Editing Elfquest (section)

== Cast ==
{{main|List of Elfquest characters}}

===The Wolfriders===
The central characters are the [[Wolfrider]] elves, a tribe of ferocious hunter/warriors closely allied with [[Wolf|wolves]] who serve as mounts, hunting partners, and friends. Their culture is roughly comparable to the [[Iroquois]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] nation. Within their founder group, a female High One named Timmain had been the only member to retain her shape-shifting ability. When winter came, Timmain shape-shifted into a wolf to hunt food for the starving elves around her. She sank deeply into her wolf-form and eventually forgot her original identity, even mating with a native wolf to produce a half-wolf [[Chimera (mythology)|chimeric]] son whom she handed over to the Elves after teaching him as much as she could as a wolf. They gave him the name Timmorn Yellow-Eyes and he became the first Chief of the Wolfriders, bringing the wolf pack and the stranded elves together to form a close [[symbiotic]] alliance. Because of his mixed blood, Timmorn was mortal, unlike his progenitors. Timmorn then went on to sire many children, with both wolves and elves; as a result, the entire tribe and their bonded wolf pack can all trace their bloodline back to Timmorn in some way by the point at which the series begins. This mingling of wolf and elf blood produces unexpected results; aside from maintaining a feral, wolf-like mentality (known as the Way), the Wolfriders are the only elves who can, eventually, die of old age. In addition to the close bonds with their wolves, the Wolfriders also have some basic [[psychic]] [[Elves (Elfquest)#Magic|powers]] like [[telepathy]] (known as "sending"), healing, and plant manipulation. Because of the hybridization, their wolves also possess powers of telepathy, allowing Wolfriders to "send" with their wolves.

The central storyline, beginning with the series known as the ''Grand Quest'' or ''Original Quest'', focuses on the tribe during the leadership of their eleventh chief Cutter. At the start of the story, the Wolfriders' regular forest life – intermittently interspersed by conflict with superstitiously genocidal humans – is lost when the humans set fire to the forest in retaliation for a previous battle.

The Wolfriders seek refuge in the caverns of their sullen, greedy, cowardly trade partners, the trolls. The elves claim that the trolls owe them sanctuary because of all the ways the Wolfriders have helped them over the years, but the corrupt troll king, Greymung, feels humiliated for being held at knifepoint by an elf and plots revenge. The elves are taken down a long tunnel toward what the trolls claim will be a land of bright promise, but is actually a trackless [[desert]].<ref name=MarvAge/> Then their guide seals the tunnel behind them. Desperately inspired by a piece of "magic" [[lodestone]] they obtained from the trolls' caves that acts as a crude [[compass]], they make an arduous journey across the wasteland until they encounter an oasis called Sorrow's End, populated by a tribe of sedentary, agrarian elves called the [[Sun Folk]].

===The Sun Folk===
Compared to the Wolfriders, the peaceful Sun Folk have retained more knowledge about the High Ones. In turn, there are some psychic phenomena which have remained more common among the Wolfriders than among the Sun Folk, such as sending and "Recognition", a powerful involuntary compulsion to mate with another elf; this mating is guaranteed to produce offspring who are more powerful than either parent. This powerful impulse can be resisted with difficulty, but at the cost of great personal stress. If the two individuals are not temperamentally compatible, they may part ways again as soon as a child has been produced, but otherwise they may form a lifelong pair-bond as "lifemates".

Cutter's partner in Recognition is the Sun Folk's beautiful and powerful healer, [[Sun Folk#Leetah|Leetah]]. She initially rejects him as a savage barbarian, especially since she is already partnered to her village's haughty chief hunter, [[Sun Folk#Rayek|Rayek]]. The love triangle between Cutter, Leetah, and Rayek is the main focus of much of the first part of the story. Cutter and Leetah eventually become lifemates; bested by Cutter in a ritual trial and displaced as sole hunter and protector by the Wolfriders, Rayek leaves the village.

Once this conflict is resolved, the two tribes quickly unite with each side willing to adjust to the other for their mutual benefit. The Wolfriders enjoy the benefits of a more sophisticated culture with greater knowledge, while the Sun Folk benefit from a band of strong hunters and defenders of their desert refuge from humanity.

Six years later, the oasis sanctuary of Sorrow's End is breached by a handful of starving humans who approach the oasis. Although they are sent on their way (probably to die of thirst), Cutter realizes that more could follow and decides to take action. He goes on a [[quest]] with his soul-brother, [[Wolfriders#Skywise|Skywise]], seeking other elf tribes as allies against humanity. Later, Cutter's son, [[Wolfriders#Suntop|Suntop]], receives a warning from the Sun Folk's elder Savah, The Mother of Memory, about an evil which Cutter must avoid. Savah, who is close to being a High One herself, possesses a magical ability known as "going out", where her spirit leaves her body in attempts to connect to other Elves. In this way she was also able to briefly contact Rayek after he left Sorrow's End. The majority of the Wolfriders escort Leetah, Suntop, and his twin sister [[Wolfriders#Suntop|Ember]] on their journey to deliver Savah's warning to Cutter and Skywise.

