Elf
The long-lived elves are children of the natural world, similar in many superficial ways to fey creatures, though with key differences. While fey are truly linked to the flora and fauna of their homes, existing as the nearly immortal voices and guardians of the wilderness, elves are instead mortals who are in tune with the natural world around them. Elves seek to live in balance with the wild and understand it better than most other mortals. Some of this understanding is mystical, but an equal part comes from the elves’ long lifespans, which in turn gives them long-ranging outlooks. Elves can expect to remain active in the same locale for centuries. By necessity, they must learn to maintain sustainable lifestyles, and this is most easily done when they work with nature, rather than attempting to bend it to their will. However, their links to nature are not entirely driven by pragmatism. Elves’ bodies slowly change over time, taking on a physical representation of their mental and spiritual states, and those who dwell in a region for a long period of time find themselves physically adapting to match their surroundings, most noticeably taking on coloration that reflects the local environment.
Elves value their privacy and traditions, and while they are often slow to make friends at both the personal and national levels, once an outsider is accepted as a comrade, the resulting alliances can last for generations. Elves take great joy in forging alliances with races that share or exceed their long lifetimes, and often work to befriend dragons, outsiders, and fey. Those elves who spend their lives among the short-lived races, on the other hand, often develop a skewed perception of mortality and become morose, the result of watching wave after wave of companions age and die before their eyes.
Basic Information
Genetics and Reproduction
Ecology and Habitats
Many elves embark on adventures out of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded realms to reclaim forgotten elven magic or search out lost kingdoms established millennia ago by their ancestors. This need to see a wider world is accepted by their societies as a natural part of becoming mature and experienced individuals. Such elves are expected to return in some few decades and take up lives in their homelands once more, enriched both in treasure and in worldview. For those elves raised among humans, however, life within their homes—watching friends and family swiftly age and die—is often stifling, and the ephemeral and unfettered life of an adventurer holds a natural appeal. Elves generally eschew melee because of their relative frailty, preferring instead to engage enemies at range. Most see combat as unpleasant even when needful, and prefer it be done as quickly as possible, preferably without getting close enough to smell their foes. This preference for making war at a distance, coupled with their natural accuracy and grasp of the arcane, encourages elves to pursue classes such as wizards and rangers.
Elven Adventurers
Many elves adventure to find beauty and discover new things. Typical backgrounds for an elf include Emissary, Hunter, Noble, Scholar, or Scout. Elves often become Rangers or Rogues , taking advantage of their dexterity, or Alchemists or Wizards , exploring their intellectual curiosity.Additional Information
Social Structure
Many elves feel a bond with nature and strive to live in harmony with the natural world. Although, like most, elves prefer bountiful lands where resources are plentiful, when driven to live in harsher climates, they work hard to protect and shepherd the region’s bounty, and learn how to maximize the benefit they receive from what little can be harvested. When they can carve out a sustainable, reliable life in deserts and wastelands, they take pride as a society in the accomplishment. While this can make them excellent guides to outsiders they befriend who must travel through such lands, their disdain of those who have not learned to live off the scant land as they have makes such friends rare.
Elves have an innate gift for craftsmanship and artistry, especially when working in wood, bone, ivory, or leather. Most, however, find manipulating earth and stone to be distasteful, and prefer to avoid forging, stonework, and pottery. When such work must be done within a community, a few elves may find themselves drawn to it, but regardless of their craftsmanship, such “dirt-wrights” are generally seen by other elves as being a bit off. In the most insular of elven societies, they may even be treated as lower class.
Elves also have an appreciation for the written word, magic, and painstaking research. Their naturally keen minds and senses, combined with their inborn patience, make them particularly suited to wizardry. Arcane research and accomplishment are seen as both practical goals, in line with being a soldier or architect, and artistic endeavors as great as poetry or sculpture. Within elven society, wizards are held in extremely high regard as masters of an art both powerful and aesthetically valued. Other spellcasters are not disdained, but do not gain the praise lavished upon elven wizards.
Domestication
Elves love laughing and pulling pranks. They are quite impetuous, always seeking new experiences, sometimes to the detriment of their own well-being. Some believe them to be thoughtless and callous, but this is not the case; they value friendship highly, and make friends easily. These friendships often turn romantic, whether they be with their own kind or with others.
