Appendix: About the True Elves
True Elf Physiology
True Elves claim to be the progenitors of all of the sub races of elves. The proof they give for this is that their physiology matches all of these other elf races with only a few notable exceptions.
Many elves are described as slight of build and are thus less sturdy than the other races that one can encounter on ones adventures. True Elves, as a generalization, tend to be sturdier and more well built that their elven kin. In addition to this, True Elves tend to be taller than the other elf races, frequently being taller than 7 feet in height, towering over many of their distant cousins.
Many elf sub races tend to reflect certain physical traits with a particular alignment and philosophy. The Drow, for instance, tend to be cruel and evil elves from the underdark. And all Drow tend to have dark gray or black skin and bone white hair. True elves can appear like any of these other elves outwardly, but this appearance has nothing to do with their underlying personality. True elves that resemble high elves or sun elves can be as cruel, or moreso, than any Drow that is currently alive. The appearance of the True Elves is simply so similar to that of other elf races that it can be difficult to determine if one is looking at a true elf, or a particularly tall and well built high elf.
The only real way to differentiate a True Elf from another elf race would be to examine their teeth. All True Elves sport a set of double fangs. Four on top and four on the bottom that are long and needle like, only visible when the elves open their mouths wide or smile broadly, both rare events. These fangs are much like those of a pit viper and contain a hollow tube that extends through their skull to small muscular glands located in their neck. These glands secrete a potent hallucinogenic venom that takes effect almost immediately upon injection.
While all True Elves have these fangs and the associated poison, rarely do they train to use them in combat. This is because they feel that using their fangs is a less noble and more barbaric act that they should be above. Thus only very rarely are they proficient in using their bite attack during the heat of combat.
Fangs and Poison
The question frequently comes up "Why do the true elves have fangs and venom glands?". My best explanation for this would be that whatever world and dimension was the home of the true elves had many creatures that were resistant to enchantments and illusions. The true elves, being magically potent, much like many other elves, thus evolved a way to allow their magics to be more effective against these highly resistant beings.
Half Elves
Half True Elves, much like half elves of other elven races are a thing that can happen. They tend to look much like half elves from the other elf races with the exception that they have the sets of double fangs much like a true elf. Many of these half true elves lack the poison glands of their true elf parents, however and so they tend to use their bite as a weapon even less than actual true elves do.
True Elves and Secrets
One of the most noticeable things that an adventurer will notice when talking to a True Elf is that they tend to do a lot less talking and a lot more listening. This does not mean that they will not get their point across, but it means that they will make every effort to keep the reasons that they have for taking certain actions to themselves.
Most True Elves dispise outright lying to those who they are working with. Instead they tend to use half truths or lies by omission or even overtly directing an individual to come to the incorrect conclusion. This does not mean that they will not lie or fabricate to hide their intentions, it simply means that they tend to use this as a last resort. This also does not mean that the True Elves won’t tell people who need to know things the truth. The True Elves simply feel that they need to be the judges of who actually needs to know a certain bit of information that they wish to keep hidden from the wider world.
These elves have their fangs and poison glands removed in a magical surgery that comes with great risk to the True Elf. Their fangs are replaced with identical copies made of void iron that is bonded to their skull and jaw. The process is intensely painful and the recovery even moreso. Only half of all true elves who undergo the proceedure survive the recovery. Those that do recover, because of the void iron now contained within their body, can no longer use magic of any kind, even magical items will become temporarily depowered.
These elves, now called The Broken, are trained as fiersome warriors and assassins. Because of their long natural life spans they tend to be able to become masters of armed combat in many different forms. Because of their near immunity to magic they are incredibly effective against any individual who is not just as skilled in combat as they are.
Their primary role is as guards of the royal court of the True Elves. They are some of the few individuals who can stand in the presence of the elf queen and not be affected by her glamors and illusions. They also make intensely effective body guards for the royal person as they are immune to many of the forms of attack that their queen might actually be vulnerable to.
True Elf History
Not much can be said with certainty about the True Elves. Even distinguishing them from particularly tall and well built normal elves is difficult unless one can get a look at their teeth for the signature four pairs of hollow fangs that all True Elves possess.
Their reserved nature and the fact that they tend to keep not only their peace, but also many secrets from everyone, even other elves, means that it is difficult to determine what, if anything, is truth about these enigmatic beings. That coupled with their almost fanatic dedication to their own myths and legends means that it can be incredibly difficult to separate that myth from what is reality.
There are a few things that can be confirmed without too much trouble. The easiest to find is that the True Elves are always there. By sheer numbers alone the True Elves make up a majority of the population of the city of Axiom. It is a known fact that they make up between 5 and 25 percent of the population of any given city section on average. The reason that this percentage would be higher would be if a city section were primarily other sub-races of elves. The reason that this number would be lower would be if the primary residents of the given section of the city were hostile to any other races, much like the Orcs that have taken over Shattered Skull to the east of The City of the White Pillar. This can be confirmed simply by observing populations over time.
Another fairly easy thing to confirm is that their city of Lorthian is not only connected to Axiom, but incredibly well connected. In order for their population to reach the numbers that it has within the city, there would need to be multiple portals to Lorthian in every city section that exists in Axiom at any given time. It is simply a matter of logical deduction to come to this conclusion.
Third, their queen, Lauranalathsa, Laurana, is ancient. She was ancient when the oldest members of other races first came to Axiom. This makes her more than four millennia old by verifiable sources. Unfortunately this is where things begin to break down when one examines the True Elves.
