“When two different cultures tried to integrate with one another, often they would remain mostly separate. It was rare to see cases where such integrations truly proceed smoothly, that the two cultures truly merged with one another, yet also kept some of their original cultural identities. More often than not in history, one would subsume the other entirely.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Professor of Socioeconomy at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 629 FP.
“Just wondering… is it just me or are there more elves around as we go further west?” Celia asked at the end of the first week of their trip westward. She had seen elves quite often in Ptolodecca, with some elven necromancers amongst those she had seen as well, but she also noticed a rather notable uptick in their number, both full blooded elves or people of elven descent, as they traveled further west.
Naturally she had not counted Tohrmutgent as part of her observation, since as a capital city it was a natural spot for many people to congregate, but it was a trend she couldn’t help but notice as they crossed Ptolodecca from the east to the west.
“Yeah, they’ve been integrating well with our community over the past two centuries, but most of them still prefer to remain closer to their ancestral lands,” replied Aideen. “Those you find in the east are usually those with thinner elven blood or those who were just there temporarily on duty. Most of the older ones still prefer sticking close to the forests they called home.”
“So that’s normal for them, then?”
“Pretty much. You have to understand that most of them, not counting the ones who fled into our lands and joined our society prior to the rest of the tribe getting cornered to the point that they voluntarily surrendered back then, are pretty stubborn,” replied Aideen lightly. “It comes with age, really. They have only known one way of life for centuries of their life and then things change, can’t really blame them for being a bit slow to adapt.”
“The younger ones who were only decades old at the time adapted much easier, so you see those more often living further away from their ancestral forests,” she continued. “As for the older ones, they used to be a pretty insular people, so it would take time for them to change their minds. As it is, they already adapted pretty well to the circumstances.”
“You’re not making efforts to help them adapt sooner or the likes?”
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“Not that much. Grandpa is a big believer in letting time take its course. As it is, probably half the elves from the forest had moved out to live in the towns and cities in the Lichdom over the past couple centuries. Though to be honest, I doubt that the forest itself would ever be abandoned,” said Aideen. “They would always have that attachment to their ancestral home with them, even after they moved out. Even the ones who moved out as youths still frequently pay homage to their ancestral homes from time to time.”
“Reminds me of an old saying…”
“Which? ‘You can take an elf out of the forest, but can’t take the forest out of the elf’? We have that saying too here,” replied Aideen with an amused giggle.
“Yeah, that’s the one! We said it a bit differently, but pretty much same meaning,” said Celia as she joined in the merriment. “In the empire, they used to hit our eastern lands so often that even far in the west tales about elven raiders were used to scare kids into finishing their meals or going to bed. Well, either those or tales of vicious orcs. These days I know better than to believe in those tales too much.”
“Oh, unlike the tales people tell about the orcs which were mostly exaggerated or bogus, the ones about the elves are closer to the truth, actually,” commented Aideen.
“Is that so? Which parts?”
“Let’s see… Did they tell you stories about how the elves were savage raiders who would raze entire villages to the ground and leave nothing but scorched earth and burnt corpses behind? No survivors out of the people caught up in their raids and the likes? That they would emerge out from the forests and be in your midst before you can react and all that?”
“Yes, yes, and yes to all those. Those are exactly like what they told us about them,” replied Celia with a nod.
“Did they also tell you how the elves would butcher the people they killed and roast their flesh on a spit over the fire to have it for dinner as well, then? Or how some of them like to collect the skulls of their enemies which they would then turn into display pieces?”
“Those… Those are real? I thought those were exaggerated tales made up to show how savage they were…”
“Oh, they’re very real all right. I’ve had to deal with an elven incursion when I was young myself, that was like over two and a half centuries ago,” replied Aideen seriously. “You’d see villages burnt to ashes with no living thing left behind. The villagers, you’d only find bones of, since they’d be killed and eaten. As for the livestock, those would normally be brought back to the forest after a raid.”
“What they don’t usually document however is that the elves aren’t eating people because they particularly enjoy it or anything. It was simply part of their tradition. When different elven tribes in the forest go to war against each other, they’d also eat their own fallen with just as much gusto. They believed that doing so would grant them the good qualities of the ones they ate. The belief is nowhere near as prevalent these days, of course.”
“Huh… Now you just made me really curious about how the elves actually are when they’re in their homeland,” noted Celia. “All the ones I’ve seen so far have integrated really well to the point that they’re little different to the people around them.
“Oh, worry not. You’ll get your chance to see them at their homes pretty soon. Our route takes us right through the Forest of Shadows, where they originate from.”