Elf

Elves combine otherworldly grace, sharp intellect, and mysterious charm in a way that is practically magnetic to members of other ancestries. They are often voraciously intellectual, though their studies delve into a level of detail that most shorter-lived peoples find excessive or inefficient. Valuing kindness and beauty, elves ever strive to improve their manners, appearance, and culture. Elves are often rather private people, steeped in the secrets of their groves and kinship groups. They’re slow to build friendships outside their kinsfolk, but for a specific reason: they subtly and deeply attune to their environment and their companions. There’s a physical element to this attunement, but it isn’t only superficial. Elves who spend their lives among shorter-lived peoples often develop a skewed perception of their own mortality and tend to become morose after watching generation after generation of companions age and die. These elves are called the Forlorn. Elves are the oldest of the Young Races, said to be made as an experiment by the Dragon Gods, whom most elves worship to this day. It was elves who first created cities, a gift they gave the other ancestries. It is said that Jerome the God of Diligence was half-elven as a mortal. Once the most populous ancestry of the world, elves were almost driven to extinction by the Iron Legon. In hidden, secret glens in deep forests and in the kingdom of dragons, elves struggle to maintain their numbers. Few people have seen more than a handful of elves, and many remain in hiding even among other ancestries, for if discovered by agents of the Iron Legon they are often bullied or harassed if not outright killed.