Elven Culture

Elven culture was one of the oldest in Ondûn, originating in the Vanished Time. While each elven population was unique and might boast its own practices and traditions, the wood elven nation of Cymbia was considered the most dominant elven culture. Its architecture, art, cuisine, customs, fashion, holidays, language, religion and military traditions all had global influence, considering the hundreds of colonies the nation boasted, spread throughout all the forests of the world.

Architecture

Traditional elven architecture was inextricable from nature. Wood elves constructed their cities high in the branches of enormous trees and employed druidry to mold their buildings from the living wood. They favored broad platforms, arching walkways and organic shapes, particularly in their fretwork. Elevation and camouflage was another key feature of wood elven design; often a traveler on the ground could pass directly beneath a wood elven settlement and be none the wiser. Arboreal animals, such as birds and squirrels, were often free to come and go in elven dwellings. They sought to achieve as close to perfect harmony as they could.

Class

Before the Dai Uprooting in 218 2A, Cymbia was deeply stratified. The upper class was composed of arcane aristocrats. Elves with the wealth to attend wizarding colleges quickly rose to prominence in elven society. The majority of the population, either without the talent or the resources to magical training, were increasingly subservient to their spellcasting superiors. They comprised the bulk of the laborer, mercantile and even military class, a fact that would eventually topple the entire arrangement come the revolution.
From that point on, Cymbian society was much more egalitarian. All citizens were required to perform regular military service, meaning they were all trained in the use of the sword and bow. Wizardry grew less popular in this period but druidry was highly prized, though its practitioner were not afforded the same luxuries that the high elven wizards once were. Apart from the ruling dynasts, Cymbian society sought to remove as much hierarchy as they could from all aspects of elven life.

Customs

Funerary

Wood elves were known to carry tree seeds with them – called neolir – at all times. Oak acorns, pinecones or maple seeds were common but rarer seeds, such as ironwood or ghost elm, were highly prized. The belief was that, when the elf died, the neolir would take root in their body and grow a tree, spontaneously where they stood. While the practice originated amongst the Cymbian soldiers sent to fight overseas in the Night Wars, it was soon adopted by mainstream elven culture. Elven funerals often incorporate the neolir into their services and often add a druidic flourish to help the tree sprout before the mourner's eyes.

Learning

The long-lived elves were known to approach education, practice and learning quite differently from other peoples. Perfectionism was common among the elves. Often they will spend obsessive hours, perfecting every minor detail of a new skill they're attempting to learn. While a human wizard might learn a simple spell in a matter of hours, an elven wizard might spend weeks rehearsing the verbal and somatic components until they are absolutely second nature. To elves, the efforts of others often appear sloppy and rushed at best.

Government

Most elven communities were governed not by a single ruler but instead by a pair, usually with a deep personal connection. They could be lovers, siblings, a parent and child, two best friends; what mattered was not the nature of the relationship, only how well the two worked together. They often served as a check on the other and were encouraged often to collaborate. The elves instituted this policy as a measure against authoritarian rule, though how successful this was depended greatly on the individual community.
In Cymbian society, it was especially common for one of the dynasts to be a druid and the other a ranger. The druid was typically the spiritual leader of the community, while the ranger handled the more practical considerations of war and defense. Even Cymbian throne was traditionally ruled by both a druid and ranger, such as with King Maoras and Queen Sionne of the late Fourth Age.

Language

As a language, Elven was fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Many of its sounds were unvoiced, giving the language a breathy quality. Elven made frequent use of dipthongs – a sound formed by a combination of two vowels – in most of its words and letters and these came with a unique tonality that could change, depending on the context.
The language's complex grammar also made it quite difficult for non-native speakers to learn Elven and it was considered one of the hardest to master. For example, all place names in Elven begin with the adverb vaer, meaning "where". Vaer Quethrolas is literally translated as "where the ghost elms grow".

Relations

In the First Age, the elven people were quite welcoming to outsiders. In contrast to dwarven isolationism, Cymbia was quick to offer the other Great Peoples entry into their lands, to learn from these outsiders. This was primarily an impulse of the magical aristocracy, always eager to expand their knowledge. The Night Wars and the Second Age began to spoil this goodwill, however, and soon Cymbia was growing more and more selective in who they allowed inside their realm. Following the Dai Uprooting, when the wood elven rebels took power, relations between Cymbia and the rest of the world only worsened. By the War of the Wood, the Wombwood was completely sealed to outsiders and would not open again; not even when the nation joined the Covenant Kingdoms.
The high elven diaspora, however, went quite the opposite direction. They embraced the human cities of Thorp to the south and sought ever to collaborate with them. In them resided the ancient spirit of Cymbia's First Age, the spirit of cooperation and acceptance.
Within their own borders, wood elves were known to have quite cordial relations with the denizens of the forest. All the inhabitants – beasts, birds, even creatures the outside world would typically consider monsters – were all considered sacred members of the ecosystem. Elves were particularly close with treefolk, whom they themselves awakened, and saw unicorns are beings of pure good and messengers of their dead gods.

Religion

The elves believed their gods – the cast of a melodrama – had all died shortly after awakening them in a tragic misunderstanding. Only Daemuth, elven god of time, survived the bloodbath and he alone now watched over them. This myth led many elves to disregard the gods as viable objects of worship and, as a culture, they were not nearly as devout as the other Great People.
While temples to the elven deities did exist, most faith was practiced in private, when it was practiced at all. Individual elves harbored individual connections to particular deities and may offer quiet thanks or praise. Plenty of elves simply didn't believe the deities existed at all. Called the qethauriel (lit. "those-without-belief'), the atheist movement believed wielders of divine magic tapped into another, unknown power source.

Warfare

Elven military tactics typically involved guerilla warfare. Rather than field large standing armies, the elves were famed from their small companies of highly-trained rangers – capable at both archery and swordplay – who struck from hiding to decimate an enemy before they could react. This naturally made them more adept at defending a territory than conquering one. Their armies were not typically suited to long overland marches and pitched battle. In those rare cases, however, Cymbia was feared for its artillery, particularly their high rate of fire. The sky would darken with deadly accurate arrows whenever the elven archers opened fire.
When forced to fight in melee, elves were also renowned for their blade-craft. To elves, swordfighting was an art as expressive as poetry. This manifested in the 500 Fine Forms, a litany of swordfighting forms supposedly invented by the elven goddess Iboriel. Each school took decades of training to perfect and centered around a particular style or combination of weapons. Many of these hundreds of forms were far more artistic than martial and took incredible skill to be practiced effectively on the battlefield.
No discussion of elven military would be complete with mention of their magic. During the First and early Second Ages, high elven wizardry was an integral part of all Cymbian tactics. Warriors could fly, teleport, turn invisible and otherwise access all manner of powers and capabilities essentially unknown to the world at large. Most units were accompanied by warmage to help solve unexpected problems. Following the Dai Uprooting, however, elven druids largely usurped this role as wizardry fell in favor in Cymbia.