells, and some ebon vruul leather boots with blackened ora straps.

Xorus says, "I suppose I should begin."

Xorus says, "As you know I am, amongst more exotic things, a philologist. The study of the history of languages and written texts, especially those that are very ancient."

Xorus says, "Those that were written in now dead or extinct languages, or dialects that have become too archaic to understand without effort."

Xorus says, "This is related to my more special interests in the Age of Darkness, and I spoke here last year on the esoteric branch of occult philology."

Xorus says, "Tonight I will discuss the term 'dark elves', so-called in Common, and its historical meaning in various languages."

Xorus says, "Which in turn involves speaking on the history that shaped the various languages of the continent."

Xorus says, "I will try to be more brief than the history itself, but I make no promises on this point."

Xorus says, "Since we are holding this lecture in Common, I will begin with the human languages."

Xorus says, "What is now called 'Common' is dominated by the Tamzyrr dialect, primarily a human tongue, that evolved from the broader Kannalan language family."

Xorus says, "The branch we call 'Kannalan' is more specifically the one that was dominant in the Kannalan Empire. It was the 'common' of its period."

Xorus says, "These languages are relatively difficult to learn, having been seriously impacted by the languages of others."

Xorus says, "Common has something like twenty vowel sounds represented by only five vowel characters."

Xorus says, "The imperial 'claymore', for instance, comes from the reiver 'claidhmore'."

Xorus says, "Claidhmore is, unsurprisingly, far more common in the north."

Xorus says, "But this word is from a very different language family."

Xorus says, "There are remnants of the ancestral proto-language of the Kannalan family in the County of Torre, once the western port of the Kannalan Empire, which is quite a bit older than the liturgical language now called 'elder Kannalan'."

Xorus says, "When the Kannalan Empire fell a thousand years ago, we merely called it 'Kannalan', as its 'elder' tongue was that much older."

Xorus wryly says, "This is the folly of letting the mortal races name their own languages."

Xorus says, "It is not quite the same as the dialect that became Common. 'Yfluo' in Torre would have been 'Yfel' in Tamzyrr."

Xorus says, "Though to be clear, this was tens of thousands of years ago, long before 'Torre' and 'Tamzyrr'."

Xorus says, "It is not like the Kannalan Empire. This was a long time ago."

Xorus says, "Supposedly it was the kingdom of humans whose fall gave rise to Arachne and the Huntress."

Xorus says, "'Hite ripane heahchynig', as they say in Kannalan, 'she reaped the King'."

Xorus says, "But it is very rare to have surviving fragments of written language in the westlands from that far back into the Age of Chaos."

Xorus says, "The Mages of the Citadel believed the kingdom was even older, in the time of the Elven Empire, hidden under the grace of an Arkati until they grew too bold."

Xorus says, "When the seas were not as high as they are now, and for that reason, most of the ruins of its coastal settlements are now under water."

Xorus says, "One such example that survives is an astrolabe that was found on the roof of the Stone Eye building in River's Rest."

Xorus says, "Or rather, the roof itself was made into an astrolabe, built on top of far more ancient carvings."

Xorus says, "To give you a sense of its flavor, on the edge was written 'Sceewian pae sterroan and hit cnaewe se garsecs and saes'."

Xorus says, "This writing is thousands of years old, but is recognizably an ancestor of Kannalan."

Xorus says, "There is also an ancient throne nearby with writing from the same period."

Xorus says, "Now, not all human languages are descended from this language, and certainly not the non-human languages."

Xorus says, "Of the non-human languages, there are other histories outside the main thread of the political drama of the continent, along with their various implicit biases regarding morality."

Xorus says, "The Krolgeh 'pritzkra' only conveys a literal lack of illumination, while the Aelotoi 'dyre' for 'dark' is related to 'dyrkha' which is their word for 'hate'."

Xorus says, "But the Aelotoi have unrelated words to represent 'blood traitors', which usually refers to extreme individual selfishness."

Xorus says, "'Dyre elves' to the Aelotoi would speak more to the attitudes of elves toward other elves."

Xorus says, "Aelotian has special interest to philologists because any relation to the languages of this world necessarily dates back deep into the Age of Darkness."

Xorus says, "Dwarves obviously have no issue with darkness, but 'dark elves' are still elves, which is by far the primary consideration for them."

Xorus says, "They do not share quite the same prejudices as our cousins, who often omit the rest of Rhak Toram's famous quote from Maelshyve."

Xorus quotes, "I don't care what them other folks thought. I thank Eonak for them red elves and their demons!"

Xorus smirks.

Shiril chuckles.

Ysharra says, "Eonak had precious little to do with it, but..."

Xorus says, "Giantmen and halflings were major influences on the Kannalan language, which makes them inextricable from speaking of the human languages."

Xorus says, "The Grot'karesh giantmen also tend to be obsessed with guarding against Maelshyve, which keeps our Armata in good faith with them."

