Elvenkind

• City Elf • Dark Elf • Demimondaine • Noble Elf • Wild Elf

"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror."
- Terry Pratchett, Lords & Ladies

You are probably familiar with Elves as Humanity's mentors; enlightened immortal beings of spirit and light who have great hair, and their shit together. The ones whose great wisdom and foresight led them to formulate a plan to save the world from the great evil that's coming by gradually sneaking off into the West to somewhere behind the sky, on the other side of the rain⁽¹⁾. These are not those elves.

To begin with, while they're all descended from the Archfey of the Dream, they are born here, as material as anyone else. A fair amount of mortal diversity has been admixed into their cultures and bloodlines over the centuries, so while they have fey origins, they're also from Akkodia, Hyperborea, A'Tuan, Axia, or the Empire of Kyoinotomi, and they look like it.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Elves are fey humanoids, with the typical number of extremities, heads, eyes, etc. you'd expect with those descriptors. While nobody knows for sure and rampant speculation exists as to why this is⁽²⁾, the prevailing theory goes that as creatures of the Dream, Feyborn are influenced by that which influences the Dream. When Humanity manifested its collective unconscious, the shift in the Dream was profound enough to overwrite any pre-existing narrative which had imprinted itself there. Regardless of what they had been in the Before, after Humanity learned to Dream, the feyborn had always looked more or less like they did, acted in ways they could understand.

So, while there may be no quantifiable differences beyond the esoteric between noble and common humans, in faeries the differences are quite marked.

It's beyond the scope of this page and the endurance of most readers to go through an exhaustive list of traits for each and every one of the many elf lineages you can dig up in the rules. Obviously, these are generalizations about broad groups of people. Individuals exist in every different ethnicity which break the mold, and the feyborn are no different.

Biological Traits

Because their eternal lives give them a much longer view of things, Eladrin are often seen as detached from the concerns that plague the minds and hearts of the shorter-lived races, unfazed by events that many consider life-changing. They spend their time on things that may take centuries to accomplish, since they have the time to work on them. Their friendship lasts for generations, as does their wroth.

Worldborn Elves reach full maturity at about 25, when their aging process stops completely, along with their need for sleep. The easiest way to determine the age on an elf is by the hue of their eyes, which deepens as the elf ages.

Genetics and Reproduction

Although they are extraordinarily long-lived, most kinds of elves are mortal. The existence of half-elves should suggest the means by which elves reproduce⁽³⁾, though compared to the fecundity of most of the mortal races, the reproductive rates of elvenkind en large are positively glacial.

The Demimonde⁽⁴⁾

Demimondaine feyborn are those people of mixed-elven parentage, typically descended from City Elf houses. Often, fey parentage disappears for generations on end until a changeling slinks out of town under the full moon of their nineteenth birthday, or a human lives to be 150, so it's not exactly accurate to call them 'half-elves'. As might be deduced, they reproduce in the usual way.

Growth Rate & Stages

Elves born on the Material age and mature at the same rate that humans do. Elf babies aren't much different than human children, developmentally speaking... they spend most of their time sleeping, and the remainder making messes and noise. Elven children grow up as quickly as human ones do, and learn just as fast.⁽⁵⁾
As a young elf reaches their adult growth, aging slows rapidly. By about 30, elves have stopped aging (and sleeping!) completely.

Elves and Sleep

The Crusade's destructive effect on Faerie in the Material cannot be understated. With Cold Iron and iron magic the Crusaders closed the Baelgates and smashed the Eladar. A wave of madness swept Elvenkind as the Dream was reft from them; sleep could provide no rest. The leading thinkers of the day responded to this by developing a means to commune within the tiny sliver of Dream present in every feyborn soul. This process, commonly called 'the Trance', consists of a series of mental exercises which manage to reap the benefits of a full, restful sleep in half the time. Today, it is taught to children before normal sleep loses its restorative properties.⁽⁴⁾

Ecology and Habitats

The feyborn live in every environment on all of the inhabited worlds of Runespace.

Biological Cycle

The most notable effect of fey heritage is a long lifespan. After the Feyborn reach physical maturity, the aging process slows to varying degrees; in Eladrin, it stops completely. City elves typically live longer than Wild Elves, but this is largely environmental; since they're just different ethnicities of the same species they both have the same potential lifespan, about a thousand years. Demimondaines can expect to see two or three centuries of robust health, and a long, graceful old age, under optimal conditions.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Feyborn features resemble human, although most don't grow beards.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Elves and humans prefer similar living conditions and so may be found living with humans in larger settlements all over the world. Those who prefer a more rural existence build their enclaves in places of great natural beauty, taking great care not to disrupt the natural flow of things in the area.

Average Intelligence

Feyborn intelligence is comparable to humanity's, with the same variance in individuals.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

All five of the standard senses are enhanced, both in keenness and scope. Elven visual acuity is legendary, particularly the peerless darkvision of the Dark Elves.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Elven names frequently sound pretentious and long-winded to those who cannot appreciate the weight of history and tradition that accompany them. For instance, the Chosen of Elvenkind, Shaelae’hae hai Dracosmancer del’Irganost has a nice, short elven name. She’s simply Shaelae’hae the Dragon-Wizard of Irganost.

An elven name carries the elf’s personal and family names, as well as their lineage and homeland. Elves of House Irgan are especially fond of this, and will gift their children with names like “Gilorian hai Sijernai del Irganost ap Harkena ap Firana ap Kelinonthalas” , which translates as “Gilorian the Swordsman of Irganost, child of Harkena child of Firana, child of Kelinonthalas. Generational Names always go back no fewer than three generations, and are always traced maternally.

For ease of reference, most elves get saddled with an abbreviated form of their name, which they sometimes see as disrespectful of their traditions and will generally infuriate them no end. The previously mentioned Gilorian-expialidocious would probably be referred to as ‘Gilorian Sijernai‘, or more simply, just ’Gil’.

1. Thank you, Susanna Clarke. Strange & Norrell is one of the greatest novels I've ever read, and a huge influence on my own work.
2. These theories range from the thaumically logical to the sublimely absurd.
3. We'll address this term in a minute.
4. No adorable fifty-year-old toddlers here, folks. Sorry.
5. At this stage, it is not uncommon to see elven teenagers staying awake for days, then sleeping in binges as they replace their waning ability to sleep with proficiency in the Trance.

6. "Demimonde" arose out of the fact that many people of mixed heritages found themselves descended from the regular kind of Demimondaine (look it up eventually, the new meaning replaced the old one and here we are, me buckos.

Origin/Ancestry

the Dream

Lifespan

250-10,000 years

Average Height

1-2m

Average Weight

20-100kg

Average Physique

Because of their fey ancestry, elves are typically much leaner and wirier than humans or orcs. Apart from that, all bets are off. Height varies by type; the diminutive drow rarely top five feet, but some eladrin push seven. The pale and cadaverous Shadar-kai are deceptively frail-looking, while Wild Elves typically display deep pigmentation and robust musculatures and City Elves are always on the cutting edge of whatever's trendy.

Geographic Distribution

• Hyperborea
• Kayakume