Westerelf

The Westerelfs, more commonly known as the Sea Elves and sometimes as the Westroni, and very occasionally as the seal-people by the inhabitants of Haydrea, are a group of elves which have had ties to Engelain for numerous millennia, so much so that they have become recognised as their own independent group.

The split between the Westerelfs and the elves that can be found east of Engelain occurred countless millennia ago. Some like to speculate that the war between Tyrrus and Soahc destroyed the ancient elven forests which stretched across Engelain, cutting off the Westerelfs in Western Engelain from the rest of their kin, and setting about a wasteland from which the Great Plains would arise. The Westerelfs were known to be active in the north-western reaches of Engelain as far back as eight-thousand years, so there is credence to this suggestion, though it does not explain the lack of disparate elves throughout Engelain at large.

The Westerelfs once held a sizeable kingdom in north-west Engelain, until they supposedly angered Arboretum the Overking and were driven off of the mainland, though the Westerelfs themselves tell a different tale of the dwarf whom they name the Osierman. Since then, the Westerelfs have maintained primarily a sea presence, having conquered and inhabited numerous islands. When they begun developing a sense of personal identity separate to that of the elves from which they were derived, they begun calling themselves the Westroni People, though to the general population of Engelain they became known as the Sea Elves.

Known for raiding and pillaging, the sea elves are both nomad and pirate. Though there are some which worship Tyrrus, more of them worship arcane and petty gods, picked up from the pagan peoples on the islands which they inhabit. The expansion of various empires have often brought the sea elves to the brink of extinction, yet each inevitable collapse has issued in a new age for sea elf expansion.

Sea elves are of the belief that there is a mystical paradise land in the west, and when they grow tired of their lifestyle they are known to sail out towards the sea, never to be seen again. Currently, sea elves inhabit only islands to the very north-west of Engelain, as the islands of southern Engelain have been claimed by the Tyrannian Empire, and of western Engelain by the Free Kingdoms. When the mercenary Timruviel Flayvirion declared himself a pirate king six centuries ago, some believed it was a sign of the return of the sea elves. However, Timruviel himself is of the elves of the mysterious elven forest of the east, and has no relation to the Westerelf.