Chapter Text
"Listen," she starts as she heads towards a bookshelf. One that at first glance seems very disorganised, and chaotic. Also on second glance.
"The question of why we elves are the way we are is a hotly debated topic."
The way she quickly finds, and pulls out a thick book suggests that maybe she has some identifiable system for it. Or at least that she probably knows where most things are.
"Well, not as hot as it used to be, I suppose." She puts the book onto the table with an audible thump. The number of coloured markers sticking out from the pages is as impressive as the size of the tome itself. "You'll no longer get threats from the Temple, or the Council for saying the 'wrong' thing. Our society has relaxed a lot in recent centuries."
"I'm more of an amateur historian anyway," she says as she heads back to the shelf. "Not a scholar."
I have to question whether she can really be called an amateur after doing this for so long.
"Don't bring my age into this," she quickly snaps back. "What I mean is that I am far more interested in legends and myths than my more serious 'colleagues'." I can hear the air quotes. "But this all started as a hobby. Just a personal interest. That anyone is willing to seriously listen to my theories is basically a miracle. We even have a whole circle discussing similar theories these days. If you had told me that back when I started, I wouldn't have believed you."
She brings a stack of (relatively) smaller books to the table before finally sitting down.
"Not that I think historical record should be disregarded. Any official, or private record of yore we can find is valuable, but they don't go far enough back to actually explain our origins. Nor do the ones of the other races, as far as we are aware. Though I have looked into their legends as well, to see if I could find anything interesting relating to us, or possibly even something that matches our own."
She lets out a sigh as she opens the large tome.
"Even so I'm not convinced I truly have a comprehensive collection. I'm always looking for more, and sorting fact from fiction often feels like guesswork. But that isn't what you came to hear about." She puts on a pair of glasses, and mumbles: "Sometimes I curse my own handwriting..."
She clears her throat. "It is fairly safe to say that we are a unique race. Or species, if you prefer. We have yet to find one quite like us, at least. Other mono-sexual races exist, like the dryads, and the fae. The more magical a race is, the less likely they are to breed in... an animalistic way, let's say. There are also constructs, who have no need for sex. And if anyone tries to tell you they don't count as people, you are free to ignore them. In fact, I give you permission to hit them. They have it coming." Her grin suggests she has in fact done so at least once.
"But a single-sex race with the genitalia to both impregnate, and be impregnated, plus compatibility with so many other races, that has no other precedent that we know of."
Though I have to point out that there are male and female elves. Among others.
"Of course, but for us gender is simply a matter of expression. Barring any medical issues, we are all born the same. Gender is something you can pick later, if you want. Historically our only 'gender' has been elf." She flips through the pages of a mid-sized tome. "The idea of more genders has really only caught on in the past century. I don't pay that much attention to modern sociology, so I am not certain what caused it. It feels like I looked outside one day, and suddenly it was already commonplace. We've interacted with other races for as long as we have records, so why did that part catch on only now? You'll have to ask someone else."
Fair enough. I'll try to stop distracting you.
"Much appreciated. I am aware that so long as we are dressed, most multi-sexual races would view us as an all-female race, even if that's not technically correct. Our superficial appearance fits closer to female for most of them. I'm sure the breasts help leave that impression. It's only when we undress that things get complicated for them." She chuckles.
"There is also the issue that elven genes seem to be completely dominant. There are of course other races that can interbreed. For instance you can find various half-humans, half-orcs, etc, but there are no half-elves. Anyone born from a union with an elf will genetically be fully an elf. They may inherit some visual characteristics of the non-elf partner, but their body will be all elf. Though we understood that even before we understood about genetics. This is also unheard of with anyone but us. And..." Her expression turns a little bitter.
"It also makes those of other races hesitate to get together with us. Not everyone. There are several who don't care. But on a broader scale it can be used as fuel for prejudice. Or worse, if you look at certain parts of history..." She quickly drains her glass of whatever sweet-smelling liquid was in there, as if to wash some bad taste out of her mouth.
Recent statistics show that only around 10% of our nation's population are non-elves. We don't have any official policies of turning anyone away without good reason, but all children becoming elves, our long lifespans, and struggles with prejudice complicate matters in various ways.
"But!" She exclaims as she gets up to refill her glass. "It can also be considered an important clue to our origins. Though I should warn you that this is where we venture into the realm of myths and speculation." She sits back down, and takes a more measured sip. "Honestly I don't think we will ever know the full truth of our origin. Not unless we are able to time travel back to see it for ourselves, or the Goddess descends to hold a lecture about how she created us. However we are not entirely without clues. Some oral history survived long enough to get recorded, and we have legends, myths, and stories to look at, so here is my working theory." She's visibly revitalising now that we get onto the subject.
"At some point in the ancient past the Goddess created our ancestors. Why? I don't know. Maybe for fun. Maybe for boredom. Maybe gods simply like to have a people of their own. Not even the Archdruid dares to claim to understand the mind of the Goddess, so at the very least we agree that deities do not think the same way we do."
"The big question is what the form of those ancestors were. My personal theory is that we were something akin to plants. Now, hear me out. I know that statement might have gotten me accused of heresy like 300 years ago, and it's still not popular among most of my historian 'colleagues'. There may be more of 'my kind' these days, but I still clearly remember someone angrily accusing me 'are you saying we were like weeds?' when I started publishing my work." She lets out a giggle. "But I have my reasons." She quickly flips through her big tome, which I think is her notebook, or a compilation of several notebooks.
