The Thane smiled. ‘You are near the mark, on two counts at least. The Elves are descendants of some of the first Men who wandered into these lands, from someplace long forgotten far to the west. They were explorers who had come in search of the meaning of some ancient tale, and who became lost in the wilderness.
‘They were found by members of the Faerie folk who befriended them. Inevitably, over time children were born through the union of Man and Faerie, and the records of Men were replaced by what is today called the Elf Lore. But in those early days there were various tribes of Elves and their Lores: that of the descendants of Man and Pixie called the Elaas Öht, that of the descendants of Man and Cave-Nymphs called the Liadh of the Elid-hranin, that of the descendants of Man and Sprite called the Lore of the Elvan Aldii, and that of Man and Nymph called the Ast Nürnen.
‘As you may have guessed, the lores of these peoples became merged, but for two exceptions: the Imps and the Elid-hranin.
‘Of all Faeriekind, only the Imps live by Lore. The Imps, being a nomadic, reclusive people, did not interbreed with Man, having from the beginning shunned the presence of Man, and later Elvenkind. Imps have lesser powers than their Faerie kindred, lacking transformation and flight; but they possess a unique Lore which they share with no one, that allows them to communicate with the Earth Mother. I say “unique,” because their relationship with the Earth Mother is tenuous, at best; the reason for their uneasy relationship with She Who grants life, is a secret known only to themselves.