Finally, the True Elves are masters of dimensional magic. This is not something that is easy to confirm, but with enough digging, and a little bit of bribery or extortion of the correct True Elves, one can come to learn the secrets of dimensional travel from them. They are one of only a few sources of this kind of magic that is commonly known, even in a city such as Axiom that is built on dimensional magic and portals.
Anything else that follows cannot be confirmed in any meaningful way by any reliable source. The simple reason being that once one goes back more than a few thousand years, records simply do not exist. If they do exist, how does one determine if they are authentic? Even if they were authentic, how would they survive for that many years without becoming degraded in some way? The True Elves themselves claim to have these kinds of records, magically preserved, but when one is trying to validate their claims, these sources cannot be trusted, particularly considering how much secrecy and misinformation seems to come from their entire population.
The following things can be determined as fairly trustworthy “facts” if one has the right connections, or is owed the right favors and can trust the individuals that are speaking on these subjects to tell the truth.
First, the True Elves claim to be functionally immortal as a race. Many of them claim five or even ten millennia in age. The lady Lauranalathsa, is older than all of this. Even her closest advisors are young compared to her, all claiming hundreds of millenia in age. Lady Laurana herself, to individuals she says that she trusts, claims to be so old that millenia no longer have meaning to her. Making her thousands if not more millenia old. If this claim is to be believed she is possibly one of the oldest living creatures in the entire multiverse that composes the Axiom setting. Again, this is impossible to verify as trustworthy records simply do not exist that go even remotely this far back in time.
Second, the True Elves discovered the city of Axiom. They, as many say, “have always been residents of the shining grid”. This, coupled with the sheer numbers of their population within the city could be inferred. If their race is as old as they claim, and their queen is as old as she claims, this is certainly possible. Again, this is impossible to verify as the only ones who claim this and the only ones who can verify it are the True Elves themselves.
Third, the True Elf city of Lorthian is not just heavily connected to Axiom, it is nearly an extension of it. There are portals to Lorthian everywhere. Many of them are the kind of portals that require a key or an activation word of some kind. So well hidden are some of these portals that it would be impossible to know that one walked through a dimensional gateway until you realized that you were walking through an endless forest, or if you were suddenly surrounded by angry True Elves wondering how you managed to find your way into their city. Because of the hidden and secret nature of these portals this would be difficult if not impossible for anyone to truly ascertain the scope of how well connected these two cities are to each other. But these hidden portals do exist and there are too many rumors and tales of people accidentally stumbling into an endless wood by walking into the wrong derelict building that they cannot be completely ignored.
Finally, the lady Laurana is a powerful spellcaster. She is capable of casting illusion and transmutation magic so powerful that it is impossible for any normal hero to tell if they are even in her presence or if the entire thing is just an elaborate spell that has shaped things the way that the elf queen wants in the adventurers mind.
Any and all of the preceding can at least be shown to have a kernel of truth to them. After all, there are truly ancient true elves. This can be verified. It can’t be said how old they are with any certainty, but they are so old that they precede any records that can be found. They also have, according to all accounts, always been in Axiom. The fact that hidden portals exist and that Lorthian is well connected are both, if not well known, at least logically provable.
The following are things that are completely unverifiable, however, the following statements are things that the True Elves themselves claim without any way to substantiate themselves.
First, the True Elves are the progenitors of all other elves that exist in the multiverse. To the True Elves this is easily shown. They even claim to be able to purify other elf sub races and alter the very fabric of their being to turn them into more true elves. Given the power of their queen and even her advisors they would certainly have this kind of magical skill, but it is impossible to determine if there is any kind of truth to these claims.
The True Elves make these claims based on the fact that many, many dimensions have legends and well documented tales about the elven gods that came to be early in the genesis of any world on which the elves live. Even worlds that do not have elves frequently have myths and legends about the fair folk, tall and slender and beautiful and terrible.
The lady Laurana also claims to personally know any elf deity worshipped by any elf of any other sub race who manages to have an audience with her. It is impossible to know if this is actually true or if she is simply keeping up appearances as it were.
Second, the True Elves were the first race to gain, not only the power to travel dimensions, but also sentience within the multiverse. Because of this they grew powerful and with that power came an arrogance that bred tension between them and the other younger races of the multiverse. The resulting war that raged burned countless realities. In the end the True Elves conceded defeat, partially because their king, the lady Laurana’s late husband, was killed in a titanic battle with powers uncountable and unknowable. The True Elves agreed to remain in Lorthian, never again to conquer and gain dominion over other realities.
They claim that this is why, while they exist in many places, they frequently have ceded control of any realm that they live in to other races, keeping to the background while the younger races vie for dominance.
The True Elves also claim that this is why they are so loath to part with their knowledge of dimensional magics. They consider the spreading of this knowledge to individuals who have “not earned the right to walk the crystal spheres” as a violation of an ancient treaty that they agreed to when their mythical war ended.
True Elf Equipment
True Elves, because of their long lives and incredible proficiency at magic tend to carry large numbers of magical items on their persons at all times. Frequently they have weaponry disguised as jewelry of some kind. The most common is swords and shields disguised as wristbands or bangles but all forms of hidden magical weaponry exist such that it is nearly impossible to know how a True Elf is armed until they draw their weapon for the first time.
Other common items are small bags of holding for carrying every day objects as well as magically enchanted tools of whatever trade that the True Elf practices. Armor that is made of magically strengthened cloth that looks, feels and acts like a normal robe or tunic is also a common occurrence, turning what appears to be just normal clothing into a garment that can stop a crossbow bolt or turn aside a dagger.