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The comic book series Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini, features a race of elves on the World of Two Moons, searching for their origins and place in the world.
Origin
The elves are descended from a spacegoing race known as the High Ones, who were accompanied by small workers (later to evolve into trolls) and winged preservers. One isolated group of High Ones, seeking others of their kind, encountered an unknown planet with two moons inhabited by humans.
Scanning the planet from orbit, they learned of human legends which suggested that other High Ones had once visited the planet. Intending to communicate with the humans in order to learn more, the High Ones reshaped their bodies into elfin form and their spaceship into a Medieval-style palace. Just as they were about to land, the troll servants rebelled and caused the ship to jump back in time 10,000 years, to an age when humans were at a paleolithic stage of development. The primitive humans killed some of the elves and drove the rest away. The preservers followed some of the elves while the trolls, freed from their masters, established underground colonies.
Thus the elves were both the cause and the result of a time paradox, because the legends the High Ones had seen were about their own time-shifted descendants.
Most of the High Ones died out, and their descendants forgot their origins completely until Cutter's quest led to their rediscovery.
Physical characteristics
The elves of Elfquest are broadly human in appearance, but are distinguished from humans by the following characteristics:
- Ears - the most obvious elfin characteristic. Much bigger than human ears, and prominently pointed. Their tips are supported by prominent bony ridges on either side of the skull.
- Eyes - larger than human eyes, with slanted eyelids.
- Cheekbones - high and prominent.
- Noses - small and narrow, so much so that they appear almost too small to breathe through.
- Hair - much finer and silkier than human hair.
- Facial hair - none, except in the case of Wolfriders (see below), who develop "face fur" - mutton chops, beards and moustaches - at the age of a few centuries (see Longevity, below).
- Fingers and toes - only four digits on each hand and foot.
- Height - some elves, notably Savah and most of the Gliders, are as tall as or taller than humans, though generally thinner. Most of the Wolfriders, Sun Folk and Go-backs are much shorter following long generations of adaptation, and have an average height of around 4 feet (120 cm).
- Skin color - elves generally exhibit the same range of variation as humans. The Sun Folk, adapted to desert conditions, have dark brown skin; Wolfriders, adapted to cold temperate climates, are pale pink but tan in hotter climates; Go-backs, living in the tundra, have pale skin.
See separate article for full details. The Wolfriders possess wolf blood, which gives them characteristics unique to their tribe. In particular, they have generally greater physical strength and endurance and have much sharper senses of smell and hearing than most elves. The presence of wolf blood also gives them facial hair (see above) and has important consequences in terms of their longevity (see below).
Sun Folk
The Sun Folk or Sun Villagers are the descendants of a group of elves who fled from human persecution and established the village of Sorrow's End in an oasis in the middle of a desert where few humans or trolls would ever dare to venture. Safe from harm, they established a peaceful and idyllic community in which (almost) all were content. The Sun Folk were the least active of the elf communities and were rarely up to facing crisises. It's a condition the village healer, Leetah unwittingly aggravated with her habit of immediately treating the slightest medical problem, leaving the population unused to hardship.
Unlike the other elfin groups, they welcomed their dramatically different kinfolk, The Wolfriders, soon upon their arrival into their community and began a mutually beneficial sharing of their cultures. As a result, the Sun Folk eventually developed a more active culture with their newcomer being the example.
Gliders
The Gliders are a tall race of elves, almost all of whom possess the power of gliding (see Magic below). To avoid human persecution they have cloistered themselves inside the hollowed-out Blue Mountain, devoting themselves to art and contemplation. In the process they have become arrogant and decadent, none more so than the black-robed Winnowill.
Go-backs
The Go-backs, as their name suggests, desire to return to the Palace. But the Palace is claimed by King Guttlekraw's trolls, and so the Go-backs have become a race of brutally barbaric warriors, constantly fighting the trolls until war has become their meat and milk. Unknown to the Go-backs, their chief Kahvi actually has Wolfrider blood.
Longevity
Most elves are effectively immortal unless killed in battle or accident. The oldest known elf, Timmain, has lived at least 20,000 years by World of Two Moons reckoning. Wolfriders, however, because of their wolf blood, will eventually grow old and die - something that was forgotten during their conflict with humans because of the high mortality rate in that period. It is not known just how long a Wolfrider can live, but some have been known to survive for more than 1,200 years. This wolf trait can be removed by a healer, but such a profound excision of an inherent element of themselves is an option few Wolfriders find desirable.
