Elf (Elf)
The humans were enamoured with Sister Garael when she arrived in Phandalin. Her beauty was hard to deny. Half of them thought that the elves were little more than fairy stories; the other half assumed they had died out centuries prior. I never had much truck with that, nor did I ever truly trust the cleric of Tymora. My grandmother always used to say "The only good elf is a dead elf." It sounds harsh. But she still remembers her father dying during the occupation... still remembers being hidden by her mother under her skirts when the Elves came, looking for children to steal. Perhaps it was better when they were hiding in their jungles.
- Yufraeba, Delver, Village Blacksmith
The Elves of Dyrn are an insular, aloof race, once favoured of the Gods, now feared by many beings of the other races due to their corruption during the War of the Dawn at the hands of the Fey. Once immortal, they remain incredibly long-lived, and their unique life cycle seems them reborn after death. With an innate magical essence, reinforced by their origins with the Fey, their history is marked by tragedy.
Physical Description
Elves are tall, lithe humanoids. Their height ranges from 1.5 to 1.8 meters. They have a rule size of Medium. They have long, pointed ears, and this is their defining feature. Skin tone ranges from pale white or silver to dark brown or black, in the jungles of Feyr Caverill. Hair colour can be black, red, brown, white, or pale blue. Eye colours include blue, green, light brown, silver, gold, and purple. Elves tend to wear light, comfortable clothing of silks or supple leathers, either as robes or as loose-fitting tunics, vests and leggings. Clothing colours favour earthy hues of green, brown, or blue, sometimes with the addition of silver or gold highlights.Lands
The Elves have settled most of the southern part of the continent of Terrenos, a the vast tract of land that includes jungle and forest, mountain highlands and lowlands and river plains, and desert wastelands. Collectively their republic is known as the Commonwealth of Feyr Caverill. Within the northern jungles they have formed great cities in the canopies of the immortal and indestructible Yrnwood Groves, living in symbiosis with the enormous trees, using their magics to bend the branches and leaves to their will, or building more complex structures from the boughs that are shed by the ancient trees. There are three great groves scattered throughout Feyr Caverill, the largest being Feyr Ardun, the seat of all Elvendom on Dyrn. There are a number of other, smaller Yrnwood groves or single trees scattered throughout the jungle that have been settled by the Elves. These cities are connected by the Green Road, a veritable tunnel through the dense jungle foliage of the treetops, lined and reinforced with Yrnwood that is wide enough to take horses and carts, and so well hidden, hundreds of metres above the ground, that no fethloren (non-elf) could hope to find it. To the south-east of the vast jungle holdings of the elves give way to plains and savannahs, mountains and deserts. There are several small cities and a patchwork of small farming settlements throughout this fertile land, settled mainly by wood elves. The lush areas closest to Feyr Caverill are split into a number of wards, with each ward being nominally controlled by an Yrnwood city. To the north, at the neck of the Isthmus of Terrenos, the jungle thickens to a dense, impenetrable tract, infested with awakened elementals and other dangerous minor fey beings left stranded following the War of the Dawn. Known as the Thornwall, this impenetrable barrier prevents any non-Elf from entering Feyr Caverill. The Thornwall was raised by Ionen III, the Enthralled, at the end of the Elven Occupation, and has kept the Elves isolated from the other races ever since.Culture and Religion
9000 years ago, at the birth of the world, Ciarellon came from afar, and with him brought bodies he had crafted. Into these bodies he brought the souls of Eladrin from the Feywild to breathe life into his creations. The first Elves were immortal. With the birth of the Ebon Dragon, Endymber, the mortal races came to know death at their allotted time. Ciarellon beseeched Iadryn, the God of Life, that the first elves be spared death, as they did not know it in the Feywild except by choice or accident. He was rebuked. Then he beseeched Yllora, the God of Nature, that they night intercede on his behalf. Yllora granted him a boon. So long as the Elves remained closed to the land in which they were conceived from, they would retain a long and hale life, longer than any other mortal race. But their souls must eventually pass back to the Feywild when their time came. As the Pale Dragon arose and plunged Dyrn into war and ruin, Ciarellon summoned his children to him to depart. Some were unwilling to quit the world, vowing to remain and fight againt the arising Pallite threat. The First King of Elvendom, Anrhyddeus, known as the Honoured, at the end of his span of almost 1,200 years, used ancient and since forgotten druidic magics to bind his soul to both this plane and the Feywild, in defiance of the word of Ciarellon. His body slumbers, and he is laid in state in the Highbarrow of Feyr Ardun. He remains the nominal head of Elvendom on Dyrn, and all elves know the ancient elven aphorism: Nid Marwey ond Cysgo ("He is not dead, he only sleeps.") In his unconscious state, his mind serves as the foundation and the link for all Elven minds for the ability of *coadunation*. The result of this defiance is that Dyrnish elves must complete a cycle of many lives before they have receieve forgiveness from Ciarellon and are granted entry into the