Xorus says, "Paradis halflings hold little special contempt for 'dark elves', perhaps because the horror of their ancestors at demonic summoning was blamed on elves in general, and the Faendryl were not regarded as 'dark elves' in that period."

Xorus says, "Halflings of the east have a much greater hatred of House Ardenai. Who exterminated their ponies with sorcery a few centuries after the Undead War."

Xorus says, "This is something of a strange grudge for such a short-lived race, considering it happened twenty thousand years ago."

Xorus says, "But Icemule in the modern age is, nevertheless, more open to sorcery and even the demonic than most territories."

Xorus says, "Gnomes are banned from Ta'Faendryl by Patriarchal decree, but they would surely come if they were allowed."

Xorus says, "Orcs and trolls have traditionally spoken whatever was the contemporary common of the west in their own garbled dialects."

Xorus says, "River's Rest is thought to have been bastardized from 'rhee v'reshka', an old trollish phrase meaning 'turtle egg'."

Xorus says, "But this reflects the troll tongue of millennia ago. Those words are incomprehensible in troll today."

Xorus says, "Grimswarm have no dislike of the 'dark', in general, and they have even been known to horde for 'dark elven' summoners."

Xorus says, "The various kinds of goblins speak common as well, but they are much more well spoken than orcs and trolls."

Xorus says, "Goblins are also wont to mock the idea they should be scared of 'dark elves'."

Xorus says, "Whatever tongues these races once spoke are now extinct."

Xorus says, "The struggles for power in the mountains are ill-recorded in the surface empires, and no great effort has ever gone into understanding it when such forces spill over."

Xorus says, "The non-human languages other than the elven languages, in the end, are thus of little interest for the subject of 'dark elves'."

Xorus says, "Which brings us back to the human language families and the extinct language found around River's Rest."

Xorus says, "What the human reivers speak is mostly not from the same language family as the Torre ruins, though the reivers of Luinne Bheinn do have their own dialect of common descended from it."

Xorus says, "It is thought this ancient kingdom in what is now Torre was their ancestral land before the krolvin made reivers of them."

Xorus says, "Most of them travelled the seas to hunt down a terrible primordial 'evil' they had unleashed after the fall of that first kingdom, and eventually established a new kingdom of some kind on a continent far to the southwest."

Xorus says, "When this next kingdom fell to the krolvin and they were scattered, becoming reivers, they must have imported a foreign language family back to Elanith."

Xorus says, "We see examples of it here in the far north. Aillidh Brae means something like 'beautiful upland slope' or 'hill', Luinne Bheinn means something like 'mountain of melody'."

Xorus says, "Dubh Brugh has intimations of a 'dark palace' or mound of the fey, which would encode within it mythic echoes of banshees and Despana."

Xorus says, "Dubh is the reiver word for 'darkness', but this is a mythology of the underworld, with its literal darkness."

Xorus says, "This would be the sense of 'dark elves' if they were to say those words in their language."

Xorus says, "The mythical element informing its meaning is otherworldly magic, and 'dark elves' would be those who mastered the bainsidhe queen."

Xorus says, "The religion of their church, holding its own natural sympathy, reflects the much later myth of regaining lost lands."

Xorus says, "This is ultimately a syncretism of fey otherworlds, eternal lands across the western sea, and fierce struggles against the krolvin."

Xorus says, "But reivers embrace 'eye for an eye', making themselves kin to chaos. This is the very antithesis of elven mythos."

Xorus says, "It is a subconscious matter of mythemes and the subtle influence languages have on thoughts."

Xorus says, "The prejudices that shape the prejudices."

Xorus says, "Dubh is not the mythical sense of 'dark' in the Kannalan language family, and that profoundly impacts their ideals of the world."

Xorus says, "I do not pretend to be a fluent speaker of all languages. That is not necessary for their study."

Xorus says, "It has been centuries since I was last fluent in the Kannalan dialects."

Xorus says, "But this astrolabe in Torre would be roughly translated as 'Look to the stars and it knows the ocean and seas', which makes prodigious sense, because it was found near the coast."

Xorus repeats, "Sceewian pae sterroan and hit cnaewe se garsecs and saes."

Xorus says, "If you listened closely you may have recognized by ear some words as ancestral to Common. Sterroan is 'stars', hit is 'it', and saes is 'seas'."

Xorus says, "Other examples are misleading, such as 'north' meaning 'left', where the cardinal direction 'north' is left of the rising sun."

Xorus says, "But 'dunder' is 'under', 'yfel' is 'evil', and 'and' is 'and'. Even 'bladderwrack' survives as a rare word."

Xorus says, "Yfel, as we will see, is the word that matters. The darkness of stains on the soul."

Xorus says, "Ubl is a close cousin of Yfel. It is unsurprisingly the name of a city just southwest of Tamzyrr."

Xorus says, "The krolvin are certainly 'yfluo'. But they are not, perhaps, 'yfel' or 'ubl'."

Xorus says, "The reivers in their 'lowland' language do have a descendant of 'yfluo'. This impacted various regional accents, typically near the mountains."

