Elves and dwarves were both overlords of the Third Era. The two races had been rivals and enemies for thousands of years, and both had suffered devastating destruction during the transition between eras, retreating to the Old Continent, where each race had originated.
But now, their circumstances were completely different.
The dwarves were trapped in underground fortresses in the World Mountain Range. Lacking territory and resources, they had a population of fewer than three million and were already facing serious problems with survival.
The elves' homeland, Oruan, was completely different.
Oruan was also known as the "Demit" Subcontinent. It was nearly half the size of an empire, with fertile land and abundant resources, and lay at the westernmost end of the Old Continent. Other than the "Nasvika Wildlings" in northern Oruan, the elves had almost no other enemies and could develop in peace.
The combined population of the ten Elven Kingdoms exceeded twenty million.
The strength of those twenty million elves was equivalent to that of four to five hundred million humans, and the proportion of high-end combatants among them was even more astonishing.
If Oruan had not fallen into civil war so many times and split into ten kingdoms, delaying the elves' recovery, it would not have been a problem for the elven population to grow to fifty million.
Even so, the elves were currently far more powerful than the dwarves.
The two races were no longer on the same level.
Rayne allowed the dwarves to participate in the development of the New Continent and gave them territory because the two sides had been allies for many years and had cooperated quite happily. More importantly, he was confident that he could suppress the dwarves and firmly control the New Continent.
The elves were different.
Setting strength aside, even when