Elves, orcs, etc.. come from? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Elves, orcs, etc.. come from? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Yaeri
09-11-05, 10:33 AM Races such as the elves and orcs came from different worlds through portals. That's about all that's said in the books I have. It left me wondering if they came from one of the outer planes, or alternate material planes/planets. I wonder because the latter seems interesting for players to go to.
Is there anything written about it in other books? If not, what are your views on this? Did you ever use anything about such races origins in your campaigns?
GothicDan
09-11-05, 10:57 AM The homeworld of the Elves, Faerie, was basically destroyed, and that's why they had to flee to Abeir-Toril. This is described in the beginning of the Evermeet: Isle of the Elves novel by Elaine Cunningham. :)
Yaeri
09-11-05, 12:41 PM Was there any information of what this faerie world was like? I'm particularly interested in whether or not these things are worlds or more like other planes. (I'd consider a prime material as a world and not a plane.)
Bloodtide_the_Red
09-11-05, 03:01 PM For most races they generaly came to Toril from diffrent Worlds. It gets kind of fuzzy here, because when you say another world, people normal make the jump to another plane. As if every Prime Materal Plane is made up of just one world, or just one solar system.
So if you realy feel that you must have 100 alternative materal planes, each with a single world, one whole plane for each race...then you can say that is so. I've always gone with the idea the most of the races are native to the same prime matreal plane as Toril. The universe that Toril is in is huge, so there is plenty of room for OrcWorld and TrollWorld, they are just trillions and trillions of light years away from each other.
So trillion trillion light years or another plane is basicaly far away.

Note that some like the Elves, do in fact come from another plane.

BT
Gray Richardson
09-11-05, 03:38 PM The Moon and Sun elves came from the island nation of Tintageer in the world of Faerie. This appears to have been a prime material world named Faerie which may or may not be related to a separate Plane of Faerie that seems to still have tenebrous connections to Faerūn.

Anyway, the island nation of Tintageer was being invaded and the elves in their infinite wisdom cast a high magic spell to drive the invaders' ships back out to sea. They succeeded in doing so and the invaders' ships were tossed back some hundreds of miles from the coast of Tintageer... along with the water beneath them laying bare the sea floor for hundreds of miles in all directions.

The water began to rush back in as a titanic tidal wave came crashing down upon Tintageer. In the last moments some 50 elves or so managed to escape through a high magic gate spell that transported them to Faerūn in the time of the Dragons over 25,000 years ago.

The World of Faerie was not destroyed. Just the island of Tintageer. There may be other lands that were untouched and there may still be elves or other fey folk living there to this day.

Avariels, Lythari and other elven races had preceeded the Sun & Moon elves to Faerūn--we don't know by how long and from where. Dark elves (not yet the Drow) may have come from Faerie. Or they may have come from the world of Threnody, where Kiaransalee hails from. We don't know much about their origins.

Orcs seem to have wandered through gates from several different worlds. The orcs that came through the Orcgate are a much different breed from the orcs that came through other gates in the distant past.

The origin worlds of most of the interloper races to Faerūn have been mostly unnamed and undetailed.
GothicDan
09-11-05, 04:20 PM Ah, yes. I apologize for saying that it was the world, and not the continent, that wass destroyed. Not sure where my brain was on that one. :)
Yanagita Kunio
09-11-05, 06:59 PM So there's been a succession of portal migrations at different times and in different locations. Theoretically there is a past point where a species occupied one world/planet because they evolved/were created there...but it's been so long since all the species eithered diasporaed purposefully [trade, colonizaiton, conquest, divine command] or were scattered [accident, flight from conquest, grabbed by portal-happy Imaskari, exiled], that some species have experienced multiple line-splits as populations have occupied different worlds or planes for generations, and acquired new traits or lost olds ones...both physical and cultural.

Faerun has just been around long enough that many migrating populations
have accrued...none in overwhelming density...such that the current continental region is a vivid blend of migrants, arguably native populations [I'm tempted to get radical and say nothing is native, or only something odd like the sarrukh], and the cross-pollenated cultures/species resultant from years of cultural diffusion.
Bloodtide_the_Red
09-11-05, 10:05 PM All the Creator Races are native to Toril. Though this is not to say that others of their kind have not come through a portal in the last couple thousand years also. So that while dragons are a Creator Race, not all dragons on Toril are native. The same with humans, as the Mulan are not native to Toril, for example.

Also note there where elves native to Toril, they did not all come through the portal. They were the Wild/Wood elves.

BT
kaeso
09-11-05, 10:36 PM they should make a "Origins and Histories of the Planes and Races of Faerun" series. I would buy those.
Alac Luin
09-11-05, 11:17 PM Also note there where elves native to Toril, they did not all come through the portal. They were the Wild/Wood elves.

For some reason, I was under the impression that the wild elves migrated to Toril at the same time as the Drow.

Wood elves are native to Faerun, only because that sub-race was born from the other sub-races.
warlockco
09-11-05, 11:32 PM For some reason, I was under the impression that the wild elves migrated to Toril at the same time as the Drow.

Wood elves are native to Faerun, only because that sub-race was born from the other sub-races.

Wild Elves did migrate to the Realms, they were one of the first groups to come over.

Wood Elves came about a long time afterwards from certain isolated groups of elves.

