There were two clans of elves who lived in the land, the silver elves - an elegant clan of beauty, their skin glistened in the sun almost as if they glowed from within - and the night elves - a clan distrusted by many in the land for their preference for darkness.
The silver elves were led by queen cassandra, beautiful yet cold and hard like a diamond; the night elves by the warlock noctulus, cunning and wise. the war between the two clans took a heavy toil on them both, and both clans realised there would be little left to fight for soon.
It was agreed that they will settle with a duel between the queen and the warlock, and the victor of the duel will decide the fate of the two clans. it was decided by the oracle that the challenge who could build the most beautiful temple dedicated to the gods with magic within seven days.
The queen, bent on winning, created an illusion, making herself look like a young girl, and went to spy on the warlock's preparation. she sneaked into the night elves' keep, and wandered around, looking for any way to gain an advantage.
The warlock had already anticipated what the queen would do, asked her if she had seen anything useful. the queen, surprised at being discovered, denied that she was the queen and hurriedly left the keep.
The queen toiled day and night, and had the rarest reagents brought from the far corners of the land. she had rubies from the deepest mines, pearls from the deepest seas, and gold from the northernmost regions. on the seventh day, she completed casting the spell, creating a wonderous work of architecture, the most beautiful temple any mortal laid eyes on.
The queen and the warlock stood before the oracle, and the oracle asked the warlock - "where is your temple? we have seen the queen's magnificent work, where is yours?"
The warlock stood silent, eyebrows knotted in concentration and took out a piece of rock, and hurled it into the open space next to the queen's temple. slowly, the rock grew, matching the queen's temple to size and form.
Details began to form, and soon, a replica of the queen's temple stood next to it, made of solid rock. it had the details of the queen's temple, but it was solid - nobody could enter the rock temple.
the warlock looked up at the oracle, still perspiring from the exertion of the spell.
"It is not the temple that is beautiful. It is what the temple does outside of its compound that defines its beauty."
