I feel like the awakened are some sort of supernatural.
Vengeful dead?
The Traveler could have resurrected the souls of ancient humans who have died, thus creating the "Awakened," this race of spirit-elves.
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"One thing we do know, very few of us survived". The traveler could have breathe life into the dead, "to resurrect the dead" and to repair the broken. The traveler had incredible power and technology from it's journey's. thus two new races born out of our destruction. Interesting.
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That would be interesting and could be possble, reincarnation and reanimation is a prominent theme in Elvish mythos. Do you think they've been enlightened somehow by the process (people from thousands of years ago were much less proper than todays standards aim for) or are they pure souls?