Xorus says, "The Barony of Dragach is the most prominent example, and of course, we see some influence on migratory dwarves and giantmen."

Xorus says, "What the reivers say in this tongue is still mostly intelligible if you are fluent in the imperial dialect."

Xorus says, "For example, the lowlander proverb: 'Keep yer ain fish-guts tae yer ain seamaws.'."

Xorus says, "The meaning of this is clear, even if 'gull' is only grasped by context."

Xorus says, "It is their 'highland' language that is utterly foreign. 'A' bhiast as mutha ag ithe na beiste as lugha.'."

Xorus says, "This is a similar proverb in the highlander tongue about how big fishes eat small fishes."

Xorus says, "The highland language is where the word 'claidhmore' originated."

Xorus says, "It means, in the most literal way, 'big sword'."

Xorus says, "The early language of western Elanith preserved in those Torren ruins branched into multiple dialects and collided with other languages in various parts of the continent."

Xorus says, "As far north as what is now Vornavis, from the dwarven 'vorn ahvis' which means something like 'high sanctuary' or 'high tomb', we see distant relatives of the southern tongues."

Xorus glances at Alisaire.

Alisaire smiles pleasantly.

Xorus says, "The terms Kaskara Zahar and Cascade Taehhar were once vernacular ways of saying 'Cascade of Tears'."

Alisaire mildly remarks, "And they make for excellent views from one's patio."

Xorus says, "This is because of refugees from Ziristal a millennium ago, which was the northernmost kingdom of the Kannalan Empire."

Xorus says, "There were also the dwarves of the north, who had a long history in the mountains."

Xorus says, "There were dwarven monuments next to a bust of the giantman king Telimnar, for example, once found in a cavern near what is called Stoneharrow Swale."

Xorus says, "There are even runes from the dead dwarven language of Vesknot on what is now called Melgorehn's Reach."

Xorus says, "The Grantok dwarves called it Eonak's Reach. It was built by neither Melgorehn nor Eonak."

Xorus says, "This would have been something like eight thousand years ago. Give or take."

Xorus says, "The Dragonsclaw mountains and many of the local words are debasements of a now dead pidgin dialect of common called Seoltang."

Xorus says, "Those mountains with 'toph' suffixes were once 'toth', which unsurprisingly, is the Seoltang for 'spire' or 'mountain'."

Xorus says, "Sentoph was once known as 'Smatoth', where 'sma' has ultimate roots in the common 'small'."

Xorus says, "'Smastan' also comes from Seoltang. There is a rare kind of smastan berry in the north that shrinks the people who eat it."

Juspera mouths, "Forever?"

Xorus says, "There are other vestiges in this region, owing to its historical isolation, including fragments of Old Troll."

Speaking to Juspera, Xorus says, "Only for a few seconds."

Juspera nods.

Xorus says, "But this was not the only region of the west to be so insulated."

Xorus says, "In the Sea of Fire the pre-Kannalan tribes developed the Tehir dialects, which are more gendered than Common, but it is to a large extent the same language as the imperial dialect only pronounced very differently."

Xorus says, "It is thought that the overlap of closely related Kannalan languages in the south caused most of the inflections to be lost from Common."

Xorus says, "The Tehir were instead isolated for many centuries. Their branch of the language shares idioms, but it has others of its own, or sometimes uses those idioms to the exclusion of other words."

Xorus says, "Tzou Lekem is what the Tehir call Lornon exclusively, which is rare, as 'Lornon' is a very ancient surviving word found recognizably in most cultures."

Xorus says, "It is truly an idiom that in the imperial dialect would be pronounced 'shadow moon'. Lornon is sometimes called 'The Shadow' in Common."

Alosaka says, "Lornon was universal, I thought."

Xorus says, "This is mostly an association with metaphorical darkness, for the Tehir perhaps the Luukosian history with Bir Mahallah."

Xorus says, "The Tehir superstitions involve its new phase, when it is called the 'dark moon'. This is the mystical conflation of darkness and evil."

Xorus says, "This is consistent with Tehir prejudices against sorcery, which is very much associated with notions of 'darkness'."

Xorus says, "Lornon is truly more of a pale grey because of its clouds. If that bright contrast did not exist, 'shadows' would have no sense to it."

Xorus says, "It is thought to have a dark surface, but this is presumptive, as it is so mist shrouded it is also called 'The Faceless'."

Speaking to Xorus, Xanthium says, "That almost sounds like a line of a poem..."

Xorus says, "Obviously, once a year Lornon turns bloody red, and terrible things happen."

Xorus says, "Yet it is called 'The Dark Moon' rather than 'The Blood Moon'."

Xorus says, "Similarly the Tehir idiom for Liabo is Ufura, which is their pronunciation of 'ivory', and Tilaok is Zlo, which is how they pronounce 'small'."

Xorus says, "Though it is more like 'sma' as their dialect has a glottal stop where the elongated 'll' would be in the common dialect."

Xorus says, "Notice the similarity with the northern dialect of Seoltang, where 'sma' is pronounced as it would be in Common."

