...in degrees, over time. This- [a gesture to the tentacle hair, to himself in general, the blue situation,] was the most recent, but my people have always been susceptible to change influenced by magic. We became a separate species of elf entirely from our ancestors, over centuries without our original magic source. We were tainted by the demonic energy we were forced to turn to after the new source we found was corrupted.

[his fingers tap idly on his leg where his hand rests, a little jittery.]

I lost- more than I expected, in war, and I couldn't-- there was no returning to how things were before. That was when it started. Then we were corrupted by the Void while trying to study it, and you can see well enough the sort of change that resulted in.