After death an elf's immortal spirit survives. Most elfin spirits journey to the Palace of the High Ones, but some - particularly those of Wolfriders - remain to watch over their people.
Magic
Many elves have magic, or psi powers. These include:
- Sending - the ability to exchange thoughts and feelings by telepathy.
- Shapeshifting - the ability to assume the form of other living creatures (even humans in some cases).
- Rock-shaping - the ability to sculpt and mould solid rock, but generally this power cannot affect refined metal.
- Tree-shaping - the ability to grow and shape plants.
- Healing - the ability to heal injury or disease. More sophisticated healers can also use this power to manipulate flesh to shape it to their desires. Less scrupulous ones can invert the power as a psionic attack by violently stimulating pain nerves to make the target experience agonizing pain. Conversely, the pleasure nerves can also be stimulated with equal strength, producing intensely pleasurable sensations that can dramatically enhance sexual experiences.
- Levitation.
- Gliding - self-levitation to allow an elf to guide with the winds or with an initial kick off. Others can use the power for more fully for self propulsion.
- Magic feeling - the ability to detect past and present use of other psi powers.
- Freezing stare - the ability to paralyze an animal or intelligent being with a stare.
Sex and relationships
Because of their extreme longevity, elves have a very low birth rate. Stable and peaceful elf societies such as the Sun Folk and the Gliders have no deaths for long periods and therefore no births, while the Wolfriders and Go-backs, plagued by centuries of war against humans and trolls respectively, have a higher birth rate in order to stabilize their populations, although still very low by human standards. Because of the low birth rate elves do not practice contraception.
Elves also have a very long gestation period - about two years. The reason for this is not entirely clear, but it does make the eventual birth of a child an eagerly-anticipated event. Amongst elves the concept of an unwanted child is unthinkable, and abortion even more so.
Perhaps because of the low birth rate, and the fact that elves have no sexually transmitted diseases, sex is regarded primarily as a recreational rather than a reproductive activity and there are few taboos. One taboo is that sexual activity takes place out of sight of younger children.
Elves who form casual relationships with partners of either sex are called lovemates, and it is fairly common for an elf to have more than one lovemate at a time. Some elves choose partners, usually of the opposite sex, for life, called lifemates. This is the closest elfin equvalent to marriage; however, there is no bar against one or both lifemates of a pair taking other lovemates of either sex, as long as the other does not object.
These arrangements usually run smoothly, although possessiveness and jealousy are not unknown.
A side-effect of the elves' telepathy and low birth rate is the phenomenon known as recognition. When two genetically-compatible elves of opposite sexes meet, they experience a sudden and immediate compulsion to mate and have children. A Wolfrider who experiences recognition involuntarily surrenders his or her soul name to the other recognized elf. This is described by the phrase, "soul meets soul when eyes meet eyes".
Recognition is a purely involuntary urge that has no regard for pre-existing relationships. This can cause considerable tension between one or both of those experiencing it and their established partners. Some elves have even tried to resist recognition, but this only causes them to experience increasing physical and mental distress. It has been suggested that this could be fatal in the long term, but there is no known instance of such a fatality occurring.
The purpose of recognition is to produce healthy offspring that have their beneficial inherited characteristics maximized. Whatever emotional upheavals it may cause, all elves agree that children conceived in recognition have greater physical, mental and magical gifts than those who are not. For example, the children of the recognized lifemates, Cutter and Leetah, Suntop and Ember have considerable magical potential and physical hardiness respectively. There are also benefits for adults who are recognized. For instance, the recognized union of Woodlock and Rainsong is notedly prolific as far as Elves go.
Among the Go-backs one further form of sexual relationship exists: the orgy. In Go-back society both sexes fight in wars. Thus the night before a battle is usually marked by frenzied dancing followed by group sexual activity. This is partly in order to celebrate life before risking it in battle, and partly to scatter seed as widely as possible so that those females who survive will replenish the tribe. In addition, the founder of this tribe favoured quantity over quality in reproduction and thus Recognition's influence was significantly reduced to allow for more frequent conceptions.
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