It starts with the "Coneheads". They were immortal and essentially
telepathic. With immortality came great reductions in the urges, both physical and social, to bear young.
With telepathy came the ability to know another mind on as deep
a level as the sender and resiever desired.
The need for something that would turn into recognition began after
the Coneheads turned (shapechanged) into the elves or "Highones" and their Palace crashed on the World of Two Moons. They
were unable to change or escape and were stuck.
In the innermost part of the brain is the "reptilian layer" responsable
for territorrial and repproductive urges. (for a deeper explanation see the big Elfquest Gatherum) Elves may be farther along
evolutionary wise then humans, but they started out the same way. The "want sex" urge was not silenced by the massive conscience
mentation of the rest of their brain, just reduced to a whisper, and the Coneheads were telepathic.
Whene the ship crash landed they were trapped in their elfin
forms they took on before the accident that stranded them. They were scatterd to the four corners of the compass by the primitive
humans and were forced to atempt survival in a hostile environment. Even though they were still immortal, they soon discovered
there were plenty of ways to die on this world, and deep down in the basement of their minds, the reptiles were remembering
what the minds had forgoten: the one insurance against death is progeny.
If they weren't telepathic nothing would have come about from
the reptile deep in their mind yelling at them to get it on or die, but they were, and they managed to relearn what sex
was all about by watching the animals and the humans and began to experiment. Being telepathic the reptiles "pirated"
some of the communication between individuals and hastened the experimentation. The male "reptile" called to the female "reptile"
and the two Highones who probably had not thought about sex in centuries, rediscover the joy inherant in trying to creat little
highones.
Natural selection takes a hand in recognition as well. some
"reptiles" either had stronger "voices" or were abil to cast them out onto a telepathic "carrier wave" , whatever
the method those stronger "reptiles" were abil to get their host bodies to participate more often and produce more offspring,
which thereby had the effect of conncentrating the reptilian ability to shout "I want sex!" and be heard by a
receptive mind. Which made the shouting louder and the recieving esier, and so on.
Eventually things would have gotten to the point that the
reptiles, while still opperating on a subconcious level (though loudly to eachother) would be abil to communicate more then
just the desire for sex. They would have somekind of understanding of the genetic make up of their hosts. At some point it
would have ended up like a personals column in a local swingers newspaper. and it began creating elves with increased genetic
potential.
From that point it's only a small step to recognition as it
is known in the Elfquest saga.
The reptile brains became more and more communicative, constantly
shouting thier genetic make up and requests into the telepathic ether, compatition and natural selection would continue to
favor those who would make the best connections the fastest. Eventually the reptiles would stop "asking" and start "demanding"
The overall result has been to strengthen the elven race on the World of
Two Moons.
In short - Recognition is a genetically specialized form of love at first
site that takes place between two genetically ideal elves, binding them together in an intence, irresistable fashion for the
purpose of producing extraordinary offspring. Once recognized, the two elves can not refuse eachother, for if they do not
mate, they will becomes deathly ill without eachother.
-Richard Pini The Big Elfquest Gatherum and the Wolfriders Guide
