By Wineolthil 
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The elven division, most often called a partition by the elves themselves, happened many thousands of years ago.  There was a time when all elves were mountain-elves, making their homes high above.  They lived apart from the world, researching in stone keeps, watching the procession of time from their peaks. 
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But then, while men were still young, there were some elves who tired of their static lives.  They hired a passing ship, and heading from the ancestral home of Atua-Elar, headed east. 
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After many months, and many stops along the way, the ship stopped at a small island covered in a dense forest, full of ancient yew.  The elves liked this very much, paid the captain the remainder of their fee, and disembarked. 
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The first winter, they wrote later, was exceptionally harsh.  During the summer, they had simply been living among the trees, and had not given thought to the seasons ahead.  And so during a bitterly cold day, Eleril, their first leader, sheltered them in a large grotto, with more than enough space for them to winter there comfortably. 
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After this first winter, the wood-elves began building with vigor.  "We are defined by where we live," wrote Aria of Andres, and this is certainly true of elven-kind.  When the wood-elves came down from the mountains they lost their resolute temperaments, becoming whimsical, impulsive, mercurial.  The summer after the first winter, they began building in earnest, both on the ground and in the trees. %p On the earth they built small dwellings out of sod.  Simple but effective, these dwellings kept out the cold and provided good protection from heavy storms.  As the years passed, the Yew-elves built up as well, creating great dwellings in the tree-tops.  With great care, they also cut a few of the immense trees in the oldest part of the forest, using these to make ships. 
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Yew is not easily found.  The island contains no roads, as the elves move easily through a forest whose paths exist only in memory.  This works well for the Yew-elves, who face little threat from raiders.  Those foolish few who have sought elven-gold through blood have simply disappeared, swallowed up by the forest, buried in a grave of arrows and steel. 
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With respect to the other, wood elves and mountain elves are somewhat distrustful.  The Elari elves find the wood elves capricious and too changeable; the Yew elves find their cousins overbearing and boring.  But despite these differences, they have far more in common: skill in combat, a love of learning and feasting, and a common enemy in folk like the goblins, ogres, and trolls.  The elves may always have their differences, but are quick to come together when faced by a common foe.
