Playable Subraces: moon elf, sun elf, wood elf, wild elf, fey'ri, szarkai

Elves are one of the most ancient races said to have come after the dragons and existed before The Creation in the world far away. Their history is steeped in magic and learning, but this age they are a decadent, fading race that prefers to live in seclusion, clinging onto the past glory. They are usually beautiful creatures possessed of unearthly grace, that grow slowly and are extremely longlived, up to more than 500 years old. They reach physical maturity at approximately 25, and emotional maturity by 125. Elves do not scar save by magical injuries, and they tend to be immune to normal illnesses, as only magical ailments seem to trouble them.

As longlived creatures, they tend to take a long time to come to decisions, much to the frustration of shorter-lived companions. They have little care for money, instead taking greater interest in the beauty of art, music, nature, arcanistry, and other such lengthy pursuits. They tend to prefer the company of their own kind first and foremost, and do not make friends easily with others; many look down on shorter-lived races as lesser than themselves.

Elves do not grow any kind of facial hair, and have long ears and wide, almond-shaped eyes. Considered by many to be a beautiful race, they are usually slender and a little shorter than a standard human, with angular features. They do not sleep, but instead enter a waking trance known as the 'reverie', during which they relive parts of their lives (it's difficult to remember several hundred years of life without going over it!). They do not age as humans, retaining their looks from adulthood onwards, except for the rare few that choose to show their age in their features or those who are way too old to resist it.

Note: There are a sizeable number of what could be termed as metropolitan elves. These elves, as former slaves, would have grown up in mostly human-run cities like Tonovi. When Tonovi released all of their elven slaves in 759 SG, there took place a great diaspora. They are quite different from their other elven counterparts in that they would have mainly grown up around humans and many of them would be Velik followers. Their manner of speech, culture and outlook on the world would be very different from other elves.

Elves are magical beings, longer lived than humans for a reason. They (or so they think) are partially divine (they believe that they were the first mortal beings ever created by the blood and tears of two gods). Thus, they feel that they are either above the other races, are better than them, or if they do not feel this completely, they think that they have a better understanding of the world than others due to their innate magical/divine aspects as well as their long lives.

Elves value individualism, and while they do not often feel like they have to directly interfere in the life of another elf, sometimes they have to for that elf's own benefit.

Since they have such long lives, they tend to value things that last long: like music, fine artifacts and objects. Things that are transient have little meaning for them (like money or something that would deteriorate quickly).

They tend to seek out the company of other elves more because shorter lived races do not have the same perspective that they do. Think about what it would be like to live for 150 years and have a friend mature and get old on you in 25 years, which is a fraction of your life. This is the elven perspective. This is also one reason why Elves think they are 'better' than shorter lived races. They live so short and can't understand the long term goals that elves set.

Well first and foremost, since elves are creatures of spirit, they HATE undead and things like that. They are also people of the natural world, and undeath is unnatural, so they feel it is a taint and an abomination.

They dislike Drow, because the drow were elves who turned their back on everything elven. Drow means 'traitor' in Elven languages. Orcs are another racial enemy of elves, a blood feud that is only eclipsed by the Drow.

Elves tend to like open spaces, the sky, forests, natural places.

All elves would seek the brotherhood of other elves over the companionship of 'lesser' races. They share the bonds of Race (elven), Time (long lives), Spirit (divine/magical creation). Some elves have more of a tolerance or like of other races for various reasons (they may be amused by them, or fascinated). Usually the younger elves, who do not completely understand what it is like to live so long are the ones that associate more with younger/shorter lived races. Generally, the older the elves get, the more they want to associate with their own kind, even if they did associate with humans more.. the humans tend to die and age on them and that could be difficult for an elf to deal with.

All elves feel a sort of brotherhood with one another because of those things I mentioned. Since humans and other races breed and age so quickly, they have begun to outnumber the elves significantly. Thus the elves often seek to protect themselves and their lands from non-elves, because their numbers dwindle and human numbers rise.

Every elf feels a strong kinship to other elves for the reasons I mentioned above (long life, perspective, divine creation) and they would strive to protect what the elves stand for and the elven way of life.