Elf

The Old School RuneScape Wiki also has an article on: osrsw:ElfWikipedia also has an article on: wikipedia:Elf

This article is about the race. For other elves, see Elf (disambiguation).

Elves are among the longest lived races on Gielinor, with an average lifespan of around 500 years. They are noted as being tall, graceful humanoids, with elongated ears. Female elves are also renowned for their beauty. They follow the crystalline goddess Seren, who journeyed to Gielinor with them from their ancestral homeland Tarddiad. Elves have no need for human technology or magic, but instead opt for crystal-based weaponry, technology and magic power, granted by Seren. Due to their many years of isolation brought on by their beliefs and a civil war, elves are generally regarded as a mere myth by humans, most of whom have not interacted with elves in centuries and believe them to have gone. All elves are associated with a clan, each of which originated from the first eight elven families of Gielinor.

History

Main article: Seren/History

Settlements

Tirannwn

The kingdom of Tirannwn contains the largest proportion of the elven population. It is scarcely populated with the exception of Prifddinas, the capital of the region.

Lletya, headquarters of the rebel elves

• Prifddinas - the largest elven settlement, a mighty crystalline city that dates from thousands of years ago. From the Fourth Age the city has remained in its crystal seed state: this was brought on by King Baxtorian of Clan Cadarn and the Clan Elders who sang the Song of Reversion to end Iorwerth control over the city as part of the Elven Civil War. In the Plague's End quest the player ends Iorwerth control over northern Tirannwn and restores the city to its former glory by gathering the Clan Elders in the Great Library.
• Lletya - a village found on the outskirts of Isafdar, inhabited by rebel elves.
• Elf Camp - an Iorwerth campsite located to the south of Prifddinas.

West Ardougne

West Ardougne was under de facto control of elves from the Iorwerth clan, who controlled the population by spreading false rumours of a deadly plague with the consent of King Lathas. They posed as mourners, taking "plague victims" from their homes, supposedly to care for them as they die, but instead using them as slaves in the tunnels under the city. This ended with a internal revolution, in which the mourners were evicted from the city in place of Knights of Ardougne.

Tarddiad

Tarddiad

Some elves belonging to Clan Cywir remained on Tarddiad following the departure of Seren and the remaining elves from the planet to Gielinor during the First Age. With an insatiable thirst to be in the presence of their deity, Seren, the elves on Tarddiad became insane, implanting themselves with native crystals from the planet. These crystals drew into their own beings small sections of Seren's essence, which they hoped would resolve their sickness to be within Seren's presence, but instead turned them into Crystal Shapeshifters. Elven society on the planet has mostly collapsed into a state of anarchy.

Culture

Beliefs

Main article: Seren

Seren, crystalline goddess of the elves

The elves worship a deity called Seren, who communes with them via crystal seeds, which are also utilised by the elves to create buildings and tools. Seren first encountered the elves on Tarddiad, their homeworld, after leaving her creator, Mah, on Freneskae. Upon arriving, Seren found that Mah had instilled the ability to make mortal races, namely the elves, love her by merely being in their presence, an ability she shares with her "brother", Zaros. After the elven Ceidwad died of old age Seren became greatly saddened. She attempted to expand the lives of the elves via the Song of Creation yet in doing so she inexplicably tied them to her, giving them a dependency to be in her presence. If away from her for too long the elves would become ill and feverish, eventually dying. Seren was responsible for bringing the elves with her to Gielinor after meeting Guthix on Tarddiad. Her time on Gielinor was largely occupied by her desire to "cure" the elves from their dependency upon her, believing that they should be free to live outside of her influence - she intended to depart from Gielinor by the end of the God Wars.

Seren is a pacifist goddess who believes in isolationism so to achieve her goal of peace and growth - views which she shares with Guthix, the god of balance. As a result of this, the elves became separated from the rest of Gielinor as the God Wars erupted: Seren established a barrier to surround Tirannwn by attuning the anima allowing the elves to remain largely unaffected by the wider conflicts effecting Gielinor, however, Seren allowed elves who wished to fight in the God Wars to leave Tirannwn. When Guthix returned to expel the warring gods, he visited Seren last. Seren refused to leave the elves, admitting to Guthix that doing so would leave the elves to die. Accepting her fate, and Guthix's will, Seren shattered herself into shards of crystal as a means of breaking the elves dependency upon her: she believed that by crafting the remnants of her body into tools, the elves would eventually be weaned off their dependency upon her and free to reveal themselves to the rest of the world - yet would remain in her presence, preventing their death.

