Elf

Elves were a magical people of otherworldly grace, governed by the seasons. Native to the forests of Emeros, arcane forces shaped each elf, imbuing them with agility, intellect, youth and, above all, an endless fascination with the world around them.

Appearance

Elves stood slightly shorter than humans on average, ranging from well under 5 feet tall to just over 6 feet. They were more slender than humans as well, weighing only 100 to 140 pounds. Their skin tones encompassed the normal human range and also includes skin in shades of copper, bronze, and almost bluish-gray, hair of green or blue, and eyes like pools of liquid gold or silver. Elves had no facial and little body hair. Their most distinguishing feature were their long pointed ears, extending approximately three inches in length.
Elves could live nearly 1,000 years, granting them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived people more deeply. 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.
Owing to their magical nature, elves had a number of innate powers and abilities humans did not:

• Accustomed to twilight condition, elves could see twice as far in dim light.
• Elves did not sleep. Instead, when resting, they entered a state of trance. While trancing, an elf was perfectly alert and aware of their surroundings. To feel fully rested, an elf required only four hours of trancing per day.
• Due to their inherent magical nature, elves were difficult to charm and impossible to put to sleep.

Culture

Main Article: Elven Culture

Seasons

The cycle of seasons was perhaps the most important cultural landmark in most elven societies, so much so that it had an almost biological component on the elves themselves. In elven culture, the year, the century and the lifetime was broken into four periods, each corresponding to the climatic seasons. The current season could affect an elf's outlook, their goals, their desires, their behaviors and their instincts on a fundamental level.

• Spring: A time for youth and renewal, elves in the spring were full of childlike wonder and excitement. Many new endeavors were begun in the spring, many relationships begun with shy flirtations and admirations from afar. An elf in the spring of their life could be cheerful and naive, eager for what the future holds.
• Summer: A time for temper and passion, elves in the summer were swept up in whirlwind romances and fits of tempestuous ardor. Many passions ran high in the summer, many relationships at their most amorous. An elf in the summer of their life could be brash and arrogant, head over heels in love or flush with righteous indignation.
• Autumn: A time for reaping and childbirth, elves in the autumn grew more responsible and fruitful. Many children were raised in the autumn, many investments made. An elf in the autumn of their life may be settling down, founding a family or reconsidering youthful convictions.
• Winter: A time for reflection and solitude, elves in the winter became insular and private, seeking only to reflect on their choices. Many relationships ended in winter, many regrets surfaced. An elf in the winter of their life may be looking back, writing a memoir or seeking a new life to begin again in spring.

While individual elves could experience any of these emotions at any time of year, elven communities seemed to experience it more profoundly, as though reinforced by their peers. The seasonal cycle would dominate much of elven life, throughout all Ondûn's long history.

Lifetimes

It was a common culture practice among elves to lead, rather than a single long life, many shorter ones. It was customary that, every century, an elf would re-invent themselves in some way, discovering a new identity. They might change their name, their home, their occupation, their gender, their partner or family. This was not seen as odd or abandonment but the natural course of life, thanks to their seasonal outlook.

Magic

Magic was inextricable from elven culture. According to their ancient prehistory, elves climbed the primordial trees of their forest home to better see the stars and pull from them the fundamentals of arcane magic. All elven society is constructed atop this foundation, incorporating even powerful magic into everyday life. Arcane practitioners – bards, sorcerers and especially wizards – were highly valued among the elven cultures at all points throughout Ondûn's history. As contact with orcs and dwarves grew, divine and druidic magics grew in importance among them but elven interest in the arcane never waned.

Ancestries

Over the course of Ondûn's history, the elven people fractured into three distinct cultures, each with their own ancestral history and unique features.

High Elves

While it began as a wood elven pejorative, the term high elf refers to those elven populations that live outside the world's interconnected woodlands. The original high elves were descendents of the Cymbian aristocracy, pushed from the Wombwood by the Dai Uprooting in 418 2A. Taking shelter with the expanding power of human-centric Thorp, the high elves developed their own culture of learning and magic, continuing the traditions that elevated them above the wood elven peers in the centuries before.
High elven culture placed an emphasis on arts, education and the arcane, in a particularly open-handed way. They admired the spread and ingenuity of humanity and wished to partner with the ambitious nations that were quickly covering the globe. In many ways, high elves represented a springtime attitude – hopeful, optimistic and perhaps a bit naive.

Wood Elves

The vast majority of Ondûn's elves would have considered themselves wood elves, though the term did not emerge until the middle of the Second Age. Born from the severe class distinction in Cymbian society, the wood elves were the underclass, serving the aristocracy's interests but not endowed with the same magical gifts. Following the Dai Uprooting in 418 2A, however, the wood elven population overthrew and exiled the high elven aristocracy and seized Cymbian power for themselves.
As a culture, wood elves were more conservative and devoted to traditionalist ideals than their high elven cousins. Preferring to dwell in isolation within their interconnected forests, the wood elves were happy enough to leave the rest of the world well enough alone. They valued the druidic magic, learned from orcish contact, more than the arcane and often elevated powerful druids to positions of power. They guarded their borders fiercely and rarely permitted outsiders within their sacred forests.

