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Elven Migrations

by Håvard

I've been trying to illustrate the different groups of Elves on Mystara with the topic of this thread in mind. It seems to me there are three main groups of elves:

1) Those elves who never left Davania (Grunland Elves, Arctic Elves, Blacklore)
2) The elves who left Davania before Ilsundal
3) The elves who left Davania with Ilsundal (many splitting off in various stages...)

1. ILSUNDAL'S MIGRATION

Starting off with the last group first. Ilsundal's followers:

The middle group includes all the various elves who departed from Ilsundal before he even had left Davania. Both canon authors and fan theories seem intent to tie as many groups as possible to Ilsundal. With the Vyalia we only have fan material linking them to this group, possibly because they could be connected to the Verdier Elves of Minrothad. Personally I would prefer to link them to the Wendar Elves instead, however.

In the group to the right, we find the group that chose to leave Ilsundal and Mealiden for Eiryndul. Again, I am not sure if the Shiye Lawr should be included here or if they are actually a different group of Shyie Elves, not connected to Eiryndul/Ilsundal at all? Possibly their link to the Shiye predates the migrations

2. THE FIRST MIGRATION

Secondly we have a group that must have left Davania long before Ilsundal. These could have been the result of multiple migrations, although I am treating them as one here:

I would have liked to expand on this group, but at least with these I find no official connection to Ilsundal. Some of these groups could have been in the Known World region prior to the GRoF. If they were, they either left the region for other parts of the world (Savage Coast, Hinterlands, Skothar), or they went underground. Some of the elves who went underground stayed there (Shadowelves), while other groups only lived under ground for a while before returning to the surface.

In the case of the Aquarendi, they entered the Sea in BC3100. I believe the HW Migration map suggests that they entered the sea from the Known World, but fan theories seem to suggest that they were leaving Davania instead.

At the risk of arguing against myself, it seems like I have overlooked one group:

The Old Glantri Elves

It seems that this is a group that departed from Ilsundal's Migration in BC2100 at the same time as the Verdier, Meditor, Sheyalla and Ee'aar split from Ilsundal. The Old Glantri Elves are the ones who later got into trouble when they triggered the BC1700 Cataclysm aka the Little Rain of Fire. These may possible include:

Good input gentlemen. I have never been able to keep up with older Elf debates, so I appologize if I am asking too many questions that have been answered in the past.

I wasn't quite clear on the 2nd Migration/Returnist term. I guess I confused those with the groups that split off from Ilsundal along the way. It seems that we can divide elf migrations into 4 major groups then:

1) Stayed on Davania: Arctic Elves, Blacklore, Hatwa
2) Pre-GRoF Migrations:Shadowelves, Blackmoor Clans(Genander, Cumasti, Westryn), Wendar Clans (Genalleth, Geffronel), Aquarendi, Trueflower, Schattenalfen(?)
3) Ilsundal's Migration

4) "Second Migration": Sheyallia (Sindh Desert), Belcadiz, Truedyl (Gentle folk), Icevale

In this latest writeup, I found this article quite useful. I've placed the Schattenalfen in group 2, though the HW book does seem to suggest that they are linked to the BC1700 Cataclysm though, which would put them in group 4).

In case of the Verdier/Meditor/Vyalia groups, it does seem to me like they started out accompanying Ilsundal.

Trueflower is another group that could be placed anywhere, though it seems to me like they could just as easily have been living in the Alphatian Sea region long before the GRoF...

Group 4 are probably all the "Old Glantri Elves" who triggered the BC1700 Cataclysm. This could also have included the Wendar Elves, but I prefer putting them along with the Blackmoor Elves for various reasons.