Elven afterlife of Arvandor. At the time of his passing, his most trusted adviser was the Elegist Doetheneb, who composed songs that sang of the creation of Dyrn and the slumber of Anrhyddeus. In his wake, Doetheneb was crowned as the Elegist Regent, to rule in Anrhyddeus' stead until his awakening. Elven society is now a democratic republic, with the representatives of the people known as Elegists. The Elegists are Elves with an innate ability to foster coadunation between other elves - the joining of two or more elven minds to share thoughts, ideas, and feelings, an ability normally open only to those elves sho share an intimate bond, such as siblinghood or marriage. Elegists are teachers and historians, and within themselves keep the many songs that tell the history of the Elven race upon Dyrn. Every Yrnwood Grove has a High Elegist, to whom the other Elegists report and take instruction. Elven culture has forever been marked by the influence of the Fey. Long lived, and with longer memories, many living Elves remember the stories of their grandparents that tell of a time when two star-crossed lovers, fleeing the Fey Courts, fled to Dyrn, opening a path for centaurs, fauns, satyrs and faeries to walk upon Dyrn, and when the avarice of the Fey drove Elvendom to conquer nearly the entire continent of Terrenos. Their natural dexterity and skill with magic made the Elves expert warriors; their marksmanship with bow and arrow is legendary. In the aftermath of the War of the Dawn, the decisions of Elegist Regent Ionen III, as well as those of many of the other Elegists of the time, met with harsh criticism. Once the Fey were driven from Dyrn by the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand and the Elves were free of their influence, sorrow and regret drove a rapid change in policy. The Elves, fearful of what they had wrought under the influence of both Queen Titania and Queen Mab of the Fey, withdrew from the rest of Dyrn, returning to their traditional jungle lands of Feyr Caverill, before raising the Thornwall, both to prevent retaliatory attacks by the other races of Terrenos, and to isolate themselves from the rest of the world while they put their shattered society back together. During every Bright Ember the Elves hold the "Festival of the Lights", and they sent hundreds of floating lanterns up to night. During each festival, all Elegists join in a Coadunation, to discuss and disseminate news and debate changes to Elven law and customs. For the rest of the year, Eligists tend to their populace, teaching and guiding them, and debating the merits of potential changes to Elven law. Once every three Ember cycles there is a Grand Coadunation, where all Elves, regardless of status or location, are joined in Coadunation. In this expansive group-mind, the entire elven populace is able to vote on decisions regarding law and custom. In this way, Elven society and customs are preserved and reinforced. Elegists are both teachers, and politicians. Elves, due partly to their long life and partly to the influence of the Fey during the War of the Dawn, tend to be mistrustful or hold themselves as superior to beings of other races. High Elves in particular, who can trace their lineage back to the creation of Dyrn, are very unlikely to leave Feyr Caverill, preferring to stay in their Yrnwood cities. Wood Elves are more likely to adventure beyond the borders of Feyr Caverill. Half Elves are tolerated within Elven society within reason, although only if they have been accepted into an Elven family; Half Elves from outside of Feyr Caverill are also unable to cross the Thornwall. Half-elves lack the ability to join in coadunation and this leads to mistrust and intolerance from more traditional elves. Interracial relationships are frowned upon by all but the most tolerant of Elves - most elves cannot understand why another Elf would devote their lives to a partner who would deny them the joy of coadunation.Technology
For the most part, Elves eschew the art of metalsmithing, although for certain applications, Elven smiths are known to be renowned for their metalwork, in particular fine metalwork and gem-setting, their skill exceeded only by the nimble Gnomish artificers. Much Elven technology is based around the light and almost unbreakable wood known as Yrnwood. Great groves of ancient Yrnwood trees support the hidden cities of Feyr Caverill, and Elves build those cities by using innate magic to shape and grow living Yrnwood frames and canopies to shapes of their choosing. For smaller implements, Elves will use the shed or fallen branches of the Yrnwoods and shape them using special implements known as shapers, or *wyching rods(technology) - intricately carved wands of Yrnwood. Using these implements they can fashion implements, arms and armour from the material. Elves who specialise in this practice are known as kindlesmiths. Yrnwood is as strong as steel but lighter even than mithril. It can be smithed into rings for armour or blades for weapons - although many Elven adventurers out in the wider world prefer steel for this application. Elves weave cloth out of both plant and animal fibres, and stoneshapers will carve stone for use in construction. The use of metal tends to be more decorative than anything else - fine gold, silver or burnished bronze highlights to the wood and stone construction of their cities and other implements. Evles make use of livestock for their day to day lives. *Panthren*, dire panthers that are native to the forests of Faer Caverill, make speedy and lithe mounts, able to move through the thick jungle with relative ease. On the forest floor graze *taurechs*, large oxlike creatures with feathery tufts on their brows, and these are farmed for both meat, milk, and as beasts of burden by the Wood Elves south of the jungles of Faer Caverill.Alignment