Dark Elves

Main Article: Dark Elf
For many years, a third elven ancestry existed on Ondûn, keeping to the world's benighted corners. Recognizable by their purple skin and white hair, the dark elves or drao were remade by the malign influence of Yog. While some dark elves, particularly in the Fourth Age, accepted Yog's call to power, many chose to remain hidden and led peaceful lives in secret.
Yog's power granted the dark elves powers unknown to their unaltered kin. Their eyes could see further in darkness, they could command shadow magic and were notably nocturnal, preferring to operate over cover of darkness. The most prominent community of dark elves to live openly did not emerge until the Fourth Age, dwelling in Yogoth's twisted Unwood.

Half-Elves

Main Article: Half-Elf
Anywhere that humans and elves would've had regular contact, one could find populations of half-elves, better known as qethriel. While they shared heritage from both their human and elven ancestors, the qethriel of Ondûn were a true-breeding people that developed their own culture, distinct from either of their parent cultures. While an individual might have more or less human or elven ancestry but regardless, they were nonetheless considered a qethriel

Religion

Before establishing contact with the dwarves of Khûm and their divine practices, the ancient elves worshipped the trees themselves, believing themselves grown from acorns. These tales are the origins of the dryads, fey creatures born from the elven creation myth.

Elven Pantheon

In contrast to the dwarven family or the orcish meangerie, the elves interpreted the Prime Pantheon as a cast of characters in a theatrical drama, all entwined in a romances and betrayals. Elven religious myths were full of reveals and shapeshifting and secret affairs, ending with a mass murder suicide of all the gods.

• Iboriel was the elven goddess of strength and swordplay. Strict and disciplined, she was a perfectionist who was believed to have invented the 500 Fine Forms of elven swordfighting.
• Oathem was the elven god of dexterity and archery. Depicted as a carefree wanderer, it was said that Oathem traveled the world, carrying nothing but a bow and a single arrow.
• Daemuth was the elven god of constitution and time. Strange and obscure, Daemuth was inscrutable, watching over the passage of time.
• Auranath was the elven goddess of intelligence and magic. Ravenous in her quest for knowledge, she was often forgetful, erratic but nonetheless a font for arcane lore.
• Gnorion was the elven god of wisdom and trees. Considered the progenitor of the elven people, Gnorion was depicted as a gardener and sage who, in later myths, grew the elves from acorns.
• Visemria was the elven goddess of charisma and beauty. Fickle and capricious as any muse, the worship of Visemria inspired many poems and plays, popular even among non-elves.

History

Main Article: Elven History
During the Vanished Time, the primeval elves called the Wombwood home. Upon the discovery of arcane magic, they quickly splintered into a class-based society, with the arcane aristocrats on the top and the mundane commoners beneath them, thus founding the elven nation of Cymbia. Upon making contact with the other peoples of Ondûn – the dwarves of Khûm and the orcs of Auros – war seemed inevitable, until a band of adventurers, made from members of all the world's people, united the three world powers into the Sister Empires. This marked the beginning of the First Age of Ondûn.
It was an age of prosperity for the elves and their allies. New forms of magic – divinity and druidry – spread amongst the elves, giving rise to belief in the elven pantheon and its many myths. The divisions in elven society, however, only grew worse. When the Night Wars began in 899 1A, Cymbian armies – composed almost entirely of wood elves – marched to war with dwarven and orcish allies to stem the undead tide. While eventually victorious, the horror of that war drove a wedge that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Sister Empires and the splintering of elven society.
The Second Age saw the class divisions in Cymbia grow wider and wider until the inevitable breaking point. During the Dai Uprooting in 218 2A, a wood elf revolution overthrew the ruling class and drove them into exile. This fragment of the population fled south and was eventually incoporated into the expanding city-states of Thorp. Cymbia, meanwhile, was remade in Dai's image, transforming into a timeless collectivist utopia. During this period, Cymbian expansion saw elven colonies arise in forests all over the world. The end of the Second Age saw the Blight – one of a string of global catastrophes – that withered the Wombwood and killed hundreds of thousands of trees. Though the cause remained unknown, Cymbia was quick to blame their own expansionist neighbor – Thorp.
Early in the Third Age, Cymbia pushed back against what they perceived as human aggression, launching the War of the Wood. While Cymbia originally wielded an overwhelming advantage, Thorp struck back hard with technological innovations – such as gunpowder – and arcane assistance from their high elven allies. Hard-pressed in this war they could no longer win, the elves of Cymbia turned to drastic measures. Casting a druidic mythal, they awakened the Wombwood, forbidding anyone entering with strict elven approval. This was the final act severing Cymbia from global society. For many centuries to come, the wood elves would make no contact, preferring to guard their borders and shun the outside world.
Even when Yog openly emerged in Auros at the dawn of the Fourth Age, Cymbia remained quiet. All entreaties to join the nascent Covenant Kingdoms fell on deaf ears. Only when agents of Yog captured the Cymbian princess in 895 4A were the elves moved to join the alliance. One of the final blows of the war was struck in Cymbia, as agents of Yog drove a chisel into a fane of dark power that helped to sunder the world in twain.

Elven Ancestral Traits

• Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
• Size: Your size is Medium.
• Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
• Low-Light Vision: 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.
• Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
• Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
• Trance: Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish.

High Elf Ancestral Traits

• Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
• Elf Weapon Training: You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
• Cantrip: You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.
• Extra Language: You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.

Wood Elf Ancestral Traits

• Ability Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
• Elf Weapon Training: You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
• Fleet of Foot: Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
• Mask of the Wild: You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

Elven Heroes & Villains

• Nãosulor
• Narcinae Barrityl
• Raelas the Stalker
• Remorhaz