Xorus says, "'The Ivory' is a Common idiom for Liabo as well, but 'Small' for Tilaok is uniquely Tehir."

Xorus says, "In contrast to these human words, Liabo and Lornon are impossibly ancient, and their literal meaning is a matter of speculative reconstruction."

Xorus says, "In my own studies of the Age of Darkness, I would suggest Liabo meant 'smooth' like plaster, while the root of Lornon meant 'lonely'."

Xorus says, "There is no certainty in this as written records did not exist before the early Elven Empire."

Xorus says, "This would have been in a time long before the rise of civilization."

Xorus says, "Bir Mahallah itself, incidentally, is not Tehir. The words must be a survival from the nameless older civilization who built the great black monoliths in the Sea of Fire."

Lylia asks, "'Loorn' in Iruaric, yes? Or is there a glottal stop, lo'orn?"

Speaking to Lylia, Xorus says, "That is my speculation."

Xorus says, "The Doom of Bir Mahallah is blamed on 'dark magic' and represents the core of the Tehir superstitions against 'the dark arts'."

Xorus says, "In the south there are other descendants of pre-Kannalan tribes, such as the Quladdim, who are difficult to understand by others in that region who still speak Kannalan."

Xorus says, "Which is why the Wizardwaste is known in those parts as Ba'Lathon, meaning 'Land in Pain' in the elder Kannalan dialect."

Xorus says, "Quladdim are also superstitious of sorcery, but living in the Wizardwaste, we may concede it is with some reason."

Xorus wryly says, "Now that we have covered the memoirs of my youth, we can speak of those nasty things they used to call me..."

Xanthium flashes a quick grin at Xorus.

Xorus says, "The Kannalan Empire was what would be considered a loose alliance of races, which then tore itself apart along racial lines, and ultimately ended in human supremacy."

Xorus says, "It was mostly comprised of humans, halflings, and giantmen. Withycombe gnomes were also present from very early in their own hidden fashion."

Xorus says, "There were elves as well, but not many, not enough to be powerful. Expatriate populations descended from the Elven Nations."

Xorus says, "There were a number of kingdoms within the Kannalan Empire. The Kingdom of Elanith in what was then River's Rest, the Kingdom of Dunemire in what is now Bourth."

Xorus says, "The latter was the primary source of the utopians who fled the collapsing empire and founded the ill-fated Kingdom of Reim."

Xorus says, "Reim was a truly mixed society. Unlike the Kannalan Empire. Which was more of a suspension of oil and water."

Xorus says, "It was exacerbated by an onslaught of hordes of 'barbarians' and orcs, trolls, what they call 'humanoids', and then later krolvin as well as more sorcerous forces."

Xorus says, "With the dissolution of the Empire there were giantmen invaders upon the remaining squabbling members of the Kannalan trading alliance."

Xorus says, "The Sunfist compact with the dwarves now precluded wars that might otherwise have taken place in the mountains."

Xorus says, "To be blunt, there were once giantman cities in the west, and this is why they no longer exist."

Xorus says, "The collapse of the empire was very sudden and it happened for a reason."

Xorus says, "It was the Highmen and Black Fang tribes who made that truce, which turned into an alliance, and it was the Highmen manor lords who ruled the Kingdom of Dunemire."

Xorus says, "Whose capital Kedshold was one of the few cities to survive the fall, until it was later burned to the ground by Empress Selantha Anodheles."

Xorus says, "The various ogres, hobgoblins, orcs, trolls and so on, had suddenly found it more difficult to pillage inside of the mountains."

Xorus says, "The wider context was thus the shift in balances of power that led to hordes out of the mountains and later giantmen and human clans marauding in the south."

Xorus says, "Indeed, there are some stark similarities between the reiver and giantman cultures, and some of this undoubtedly spilled back to the dwarves."

Xorus says, "These invaders drove the human refugees to settle around the southwestern cities, which then made those independent cities powerful."

Xorus says, "Tamzyrr chief among them. Which would eventually make its language become dominant."

Xorus says, "The sylvan elves of Yuriqen in the far north had, by the time of the late Kannalan Empire, already isolated themselves behind a great barrier. Which has now partly failed in the neighboring Red Forest."

Xorus says, "Admittedly they were sieged by a wandering Faendryl sorcerer they call Myrdanian, so Yuriqen likely now holds similar prejudices as our eastern cousins."

Xorus says, "Age old Veng no longer exists, nor does the northernmost cavern city, Ziristal. The Citadel of the Kingdom of Elanith eventually fell."

Xorus says, "In time so did Kedshold and Gor'nustre, and a few centuries later, Toullaire followed."

Xorus says, "These were the only three cities that had survived the Kannalan Empire."

Xorus says, "The Kingdom of Torre was founded two centuries after the Citadel fell, and was not conquered by Selantha, who was struggling until her death to conquer the Kingdom of Hendor."

Xorus says, "The Kingdom of Torre was not annexed for another century, and the Kingdom of Hendor not until two centuries after Torre."

