The Duty

The Duty is the term given by Elves to the tenets of the worship of the god, Corellon, who is said to have inspired the Elves and Gnomes to rise up against the tyrannical Eladrin masters in the Feywild, and to flee to Oberon.

As the name suggest 'the Duty' is a series of obligations upon the worshipper: it describes how Elves should behave towards family, friends, their race, other races, their religion, other religions and even (to a small extent) the Merebian Empire. These are strictly 'one-way' obligations; Elves who closely follow 'the Duty' do not expect anything in return for their endeavours - other than the grace and compassion of Corellon in this life and the next. Indeed, many Elves take this to extreme and follow a highly philanthropic lifestyle, without any care of how their actions might affect themselves but merely always seeking to do the most good for the most people.

However, many Elves have spent centuries in the company of Humans and Dwarves and, for these individuals, 'the Duty' is usually distilled into the following seven core beliefs:

• Do not do unto others what thou do not wish to be done unto you
• Pay respect and kindness to those that do so unto you
• All gifts to be received gratefully but never expected
• The natural world is to be protected
• All life is sacred; The taking of life is an action of last resort
• If a task is accepted it is to be carried out to the best of one's ability
• Corellon measures your worth by your actions; do not dishonour Corellon or yourself through deceitful practices

These seven core values were first proscribed only about 800 years or so ago and were based on how Elven society had progressed to that point since arriving on Oberon. Many Elven scholars insist that these are merely extrapolations of 'the Duty' through a societal lens that Corellon never intended to be used and that the *real* Duty is the protection of the Elven race and way of life. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive but there is a schism among the Elves between those who wish for harmony and those with more militaristic and isolationist outlooks.