This Chapter has been edited to fix some details - Riya, her mother, and her grandmother are Royal Elves, not High Elves. I made this mistake while writing this chapter. Please take note of this.
The name Celestial Terrain was first thought up by the very first Elven Empress. While other continents usually have a bunch of Kingdoms, Empires, and different groups within their borders, the whole land of Celestial Terrain was controlled by just one Empire. So, the continent and the Empire had the same name, which is Celestial Terrain.
But it wasn't always like this, with one Empire running the whole show. A lot of Elves live here, and that's why people sometimes also call this place the Elven Continent or The Land of Elves.
Going way back in history, the Elves who lived on this continent didn't belong to one big Empire or Kingdom. Instead, they lived in small groups called tribes. In total, there were more than 10,000 separate tribes scattered across the land. And these tribes had different rules about family life. For instance, some tribes didn't let their members marry people from other tribes, while other tribes actually encouraged it, saying it was a good thing.
With so many different tribes living on the continent, it was no surprise that there were always battles, fights, and disagreements happening between them. Often, the tribes that were stronger would push around the weaker ones, making the people in those weaker tribes serve them. It is very important to note that the Elven society regardless of tribes was a matriarchy society. The elven women ran the homes and were often the ones in high-up roles in government and the military. In fact, every tribe had a female leader, commonly called the "Elven Matra."
In this Elven society, it was clear that women were in control. One could even say that Elven women were more skilled, better looking, braver, and stronger than men.
Now, among these more than 10,000 tribes, one would find a lot of different kinds of Elves. There were regular Elves, High Elves, The Royal Elves Blood Elves, Moon Elves, Night Elves, Snow Elves, Dark Elves, Sea or what you could call Aquatic Elves, Wood Elves, Sun Elves, and even Half-Elves. So in total, there were 10 different sorts of Elves living across the continent.
Among all ten different types of elves, the Half-Elves were the most discriminated group. The Half-elves were nothing but the Elves who were half Elf and half of other races; such as humans, or beast race, etc. The Half-Elves are looked down upon by the Pure-blooded elves. Even to this date, the Half-Elves suffer the most discrimination and hatred. The Half-Elves are treated like slaves and used as slaves.
There used to be other variations of Elves but over time either those variations have evolved due to their surrounding environment and availability of food and water or their bloodline had simply come to an end. This is the case with the Night Elves. The Night Elves are one of the elves that are currently on the verge of being extinct.
It is already extremely difficult for Elves to give birth. And for Night Elves and Royal Elves, the difficulty multiplies by 2 to 4 times. Hence due to this reason, The Night Elves and The Royal Elves's numbers have always been low. The number never surpassed the 10,000 mark. While for the most part of History, Royal Elves have stayed at the very top; often being leaders of strong tribes. This wasn't so true for the Night Elves. The Night Elves weren't separated rather they formed a tribe together. After years of conflicts, and fights with other tribes, their numbers had reached a point that even after 1,000 years of peace, their number never recovered and was on the verge of extinction.
Throughout history, there had always been some leaders, known as Elven Matras, who dreamed big and wanted to bring all the tribes together under one rule. About 7,000 years ago, one special Elven Matra made this dream come true and became the first Empress of The Celestial Terrain. Around the same time, a lot of outside forces, meaning armies from other lands, were coming into the Elven territory and taking advantage of the fighting and disagreement among the tribes. These foreign intruders only made things worse and caused even more suffering and death for the Elves.
That's when this first Empress, who was a Royal Elf, stepped in. She was really smart and worked very hard. She used her brains and her skills to not just bring all the Elven tribes together, but also to kick out all the foreign enemies. She treated all types of Elves the same and made sure everyone felt included in this new, united Empire.
Even now, 7,000 years later, a lot of Elves still talk about how great she was. One can find statues of her all over the continent, reminding everyone of the amazing things she did.
Aditya couldn't believe what he was hearing and his face showed total shock. "Wait, you're telling me your grandmother is the first Empress?" He knew Riya had some important family ties, especially as a Royal Elf, but this was way beyond what he had ever imagined.
Riya giggled a little and said, "Yep, I guess I'm just lucky like that! The people here really love and respect my grandmother." She looked out of the carriage window as she said this. At the moment, the two of them were riding through the capital city of the Celestial Terrain, and they were on their way to meet Riya's mom, who is the current ruler of the Empire.
"I thought your grandmother had died?" This is what Aditya had heard.
"Of course, not."
"So where is your amazing grandmother now?" Aditya was curious to know more.
Riya answered, "Well, she's spending her time in a secluded place on the Main Continent, focusing on her spiritual practice. She decided it was time to step back from ruling and let my mom take over. The last time I saw her was about five years ago, and even then, our visit was really short. She has stopped meeting anyone outside of our family. Only me and my mother know that she is alive on the Main continent. Not even my aunt knows about this. And now you know the truth."
"Don't worry my mouth is always sealed."
"My dream is to be like my grandmother one day," Riya said, her eyes fixed on the scenery outside the carriage window.
Aditya looked at her and felt certain she had the potential. "I have no doubt you'll become someone even more amazing than your grandmother," he said warmly. He knew Riya was a truly special person. She was kind-hearted, soft-spoken, and even a little playful at times. All in all, she was simply wonderful.
Riya chuckled and replied, "Thank you for the compliment!"
Shifting the topic, she continued, "You know, my grandmother was in charge here for a really long time, like 6,000 years. And when she first brought everyone together to make one big empire, she made some big changes. One of the first things she did was to cut down on the number of people from different places who could come here. She also made rules about what could be sent in and out of our land. Elves like to keep to themselves, and so we don't really like strangers much. That's why when you look around while we're out on the street, you'll notice there aren't many people from other places. It's mostly elves."
What Riya said really did match what Aditya had seen so far. As they had been riding through the city, he had noticed that there were very few people who looked different from the elves. It was a sea of elf faces, and only a small number of humans or members of other races could be seen.
"Do those rules about not letting outsiders in apply to me too?" Aditya asked, his tone light and joking.
"Absolutely not," Riya quickly said, her voice a bit louder than before to emphasize her point.
Aditya reached over to gently pinch her cheek and then burst into laughter. "I was just kidding, you know!"
Switching gears, Riya went on to say, "There's more to why elves usually stick to themselves and don't go live in other places. There are some serious reasons tied to politics and our traditions. A long time ago, 7,000 years to be exact, some empires from other places did really bad things here. So, a lot of elves have a negative view of other countries and people from outside."
"Look, we elves love the Earth and everything natural. We really enjoy peace and calm, and we feel happiest when we're close to the natural world. But when we opened our doors to people from other places, what we got wasn't peace. Instead, they brought war with them, and that caused a lot of pain, death, and suffering for our people." Aditya nodded his understanding.
"My grandma and my mom have always tried to keep out of other countries' fights. They've always wanted to stay neutral. That's why our place, the Celestial Terrain, doesn't really have enemies, but we also don't have close friends," Riya explained. "Your empire, the Istarin Empire, might actually be the first one that got any kind of help from us. We sort of helped you guys out when that big war started, the one they call The Battle of the Factions." Aditya knew the only reason the indirect help was offered was because of Riya.
For clarification, The Battle of the Factions was a huge war where the Oracle Alliance fought against a group that had newly become allies. This new group was made up of the Istarin Empire, the Echo Dominion Empire, and the Hephaestus Kingdom.
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