Wood Elf
The Wood Elves largely keep to themselves within the Fermata Forest and their home city of Sonopra. While the High Elf of New Crescendo are known for being regal, and exceptionally powerful sorcerers, the Wood Elves are known for their reclusive and territorial ways, and their powerful Druidic Magics. They tend to be more stoic and reserved than their High Elf counterparts, but also less flashy. They tend to be wary of outsiders, including their High Elf cousins. That said, they largely have a kinship with the High Elves, and the two groups do help one another when they need it. They are known for not just living off the land, but being very connected to it.
Naming Traditions
Family names
Wood Elves do not keep surnames, but do identify themselves as belonging to a particular Clan, which is named after their leader (usually the Clan Elder).
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Elvish primarily, and Druidic for their tribal tattoos and markings.
Culture and cultural heritage
The Wood Elves tend to be structured into various familial Clans, although they are complicated formations as clans often breed with other clans. This is probably why almost all of the clans belong to the city of Sonopra, and work together under one leader.
Average technological level
Wood Elves mostly grow their own tools, so they're largely made out of plants. They sometimes incorporate bone, and rarely stone.
Common Dress code
Wood Elves tend to dress practically, although fashion isn't completely lost on them. Skirts of vines backed in long-leaf layers make for quiet movement for hunters. Some others dress in wood, vine and leaf jewelry. Many Wood Elves go barefoot, feeling it aids in their ability to climb, as well as their ability to move silently. Most Elves have at least one side of their head shaved, and many have both sides, or their entire head. This allows them to display their tribal tattoos, which speak of their many accomplishments in life. Typically the more hair you have shaved, the more accomplished you are. Bald, fully-tattooed Elves, especially if they're young, are considered very prestigious.
Art & Architecture
They grow their homes high in the redwood trees of Sonopra. The don't tend to be very artistic, instead preferring their homes to blend in with the trees as much as possible. It is said that outsiders could walk right through their city, looking up the entire time, and never know it was there.
They don't really have much art. They do make some minor decorations out of wood and bones, and they tend to love flowers, but that's about it.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Most Wood Elves shave one or both sides of their heads, or just go entirely bald. Tribal tattoos across the left side of their head usually tell their story, from what clan they come from, to any titles they hold, to any great deeds they've done. This pictograph-style writing could be considered an extremely basic language, although it largely only gets used in these tribal tattoos and occasionally as markings in the environment to leave hidden messages. The Wood Elves don't really think of this as a language, but it is known as Druidic.
Coming of Age Rites
Wood Elf children are not allowed to shave their heads until they reach maturity (usually around age 100). This is when they are given their first tribal tattoo, showing they've earned their place in their clan. To earn it, they must accomplish some sort of great deed. Oftentimes this is hunting down a rare creature, and bringing it back for a feast. If the creature has more than one cut, usually it's considered a failure, unless it's a particularly large beast.
Funerary and Memorial customs
The Wood Elves bury their dead, and plant a tree directly over them. They believe that the soul of the dead becomes the tree, and lives on in the forest forever.
Common Taboos
Cutting down trees is extremely taboo. They usually consider it a major insult by outsiders, and is usually cause for banishment if done by their guests or the actual members of their society. Delicate removal of fruits or leaves they do consider acceptable, provided the plant will survive it, and as long as it's done "humanely." Hacking away at a tree with an axe usually makes them really mad. Killing animals for sport, or not using the entirety of its body is also considered very taboo.
Common Myths and Legends
There are areas within the Fermata Forest, and even in Sonopra itself, that speak to one or perhaps several epic battles, maybe even wars. There are stories that humans and Wood Elves used to live together here in Sonopra, during the Quiet Age, but at some point split up. Some think this war is what split them up. Others think that perhaps the Elves fought the Orcs, or perhaps the Orcs and Humans, or maybe the Humans fought alongside the Elves against the Orcs. No one is quite sure, but different clans tell different versions of this, some with more detail than others.
Many Wood Elves tend to regard humans with suspicion, though, and are extremely territorial when they come around.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Their beauty ideals vary wildly, but they tend to respect people who have a lot of tattoos representing many great deeds. They tend to keep their hair shoulder-length or shorter, so that it won't get caught on branches while they're climbing, or otherwise get in their way. They largely value function over everything else.
Gender Ideals
Wood Elves share work fairly equally. As all Wood Elves tend to be lightweight and reliant on stealth and speed, women hunt as much as the men, and pretty much any decent Druid can grow food. It is recognized that mothers nurture newborn babies for the first several years of their lives, but after this point the workload of raising the child could easily fall on either parent, or even the entire clan. Therefore the Wood Elves don't tend to think of men and women all that differently.
Courtship Ideals
Wood Elves do have certain courtship rituals, but quite often it's based entirely on attraction. Oftentimes physical attraction is good enough, but when two potential mates are looking to actually couple for the purpose of creating a child, they look a bit deeper than that. Wood Elves believe children are half mother, half father, and therefore to have a strong whole requires both parents to be ideally suitable. Therefore, when looking for a mate in this way, Wood Elves tend to look for someone who has had a lot of accomplishments, who has been particularly good for their clan. Although Wood Elves do get lonely too, and sometimes accidents happen during a casual roll through the leaves.
Relationship Ideals
A mother and father are important to the Wood Elves, but Wood Elves do not marry, and a child is often raised by their entire clan, albeit with their mother and father being the most prominent. Oftentimes a strong bond is formed with the mother during the baby's infancy years, but once the child can be weaned from their mother's milk, quite often the baby can change primary hands over to the father, while the mother goes off and does the hunting or other work. Though because both men and women tend to handle the workloads equally, there's no norm for who the primary parent tends to be, and quite often it's both of them.
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