The Dark Lord

She is widely accepted as goddess of the elves, however, in the Fourth Age a group of elves distinguished themselves from the rest of the elves and began to worship a god known as the 'Dark Lord'. This was brought on by a series of rituals and magics developed by Seren and the Iorwerth to break the elves "curse" in the Third Age: however, the Iorwerth developed an attachment to the 'darker' side of Seren as a result of said rituals: Seren aborted the tests immediately. She later expelled a shard of her being containing said dark thoughts away from the elven lands, this shard was attracted to the death energies that lay around the Death Altar which blocked it's emotion, thus creating the Dark Lord. Before doing so, she warned the clan elders of the dangers which the Dark Lord posed, leading to the creation of the Temple of Light which isolated the Dark Lord within the Underground Pass. Despite this, the Iorwerth's attachment to the Dark Lord resulted in a schism in elven society, leading to the break out of the elven civil war. The remaining elven clans remained loyal to Seren.

Language

Main article: Languages § Elvish language

The elvish language, on the other hand, is far more complex, for their tongues are as agile as their minds, and twice as bewildering. The nearest approximations I can make are as follows:

Lletya = *Ch*let-uh-ah (the '*ch*' indicates a slight rolling of the sound at the base of the tongue, as if you were to attempt to clear your throat quietly and politely)

Isafdar = Iss-av-daarr (in which the 'I' is pronounced like the 'i' in 'thin', and the 'r' is rolled quaintly)

In general, however, I merely pronounce 'Lletya' as 'Let-ya', and 'Isafdar' as 'Iss-aff-daar', but one should always be aware of other cultures - if only to know when you've angered someone enough to make them contemplate running you through with a large and unpleasantly bladed implement!

Postbag from the Hedge

Elvish is generally represented in-game by the Welsh language, including Elvish personal names (although there are several important exceptions: the names of Baxtorian, Glarial, and Merethiel and her brothers are not Welsh): for example, Seren is Welsh for "star", and Prifddinas means "capital city".

Some words of the elvish vocabulary, such as Merethiel and Eredthor, are based on the Elvish constructed language Sindarin, created by J.R.R. Tolkien on his Lord of the Rings universe.

Notable elves

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  Baxtorian, king of the Elven Empire in Kandarin during the Fourth Age

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  Glarial, Baxtorian's wife and queen who was lost during the Fourth Age

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  Islwyn, sells crystal bow or shield and also is the grandson of Glarial

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  Lord Iorwerth, leader of the Iorwerth clan

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  Head Mourner, chief of the Mourners in West Ardougne

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  Arianwyn Cadarn, current leader of the rebel elves and also Lord Cadarn, one of the current Elven clan leaders

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  Gwir - an elven scribe in the Lletya library who helps note down the player's accomplishments in the Plague quest series

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  Oluien, representative of Seren at the Gielinor Games

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  Endwyr, emissary of the elven deity Seren

Champion's Challenge

Elves are one of the 'races' who have champions of champions in the Champion's Challenge Distraction and Diversion. It is not currently possible to fight the elf champion.

Mobilising Armies

Before the removal of Mobilising Armies, elves were a unit in it and were recruited by speaking to the elven recruiter. Following the combat triangle, elves were weak against Goblins (range class) but strong against Dwarves (melee class). Light elves had a combat level of 175, 4800 life points and a discipline level of 110 while the Heavy elves had a combat level of 350, 9600 life points and a discipline level of 110 (as these are the normal, non-boosted stats of these elves, it seems that the Elven race is indeed far superior magically to the Human race). Light elves wore lavender robes, and wielded different elemental staves. The Heavy elves also wielded the basic elemental staves but wore dark blue shaded robes. The Examine info on both squads said "An uncommon sight, mercenary elves are familiar with battle". While exploring, they found logs. There were also several other elves around the ARMS command centre, such as Junior Cadet Finda.

