The Silvered Elves
The Moonfae were a race of Elves thought to have vanished from the world shortly after the advent of Common Men. They wielded great influence within the Unseelie Court and among the Elder Races in The Time Before.
Unlike most other Elves, the Moonfae did not fully shed their ephemeral Faerie nature and were seen as aloof even by the standards of their kind, with unfathomable moods and motives. They were reputed astrologers and keepers of arcane secrets, who blended Fae chaos magic and druidic mysticism with dark energies drawn from the ghostly planes of the netherworld...
DESCRIPTION
They are typically Elvish in their other characteristics, being tall and slender of form, with pointed ears, elegant symmetrical features and a haunting androgynous beauty. Additionally Moonfae eyes are usually black as pitch, seemingly all pupil with no whites.
Moonfae are extremely long-lived, with lifespans exceeding a thousand years, and likely much longer for those of noble blood. Like most Elves, as they age, they continue to grow ever taller and more ethereal, with elongated, willowy forms. While they may resemble children for their first hundred years or so, the most ancient of them tower over normal humans and elves
LORE
Although the reclusive Moonfae have been gone from this world for thousands of years, their mystery lives on in accounts passed down from the other races who shared the world with them.
In one such legend, it is said that in specific old Fae-touched places, on nights of the full moon, it may be possible for mortals to pass through into the Silvered Realm, by way of the magical bridges used by the Moonfae themselves.
According to the lore, the ruler of the Moonfae, the ancient and powerful White-Gold King, oversees the Silvered Realm from a spectacular shining palace. Those mortals who make the journey to this palace to pay homage to him may in turn be rewarded with a coronet of silver and everlasting life.
However, another story, perhaps closer to the truth, tells of how Moonfae would use their magicks to lure wayward trespassers into their lands, where they would be enchanted and transformed into slaves for eternity...
HISTORY
Time in the Faerie Realm is meaningless and unfixed, and yet, paradoxically, the Sidhe are said to be among the most ancient of all Fae. Denizens of Faerie existed in a state of formlessness until an event called The Becoming differentiated them into new, known shapes. Some scholars have theorized that this change occurred when their realm first collided and bled together with our own.
The beings who would become the Silvered Folk originated as a tribe of Sidhe from Faerie Realm who crossed over into Duatha soon after the planar conjunction, when Duatha itself was young and unformed. As with the other houses of Sidhe, they constructed citadels in the mortal world, and entwined their otherworldly magics with the primal forces they found here.
The beings who would become the Silvered Folk originated as a tribe of Sidhe from Faerie Realm who crossed over into Duatha soon after the planar conjunction, when Duatha itself was young and unformed. As with the other houses of Sidhe, they constructed citadels in the mortal world, and entwined their otherworldly magics with the primal forces they found here.
The nobility of the Moonfae refused to forge permanent tethers to the mundane world or sacrifice their immortality. Instead, they remained deeply connected with the nebulous, timeless energies of Faerie, and only rarely ventured across the Veil.
The majority of the Silvered Folk made their home in a magical kingdom nestled in the ether between worlds. This Silvered Realm was said to be achingly beautiful, suspended in a state of perpetual night, and forever bathed in a gentle moonglow.
The majority of the Silvered Folk made their home in a magical kingdom nestled in the ether between worlds. This Silvered Realm was said to be achingly beautiful, suspended in a state of perpetual night, and forever bathed in a gentle moonglow.
The history of Moonfae civilization overlapped with many other great Elder Races - Duathan, Giants, Alukah, etc. They were powerful players in Fae hierarchies, forming alliances when auspicious, or making war on their neighbours when it suited them.
Even their Elvish kin were cautious in their dealings with them, for the Silvered Folk were famously proud and dangerous beings with little concern for those beneath them. The Moonfae were also among those Elves who participated in the reformation of the Unseelie Court after the age of the Goblin Blight, and thus existed in a tense balance with the Light Elves of the Seelie Court. 
The AMBITION of the MOONFAE
Since the time of the Becoming, the White-Gold King reigned absolute over all Moonfae. He held court from his seat in the Dew-Kissed Tower at the center of the Silvered Realm, his domain carved into twelve distinct satellite fiefdoms, each governed by one of the Twelve Noble Houses of the Moon.
In those places where his folk walked between worlds, the King constructed magical pools that would serve as gates into the Silvered Realms by way of a vast, plane-spanning Shimmering Bridge. These gates opened only by the light of the full moon, and all led back to the great bridge.
The Kingdom of the Moonfae was truly magnificent, but as the power of the Silvered Elves soared to new heights, so did their jealousy and their ambition.
Wishing to claim the night sky as their exclusive domain, the Moon Court waged war with the sky-striding Giants called the Nephelem. Although they were finally victorious, and cast down the Nephelem from their lofty heights, they were yet unsatisfied; so long as the Moon still looked down upon them, their pride did not permit them to rest until they could survey all from that silvery orb which they had tethered their power to.
