Elves on the World of Two Moons came from the stars. Yes, they are aliens.
Originally, the High Ones lived on a distant planet where overpopulation and stagnation had become a problem, due to their ageless lifespans, and the eventual ceasing of reproduction. Groups of High Ones left the planet, including the group that found their way to this world. They searched and found the World of Two Moons to be perfect for their needs. In order to successfully integrate themselves with the human population, they chose a time when fantasy gave way to legends that they would embody; medieval times.
However, while they rested in preserved sleep, small pets they had kept had evolved, and chose to turn against their masters. These pets would eventually become the Trolls as we know them. The interruption of the travel caused their ship, now called "The Palace of the High Ones," which was mentally and magically controlled, to veer off of course in time. When they landed on the World of Two Moons, they were in for a nasty surprise.
Emerging from the Palace, the High Ones were scared of the new land. Having landed near a group of unevolved humans, close to our early Homo Erectus, the boldest and most optimistic of the group of High Ones attempted contact. He extended a hand out in greeting, and received the payment of the day for being different: death. The humans attacked the High Ones, who had found that the new world stunted their magic use as if to show how they were rejected.
The surviving High Ones fled into the forest, in an attempt to survive. Over the course of time they learned how to forage, and pooled their magic together in an attempt to make fire. Hearing the wolves of the world howl in the distance, the High Ones howled with them, save for one who had no voice, but kept time with their hearts.
Eventually, they made a home for themselves in the woods, away from the humans. Their magic became stronger, and they learned new uses for it, and with time, children came to the High Ones.
Timmain, seeing the distance between her people and the world they had come to, shapeshifted herself, until she became a wolf. In that form, she learned to hunt, and found her people meat. The longer she stayed in the form of a wolf, the more of a wolf she became in mind. Timmain had discovered "the Now" of wolf thought. She learned how to survive, and from her would come the first Chief of the Wolfriders, Timmorn, Yellow-Eyes, the half-elf, half-wolf son of Timmain.
With time, the wolf blood would make any children of Timmorn as much a part of the World of Two Moons as the wolves themselves. This also created a bond between the wolves and the now-mortal elf children of Timmorn, as the former recognize the latter as kin.
As time passed, some of the pure-blooded elves rejected the tainting of their blood, and desired to find the Palace once again, to reclaim it for their own. Various groups split off from the main tribe at various times. The Gliders, led by one who dreamed of finding the Palace, left with a group of pure-blooded elves, only find Blue Mountain, and craft their own Palace within its confines. In doing so, they repeated the High One's folly. The mountain could only sustain so many, since death was not an issue (either through sickness, murder, or natural accidents), they stopped reproducing. The youngest Glider is 8-10,000 years old.
Another group split off almost at the same time as the Gliders. They were referred to as "The Rootless Ones." They would seek their home in the desert. They had not been trying to find the Palace, but instead find a safe place to live, away from humans. Crossing the desert, they would come to an Oasis in a valley. Here they built Sorrow's End, home of the Sun Villagers (Sun Folk). They remained pure-blooded, but death was a potential threat to them. The heat, accidents, and other means of death allow them to replenish themselves through the birth of new life.
Later in the timeline of the mortal Wolfriders, two Chiefs fought for the right to lead. Two-Spear, upon losing to Huntress Skyfire, split off from the main tribe, and wandered North. Eventually, this group started to hear/feel the call of the Palace, and their whole purpose became finding the Palace, and reclaiming it for the Children of the High Ones. They were thus called, "Go-Backs," since their entire purpose is now to "go back" to the Palace.
Separated from the original group of High Ones, the ancestors of the Wavedancers never had the chance to become mortal. Instead, they took to the oceans, shaping themselves to survive under water, and above.
Time has passed, and who knows what other ways the Children of the High Ones have gone?
