Elves

When the Calamity threatened to annihilate all life on Tal’Dorei, the elves of this land gathered in their last remaining city, Syngorn, and used long-forgotten magic to transport themselves into the Fey Realm. Time runs strangely in that realm, and for an unknown stretch of history, the elves of Syngorn lived with their fey kindred in peace. When they eventually returned to Exandria, they found a land devoid of all but animals and the grandeur of nature. The rotten majesty of the Age of Arcanum, burned away by the wrath of the gods, had given way to new growth.
To the elves, the lands of Tal’Dorei are still called Gwessar, and elves who dwell here are called the gwes’alfen—the elves of the Fields of Joy. For centuries, this folk watched with delight as other peoples populated Gwessar, beginning with dwarves, then humans from across the sea, and so on. Then they looked on in horror as mortal ambition was perverted into greed, and war followed in its wake.
Syngorn and the Verdant Expanse that surrounds it are the ancestral homeland of Tal’Dorei’s elves, many of whom never venture beyond that homeland. Young elves are most likely to journey afield to see what else the world has to offer, and while most of them return to Syngorn, some make new homes in the many towns and cities of Tal’Dorei—or they become hermits, their status as mystical beings with a thousand-year life span commanding an almost mythic reverence from other folk.
The elves’ tendency to focus on the past has given rise to many stereotypes of those folk being haughty, aloof, and unconcerned with the day-to-day joys and sorrows of the shorter-lived races. But though this is certainly true for some elves, it’s hard for other folk to consider the perspective of an elf who has personally witnessed whole cultures and civilizations rise and fall. Most elves are born with the same passion for life as any other being. But as centuries pass, life becomes a stream of historic events to be witnessed and contemplated, and not to be interfered with unless absolutely necessary.

Syngorn Elves

The syn’alfen, as the elves of the Verdant Expanse call themselves, almost universally revere the ancient history of Syngorn, and the story of how its escape to the Fey Realm saved their culture from extinction. No elf who lives in Syngorn can forget this past, and Syngornian culture can sometimes feel overbearing to those who see it only from the outside. More than a few woodland elves also feel stifled by their homeland’s unrelenting focus on history, magic, the fey, and the preservation of elvenkind. Such elves are most likely to leave Syngorn and make their homes in other parts of Tal’Dorei.
Departure. Many elves who leave Syngorn (or who had parents who left) still consider themselves syn’alfen, whether they live in Emon or other cities, or even the ancestral homes of other folk, such as Kraghammer. The cultural imprint of Syngorn is hard to escape, and most of these expatriate wood elves hold a certain amount of love for their home even as part of a complicated relationship.
Reunited Family. South of the Stormcrest Mountains lies the massive jungle of Rifenmist, home to the nomadic elf Orroyen tribes. The Orroyen believe that they split off from the Syngorn elves centuries ago, with both peoples meeting each other again only within the past century. Though initially suspicious, both elf lines soon came to see one another as longlost family.
The onslaught of the Chroma Conclave disrupted communication with the Orroyen elves, and news from the south has grown more dire since. Orroyen refugees continue to flow into Syngorn, fleeing the tyrannical Iron Authority that rules Rifenmist.