Most other races believe that elves are content to live out their lives in quiet contemplation in the same place they were born. Even though this is true for some, there are many others who naturally develop wanderlust and a wish to see the world and all of its differences.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Elves are renowned for their beautiful artwork and crafts, and excel as tailors, herbalists, spice traders, perfumers, artists, cartographers, and beauticians. Most elves who live in non-elven communities earn their living as artisans.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Male Names: Caladrel, Heldalel, Lanliss, Meirdrarel, Seldlon, Talathel, Variel, Zordlon.
Female Names: Amrunelara, Dardlara, Faunra, Jathal, Merisiel, Oparal, Soumral, Tessara, Yalandlara.
Gender Ideals
There isn't as much sexual dimorphism in elves as in other humanoids. Males tend to be taller and broader, though rarely broader than a human male. They tend to be naturally lean and fit, with inhumanly good metabolisms. Males do not grow facial hair, or indeed much body hair at all, and have at least shoulder-length hair. Female elves are slender and willowy, considered beautiful by most. They are almost as tall as human males, though lighter of frame and weight than most human females. Their faces tend to be austere and beautiful, with high cheekbones and delicate symmetrical features.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Elves speak Elvish, but have learned that being fluent in Common is quite useful. Elven is believed to be among the eldest, if not the eldest of the languages mortals speak on Golarion. Scholars conjecture that it was formed when elven speakers of Sylvan tried to introduce grammatical rules and vocabulary from both Celestial and Draconic. The elven alphabet contains 33 letters (24 consonants and nine vowels). It is a complex language but sounds poetic in tone and cadence.
Common Dress Code
Elves maintain an otherworldly beauty, and whether found in their magnificent wilderness communities or cosmopolitan civilizations, are often well-dressed or even glamorous.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Elves are emotional and capricious, yet value kindness and beauty. Most elves are chaotic good, wishing all creatures to be safe and happy, but unwilling to sacrifice personal freedom or choice to accomplish such goals. They prefer deities who share their love of the mystic qualities of the world.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Burial customs
Most elves prefer to be buried in natural surroundings, such as being mummified in a bog, or interred in a still forest beneath a small sapling. Because death among the elves is such a long-expected if inevitable event, others prefer to elevate their death by being laid to rest in a stone tomb where others can remember them for all eternity.The Brightness
Elves believe that their current life is but one in a series, and that upon death they are reincarnated as another creature. Their ultimate goal is to be reborn as a natural creature of the wild. In pursuit of this they believe that they must find or follow the Brightness, signs and portents which lead them to live a life leading them to their higher destiny.The Forlorn
While elves can be found not only in their own communities throughout the rest of the world, there are distinct differences between elves raised among their kind, and those who grow to adulthood in non-elven communities. Life among shorter-lived races makes these elves aware of others' mortality in a way that is foreign to their more isolated kin, and the resulting melancholy outlook has given them their moniker: the Forlorn. Their lack of laughter and joy finds outlets in darker pursuits, such as trickery, cynicism, anger, and even brutality. Forlorn are generally pitied and looked down upon by other elves, who believe them to be emotionally scarred. Because of their lack of connection with their own kind, Forlorn elves tend to form much stronger friendships. A large portion of adventuring elves are in this group.History
Early history
The history of the elves in the Sentry Core is an ancient one. Elven historians debate whether their race originated on Gradus or on Hlynathei, a continent in southern Cemvair, but archaeological evidence points to Iuluno'an, the oldest city on Cemvair, to be far older than any evidence of elves on Gradus; they likely emigrated from Cemvair to Gradus in the late Age of Serpents and had no contact with the declining Yuan-Ti empire that had once ruled a large part of Gradus. Their civilization on Gradus reached its peak during the Age of Legend, long before their human cousins founded their first settled communities. Little evidence remains of this prehistoric elven presence, although it is clear that they were among the first civilization to rise on Gradus. Early expansionist Human cultures soon came into conflict with the elves in their reach to grasp ever more of the world. The elves knew that they would ultimately have to cede much of the world to humans, given the low elven birth rate, and so the elves turned their attention away from Gradus and focused on exploring the