Xorus says, "Krestle in Bourth was built on the ruins of Kedshold, and Immuron in Honneland replaced Gor'nustre."

Xorus says, "River's Rest was built, of course, on the ruins of River's Rest."

Xorus says, "Toullaire was under the old banner of Chastonia by the time of its destruction, having surrendered in the birth of the Turamzzyrian Empire."

Xorus says, "It is now a magnificent and dangerous crater in a wasteland surrounded by endless mana storms."

Xorus says, "Six hundred years after the fall, these were the final death throes of Kannal."

Xorus asks, "What, then, of Turamzzyr?"

Xorus says, "The expansionism of Tamzyrr had driven the non-human races east into the forests or mountains and north into the Kingdom of Hendor, newly formed under King Thurbon from the union of Lolle and Waterford, which were never themselves cities of the Kannalan Empire."

Xorus says, "Emperor Chaston Kestrel, as you know, made it formal in law. This was a fevered pitch to what was truly a much deeper and older movement."

Xorus says, "The Edict was never strong in the north, due to the very historical forces that birthed it."

Xorus says, "Elves were once citizens in Hendor and were not as harassed, though Elven spellcasters were treated harshly, owing to rumors of dark magic in the recent fall of Gor'nustre."

Xorus says, "This is a matter of some historical complication. Selantha Anodheles was secretly in a covert alliance with elven bandits to perform raids on other cities."

Xorus says, "It was typical of her style of intrigues, she did much the same thing with pirates, offering her 'protection' to Kai Toka and Elstreth."

Xorus says, "While what Selantha was doing was obvious to those of us observing it, such alliances were inconceivable within Turamzzyr."

Xorus says, "This spawned the short-lived 'Kannalan Alliance' in impulsive defiance, the three survivor cities of the old Empire, which were also facing 'humanoid' invasions from the east and north."

Xorus says, "Selantha thus whipped up long standing attitudes about elves in her rivals, who she weakened and conquered, and then consolidated those incited lands into her own human empire."

Xorus says, "When proof of her elven affiliations was discovered after her death, the regent Chaston Kestrel exploited the scandal to seize power, and leveraged those very prejudices to ban property ownership by elves."

Xorus says, "Which in turn concentrated the central power of the imperial throne, as the elves were mostly in the acquired territories, and their properties within those lands were forfeited to the Emperor himself."

Xorus says, "This is typical of the way Turamzzyr conducts its imperialism. It will leverage those lands into submission with trade restrictions, and then imports its own people to replace the locals or make them irrelevant."

Xorus says, "Truthfully, even then the accusation was not believed by the nobility around Tamzyrr, such was the implausibility of the Empress making allies of elven criminals."

Xorus says, "Thus, in a very short amount of time there was a sharp increase in visceral racism against elves, and a sudden exodus of elves from the south."

Xorus says, "Some authors will tell you this was the birth of racism against elves. But that is nonsense. It was fertile soil."

Xorus says, "Thousands of years of hard feelings over past slavery, following three centuries of racial separatism."

Xorus says, "Empress Selantha knew it would work, because those attitudes were deeply rooted."

Xorus says, "Emperor Chaston was killed in the great volcanic eruption of Ysspethos. His successor Immuros halted the formal and overt harassment, but the law stood, and most elves had been displaced to the borderlands."

Xorus says, "The racial prejudice in the south did not distinguish between elven lineages. They were all 'sylvan devils', associated now with banditry, and 'black elven wizardry'."

Xorus says, "To this day it is not uncommon for humans of the Turamzzyrian Empire to say 'sylvan' when they mean elves in general rather than descendants of Yuriqen."

Xorus says, "The 'black-hearted fiends' still further south was the bigotry of a later century when the Church of Koar had become the state religion."

Xorus says, "Theologies with the idea of 'yfel', rather than Koar as ruler of all, which includes those who once dwelled on Lornon."

Xorus says, "It is the irony of their religion that Koar is the great smiter of 'evil' who never does any smiting."

Xorus says, "It is left to his followers to persecute the darkness in the name of the God King."

Xorus says, "This is the point. In the Kannalan language family and especially the now dominant Tamzyrr dialect, 'darkness' is a word related to Lornon, which is religiously associated with the demonic and 'dark magic'."

Xorus says, "There is a religious element of 'evil' to 'dark elves' in the common tongue, which is mostly rooted in sorcery and demonic summoning."

Xorus says, "This 'dark magic' is a staining of the soul, and it is a staining of the lands."

Xorus says, "Nevermind that the Southron Wastes are a hundred thousand years old."

Xorus says, "Not that it is without some reason. The Faendryl have allowed the wasteland demonic to throw themselves against their Demonwall for the past three hundred years."

Xorus darkly jests, "This is punishment for the Third Elven War. It underscores their ingratitude for our protection, but this is surely lost in translation."

Cruxophim chuckles.

