Elves

Elves are children of nature and magic. Elves are the longest lived of all the races in Oraereum, often taking years or decades to reach their goals. The High elves and wood elves were created by the Lord of light, Teverus and his brother Vectus created the Dark elves to spite his brother. Despite their origins the elves all share similar lifestyles in magic, nature and grace.

Elf Traits

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.

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. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. 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. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.

High Elf Traits

High Elf Weapon Training

You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.

High Elf Cantrip

You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

High Elf Extra Language

You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.

Wood Elf Traits

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.

Dark Elf Traits

Weapon Training

You have proficiency with the rapier and hand crossbow.

Natural Swimmers

Dark Elves have a swim speed of 30 feet.

Poison Resistance

Dark Elves have advantage against saving throws against Poison and have resistance to poison damage.

High Elves in Oraereum

Personality

High elves are generally very refined in their mannerisms. They think very carefully before ever speaking and when they do they say only as much as is needed to convey their intents. They also tend to talk down to others as they consider themselves much more educated and informed than almost every other race.

Relations

High elves consider themselves, as a community, above the other races and their pursuits in knowledge and the arcane arts as also above the needs of these lesser races. Despite this view on the other races of Oraereum they still attempt to cultivate good relations with all races of Oraereum except the dark elves of Varadia, with whom they will not speak. High elves also tend to regard humans as indifferent, short lived and immature children whom with the proper supervision may mature into something worth cultivating a relationship with. Halflings and dwarves are considered indifferently by the high elves who have very little in common with them. Gnomes tend to have a good relationship with the high elves as both the Vention gnomes and the rock gnomes value knowledge and the arcane magics.

Alignment

Like all elves of Oraereum the high elves tend to be more chaotic and aloof than the more lawful races like the mountain dwarves. They also trend more towards neutral than good or evil and have a more indifferent view of such things.

High Elven Lands

High elves can be found studying magic and the pursuit of knowledge in every land across the world of Oraereum but all call Ris'Ava home. The high elven homeland is a large island off the western coast of Andaria near the Rosin wilds. The elves have built a great world here and none are welcome without explicit invitation. The elves function on a magiocracy government where the ruling body is composed of the most capable wizards amongst them. Visitors who have returned from the island nation of the high elves have commented on the beauty of the island itself as breathtaking.

Religion

Religion holds little sway over the high elven community and all are free to worship how they see fit as long as it causes no public repercussions. However, the only state recognized religion of the high elves is the worship of their creator Teverus. Clerics of Teverus are well respected in the community and given much heed to their wisdom. They are, when it comes down to it however, merely a public service and they hold no real power over the rule of the elven lands.

Wood Elves in Oraereum

Personality

Wood elves are wild and savage when angered but peaceful and serene when calm. They are a delicate balance of raging emotions and the wisdom of decades. Wood elves tend to be more relaxed and aloof than their high elven brethren and take most things as a grain of salt. To a wood elf no day is wasted if it was enjoyed but nothing will be enjoyed if nothing is accomplished.

Relations

Wood elves generally prefer to keep to themselves and very few outsiders are welcome to live in a wood elf community. Wood elves disdain any person that wantonly harms nature or the forest and many a settler has disappeared while clear-cutting land without replanting an equal amount of trees. Still, elves understand that nature must give forth for us but so long as we treat it with respect there is no argument. Wood elves have a special hatred for goblins and kobolds whom they consider blights to their woodland communities and they have no love for orcs. Half-orcs are tolerated but watched closely if passing through the wood.

Alignment

Wood elves, like all elves, take after their creator Teverus and are by majority chaotic in nature. Their lives are filled with emotion and their nature is as unpredictable as the weather itself. Wood elves tend towards good as well, more so than their high elven cousins.

Wood Elf Lands

Wood elves can be found in many forests across the world in loose communities and many will go unnoticed for some time, so low is their impact on the environment. However, the wood elf homeland is located in the vast woods south of Tamaran in the realm of Ascalis on the southern continent of Ascalia. The wood elf cities there are said to be literally grown with druidic magic into the trees and earth itself. The woods here are so vast it is said that to venture too deep into the woods is a death sentence if one does not find an elf to help them find their way out.

Religion

Wood elves regard their creator Teverus as a respectful father figure. However, wood elves truly worship and revere the Goddess of the wood, Deidren. Nearly all wood elven clergy are druids and though clerics are rare, they are not unheard of among the wood elves. These druids revere the great wood mother Deidren and it is not uncommon to find a natural shrine and glade in each wood elf community dedicated to this Goddess.

Dark Elves in Oraereum

Personality

Dark elves are deceitful and scheming. Most Dark elves take great pride in watching their plans come to fruition. Plans that have layers upon layers of secrecy and plot. Dark elves also tend to be cruel and unforgiving and unlike most races feel little to no emotion except hatred, pain and fear.

Relations

Dark elves have tense relations with all races as they hold a completely different value system than almost every other civilization on Oraereum. The only race they tend to have any relationships with are halflings, whom they consider harmless at best and annoying at worst and humans who can be just as sinister as they are themselves. Dark elves have no formal relationship with other elves and those who do travel into each other's lands do so under the very real possibility of death. Other races are welcome in their lands but all who enter Varadia enter at their own risk and many never return.

Alignment

Dark elves are unbelievably chaotic in their ways and although they have meticulous schemes carefully planned and detailed; the reasons behind the plans and the emotions are purely chaotic plays for power. Dark elves tend to be evil and neutral on the other axis of alignment and a good dark elf is nearly unheard of.

Dark Elf Lands

Dark elves live in the tropical swamps of the Varadian peninsula. There they have built a great empire of pain and hate. The capital city, named after their patron God, Ta'Vectus is the hub of their civilization. The capital is built upon a great swampland and exists as an interlocking tanglel of canals and lock damns. Dark elven lands are a dangerous place where slavery is legal and people disappear forever. To venture into Dark elf lands is to take your life into your own hands but there are goods and services that can be found easily in Varadia that would be impossible to acquire anywhere else.

Religion

Dark elves worship Vectus, and if they do not they pretend to. State worship of their creator is a law in Varadia and every dark elf has the right to kill any enemy of the faith both inside their borders and outside. Vectus believes the hatred and pain he has given his children make them stronger and as such the state worship of him makes them stronger as well. The dark elves tolerate no weakness, even in religion.