I've mentioned my home brew campaign world, Thorvar, previously. Here's a link to the Obsidian Portal home page.

I realized that I had 3 players that were using one of each of the three elven races, so one early motivation for me was to go ahead and write up the article about how they went from one elven race to three. Here's what I came up with.

The Sundering of the Elven Nation

The first, greatest rulers in the lands of Arek were the elves. At the end of the dawn wars, when the world was scarred and wounded by the bloody remnants of the war between the gods and the primordials, only three of the Gods were exempted from the compact struct during the peace accords creating the Primodial Veil which surrounded the world. These three were tasked with repairing the damage inflicted, and thus were chosen the three sibling gods, Corellon, Lolthana, and Eladrineth. Born of the world itself, it was felt between the gods that they would have the best and most neutral of the gods interests’ in mind.

The ancient ancestors of the first races had already spread throughout the lands, but the caretaker gods’ decided they needed servants which were more closely related to their interests to aid them in their task. Towards this end, they took a subset of these early mortals and infused them with a fragment of their own immortal essence, helping them to ascend and giving them a fragment of immortality. These newly elevated servants, the elves, were then given to the world to remake, and glorious were their numerous works. They planted and tended the forests, filling them with animals and helping to shape the natural world. To the seas they gave fish, and to the air they created the birds. It was said that the very wind echoed with the joy of their laughter and the world was filled with the simple energy of their love and care, and above all ruled by the elves. The crown jewel, upon deeming their works in the world complete, was the construction of the magical Kingspire Citadel from which to reign across the world, built both as practical seat of government and tribute to their divine progenitors.

This, however, was not to last. Emboldened by their favored place amongst the gods, the elves began to rule the world more openly. Arrogance took the place of humility in their hearts. They began to treat the world more as their subjects, and this bred discontent amongst the people. Moreover, the elven race began to drift into separate directions, factionalizing along lines of loyalty to the individual elven gods. Sensing that their subjects loyalties were waning, the youngest of the triumvirate, Lolthana, suggested a competition amongst the elves, believing that if the growing factions were motivated to come up with great works on behalf of their patrons, that the subjects would be inspired to become more loyal to them. Eladrineth, always the more creative of the group, agreed at once. Corellon, however, had reservations, but eventually relented at the behest of his two sisters. The three factions, tasked with this new goal, set to work immediately.

The follower of Corellon sought to improve the world in which they currently lived, and did so by granting the worlds peoples each a great gift. They taught agriculture to some, mining and craftsmanship to the others, in the hopes that the world would be a better place for it. As per Corellon’s typical MO, it was a subtle but generous gift to the world. Lolthana, inspired by the pristine works of some of her favorite creatures, sought to build her own magical fortress to rival the Kingspire, one which possessed all the strength and fragile beauty o the web of a spider. It was elegant, beautiful, and possessing of an underlying strength, just like the goddess that designed it. The greatest of works, however, was produced by Eladrineth, who took the brightest and best parts of the world and molded them into her own plane of existence, the Feywild. It was bright, filled with primal energy and life, and every mote of dust and blade of grass seemed charged with arcane energy. Corellon, laughing, had to accede that her works were the finest of them all and a fitting tribute to the world, and chose Eladrineth as the victor. Lolthana, however, having poured her heart and soul into the creation of her webbed fortress, could not handle the defeat.

Jealousy immediately crept into and blackened her divine soul. In a fit of passion, she stuck a blade of mystical energy between the ribs of her sister just as Corellon chose her as the victor, striking her dead immediately. Corellon was horrified and, in a fit of rage, seized the webbed fortress Lolthana had forged and, trapping her within it, cast it into the depths of the Abyss forever. The followers of the slain Eladrineth wailed for justice upon Lolthana’s followers, but Corellon denied them. Sensing that civil war was coming amongst the elves, he forbade that any Eladrin should strike a blow against their kindred. Towards this end, Corellon banished the followers of Lolthana to the Shadowfell, the plane of the dead, and branded them forever as “Drow,” the elven word for outcast. Denied their vengeance, the Eladrin withdrew from the world to the plane created by their slain goddess, their to rule and remember her in their grief. The remaining elves, the followers of Corellon, were left as stewards of the world, vastly undermanned and no longer strong enough to maintain their tenuous hold. Emboldened by this fact and embittered by the resources the hungry gods had consumed in their contest, the barbarian tribes rose up and overthrew their rulers, storming the Kingspire which was destroyed in a flash of magical energy. In this moment, Corellon knew that he had failed. His time as caretaker of the world had ended, and it was time for him to return to the Astral Sea to live amongst the rest of the gods and leave the world to mortals.

His heart filled with grief, Corellon turned to his remaining followers and bade them to go out into the world and live amongst it, no longer as rulers but rather as a part of the world they had created. Sorrowfully, Corellon took his leave and rose up amongst the stars, leaving his people behind.

Since then, the elven people have divided into three very distinct nations. The elves remain in the shadows and fringes of the world, taking the lessons of their failed empire to heart. They rarely stay in one place, preferring to be on the move and look for new places to guide the hands and fates of mortals. The Eladrin ruled the Feywild as they ruled the lands of Arek long prior to their departure, their arrogance only having grown over the eons of uncontested rule. Only now that their lands have been invaded have they deigned to rejoin the mortal world. The Drow, having endured in the lands of the dead for this amount of time, haven grown isolationist and distrusting of anyone outside of their society. Though torn with the internal strife and competition that their patron, now known simply as Lolth, had inspired in them, their understanding that there is no one outside of Drow society who can be trusted.