A Short History of the Red Elves

The history of the red elves, as it is known to Elothninian scholars, is a sad one. As far as can be discerned from the various ruins scattered around the northeastern edge of the land, the red elves once lived in the basin of the Great Land Sea. Archaeologists speculate from the placement of the stone structures that the ruins are the remnants of the major town centers - normally equidistant between the Klevarcht Mountains, where the stones were cut from, and the Great Land Sea. Unearthed farming implements and fossilized furrows found in Helletiern suggest that the red elves domesticated wild grains while occupying the area in addition to fishing.

The First Displacement
Otellian's colonization of Helletiern forced the red elves from their stone homes and into the Fethil. Surprisingly little is known about the methods Otellian used to achieve this, but many historians argue that it must have been quite bloody for the elves to move out of the region en masse. Additionally, many traditional red elf songs dated to the period describe bloody battles and mournful losses.

The red elves adapted well to the Fethil, having already developed agriculture, and reformed into an agrarian society. As the Klevarcht Mountains in this region do not typically house dwarves, the red elves relied primarily on the materials at hand to construct buildings. Prabil Worthis described one elvish compound as consisting of many furrowed fields with small groups of thatched houses between them.

The society of red elves altered to adapt to these new environments and new demands. The previously open elves became more insular - even xenophobic. Though highly suspicious of outsiders, they retained their social magicks and often used them in manipulative ways, leading the incoming pioneers of Worthis' era to nickname them Charmers: beings to be wary of since they were known to seduce and trick the settlers for little or no reason.

Additionally, red elf culture prior to Otellian appears to have been loosely based around division of labor, and that each class tended to interact only with its own members unless the entire town was together. After the First Displacement, however, red elf society was drastically reordered, since all elves worked with the wheat and protecting their communal farms. As the old classes fell away, the red elves became highly egalitarian. Elvish marriage customs and family classification evolved as well, and instead of grouping by class, the red elves grouped by proximity.

Surnames, which had previously been related to occupation, were largely dropped except for political marriages. In these cases, usually cross-area matches, but sometimes also cross-race matches, the surname used is the local name for the area. Generally, marriage during the First Displacement period was considered binding, and the only acceptable state that sex could occur within. Therefore, considering the distances between elvish farming compounds, and the fact that participants in such cross-area marriages were still expected to work in their home compounds, the red elves became highly accepting of polygamy.

As more and more human settlers arrived, the red elves eventually began to live peacefully with the Elothninians. It should be noted that while there seems to be no taboo against humans marrying elves on the human side of things, the red elves have discouraged this on several notable occasions.

Second Displacement
The beginning of the Second Displacement roughly coincides with the first skirmishes that evolved into the Border Wars. The onset of the fully militaristic expansion into the Fethil, resulted in a brutal disruption of the agrarian culture the red elves had developed. Prior to the official beginning of the war, many of the elvish arming compounds had fled - either together, into the mountains, or had disbanded and started wandering the Fethil in search of a new settlement or as minstrels. Some compounds refused to move, and were hit the hardest by the first waves of the Border Wars. The red elves were generally armed with inferior weapons, but fought with more cohesive action than the Imperial Army. Sadly, they were also outnumbered in almost every instance, and were sometimes brutally massacred as a result. A particular poignant example of this, one that has in recent years become a rallying cry of the red elves of the Rebel Forces, was the battle at the Alamodour compound.

After the compounds had been virtually destroyed, the more militant elves who had not fled into the Erkenheld or the mountains formed guerrilla bands, and taunted and tortured the badly organized Imperial Army throughout its supply lines. Eventually, these bands joined with centaurs and gnomes to form the Rebel Forces as we now know it. Today, the red elves are the most populous and committed fighters making up the rebels, and it is generally recognized that they have been wronged the most by the expansion of Elothnin.

However, there are tensions within the red elf community regarding their place in the Border Wars. Two perspectives dominate this debate, each of which reflects a different response to the brutality of the Second Displacement: those that fled to the mountains or scattered throughout the Fethil believe that the elves should focus on rebuilding their community, while those that stayed and fought believe that their community can only be truly rebuilt on its own land. It should be noted that these tendencies are not clearly divided, and many feisty youths from the mountain complexes join the army, and many similarly feisty youths leave the army to settle and procreate within the mountain valleys.

The complexes of the mountain valleys are generally comprised of a few fields and a large multistory (usually overgrown) housing complex where all in the valley live together. Other red elves either live in the traveling carts of entertainers, tiny elvish settlements in the North, or with the Rebel Forces. The living conditions of the red elves have once again caused major cultural shifts regarding marriage. Red elves today generally take the need to reproduce as a cultural issue, and place a high priority on it. Given this pressure and the growing tendency for young elves to be constantly traveling, the once stringent morays against premarital sex have relaxed significantly. Additionally, the lack of stable relationships of any kind have made single parenting more acceptable. Marriage, now, is a term used by red elves to describe others with whom they share an additional strong emotional attachment to - often one that crosses great distances. The red elves continue to be polygamous in this sense, and are in fact even more fluid. The process of declaring and dissolving marriages has become looser and less rigid. All in all, these customs create a system where elves are able to move about freely while they attempt to establish yet another homeland, but are still able to reproduce and gain emotional support from others in a culturally acceptable way.

Notable Red Elves
Jellihondor
Rethnaki
Elcrona