Thea Harrison(
http://theaharrison.org) has a very nice little compendium on the various races of the Elder Races series so here, I'll paste it all for you to read in one place with links to the original page). Hope it helps!
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The Elder Races Universe(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/the-elder-races-universe/)
In the Elder Races universe, time and space buckled at the Earth’s formation. Scientists speculate that this phenomenon is not unique to the Earth, but that it also occurred throughout all the solar systems and galaxies.
On Earth, the buckling created dimensional pockets of Other land where magic has pooled, time moves differently, modern combustible technologies don’t work, and the sun shines with a different light. The difference between an Other land’s time and Earth’s time can be slight or it can be significant. When time in one place runs out of sync with another it’s called slippage.
What came to be known as the Elder Races (the Wyrkind and the Elves, the Light and Dark Fae, the Nightkind, Demonkind, human witches, and all other manner of monstrous creatures) tend to cluster in or near the Other lands.
Living amongst and interacting with humankind, the Elder Races developed their own societies and political structures. Often these demesnes overlay human geography. Occasionally the seat of an Elder Race demesne may be found in an Other land. For example Ireland has two demesnes, a Light Fae and a Dark Fae, where the kingdoms are seated in Other lands. The predominant demesne in Europe is Elven, which is also seated in an Other land. The European Elves have little interaction with humankind and the other Elder Races.
In the continental U.S. there are seven Elder Races demesnes. The seat of the Wyrkind demesne is based in New York City. The seat of the Elven demesne is based in Charleston, South Carolina. The Dark Fae’s demesne is centered in Chicago, and the Light Fae demesne is based in Los Angeles. The Nightkind, which includes all forms of Vampyres, controls the San Francisco/Bay area and the Pacific Northwest, while the human witches, considered part of the Elder Races due to their command of magical Power, are based in Louisville, Kentucky. Demonkind, like the Wyr and the Vampyres, consist of several different types that included goblins and Djinn, and their seat is based in Houston, Texas.
These seven demesnes have an Elder tribunal that consists of seven representatives called Councillors. The Elder tribunal is responsible for overseeing the resolution of inter-demesne disputes. Their main charter is to keep the peace and maintain the current balance of Power in the States. The U.S. tribunal also communicates with other Elder tribunals and acts as arbiter for demesne disputes that involve those from the U.S. with those from other continents.
A Compendium of Wyr(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/a-compendium-wyr/)
In essence, a Wyr is a creature that is two-natured and typically they have two forms, an animal form and a human form. They have the ability to shapeshift at will from one form to the other, and they are quite comfortable existing for long periods of time in either form.
Wyr mate for life. The longest known time for a Wyr to survive the loss of a mate is sixteen years, and that occurred under extraordinary circumstances. More deep than falling in love, the mating period is a dangerous, often violent time filled with volatile emotions and actions, bouts of extreme jealousy, and a heightened sexuality.
The mating period is not a season, but an individual experience that comes from a complex combination of choice, sex, instinct, actions and emotion. All have to occur at the right intensity and time. Nobody fully understands when the mating for a Wyr becomes irrevocable. The stakes are even higher when a Wyr mates with a non-Wyr. Those pairings can all too often end in tragedy for the Wyr, if the partner leaves or dies.
Since Wyr are much more than their animal natures, Wyr mating can pair in unusual ways. For example, a carnivore might pair with an herbivore. The offspring of an atypical mating such as this will have one dominant form, from either parent, not two. Half-Wyr might or might not have the strength to shapeshift. If they do, their animal form will be that of their Wyr parent.
Immortal WyrEither these strange, rare creatures came into existence as the Earth was formed or they came into existence soon after. The truth of that has been lost in time, for these creatures neither knew nor cared. They simply existed, until human societies grew to be so prevalent, the immortal Wyr became curious and learned to shapeshift to walk amongst humans. They are not true immortals, for they can be killed. However, they do not die of old age. This classification includes creatures such as dragons, gryphons, harpies, gargoyles, pegasi, and sea kraken.
Unique WyrUnlike the name suggests, Unique Wyr are not individual creatures but they are a classification of Wyr that do not appear in mundane species. For example, there are many types of mundane chameleons—more than 160 types of species in the world. However, there is not a mundane counterpart for the shy, rare rainbow chameleon Wyr that is native to an Other land in South America. Often Unique Wyr have specialized characteristics which can include atypical lifespans.
Natural WyrThis classification covers all the other Wyr that have counterparts in mundane species. Wyr can be anything from gazelles to zebras, or from badgers to orangutans. The typical lifespan of a Natural Wyr is just over twice that of a human’s lifetime, around two hundred years, unless they mate with a Unique Wyr or some other race, such as a human, that has a shorter lifespan. In that case their life spans are as long as their mate’s.
Discourse on the Dark Fae(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/discourse-dark-fae/)
The Dark Fae are some of the longest lived creatures in the Elder Races universe, with several kingdoms throughout the world. One of the most famous of the Dark Fae kingdoms is the Unseelie Court, based in an Other land with crossover passageways to Ireland.
