#idk what other tags i use on here bhbhb i post so rarely i forget the way i categorize things on me own damnsed blog

[lucalicatteart]

Despite the modern day tensions between demons (jhevona) and elves (irithoas), there is some historical evidence to suggest that the relationship between the two species was once fairly intertwined in some way, or at least that they existed peacefully alongside one another. Most of this evidence is in the form of vague artwork or symbols that can be found in certain ancient ruins, which despite the art usually being in horrific condition even in the most well preserved areas, is still on occasion at least vaguely decipherable. Given that all of these seem to come from the period before modern recorded history in Nanyevimi**, it’s lucky that any of them still exist at all. It is also noted that there likely were originally more of these portrayals in existence, but they have been frequently destroyed by various societies of elves during certain periods of history in order to further a political (or moreso, religious) agenda. It’s unknown what may have been shown in some of the destroyed artifacts, as the elves (primarily the Fanyiniri, since.. of course it’s the Fanyiniri) only kept record of the fact they had been 'disposed of’, but made no mention of the actual content or details about the objects. 

Though some believe that it’s not useful to read personalized meaning into the paintings (solely trying to interpret them literally rather than letting groups apply their custom worldview to it), it can still be interesting to see both involved groups’ ideas of the images, since it can provide an additional perspective regarding their creation myths or popular beliefs about the origins/working of the world. For example, in the image labeled ‘#14′.... 

(interpretation of images, further elaborations (like the explanations of the ** marked sentences), and extra info on the nature and beliefs of elven/jhevona religions/world philosophies/etc. and other additional context under the read more lol, since I’ve edited the post to be a bit shorter )

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The common jhevona interpretation of the image is that this supports the concepts that appear in many of their traditional/older religions about there being realms existent outside of Nanyevimi that are no longer accessible as the magic has been lost to time***. They believe this may represent ancient jhevona utilizing the (now forgotten) ability to cross into other realms, and that the hand reaching through the “hole” is a “higher being”, or a creature from a different layer of reality that exists slightly above our own. Though they don’t have a decided explanation for why the elves are there, answers range from stuff like “the magic in Nanyevimi comes from an outside realm, and as the jhevona were one of the only ancient groups rumored to have other-realm access,  perhaps they helped teach the elves certain forms of magic in the first place by connecting them to other realms, this shows them being lead to an area of higher magic” to “idk maybe elves are actually just babby demons and you gotta throw em in a portal to transform em dude”.   

The elves take a more practical view, stating that it’s merely a representation of a demon doing reality magics, which wouldn’t have been uncommon or odd at all back then, and that since elves are not capable of doing such forms of magic, the jhevona in question is kind of just showing them a small pocket realm they’ve created (like “hey guys, can y’all do this? check this shint out”). Basically, it has no special implications or meaning, they’re just doing some basic spell which is no different than the same type of magic that can be used by powerful jhevona mages today. Some other more, ~politically motivated~, elven interpretations of this image usually involve stuff like “elves used to be more magically capable than demons but the jhevona slowly stole away our powers, which is the only reason they’re inherently more magical than us in current times, and this is  a representation of one of them leading an innocent group of elves into a trap where their souls could be harvested for power” or “here’s a jhevona using the DANGEROUS and horrible practice of reality magics, this image is just the first of a five part series which tells a story of them opening a portal to a horrible realm and letting a terrifying beast loose, which doomed the world for a time and killed many of the most powerful elven mages from history (who sacrificed themselves nobly), crumbling our best societies and forcing us to start over..We know this because we uh... totally saw the other 4 images.. we like, destroyed them and can’t prove they existed but.. that’s absolutely what it originally portrayed so....uhh..  ANYWAY, jhevona always end up causing chaos with their foolishness (let’s get rid of those guys) and reality magic should be illegal (lets kill folks who practice it), thanks for coming to my ELFtalk”)....