"First off, our Goddess is the Goddess of Nature, so I think it's within reason to assume that if she were to create a people of her own, they might be influenced by flora as well as fauna. I think we have all felt a close bond with nature, albeit to different degrees depending on the person, and that could be a remnant of our ancestry."
"However I don't think we were literally plants. Our current selves are flesh and blood, and even with what we've learned from genetics there is nothing to suggest we are, or were part plant. A fondness for sunlight is hardly unheard of among mortal races. But maybe the distinction isn't as clear as we think. Maybe we started out as some sort of hybrid. While we are not quite a full magical race like the fae, or the dryads, we are still more magical than most, so I think it's possible we were created to be fauna that functioned much like flora. There is still much we don't understand about how magic affects physical reality, which of course includes biology. There could still be traces we have yet to identify." She clears her throat again.
"Anyway. Based on various legends, both our own, and those of other races who encountered us, I believe we started out as something similar to the alraune. We had a humanoid, or partially humanoid appearance, yet we were rooted. Our movement was slow, and most of the time we were stationary. What seems to be a common thread in the stories is that we attracted members of other races, and... well... milked them. Bred with them to increase our numbers, and similar to pollinated plants we only made more of ourselves, rather than creating any mixed breeds. Even today we hear other races comment about how we naturally smell good, and our 'juices' taste sweet. We might have had actual pheromones, even though we don't these days. I think we used those, along with a pleasing appearance, as lures to attract mates."
It does seem to be the case that just in general elves are seen as quite attractive to a lot of people from other races, regardless of whether they actually want to get into relationships with us or not. A friend told me youngsters of other races often dream about playing around with an elf, but she might have been exaggerating. Though the idea that we are more promiscuous, and have stronger libidos than other races is pretty common, as far as I've heard.
"It's not just them though, I quite enjoy the taste of my wife as well," she adds playfully.
"Actually, a friend of mine has an interesting theory of her own on that subject. She thinks that we actually have the same ancestors as the alraune, and the reason we diverged down different paths is because of our choice of pollinators. They kept breeding with plant pollen, while we bred with flesh and blood species, and that gradually made us more and more flesh and blood ourselves."
"I kind of like that idea, but... genetically we don't have that much commonality, and modern day alraune can't breed through sexual intercourse at all. If they once could, there is little evidence of it. Then again, we are semi-magical races, and as I said we don't fully understand how magic affects genetics."
"Personally I think it's more likely the Goddess created us on a similar principle, but as distinct species. We were always intended to breed with other flesh and blood species, but I can see that changing our bodies over time as we evolved. My friend and I do agree that is likely how we learned to walk around freely, and swiftly as we do now. Legends and stories of mobile elves are more recent than those of finding stationary ones in forests, and meadows."
"That sort of adaptation, or assimilation could also explain how we developed our double set of genitalia. So we could 'pollinate' others, and not just be the ones who got 'pollinated', but we still retained the trait to make more elves above all else. It would have also allowed us to breed with each other, as we can now."
"There are some who believe we had both sets from the beginning, rather than developing that later, but the community is torn on that one. We only have a consensus on us at least having a vagina, or an equivalent seed-receptacle from the start."
She leans back in her chair, and sighs a little. "We still have so many questions we will likely never get answers to."
"If we could breed with each other all along, why was there a need to be able to attract other races? Was our population so low that we wanted to attract others to bolster our numbers quicker? Did the Goddess grant us that ability after we were already created? Or were we intended to work that way from the start? Why create a people that requires outside assistance to breed? Because that sort of thing is common in flora, for instance bees and flowers? And why were we all made to look like attractive women to other races? Why not diverse appearances to appeal to different tastes? The alraune, and the dryads also resemble attractive women in their own way, so... maybe the Goddess just really likes women? Unless she decides to tell us herself, we'll never know for sure, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised."
She stretches her arms into the air, and sighs in a more content way.
"Well, that's about it for my theory. Our written and visual records started not long after we began to form what we today recognise as society. The records are hardly perfect, or comprehensive, so it's not as if every question about how early elven civilisation was like is answered, but there's less mystery. By that time it seems we functioned similarly to other mortal races, and had what they recognised as villages, where we conducted trade. Of course we have to consider bias when it comes to records from outsiders, but our own records largely corroborate that impression."
She smiles softly. "Honestly it's kinda cute how simple our language was back then. Sure you have to study to read ancient elven, but that isn't because it's from some super advanced ancient civilisation. I'm not sure why that idea has gained any traction. It seems very much the opposite, but with how much has changed between then and now, it's still unrecognisable to modern eyes. No matter how simple the script actually is."
Having looked at some ancient records myself, I feel like 'simple' is a relative term.
"Sure, but at least in terms of forming a society, and eventually a nation, our beginnings weren't terribly complicated. I'm more interested in what came before then. Though it is interesting that we seem to have always been more communal, and close knit than other mortal races. Well, some tribes of beastfolk have similar histories, so I shan't say we were entirely unique in that respect. However it seems like elf on elf conflict has always been sparse, so maybe that's part of why our modern society is the way it is."
"Or maybe I'm being way too idyllic, and I think too highly of us. I certainly don't doubt that it took a lot of hard work to get where we are today, and I have seen for myself how we used to be more... orthodox. I just... maybe it's simple naivety, but I want to believe we were always inclined to become like this."
On that optimistic thought we call the interview, or perhaps the lesson, to a close. She has left me with a lot to think about.