T ain't easy being Fey. Being an elf is never quite sweetness and light, at least from my perspective. Of course it's been claimed that I have an Unseelie nature, at best. In any case this is my perspective on elves, our natures, our gifts, and what little I know our history. I told Geoff I'd give my own views and slant on things.

First off, let me let you know a few things about the author of this less than fair tome. I'm the farthest thing from your stereotypical elegant and happy elf. I could care less for what is proper and instead use what is most effective. So excuse me if this record more than a little coarse. It is my way.

From what I've observed, (my experience is limited), elves, while far from being uniform in appearance, do have a couple of identifying traits. We tend to have spare frames, though I don't doubt there are fat elves. Us guys tend to better than average in height, usually at or above six feet. Females tend to be somewhat shorter, at least in my observations. Our hair is usually fine, though by no means always fair. Our eyes are usually in between colors, that shift in between ranges, such as from silver to deep blue, in the case of blue-gray eyes. Some of us do actually have pointed ears, but not as prominent as fantasy would have you believe. Oddly, some of us have slightly enlarged canines. For the most part we are anywhere from average to exquisite, as humans judge beauty. Again, there are exceptions, and Glamour counts for a lot, but more on that later. Our features are somewhat slender and angular, or lean towards a cuteness that I can only call "pixie-ish". A great deal of us have a high level of pride and self-confidence that is often mislabeled as arrogance.

I couldn't begin to describe every gift elves have, being as that I only have a few, and am still discovering others. The Fey I know can be counted on one hand, so that's not been too useful for expanding my understanding. I do know that we possess a keen sense of instinct, that gives us a good bit of intuition into things in general. Many a time have I felt the fool for denying my instinct. Instinct is real useful for identifying elves. It's good for recognizing wanna-be elves. What fools those mortals be! Though I personally haven't had a chance to test it yet, we're also extremely long lived. Don't ask how I know, I can barely explain it to myself. Call it a gift.

Perhaps one of our most useful gifts is Glamour. It enhances how we are seen and has many uses, from getting dates, to going around unnoticed. I can't tell you all the ways to use or even how it works, but keep this in mind: Glamour is directly affected by your own self perceptions. Alter those, and how you're perceived is altered as well. A great deal has been written about our affinity to magic, so I suggest you read elsewhere for info on that. My own abilities are largely unexplored in that area, I don't much feel like being the stupid leading the blind. So I'll tell you the most important fact: We need magic to stay sane and alive.

We are creatures of dream, and like a dream, we can fade. I call it "the Fading". It's like death only worse. You feel as if you're insubstantial, and even your friends begin to forget about you. It is brought on by the absence of hope, or extreme trauma. I've almost faded myself, but was saved. I fear it more than death. Death can be overcome. There is no returning from complete fading. I would offer this advise for life as an elf: get a passion. Have something so dear to you that life itself pales before it. And for Goddess's sake, don't make it a person. Odds are that you'll outlive them. Pick something less tangible; an ideal, a philosophy, or an emotion. With a passion, you can survive anything.

A brief and incomplete Elven History.

Really, I have no idea how it started. Some jack-ass faerie probably thought it'd be balls cool to be corporeal, and then probably got stuck. More than likely they then figured it'd be a real blast to have a kid, just for shits n' giggles. Faeries think this way. Anyway, more or less that's how some of us came to be. End of secret origin. At some point or other we discovered that there were other peoples that were different. With them and some rather enlightened humans we built a civilization known as Atlantis. Of course, as a race, we've never been able to leave well enough alone. Probably due to the combination of faerie curiosity and human stubbornness, I'd say. Well to make a long story short, you'll now notice there is neither a continent nor city known as Atlantis anymore. More than likely we screwed up and bad.

Well, we sort of scattered the globe after that. Some of my descendants and ancestors (a real long story, trust me) ended up in Ireland and became the Tuatha De Danaans. We pretty much displaced the local population, the Firbolgs. We were then later displaced by the Celts, who unfortunately knew about a real neat metal known as iron. They didn't slaughter us outright, as a large amount of Celtic people about now a days have faerie blood they can attest to. Not a whole hell of a lot happened in elven history after that. Yah, the Inquisition might a caught a couple of us, but in Europe it's largely been distinctive rather than a curse to have faerie blood. We have real good PR. Witches should be so lucky.

The more interesting stuff occurred recently, rounds about the nineteen-sixties. A large number of the elves I'm aware of were born in or after the sixties. I don't know why, but I suspect that for some reason the ambient magic level on this plane started rising, and has been on the rise since. This is not to say there aren't any older elves around, but there's more in this generation. I do wonder if there are some truly ancient elves around, but as of yet those bastards haven't show themselves. To hell with 'em. Arrogant bastards. The way I figure it we're probably some sort of apocalyptic harbinger or something. A sign that reality as we know it will soon be at an end. Good.

Well that's about all I know, or feel like committing to paper, as it were. In person I'd talk your ear off. Now mind you, some of this could be wrong. In fact all of this could be the delusional ravings of a madman, but I think I'll happily stay insane if the world's as mundane as all that. Elves of the world unite!
-Kyrin, 12/31/96