The tales of elves are many and, as Thomas Keightley points out in his Fairy Mythology, they were originally of the same stature as those of men.
As time progressed, and tales of the many denizens of fairyland were compressed and retold, they shrunk to match the size of gnomes. JRR Tolkien took the elder path and made his elves in the classic mode, as seen in the oldest of tales. As had Shakespeare, although he too included the small folk in the list. The modern view of elves is fragmented. Almost every fantasy story seems to redefine the size and nature of the elf kind. I chose to take a classical view of the elves, but at the same time assumed that there were more kinds of elves in the multiverse that reflect all the tales.
There is a reason for this, and this entry. The next SmallPowers novel, the eighth in the saga, stars an elf of the stars. And here is a portion of the opening chapter of Lorii, which, with luck and persistence will be published and available for purchase very soon.
Chapter One: Rule and serve
It may be said that, the elves are not regular people.
It is said, often, and often in disparaging terms. It is also said that, there are more kinds of elves than elves. Some are no bigger than your hand and some are taller than the people of men, they are very diverse in form. Elves, the size of men, of many worlds, seem to take on attributes that the people of men associate with groupings of elves. And names for them have been coined. Wood elves of the forests are generally spoken of as being one type, the unparalleled bowmen and deft masters of crafts of astounding beauty. The plains and meadows leading to another, and spoken of as sylvanian or meadow, the entrancing ring dancers and cunning cavalry of unworldly speed and devastation. Gray elves of the mists, wise with hidden lore and wielding powers beyond the ken of lesser-mortals, and the courtly dark elves above them, resplendent and aloof, unseen and unknowable. Those not of elves think they have an idea, by this grouping, of what elves are and do. But most of it is not very accurate, and yet, not wrong in many ways. Wood elves are seen in forests, tree covered hills, and sometimes in the mountain trees. Much of what they have is made of wood. The meadow elves are seen in the plains and steppe tending to horses and harvesting grain. The gray elves do spend a large amount of time in a place that is gray, but they are even more rarely seen than the others are. Still rarer, are the high elves.
There are even more types of elves than that. Elves come in every shape and size. Some to the extent of designing themselves before they are even born, still others, the highest of the very high elves, before they make themselves. The elves known as the celestials, as some have spoken of them, are truly immortal and beyond explanation, but not to the point of obtuseness, they do manifest themselves and present a physical form. Participate in life and can create new life, or their own life again. Elves of the dark can do some of that, they are just slower and less able to fill in all the details, and reincarnation is less than reformation. Being flesh born, of elfmaiden and elflord, makes it a variable process, as it is for all that give birth. The very highest elves, however, may use the grotto. It is the sole privilege of the celestial that sets them apart from their peers of the dark. And much like the acceptance and reservations seen with in-vitro and ex-utero technologies, the elves vary in their opinions of the merits of it. Especially with the added result, of true immortality. Even a people as long-lived as the other elves are, they have some serious doubts about this idea. One aspect of that is that they use the grotto, which is where the dead go, their crypt, a repository to the remains of all of the greatest of them. Noble elves for the most part, but important elves of other tasks may have honour enough, to lay in state, and be absorbed into the gray-mist. The gray-mist being sort of an elvin limbo, although it is more like a walkway and abstract location between universes in practice. A generalized and infinite zone in between all the universes that they know about, a mushy, gray, and rather boring place. Inside it, eons and epochs in the past, some gray elves had constructed the grotto. A magical connection to all grottos, in each and every universe. And it has some awareness as a collective, as each grotto is constructed and endowed with essence, as needed by the gray elves, wherever any elves have migrated. The highest elves drift in and out of it with no regard for the slightly creepy aspect. It is as handy an emergence point as any other, and for the celestial, they don't see it as creepy. They see the grotto as a place of union, birth, and then reunion.
It does set them apart in elvin society to some extent. The other noble and royal elves of the dark see them as being a tribe of their own, and as very useful political allies that can hold for longer than others may. There is great power in having someone alive who remembers the issues agreed on, in the past, firsthand. Continuity, of purpose and position, is preserved by a living being who had personal experience. Many elvin communities rely on the immortal elves to embody their history and culture. The pinnacle of their communities, and as such, the wood elves, the lords of elves, see them as more of the dark and their masters. They do think the use of the grotto is questionable and nearly necromancy, although they do know it is not. For the meadow, there is more, they know the stars, under the big dome free from branches. They understand the one part that makes the celestial elves truly special. They are of the stars, each of them is a particular one. Not to any design or intent, just it takes a lot of power and essence to keep yourself physically in time, and out of it, at the same time. Which star is not important in most ways, the nearest unclaimed in the universe that you wish to emerge into is what you attach on in the gray-mist when forming yourself. They don't really have much more than that, to make them that unusual, as elves go. The creation of new elves is one small thing that is unique, they are sterile and do not inter-breed with others of their kin. They hold hands, and each releases a portion of their essences into the mist at the base of their grotto, and that is that. Somewhere, in the gray-mist, it will settle and then emerge as a new celestial elf. When it wants to.