The first elves to arrive were the Sy-tel-quessir (Green Elves), the Ly-tel-quessir (Lythari), and teh Aril-tel-quessir (Avariel).
The second wave of elves to travel to Faerun included the Ssri-tel-quessir (destined to become the Drow)........ At the same time, the Ar-tel-quessir (Sun Elves) and the Teu-tel-quessir (Moon Elves) arrived to the north. The Alu-tel-quessir (Aquatic Elves) appeared in the Great Sea not long after.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Yaeri 09-11-05, 10:33 AM	Races such as the elves and orcs came from different worlds through portals. That's about all that's said in the books I have. It left me wondering if they came from one of the outer planes, or alternate material planes/planets. I wonder because the latter seems interesting for players to go to. Is there anything written about it in other books? If not, what are your views on this? Did you ever use anything about such races origins in your campaigns?
GothicDan 09-11-05, 10:57 AM	The homeworld of the Elves, Faerie, was basically destroyed, and that's why they had to flee to Abeir-Toril. This is described in the beginning of the Evermeet: Isle of the Elves novel by Elaine Cunningham. :)
Yaeri 09-11-05, 12:41 PM	Was there any information of what this faerie world was like? I'm particularly interested in whether or not these things are worlds or more like other planes. (I'd consider a prime material as a world and not a plane.)
Bloodtide_the_Red 09-11-05, 03:01 PM	For most races they generaly came to Toril from diffrent Worlds. It gets kind of fuzzy here, because when you say another world, people normal make the jump to another plane. As if every Prime Materal Plane is made up of just one world, or just one solar system. So if you realy feel that you must have 100 alternative materal planes, each with a single world, one whole plane for each race...then you can say that is so. I've always gone with the idea the most of the races are native to the same prime matreal plane as Toril. The universe that Toril is in is huge, so there is plenty of room for OrcWorld and TrollWorld, they are just trillions and trillions of light years away from each other. So trillion trillion light years or another plane is basicaly far away. Note that some like the Elves, do in fact come from another plane. BT
Gray Richardson 09-11-05, 03:38 PM	The Moon and Sun elves came from the island nation of Tintageer in the world of Faerie. This appears to have been a prime material world named Faerie which may or may not be related to a separate Plane of Faerie that seems to still have tenebrous connections to Faerūn. Anyway, the island nation of Tintageer was being invaded and the elves in their infinite wisdom cast a high magic spell to drive the invaders' ships back out to sea. They succeeded in doing so and the invaders' ships were tossed back some hundreds of miles from the coast of Tintageer... along with the water beneath them laying bare the sea floor for hundreds of miles in all directions. The water began to rush back in as a titanic tidal wave came crashing down upon Tintageer. In the last moments some 50 elves or so managed to escape through a high magic gate spell that transported them to Faerūn in the time of the Dragons over 25,000 years ago. The World of Faerie was not destroyed. Just the island of Tintageer. There may be other lands that were untouched and there may still be elves or other fey folk living there to this day. Avariels, Lythari and other elven races had preceeded the Sun & Moon elves to Faerūn--we don't know by how long and from where. Dark elves (not yet the Drow) may have come from Faerie. Or they may have come from the world of Threnody, where Kiaransalee hails from. We don't know much about their origins. Orcs seem to have wandered through gates from several different worlds. The orcs that came through the Orcgate are a much different breed from the orcs that came through other gates in the distant past. The origin worlds of most of the interloper races to Faerūn have been mostly unnamed and undetailed.
GothicDan 09-11-05, 04:20 PM	Ah, yes. I apologize for saying that it was the world, and not the continent, that wass destroyed. Not sure where my brain was on that one. :)
Yanagita Kunio 09-11-05, 06:59 PM	So there's been a succession of portal migrations at different times and in different locations. Theoretically there is a past point where a species occupied one world/planet because they evolved/were created there...but it's been so long since all the species eithered diasporaed purposefully [trade, colonizaiton, conquest, divine command] or were scattered [accident, flight from conquest, grabbed by portal-happy Imaskari, exiled], that some species have experienced multiple line-splits as populations have occupied different worlds or planes for generations, and acquired new traits or lost olds ones...both physical and cultural. Faerun has just been around long enough that many migrating populations have accrued...none in overwhelming density...such that the current continental region is a vivid blend of migrants, arguably native populations [I'm tempted to get radical and say nothing is native, or only something odd like the sarrukh], and the cross-pollenated cultures/species resultant from years of cultural diffusion.
Bloodtide_the_Red 09-11-05, 10:05 PM	All the Creator Races are native to Toril. Though this is not to say that others of their kind have not come through a portal in the last couple thousand years also. So that while dragons are a Creator Race, not all dragons on Toril are native. The same with humans, as the Mulan are not native to Toril, for example. Also note there where elves native to Toril, they did not all come through the portal. They were the Wild/Wood elves. BT
kaeso 09-11-05, 10:36 PM	they should make a "Origins and Histories of the Planes and Races of Faerun" series. I would buy those.
Alac Luin 09-11-05, 11:17 PM	Also note there where elves native to Toril, they did not all come through the portal. They were the Wild/Wood elves. For some reason, I was under the impression that the wild elves migrated to Toril at the same time as the Drow. Wood elves are native to Faerun, only because that sub-race was born from the other sub-races.
warlockco 09-11-05, 11:32 PM	For some reason, I was under the impression that the wild elves migrated to Toril at the same time as the Drow. Wood elves are native to Faerun, only because that sub-race was born from the other sub-races. Wild Elves did migrate to the Realms, they were one of the first groups to come over. Wood Elves came about a long time afterwards from certain isolated groups of elves. The first elves to arrive were the Sy-tel-quessir (Green Elves), the Ly-tel-quessir (Lythari), and teh Aril-tel-quessir (Avariel). The second wave of elves to travel to Faerun included the Ssri-tel-quessir (destined to become the Drow)........ At the same time, the Ar-tel-quessir (Sun Elves) and the Teu-tel-quessir (Moon Elves) arrived to the north. The Alu-tel-quessir (Aquatic Elves) appeared in the Great Sea not long after.