Vaalingrade
Legend
Some setting backstory to explain this:
The gods that actually created everything aren't the gods everyone knows or even don't know in the current place in the timeline. There were Creators, who made everything by stealing from the Elemental Realms and built and designed the baseline life. The baselines sapient was something very human-like which they then modified from there. It's possible this original creature evolved naturally on Created worlds and were then transplanted to others.
Then there're the Outer Gods, near-reality warpers who are limited in world creation to essentially copy-pasting Created Worlds and then altering them. Think of them as essentially creating fan fiction of the original Created worlds; these can match or even surpass the original material, but the original template remains. The best they can directly create are smaller parasite planes known as planar moons.
There are also Planar Gods, which are like MtG Planewalkers.
So.
Elves
On a planar moon out there in the universe, an Outer God decided to test the limits of how stupid powerful he could make something off the available sapients. This resulted in the sidhe; essentially gods on that moon, with power-by-consensus over the very environment as well as inherent magic and power of their own.
There were also human-like template species on that moon as well and... well humans gonna human and intermarriage between sidhe and these humans happened. The result was a long-lived people with an inherent mana battery known as the elves, who blend both the technology-building of the non-magical humans and the spellshaping ability of the sidhe.
They're tall, broad shouldered and dark-skinned folk adapted to living in and shaping the ultra-growth forest around them with long arms, limber toes and long multi-directional ears. They live in cities grown by shaping the forest canopy into shelters and bridges and furniture.
In the intervening years, the sidhe found a way to leave the moon, leaving the elves to what they would eventually learn was a world dying because its god got bored and stopped supporting it. Lucky for them, a new Planar God arrived and transported the moon to a new Created World, giving them a means by which to move between those worlds and interact with the also-refugee peoples her allies would bring there.
The elves seeded parts of the world with ultra-growth forests and founded new cities, while others integrated into other societies. Eventually, the offspring of the elves and these new humans brought about the naevin (half-elves) who at the current date of the world the plurality population of the world.
Orcs later.
The gods that actually created everything aren't the gods everyone knows or even don't know in the current place in the timeline. There were Creators, who made everything by stealing from the Elemental Realms and built and designed the baseline life. The baselines sapient was something very human-like which they then modified from there. It's possible this original creature evolved naturally on Created worlds and were then transplanted to others.
Then there're the Outer Gods, near-reality warpers who are limited in world creation to essentially copy-pasting Created Worlds and then altering them. Think of them as essentially creating fan fiction of the original Created worlds; these can match or even surpass the original material, but the original template remains. The best they can directly create are smaller parasite planes known as planar moons.
There are also Planar Gods, which are like MtG Planewalkers.
So.
Elves
On a planar moon out there in the universe, an Outer God decided to test the limits of how stupid powerful he could make something off the available sapients. This resulted in the sidhe; essentially gods on that moon, with power-by-consensus over the very environment as well as inherent magic and power of their own.
There were also human-like template species on that moon as well and... well humans gonna human and intermarriage between sidhe and these humans happened. The result was a long-lived people with an inherent mana battery known as the elves, who blend both the technology-building of the non-magical humans and the spellshaping ability of the sidhe.
They're tall, broad shouldered and dark-skinned folk adapted to living in and shaping the ultra-growth forest around them with long arms, limber toes and long multi-directional ears. They live in cities grown by shaping the forest canopy into shelters and bridges and furniture.
In the intervening years, the sidhe found a way to leave the moon, leaving the elves to what they would eventually learn was a world dying because its god got bored and stopped supporting it. Lucky for them, a new Planar God arrived and transported the moon to a new Created World, giving them a means by which to move between those worlds and interact with the also-refugee peoples her allies would bring there.
The elves seeded parts of the world with ultra-growth forests and founded new cities, while others integrated into other societies. Eventually, the offspring of the elves and these new humans brought about the naevin (half-elves) who at the current date of the world the plurality population of the world.
Orcs later.