The image labeled ‘#5′ is much more perplexing, and neither jhevona nor elven groups have much of a concrete idea on what it could represent. The main complications come from the figures in the background, one supposedly a jhevona with one horn shorter than the other (perhaps broken off??) grasping their head or something, and then two figures on the other side with seemingly no horns or ears at all, a representation that is not seen in any form anywhere in any other known artifact from this ancient culture. Some people guess it may be a depiction of a transformation process (maybe the featureless figures are being turned into elves by the jhevona), or that it may be a representation of the aftermath of a conflict (the jhevona is saying goodbye to the elf, presumably once closely allied, before joining their (injured??) friend in the distance, and perhaps the featureless beings had something to do with the conflict/why the jhevona had to leave), but ultimately this is one of the most confusing images to yet be recovered. 

Some think that if they were to all be found and put together, the pictures would tell a sort of story, or that there is an order they are supposed to be in. A majority of scholars disagree with this however, and find it absurd based on the nature of the content and other details such as they locations they’re found. Though they do certainly depict specific concepts and ‘tell a story’ in the sense of giving valuable information on events that may have occurred or have been important to note for whatever culture created them, there is little to imply them being a grand series who’s true meaning can only be revealed by piecing them all together in some linear way. But, since it makes the idea more interesting, there are still plenty of wild theories and speculations (none supported by any evidence) about like, them all lining up into one big mural if you put them together, or that it’s actually a secret puzzle and certain symbols on each one can align to create a map to an ancient treasure (or a lost city, that’s another popular one) or reveal some sort of coded message that explains secrets or methods of ancient lost magic, etc. etc. 

There are currently only 16 of these images discovered at this point (though 43 have technically been found, most of them are just broken fragments, or are so worn it’s impossible to make anything out. This doesn’t include the ones destroyed by the Fanyiniri, of which the number is not known.), though there are thought to have been hundreds if not thousands of them created in ancient times, as with the way they were created (on cheap clay tiles with basic materials, using simple shapes and made in a somewhat uniform style but clearly by many different artists, often amateurs, etc. so it’s not like, grand elaborate wall murals crafted by specific expert artists out of the finest materials, or anything that would give any indication of them being in some way very valuable or sacred), it seems like they were used casually, similar to how people commonly decorate their homes with pictures on the wall. Which is at least a fitting representation of how much that time period has truly been lost, that out of an entire culture spanning possibly millions of years, all that’s left is like, some faint piles of almost entirely disintegrated building stones in random areas across Nanyevimi, a vase or two, and 16 crumbling art pieces (out of possible thousands) that nobody really understands. 

Scholars have had difficulty in attempting to make sense of most of the images, since they’re often very vague with unclear implication, the style is simple with many features up to interpretation, and they also must be very cautious about their modern viewpoints causing them to see  meanings which are not actually present (though like usual, they still do,, interpretation can vary a lot depending on who’s doing the research and if they have an interest in not being banished by the elven government or something lol (I mention the elves acting in this way more than jhevona since, modern day elven societies at least, hold significantly more social/political/financial/etc power on a global scale than jhevona do. Even if a group of demons disagreed with a group of scholars, they’d be unlikely to have the ability to start much of a conflict over it, whereas many elven societies, especially certain prominent ones (Fanyiniri, Yarairi, Lishleiri, etc.) could issue actual consequence on a broad scale, etc.). Though luckily most all of these artifacts now exist on neutral ground, and are held by neither elf nor jhevona aligned parties). 

Even detached from any political or religious significance (which is where most of the contention arises), the images still interestingly call into question certain historical assumptions (that the elves and jhevona have always been fairly separate, for one), and give at least a tiny scrap of much desired insight into what may have been considered relevant to one of the many lost societies of the past.

