'Elf' is the word the dh'oine gave us when 'Aen Seidhe' proved too long and difficult to pronounce. [ 'Dh'oine' fairly clearly meaning humans, and sounds like an slight, sort of the same way 'elf' sounds to Iorveth's ears most of the time. He understands it isn't so hostile a thing in Kirkwall, but century old habits are hard to break. ] But yes, I consider myself the same race as you and those in the alienage here, only variant like regional tribes might be, as dialects are to a mother tongue. I'll answer to elf here, because that unity means something, but in my homeworld, it is an insult.
[ He gets the importance of it, and doesn't intend to separate himself more than he already is by being a Rifter, but it's long been part of their culture that Aen Seidhe are a division of a race that was once a much larger whole. ]
We have stories of our people beginning as a single race, the Aen Undod. They then split into several different clans and separated to travel the spheres, as the Rifts pull from different realms, though the technique of it was long lost even to our ancestors. [ because the Witcher has legit dimensional travel and it's weird and terrible mostly. ] The closest others to us are the Aen Elle, who inhabit a realm beyond a thin veil to ours. The very desperate of my people like to imagine they're trying to break through to rescue us, or help push back the humans.
[ Clearly, Iorveth doesn't hold the same hope, because how do any even know they're there, and even if they were, it's most likely they'd know about as much about the Aen Seidhe as the Aen Seidhe know of the Aen Elle - next to nothing, fairy tales. as for war, his people fight because otherwise they die in squalor, and Iorveth doesn't have it in him to fizzle out quietly. The sentiment of sorrow gets a brief nod, and there's nothing much more to say of it beyond that. It is what it is, and it's far too late to do anything about it. But mixed children, that's something current. ]
Mixed children, yes. We have no elf-blooded humans like Thedas. Half-elves have a mixture of traits that appear with whatever random selection of genetics they're born with. They're scorned as much as any other elf is, though, truthfully, most humans these days have some amount of elven blood in their ancestry. [ Niflgaardians especially, but it's a truth most elect to ignore. ]
My people are few and dwindling. The struggle we face now is avoiding extinction.
no subject
[ He gets the importance of it, and doesn't intend to separate himself more than he already is by being a Rifter, but it's long been part of their culture that Aen Seidhe are a division of a race that was once a much larger whole. ]
We have stories of our people beginning as a single race, the Aen Undod. They then split into several different clans and separated to travel the spheres, as the Rifts pull from different realms, though the technique of it was long lost even to our ancestors. [ because the Witcher has legit dimensional travel and it's weird and terrible mostly. ] The closest others to us are the Aen Elle, who inhabit a realm beyond a thin veil to ours. The very desperate of my people like to imagine they're trying to break through to rescue us, or help push back the humans.
[ Clearly, Iorveth doesn't hold the same hope, because how do any even know they're there, and even if they were, it's most likely they'd know about as much about the Aen Seidhe as the Aen Seidhe know of the Aen Elle - next to nothing, fairy tales. as for war, his people fight because otherwise they die in squalor, and Iorveth doesn't have it in him to fizzle out quietly. The sentiment of sorrow gets a brief nod, and there's nothing much more to say of it beyond that. It is what it is, and it's far too late to do anything about it. But mixed children, that's something current. ]
Mixed children, yes. We have no elf-blooded humans like Thedas. Half-elves have a mixture of traits that appear with whatever random selection of genetics they're born with. They're scorned as much as any other elf is, though, truthfully, most humans these days have some amount of elven blood in their ancestry. [ Niflgaardians especially, but it's a truth most elect to ignore. ]
My people are few and dwindling. The struggle we face now is avoiding extinction.