Elf

Basic Information

Anatomy

Elves are generally taller than humans and have a slender build that is emphasized by their long, pointed ears. Despite their graceful appearance, elves are not weak or fragile, and their thin limbs can possess surprising strength. Their eyes are large and almond-shaped with vibrant colored pupils. The coloration of elves is diverse and varies widely, but often matches their surroundings, making them appear similar within a community. Forest-dwelling elves often have variations of green, brown, and tan in their hair, eyes, and skin tones. Elves are quick both in movement and thought, but are not impetuous. They are known for their physical beauty, stylish dress, pointed ears, and large irises and pupils that make the whites of their eyes barely visible. While their skin and eye color vary, elves are typically fair-skinned with blue, green, gold, or violet eyes.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Elves are omnivores, but they have a preference for a diverse diet of grains, fruit, nuts, fish, and wild game. They tend to avoid domesticated livestock, as they find their taste unappealing, and instead, they prefer to hunt for their food. When cooking meat, elves tend to bring out the natural gamey flavors, which may seem overpowering to those not used to it. Fruits and vegetables are usually served raw and spiced with exotic seasonings to add flavor, with a preference for tangy tastes. Elven bread is typically flat but highly nutritious.

Behaviour

Creatures with long lifespans, such as elves, have different priorities and behaviors than shorter-lived individuals. The elves' unique mindset is shaped by their longevity and informs their behavior in ways that other long-lived creatures, like dragons, outsiders, and intelligent undead, can also appreciate.
Living for a very long time allows elves to spend a great deal of time observing, giving them a long view that humans may not have. Elves have a proverb that illustrates this: "You can make amends for waiting too long, but you can never wait longer once you’ve acted." Although this can sometimes appear as reckless behavior, elves' disregard for short-term consequences comes from their deep wells of personal experience. What may seem like a half-cocked leap off a cliff is actually behavior informed by a dozen other cliffside experiences. Additionally, elves fret less about short-term consequences and consider a five-year setback a mere nuisance.
Elves tend to ignore small details, dismissing them as products of short-term thinking. They also take few things seriously because they understand that even the direst circumstances change over time. Though they may appear somber and stoic to some, elves have a different sense of humor and often laugh among themselves at jokes that shorter-lived individuals may not understand. Elves often form longstanding relationships with outsiders who share their long view of the world.
However, long life has a dark side, and many elves succumb to vanity and pride at a racial level. Some elves begin to believe that they can master anything merely by living long enough, making other races who cannot do so naturally inferior.
Elves seek signs and see omens in many facets of life, from natural occurrences to self-directed urges and hunches. While the gods are considered the primary sources of otherworldly knowledge, elves also attribute success to their own irrational, eternal spirits, reincarnated through eons with wisdom unknown. In the Age of Lost Omens, prophecies and signs occur less frequently and with less efficacy. Most elves feel slightly adrift by this turn of events, but since it happened relatively recently in elven memory, few are concerned about it, and most expect a return to normal in the next age, whether that be in a hundred or a thousand years.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Elves have larger pupils that allow more light into their eyes, enhancing their vision and enabling them to notice even the slightest irregularities in patterns. This attention to detail is particularly useful for adventurers who can spot hidden doors with ease. However, this heightened perception is not due to any magical powers but is simply a result of their attentiveness.
Elves also have excellent vision in low-light conditions, which means they do not require much lighting in their homes during the evenings. Hospitable elves may brighten a room or area when expecting non-elf visitors, but inhospitable elves will not. Some human diplomats have learned to use this as a gauge of an elf's true feelings.
Elves also possess acute hearing, which is thought to be a function of their ear shape. Their long, pointed auricles funnel sound into their ear canals, giving them an edge in detecting potential danger earlier than their human counterparts. It is even said that elves can identify a tree's type from the sound of a falling leaf.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Most elves have four names: a personal or given name, a hidden or intimate name (usually known only to close family), an everyday name chosen by the elf, and a family name. Names are typically polysyllabic and follow an iambic meter, often with an internal rhyme. However, elves can also be named after ancestors or elven heroes of either gender, leading to traditionally cross-gendered naming conventions. This practice is not stigmatized, as elves familiar with their own history recognize the allusions.
During informal introductions, an elf usually only mentions their everyday name, while their other names remain private.

