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[farsighting]

Hey! So these questions may be sooooooo weird but I'm super curious!!

My friend was telling me a while ago about how she met some different people here, like a lizard (!) and stuff. That's kind of weird where we come from so I was wondering how many other people here aren't exactly human and from different places.

- Are you non-human / Do you know any non-humans?
- Where are you from? Like a different planet or world or something? How does that even work lol?
- Is there non-human stuff in your world? Not like animals and bugs, but aliens or stuff like that. Weirder stuff!
- Do they have phones and stuff where you come from? Cuz there's a looooot of people here who seem kind of tech illiterate.

Sorry if this is super weird. I'm kinda new and the only strange stuff my world has is zombies. Also even if you are a regular person you can answer the other stuff too, like getting to know each other!

( This may be information harvesting and a way to make sure Elise doesn't assume the sentient creatures in this place are monsters of the week she needs to smash. Or it's something way more innocent. Who's to say! )

Comments

[farsighting]

Yeah, no offense but it definitely sounds like a fantasy novel.

Being an elf, what do you look like? When I think of elves I think of Santa Clause (oops idk if you know what that is) or tall people with pointy ears.

[utulien_aure]

I've no idea what that is- or Santa Clause, for that matter.

[He turns on the video feed, revealing (yes)pointed ears, long black hair bound up in braids, and blue eyes which glow with an unearthly light.]

Does this answer your question?

[farsighting]

Yep! Looks like what we'd call an elf in my world. Well, a fantasy kind of elf, not the kind that makes presents all day long.

Soooooo does being an elf give you any special powers or skills or anything ?

[utulien_aure]

What exactly are you thinking of? I've lived nearly two thousand years of the Sun; I've had the time to acquire more than a few skills.

And as for abilities? Some Men I've met have called us magical, and I am still not certain what they mean by that. We simply see the world differently than they do, and interact with it in a different fashion. The Song of the world sounds louder in our ears, for we linger upon creation and they depart.

[Straight answers are hard for elves]

[farsighting]

( Yeah, definitely a fantasy elf. )

Yeah, stuff like magic is what I'm talking about. By magic I mean like talking to animals or making vines grow or...I don't know, it actually sounds ridiculous when you try to explain it.

[utulien_aure]

Talking to animals isn't hard.

Getting them to talk back is rather more difficult. Some people have more of a knack for it than others.

[farsighting]

I wasn't actually expecting that as a response,
but wow! That's cool!

Have you ever talked to an animal, then? What would an animal even have to say?

Oh and what kind of animal was it?

[utulien_aure]

We most often speak to our companion animals, particularly horses and dogs. Mine usually had quite strong opinions about how often we went out riding, and whether the apples I brought them were of good quality.

But some people I know had a far greater gift with speaking to animals than I. The best at it was my cousin Celegorm, who could speak to almost any kind of animal he met.

I think he liked them better than he did most people, if we're being honest.

I've spoken to giant eagles, as well, but they hardly count. I'm not entirely sure they are actually animals.

[farsighting]

Actually that's what I'd expect a horse to say if it could talk. And think birds count, so that's also kind of cool.

What else can you tell me about your world?

Err I'll be specific...you mentioned dwarves earlier. What other types of people exist in your world?

[utulien_aure]

The eagles of Manwe are a different breed; they know the speech of Elves and Men, and can respond in like kind. They may not even be animals at all, but Maiar-the lesser Powers of the World- in animal form.

The Ainur- the Powers of the World- Sung Arda into being at the behest of the One before the beginning of days. When they spoke of it to our loremasters, they said that the intent was harmony. But one of their number, the most powerful among them, found himself unsatisfied by the vision- and he introduced discord to the Music of the World.

The remaining Ainur believed that Incarnates-Elf, Man, Dwarf, and perhaps others- were created to counteract that discord.

As far as we can tell, Men first awoke far to the east near five hundred years ago, perhaps around the time the Moon and Sun first arose. Some of them traveled West from the point of their birth, and those are the ones we first met.

The dwarves, though, are an old race; their great cities of Nogrod and Belegost were settled and prosperous long before I had ever heard of them, and I understand that there are older strongholds still somewhere in the east. They are great miners and craftsmen, and fierce warriors; some of the Noldor, including a few of my cousins, have come to love them dearly.

Of the others...I have never met them, but the forests of Arda are sometimes the home of Ents- great treelike beings who care for the woods and the wild places of the world.

[A pause.] And then there are Orcs. There are rumors that they descend from elves or Men who have been captured and tortured; others state that they were a created people, with no true spark of life to them. I know not the truth of either. But they are a vicious enemy, and dangerous in great numbers.

[farsighting]

Woah that was a lot to take in lol

That's definitely a lot! Earth just has humans and animals. I wonder if bacteria count? But definitely not dwarves and orcs and elves and stuff.

Orcs are kind of like your version of our zombies. They come from men that get diseased (or something, that's what the movies say), and then they're not something you want to deal with if they're in a hoard.

[utulien_aure]

Perhaps they- or any other races- do not wish to be found?

That does sound similar to some of the rumors, yes, although your version might work more quickly than ours if disease is involved.

May I as what a 'movie' is?