Xorus says, "Now, there is some sense of 'Dark Elven' as a group of people who natively speak the language usually called 'dark elven' in the outlands, but which is instead called 'the voice of Rhoska-Tor' in the southern wastes."

Xorus says, "This is an inborn 'language' or rather a way of vocally signaling, possessed by all elves with ancestry in Rhoska-Tor barring some anomaly, whether or not they are related to each other."

Xorus says, "In some respects it is not a language as ordinarily understood at all. Its meaning is constructed immediately from the phonemes, it is conveyed without prior shared knowledge of 'words'."

Xorus says, "The 'voice' has no resemblance to any other language in the world, and no one has yet identified an origin for it in extrachthonic languages."

Xorus says, "Many a young hotshot linguist has gambled their career and reputation in the quest for it. The everlasting fame it would bring."

Xorus says, "To the extent that a specialist of languages might ever be considered famous."

Xorus says, "In a sense there is a convergent evolution of physiology from exposure to the powers of that wasteland. But there is no such thing as a Dark Elven nationalism."

Xorus says, "The Dhe'nar and the Faendryl simply think of themselves as elves, as they are sovereign within their own dominions, with their own irreconcilable cultures."

Xorus says, "Perhaps those descendants of Rhoska-Tor in the diaspora identify as Dark Elves from their experience as a persecuted minority in other lands."

Xorus says, "As well as the lack of a culturally preferred language. Among such elves 'Dark Elven' is usually preferred over Common."

Xorus says, "In Ta'Faendryl and Sharath the phrase is something of an eye roll, or adopted with spiteful or mocking irony, as it is a religious or ideological condemnation."

Xorus says, "The Faendryl language is complex and difficult for other elves to learn in a way that goes beyond ordinary language drift, partly due to the physical changes of our ears and tongues, but partly because many elven words were twisted into having opposite meanings."

Xorus says, "Needless to say, 'dark elves' in the Faendryl tongue has lost its negative meaning, or rather it is reflected back on the accuser."

Xorus says, "In the Faendryl culture-ideology it is our cousins in the east who fragmented civilization. The Age of Chaos."

Xorus says, "That is, the world would become rightly ordered under our leadership, as it was before Despana."

Xorus says, "Dhe'nar-si is in some senses even more distantly related than Sylvan, which has barely changed, ironically making the latter closer to Elven."

Xorus says, "Though some Dhe'nar still speak a stilted ancient dialect that is much closer to archaic elven than what is spoken in Sharath."

Xorus says, "Kris'haresh and all that. You have all heard bits of it."

Alisaire amusedly says, "Or even speak it."

Xorus says, "Scholars do not have any agreement on when Dhe'nar-si first formed as a distinct branch of Elven. The historical records of that time and place simply do not exist."

Xorus says, "This brings us to the older history of those words. What it means when elves refer to other elves as 'dark elves' and thus not 'truly elven' any longer."

Speaking in Elven, Xorus repeats, "Dark Elves."

Xorus says, "This is translated as 'dark elves' in Common, but meaning is lost in translation. There is historical context and connotation that goes missing."

Xorus says, "In the Age of Darkness the elves were all one people, but ideological differences began to emerge between the bands."

Xorus says, "Those elves who settled in the barren clearings of forest that had been burned away by the great demonic war developed sedentary ways of life, and are said to have been taught how to cultivate crops by Arkati of Liabo."

Xorus says, "The lands had been twisted and corrupted by the dark power of the Ur-Daemon, which Imaera had cleansed and healed with the aid of fey spirits."

Xorus says, "This is the root of why the demonic are anathema to most elves, a quasi-religious prejudice in a mostly non-theistic people."

Xorus glibly says, "This is, after all, a pointless taboo in Rhoska-Tor. Which is the forbidden wasteland of the Ur-Daemon."

Xorus says, "It is no accident this was the place of banishment, inspired as it was by the exile of the Arkati."

Xorus says, "Of the role the dragons, through Lornon, had played in bringing the great demons."

Xorus says, "By fracturing the gods who had protected the elves from them."

Xorus says, "Other elves kept to a nomadic lifestyle in the forests, holding a holistic view of those once gods, which was in some respects older."

Xorus says, "Though it does not at all resemble the Dhe'nar originalist views on the Arkati. The hierophants do not teach the Way."

Xorus says, "Later the sylvan religion, if you could call it that, became centered on Imaera."

Xorus says, "These were the seeds of ideological rifts that would only grow deeper over thousands of years. There was even a period of the early empire when there was a black market in sylvan slaves."

Xorus says, "The settlement dwelling elves would eventually build great cities, naming themselves in honor of the leaders of prominent movements."

Xorus says, "It is with a certain amount of irony, rarely mentioned in this context, that the increasingly surrounded sylvans actually built their own city named Ithnishmyn."

Xorus says, "Around the same time that the Illistim claim was the date of the departure of the Dhe'nar. About two thousand years after the last House was founded."

Xorus says, "It was not as though the sylvankind were off in some distant forest. They were within the Elven Empire, and the Houses were all expanding."

