About Elven Kings

As I've mentioned before, all elven cultures in my campaign are matriarchal. Additionally, elves have three very strict ranks: Workers, Lords and Ladies, and Queens. Workers maintain and defend the hive, Lords and Ladies are those elves most commonly encountered by others, and Queens are responsible for birthing and protecting the next generation.

As I've also mentioned before, there exists a mechanism by which young Ladies may be given a draught of ambrosia to be 'promoted' to the position of Queen. Such Queens are seldom as wise or as powerful as those born to the role, but the potential remains.

But that raises an obvious question: what happens if an elven Lord consumes such a draught?

My initial answer to that was "nothing", but having spent some time going through the recorded history of Terafa (which was written prior to the "all elves are matriarchal" decision), a better answer suggests itself.

My new answer is that if an elven Lord takes a draught of ambrosia they are promoted to become an elven King - a being possessed of all of the wisdom and might of an elven Queen. However, just as Queens have a single-minded obsession with birthing and protecting the future of the hive, so too do elven Kings become creatures of obsession... with universally tragic results.

Thus, many of the worst episodes of elven history have resulted from the rise of an elven King. On being promoted to that station, the king will almost invariably seize control of the hive, and will proceed to expand their influence significantly. This gives rise to the elven wars of enslavement against human and dwarven lands, it gives rise to the Unhuman Wars (in the Spelljammer setting), and so forth. In short, it is a bad thing.

Needless to say, elven society has a very strict taboo against elven Lords being given ambrosia. However, as is so often the case, they find it hard to dwell on the atrocities that result, which means that the 'why' is frequently forgotten. And for that reason, every millennium or so a new elven King inevitably rises. And with the Death of Queens some three hundred years ago, the time is now ripe...