Page 38 - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Deluxe

the People may learn all that has passed for them and their what it means to an elf to usher a child into the world.
predecessors. Now, in songs that were once only sung in cel- They cannot understand how a birth is both a joy and a
sorrow, a reunion and a parting.
ebration, I may teach you brief candles of humanity of the
Each birth represents an elf soul that has been to Ar-
People and your own place among us. vandor and returned. Mortal elves cannot know if it is
-Cymbiir Haevault, Lorekeeper of House Haevault the soul of someone recently dead or someone who died
millennia ago. They cannot even be certain it is an elf
A memory is a curious thing. One can come into con- of the same world. The only assurance they have is that
sciousness unbidden, evoked by an unexpected scent it is an elf of their own kind, for when the primal elves
or the words spoken by a friend. A memory can also be went against Corellon and took permanent shapes, they
elusive, foiling all attempts to recall it and sometimes chose this fate for themselves.
remembered only after the hunt is abandoned, like a How many elves are born to which parents or in any
word on the tip of one's tongue. Some memories pull at given generation is a topic studied by elves in the hope
the heart, weighing it down and holding it there as an of discerning some sign from Corellon or others of the
anchor moors a ship. Others buoy it up or make it flutter Seldarine. Aerdrie Faenya, the winged goddess of air
joyously like the wings of a bird. Some memories lie in and sky, is thought to ferry souls from Arvandor into the
wait like predators, ready to leap out when the mind or world, bringing them down from the heavens to begin
the heart is vulnerable. Some linger like scars, not al- their mortal lives anew. A decade in which many elves
ways visible but ever-present. are born across the world is thought to be a harbinger
Perhaps more so than any other race, elves are famil- of danger that great numbers of elves will be needed
iar with all aspects of memory. From birth, elves don't to withstand. In contrast, if an elven community goes
sleep but instead enter a trance when they need to rest. a century or longer without a new birth, members take
In this state, elves remain aware of their surroundings this as a sign that the community has stagnated and
while immersing themselves in memories. What an elf must disband.
remembers during this reverie depends largely on how Because of the rarity of elf births, siblings might be
long the elf has lived, and the events of the lives that the separated in age by decades, or even a century or more.
elf's soul has experienced before. Thus, few elves grow up playing with brothers or sisters
of similar age and instead rely on friends for the devel-
opment of their social skills. In exceedingly rare cases,
CHILDHOOD
a birth might produce twins or- scarcer yet- triplets.
Much has been made of the relative fecundity of humans These offspring, which the elves refer to as soul sib-
compared to elves. Ignorant folk wonder how elves can lings, are believed to have a special, intertwined destiny
live so long, yet have so few children. They cannot know

CHAPTER 2 I EL\'ES
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