Elves

As an ancient people, elves have seen great change and have the perspective that can come only from watching the arc of history. To some, the elves are objects of awe—graceful and beautiful, with immense talent and knowledge. 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.
Being the third Godling race, and having been created by the leader of the Pantheon of Perfection, the elves see themselves as examples for the rest of the world and strive for perfection, even when simpler, faster ways may be sufficient. Elves are also one of the few races that do not consider the colossal Turtle their true home. Rather considering the Fae moon of Faehines their true ancestral home.
If you want a character who is magical, mystical, and mysterious, you should play an elf.

You might...

• Carefully curate your relationships with people with shorter lifespans, either keeping a careful emotional distance or resigning yourself to outliving them.
• Adopt specialized or obscure interests simply for the sake of perfecting them.
• Have features such as eye color, skin tone, hair, or mannerisms that reflect the environment in which you live.

Others Probably

• Focus on your appearance, either admiring your grace or treating you as if you're physically fragile.
• Assume you practice archery, cast spells, fight demons, and have perfected one or more fine arts.
• Worry that you privately look down on them, or feel like you're condescending and aloof.

Physical Description

While generally taller than humans, elves possess a fragile grace, accentuated by long features and sharply pointed ears. Their eyes are wide and almond-shaped, featuring large and vibrant-colored pupils that make up the entire visible portion of the eye. These pupils give them an alien look and allow them to see sharply even in very little light.

Elves gradually adapt to their environment and their companions, and they often take on physical traits reflecting their surroundings. An elf who has dwelled in primeval forests for centuries, for example, might exhibit verdant hair and gnarled fingers, while one who’s lived in a desert might have golden pupils and skin. Elven fashion, like the elves themselves, tends to reflect their surroundings. Elves living in the forests and other wilderness locales wear clothing that plays off the terrain and flora of their homes, while those who live in cities tend to wear the latest fashions.
Two prominent sub species of Elves are Sun elves (Sometimes referred to as High Elves) which have dark coloured skin and often brown or golden hair. Moon Elves (often called dark elves) in comparison have very pale skin, and often have pure black hair. Other sub species include tree elves (often called wood elves) who often have brown or even green tinted skin and green hair or brown hair. Drow Elves are Moon elves who have started worshipping Lolth and moved to the deep underdark. Drow generally have the same characteristics as Moon elves with the major exception being eye colour. Drow usually have red eyes, and on rare occasion, purple eyes.

Elves reach physical adulthood around the age of 20, though they aren’t considered to be fully emotionally mature by other elves until closer to the passing of their first century, once they’ve experienced more, held several occupations, and outlived a generation of shorter-lived people. It is currently a matter of debate whether elves die of old age or not. Seemly gifted with eternal youth, it is quite common for elves to be several millennia old. However at some point elves generally return to Faehines and other races are unsure if this is a practice before they die of old age, or if after so many lifetimes elves find themselves unable to remain among such short lives races.

Reproduction

Elves are a mono sex species. Though they continue to use genders as a social construct as most species do, elves do not have physical sexes to base these genders off of. Elves do not reproduce sexually, but neither are the asexual creatures. Elves require a partner to procreate, but there is no sexual activity required. Elves have an ability to share their minds with other creatures. It is more than just sharing memories which is what most other races treat it as, but rather a true joining of two souls so that each can walk in the others memories and see the world as each other. If an elf chooses, they may participate in this joining of the souls with a partner for a prolonged period of time (generally about 10 days) and through doing so create a third soul that is a combination of the two parents. This always results in a pure blood elf, but the elf may hold some qualities of the other race if they are beneficial. This process is quite exhausting for both parent and therefor requires extensive preparation or they may be forced to stop part way through and be unsuccessful in creating a third soul. Though physical touching and sensations are not required it is often included, at least until the participants become physically exhausted. Those who have experienced this process will tell you though, that the mental and spiritual journey of this process is just as, if not more orgasmic than any physical experience could be.

Society

Elves hold high standards and values. Perfection is often in the forefront of their societies. Perfection however is not simple. This is why many think elves are impractical as they will spend millennia perfecting something that a shorter lived race would conclude they have reached "practical perfection" after a decade. This strive for true perfection causes many things the elves do to be much more time intensive. The first example is childhood, though elves physically mature by about 25 years old, they do not consider themselves adults until at minimum a century. This is usually marked by when the youth becomes fully in control of both their dreaming and of their joining experiences. Other examples of greatly extending time requirements include school, where most school programs for elves are often a century on the short end. Some of the grandest universities on Faehines boast doctorate programs that last a millennia.
One tradition Elves have that is different from most other races, is that elves do not celebrate birthdays, rather celebrating Conception days. This may be because they are one of the few races that can be 100% sure when conception occurred.

Alignment And Religion

Elven Alignment often shifts through their lifetimes. Though generally good throughout, most elves will start off chaotic, believing they need to push for radical change and do extreme things to reach perfection, or sometimes just to rebel against their parents. As elves age however they tend to shift more towards lawful. They begin to understand why thier ancestors have set forth the rules they have and also to understand that perfection is a personal journey reached through patience and discipline rather than something you can chaotically enforce on the greater world.

Place in the Shattered Lands

Elves are a Godling race, created by Wysafiel, Goddess of Perfection. They are the third godling race. Unlike most Godling races the first elf was located on Faehines which most current elves either call home, or consider their ancestral home. Though many elves have come to the lands below and created many kingdoms, the shattering has lessened thier migration down greatly. The population of elves on the shattered lands is actually in a slow decline as many decide to return to Faehines either due to old age, or because they believe it'll have greater opportunities than the shattered lands, and the migration back down is far below those going up.

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.

Names

An elf keeps their personal name secret among their family, while giving a nickname when meeting other people. This nickname can change over time, due to events in the elf’s life or even on a whim. A single elf might be known by many names by associates of different ages and regions. Elven names consist of multiple syllables and are meant to flow lyrically—at least in the Elven tongue. They so commonly end in “-el” or “-ara” that other cultures sometimes avoid names ending in these syllables to avoid sounding too elven. Sample Names Aerel, Amrunelara, Caladrel, Dardlara, Faunra, Heldalel, Jathal, Lanliss, Oparal, Seldlon, Soumral, Talathel, Tessara, Variel, Yalandlara, Zordlon

Elven Mechanics

Hitpoints

6

Size

Medium

Speed

30 feet

Ability Boosts

Dexterity Intelligence

Ability Flaws

Constitution

Languages

Common Elven Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from Celestial, Draconic, Gnoll, Gnomish, Goblin, Orcish, Sylvan, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Low-Light Vision

You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, so you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

Please note that much of this content is sourced from Paizo's Rule books for Pathfinder Second Edition. However some changes where made for them to fit better into the home brew world of the Shattered Lands. If you would like pure source material without changes for my home brew setting I'd recommend checking Archives of Nethys.