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"After the Humans had placed tree branches to cover the entrance to the Cavern, a group of Elves ventured into that area, hearing the call of the wounded trees. They discovered the branches and removed them, wondering what foul creature had despoiled the trees in such a way and for what cause. Into the cavern they ventured, discovering the notes from Nemiisae and the portal to the Verge. This group did not go back for more, though more would come later, as they were immediately forced through. Running from a threat, they entered the Verge and discovered the portal to the new world. Fleeing still, they had no choice but to enter. They too fell into this trap, the portal closed behind them, no way back, though they would only find this out after returning later to investigate. For now, they still had running to do. Immortal though they were, this land was still rife with danger. Forced to settle in it, the Elves would follow in the footsteps of their cousins, perishing within this strange lands within half a Millenia. In these lands they were susceptible not just to the terrors, but also their own curse. Far more infertile than they were in their original lands, they died out merely due to a lack of numbers. While some of them eventually interbred with Nemiisae’s children, those who refused would only gain numbers through other poor fools coming through the portal. In this way the Elves too, were trapped." -The Punishment of Hubris, between volume 1-4. The Malinor of Aegis was occupied by all subraces of the Elves. Before wars of purity and hatred arose amongst the three, it was a nation that could stand evenly with the others. Before the advent of the modern High Elven society, before they bathed in the golden pools of Larihei, their defining characteristic was Maehr'sae, or progress. It was a group of twenty ancient Elves destined to die that first crossed into the Verge, to the land that would eventually be called Asulon, and it was a group of eleven ancient Elves, ten of blood precursor to the Mali'aheral and one Mali'ame that would eventually be cursed by thanhium. These were four scientists, three mages, a botanist, two soldiers, and a tracker, and they had seen the open cave and taken the notes left behind. Their expedition, meant to further their intellect and status, would not return to Laurelin to share the news. Instead, they passed through the portal. As they passed, the portal closed, and the expedition prepared itself to recreate the Elven society of Aegis within this new world. They made their way to the delta of a river to the north, where they first found the sea to meet fresh water. Here they set camp, and here they first were forced to protect themselves from the monsters that inhabited the land. Just eleven, however, could not indefinitely hold off the enemies that plagued their camp. One month into their stay they decided to build a boat, and using the woods abundant to Asulon they crafted themselves a vessel. As they destroyed the monsters attacking them, they fashioned a grisly sail of skins and bones, and spider web, and a food supply of boar meat and berries. They coopered barrels with bone and, with their makeshift ship, they sailed from Asulon six hundred years before the four races total would. They landed in the tundra of the northern reaches of Anthos in two months, and they hadn't the knowledge of the continent to dare venturing south on a whim. Instead, they turned the ship over to create a building, and used the cloth of the sails for warmer clothing. Though they did not know it, they had settled on the edge of a vast frozen lake, and obscured under both the ice covering the lake and the rock beneath their feet were incredible amounts of raw thanhium ore. For fifty years they scouted the region, yet never found indication of the tundra ending, for miles around the only feature being a single cave with hot springs within. They fished along the shore of the ocean and build houses of stone above the opaque ice they did not know was indicative of the lake beneath. Bones in modern Anthos revealed that a large reptilian creature, either a minor drake or the size of one, once roamed its western coast. It was this creature that once made its way to the massive lake, and as it alighted upon the lake, the world shook for the few inhabitants of the settlement. It cracked the many layers of ice atop the lake, and massive chunks of ice came apart or fell into the water, creating large waves. The Elves, in their panic, made their way to the cave they had once seen and hid within. The Mali'ame tracker stood outside to watch for the possibility of the creature attacking them. Within the cave they found hot springs, within which the ten warmed their bodies. The creature was not to be their only misfortune that day, however. As they bathed in the water, the earth above them shifted, thanhium, water, and ice falling into the cave at such speeds that the springs froze with them within before they could escape. For the next one hundred years the tracker would hunt the beast until the two faced off along the wall of ice that bordered what the Descendants would call "The Far North", and in that penultimate battle both he and the creature would die. Though what had happened would have killed any other instantly, they had lived above thanhium deposits for half a century, the deposits slowly shaping them, and for five and a half centuries they would be more directly shaped. Just as the magegold had shaped the Mali'aheral into their modern forms, the thanhium made their skin pale, their hair white or silver, their eyes blue or purple, and their personalities volatile. When, one day, the earth shifted once more and they were released from that prison, they were not fully so - for when a body is thawed, parts are lost. Near all of their minds, though powerful intellectuals beforehand, had reverted to states of seventy year olds instead of the 800-900 most of them technically were, and they all had retrograde memory loss on some degree. Only one of the female scientists even remembered her family name of Atmorice. The others took names related to where they found themselves - for the new leader, the name of the land, Tundrak. For his right hand, the name of the great creature they had once seen, but did not remember that it had been their downfall - Drakon. These three and four more would be the first to journey south, where they would find the Descendants as they arrived. The seven would, in combination, take the name "The Princedom of Fenn." The three that would wait until the end of Anthos to journey south were not heard of again, though it is arguable that the White Tide may be of their descent. ((Written by me, bickando, who worked with ww2buff99 and Dannybrine to create the original Snow Elves. As we all know, they're pretty terrible, but as we may not all know, no lore of them was ever actually accepted. This is me saying that it's not a subrace, but a cultural branch of ancient Elves, and the only way we can possibly explain something so ridiculous while still being bound by the lore. I pulled on a lot of resources here - I went back to the Mori'quessir lore to find a way for ancient elves to be in Anthos, took some actual, in-game history of High Elves (mostly its ambiguity in Aegis), and used a mock-up written by Supremacy here. I then took in-game Fenn stories of Wyrvun and the memory of a pile of bones I once saw in northern Anthos to create a possibly plausible backstory to their change and culture. It's not my best work ever, but I think it makes sense. If anyone wants some questions answered or obvious plot holes, please do post it here. If the Lore Team wants me to write more, I'll gladly try to. If you find any grammar mistakes, tell me IMMEDIATELY. Once again, not trying to get it approved as a subrace, just want some sort of accepted lore that people can reference when they're trying to OOCly explain to themselves why Snow Elves have acted like lunatics in the past. Also, there shouldn't be anyone in game at all, including Mali'fenn or White Tide, that knows the true story if this is accepted. Sorry there's no pictures, I couldn't find anything that fit perfectly.)) ((Also I was given permission by ww2buff99, the original writer of the lore, to try and rewrite the lore so that it makes some sort of sense.)) ((I'm getting the feeling people don't understand why I posted this. It's literally an explanation as to why snelves acted so insane for the entirety of their existence in lotc, with actual lore supporting it. If anything you should be thanking me for lore to quote when attacking snelves!!!))