Most elves are neutral or good aligned, although evil-aligned elves are not unheard of. Most Elves, in particularly High Elves, tend towards the neutral or lawful alignments, although the capriciousness of the Fey has not ever fully left the Elven psyche, and so some individuals struggle within the confines of Elven society, and would be considered chaotic. Elves in the worls not aligned with the Commonwealth of Feyr Caverill may display a wider range of alignments. Elves who left Feyr Caverill after the War of the Dawn - known as Feth'drau - include the Llothi Drau, who now live deep underground beneath a great withered and blighted Yrnwood stump. A pact with the spider daemon Lloth has twisted them, granting them new powers in the absence of their link with the Coadunation. These Dark Elves are sworn enemies of the Elves. To the bitter north there also exist several subterranean communites of Feth-drau who never entered into ant pacy with Lloth, and that emerge during the long winter nights and are well-integrated with the other local communities.Life Cycle
Elves are *Landbound* and it is their link with the land, particularly the leylines and intersections around the place of their conception, or *quickening*, that contributes to their long life. Elves prior to the War of the Dawn did not reproduce biologically. Elves who were ready to conceive underwent a series of caerfully guarded rituals, including coadunation with an Eligist, and following this came the moment of quickening, when an Eladrin soul ready for rebirth was drawn from the Feywild to the newly conceived elf; this soul was inexorably linked to the local lands. The new life drew vital energy from the leylines. While the Boon of Eilh, cast during the War of the Dawn, allowed for limited interbreeding with humans, the status of the Elves as creatures not native to Dyrn means that true elves are still conceived and born through these ancient methods. The place of quickening is known as the *genehed*. Elves who spend a length of time away from their genehed will begin to age at an accelerated rate. For every year that passes, they will age four years. It is theorised that this has exacerbated the insular nature of Elven society over the centuries. Conception is not always predictable for Elves and is in part driven by infleunces on the Feywild and beyond the control of the individual elf; should they conceive away from their own genehed, an elf is faced with a difficult choice; remain in the place of their quickening, allowing their child to live a long and hale life but sacrificing three quarters of their own life; return to their home in the knowledge that they will likewise shorten the life of their child; or abandon the child. The souls of elves who die on the material plane remain within the leylines of the plane, until the next Grand Coadunation, when they are sung to the Shadowfell. From the Shadowfell their souls pass via the endless stair to be reborn as Eladrin within the Feywild, in the haven of *Ast Arvandor* (Sylvan for "Before Arvandor") . Unlike other spirits passing to the Shadowfell, however, who find themselves at the base of the Stair regardless of the circumstances of their death, Landbound elves must find their way back to their *genehed* before they may ascend the stair. For this reason elves avoid dying away from their genehed. Those that do will generally ask for their body to be laid out under the sky at the nearest leyline, for the animals of the wild to take sustenance, in the hopes that their soul will find its way back into the leylines and ultimately, back to their genehed. Eladrin who choose to may end their life within the Feywild and be reborn as elves on the prime material. This is the only way for an Eladrin to enter the material plane and remain part of the great cycle. Passing to the material by any other means renders Eladrin mortal, and if they should die before they return to the Feywild, that death is permanent. It is believed by the elves that after many lives, they will be granted the forgiveness of Ciarellon and be able to pass from Ast Arvandor in the Feywild, to the plane of Arvandor itself.Subraces
Elves tend to stratify into closely-knit groups and their fey nature causes their physiology to change and adapt at conception to suit their environment. The following sub-races exist, or have existed in the past:- High Elves - Fey'eledh - these are the oldest of elves and the most unchanged from their fey roots
- Wood Elves - Fey'sindyr - the majority of the inhabitants of the jungles of Feyr Caverill;
- Sea Elves - Fey'undweyr - aquatic elves that live in the seas around southern Terrenos;
- Ridge Elves - Fey'bryn - mountain elves;
- Tundra Elves - Fey'eyra - native to polar climes;
- Sand Elves - Fey'ildryn - dark-skinned elves which live in the deserts of southern Terrenos;
- Northern Elves - Fey'tyrran (lost) - also known as star elves, the Fey'tyrran originally lived and settled in Northern Terrenos. They established the now lost Kingdom of Calladron with the humans of the north. In the aftermath of the War of the Dawn, no Fey'tyrran remain;
- Wild Elves - Feth'ynam - these are elves who live in the wilderness and rocky mountains to the east of Feyr Caverill, and who are known to have lost their link with the Coadunation;
- Drau - Feth'drau - dark elves, they fled the surface folliwing the War of the Dawn, and include the Llothi'drau, who entered into worship with Lloth, elevating her to goddesshood and also severing their connection with the Coadunation.
