Ake Elves

Ake Elves are also known as pale elves or Cicadas, Cicadas being a slur. They are the variants of Yoru elves that left after the Exodus of the Ake. They grew pale in complexion with large black eyes. They live in the Akedia section of the Netherworld.

Ake Elf Features:

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Trance. Elves do not sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is "trance". While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill. Ability Score Increase.
Ake Magic. You know the Dancing Lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast Faerie Fire once, and it recharges after a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast Darkness once, and it recharges after a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Ake Weapon Training. You have proficiency with rapiers, short swords, and hand crossbows.
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a range of 120 feet, instead of 60.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of the attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Neathercommon and some variation of common.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Ake elves are very similar in certain aspects of Yoru elves. They do not have family names, and typically have a single name that they will use. If expected to give an additional name, they might give the place they were born, similar to Hoshi Elf family names. For example, an elf named Tarlyn might say they are Tarlyn ni'Taramma.

Unisex names

Like many other elf names, Ake names are considered unisex and are chosen elvan variations of existing names of significant places, family, and events. They are personalized self inventions. Loved ones might forget to use this chosen name and still refer to an elf by a child name, but this is considered very personal, and informal. It would be extremely rude for someone else to use such a name.

Other names

New Ake elves typically are given a child name which is often a short easy to pronounce combination of parent names. When the child declares themself an adult around their 100th birthday, they often choose their new name, which is often a variation of names belonging to important people or events in their life. Most are unique creations that they hope will be slightly varied and adapted by another elf when they are older.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Ake elves are very expressive, unlike most other elves, and even more so than Yoru elves, who try to maintain a level of peace. Ake elves reach physical maturity at the same rate as humans, but they haven't reached "adulthood" in the elvan sense until they've stopped dreaming of their past. Since their birth, Elves do not dream, but instead, enter "dream like" trances. During this time, they often have vague dreams of past lives, past emotional connections, and visions of the feywild. This continues until they begin to make their own connections and relationships. When they have done enough in their life that they no longer dream of their past, or past relationships (usually around 100 years of age), they are considered mature enough in this lifetime, and adults in the eyes of elves. These dreams are usually considered extremely private, and not spoken about, as they often share images and ideas of history with old loved ones and enemies. Some will actively seek out close relations with past family relations. ake elves that do not have past lives will often dream of the Életfa. The ake elves have a culture of knowing they are failures in maintaining tradition, and in a deep respect for those that continue to follow the faith. However, they also feel it would be unsustainable without their protection. Ake elves will go out of their way to protect a Yoru elf, even going so far as to keep secret guards around the cities and roads of Életfa. They don't regret their decision, but only how they are seen by others and have embraced their violence to create a warrior society that is deadly and precise.

Common Dress code

Through using various spiders, Ake elves have an abundance of strange silk fiber. It is specially treated and easily harvested by the large spiders that the Ake use. Dyes are limited, however, typically ranging from white, grays, dark blues, and black. There is a rare type of spider, about the size of a fist, that is harvested that creates a luminescent silvery thread, that is also popular among nobles. This technique is extremely expensive. Though the working class tends to have simple styles, that favor practicality, the upper class has long flowing gowns with mithril armor accents and headdresses. Only the extremely rich use mithril armor, as it requires so much to use, mithril is then used primarily for jewelry accents or decorative pieces. Most warriors used hardened chitin armor made from various local insects and spiders with reinforced spider silk weavings. They have a culture of ranking depending on the type and style used with some of the highest-ranking even having dragonfly-like wings that allow them to hover and fly. These are known as the Exarch.

Art & Architecture

Yoru elves have had to adapt to an underground lifestyle and have elaborate homes carved into great caverns and stalagmites. Some homes are built in carved-out stone and made into polished brick and stone structures. Ake elves do not live in the light of the Életfa Tree and thus have had to find unique ways to survive. Many of their city structures are cleared out hives of insects, and other creatures, giving towns and villages the name "hive." They use a lot of tapestries, rugs, and fabric canopies made out of spider silk as sources of decoration and colors. They covet their spider silk due to its extreme durability and elasticity, only trading with Yoru elves (often in exchange for food.) They have large mushroom gardens as one of the rare plants able to survive in such dark rocky climates, and thus some have woody textures used to create outlying structures.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Elves don't require a lot of meat in their diet and rely heavily on high fructose and plant-based. They eat a lot of sweet, sour, and tart dishes and are known for their jams, jellies, preserves, and canned foods. Yoru elves have found a way to add an almost earthy flavor to their dishes and pallet through the use of mushrooms and local fungi. It's often very flavorful. Since mushrooms are easier to grow where the light is scarce, most rely heavily on high mushroom diets which have a variety of flavors and prepared styles. Ake elves deal with a lot of trading with Yoru elves, to gain jams and jellies, but have a more mushroom-based diet. Their main source of protein is through the various bugs that call the Netherworld home.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

When a child is born, all close friends and families to the mother come to witness the celebration and meet the child. The mother gives the child their child's name, usually a variation of their own name at times. During this time, they are also given seven guardians which are their seven "sept mothers" and are always women. The father of the child rarely meets the child until the child is around 5 or 7 years old, and only if the father is expected to be a caregiver for high-ranking matrons. Many have almost no role in their children, having many with multiple women.

