War for the Light: the eternal conflict of the elves

The War for the Light, also called the Eternal War, was a centuries-long conflict between the Light Elves and Dark Elves of Alfheim for mastery of the Light, the power that lay within the Ringed Temple. Control of it passed back and forth between the two races more times than could easily be counted, until a foreign god and a long-absent lord at last turned them toward peace.

The first division#

The elves of Alfheim were once all equal. That changed when some of their kind discovered the Lake of Souls and the Light Well and began to bask in the Light, until it became an obsession. Having steeped themselves in it for a very long time, they were transformed into the Light Elves, and to express their new selves they turned to art and invention, beginning an age of prosperity.

But in the deserts where their kin the Dark Elves dwelt, the abundance of life began to wither and die until none remained. Believing the Light Elves had gone too far and that the Lake of Souls was of no proper use to them, the Dark Elves took up arms, and so the centuries-long conflict began. Little was recorded of the war across those centuries, but by the reckoning of Mimir, control of the Light switched between the two races more than two hundred and thirty times.

The age of Freyr#

At some point the Vanir god Freyr, who held a deep love of Vanir herbs, came to Alfheim and accidentally fell into the Lake of Light. Seeing this, the Light Elves believed him a god and began to revere him, and both races came to hope he might bring peace between them. Under Freyr's influence, total order was brought to Alfheim, and he kept the Light in the hands of the Light Elves for thousands of years.

When Freyr's sister Freya married the All-father Odin in an attempt to end the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, Freyr objected bitterly and abandoned Alfheim to its fate. The Light Elves, knowing nothing of the true reason for his disappearance, believed their lord lost; some thought he had returned to Vanaheim, others that he had been captured and held in Asgard.

The Dark Elves ascendant#

Taking advantage of Freyr's absence, the Dark Elves, led by their king Svartáljǫfurr, attacked his temple and the Light within it. Without their lord, the Light Elves could not gain the upper hand, and the Dark Elves seized control of the Light, sealing it beneath a giant hive. With the Light in their grasp, they began slaughtering every Light Elf they could find, forcing the survivors into hiding.

The Dark Elves held the Light and the Ringed Temple for a very long time, until a god from another world, Kratos, and his young son Atreus arrived in Alfheim seeking to refill their light. The Dark Elves and their king met them with open hostility, but the two prevailed, freeing the Light from the hive and allowing the Light Elves to return to the Ringed Temple. While the Light Elves set out to find Freyr, the defeated Dark Elves scattered and went into hiding.

Truce and aftermath#

The War for the Light raged on, even through the long winter of Fimbulwinter, until Freyr at last returned to Alfheim. There he convinced the two elven races to unite against Asgard, persuading them that their shared hatred of the Aesir outweighed their hatred of each other. Setting aside their feud, they formed a truce and began to prepare for the coming of Ragnarök. During the invasion of Asgard the elves fared poorly, for the realm-travel tower they emerged from was destroyed and the elves left on the battlefield were slain.

After Ragnarök, Freya was hopeful that the truce had ended the war for good, though Kratos and Mimir feared that extremists on both sides would try to keep it burning. Yet on returning to Freyr's temple they found it abandoned by both races, leading Kratos to suspect that the elves had taken their first steps toward peace after all. After so many centuries of conflict, with the two races united, the War for the Light was at last over.