“We were timeless. We will be again.”
The Firstborn remember what was stolen. And they are patient.
Vel’Kyra’thel • The Timeless Veil
In the beginning, the Elves say, the world belonged to them. Firstborn of the Deep, sculpted from ageless stone and the streams of time. For uncounted ages they walked as immortals under Thalrien, the Turning Wheel. Death was a choice. Their empire stretched beneath the roots of the world and across the surface, unchallenged.
Then came the lesser races—humans and orcs. To the Elves, their arrival was a theft of time itself. These short-lived upstarts drank from the well of eternity that was theirs alone, leaving the Elves cursed with mortality and fading magic.
From that wound grew an eternal grudge. The Elves see humans and orcs not as equals, but as thieves of their divine birthright. Every human city and orcish stronghold is a reminder of what was lost.
The Elves of Vel’Kyra’thel do not seek conquest. They seek restoration. They believe that if they can orchestrate the downfall of humans and orcs, the gift of eternity will return to them.
They move like shadows. High Elves pose as trusted counselors in Imperial courts, subtly guiding policy, marriages, and wars across generations. Forest Elves embed in orc tribes, steering raids and alliances. The surface races fight their wars and build their cities, never realizing they are pieces on a board that has been set for millennia.
Dark Elf dynasties who rule the Deep from crystal cities beneath the mountains. Power earned through results.
High Elves (pale, light-haired) for human courts and Forest Elves (earth-toned) for orc lands. Transformed via the Ritual of Veiled Ascension.
The common unascended who build and defend the Deep. Fluid merit within their station.
Those broken by failed Ascension, revered as living martyrs and fanatical zealots closest to the Wheel.
Humans are impulsive, passionate tools—gifted but tragically temporary. Orcs are bound by instinct yet useful for their chaos and shamanic power. Both are disruptions that must be guided, weakened, and eventually cauterized so the true children of time may reclaim what was stolen.
The surface world, including the mysterious Isle, is a temporary arena. Flux tears and Warp Zones are studied as opportunities or threats to the long plan. The Elves watch, record, and subtly shape events across centuries.