There is also some disagreement over whether these images even portray elves or demons in the first place, as obviously these representations look a bit different from the modern versions of the species you’ll find today, so some have thought it may be a different species entirely (this is made worse by the fact that the ruins these are found in are usually barely identifiable, nobody is sure whether they were made by ancient jhevona, ancient elves, or perhaps another group entirely who merely had an interest in/contact with the other two, etc. They’re found in scattered seemingly random locations with not enough identifying information left to really trace them well). But most everyone in modern times agrees with and is aware of the fact that the ancient species had a slightly different appearance though are still considered the same (especially elves.. jhevona haven’t changed all that much, they still hardly have noses lol and the shape/style of horns portrayed in old images are still possible in modern demons, though much rarer now. But modern elves look quite different from ancient elves, you never see the entirely rounded noses (like a side profile that just looks like a “ ) “ kind of ) and massive upturned ears in elves today, those traits are essentially nonexistent now (aside from a similar nose style and the strong cheekbones occasionally coming up in Avirre’thel/vampire genetics even now and then), but this is thought to be due to the difference in lifespans (jhevona can live thousands of years, whereas elves live usually just 130 - 300, so they reproduce and die more quickly and their genes are being passed on and changing at a faster rate)). But anyway, this argument used to be popular in the past, but is slowly dying out as people learn more about what historical versions of themselves look like and more information is found about species and evolution, though some small groups of elves still claim the images are unrelated and don’t portray elves at all but rather some other species (how dare they be portrayed interacting with the jhevona in any sort of non-hostile, even positive, way,, even millions of years ago, it must be false lol).

Also the images are thought to have been colored, perhaps vibrantly, but none of it really shows up anymore. You can see that like, some areas are lighter and some are maybe a little darker, suggesting that maybe originally there was some attempt to shade elements of the paintings, but in their current state, the originally intended appearance is lost. The example images given are deliberately made higher in contrast and the original lines darkened to be more visible (obviously not on the actual artifact, but like in exact replications (which can be made fairly easily with magic) things are often traced or re-outlined to be clearer), but some of them in their natural state can hardly even be made out at first without some modification and closer examination. There are many different recreations where the images are colored in different ways or have details added to them or etc., which can be interesting to see the variety of interpretations, even if they’re all just wild guesses, and it can never truly be known what the paintings on clay actually looked like. 

------ “ * “ marked section elaborations - 

(**other than one strange thousand year gap in some areas of the world, historical record has been “mostly” in tact for about 2 million years (meaning, there is some form of continuous recording of at least most significant world events since that time), seemingly starting with some of the early societies of that period. It’s pretty nonexistent before that point, as if everyone began writing everything down all at once, or more likely, as if something happened around that time which somehow destroyed all records, ruins, and relics across the entire realm prior to that point (yet was never mentioned in these future writings. You’d think if there were some worldwide disaster, even if the past were entirely eradicated, those who survived would write about their experience of the disaster event, but there’s hardly any indication of anything like this. The lack of any records or evidence of earlier civilizations almost seems supernatural in nature, as so much about it doesn’t make any sense if you were trying to think of ways it would happen naturally, leading some to believe it may be due to magic or something.) 

 It is known that advanced humanoid species (practically no different than those today) have existed in some form for far longer than 2 million years, and scholars occasionally find things that date back to that time, however for the most part any knowledge or understanding of that world is absurdly sparse and basically anything that occurred before the ~Magical Point Where Recorded Nanyevimi History Began~ has been entirely lost. Along with certain questions about the nature of magic, the whole “we know for a fact people have existed for much longer than we have record of but for some reason it seems like there was a mass memory wipe or some shit about 2 million years ago for whatever reason” thing is another one of the most widely known curiosities surrounding Nanyevimi, one of those things scholars are always debating and trying to understand.)

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(*** This view is kind of like a multiple universe theory, except if they were to all exist at once rather than on separate timelines. Many jhevona religions reference the belief that there are countless realities stacked on top of one another, as if in layers, difficult or often impossible to access due to the entire nature of reality being different between them (so like if beings from another “layer” were to try to visit the one under theirs, they may be nearly imperceptible to the beings of the under layer, etc.) 