The Dark Fae Unseelie Court is often at odds with the Light Fae Seelie Court, which is also based in the same Other land off of Ireland. The two Fae’s famous battles are almost always why the Dark Fae and the Light Fae are discussed hand-in-hand.
Both races are Fae, which is to say they share certain characteristics in common—they are magical and long-lived, and they have long elegantly pointed ears and a certain similarity in bone structure.
But both the Dark and Light Fae have not only distinct geographical and political differences, they also have other strong differences as well. The Dark Fae are black-haired, with pale skin and gray eyes, and they often have a gift for metallurgy. The Light Fae are a blond, charismatic race, with either blue or green eyes, and they have an aversion to iron.
In the Continental United States, the Dark Fae’s demesne is based in the Other land Adriyel just outside of Chicago, while the Light Fae is based some distance away in Los Angeles.
The Adriyel Dark Fae is an old demesne, established well before European humankind came to the Chicago area. The demesne is ruled by a monarchy which has seen some intense upheaval over the last two-hundred years. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Rhian Lorelle, King of the Dark Fae, took a moderate view of the human settlers from Europe and embraced a theory of change. His brother, Urien Lorelle, was not so open-minded. Urien worked with several key members of Dark Fae nobility to stage a coup. Urien and his faction killed most of the Lorelle family, including King Rhian, his Queen Shaylee, and their twin sons, Rafe and Dwyer. Their daughter Niniane Lorelle escaped and vanished.
Closed borders, monopolized trade, and a community kept in segregation were the key characteristics of Urien’s two-hundred year reign. Without a robust free trade system, the Adriyel Dark Fae economy weakened while a select few in the nobility, Urien’s allies, took advantage of their elite status. Urien granted them special trade dispensations, and as a result they grew immensely wealthy.
In the meantime, Niniane Lorelle managed to reach the Wyr demesne in New York. She petitioned the Lord of the Wyr, Dragos Cuelebre, for asylum. Dragos had been allies with Rhian Lorelle, and he granted Niniane’s petition. Niniane changed her name to Thistle Periwinkle and made a place for herself in Wyr society. No one but Urien realized that she had survived the massacre. Over the next two centuries, relations between the Dark Fae and the Wyr remained strained, as Urien made several unsuccessful attempts on Niniane’s life, and Urien and Dragos engaged in a deadly cold war filled with political conflict, military tension, and economic competition.
The Adriyel Dark Fae face many challenges when the Elder Races series begins.
A Brief History of Vampyrism(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/a-brief-history-vampyrism/)
In the Elder Races universe, Vampyrism has an extensive and varied history that has its roots in ancient Egypt. It has long been called the “serpent’s kiss,” many believe, because of the fangs that descend when a Vampyre is hungry and wishes to feed.
Vampyrism is purely a human phenomenon; none of the Elder Races can contract it. Vampyres can only receive nourishment from human blood. Although they can drink wine and enjoy it for the taste, Vampyres cannot get intoxicated unless they drink blood from an inebriated human.
Perhaps the Vampyres’ ability to imbibe wine is what led to the creation of bloodwine in the mid-11th Century. Bloodwine is exactly as it sounds, blood that has been mixed with wine and bottled. The process involves a low-level alchemy and it requires a wine with a high alcoholic content.
Bloodwine does not have the capacity to mature over time as other wines do. At best, it has a shelf life of two years, and it doesn’t have the same nutritive quality that fresh blood does, but, if necessary, a Vampyre can survive on bloodwine for months at a time. It can be used to supplement a fresh blood supply during lean times. Bloodwine is credited for how European Vampyres managed to survive the Black Death in the 14th Century, when up to 60% of the human population had been killed.
Historically many cultures viewed Vampyrism as a curse. However, this attitude changed in the latter part of the 19th Century, due, in large part, to the medical research done by Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux, the two doctors famed for their development of a rabies vaccine.
According to Pasteur and Roux, Vampyrism had all the characteristics of a blood-borne pathogen. It was found in blood and certain other bodily fluids and had a 98.9% infection rate when a direct blood exchange had occurred. It cannot be transmitted through air, and intact skin acts as an effective barrier. The scientific nature of their findings caused a broad transformation in attitude. The conviction that Vampyrism is an infectious disease has become so well-entrenched in modern thought, it is no longer questioned. Now in the 21st Century, virtually all medical and scientific research on vampyrism is based on this premise.
Early in the 20th Century, in the United States a process of application was developed in an attempt to control the spread of Vampyrism. The Nightkind demesne coordinates efforts with the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta to determine how many people may be turned each year. This, at least, is the official, approved process. In reality it is generally understood that Vampyrism itself is impossible to regulate or control, just as the spread of HIV or other communicable diseases are impossible to control. Also, many of the older Vampyre families resist the modern regulations and rely on their old ways of regulation, through intimidation and violence.
While Vampyrism can give someone an extremely long life, it does not offer true immortality. Very old Vampyres go through a period of increasing mental deterioration, black-out episodes, and sometimes what appears to be delusions or outright madness before death. This is the challenge that the Vampyre Carling is struggling with when Rune arrives to pay his debt to her, and so Serpent’s Kiss begins.
