The Power of Ten

Chapter 14-386: The Elven Race

“Lords and Ladies of the Elves, you have put yourselves into positions of responsibility over your people. Let us leave aside the whole matter of new traditions and the like, and reflect on one thing... you have taken up a Duty and Responsibility that ever more elves will simply shirk... because they can.”

Large and radiant eyes in all hues blinked at me, while Master Tolkien frowned thoughtfully.

“One can see this with rather more speed developing among the truly Deep Human Powered with some power. Elves have the same thing, but your long lives are going to push it onto you continually, until it becomes a chore to engage with others outside your limited view, and your biases keep resetting themselves.

“The only way to fight this is with a continual set of whimsy and irreverence... which also do not inspire one to great loyalty to nation and leader.

“The reason for this is simple. You are a Powered people, and you live long years. With magic, you can satisfy all your basic needs with no other tools. You can Endure Elements as a One, allowing you to live anywhere fairly comfortably. You can use Divinations to find where food and water is, or magic to enhance and shape the terrain to raise food about you, or simply conjure some up if you like... which merely requires being a Three.

“Clothes? A mere Cantrip gets you enough needed for modesty. Do you need to make something? Basic tools are a Cantrip away, or the work can be done by magic. Only truly specialty work requires tools that must be crafted and wielded, and naturally we’ll make those magical so we don’t have to waste time on such things again.”

My eyes drifted over to the Countess, who had Primary Druid Levels, which meant she would be heading up the isolationist, back-to-nature movement among the elves. She flushed as I summed up the attitude of many of her followers to general society out in the world.

“I delivered you the Elven Racial Class. Merely with time and some effort, every single Elf alive can reach Ten, though it may take them decades and centuries. If they put in considerable effort, they might even reach Twenty... and they don’t need anyone or anything else but themselves to do so,” I stated, tapping my finger for emphasis.

“You are the unenviable position of ruling over a people that, more and more, will not need you, nor one another. They can provide for themselves with minimal effort, and that will allow them to pursue their own studies, obsessions, whims, and desires as they want.

“Contrast the elves with the vast majority of humans and other races. Halvyr and gnomes are exceptions, but they lack your years. The other races all need their own kind, because it is very difficult to do it all.

“The elves do not need those races, and eventually they don’t really need one another.” I lifted an eyebrow as I looked over the four dissidents. “If you four did not believe this in your hearts, you would have remained under Huellia, would you not?”

They were all taken aback, but it was a rhetorical question, as I turned back to the queen before they could reply. “You also have the problem of having established a hereditary form of government, and you are species of people that might have to put up with a single ruler for literally centuries.” I let that hang there in the air, and she fidgeted uncomfortably. “There has never been a Terran society where the highest positions of power were taken and then simply held onto, with no hope for succession ever, but that is exactly the situation here.

“Queen Ruellian, you could easily rule your people for over a thousand years.” She flushed slightly at that observation. “You have the advantage in Levels. Start adding in the stacking benefits of age, wisdom, and experience, and any successor or upstart starts simply looking less and less competent in comparison... especially to you yourself.

“But I do not think I need to tell you what happens when the same force rules too long, especially if it is one person.” I glanced at Master Tolkien significantly.

He spoke up promptly. “The government becomes hidebound. Stasis and conformity grip the bureaucracy. Whimsical rules and absolute authority combine to weigh heavy upon the people. For those born at the lowest levels of society, there is absolutely no hope of advancement, for all such positions are filled, and will remain filled. For those higher up, the same applies... you become born into your station, and cannot rise beyond!”

I nodded slowly, looking over the elves. “And that is the natural position you find yourselves in, and which you are already falling into.” I glanced at the queen. “You command the greatest number of elves, willing to trust in you and your decisions, believing in your goodwill and ideals. And as long as they are content and don’t wish to rise to greater heights, they will do fine.

“If they do... then you will have issues which, if the Fey are any guideline, will result in some very intense political games to gain the power which will not change without true conflict.”

Images were dancing behind me, of Fey courts and finely-clad nobles, swirls of courtly dances in fine architecture, while handsome elves and beautiful elfin looked on from the sides with daggers in their eyes...

My eyes moved to Duke Vasilmar. “You, sir, are more ambitious, and wish to engage with the outside world. You seek to take advantage of your long years to accrue power among the shorter-lived humans, gradually using seniority to take positions of authority and grip them without effort for generations.

“You probably haven’t considered the sheer amount of resentment and aggression that is going to be generated if you attempt to do that. The fact is that there are laws being debated, first centered on the Powered’s longer lifespans, specifically to stop that behavior from splitting societies open and causing inter-generational warfare. That means what you are trying to do has not escaped notice for the past few decades, and is a problem that will only get worse as lifespans get longer.

“You want to grow in power, and in another day and age, you would probably be a conqueror. Your aggression will not herald a good age for the elves.”

War broke out behind me in Holo, elves in expensive clothing and shining armor being butchered without mercy as common people of all species rose up against their dominance.

