In the Beginning . . .
 

          From the primordial turmoil at the center of the universe sprang the gods full-fledged, full-formed.  Each claimed jurisdiction over certain effects, as all were equally endowed with the power and force of the cosmos.  They cooperated for the first (and the last) time to create the worlds.  Their creation was beautiful, filled with stark mountains and gleaming ocean depths, rich, green woodlands, and an ocean of cloud and sky, and the gods saw that it was good.

          Some of the gods, upon seeing this, grew black and jealous in their hearts.  They envied and coveted the creations of their fellows.  Why, they reasoned, could they not have all of creation as their own?  And so they began to make war on the other gods.  One of the most vicious and vocal of their number was the one called Gruumsh.

          Among these First Beings were the Seldarine, the High Brothers and Sisters of the Wood.  They wept to see these tidings, for blood flowed in the heavens and they were wise enough to see what this would bring.  With grim determination, Corellon Larethian, the eldest among them, forged sword and crafted bow, and he stood against Gruumsh, to defend his sisters and brothers.

          The Godswar raged across the pristine fields of the planets for ages; how long, no one knows.  Each combatant drew great wounds from the spirit and the body of his or her foes.  While other contenders fell by the wayside, too weary to continue or destroyed utterly, Gruumsh and Corellon would not break off.  They traversed the planes, and they splashed the other’s blood across the lands.  As the day waned, Gruumsh began to strengthen with the oncoming darkness and Corellon wearied.  He looked to the heavens for inspiration; he looked to the moons and stars.

          Above him, Corellon’s sister Sehanine watched the battle with growing dismay from the glowing silver orb of the moon.  Her love for her brother overwhelmed her.  Silver tears fell like rain upon Corellon’s stricken, upturned face, and they mingled freely with his blood.  Then Corellon saw the Seldarine in the heavens, and it was there that he found his fortitude.  His eyes blazing with courage, Corellon Larethian drew back his sword and with a single, mighty blow, he cleaved out Gruumsh’s left eye.

          Gruumsh howled in agony, clutching what was left of his face.  Overwhelmed by pain and the embarrassment of having been defeated, he fled to the netherworld, to the darkness that had brought him strength.  There he nursed his hate.  He swore vengeance upon the First of the Seldarine and all who stood with him.  Forever after, that vengeance would shape the cosmos.

          Corellon, exhausted, met Sehanine’s gaze and smiled.  The tears that she had shed, mixed with his blood, ran in rivulets from his face.  Where the holy mixture fell to the ground and mingled with the soil, something wonderful happened.  From the love between the two, new beings were created in the image of the Seldarine.  These beings would come to call themselves the Tel’Quessir, and be called by others the Elves.  Corellon and Sehanine nurtured these, the greatest of their creations, and taught them about the world and cosmos.  They taught the Elves the ways of magic and of war, for even then, Corellon knew that now that blood had been shed in the world, his children would be called upon many times to defend themselves.

          Other deities saw these new and wondrous creatures, and they sought to create their own.  The Morndinsamman forged the Dwarves of stone and spirit; the Lords of the Golden Hills crafted the Gnomes of polished gems.  Yondalla brought forth the Halflings in the manner that eventually, all mortals would bring forth their children in.  The fickle gods of the humans created them later, some in joy and some in pain.  And Gruumsh One-Eye and his like created their own races from blood and spite and hate.  From him came the Orcs, who would hunt and plague the Elves forever after.  There also came goblins, and kobolds, and all manner of beasts and monsters and animals, each created by their own gods in their own image.  The gods of the various races divided up the world, each claiming a part for their children, but each secretly encouraged their creations to spread further, and the races clashed for territory.

          The Seldarine looked to Corellon Larethian as their leader.  To keep the peace among them, he divided the world so that each would have something that was all their own.  Corellon claimed jurisdiction of the Elves and their worldly concerns, magic and warfare.  To Sehanine Moonbow was given, as was her due, control of the matters of elven spirit; their dreams and their passage to the spirit realms when their earthly time was done and they were ready to join their Seldarine parents.  To Aerdrie Faenya was given the skies and its creatures; to Sashelas, the ocean depths, who would be known as Deep Sashelas thereafter; to Rillifane Rallathil, the primordial forests and all things green and leaved; to Labelas Enoreth, the mountains, and the passage of time.  Because Labelas sacrificed his own eye in the pursuit of wisdom, he was given mastery of this as well.

