Dreal Star Warren Synopsis
Star & Dreal come from the same elven race, and two different worlds. Dreal was born first, and Star was descended from one of Dreal's sisters.
Consider a parallel world to this one: The elves had overrun their planet, destroyed their environment and their versions of environmentalists opened a portal to another world (as opposed to using space ships), and emigrated en masse to another world. Warren started off on that new world -- and that's the world Dreal was born to. There were other species on that first desert planet, and many years after Dreal had left the planet, the elves were subjugated as slaves by the Elder race (a powerful native race whose magical energies were tied directly to their life force). Warren, a non-physical being of the other sentient race active on that planet (who WERE energy, and whose energy use was not tied to their life force -- making them like gods to the elves), was directly involved with the freeing of the elves from slavery and the elves fled to yet another world with the help of some rogue Elders and nearly all of Warren's people. This second exodus for the elves brought them to the desert world that was inherently more hostile an environment -- and this is the world Star was born to years later. Perhaps too close to the sun, or not enough in the atmosphere to keep out radiation, this world started to kill Warren's people, and by Star's time had rendered the elves sterile.
Neither Star nor Dreal are from that "original" elven home world. What happened to them is pieced together from myths, fairy tales, legends from Dreal's people, and what Warren witnessed when the portal opened and the elves flooded in.
We don't know whether that original elven world had gods, whether they had turned their back on the old ways, whether they prayed or fasted or celebrated life anymore -- or if it was like this one where celebration is relegated to birthdays and people pray one day a week. However, to turn your back on nature and rape your environment is inherently to turn your back on the gods. In my not at all humble opinion. And we don't know if the gods opened the portal or if it was opened by the cutting edge technology of that elven planet. We only know that the elves came from somewhere else, determined to go back to better ways of living and not to rape the next planet. The myths and tales told to frighten children in Dreal's time account for a deep abiding respect for ones' environment. Think similar to Native American culture -- we and our environment are one, and cannot be separated. Turn your back on the soul of a single grain of sand and you are turning your back on yourself. You can't kill and eat the deer if you do not recognize that the deer has sacrificed its life to prolong your own, and give it much honor for the gift. If you kill something and do not recognize and honor the gift, you are killing yourself.
Star started out on an awful poisonous planet -- but there were no other species already there. It was in many ways a haven, and a place for 3 species to go and lick their wounds. And at the same time it was incredibly isolating. Star's Lord maintained a portal to other worlds and a spy network -- as well as a commodities & exotic goods trading post. This expenditure of his own life energy cost him dearly. Elves went through that portal as spies, ambassadors, traders -- doing his bidding. Star was his right-hand welf, and had first right of refusal for a mission to another planet. She accepted to escape being her Lord's lifeline. He was jealous of her energy and healing abilities and wanted essentially a slave to help him stay young -- between the healing gift & Warren in her head, she was the highest rank of elves, and he didn't want her to accept any missions.
Now, Gods on Kerri, that new Middle-earth like world with elves and dwarves and forests and wolves.... there were people of faith -- I assume there were gods. There were certainly demigods and people with divine blood. I don't know why they didn't stop Xaron. But Xaron was like Zeus of Greek myth. A titan amongst the gods -- and jealous & vindictive. Just because he had taken a fleshy avatar/host does not diminish his ranking amongst what may be a godlike race. And he was not out to own or wreck the world -- that was a side effect of his real mission. I suppose you would have to understand what makes Xaron tick to understand the singlemindedness of his drive to get into the territory of Kerri. There was a whole world around that one small place of elven solace. Think that a madman attacked Rivendell, only a single if well defended peaceful elven stronghold -- to seek out a single alien companion who sticks out like a sore thumb in the environment. Meanwhile she slips under the radar and becomes a wolf to mask the one thing he can hone in on -- her mind. He loses sight of her and it drives him mad. He leverages an army to attack it because the energy of the place keeps him out, and an army defends it. Then Star enters the scene. The two greatest "gods" -- or at least catalysts in the creation of the universe we're talking about -- in this picture are on the playing field. Star masks Warren, who is somewhat hobbled by the protection of living in an elven body -- ironically now obsoleted by being on a non-poisonous world. Xaron is riding in another body as the Dark Lord, willing to level the entire mystical elven stronghold to find where Dreal is hiding. I don't know whether his host was still alive or sentient, if they shared awareness or if Xaron held the body's owner a prisoner -- or even if he reanimated a dead shell to have a physical presence on the world.
I think a missing piece of the "god" puzzle here is that these gods are aliens. Oh, they gave birth to a universe, and the planets, and even gave the spark of life to the beings therein -- but this birthing both diminished them, and their lack of a physical presence sets them apart from the other sentient races. They don't understand the strife -- depletion of the environment, toxins, war. They understand love, creation -- and in Xaron's case the poisonous flip-side of love that is hatred. That physical beings diminish and die is beyond their understanding -- and in fact it's true that those other beings do not die, only their flesh dies, their essence (soul) returns to the Higher Self for contemplation and reincarnation. It is just part of the life lessons that consciousness has set out to experience. There's no sin in experiencing distress-- it "builds character".
It was extreme culture shock to their people -- and the cause of a great deal of distress -- when some started dying on the poison world. They had never died before. The essence of the universe can transform, but how can it die? The race subjugated their power to gain the protections of living in the elves' bodies. They're not motivated by power -- perhaps with the exception of Xaron.
I know the king of Kerri is a demigod. He is trying to stop Xaron.