The Djinn in the Elder Races Universe(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/the-djinn-elder-races-universe/)
The Djinn in the Elder Races universe are creatures of air and fire, and almost unimaginable Power. Born at the beginning of the world, they have no corporeal bodies; instead they can assume whatever physical form they choose and discard it afterward, rather like wearing a set of clothes. Some Djinn are not gender-specific and they might assume either a male or a female body, according to their mood. Other Djinn identify much more closely with the masculine or the feminine, and those invariably appear as purely one or the other.
The Djinn are actually part of the Demonkind demesne, which is comprised of several races, and the Djinn social structure is made up of five Houses—the Shaytan, the Gul, the Ifrit, the Jann, and the most Powerful of them all, the House Marid. The Houses are based on relationships, much like humans conceived of clans or extended family groups. Large decisions that affect an entire House are made through consensus, with the older, more Powerful Djinn having the final say. The elders (either first generation Djinn who were born at the beginning of the world, or the second generation Djinn) are assigned honorifics: the males are called Princes of their House and the females are called excellencies.
As a rule, the Djinn do not value physical things, but they prize invisible, intangible things quite highly, such as relationships, information, and keeping one’s word or maintaining one’s honor, and they trade in favors. Since their currency of choice is itself intangible, bargains are sacred, and if a Djinn reneges on a bargain, he/she is found to be without honor and cast out of their House. Then that Djinn becomes a pariah, and pariahs are very dangerous creatures.
One can summon a Djinn if he or she is beholden to one, owes a debt or has struck a bargain. That Djinn must have a compelling reason to put off the summoner’s request, such as a personal emergency or if they are acting to fulfill a prior obligation. An almost universal characteristic of the Djinn is a rampant curiosity. They love ferreting out information, and locked doors merely whet their appetite for knowledge.
They are not known as forgiving creatures, nor do they feel obliged to point out whenever one may be bargaining in a foolish manner. Many human legends tell of Djinns’ malicious or mischievous behavior toward anyone who is foolish enough to make a bargain with them and then break it.
The hero of Oracle’s Moon, Khalil, is a Prince of the House Marid, a second generation Djinn. He has given his word to look after the human children, Chloe and Max, who are the Oracle Grace’s niece and nephew, and he intends to fulfill that obligation he has made whether Grace likes it or not. This is how Oracle’s Moon begins.
The Elves in the Elder Races Universe(from
http://theaharrison.com/extras/the-elves-in-the-elder-races-universe/)
Elves are among the oldest and most Powerful of the Elder Races. Their Power comes from the five elements—air, fire, water, wood and earth. Like the Wyr and many of the other Elder Races, the Elves grow in Power as they age. The ancient Elves can control weather, shift tides, even cause landscapes to shift. Not every Elf has the same affinity for each element—some have an affinity to air, others to water, others to several elements at once. The oldest Elves have honed their affinities over time, and if pressed, they can wield almost complete power over their elements, even to the point of causing hurricanes.
Though many Wyr and members of the other Elder Races are blessed with extreme long lives, few remember that the Elves once warred amongst themselves, long before humans ever walked the earth. Fewer still know the reasons behind the war, as the root cause of the quarrel was kept out of non-Elven circles. They fought until Elven blood ran on the ground, and the bloodshed was so great that they drove themselves into a diaspora. The Light and Dark Fae were born of this war, and there are, to this day, similarities between the races, such as long lives, similar magic, and those pointed ears.
The seat of the Elven demesne in the United States is just outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in a particularly wild and green place called Lirithriel Wood. It borders a national forest—only the Wood can survive hurricanes where the national forest cannot. The Wood was created from Elven power after the war, and it holds a connection to an Elven Other land.
The oldest Elven demesne in the world is Numenlaur. After the ancient war, the Numenlaurian Elves withdrew from the rest of the world and closed the passageway to their land, remaining so separate that even Calondir and Beluviel, the Elven High Lord and his consort, cannot remember the last time a Numenlaurian Elf made the journey through the passage from the Other Land to this world.
Relations between the Wyr and the Lirithriel Elves have been tense ever since Dragos Cuelebre—the Great Beast, the Lord of the Wyr, and Pia Giovanni’s mate—broke several long-standing and vital treaties with the Elves. Though those events are months in the past, clashes and strife continue along the border with the Elven demesne. The Elves have enacted a trade embargo that has put several New York businesses under and has seriously hurt several more.
That’s why Pia undertakes a mission of diplomacy. Reaching an understanding with the Elves is so important, she embarks on a journey to meet with Calondir and Beluvial at the junction of two extremely delicate events—the beginning of the Wyr Sentinel Games and her own budding pregnancy. But the Elves are proud and Powerful, and her husband is even more so. Can she repair relations between these two stubborn races? Will Calondir, the Elven High Lord, even consent to see her? And what of Numenlaur, the lost Elven demesne — has it fallen into myth and legend completely? These are the challenges Pia faces as she travels to Charleston, and this is where Lord’s Fall begins.
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