          To the twins, Fenmarel Mestarine and Solonor Thelandira, he gave rulership of the beasts of the land.  Fenmarel, who dwelled in the wilderness, grew closer to the beasts among whom he lived.  Solonor, who lived among the Elven people, taught them how to live in harmony with the beasts, hunting only what they needed and teaching them the art of bowcraft.

          To his own children, Corellon Larethian gave the matters that move the elven heart.  To Hanali Celanil was given romantic love; to Erevan Ilesere and Vhaeraun, the spirit of cleverness and mischief; to Zandilar the Dancer, the love of life; to Eilistraee, music and joy.  Last but not least, Corellon gave to his beloved wife and lover, Araushnee, control of artisans and the mastery of elven destiny above all her children.  The Seldarine came to dwell in the High Forest of Arvandor, and for a time, all was peaceful.

          But jealousy burned in the heart of the goddess Araushnee; jealousy at the love between Corellon and Sehanine and what that love had wrought, and above all, jealousy at her husband’s position as the Colonel of Arvandor.  Sensing her discontent, Corellon created for his wife elves who bore her beautifully dark features, and gave them unto her.  Instead of easing her anger, this only enraged her, for she believed her husband was patronizing her.  But she hid her rage behind a web of deceit, and she took these dark elves under her wing and she taught them to hate their Creator.  She convinced Vhaeraun to join her in rebellion by appealing to his pride, and together the two plotted against the Protector.

          Others of the Seldarine began to shape Corellon’s creation in their own image.  Deep Sashelas made elves who were masters of the ocean depths.  Labelas Enoreth guided the elves who dwelled in his mountains in the ways of wisdom.  Rillifane Rallathil instructed some of the elves in the lore of the forest.  Corellon himself also made Tel’Quessir who would follow the ways of other Seldarine.  He gave some of the elves wings and gave them to Aerdrie, who called them Avariel, and some elves were given the ability to take the forms of wolves, and they were given to Fenmarel and called Lythari.  In his wisdom, Corellon did not believe that his way was the only truth, and he thought his children might benefit from living according to different laws, and adapting to themselves that which they believed were best.

          In the meantime, Araushnee subverted the dark elves and caused them to make war upon the other elves.  For the first time, elves shed one another’s blood.  This terrible time, now known in history as simply the Elfwar, caused a great schism among the Tel’Quessir.  Having lived their separate ways so long, said the battle-weary warriors, have caused the Ssri-Tel’Quessir to turn against us all.  Why, they reasoned, shouldn’t the sea elves do the same?  Or the avariel, who live so enigmatically?  And the elves began to distrust one another, a distrust that has never quite abated.

          Corellon called upon Araushnee to stop this treachery.  She cursed him and spat in his face.  Open rebellion now seethed forth from Araushnee the Weaver.  She taught her people forbidden arts that perverted all of creation.  Then she elevated one particularly vicious practitioner of these dark arts, an elf maid named Kiaransalee, to the status of divinity and sent her against the Seldarine.  Last, she rallied the dark forces that had fought the Seldarine in the dawn of time, including Gruumsh One-Eye, Corellon’s ancient foe, and these Anti-Seldarine marched upon Arvandor.

          Sehanine, who distrusted Araushnee, learned of the goddess’ dark plan.  But before she could warn the Creator, Vhaeraun, who had watched Sehanine carefully in darkness for just this moment, sealed her in a prison of destiny’s webs and went to his mother’s aid.  He brought with him also his son Selvetarm, a twisted being who had combined his father’s dark heart with his mother Zandilar’s fierce passion and joy of life, a combination that forged within him a love to kill.

