The Elves are not from here. Nor do they wish to be.

The elves come from the Feywild, a magical place full of life and wild growth that exists on a plane separate from the Material Plane. It is fueled by the whimsical emotions of its inhabitants and touches the Material Plane in places where it finds commonality, or where magic is the strongest, such as on Ley Lines. The elves exist here along with several other sylvan beings such as pixies, fairies, hags, and satyrs. The terrain of the Feywild is made up of natural formations such as mountains, forests, and oceans. Cities and farms are almost non-existent. So, ages ago, when the elves expressed interest in building such things, the Aspects took notice. The Aspects are spirits of the natural world who act as rulers in the Feywild (however loose a term that might be), and they did not look kindly on what they saw as the beginnings of civilization which they believed to be the downfall of the Material Plane.

Shal’vash, leader of the elven kind, petitioned the Aspects to be given rule over a small patch of Feywild land. But the request itself sent the Aspects into a rage. While the elves were excited for the possibilities a society might bring, the Aspects, fearing the industry that brought ruin to Material Plane, expressed rage and fury that sent the Feywild into a tumultuous period of storm and fire. For the first time in the Feywild’s ageless history, its inhabitants were misaligned with its environment. And so the elves exiled themselves.

They grew a tree in New Sharandar Forest in the Feywild that acted as a portal to the Material Plane. It allowed them to travel into the Seldora Forrest, and so they did and established Thalashal. There, the elves thrived and they brought with them a new form of magic to the Material Plane that its denizens were more than willing to learn.

But the Aspects, still enraged, and in a petty show of jealousy, cut off the elven portal from the magic that powered it. The Portal Tree gleamed no more and the elves were stuck on the Material Plane. At the same time, the elves felt as though they had lost a great portion of magic within themselves. This altered their spirits and made them more closed-off and xenophobic. Only a few elves were able to break free of this curse and move off on their own. They moved into the woods and attempted to commune with the Material Plane in the same way they had in the Feywild. In this way, they became more connected with nature and at home in their new land.

Nearly all elves now still strive to return to the Feywild in any way they can find, but the way seems to be blocked everywhere they turn. No one knows for sure its fate or what the Aspects have let it become in the elves’ absence.