The Elves of Saga

 Previously, we've discussed the Dwarves of Saga, the world's most powerful and advanced people (according to the Dwarves, anyways). In that post, I mentioned how many fantasy settings seem to have an overabundance of different kinds of Elves - wood elves, dark elves, blood elves, sea elves, and so on. This is my take on Elves, or at least the Elves found in the world of Saga.

The Elves of Saga are the most widely varied of any folk in the world. While there are broad trends in Elvish culture, Elves are so fiercely individualistic and ever-changing that establishing a single truth about Elves as a whole is nearly impossible. While Dwarves and Men are consigned to labor under the established laws of reality (Men have some sway over such things, but that is a subject for another time), Elves shape reality with their belief, making it conform to them, rather than the other way around. 

The Ghostly Magic of Ectophagy

 Though part of human culture for many centuries prior, the existence of Ghosts was not conclusively proven until 1886, when famed Occultist and Spiritualist leader Charles Cornelius Ward was able to produce a "physical" sample - the world's first Ectoplasm. This discovery led to a boom in popularity for the Spiritualist movement, which swept across the United States and Europe as interest in the world of Spirits became part of the public zeitgeist. As increased study of the newly discovered phenomenon continued, the production of Ectoplasm became cheaper and more widespread. It wasn't long before the first "Ghost-Eater" was born - a human being with the ability to utilize injested Ectoplasm to accomplish wild supernatural effects.

The increased interaction between the Spirit World and Earth began to weaken barriers which had kept the two worlds apart, and creatures of Spirit would occasionally begin to cross over, manifesting as monstrous Ectoplasmic forms, and wreaking havoc in their confusion and frustration. Humanity addressed this problem the way they knew best - not by ceasing to explore their new discovery, but by weaponizing the abilities of the Ghost-Eaters, putting them to work against wandering Ghosts, as well as utilizing them in more human-focused conflicts, be those military or against rogue Ghost-Eaters involved with criminal elements.