other nearby planets, traveling across vast distances through a series of interplanetary gates (known as Aiudara). Evolution of the Drow While most of their number were spared the turmoil of the Age of Darkness, those that remained on Gradus were not so lucky. These elves, seeking refuge from the horrors of the planet's surface, receded into the depths of the earth, establishing settlements there. Unbeknownst to them, this decision would alter them forever, and not positively. Over time the underground elves developed ember-black skin and sable-white hair and became corrupted by the powerful evils lurking in the darkness. The newly-formed drow, meaning "accursed," ruled Subterra , gaining dominance over lesser races such as Derro, Duergar, Troglodytes and worse, becoming one of the most powerful races in the world, even if they hid from their above-ground rivals.The elves' return
The elves began their return from Hlynathei, somehow sensing that their old human enemies had grown out of their barbaric origins and that the two races could share the world. Many of the elves' ancient holdings were reclaimed, causing tumult with human warlords who did not recognize their claims of ownership on these lands. More than just human inheritors posed problems for the elves, as they soon learned of their drow brethren.Common Myths and Legends
Religion
Although elves will worship any deity that strikes their fancy, the large majority worship the goddesses Savored Sting and Lady of Dreams, and to a lesser extent, Master of Mastery, Lady of Love or even more rarely, the various empyreal lords. They tend to have a less formal relationship with the divine, seeing the gods as general inspiration, and are not tied down with the particulars of dogma. This does not mean that they are casual in their devotion, however: religious elves are just as passionate as any of the other major races of Gradus. Lady of Graves is a popular goddess among the forlorn, most likely because of the number of deaths they witness during their long lifetime among the shorter-lived races.Elven deities
In addition to the worship of the major deities, elves also have a number of minor elven gods who are almost only worshiped by their own kind. These include include Mistress of Doors goddess of transitions and the magical elf gates, Tower Muse, the goddess of art and architecture, Lord of the Hunt, god of the hunt, and Publeda the Wise, goddess of crafting and magic.Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Elves are prone to dismissing other races, writing them off as rash and impulsive, yet on an individual level, they are excellent judges of character. In many cases an elf will come to value a specific member of another race, seeing that individual as deserving and respectable, while still dismissing the race as a whole. If called on this behavior, the elf often doesn’t understand why his “special friend” is upset the elf has noticed the friend is “so much better than the rest of his kind.” Even elves who see such prejudice for what it is must constantly watch themselves to prevent such views from coloring their thinking.
Elves are not foolish enough, however, to dismiss all aspects of other races and cultures. An elf might not want a dwarf neighbor, but would be the first to acknowledge dwarves’ skill at smithing and their tenacity in facing orc threats. Elves regard gnomes as strange (and sometimes dangerous) curiosities but regard their magical talent as being worthy of praise and respect. Halflings are often viewed with a measure of pity, for these small folk seems to the elves to be adrift, without a traditional home. Elves are fascinated with humans, who seem to live in a few short years as full a life as an elf manages in centuries. In fact, many elves become infatuated with humans, as evidenced by the number of half-elves in the world. Elves have difficulty accepting crossbreeds of any sort, however, and usually disown such offspring. They similarly regard half-orcs with distrust and suspicion, assuming they possess the worst aspects of orc and human personalities.
Scientific Name
Homo Alfus Alfus
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Generally taller than humans, elves possess a graceful, slender physique that is accentuated by their long, pointed ears. It is a mistake, however, to consider them weak or feeble, as the thin limbs of an elf can contain surprising power. Their eyes are wide and almond-shaped, and filled with large, vibrantly colored pupils. The coloration of elves as a whole varies wildly, and is much more diverse than that of human populations. However, as their coloration often matches their surroundings, the elves of a single community may appear quite similar. Forest-dwelling elves often have variations of green, brown, and tan in their hair, eye, and even skin tones.
While elven clothing often plays off the beauty of the natural world, those elves who live in cities tend to bedeck themselves in the latest fashions. Where city-dwelling elves encounter other urbanites, the elves are often fashion trendsetters.
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
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