The Elven Races

Traits

Common features

The elven races are renowned for their grace and beauty, acknowledged by nearly all races and cultures, despite their differing beauty standards. What sets them apart the most is that they cannot sleep like other sentient races. To process fatigue and daily experiences, they trance, during which they can file away their memories or invoke dream-like visions.
Elves commonly stand between 1.40 and 1.70 meter tall, weighing between 45 and 65 kg in slender and light builts. They have long pointed ears of 10 to 20 centimeters, and brightly coloured eyes that both allow for keen perception. There are no elves with facial hair, and body hair is highly uncommon. Hair on their head is generally thin and straight.

Subraces

There are five recognized elven subraces. They are most often referred to as high elves, season elves, deep elves, blue elves, and soot elves. They can be told apart as follows:
High Elves
They have pale to bronze skin tones and their hair is a shade of either copper, or golden blond. Their irises are bright green or silvery blue. Also of note is that high elves have elongated fingers (and toes). Since they are the majority race in Alothlien, much of the Alothlien culture is based on high elven values.
Season Elves
Their ancestry is high elven, but their exposure to chaotic energy from the Fey Fall sets them apart as a subrace for the Condordian region. This is because they can change their appearance according to their mood or preference, as frequent as daily, to one of four 'seasonal' states. Skin, eyes, and hair all adapt their colouring to their current season, with shades of green, yellow, orange, or blue. Their ears are the longest, their eyes the brightest, and their hair is the thickest with the most divergent hairstyles of all subraces.
Deep Elves
With dark grey to jet-black skin tones, their pale white, yellow, or silvery hair immediately stands out. Their irises can be a range of pale hues, including silver, lilac, and pink, but their eyes can turn bright red when they are emotional or passionate. They are usually shorter and thinner than other elves, with a wirey or athletic built. Their gums are mostly deep-purple. They have started emerging from the Underdark to benefit of the diversity in urban Concordia, but are still quite uncommon in most areas, especially rural regions.
Blue Elves
The name of this subrace is derived from their skintone. Hues of green to foam-like white are also common, as well as piebaldism. Eyes are usually golden hues, although rarely a family sports pearlescent pink irises. Blue elves are the tallest of the elven subraces with the shortest ears. They are most common along the coasts of Zurica, having made homes scattered along the edges of all countries.
Soot Elves
These mysterious but aggressively territorial elves have made their home in the fey jungles surrounding Concordia, and have a vastly different culture compared to other elves. Their skin is ebony to a glowing brown, and always intensely freckled with black spots. Soot elves like to accentuate their features with bright red, orange, and yellow facepaint. Their hair is a fiery red, occasionally leaning towards blond or auburn, and always curly. Their irises are pitch-black, which at a distance can give them an unsettling gaze.

IAMI-periods

To equalize the life stages of all the races including very diverging lifespans, and ensure that they can be categorized correctly when it comes to rights, taxes, and healthcare, all ID cards also share their racial Infancy-Adolescence-Maturity-Index, or IAMI. For elves, the life stage periods are:
Infancy: 0-18 years
Adolescence: 18-100 years
Maturity: 100+ years
Average lifespan: 750 years

Culture

Muted reactions

Elves are generally known as being nearly neutral in any situation. Rather than excited, they would be amused, and rather than possessive, they would be curious. This can make them seem aloof and unfazed, indifferent to things that other sentients find very important. Elves can be slow to make friends or enemies, but also be just as slow to forget or forgive them. Violence seems crude and unnecessary to most elves, who trust that with enough time, diplomacy and compromise can always find a solution that everyone might agree with.

Broad interests

Because of their long lifespan, elves have plenty of time to find out what they like and dislike. They can be prone to decades of wanderlust, after which they settle down somewhere for a century, before moving to a new location again. Preferring to set their own pace, they value the freedom to explore and experiment. Hobbies are easily picked up, given the time to master, and dropped once they have reached a satisfying skill level. And even when they have a specific sexual orientation, many elves try intimate relationships beyond their comfort zone at one time or another, if only for a new experience.

Refinement

Knowing full well they can live the longest of any sentients, elves tend to view themselves as the example for others to follow. They value sophistication and elegance. Elves take their time to find these qualities in others, and if given the chance, would gladly help them to reach their full potential. However, this attitude is often perceived as haughtiness. They can treat other sentients with a patience and grace one would have towards a child. Sometimes it clearly shows that elves think themselves superior, even if this is just subconsciously.

Naming conventions

In Elvish tradition, the name of their current hometown is presented first, then their given name, their father's name (with the suffix -ou, meaning 'child of'), and finally their mother's family name. An example is Vennalin Ariana Calistou Pagonis, Vennalin being the hometown, Ariana the given name, and Pagonis the mother's family name. Soot elves do not adhere to these naming conventions, they have their own (see the culture of Soot Elves.
Unisex names
Chara, Desma, Dione, Enyo, Eris, Fotis, Hebe, Jude, Kleio, Kore, Myron, Nike, Nyx, Paris, Xanthippe.
Feminine names
Arete, Ariana, Berenice, Callista, Cassandra, Daphne, Demi, Eleni, Hermina, Hypatia, Hydna, Iola, Kynthia, Melina, Ophelia, Penelope, Phoebe, Phyllis, Rhea, Rhoda, Sappho, Selena, Sotiria, Telesilla, Thalia, Thelma, Theresa, Ursula, Xenia, Zoe.
Masculine names
Abydos, Acheron, Atticus, Cadmus, Calisto, Dareios, Diakon, Demetri, Elias, Iason, Jonas, Kastor, Leander, Leto, Luke, Makarios, Mathias, Nicholas, Nestor, Phillipos, Pyrros, Sethos, Solon, Teris, Timo, Tobias, Xander, Yanni, Zacharias, Zephyr.
Family names
Ambrosia, Andreadis, Argyros, Barlas, Boosalis, Callas, Castellanos, Demetriou, Drivas, Frangos, Galanis, Gounaris, Hanas, Hondros, Ioannou, Kalivas, Kamber, Kefalas, Lambros, Leventis, Maheras, Miron, Misko, Pagonis, Pappas, Petralia, Rallis, Remes, Rodia, Sagona, Sideris, Sisko, Tavoularis, Tomarou, Vallas, Xenakis, Zografos.