Age of Migration was the period during which the the Aen Seidhe and the Aen Elle elves migrated between the worlds.
History[]
The unknown cataclysm and wandering between the worlds[]
It isn't known how long ago the Age of Migration began, neither how long it lasted.[N 1] Some say it was caused by a cataclysm of some sort.[1]
Arrival in the Continent[]
Aen Seidhe came to the shores of the Continent on their White Ships and landed by the estuaries of rivers they named the Yarra and Aevon y Pont ar Gwennelen, about two thousand years before the arrival of humans.[2][N 2] Aen Elle arrived as well, settling the region of Mil Trachta and erecting Tor Zireael in its heart.[3]
If the Solryth Sagas are to be believed, the elf who led her people to the world of the Continent was named Solryth. According to a legend, after a tempest cast her far from home, she followed the twin comets that would later be known as Solryth's Eyes, which led her and her followers to the shores of the Continent, and established the city of Xin'trea after driving the local inhabitants out.[4][N 3]
Elves fought numerous wars with dwarves,[2][5][6] gnomes, vrans, and bobolaks, but these were (almost) never wars of extermination.[5] A notable exception, described by elf Goeveth of the Black Academy, occured near what would became known as Loc Muinne, where Aen Seidhe devised an artificial disease that wiped out the vrani natives of the region.[7]
The contact elves had with nymphs and inhabitants of the sea appears to have been significantly more amicable as both of these groups eventually adopted dialects of Elder Speech as their own. Dryads in particular were fascinated with how harmonious the elven cities were with nature and the contact changed the way they perceived other intelligent races.[6]
Departure of the Aen Elle[]
Aen Elle left the Continent long before the Conjunction of the Spheres closed the gates between the universes and brought humans into the picture there. After some time, with the help of unicorns naturally capable to travel between worlds and time, they arrived in another world, with an already established human presence, and founded the city of Tir ná Lia. Aen Elle eventually betrayed the unicorns' trust by committing a worldwide genocide against the local humans, enslaving the remnants and starting an enduring cold war between the elves and the unicorns.[8]
Trivia[]
- Describing the arrival of the elves on the ships, Andrzej Sapkowski might have been inspired by the tale of the Tuatha Dé Danann, ancestors of Aes Sídhe from the Irish mythology, or by its reinterpretation by Tolkien, the Exile of the Noldor.
Footnotes[]
- ↑ It's unclear how long ago the split between the Aen Elle and the Aen Seidhe occured. In Baptism of Fire, Ida says that her race "has endured for tens of thousands of years" but we don't know whether she refers to Aen Seidhe specifically or the elvenkind in general. If the former, both Aen Elle and Aen Seidhe would be distinct from each other for millenia before the Migration (thus giving more time for the distinct dialects to develop); if the latter, it might be that the split occured during the Migration, as suggested in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It's also possible that the Migration itself lasted millenia and already started before those tens of thousands of years, matching both interpretations.
- ↑ It isn't clear either if "2000 years before the humans' arrival" means 2230s BR, 2000 years prior to Conjunction of the Spheres when humans arrived in the world, or 1240s BR, that is 2000 years before the First Landing when the Northerners started their colonization of what would become the Northern Kingdoms. The later date is mentioned in The World of the Witcher. In The Witcher: Blood Origin, the date provided is 1500 prior to the Conjunction instead, not matching either interpretation.
- ↑ The Witcher: Blood Origin specifies these aboriginal inhabitants of would-be Xin'trea as dwarves, but it's not consistent with known patterns of dwarven settlement (the Yaruga's mouth is located hundreds of miles to the nearest notable mountain chain). The genocidal behavior towards the dwarves by elves, implied in the miniseries, also appears exaggerated when compared to other sources.