Elves

From the books

Appearance and standing in Luna

Luna's elves are marked by pointed ears and, traditionally, a shimmering glow in the eyes; Mary Halmund's plainly human eyes set her apart at the citadel gates. King Aurelion's golden eyes glow with luminarite light, and his silver-white hair falls behind ears hung with luminarite-set gold. The high priest Balorin Dawnbringer wears long blue-grey hair, with pointed ears swept back.

Elves hold the wealth and the high ground of the city. In the trade district only the wealthy and the native elves walk at leisure, the Radiant Bank is elf-owned, and Moonlit Serenity admits "elves only" at its door, where elven nobles in silver masks watch Seraphina humiliated for their amusement. The Festival crowd divides along the same line: the starving come up from the slums, the elves come down from the citadel in silk and gold.

Purity and contempt

Prince Alerion voices the hardest form of elven supremacy. He calls the elves "the chosen" and humans a lesser race, short-lived, frantic and chaotic, and he warns that a human queen and her half-blood child mean the end of the elves. Once he is made captain of the guard, every half-blood in the citadel, ten in all, is executed in the courtyard. Noble elves then protest at the citadel road under the cry "Purity for Luna". King Aurelion, slipping into madness, briefly wonders whether the true taint on his kingdom lies in his own spirit rather than in anyone's blood.

The same contempt reaches the Fae. An elven templar escorting the Spire Tithe candidates handles a Sylph girl and mocks her "Fae stink" against his own pure blood.

Tongues

High Elvish is the flowing, ritual language of the Luminarite church, created by the elven theocracy to replace Old Speak and mandatory in all official rites. Balorin also uses Old Elvish wards, taught only to high priests.

Grimsward and Eldanarë

Grimsward's western elves still send tribute to Luna; crates under Grimsward's sigil arrive at the docks. Old pacts and shared blood bind the two realms, and Grimsward's people are known for a stubborn resilience bred by rock, cold and hostile borders. Sir Eadric the Steadfast fights for Grimsward in the King's Tournament with a broadsword forged in the deep fires of its mines, and Grimsward elves in frost-pale armour attend the Festival.

Astarion persuades his father to retire to Eldanarë Haven, describing it as a sanctuary of elven blood and light whose luminarite burns pure because no human hand has ever mined it. Aurelion sails there by night from Luna's harbour, dreaming of starting over with no human taint.

To the Highlanders, elven refinement means little: they do not fall silent for "elf polished vowels", though some of their own old bloodlines look almost elven.

Seen from Crowbrook, Luna's divine order is built around Light, purity and hierarchy, and Luna calls mixed blood impure, just as the Fae Houses call crossed currents taboo.