Coming of Age Rites

Ake elves, like Yoru elves, do not have typical coming-of-age ceremonies. When a child reaches physical maturity, it simply means they are more likely to partake in adult activities, whether joining in political discussions, or joining the military, or joining their family in an artisan skill. There is generally no celebration or definite change that happens. However, when they reach mental maturity, they often meet with religious leaders of their village to gain their blessing. This religious leader will often anoint them, or bless them, and send them to the surface. There they must not be seen and are tasked with retrieving something. Either an item or a bit of information. Choosing to participate in such an act, and succeeding is a source of great honor. Not all partake in this task, but many do. Others make a pilgrimage to the Lux Életfa Tree to meditate and remind themselves why they live the way they do and see the Yoru elves. They don't make vows, like the Yoru elves, but often find peace in making such a trip.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When an elf dies, they are the most susceptible to undeath than any other race due to their connection to the fey, and the Otherrealm. To protect against this, cremation is the most common form of burial among elves. They will typically do a pyre of the dead burning them with carved or grown offerings to pass with them. They believe the spirit goes into the ether until it can be reborn. Loved ones will often take a small section of hair if they wish to remember their loved ones. These are often kept in trinket boxes or lockets.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Ririsu cut all her hair off when she left the Yoru elves, and many joined her in acts of solidarity. They knew they were betraying long-held traditions. Ake elves do not hold the same traditions as many of the other elves. They tend to favor self-expression, tattoos, piercings, and more to show strength, and appear intimidating. They see it as a source of self punishment, for their past, but also a pride in what they were willing to suffer and sacrifice for their goals. Tattoos are typically intricate line work made with intense precision while piercings are often numerous and of mithril make.

Gender Ideals

Ake elves have varied greatly from the Yoru elves they come from. Most of them were followers of Ririsu and primarily women who feared for the life of their children in the harsh conditions of the Netherworld. Because of the large gender discrepancies, women had to come together, under Ririsu's lead, to establish a new society. They developed a culture where men and women alike needed to be warriors, and women particularly needed to be the leaders and the intelligence of the culture. Over time, this developed into a culture where women were leaders, and decision-makers and determined what the men were expected to do. Because of their deep dependence on the local creatures and bugs, any Ake city became a "hive" and the leader is always a Queen. Strangely, being a leader or a Queen is also seen as a deeply maternal position, almost as if all her subjects are her children. Women continue to maintain levels of power and leadership positions, and men are expected to serve them as best as they can. Men almost take on a "worker" role like that of other insects in the Netherworld.

Courtship Ideals

Elves of all kinds tend to be very sex-positive. They wish to encourage the creation of children which are rare among elves. Most only have 1 or 2 in a lifetime and many don't start until midway through their life. Children are seen as precious and extremely protected. They don't have a standard sense of marriage, but it isn't uncommon for two elves to come together and stay together for the entirety of their lives. Even the Ake elves, when they separated, found that having children was difficult, with such a small male population. Therefore sex became almost an obligation job to complete on occasion, to ensure that women can have children. From birth to infancy, males have almost no role in the child's life. However, they may become the caregiver for particularly important women who cannot continue caring for the child beyond infancy. This is rare, however, as women see child-rearing as a woman's duty and will usually gain help from sisters and aunts, or grandmothers first.

Relationship Ideals

From birth to infancy, males have almost no role in the child's life. However, they may become the caregiver for particularly important women who cannot continue caring for the child beyond infancy. Women often choose the men they want to have children with based on desirable physical traits, or if a close friend speaks highly of a man. Therefore it's not uncommon for a handful of women to share the same man, and have children with the same father, who is then expected to care for the child beyond infancy, especially if it's another male. Lower-class women do tend to care more for their own children, are unable to depend on partners, or might gain a community of other women without male influences. Homosexuality is very common, however, a man who refuses to become a father might be ostracized, therefore it's not uncommon for even gay men to sleep with a woman, give her children, and then continue their previous relationships. This is the same with women, who very commonly have close sexual relationships with their close friends, as long as there is still a desire to have children. After an elf reaches the older ages past their midlife, they may begin to be looked down upon, or even lose positions of power, if found to be infertile or unwilling to have children. This strong culture of reproduction helps them maintain a strong military status, and create genetic diversity.