[Dragaera] Elves, natural disasters, and safety

[Damien Sullivan]

So I entertain myself with thoughts of how to rationalize typical elven
traits.  Stuff like being the result of magical transhumanism.  Or why
elves live where they do and don't take over the world.

With a long lifespan, you probably get more used ot the idea that low
probability means low frequency, i.e. not "with luck it won't happen in
my lifetime" but "it *will* happen, just not very often*.  And then you
might think about living locations from the POV of "it *will* have a
giant quake, or giant flood, or 30-year drought..."

Thus my idea: elves live in a few select enclaves because from a long
POV those are the only safe places to live, rare places that are not
subject, or minimally subject, to the whole range of disasters.

This doesn't work directly with Dragaerans, who have high magic and
apparently occupy much of a continent, though it's hard to tell.  But!
 From Paarfi, apparently the Orb prevents natural disasters in the
Empire, so that wwhen it left, a lot of pent up tectonic energy went
SPROING.

So maybe one reason Dragaerans don't settle further east is that when
they do, they find that the Orb isn't extending its control, and
eventually something bad happens and everyone leavees and tells stories
of how crappy things happen every 500 years or so so you really don't
want to live there.

-xx- Damien X-)