And if there are too many layers between you (say someone on the 8th layer trying to make contact with the 2nd), it would be completely impossible for either of the beings to make sense of one another or exist in the same space without it destroying both of them or altering something dramatically. Especially since some also believe that magic systems work differently in every realm. Thus, just because you can use magic in one place doesn’t mean you’ll be able to in another, to the point of most beings being incapacitated entirely/having their magic or even their very soul (depending on how serious you believe the link between magic and souls to be) stop functioning completely upon entering a realm in which the magic is too foreign. 

Though it’s usually thought that stuff like visiting the layers closest to yours is still possible (layer 7 beings are able to access layer 7.2, 7.9, 6.8, 8.1, but not 10.5, 3.4, 5.6, etc.), the opinion varies on how much is too far apart, and a lot of it can get into complex theorizing about magic systems and souls and various ways to classify realms/layers by certain criteria in order to determine who would be able to visit who, and how, and what the consequences would be, what an alternate magic system would even look like, etc.etc.)

[ [ sidenote within a sidenote: this is why a lot of people who didn’t grow up in Jhevona culture tend to hate studying their religions/philosophies (like for school projects or anything), since there’s never simplifications or any clear answers, on day one you jump straight into 

“Alright, lets call into question the very nature of magic itself, and consider the the potential implications and functioning of infinite multiple universes..”  ‘wow that sounds complicated.. can’t you just... tell us about some gods you worship or something and call it a day?’  “..Gods??  we have no gods but ourselves, everyone simultaneously is and isn’t a god, depending on the perspective you’re viewing them from. you see, it’s all about varying layers of reality and power levels and whether you’re looking up or looking down, now if someone from the 40th realm were to...” *student instantly regrets asking* Also, you can imagine all the debates over different schools of thought, usually different clans or groups of jhevona will have their own unique perspective on this and how it fits into other elements of their custom culture and worldview. Though they’re not the type to start fights over it (remember, everything in jhevona philosophy is infinite possibilities, who are we (insignificant creatures in a vast incomprehensible world) to ever say what is truly correct or incorrect, it’d be antithetical to enforce your views on others harshly), there are still a lot of passionate debate circles where 30 people all show up and present their theories and everyone discusses them and etc. etc., usually made into elaborate parties or events, ways for local groups to make connections and bond with each other, or promote unity (through.. good natured argument lol) between neighboring clans of jhevona ] ] 

Despite travel between ‘’layers’’ being seen as difficult, there are still many myths about beings from other realms visiting Nanyevimi in ancient times, sometimes even under the claim that perhaps these people created the realm. Since reality magics are a known thing, some jhevona belief systems theorize that the entire realm itself could simply be a larger form of that, created by beings with magic so powerful it’s on a scale we couldn’t imagine, able to craft entire worlds rather than just small pockets of realty. Just like the reality magic used in Nanyevimi except on a much larger scale. Though other jhevona legends disagree with this idea and still hold on to the belief that such a form of travel between realms is too impossible. 

This is usually part of their explanation for why ‘’higher layer’’ beings can exist, but also never noticeably interact with the world (why there isn’t any solid proof of a realm creator/god/gods/etc), since it only makes sense that the world a being creates must be lower level than they are (you can’t make something with more power than you have, input must match output somehow), meaning likely any realm that a higher being creates must be significantly lower in order than their own.. Thus, they can craft realms, but then lack the ability to influence or visit them in any way, as their layer and the layer they create are too far apart for either of them to even be perceivable or conceptualizable to the other (like if you’re a layer 18 being, you could maybe make a realm, and it’d end up somewhere on the level scale of layer 2, which means you're so far apart you couldn’t interact with them in any way, as likely your entire foundation of reality and the magic in your world and the functioning of your very being is just so incomprehensibly different from theirs, you would be mutually unfathomable to one another). 