He flushed at the rebuke, but I just moved on to Duchess Pryvoka. “You, madam, have the most positive outlook on life, avoiding elf-centric thinking and moving towards the highest Good for all. In terms of a lasting impact on the entire world, your beliefs can lead to great things.

“Elves have the ability to inspire others to greater heights, and add magic and mystery to a group’s dreams that draws greatness to the things they attempt. Of the truly good and great civilizations that have developed on other words, most of them involved elves near their hearts, who abandoned their species-centered ambitions and truly lifted the world around them to glory.”

The Holo strolled through city after town after realm, some shining, some glowing, some growing. All of them had a mixture of styles and cultures, and inhabitants of many races mingling to produce good and greater things. They rose and grew into truly great things... while in the distance, dark things yearned for what they made together.

She flushed and smiled despite herself at my affirmation of her position, while my eyes moved to Earl Mynaek. “Your movement is centered on elves for elves, on the belief that what is best for your people is all that is important, and you are a driving force for isolationism from the world outside, interacting with other species only out of necessity.” I paused significantly as he flushed.josei

“Unfortunately, you do not control the rest of the world, and such isolationism will, in the end, only backfire upon you. Perhaps if this were two thousand years ago and the rest of the world was ignorant of magic you might be able to maintain that position. But in this day and age, with information sharing, the knowledge of how to Level out there, and the simple fact that you do not have the numbers or power to maintain your borders, trying to do such a thing is a death sentence for your people.

“Try all you like, the rest of the world is not going to go away, and when it comes knocking on the door, if you try to kick it in the teeth and tell it to go away, there will be adverse consequences.”

He paled as the holos behind me showed border conflicts and intrusions becoming skirmishes, elevating to fights that drew blood, and continued misunderstandings elevated further into conflicts that razed forests and sent elves fleeing.

“You do not have the power or numbers to do what you want to do. If isolationism is what you want, then you are going to have to leave this world completely, and find another elven nation that will take you.” I leaned forward slightly. “And given your roots are human, an elven nation that shares your views will not take a people as unclean as your own.”

He flushed hotly at my words, as behind me a dozen different elven nations in finery and armor and whatnot sneered down at him from cold and beautiful faces, and made gestures of dismissal or turned away in disdain.

The Druidess, Countess Ilvia, was last. She was trying to look scornful and resentful, but my Aura wasn’t helping her composure. “You, madam, champion the back-to-nature movement of the elves that exists because of their natural status as Powered. Forgoing science for magic, desiring self-reliance instead of interdependency, and regression to progress.

“Elves are among the absolute best species for living at a primitive level. Unfortunately, global society has already advanced beyond the low standard of living that elves excel at, and has moved closer to parity through use of science.

“Ignoring the isolationism which is also required to do this successfully, you still have neither the numbers nor the power to pull this off, and your neighbors are going to get better and stronger while you get weaker.

“Come now. You are not a fool. Even if gunpowder won’t work, technology has improved many things, and magitech will be developed to supplement it. If you think your pure magic and primitive tools are going to be a match for societies which have the same level of magic as you do and more advanced tools, well, the American West is rife with examples of bows and arrows against firearms.

“Press on with your view, and your people are committing suicide and degenerating into irrelevancy.”

Golems and geared Constructs blew out gouts of flame as they advanced through burning forests. Chain-firing autobows scythed through archers. Steam-belching war wagons and hoversleds carrying troops easily crashed through lines of elven spears and stag riders. Magic shot back and forth, countered and countering, doing nothing, and technology and raw numbers came crashing down on them.

I sat back, and the elves gasped despite themselves as my Presence backed off.

“Your methods have been used in the past, and doubtless persist on many worlds,” I told them all comfortably, and they winced as they realized nothing of what they had planned was original. “On those worlds, the elves had two advantages: time to establish themselves and their nations, and enemies who did not possess their level of magical development.

“It is not hard to keep your lands as you wish when your foes are tossing spears, and you are tossing Fireballs, or when your homeland has had centuries or millennia to make many more elves and raise them to Levels only the most exceptional among your short-lived opponents can equal.

“The elves that Master Tolkien wrote about are those kind of elves. Millennia of history behind them, magic and power wielded that lesser mortals cannot equal, each of them equal to five, ten, or a hundred mere humans... or hobbits.” I steepled my fingers and looked at them all in consideration as Master Tolkien tried to remain stern and not to smile.

“You are not those elves.

“You are a long-lived race that matures slowly. Prince Tistian is old enough to have outlived some of the humans he knew as a child, but has a reputation as a hothead reminiscent of a high-schooler yet, because elves achieve mental maturity after about a century. Your children take long to mature compared to other races, even the dwarves and gnomes. It is a great gift, and an equally great disadvantage.

“Your sole advantage as a race is that all of you are Powered, and are potentially adept Wizards. I have now broken that very temporary monopoly you had on high Wizard Levels, which would have been broken anyway after the Shroud fell. You were driving yourselves into a rut that would have led to stasis and oblivion soon enough.

“You are not a major species. You are a minor species, simply because of your numbers. There are more urukhar and halvyr in the world than elves, and more members of all the other sapient species, even the orcs, then there are elves!”