          But Araushnee was not among the soldiers at Arvandor’s gates.  Knowing Corellon’s fierce battle prowess from the battle with the orc-god Gruumsh, she knew that her army would be defeated if he took the field.  So as Corellon donned his battle-garments, Araushnee watched her daughter Eilistraee from the sidelines of the battle.  When the Colonel of Arvandor came to the field, Eilistraee drew an arrow upon one of the onrushing goblin gods.  Araushnee worked her subtle magics upon the arrow as the Dark Maiden fired.

          The arrow pierced her father’s breast and he cried out in pain.  Eilistraee too cried out, overcome with anguish at what she had done.  She dropped her bow in horror and ran to her father’s aid, but Aerdrie, having seen the Dark Maiden’s shot, fell upon her from the air in fierce rage and they struggled.  All the while, Araushnee laughed.  Her plans were coming to fruition at last!  The Seldarine were fighting each other and the forces of darkness were at Arvandor’s gate.

          But Sehanine, given strength by Corellon’s anguish, burst from her prison in a beam of moonlight and came to her brother’s side.  She pulled the arrow from his body and healed the wound.  Then she named Araushnee as the one who had planned all of this, and Vhaeraun, Selvetarm, and Kiaransalee as her accomplices.  The Weaver of Destiny denied this charge, but Corellon removed the blinders of his love and saw her dark, withered heart at last.  In great sorrow, he named her tanar’ri, or demon, and banished her to the Abyss, stripping her of her divinity and changing her into a spider-shaped demon so that all might see her as a Weaver of Lies.  With equal sorrow he decreed that Vhaeraun and his son, and the black-hearted Kiaransalee, should be banished as well.  He charged that the color of their hearts should show on their faces, and they and all who followed them turned as black as night.  And as he and Sehanine drove them from Arvandor, the elves of the world below drove the dark elves from the surface and into the depths of the darkest underground, never to return.

          Corellon forgave Eilistraee her unwitting part in the plot, but she could not forgive herself.  She demanded to be banished with her mother and her brother.  She told the Creator that there would come a time when many of the dark elves would begin to see the error of their ways, and they would need someone to look out for them.  She would watch them, she said, and guide the lost back to Arvandor.  She would teach them to remember love and joy in their hearts.  Corellon was saddened that his daughter was leaving, but he saw her wisdom, and he agreed.  And she too left Arvandor forever.  She never drew a bow again.

           In time, Corellon and Sehanine became lovers, and the world went on.  But even then Araushnee would not give up her evil quest.  Now calling herself Lolth, Queen of Spiders, she regained divinity through plotting, assassination, and treachery.  She seduced Fenmarel and won from him many of the Seldarine’s secrets before he saw through her dark illusions and spurned her.  Never again trusting himself, he retreated entirely to the wilderness and banished himself from Arvandor.  The dark elves, now known as the dhaeraow, or Traitors, continued to make war on the elves.  In one such raid, the drow slaughtered the wife of a sylvan elf named Shevarash, who swore eternal vengeance upon Lolth and her minions.  Thousands of drow fell to his sword and arrows before he was finally slain by an army of the dark elves and demonic minions.  Against Corellon’s will, Fenmarel granted Shevarash divinity.  But now enough bitterness existed in elven hearts that Shevarash was needed to save the elves from following a darker fate.  And Corellon knew that should it become necessary he could not himself destroy Lolth, for he loved her still.

          This is not the story told by every elf, or indeed, by most of them.  Being a fractious people, we each have our own stories, glorifying our own importance, telling the tale as we wish to see it.  But as near as I can tell, this is what actually happened.  I am almost certainly mistaken in many aspects, because one does not discuss these things with the Seldarine; it is too painful for them, even now.  This is, however, perhaps as close to the truth as we mere mortals will ever get.

            Take heed, my brothers and sisters, of the lessons in this tale.  The rifts between us are sown by one whom we distrust and condemn, and yet, we feed the rifts.  Reach out across the barriers.  Remember, whatever else may divide us, we are the Tel’Quessir, formed of Sehanine’s tears and Corellon’s blood.  We are all one people.

                                                                               - Lleniares Moonchilde