THE CONQUEST OF THE MOON
Since the era of the First Folly, many lofty beings had been granted stewardship of the Moon by decree of the Old Gods. Heedless of such ordinations, the White-Gold King laid his own claim upon the Moon.
Through his potent magics, he breached the ancient boundaries placed upon the Moon. Upon its gleaming face he constructed a new palace - sprawling, impenetrable, and splendid beyond imagining. He secured it with ancient sorcery, and made the Dew-Kissed Tower of the Silvered Realm his gatehouse.
The Warden of the Moon in those days was the Wolf God, Uluyan Kovalayan. He was displeased by the incursion of these Fae into his domain. The Moon was sacred to the lineage of the Titans, and he was born of Titan blood. As the great beast howled in fury, the Moonfae sheltered behind their walls. The White-Gold King knew that the Wolf was too formidable to face alone, so he called his banners and the Lords of the Twelve Houses assembled.
The chronicles of the Moonfae sing of a great hunt, when the Lieges of the Moon Court pursued the Wolf of Winter Night across the Moonless Plain, finally bringing him low with their spears of light, and imprisoning him for eternity.
However, the truth is now known to have been different, for the truck and trade of Faeries has ever been guile and deception.
Uluyan Kovalayan received the nobles of the Twelve Houses at his Manse of the Winter Wind, in order to treat with them and hear their demands. It was here, under the veil of truce, that the Moonfae struck suddenly against Uluyan and his court. They had not the power to slay him, but instead used their sorceries to bind him for all time, and make his manse his eternal prison.
This is how the White-Gold King made the Moon his dominion. There he remained, untouchable in his shining palace, gazing down upon the benighted world as a self-styled god.
In their hubris, the Sidhe of the Moon had won their prize. This deed announced their claim upon the realm of night and all the supernatural forces governed by the Moon. But they cared naught for the true nature of what they had stolen... and the true purpose for which the Gods had made it.
THE HALL OF STORIES
In the Palace of the White-Gold King, a marvelous frieze is carved into a winding corridor, depicting the long history of the Moonfae in white stone, silver, obsidian, and precious stones. Here is found a visual account stretching from the arrival of the their kind after the conjunction, all the way up to the Red Spite, and the fall of the Silvered Realms, when the Twelve Lords gathered at the Dew-Kissed Tower.
In the rolling tableau, one may find the formation of the Twelve Houses, creation of the Lunar Gates, chapters in the personal lives of kings and queens; portraits of artists, musicians, craftsmen and philosophers; important battles and triumphs; great romances and tragedies; courtly revels, historical alliances, and interactions with other ancient races.
Many tales are depicted here, including the following:
Many tales are depicted here, including the following:
1.
An early image depicts Elven figures atop a mountain, and again trooping through a series of shimmering reflections of the moon itself. This motif repeats itself throughout the many tableaux, often including architectural representations of various structures that must be Lunar Gates.
2.
A later panel presents a council of elegant Moonfae who preside over a gathered court of unusual beings who appear to be arranged in a loose hierarchy -- strange spirits and nightmare beings, vampires, ice elves, crones, water women, spindly white ents, misshapen troll-like things, nixies, spriggans, changelings, bugbears, and various bestial folk with horns and tails and other animal traits. Beneath all of these others scurry a throng of goblin-like creatures who cower and genuflect.
3.
A series of tableaux depicts a ferocious battle scene with armies of Silvered Elves marching against large, white-skinned giants with horns and golden eyes. With great drama, the vanquished giants finally are cast down through a roiling cloudmass from the hallowed silver plane held by the Moonfae, clutching their heads in agony, their eyes rolling grotesquely.
4.
Another series depicts Moonfae greeting and interacting with man-like creatures of a similar stature (likely Duathan). The sharing of scrolls, magical techniques, and culture. At the climax of this cycle is a depiction of what might be a romantic tragedy; a regal bearded figure and a moon-maiden seem to share a cup, but then are forced apart, with the grimacing faces of mythological titans filling the sky around them. Massed armies loom on each side.
5.
One splendid frieze recounts what appears to be a hunting scene set in a desert (or perhaps a starlit snowfield), though at times it also fluctuates based on where the viewer is standing to resemble a great hall, with banners and banquet tables, creating a jarring dissonance. The object of the hunt seems to be a massive lupine shape, pierced through by a dozen spears of light wielded in turn by a dozen noble Elven figures. On this last image, a symbolic figure larger than the others presides over the event. He wears a white crown, and triumphantly holds aloft a great lunar disk, which he brandishes over the transfixed wolf-creature.
6.
In one of the rare depictions of what appear to be common humans, we see lowly men and women being led through silvered lands by lantern-bearing Moonfae knights in black armour. Here, ribbons of text around the mortal faces translate as cries for "silver coronets" and "eternal life."