This is also what leads to some beliefs that creation of realms is accidental, since why would someone knowingly create something they can never perceive or interact with? In some jhevona belief systems, creating realms is seen as an accidental side effect of some unknown natural process, rather than the deliberate act that most believe it to be (which also implies most, if not all, realm creators are wholly unaware of their creations, and additionally that people in Nanyevimi may be participating in similar mundane processes that create distant realms as a side effect, and we would never know it). 

( Basically: we are all simultaneously gods, and also not gods, we may all create realms, yet have also had our realm created by someone else, we are simultaneously both higher and lower beings, all creators are likely entirely unaware of their creations, just as it would be impossible for their creations to perceive or become aware of them, etc. Everything is a system of layered realms, and everything in the universe entirely depends on your perspective in that system,  whether you’re looking at layers above, or below you (in the layers above you, you’ll find ‘higher beings’, possibly the creators of your own realm (though you could never truly interact with them), in the layers below you, YOU are now the higher being from THEIR perspective, and you may also find realms you’ve accidentally created without even knowing, part of natural processes you’re unaware of)) 

These concepts also lead to some interesting tales of like, multi-reality games of telephone, where since a higher being can’t directly influence their crafted realm (yet for some reason is able to be aware of it), they just continuously send a chain of messengers downward (guy from layer 8 contacts layer 7, layer 7 contacts layer 6, etc. etc.) until finally the information, in some form (though usually the humor or irony in the myth is that it’s of course been horribly misinterpreted at this point) eventually reaches the target realm lol. 

Even though largely the jhevona don’t believe in the concept of gods necessarily (as divine untouchables to be worshiped), they do believe in contact from other realms, and that beings from other areas have influenced the world and etc. So despite not really having clearly defined gods or anything, they do still have plenty of myths and tales, they’re just usually about vague creatures or unspecific adventurers traveling realms, rather than a permanent set of gods. Their tales are more like ‘hey what if somewhere in the universe some weird shit like this happened one time’ rather than ‘our specific god definitely did this one thing in our own realm this one time’. Which I guess is pretty expected that a group notoriously focused on the vastness of the world and how unimportant we are in the scheme of things, would further emphasize that by having most of their traditional myths and tales taking place in other worlds, often having nothing to actually do with themselves or Nanyevimi in general (”we’re SO unimportant and insignificant, we’re not even PRESENT in 75% of our traditional stories!” ) .. 

BUT ANYWAY, the whole ‘multiple realms’ thing is a massive concept in their culture and etc. so that’s what I’m referencing when I speak about it.

Also for contrast to explain part of why elves and jhevona disagree so much:

Many traditional elven belief systems state that there are not infinite realms in existence, only one:  Nanyevimi. Some groups of elves will occasionally seek a middle ground by saying that there MAY be one or two other realms, but that those were obviously just experimental landscapes used by the elven gods to try out certain concepts before solidifying them and adding magic to them, as they wanted to make sure that beings functioned well and that the order of things operated properly before bestowing creatures such a form of power. Any “evidence” of another realm (which is usually debatable/doesn’t really prove either side) is just an example of a place the gods used as proof of concept to test things before they made everything magical, since things always get more wacky once you add magic.

Another middle ground elves may occasionally entertain is that, MAYBE there COULD be what SEEMS like other realms (still very unlikely), but  these realms are not SEPARATE, necessarily.  They usually would more take the belief that EVERYTHING is only ever ONE realm, but just with occasional branching layers off of it and a thin barrier between them. What Jhevona may interpret as an entirely new “layer” realm, a totally separate universe existing above or below Nanyevimi,, an elf would likely just see as a branching path off of the main realm. Maybe it appears to be some new place, but it’s no different than when people use reality magics to make small pockets within our own realm. Nothing is EVER a genuinely separate realm, it’s just the occasional stronger-than-usual branches off of the main realm that sometimes give the illusion of being separate. 

