Elven Magic

The magic of the Elves is one much older and primal than the magic of the humans. While all magic seeks to attain the same ends (Completing the Spell form), how it is attained and what ends that are sought can vary greatly between sources.

Thousands of years ago the elves still lived in their homeland, a country that had no spoken name, but was understood as a concept by any elf no matter their age or disposition. The elves back then were more deeply connected to nature and the flows of magic than they are at present, taking on traits associated with different forms and elements of magic. Even more interesting was that they could only use elemental magic of the element they were aligned with at the time.

Their resonance was almost chaotic, changing many times over the course of an elf's lifetime. This meant that their forms were more mutable, more unstable. As time passed the elves found their magic tied deeply with the core concepts of the five elements: Air, Water, Life, Earth, and Fire. Light and Dark existed, but were outside the reach of the elves. So unstable were their connections to the elements that an elf experiencing a strong mood swing could trigger a change.

For millenia, things remained as they were. Their homeland existed in a shifting pattern of elemental chaos, until a pair of twins named Sha'hdi and Suo'hdi fought against the changing natures of the elves. They believed that their ephemeral existences were too much dependant on emotions and the elements too dangerous to let rule over their lives so fully. They sought something that none of the other elves had ever attained: to forge a connection between light and darkness, for all elements existed within those two concepts.

While the connection to the elements may seem trivial, it was greatly different from what the humans would eventualy learn to harness. Human magic harnesses the elements, but focused more on making an effect happen regardless of the elements involved, and some of their spells have no real elemental connection. Time magic and sensory magics have no associated elements. (Save for perhaps the element of time or space, if they could be measured)

When Suo'hdi and Sha'hdi managed to connect to Light and Darkness, They forever altered the course of hundreds of elves. Those who followed them on their quest similarly aligned with either the Light or the Darkness, loosing almost all but a tenuous connection to the primal elements.

An unexpected result of this realignment also changed their lives forever. Their land, the home of such elemental fluidity, became foreign to them. No longer did the concept of it's name remain in their minds as it rejected their presence. Driven away, the followers of Sha'hdi and Suo'hdi were ejected from their homelands.

It landed them on Salthimere. The land was strange to them, the soil foreign, the name didn't come to them for decades as they tried to find a way to live in a new land rife with dangers.

It was in Salthimere they discovered their method of spellcasting had changed to what the elves know of today.

Their connection to the primal elements were far weaker than before, but it afforded them a degree of flexibility. While they may have a preference for one element or another, no longer were they constrained to the element of their aligning. Not only did they have their now innate powers of Light and Darkness, the elves (referred to among their kind as the 'hdi) could also cast elemental magics of any element they desired.

For elves who are magical by nature, spellcasting differs in some ways but the fundamental purpose is the same: The completion of a spell form to make an effect happen. The elves' bodies were able to easily handle the power flowing through them; in fact it was a small part of their physical forms in the first place. As such, they stored their power for spellcasting in their bodies, not their aura. The body was a much more efficient storage medium, and had two other benefits that humans have never been able to understand. An aura used to store power could hold a large quantity of it, but had limitations. Power naturally recovered slowly in a person's aura, but faster in the body. The reason behind it was simple, the rate of recovery was the same for either, but the aura was not self-contained and 'seeped' power slowly. Some of the power recovered merely kept up with the amount lost. That is the first benefit of internal storage: Faster recovery.

The second benifit is a little more abstract. Continued storage of power within the body and awareness of the power's presence led elves to become extremely adept at manipulating power internally. The elves don't need to use hand gestures or words of power to utilize their spells, as they could make the spell forms entirely internally. While it requires no movements or words, they still need to concentrate and mentally process the spells, which requires time similar to the amount that humans need. This reliance on purely mental process means it can be more readily interrupted by stray thoughts or distractions.

For all the advantages of Elven spellcasting over Human casters, there are notably less dedicated Elven 'mages' than the Humans do. This is in part because of how natural magic comes to Elves, and how difficult it is to teach new magic to an elf who learns their spells intuitively. This means that while the average elf has much more magic than an average human, a human mage could grow in power much more quickly than an elf, since they have a tried and true method of educating themselves and their lessers into magic. Most elves just develop the magic talents that they feel inclined toward, with elder elves having more just because of the amount of time they've lived.