The Elven Empire.

In the year 1 of the elven calendar, under the great powers of the 12 great families of the elven race, the verdant continent was unified under the rule of the elven empire, Lefheim.

As the elves were a race blessed with talent and longevity, but few in numbers, the new of their own shortcomings. Therefore when thr new empire was created, to avoid unnecesary conflicts with the lesser races, as they called them, the lands of the empire were divided into smaller kingdoms governed by the representatives of each race, selected by both the emperor and the magic council. Althoug they governed in name, the reality was that the kings of each kingdom were subservient to one of the 12 noble families that conformed the magic council.

The way the elves secured the loyalty of this vassal kingdoms, was through marriage therefore making sure that elven blood flowed through the veins of all the kings for generarions to come.

In Lefheim, the purity of ones bloodline was considered as symbol of status, with the 12 families right at the top, followed by the common citizens, the half-bloods and the lesser races at last, just above the slaves.

Even though in theory, the empire was ruled by the emperor, this in fact followed the orders of the magic council. The period of every emperor was 100 years, at the end of each the council elected a new emperor from among the candidates belonging to one of the original 12 families. This rule was made so the emperor would be the one in charge of overseeing all the political matters.

The council itself allowed the emperor to rule how he considered fit, rarely interfering. The role of the council, as the implied was to "regulate" the use of magic in the empire, this includes all the races under the rule of the empire, as well as the normal citizens including even the 12 noble families. Because although elves belived magic to be a way understand the mysteries of nature and gain enlightment, such powerful tool was the same that allowed the elven race to overcome all the other races, but in the same way the elves obtained their power, other could do so as well.

The elves because of magic, in one hand saw limitless potential and a properous future for their people, and in the other, they saw their possible downfall. If magic knowledge wasn't controled and somehow found it's way to the hand of the lesser races, it would spell the doom of elven rule. That's why the council supervised the research of magic, and didn't allowed for outsiders of the 12 families to have access to profound theories, only making public the scraps which were deem as no longer useful to their research.

Common elves were only allowed to learn low level magic, and only royalty and the nobles had access to slightly more powerfull spells and the possibility to make research on their own under the strict supervision of the council. Even then, if they somehow managed to make any remarkable discovery, they were in the obligation to share it all.

But even after all of the restrictions forcefully implemented to control the magical development of the lower class and the lesser races, true talent was difficult to control. From time to time in the long history of the empire, talented infividuals would sprout from the masses, possesing atonishing potential, making incredible discoveries on their own and creating new ingenius way to use magic even with the little knowledge they had in hand. This of course didn't sit well with the council, the rise of new talents from other races despite their control over magic in the empire was something that they had no control over. Therefore after dozens of generations of emperors, in the year 4200 E.C. a new reform of magic was put into motion by the magic council.

In their attempt to rope in the other's races talents, the council created the royal academy of archane knowledge and allowed the entry of those with suficent talent. By joining and graduating you would be acepted as a lower member of the magic council, gaining all the benefits in exchange for your loyalty and secrecy.

Eventualy the 12 families also established their own branches in each of the academies, teaching exclusive specialized knowledge in exchange for those that learned it to become a nominal member of their family, joining their faction. Thanks to the reform the next years, the elven empire, as decribed by historians, entered a new golden era in terms of magic research.

In just a couple of millenia, hundreds of new discoveries in all kind of different fields were made. All of which were of course, supervized by the council and then this analized the impact and importance such piece of knowledge, determining if it was something they could benefit, instead if determined to be dangerous their reseach was prohibited.

Eventualy a new subdivision of the xouncil was created to deal with the destruction, contention and prohibition of simmilar cases of "dangerous knowledge" or "frobidden magic research", this division would later be known as the "keepers" or "silver coats" as their nickname accoined by the mages of the empire to those who wear the uniform.

In all of the long history of the world, only the elves, who created a magic society that ruled over billions of people, were the first ever successful empire. The called themselves the children of nature, the sons of Lessalia as they tool her image a their patron Goddess by worshiping her as the Goddes of Nature and the Mother of all Natural Spirits.

"By the blessings of the Mother of Spirits, we, her children have prospered, and by the grace of her love have we been gifted with longevity. Thus we pray for her to guide us, so to let our great empire last for generations to come".

- Elven society and history. By: tannir elwood year 10000 E.C.