Elf
Elves are an ancient race found throughout the world, although most common in coastal locations and the underdark. They are graceful, beautiful, and long-lived. Elves combine otherworldly grace, sharp intellect, and mysterious charm in a way that is practically magnetic to members of other races. They are often voraciously intellectual, though their studies delve into a level of detail that most shorter-lived peoples find excessive and pedantic.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Elves are fairly standard humanoids, with two arms, two legs, and a head. Their forms tend towards the lithe rather than the bulky, but there are exceptions to this rule. Their features are sharp, with large, almond-shaped eyes and long, graceful digits. The du ereth tend to be shorter than the other elven ethnicities, with only the reclusive Drow being shorter. Elves are perhaps most known for their pointed ears, which are highly sensitive and well as mobile, and are used in elven facial expressions much as eyebrows are used by other races.
Genetics and Reproduction
The common wisdom is that elves reproduce slowly; there is some truth to this -- they have a long gestation period, often measuring around 13 months. The growth of an elven population is more typically limited by their reproductive cycle. Elven women enter heat for about 6 months every 5 years, and only during that time are they fertile.
Growth Rate & Stages
Elves mature slightly slower than humans, starting puberty at about 15 and reaching physical maturity at around 24. They age imperceptably slowly until sometime around 500, and then age much more rapidly. An elf will normally live to be about 650-700 years old, with the oldest most can expect being 750. The most ancient of their kind have been known to live for over a thousand years.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Elves possess particularly keen senses of hearing and sight, the former afforded by their long pointed ears. They can actually move their ears semi-independently of each-other in order to pinpoint the origin of a sound. Their large eyes allow them to see in low light conditions without impairment, and some elven races are even able to see in complete darkness, such as the Du Ereth or the Drow.
Civilization and Culture
History
The history of the elves is long-lost even to that ancient race, but their legends tell tales of wars in eons past between the elves and Aboleths. Those elves who know of such things say that their gods created them to fight against those antediluvian horrors during the revolts and wars that shattered the world. Whatever the truth, elves hold a deep-seated hatred of aboleths and the algholthu to this day. After the fall of the aboleths, the elves reigned supreme over the surface world for an eon beneath the banner of Great Ethlan. Great Ethlan was the mightiest nation in the world, blessed by the gods for its service in the great wars against the Aboleths, and the elves spread to all corners of the world. This golden age lasted until the coming of the Rune Giants from Lathva, when they were pushed back to their ancient homelands, where they have largely remained. The migration of the Du Ereth into Eredhis extended the reach of elven civilization, but the Ethlanor themselves were forced back across the sea by the Remaran Empire. Ethlan itself sank beneath the waves, a punishment for the corruption that had ruined it in the eyes of the gods that had blessed them with greatness. Now the ethlanor live in diaspora throughout occident. Some have managed to reclaim their ancient cities on the Silver Coast, becoming independent elven nations, but the days of Ethla are long since passed.
There is another elven history however, told by the sinister drow of The Underdark. These elves believe that all of their kind once dwelt in the lightless depths, and thus their adaptations of sight and hearing, and the few structures of elven make older even than those of Ethla that can be found in their macabre cities. Few on the surface know much of the drow, if anything at all, and fewer still know this claim. This ignorance, however, serves the descendants of Ethla well.
Genetic Descendants
Origin/Ancestry
Du Ereth, Ethlanor, Evekit, Drow
Lifespan
700 years
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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