Xorus says, "Ithnishmyn was located between Ta'Loenthra and Ta'Ardenai, in the middle of the old growth forest between them."

Xorus says, "And Ithnishmyn was resided within for almost ten thousand years."

Xorus says, "Rhetoric about leaving the forests and building the cities is all poetical fluorish. The Ardenai were a 'back to nature' movement, not 'those who stayed behind'."

Xorus says, "The founders of the Great Houses, as they are conceived of now, were all of different generations. They did not all know each other."

Xorus says, "The ancient elven word 'sylvisterai' means roughly 'those people who marry the forest', referring to the more conservative cousins, who were deemed culturally backwards."

Xorus says, "The 'sylvisterai', of course, would have disagreed. It was the elves in their 'open-aired cities' who were looked down on for their urban 'vices'."

Xorus says, "This is ultimately the etymological root of the common word 'sylvan'."

Xorus says, "While it is true most sylvans are of the Yuriqen lineage, 'sylvisterai' would be said of the Wyrdeep druids as well, and no one denies that the expatriate population of the west is descended from the House line elves."

Xorus says, "Perhaps the diaspora of Yuriqen descendants consider themselves 'sylvans'. But it is difficult to imagine in Yuriqen they say something other than 'elves', with instead a variation for their urban cousins, though in their own dialect of ancient elven. Which is stationary throughout history like 'the voice of Rhoska-Tor', but for very different reasons."

Xorus says, "There was another ancient elven word, 'draekeche', which is the ultimate ancestor of both the words 'dark' and 'drake' in Common."

Xorus says, "In fact, one can hardly not notice the resemblance to the Aelotoi 'dyre' and 'dyrkha', which tellingly mean dark and hated."

Xorus says, "Where 'darkness' in most human tongues is related to Lornon, 'darkness' in elven is related to dragons."

Xorus says, "That is, the human mytheme is theistic 'evil', whereas the elven mytheme is primordial chaos."

Xorus says, "The founder Linsandrych Illistim for instance once wrote, over fifty thousand years ago, 'Frae Naira vers Deiam, Jae esais bevre Tua ae te Draekeche.'."

Xorus says, "Which translates into Common to the effect of 'From Dusk till Dawn, I stand between Thee and the Darkness'."

Rendena softly says, "Dark is another word for night, and remember dreams happen at night."

Xorus says, "She was the first of the 'town elves' to begin construction of a major city; or rather what would in time become a city, which was the context of this quote, having only recently built its first library."

Xorus says, "This was a movement to consolidate the 'knowledge of the Arkati' into written archives. The Chroniclers would be considered religious by modern standards."

Xorus says, "The Faendryl and Vaalor cities did not exist yet. They would not be built for another century."

Xorus says, "Though those were founded with the overt intention of becoming seats of power."

Xorus says, "Linsandrych was still ruling her House at the time of Yshryth Silvius, the fourteenth Faendryl Patriarch, as there was an unstable thousand years of usurpations after the heir of Korthyr."

Xorus says, "Had House Vaalor not schismed because of the movement of Zishra Nalfein, it is possible the Faendryl would not have become the ruling House."

Xorus says, "Upon his coronation Yshryth gave his famous speech on the 'lesser races' living in 'savagery'."

Xorus says, "Well known are the first words, which I translate here in Common. If you will indulge me for a moment. 'The lesser races live in savagery. It is only with the guidance of our own eternal empire that they shall ever rise from barbarism to enjoy the benefits of civilization. Incapable of ruling themselves, they are rightfully grateful for our benevolence and aid.'."

Xorus says, "This is the ideology of subjugating the non-elven races 'for their own good', which as you will see, was actually an outgrowth of the elven contempt for primordial chaos."

Xorus says, "Slavery is thought to have been provoked by the development of agriculture, thus without sylvan precedent, but this is beyond the scope of our subject."

Xorus says, "This speech is quite possibly also the origin of the royal 'we', which is a rhetorical sleight of hand that is very easily missed."

Xorus says, "The 'eternal empire', as such, did not exist yet. This was in some respects the moment it was founded."

Xorus says, "Less well known are the words that followed. 'How can we lead them from this darkness if we live in its shadow? We have forgotten ourselves. It was in unity that we strode forth from the forests, out from under the bloodied wings of dragonkind. It is in unity that we shall reign in peerless supremacy over the troglodytic barbarians who need our leadership as they need the air to breathe'."

Xorus says, "Recall that this speech was given in archaic elven. Not the Elven of today, not the contemporary Faendryl dialect, and certainly not Common."

Xorus says, "In these sentences the words 'darkness' and 'dragonkind' are variations of 'draekeche' in the original wording. They are word plays which do not translate into modern languages."

Xorus says, "There is even reference to providing 'air to breathe', which is now hopelessly out of context, as it was a contrast of elven cities with the forest canopy."

Xorus says, "Where the elves once hid in the shadows from the Great Drakes, and were preyed upon by the shadows of the Ur-Daemon."