Common Dress Code

Elves who live among other races often adopt the local fashion, but always add their own stylish flair. Elves who live in predominantly elven communities tend to wear more traditional elven clothing, which features soft fabrics with intricate cuts and patterns that allow for comfortable movement. Prominent and noble elves sometimes wear cloaks and gowns adorned with local plants, sometimes even incorporating still-growing flora into the embroidery. During battle, elves alternate between polished silver mail that shines in the sunlight, and long cloaks and hoods with patterns that match their surroundings, allowing them to blend in and disappear quickly.
Elven hair is usually kept long and flowing freely, although some may experiment with human styles. Elves enjoy dying their hair in unusual colors to match their clothing or mood. With the exception of autumn, elves tend to avoid wearing vivid reds, oranges, and yellows. Even during fall, these colors are only worn for a short period before moving on to browns and whites for winter.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Elven life is characterized by a rich complexity that allows for both celebration and mourning to be observed at any given moment. Rather than adhering to specific holy days, the elves view life as an ongoing celebration, recognizing the joys and setbacks that color even their eternal existence.
While they are a cultured people, elves also embrace wildness in their art and mannerisms, seeking to harmonize with the natural world around them. They use local plants for a variety of purposes, including food, medicine, dyes, and magic components, and their clothing often incorporates the surrounding flora.
Honor is a crucial and deeply ingrained aspect of elven culture, with unspoken but universally understood codes of conduct that are strictly adhered to. Though rarely discussed, these dictates govern nearly every aspect of elven life.
Elves place great importance on the pursuit of spirituality and the worship of their gods. However, their approach to religion is generally informal, consisting of simple daily rituals and occasional ceremonies held at night under an open sky. These ceremonies often involve singing, dancing, and chanting, with everyone present joining in. While storytelling may occur, formal speeches or tightly structured worship experiences are rare and may be overshadowed by impromptu singing unless the speaker is an exceptional orator.
Elves are free to choose which god they wish to honor, but most have preferred deities and generally avoid evil or corrupt gods. Some more devout elves also worship three specific deities that are revered only in the elven pantheon. These deities hold great significance to those steeped in elven culture and history, each having distinct personalities and portfolios.
Elves are highly skilled in crafting, often dedicating decades to perfecting their chosen art form. Their patience and attention to detail make them adept at various disciplines and artistic expressions, with many mastering multiple crafts throughout their lifetime. Among their notable crafts are sword and armor crafting, cartography, herbalism, tailoring, music, woodworking, perfumery, dyeing, cosmetics, poetry, and songwriting. Mining and smelting are typically viewed with disdain by most elves, but they do work with silver and crystals and often trade with dwarves and humans for raw materials. When living among other races, elven artisans use their skills to transform basic goods into intricate works of art, earning a livelihood through their craft.
Elven architecture incorporates natural elements and features sleek, graceful lines that may seem alien to other races. Although elven buildings can be found in various environments, ranging from desert cliff dwellings to kelp-strewn villages on the ocean floor, most elves reside in forests where their structures blend in with the surrounding trees. When elves do construct cities, they are often dazzling and radiant with opalescent towers and curving streets that harmonize with the environment.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Births are infrequent in elven communities, and therefore, the successful delivery of a newborn is a significant event celebrated by the entire community. Festivities can last for weeks as community members bestow blessings and gifts to assist in the child's upbringing and development. During pregnancy, oracles and divinations are consulted regularly, and the information gathered is used in the child's naming and upbringing for the first century or so.
Elven honor is based on principles such as keeping one's word, fulfilling agreements, supporting family and friends, and seeking divine guidance. Unlike other cultures, honor is not linked to battles or property rights, but rather to the bonds of friendship. Elves take great care in selecting friends, often spending decades getting to know someone before considering them a true friend. Honor-bound obligations to friends are separate from familial ties, and friends are considered vital to an elf's life, joy, and survival.
In elven society, it is dishonorable to wrong a friend or impose one's will on them. Enforcing behavior on a friend is considered insulting and ineffective, and most elves try to limit themselves to an informative role unless directly asked for advice or help. Non-elves may see this as hypocritical, but for elves, the presentation of information is not bound by their codes of honor. Elves may use their words carefully, presenting information in such a negative light that the recipient would immediately rethink their actions. When an elf speaks, it is advisable for other races to listen.
While elves can be prone to getting hot tempered, it is rare for them to become murderously angry. Due to their small population on Dessend, elves often exhibit racial solidarity, though this does not necessarily mean that they all get along. When conflicts arise among elves, they tend to be personal and small-scale, often leading to feuds or rivalries.
A feud begins when an elf perceives an insult, whether intentional or not, and informs the other of their offense. Meanwhile, a rival seeks to deny their opponent whatever they desire most, and claim it for themselves. Rivals spend time learning each other's desires and plotting to cause vexation at every opportunity. Identifying symbols or marks are often left at the scene of a defeat to let everyone know of the loss, especially the foe.
While multiple rivals can join a feud, the intensity of planning makes it difficult to focus on the goals of multiple targets at once. Sometimes, an elf may become frustrated enough to demand an immediate settlement via a duel with elven blades, but such resolutions are viewed as less honorable and satisfying on both sides compared to slowly taking apart the other elf's life brick by brick. Blood may be spilled quickly and forgotten, but if a rival can ruin their enemy's romantic relationship, trick them into acting dishonorably, or achieve their opponent's greatest goal in life, the scars are far slower to heal.
Elven feuds typically do not last more than a century, as time erodes even an elf's desire for vengeance. In rare cases, a feud may end with the rivals becoming dear friends due to spending hundreds of years getting to know each other intimately, which can foster a sense of kinship. However, more often, the elves simply let the matter drop, possibly prompted by seeing a sign such as new growth on a decomposing stump or a particularly beautiful sunset breaking through the clouds.

History

Humans were long considered enemies by the elves, even more detestable than orcs, who they believed disguised themselves in a pale imitation of civilization. Thousands of years ago, human greed helped drive the elves to distant corners of Dessend, and the elves are not eager to repeat that conflict. However, in the last 10,000 years, humans have displayed remarkable adaptability, and the majority of elves now consider them trustworthy companions.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Elves have friendly relations with dwarves, as they have little interest in each other's territory and commercial pursuits. Elves appreciate dwarven strengths that compensate for elven weaknesses. Gnomes can be off-putting to elves due to their quirky and erratic magic, but their ties to fey realms make them tolerable. Half-elves are an inevitable consequence of elves sharing love with humans, but they are often pitied and mistrusted. Trust and friendship are difficult to earn for half-orcs who elves do not distinguish from their full-blooded ancestors. Elves appreciate halflings' friendliness, commitment to home and hospitality, and their sly, surprising ways. For thousands of years, humans were considered enemies by the elves for their role in driving the elves out of their ancestral homes. However, the majority of elves now find humans to be trustworthy companions, with judicious prudence and safeguards.

Lifespan

Immortal until killed

Average Height

165 cm to 210 cm

Average Weight

45 kg to 70 kg