If you have read or played the game Swords & Shaman, you know that elves have particularly mysterious origins and appear as the remnants of a people from a bygone catastrophe. In fact, elves are all over Swords & Shaman, albeit they don't appear as the traditional fantasy elves. Rather, they are tribal and neolithic, a far cry from the Quendi of Tolkien's mythology.
The fact that elves exist at all in the game is somewhat accidental. Originally, the intent was that everyone was just human. Humans are actually pretty interesting in their own right and and they make excellent allies and monsters all their own. Of course this wouldn't be a Swords & Sorcery style fantasy setting without some extraordinary monsters or beings.
Of our initial gaming group, a majority of the participants had a vested interest in 'elves'. This was something that my wife took greatly to heart, and much of their existence, as well as the existence of various magic and spells are owed to her.
So as we are revisiting what 'defines' Swords & Shaman, so to are we looking at any of the prior canon with an eye to solidify those aspects of the game.
When we do publish the Definitive Edition, one of the first, most apparent things to stand out will be that 'elves' are now referred to as Lemurians.
This might seem like a 'retcon' on our part, but I believe in no way does this go against our existing canon.
Then why is the new nomenclature necessary?
It was necessary for two important reasons, both of which I have already alluded to here.
First, and I think importantly, in contemporary fantasy speak, 'elf' produces in the imagination an archetype largely of Tolkien's creation. This is further entrenched in fantasy gaming by the ever present shadow of D&D. Strictly speaking, any number of names can apply to a being with similar characteristics. Of course there would be other names in a world where modern english is not spoken. In the truest sense, most of the proper names in the rulebook wouldn't actually exist in Sonnegard.
For the record, these are not Tolkien's, Gygax's, or Arneson's elves.
Secondly, the Lemurians of Sonnegard are accidental residents of this world. The term 'Lemuria', goes back to old 19th-20th century theories about the origins of species before plate tectonic theories were widely accepted. It was a mythical place, coined by occultists and psuedo scientists of the time to explain the idea that a lost continent had sunken somewhere in the east which would have connected India and Africa.
As a literary device, it was often used in early 20th century pulp fiction as an alternative lost continent to Atlantis, complete with lost races of strange inhabitants. In this sense, the naming is a bit of a nod to those early fantasy writers.
In another sense, it establishes that these beings are from 'somewhere else'. Somewhere else that they cannot return to.
This is important because the Lemurians are 'elves', but they don't belong to Sonnegard. In fact, their presence there is very disruptive and at times that disruption manifests itself physically, as it did during the Time of Shadows. The remaining Lemurians have reverted to a more primitive state bringing them more in harmony with the space time that Sonnegard inhabits.
I hope to explain more of this if I ever have the opportunity to write the final series of the world ender, but that seems a long way off. In the interim, we're working on some fiction with shorter story arcs regarding a pair of treasure hunters, Leon and Tika, as they uncover some of this lost lore.
But that is another story.
For now, I present you with Lemurians, who are of course elves, but not those elves.
