#elf practise

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

Us at the end of 2016: oh god I just want this year to be over, please let no more celebrities die and trump not be as bad as we fear

Us at the end of 2017: oh god the two last memes of the year are a zootopia pro-life comic and elf practise and half of the celebrities are trash and nuclear war is a possibility humanity is truly cursed

[altarofistus]

going on the changeling elf headcanon-- what if the reason lup and taakos names are so unusual is because theyre still going by their childhood names?  elves go through several name changes in their lives (in this case, the first one being when they are given their childhood names), including from the childhood name to the adult name.  what if they left the other elves before their time to choose an adult name and hanging around so many creatures that dont traditionally change their names at different times in their lives, just decided to stick with what they had?

[arskaparsa]

[altarofistus]

IM VERY HYPER OVER THE CHANGELING ELF THING.... do you have any headcanons my dearest friend

BOY DO I

where the hell did the elf condition Come From.  magic in the trees? some lonely forest god wishing for disciples who lived long enough to see the pattern in threats to the forest and could therefore protect it??  just a freak accident in the evolutional history of faerun??? we have no fuckin idea.  im banking on the lonely god giving a blessing to the land, or maybe the elemental plane of magic just crosses into forests more easily.  the changelings just have to stay there long enough.

babies cannot be taken, this is a myth perpetuated by anxious young mothers hovering over their cribs and  wearing iron pendants.  the child can only be taken when they can want to be taken.  until they can walk down the forest roads on their own legs.  thats a very important part of elfhood- a connection, physical first and spiritual second, to the earth.  there has to be the childs free will involved.

of course, this puts lonely children at a far greater risk.

they can only be taken in periods of transition, when the veil is thin in their minds and their bodies.  for example, the transition from baby to child is the most common time for a changeling to be taken to the woods, though there have been cases of children becoming teenagers and teenagers becoming adults, but those are incredibly sparse and fraught with doubt.  it is unknown whether these older changelings survive the change, or whether or not it is too late to plant the magic inside them.

changing is painful.  there are older elves who look after the children, croon them to sleep, stroke their poor heads, press cool kisses to their aching joints.  this is painful, and i am so sorry, little one, the caretakers say, apology light in their voices, light like grey mornings and dew on grass, but it must be done.  i love you. 

elves treasure their children so very much.  they dress them in fine silver leaves light as a whisper, comb spells into their hair, stitch protective sigils into their cloaks.  they have great games of tag lasting for weeks on end, falling down into a pile to learn how to meditate rather than sleep, learn the thrill of the hunt in a way that only a people with the forest on their side can.  they never go without a kiss goodnight.

changelings forget about their original homes very quickly.  their original names and their parents and siblings and friends fade as they walk into the trees, the memory of their smiles and voices fading soon after.  they cant imagine being called anything else than the name their caretaker gave them, until it is time for them to go back into the wide world and find a name for themself.

[altarofistus]

just wanted to say that i really love your changeling thingy, and also say that i sympathize soooo heavily with those elves going through painful limb growth. as a tall kid who grew really fast i had a lot of nights with terrible pain in my limbs. oOH question that may or may not interest you; with that growth, do the elves have any special way of dealing with stretch marks? or just like... it's magic and doesn't happen?

ah hey same hat!!! i grew four inches in 1 summer and i dont think ive ever been That physically uncomfortable constantly in such a short time. it sucked ass.(credit where credit is due-- @anonymousalchemist wrote the fic that got me started on this hc. i reblogged it not three posts ago, if u want it!)

as for ur question!!! i am very much interested.  i think a lot of the pain of the process is in the enchantments and exposure to the plane of magic/whatever fuels the change, especially in species that arent inherently magickal (ie humans and orcs n such– more magickal beings have an easier time with the change in that respect).  the growth happens pretty slowly, tho it is unnatural and painful, since the bodies were not originally meant to grow so strangely.  that being said, elves deffo have stretch marks!! its evidence of their change, especially marks around joints and even around the base of their ears.  theyre worn with pride as a signifier of their elfin identity.