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| Elf |
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Elves mingle freely in human lands, always welcome yet never at home there. They are well known for their poetry, dance, song, lore, and magical arts. Elves favor things of nature and simple beauty. When danger threatens their woodland homes, however, elves reveal a more martial side, demonstrating skill with sword, bow and battle strategy. |
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| Extended Race Information |
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Many elves are regal and aloof, concerned with plans that cover the sweep of centuries, not the petty day-to-day affairs that occupy the thoughts of other races. A few elves are rather more down-to-earth: The elves of the dragonmarked houses have lived among humans and other short-lived races for centuries and have adjusted their sence of time to accommodate, and the elves of Valenar have rejected many of the old ways of their kind in order to take a more active and expansionist place in the world.
Personality
Elves are more often amused than excited, and mosr likely to be curious than greedy. With such a long life span, they tend to keep a broad perspective on events, remaining aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance. When pursuing a goal,, however, whether an adventurous mission or learning a new skill or art, they can be focused and relentless. They are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. They reply to petty insults with disdain and to serious insults with vengeance.
Physical Description
Elves are short and slim, standing about 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 feet tall and typically weighing 95 to 135 pounds, with elf men the same height as and only marginally heavier than elf women. They are graceful but frail. They tend to be pale-skinned and dark-haired, with deep green eyes. Elves have no facial or body hair. They prefer simple, comfortable clothes, especially in pastel blues and greens, and they enjoy simple yet elegant jewelry. Elves possess unearthly grace and fine features. Many humans and members of other races find them hauntingly beautiful. An elf reaches adulthood at about 110 years of age and can live to be more than 700 years old.
Elves do not sleep, as members of the other common races do. Instead, an elf meditates in a deep trance for 4 hours a day. An elf resting in this fashion gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. While meditating, and elf dreams, though these dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. The Common word for an elf's meditation is "trance," as in "four hours of trance."
Names
When an elf declares herself an adult, usually some time after her hundredth birthday, she also selects a name. THose who knew her as a youngster may or may not continue to call her by her "child name," and she may or may not care. An elf's adult name is a unique creation, though it may reflect the names of those she admires or the names of others in her family. Ina ddition, she bears her family name. Family names are combinations of regular Elven words; some elves traveling among humans translate their family names into Common, while others use the Elven version.
Relations
Elves consider humans rather unrefined, halflings a bit staid, gnomes somewhat trivial, and dwaves not at all fun. They look on half-elves with some degree of pity, and they
regard half-orcs with unrelenting suspicion. While haughty, elves are generally pleasent and gracious even to those who fall short of elven standards (a category that encompasses just about everybody who's not an elf).
Alignment
Since elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. Generally, they value and protect others' freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not.
Elf Lands
The elves were born on the mysterious southern continent of Xen'drik, where they were slaves of the giant kingdoms. Tens of thousands of years ago, elf slaves rebelled against their masters and eventually left Xen'drik entirely. They settled in the fertile tropical rain forest of Aerenal, a large island-continent to the southeast of Khorvaire.
Before the long reign of the Galifar kings, some elves decided to leave Aerenal and emigrate to Khorvaire. These elves now live among the nations of Khorvaire and have integrated almost completely into human-dominated society. These "civilized" elves have little to do with either the ancient Aerenal society or the newly formed nation of Valenar, though some individuals may have more of a connection to their ancestral cousins than the average Khorvaire elf.
During the Last War, the beleaguered rulers of Cyre brought elf mercenaries from Aerenal into their lands. After fifty years of fighting on Cyre's behalf, these mercenaries claimed a portion of Cyre as their own, declaring that this land once belonged to the elves--a trading colony had been established on the mainland to trade with the empire of the hobgoblins long before the arrival of humans on Kohvaire. This land is now known as Valenar.
Dragonmarks
The elven houses of Phiarlan and Thuranni, split during the Last War, togeather carry the Mark of Shadow with its powers of scrying and illusion. They control the buisness of espionage throughtout Khorvaire, but they also operate more legitimate businesses related to art and entertainment. Since the split of the houses, Phiarlan and Thuranni have become ruthless competitors as each strives for dominance in the field. |
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