Elf

Long-lived, lithe, and small, elves are the most strikingly different of the three Imperial Races. Historically, they were the first sentient species in the modern age to have developed a culture and begin to expand, but soon found it difficult to counteract the other sapient species that existed in nearby lands.
Archeological evidences has shown that elves are largely the reason humans advanced and expanded so quickly. Early elven nations, seeking to subjugate humans in the new lands, often failed to defend against invading human and gobloc tribes. Their advanced weapons and technology spread, allowing humans to effectively repeal both elven settlers and future vegetian settlers near human lands.
Numbering nearly a billion strong, elves exist across the globe in the modern age, but have fewer racial representation than vegetians do. The nations of Forstapees and New Agar exist as almost pure elven nations, exercising xenophobic tendencies that have largely isolated them. Despite the isolationist tendencies of these two countries, several other nations have high elven populations, and most major cities have elven communities eager to connect with each other, and the world.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Short, lithe builds are the defining characteristic of most elves. Anatomically, they possess a humanoid build that is, outwardly, essentially the same as that of humans.
Despite being smaller than the average human, elves tend to have roughly equivalent strength to the taller race. Their bodies are fat light and muscle dense, giving them a surprising amount of strength for their size. In addition, their muscles are naturally limber and their joints are more flexible, giving them a high degree of natural dexterity.
Facial feature tend to have exaggerated points, with their ear cartilage being stretched at an upward angle to end in a point. Elven eyes have an inward orientation, are typically elongated and wider than humand and vegetian eyes, and have large irises that will often hide most of the white. Color is near universally dark brown, with some lighter shades, especially of a golden hue, occasionally appearing.
Hair tends to be straight, thick, and dark, often being nearly black or a deep brown. Straight and light, elves rarely experience curling in their hair, even for facial hair. Though women do not grow facial hair, both genders do grow light body hair, though often it is soft enough to be invisible without close inspection.
Elven skin tone is generally light but ranges from a pale redish-brown hue to a darker-taupe.

Ethnic Diversity

Outside of Forstapees and New Agar, elven ethnicity is rarely discussed or even noted. Between the two nations, there are three broadly accepted ethnicities, broken down further into sub-cultures or tribes. The three ethnic breeds are Tyrin, Lhgro, and Nougar.

Genetics and Reproduction

Elves have a naturally slower life cycle than humans and vegetians, which impacts their reproductive lives as well. With low fertility rates and longer gestation, many elves will only have a couple children within their long lives.
Though experiencing similar reproductive maturity as humans, elves generally enter puberty later than humans, often not starting until their late teens for both genders. For women, menopause is also often delayed significantly, usually occurring in their 80s. Within the fertile years, both men and women seem to experience a slightly lower fertility compared to other races, and will often need years to conceive when purposefully trying.
Elven gestation lasts about a year. When the child is a hybrid, premature births are often common, and other developmental issues can occur. Children are often more dependent on the parents than with other races, and often breast feed until

Ecology and Habitats

The home land of modern elves, the landscapes of Forstapees and New Agar, are largely mountainous and forested. As with most of the sentient species, they are present across the world and can live in any environment, but many feel more at home in there ancestrally biome.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Contrary to popular belief, elves need to consume the equivalent, and in some case more, food than humans and vegetians. As omnivores, elves consume a wide range of foods, but traditional elven dishes tend to be plant-rich, with berries and nuts being a large staple.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Unsurprisingly, elven perception is comparable to human and vegetion perceptions, with minor caveats.
The muscles around the ears are more developed and allows a greater degree of control. For most, they can consciously push their ears outward a small degree and can improve hearing from the front.
In addition, the larger, darker eyes do give elves a small degree of better night vision over humans and vegetians, but the added benefit is not appreciable compared to species that have true night vision.

Civilization and Culture

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Elves are capable of breeding with humans, vegetians, and goblocs, but with extreme difficulty and often with tragic ends.
Elf-human pairings are the most likely to successfully generate an offspring. These children are also the healthiest of the hybrid children, but are still often born premature.
Elven-vegetian children are often born with birth defects and various disabilities. Though they will inherent their vegetian parent's golden genes, these children have always been infertile.
Elven-gobloc children existed in the ancient past with more frequency then modern children. Today, they unfortunately tend to never develop, or are born with extreme defects. In both New Agar and Forstapees, it is consider a punishable crime to conceive an elven-gobloc child.

Excerpt from Maste Charwek Sabluk's book Rise of the Imperials; How Luck Defines The World

When looking at their options for expansion, there was nothing. Goblac's had the south, until disease made it look like hell. Human's had the west, especially once the vegetian's fell inward. North and East were wastelands as far as they could tell. What few expeditions made it westward, never made it to Tes. In truth, the elven race was lucky that they could hold on to the land they had when human's began expanding outward. Had the Garvie Empire even made a foothold on either elven island, we very likely would only have two of the so-called "Imperial Races".

— -- Master Charwek Sabluk, --Seatbearer of Anthropology at URA

Lifespan

120 years

Average Height

Males: 5'3" Female: 4'10"

Average Weight

Males: 110 lbs. Females: 90 lbs.