Our ancestors had skin like fire turned to stone and eyes like the stars. Their hair silver and gold, dyed by the light of the moon and the sun. 

The great families as they were called kept magical creatures as their pets and rode dragons in place of horses. Our great ships could hold thousands and our castles were built upon fused stone, melded together by the fire of dragons and the spells of sorcerers.

We ruled an empire that lasted a thousand years and would be remembered for a thousand more after its fall. Our greed and hubris led to the calamity. 

Fires spat from the mountains upon which we had built our greatest city burning everything in their path. The winds curled into tempests as the ground broke apart beneath our feet. It wasn't long before the tides rose to swallow what remained.

The destruction of our home did not came without warning. The youngest daughter of King Argemon II 'the Great' was born a dreamer. She saw visions of the flames in her dreams, though few believed what she saw would actually come to pass. Those that did however, poured the entirety of their resources into the construction of a great fleet, the Salvation Fleet they called it.

The princess sung of a paradise far from our shores. Most debated whether her songs were a prophetic vision meant to save us all or the simple ravings of a madwoman born to wealth and prominence.

Nevertheless, the believers had little hope beyond these songs, so when the flames came and the fleet had been prepared, they departed our ancestral homeland and sailed towards the horizon.

The fleet contained thousands of elves, most were from lowborn families and had little to no magical prowess. The few great families that had joined the fleet brought with them their pet creatures and dragons, though such beasts required immense care and resources to keep, and as such many only survived a handful of years onboard the great ships.

The Salvation Fleet continued its voyage for years. By the time they came to the paradise promised by their princess, an entire generation had been born and among them was Cedware, a prodigious young sorcerer sired by a pair of lowborn parents in the princess's employ. 

Cedware was a master of divination magic, his spells directed a route through the seas which led the fleet to the shattered sea, the coastland home to several of islands united under the banner of Shardonia, a relatively young kingdom led by Queen Elara at the time.

When the fleet arrived on her shores, the human queen hosted the elven princess and a single retainer of her choice.

The princess brought the sorcerer Cedware with her to the palace of Shardonia where they met the Queen, a middle aged woman with no family left after years of war and turmoil had plagued their fledgling kingdom. She was the last remaining descendant of the kingdoms founder and ascended the throne despite male dominated traditions.

She too faced difficulties with her rule as did those who came before her. For starters she had no heir and no husband, her army was weathered and under equipped for war, and her kingdom lacked allies. 

The elven princess had foreseen these problems as well and came with an offer for the human queen. Marry Cedware, who was her child out of wedlock, a secret which had been kept to prevent conflict among the fleet until its landing.

With the queen's marriage to Cedware she gained an alliance with the elves of the salvation fleet and sired the first half-elf, a hybrid of the two races who wielded the magic of the elves, which far surpassed the 'primitive' magic wielded by humans.

The princess revealed Cedware's identity to the fleet and while many were angered, they reluctantly rallied behind Cedware's son as their new prince.

As the years passed and Shardonia grew in power and size, it's noble houses sought marriages with the remaining elves to produce half-elves of their own which were known to possess the beauty and magical talents of their elven half while also having the benefit of continuing the houses proud human ancestry.

The noble houses that came to be ruled by the half-elves were dubbed the 'Silver Houses' and became regarded as "closer to divinity" than their human dominated counterparts. Most of the half-elves had silver and gold hair similar to their ancestors with some gaining darker eyes from their human halves.

Over the generations their skin tones started to match the indigenous humans they interbred with and their lifespans which used to last for centuries shortened to last only a single century for most.

Cedware's descendants and by extension the descendants of King Argemon have ruled Shardonia ever since the landing. They took names based on the elven custom and created cadet branches that spread across the kingdom as it grew exponentially under the protection of elven magic.

With each generation the purity of elven blood declined, becoming muddled with more and more human genes. Their powers declined becoming little better than the magic wielded by full blooded humans.

As the half-elves grew weaker and the number of true elves declined, Shardonia stopped expanding its borders and the great-grandsons of Cedware began fighting one another for the throne.

Unable to conquer new lands, and forced to fight amongst themselves. Cedware's descendants eventually divided Shardonia into three lesser realms; Lorent, Marlys, and Caledon.

— The History of the Half-Elves, an account by King Cadame IV.