A Spark in the Wind

Appendix C: The Elves' Way of Life

Though one their heritage be, long has it been since the elven peoples have abandoned their traditions and opted for new ones, forging their own paths. Although now that scholars debate about the Kapi'i migrations and what effects they had on the descendants, history seems vaguer than it once did.

Whatever be, it is no secret that the descendants of Qualior are an incredibly diverse people with a multitude of cultures. As such, nearly every way an elf grows up depends on their Clan and alignment.

But for this section, let us focus mostly on the wood-elves and high-elves of Alledoria, with whom we are so familiar. This is not meant to be an encyclopædia, but rather a quick guide to the peoples who dwell these lands.

Point to note: the writer of this statement is aware of how ridiculous the preposition of defining the wood-elves in one paragraph may sound, considering how the thousands of woodland tribes have their own ways of doing every single thing. But still, we'll try our best using the most common traits of the peoples.

Also another note: the high-elves of Alímar are divided amongst eleven Clans, each of which is further divided into thousands of Houses. For example, the House of Alinor is but one of the Houses of the Minyär Clan.

(i)

OF THE SENATE, THE MONARCHY AND POLITICS IN GENERAL

Though these days few are brave enough for politics, it is considered a noble thing in Alinor for hundreds of old people to gather in a colossal hall and then bicker about whom amongst them is stupider, though their collective intelligence is below ground level.

Anyway, so the Kingdom of Alinor is a constitutional monarchy, whose military matters (especially on the offense) are governed by the king (which is a gender-neutral term), whilst other issues are governed by the various Parliaments of Alinor.

At the lowest level of administration you have communes, which may be rural (i.e. villages) or urban (i.e. towns), each of which may have several sources of production (i.e. farmlands, lumber camps, fisheries, mining facilities, factories, etc.), which are all collectively owned by the people who work those lands, each their own swathe of working ground.

These proletariats can trade their produces for other goods as per their needs, being charged a certain percentage of their produce to the higher government as tax. These communes have their own courts and senates for local matters and addressing small-time criminals as per the constitution of Alinor, the elected head of the commune earns the title of leader.

Together with many communes and wilds (i.e. unorganised land either uninhabited or left to local tribes), one makes a province, with its own provincial government to settle local disputes and mount hasty defences to protect their districts from invasion (if any rise), ruled by an elected head called a governor and a council of ministers.

Together many provinces make up the Kingdom of Alinor, where all the governors represent their own provinces in the Grand Senate. The leader of the country is called the Supreme Chancellor, who rules from the Senate in Ostithil and delivers the final verdicts on national matters. In times of military emergency though, emergency dictatorship can be temporarily handed to the King of Alinor if two-thirds of the senators agree.

On the other hand, the Forest Kingdom is somewhat in the middle of a feudalist and socialist nation, with elements of both.

At the lowest level are the individual tribes, each with their own chieftains and regulations, some with fixed fiefdoms and others roving, the chieftain, either elected from the masses or (rarer) earned via heredity, is responsible for settling internal disputes, collecting taxes, and sending soldiers at the overlord's command.