  This is part of why elves often also hold the belief that the pursuit of realm travel or attempting to unlock the ability to do so (which Jhevona feel is a long lost skill of theirs or something) should be illegal or at least extremely discouraged, since even if other realms DID exist, they clearly were intended to be discarded and left to their own devices once the gods were done testing things there, NOT to be returned to and disturbed, as the gods never intended for it to have any meaning. Nanyevimi is their ONLY true creation and focus. 

Basically, the supernatural realm is the primary realm of the world, the one lovingly crafted by the gods, where magic is strongest, and where the gods placed their best creations (especially elves) on display. Nothing else exists, and even if it WERE to exist, it would be irrelevant, since if the gods intended for our focus to be on other realms, they would have made us aware of them and given us (or at least the elves) access to them. 

This whole concept that the supernatural realm is the only realm that matters/actually exists/etc. is similar to other themes in the traditional elven religion, which in most branches of belief also asserts that elves were the true original species, and the original holders of magic (though the myths vary, generally they state that magic was given directly to them by the ancient elven gods, as they were the most favored by the gods and thus were chosen to start the original magic bloodline, and elves were the ones who then gave magic to all other species out of their kindness (or had it stolen from them... the oldest elven tales speak nothing of this though, so it’s thought to be a more modern invention, but some versions of tales will include some form of ‘and X group took magic from us’ or etc., particularly if someone stands to benefit from things being told that way.), which is why they’ve usually considered magic and the use of magic so deeply sacred, as in many ways they see themselves as the originators of it, and feel they should protect it from corruption as, even though they have graciously allowed others to have magic as well, ultimately it is their god-given domain, and they reserve the right to make the rules about it. 

Even though, especially in older tales, there are very prominent themes of always maintaining peace, beauty, unity, togetherness, and etc in the main elven religion, it has often been at odds with a vague underlying element of entitlement, likely coming from continuous reinforcement that they’re the special ones, the only group that matters, the only realm that matters, the original #1 awesome god-chosen species, etc. etc., So despite this focus on protecting the realm and it’s inhabitants, and holding everything sacred (as it was created by the gods, thus is important), it can still get a bit out of hand sometimes.

To their credit, sometimes it doesn’t manifest harmfully at all, like in theory, taking on a role as a peace-keeping protector species who feels it’s their duty to keep order and unity in the world is not always a bad thing, and in many ways it can be really positive when it works well, and it has on occasion in certain elven societies over the years....It’s just that it’s always a very delicate balance, and far too often in practice, there’s the tendency for groups of elves to take this focus a bit too far, spending more energy on relishing in their god-given positions of power, than actually using that power how it was originally intended, and over time increasingly adopting a focus on proving their importance and reinforcing their right to be in the place they are.. Which is obviously where most of the antagonism and resentment of jhevona societies comes from (as jhevona are kind of unintentionally a living breathing reminder to the elves that they’re not as special as they think they are, and that there’s likely more to the story) .

Mainly :

 Jhevona are just as old as them (both species go back before written history, which causes doubts about the “elves are the oldest and most original species, the god’s first important creations” thing)

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Jhevona are significantly more inherently magical than elves with access to abilities and types of magic which elves couldn’t even dream of using (which casts doubt onto the whole “we’re the most magical and the original bringers of magic” thing (which is why they’ve come to claim Jhevona stole the magic from them, or that some other group in history caused a catastrophic event which robbed them of magic,, and also why they like to ban any type of magic that they’re incapable of doing)), 

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and on top of all that, the Jhevona constantly make claims about the vastness of the universe and how unimportant everyone is, that Nanyevimi is just one realm among many, and not even that significant at that, that there are beings unfathomably more powerful than we could even conceptualize (which goes directly against the whole “Nanyevimi is the most important, where all magic begins and ends” thing. And also calls the elven gods into question as nothing more than like “Well maybe they do exist, maybe they did even create this realm, but they’re not gods, not anymore than WE would be considered gods when walking into a realm below us. Godhood is just a way to describe vast power, and by that definition the elven gods likely have gods as well, and those gods have gods, and so on.. It all depends on how many layers up you go”, which to anyone of traditional elven thinking, this is an utterly infuriating philosophy lmao). 