Xorus says, "Yshryth was not implying the elves walked out of the forests and built cities. That was not living memory at the time of the foundings."

Xorus says, "His speech was an extended metaphor for the Age of Darkness which would have been understood as such by his contemporaries."

Xorus says, "He was speaking in a context where many Faendryl rulers had recently been overthrown, about once a century on average, and he was condemning bloody fights between factions."

Xorus says, "To make his point in blood Yshryth had his own mother executed for treason. It was outlawing sedition as the eternal law of civilization."

Xorus says, "Eternal law which holds at all times, and always held, allowing one to forever condemn 'darkness'. However ancient."

Xorus says, "Dragons are often idealized by humans, and even the Vaalor, who have a soft spot for wyverns."

Xorus says, "But for the most part elves to this day have ill regard for dragonkind."

Xorus says, "Elves are far more likely than others, after all, to actually encounter a dragon during their own lives."

Xorus says, "It is an experience that dispels any illusions one might hold about dragons very quickly."

Xorus says, "While legends of the 'dragons and their spirit buddies' genre are popular religious fiction, they do contain vestiges of truth from ancient oral traditions."

Xorus says, "It is well accepted that the dragons would fight and kill each other, and this lack of unity made them all the weaker against the Ur-Daemon."

Xorus says, "The elves of the Great Houses tended to hold a dim view of the Lornon Arkati for their own brutality and factionalism."

Xorus says, "That these factions have never warred is essential. The forces of 'yfel', in a more fundamental sense, are still servants of Koar."

Xorus says, "Thus, Lornon as a whole is mostly regarded poorly in both the west and east, but for very different reasons."

Xorus says, "In the western mind the faction is the point, while in the eastern mind it is the flaw."

Xorus says, "Lornon in itself is disapproved of rather than condemned. It is not the 'draekeche'."

Xorus says, "While Charl is reviled by most elves, in spite of being with Liabo."

Xorus says, "The 'abyss' in Common has mythic roots in 'chaos' for a reason."

Xorus says, "Obviously, some of the Lornon set are indeed considered 'draekeche', some even universally."

Xorus says, "The Houses all favor or detest the great spirits according to their own ideologies."

Xorus says, "How alien this is to human theology, where evil gods are still gods."

Xorus says, "That the 'Arkati' are considered a race at all is elven dogma."

Xorus says, "It is as meaningless as a race of Great Elementals."

Xorus says, "But for all the racial rhetoric in Yshryth's speech, the point of it was barbarians fight amongst themselves, whereas civilization ascends over 'draekeche'."

Xorus says, "He was equating his political rivals with the 'savage' races who were still living in the Age of Darkness."

Xorus says, "And so, he was implying they were not 'truly elven'. They were incapable of ruling themselves."

Xorus says, "They were as the beasts of the field, the slaves and all other such property."

Xorus says, "This is the point. In the Elven descent from the word 'draekeche' are connotations of kinslaying, the ruin of lands, and the descent of all into chaos."

Xorus says, "What, then, are the 'dark elves'? Or the 'elves of darkness', the 'draken elves' or 'dragon elves'? They are the 'draekeche'."

Xorus says, "The Dhe'nar for the blame sometimes given to them for Despana and other reasons, not that anyone truly knows Despana's origins. The Faendryl for the purge of the Ashrim Isle as well as embracing the demonic."

Xorus says, "The less famous exiles of forgotten history as well, who were banished from the Elven Empire, and had no where else to go but the southern wastes."

Xorus says, "It is no coincidence most 'dark elves' in one sense are 'dark elves' in the other. It is tautology or self-fulfilling prophecy."

Xorus says, "Recall that the Faendryl were not declared 'dark elves' until five thousand years ago. They had been in Rhoska-Tor for fifteen thousand years and long since spoke its voice."

Xorus says, "In fact, relations had warmed enough to allow a potential restoration. Chesylcha was a very close friend of the Illistim Mirror and engaged to an Ashrim royal."

Xorus says, "The famous Loenthran bardess Maeli Gerydd, for example, was lost with Chesylcha's wedding entourage when the ship went missing."

Xorus says, "As you can see, it is not an inherently racial concept, racists are merely able to make a 'race' out of it."

Xorus says, "It is an ideological condemnation of backwardness, regression into the Age of Darkness, much more severe than 'sylvisterai'."

Xorus says, "Obviously the Faendryl and Dhe'nar disagree, and we have the full breadth of elven politics."

Xorus says, "That Rhoska-Tor has left its mark was only too accommodating for human 'yfel'."

Xorus says, "Perhaps our cousins should spare the presumption of collective guilt from those 'dark elves' of the diaspora. It is a crude racism more fitting of Tamzyrr than Ta'Vaalor."

Xorus says, "But what ultimately matters most is our ideological disagreements, not the sins of the fathers, nor some religious stain born of a dark wasteland."

Xorus concludes, "In the end we should leave the 'no true Reiver' rhetoric to the reivers. Considering they are the ones who actually enjoy fighting between clans."