Pickpocketing

Some elves in Lletya can be pickpocketed at 85 Thieving, giving 353.3 experience per successful attempt, with chances of double loot available at 95 Thieving and 85 Agility. Elves are one source of high-level Farming seeds. These are not recommended as a training method due to the high failure rate, however failures can be substantially mitigated with the use of multiple buffs. At 85 Thieving a player using the Trahaearn exoskeleton set, Crystal Mask, Light Form, and the Ardougne Cloak 3 can expect approximately 250,000 experience per hour. If thieving from elves, it is suggested to use Goreu due to his proximity to the bank where rapid healing is possible.

Thieving level	85	Thieving XP	353.3 XP	Stun time / damage	6s / 50 + 3% of current life points
Double loot	95 85	Triple loot	-	Quadruple loot	-
Loot
Main article: § Loot

Loot

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price	High Alch
	Coins	240; 280; 350	Common	240–350	240–350
	Prickly pear seed	1	Uncommon	289	1
	Sunchoke seed	1	Uncommon	330	1
	Fly trap seed	1	Uncommon	317	1
	Jug of wine	1	Common	105	76
	Death rune	2	Common	574	124
	Nature rune	3	Common	2,376	222
	Fire orb	1	Uncommon	449	180
	Butterfly flower seed	1	Uncommon	11,506	48
	Barberry seed	1	Uncommon	327	1
	Snape grass seed	1	Uncommon	1,984	12
	Potato cactus seed	1	Uncommon	1,444	180
	Gold stone spirit	1	Uncommon	952	Not alchemisable
	Diamond	1	Uncommon	595	1,200
	Reed seed	1	Uncommon	191	24
	Grapevine seed	1	Uncommon	2,366	60
	Key token	1	Rare	Not sold	Not alchemisable
	Crystal triskelion fragment 1 (m)	1	Very rare	Not sold	Not alchemisable
	Crystal triskelion fragment 2 (m)	1	Very rare	Not sold	Not alchemisable
	Crystal triskelion fragment 3 (m)	1	Very rare	Not sold	Not alchemisable

Quests

Elf quest series

Main article: Elf quest series

Main quests

• Plague City
• Biohazard
• Underground Pass
• Regicide
• Roving Elves
• Mourning's End Part I
• Mourning's End Part II
• Within the Light
• Plague's End

Other quests

These quests are not related to the main plague quest series yet are necessary to progress through the series

• Catapult Construction
• The Eyes of Glouphrie
• The Path of Glouphrie
• Sheep Herder
• Waterfall Quest

Quests related to elves

• Fate of the Gods, Seren's memoriam crystals - spoken of in Seren's memories
• Meeting History - minor appearance of an elf named Haluned appearing outside the barrier and teleporting away
• Missing, Presumed Death - the player encounters Ifleen in the Empyrean Citadel

Concept art

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  Concept art showing melee elven armour

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  Concept art showing magic elven armour

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  Concept art depicting ranged elven armour

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  Melee elf model

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  Magic elf model

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  Ranged elf model

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  Female elf concept art

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  Male elf concept art

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included—see here for how to help out!

• patch 7 June 2021 (Update):
  • Elves in the Arandar Passage now take damage from the Bladed Dive, and also respond with an attack.

Trivia

• Elves have a far longer life span as opposed to most other races such as humans. As Mawrth mentioned, an elf in their 30s is a mere child.
• Oluien (representative of Seren during the Gielinor Games), the travelling elf (from the pre-release of the first world event) and the courier (for the 2010 Easter event) were the only elves available for free-players - all of which are no longer in game. Currently the only free-to-play elf is Endwyr, the emissary of Seren.
• When talking to an Elf, it may say "Stay back, human. You don't know what you're dealing with," which is an exact quote from the first Artemis Fowl book. The quote in question is said by Holly Short (who is also an elf) to Artemis Fowl when they meet for the first time.
• Elves like to drink honeyed tea made with a few of their own secret ingredients to make it special.Postbag from the Hedge 23.
• In the RuneScape-based Funorb game Armies of Gielinor the elves played a role in the God Wars.