This is also why sometimes the aggression between elves and jhevona can seem overly one sided, because it almost kind of is??  At least in the sense that, the traditional elven worldview/religion/belief-system is inherently incompatible with that of the jhevona, but it doesn’t work the other way around. 

Within the jhevona framework, the elven gods can still exist (they’re just not really “gods” per say), the elves can still be the same as always, the realms are the same (there’s more than  one of them, but hey, whatever), etc.  There’s nothing really all that incompatible about elven beliefs in the context of how the jhevona view the creation of and nature of the world and etc. 

The jhevona view of elven philosophies is more just a:  “Well, that’s kind of half wrong and there’s more to the story than that, things are way wider and more vast and complicated than you realize, but technically most of what you believe is plausible other than that.. like yeah, maybe your ‘gods’ totally created this realm, maybe they did give you magic first, who knows. We never took anything from you and we’re not dangerous or out to get you or etc. but sure, totally, maybe there is an original magic bloodline, you never know, there’s a lot of higher beings and complicated realm layer stuff out there that nobody really understands, it could be plausible, especially when we’re confident that there’s types of magic at work out there that aren’t even fathomable to us, we can never have any true idea of the framework we may exist within. Anything is possible really.”.   

 Whereas like with elves viewing the jhevona belief system, it’s more like “NO, that actually can’t be possible, there CAN’T be more realms, because we are the only one that matters. And there CAN’T be other gods because these are the only ones (also how dare you insinuate that our gods aren’t actually true gods). You CAN’T exist the way you do because you being powerful and ancient the way you are contradicts with US being the most powerful and ancient. We actually CAN understand everything about the framework of the universe, because this reality is all there is, and to imply otherwise is to deny the natural order of how gods intended the world to be.” etc.

 It’s basically just a very very typical “everything is broad and unknowable and we’re just an insignificant part of the vastness” VS. “everything is definite and  well defined and we are the most significant part of this world, which is made for us and very clear in nature” philosophy clash. Traditional elven beliefs are literally incompatible with Jhevona ideas, but Jhevona ideas can easily adapt to accept elven belief, so it often seems like one side disagrees with the other WAY more than the other does with it. 

Which this isn’t to say that jhevona haven’t had plenty of problems with the elves before, they can definitely be the one that initially takes issue with the other as well, but more just that, this is why OFTEN (but not always), it seems like the elves have more of a problem with the demons/jhevona than the jhevona have with elves, since generally the elven worldview has more basis of things to take issue with (since it’s more narrow in focus and inherently exclusive of certain things) than jhevona beliefs usually do (since if anything it’s more about not excluding anything and naturally focused on how many possibilities exist). 

Jhevona focus on how insignificant they are and how there’s no way to know everything, so if they’re told or shown that they’re wrong about something, the reaction is more likely to just be “Ah, well that’s unsurprising. Good to know”, whereas a lot of the elven beliefs center on their place of importance in the world and them having the main correct view of things, so when anything implies they may be wrong, it’s only natural that it is more upsetting or jarring to them. If all of that makes sense (I can’t think of a good way to explain it concisely so I’m just repeating myself 40 times with different phrasing bghbb) 

AND of course this is all simplified, especially in modern times, there are like, a shit ton of different variations of the elven and jhevona belief systems.. Though they’re all thought to have branched from a “main” religion/philosophy which may have been centralized to each group at some point (since even really obscure offshoots of the respective belief systems usually still have some of these main ideas in common, even if the details or specifics of how it works are changed), there’s still a lot of variety out there in terms of what each group believes, especially due to them both being very ancient and widespread groups.  