Lyrengorn Elves

The lyren’alfen, known alternately as Lyrengorn elves or high elves, are a people who broke off from Syngorn long ago, and who journeyed from southern Tal’Dorei to settle in the frigid Neverfields, north of the Cliffkeep Mountains. The city of Lyrengorn that they founded is every bit as majestic as Syngorn in the south, but for better or worse, Lyrengorn lacks its sister city’s millennia of culture—and its cultural baggage.
Art and Expression. Lyrengorn is nestled in the spires of the Elvenpeaks, spreading under the mysterious northern lights known as the Moonweaver’s Ribbons. The city is always aglow with magical light, and its people are taught spellcraft from a young age, for magic is the foundation upon which Lyrengorn was built. The spells of heat and comfort woven into its residents' clothing and architecture are essential to living comfortably in such relentlessly cold lands.
The elves who make their home within the pines of the Elvenpeaks are best known for riding through the wintry skies on wyverns. Every year, people from across Tal’Dorei travel to the Elvenpeaks to watch skyswimmers, elite wyvern riders who shape the glow of the Moonweaver’s Ribbons from the air.
Magic and Transformation. High elf culture values magical prowess above almost all else, but the high elves lack the dogma of many of their Syngornian cousins. Their society encourages experimentation, both in terms of magic and self-expression. Likewise, lyren’alfen who become adventurers often do so in pursuit of inspiration or self-discovery. High elf societies are filled with elf magi who use magic to transform their bodies, exploring different gender expressions and social roles—and they encourage all who visit Lyrengorn to join them in discovering all the different facets of one’s self.
Many high elves become religious sorcerers, exploring their latent powers through their faith. Others develop their arcane skill by seeking admission to the Alabaster Lyceum in Emon, where they study the theory of magic with the best minds from across Tal’Dorei.

Dark Elves

The myrk’alfen, also known as drow or dark elves, have a complicated relationship with the other elven societies of Tal’Dorei. Though the elves are one people by heritage, the dark elves refused to join with the elves of Syngorn during the Calamity, instead escaping into the trackless caverns that stretched beneath Tal’Dorei. There, they became the unwitting prey of the Spider Queen, a Betrayer God of immense cruelty.
Betrayed by the Gods. In times long past, the drow were a wise, beautiful folk with long, silvery hair and radiant ashen or violet skin. But their underground enclaves grew decadent and cruel, and their leaders fell to the alluring whispers of the Spider Queen. The myrk’alfen allied with their venomous goddess against the Arch Heart and their elves in the Calamity. When the Spider Queen was defeated, the myrk’alfen of Tal’Dorei were exiled permanently from the surface world, confined to their imperious realm within the earth.
Struggle to Survive. More evil powers than just the Spider Queen lurk beneath the surface of the world. With the drow in exile, the whispers of the Crawling King and the Chained Oblivion first reached the ears of their nobility as the dark elves struggled to stave away the aberrations that encircled their cities. Now, generations later, the dark elves are a people seemingly on the brink of annihilation. Neighbors slaughter one another in the streets as they succumb to paranoia. For when aberrations can take or shape any form, who can be trusted? Unable to stop their citizens from rioting, the drow elite have grown ever more authoritarian, commanding their royal guards to keep order by violently suppressing their people.
Against this ongoing chaos, some dark elves who fall deep into the abominable thrall of the Spider Queen become truly monstrous, their skin and eyes turning deathly pale as they become little more than puppets for their tormenting goddess. Others willingly offer themselves to the aberrations to end their suffering, and are transformed into shapeshifting doppelgangers. And the most power-hungry drow nobles often succumb entirely to their devotion to the Spider Queen, willingly drinking her abyssal blood to become driders in her service.
New Light for the Shadow. The people of Tal’Dorei have recently received emissaries from dark elves who live in the eastern reaches of Wildemount, in a nation called the Kryn Dynasty. Their Bright Queen, Leylas Kryn, broke free of the Spider Queen’s corrupting influence and led her people to glory and self-determination in the distant lands of Xhorhas. This rebellion was inspired by the discovery of the Luxon, a mysterious being of light and rebirth that the Kryn drow worship as a god.
Though the dark elves of the Kryn Dynasty have problems enough of their own, some of the Kryn seek the aid of Syngorn and Lyrengorn on expeditions into the depths beneath Tal’Dorei. Their goals are noble, but none can deny that these are missionary expeditions in search of new followers— and in search of new Luxon beacons, the scattered fragments of that new drow god.
Many adventuring drow harbor a violent hatred of aberrations, and have abandoned the Spider Queen’s faith to become paladins in service of the Dawnfather or the Luxon, setting aside their affinity for the shadow to search for hope in the light of the sun.