===The Gliders===
Continuing their quest, Cutter and Skywise learn of the existence of another elf tribe dwelling in a place called Blue Mountain. This previously unknown tribe, consisting of tall, thin, graceful elves, is known as the [[Gliders (Elfquest)|Gliders]]. They treated humans like any other prey, until a human shaman made her way near the peak of Blue Mountain and sang and talked to them. The Gliders then agreed not to hunt humans, if they in turn received offerings and worship. The humans then worshiped them as "spirit-gods".

The Gliders claim to be original High Ones and are nominally led by an ancient elf named Lord Voll. He wanted them to have a safe home, thus their rockshapers built a home inside Blue Mountain after the memories of the Palace of the High Ones. After Lord Voll's lover and confidant Winnowill created the [[Chosen Eight]], a group of hunters that rode the Giant Hawks that nested in Blue Mountain – no one but those hunters left the mountain. They are a conservative community that has degenerated into insular decadence, dominated by the seductive, sinister Winnowill, who was once Voll's consort but who now has her own agenda.

Cut off from new impulses, the Gliders' culture turned in on itself. They created intricate art, such as the Egg of Six Spheres, which recorded the elves' history, but stopped growing. For millennia no children were born. Some of the rockshapers were put into permanent trance, and do nothing but fulfill a certain function. Winnowill manipulated Voll so that his plans to leave Blue Mountain again never grew to fruition. Lord Voll came to believe that the elves were doomed to wither, and that there would never be any children born. Only the arrival of the Wolfriders with their children and the Preservers could wake him up. He was then determined to return to the Palace of the High Ones as soon as possible, but was killed before reaching it, leaving Winnowill as new Lord of the Gliders.

The Gliders rarely venture out of their mountain except for the Chosen Eight, the tribe's hunters and (if need be) warriors. Although they have their own powers of psychic [[levitation (paranormal)|levitation]], the Eight ride massive birds with whom they share a strong bond, similar to that of the Wolfriders and their wolves. As the Wolfriders search for Cutter and Skywise, Strongbow shoots down one of the massive birds for food. Enraged at the death of their mount, the Gliders attack the Wolfriders and imprison most of the tribe within Blue Mountain. Winnowill then tortures Strongbow for the death of the bird, while Leetah, Ember, and Suntop hide in the Forbidden Grove which is the home of the Preservers. Nightfall and Redlance also manage to escape imprisonment, and stumble upon Cutter and Skywise shortly after Cutter and his family are re-united. One-Eye, also not captured, lurks around the base of the mountain surviving on the humans' unknown generosity.

Dewshine, much to the dismay of her tribe (and herself), becomes Recognized by one of the Gliders named Tyldak, who has been reshaped by Winnowill to resemble a bird himself. Both fight the Recognition at first, but eventually give in and Dewshine becomes pregnant.

Winnowill puts all Gliders but the Chosen Eight into deep sleep, and attempts to use their magic powers to shape Blue Mountain into a vessel to leave the [[World of Two Moons]]. This plan is foiled by the Wolfriders. The already re-shaped Blue Mountain shatters, and nearly all Gliders are killed; as a people and a tribe, the Gliders no longer exist.

What follows is a difficult but enlightening journey, in which the elves' most basic assumptions about the world are turned upside down as they meet humans who are more good than they ever hoped, elves more evil than they ever imagined, and trolls more aggressive than they ever feared. Throughout these adventures, Cutter and his companions learn about the world and themselves in profound ways.

===The Go-Backs===
The Go-Backs are the fourth and last Elf tribe encountered during the Original Quest. Originally a migrating tribe, the Go-Backs are named after a sudden desire to "go back" to the Palace of the High Ones. The Palace has a strong pull on all elves once in range, and the Go-Backs were the first to stumble on it since the High Ones were driven away. First appearing to save Cutter and his followers from a war party of trolls in a snow-bound tundra, the Go-Backs are arctic-dwelling elk-herders, bearing about the same resemblance to the [[Sami people|Sámi]] as the Wolfriders do to the [[Iroquois]] and the Sun Folk to Mesoamericans (that is to say, mainly in costume). They are highly warlike and hardened, being locked in continual strife with the trolls who bar their way to the Palace. They have a prejudice against magic, but not to the extent of persecuting its users. The Go-Backs, so removed from magic, no longer rely on Recognition to procreate. They provided the bulk of the military strength that allowed the completion of the first quest, and lost half their numbers in doing so.

===The High Ones===
The High Ones were an advanced race, resembling the aliens known as [[Grey alien|Greys]]; they were stranded on Abode after their ship, the Palace, was sabotaged from within and crash-landed. There are few, if any, known High Ones remaining on Abode, though they live on in their descendants, the Elves, Trolls, and Preservers.