A group of elves in Fanyin (a well populated and modern northern city, political and economic focus point for modern elves)  is going to be entirely different than some rogue group of elves who have been hanging out in the southern mountains for 10,000 years and etc. And even with the main criteria described, there’s a lot of specifics left out and details I didn’t go into (like the full creation story of each group and specific mythological figures and etc.), the above is just the bare bones general philosophy, AND is only the parts of said philosophy that are relevant to their conflict (leaving out other details that may be just as important to each group, but just weren’t specific to mention in this context). But still, in general this elaboration hopefully helped explain why the conflict is there in the first place, since very broadly and simplified-ly speaking, this worldview clash is where most of the issue between the two groups is thought to have originated.

 Even though, as history indicates, they likely haven’t always not gotten along,  it’s a complete mystery what changed, and when. For all of recorded history they have clashed slightly, but it’s clear that there was some period prior to this  where things may have been different (obviously, as this is the main premise of the art above and etc. lol, that they once had some sort of alliance or relationship close enough to constantly appear in art together and have crafted symbols representative of their unity and etc.), but since there are no records it’s hard to say whether or not there was like, some inciting event that occurred, or some belief change (maybe one of the groups didn’t always have the philosophy they do now), or whether it was just a natural and gradual series of small disagreements overtime, etc. 

So like, in CURRENT history, we know the main source of their disagreement seems to be religious/philosophical, but obviously something must have changed, implying that maybe at some point their philosophies were not as different, or that there was an entirely different way of thinking back then and both of their current worldviews are more modern inventions, or etc. etc. 

Also , there are of course other worldviews out there, all cultures and species have their own custom creation myths and ideas about the nature of ancient society and etc. etc.  Other groups may have interpretations of these images and conflicts and etc. as well, it just made the most sense to focus on exclusively Jhevona and Elves, since they’re the ones in the images, the main parties involved. 

Additionally, they are still the two oldest known currently living species, who’s origins are untraceable and who have both been around since before the current era of society even started, so their myths and ideas have had considerable influence on most current species and cultures as well.  Even to the point that you can often classify most other group’s myths into seeming either more elven inspired or more jhevona inspired, as these two conceptualizations of the world have been around in some form before most current myth itself. 

Like for example, the beliefs of the Ythrili generally fall more in line with what elves claim (there’s only one realm, magic exists here solely, etc.), whereas this random species I never gave a name to lol (link) tends to fall more in line with jhevona influence (there are infinite worlds, the limits of magic are unknowable, etc.). Then there’s groups like the Avirre’thel/vampires who have a mix of both (which makes sense considering vampires are technically the closest living descendants of ancient elves, yet also historically have been closely allied with jhevona (since their split from elves literally occurred with demonic interference lol)), though the Avirre’thel of course notoriously reject all myth/religion anyway and could be considered more of a neutral party in terms of which philosophy is right, their pop culture and “religious” traditions still have heavy influence from both worldviews. And again, this too is also WAYY more complicated, even if influence can be seen, there are plenty of systems that exist entirely outside of the jhevona/elven framework, and also likely species and cultures and beliefs that are older than they are (’oldest KNOWN currently living species’, implies there may be plenty of unknowns out there as well) , etc. etc. etc.  

But just in a short brief post like this where I’m not going to extensively detail every main living species and culture and religion and compare and contrast them and etc. etc., especially since the main focus is just on elves and demons anyway, I felt the over-simplification to be reasonably applicable lol.. Like.. be aware, that... things are more complicated than I’m describing them, but also,, this is all that needs to be known for the context of this post in particular lmao, so I’m not going to actually get into the other detail.

and with that, I suppose I’m done with the extra context stuff. There’s always more I could elaborate on but I should have been in bed like 3 hours ago bhbbbb. I always try to start out these posts nice and organized and as clean as I’m capable of but then by the end I’m usually just, late at night rambling repeating myself over and over again and not using proper punctuation or grammar or etc ghhh, sometimes... it’s just.. Like That...I  hope the single one of you who has read this far enjoyed hearing my endless nonsense about some groups in Nanyevimi lol,, thanks for reading ~