Elf

Elves, known in their own tongue as Tel-quessir (also Tel'Quessir or Tel'Quess) were a number of closely related, long-lived races that excelled in magic.
==Description==
Although individual Tel-quessir races exhibited a number of unique traits, there were some features which were common to all of the races. Elves tended to be fair and beautiful by human standards and graceful, though they were often frail as well. Elves stood on average and weighed . Usually, true elves were a naturally slender and athletic race. Elves had a similar range of complexions to humans, with wood elves typically coppery or pale skinned and wild elves having darker pigmentation. Often, elven hair was dark, either brown or black, with copper red or blond hair also found amongst wood elves, although orange or even green hues were not completely unheard of. Elven eyes were commonly brown, hazel, or an emerald green. Elves had pointed ears and had no hair on their body save eyebrows, eyelashes, and scalp hair.
==Personality==
Elves commonly possessed strong but swiftly passing passions, being moved easily to laughter, anger, or misery and as quickly calmed. They were known for their impulsive behavior and, as a result, many races saw them as flighty or impetuous. However, elves were not as flaky as others might interpret them to be, and they were typically responsible despite their almost whimsical nature. Partially due to their long lifespan (though not entirely, since many long-lived races acted differently), elves had difficulty taking some matters as seriously as other races, but when threats they recognize did arise, elves were strong friends and allies to those they were loyal to.
Elves tended to make strong and uplifting friends. Most elves loved simple joys such as dancing, singing, footraces, or contests of skill. They had a natural aversion to that which they saw as uninteresting tasks and were fun-loving by nature. However, despite how unpleasant some things such as war could be, elves became grimly serious if a threat to their friends, family, or livelihood made such actions necessary.
Elves were a relaxed people, with a degree of patience and detachment granted to them by their long lifespans. Elves were not easily excited and lack the greed that sometimes characterized other races. Most elves were unconcerned with the events that only affected the short-term and were likewise slow to make friends or enemies since time for them was measured in centuries, not decades. Focused on whatever they applied themselves to, elves ignored the slight but rarely forgot the serious.
Because of their long lifespan, most elves had a patience uncommon to other humanoids. Tel-quessir viewed the lives and concerns of younger races as fleeting and took less joy in the short-term victories that other races had to content themselves with. Instead, elves took pleasure in things that had more endurance, such as the arts or the honing of one's skills.
==Abilities==
Elves had a number of abilities that set them apart from other humanoid races. They tended to be supremely aware of their surroundings, with more potent senses of sight and sound than humans. All Tel-quessir had the ability to see in low light conditions unhampered, though drow also possessed the ability to see in the dark. Elves were also agile, dexterous creatures and could move swiftly through even the roughest terrain. Additionally, elves were accurate in their attacks, having a degree of precision that would be unusual for other humanoids.
===Lifespan===
Elves were universally long-lived, achieving what they consider adulthood at 110 years of age and living for up to 700 and more years thereafter. However, wood and wild elves matured at roughly the same rate as humans, but did not display many signs of ageing past adulthood, with the most obvious changes being a change in hair color, alternatively graying or darkening. Most of these elves remained healthy and full of life up until their death, which was usually well over two centuries.
===Reverie===
Many elves did not sleep, instead finding their rest in a meditative state called reverie or "trance", which was as restful as true sleep but left them aware of their surroundings. In this state, they achieved the same results as a human might through sleeping in roughly two thirds the time. Elves able to trance were also often resistant to the effects of supernatural powers such as sleep, since they did not themselves sleep but instead rested in a semi-aware state.
==Society==
Elves had an affinity for freedom more than anything else, preferring the way of unrestricted liberty to the restraints of civilized law and order. Liberty, both of one's self and of others, tended to be the greatest virtue in elven cultures. This love for freedom was often tempered by a good and generous nature, though not always. Drow in particular stood out as an example of evil amongst the Tel-quessir.
Elven governments tended to be very loosely organized, with small groups of elves accepting the legitimacy of a respected noble, who in turn acknowledged the authority of a monarchical king. As of the 14 century DR, many moon, sun, and wood elven rulers paid their respects to the Elven Court, presided over by Queen Amlaruil in Evermeet.
Elves tended to take up the adventurer's lifestyle for a number of reasons. Some did so out of, more than anything, boredom or a sense of wanderlust that drove them to explore beyond the boundaries of their homelands. They did not like being tied down and most often pursued careers that lent themselves well to adventuring. Some elves enjoyed adventuring as a way to demonstrate their own skill, such as with a bow or sword, while others did so in order to help others.
Elves did not distinguish between males and females and so did not discriminate based on gender. Males and females were treated equally in all areas, neither was excluded from anything, and they achieved power and fame in equal measure, apart from a tendency for more women in positions of authority, with a historically greater number of queens than kings. Unlike some other societies, they understood the value and potential of women.
===Relations===
"Tel-quessir" was the elven word for "the people." Likewise, "N-Tel-Quess" was the elven word for "not people" and was used to refer to races outside of the Tel-quessir. This often gave other races the impression that elves were elitist, racist, and condescending to other races, but most simply saw these as words with no hidden meaning or agenda.
Although the other races sometimes believed elves to be arrogant and condescending, they didn't hold any particular hatred for any races as a whole, though individual races may have had particular attitudes. The harshest racial conflict for the elves was actually often within, given the long-standing feud between the drow and the other Tel-quessir races. Elves could seem distant and unfriendly because many of the other races, such as humans and halflings, had a much shorter lifespan. It was easier for an elf to avoid contact with these races, rather than befriend individuals who lived only a small fraction of the elven life.
Dwarves and elves generally had a different problem in forming relationships. Dwarves favored hard work whereas elves generally enjoyed relaxation. Dwarves enjoyed carving homes from the rock and engineering unswerving straight lines, while elves preferred more natural, flowing shapes. Dwarves and elves could form strong bonds of friendship, but only when both agreed to overlook each other's differences.
Gnomes and elves generally got along well thanks to their mutual love of life, combined with the gnomes' love of fine art and illusion magic. On the other hand, halflings and elves shared only a lukewarm relationship. The elven habit of eating sparingly was not welcomed in halfling society, and elves sometimes deemed a halfling's curiosity as childlike and troublesome.
Elves regarded humans with both fear and respect. Humans grasped magic and adapted to many situations incredibly fast from an elven perspective, but they were wary of the human tendency to claim lands as their own, often regarding them as greedy. It was quite possible for strong friendships to develop between humans and elves, but it was equally possible that hostilities might arise.
===Homelands===
Elves tended to favor woodlands over other terrains, though exceptions existed. Most elven communities were relatively small in size, around a few hundred in number, and blended easily into the natural landscape. These communities were usually very well isolated and as a result contact between elves and outsiders was usually a matter of deliberate contact rather than accidental.
Wood and wild elves were usually found in small tribes throughout the forests of Toril, as well as on windswept plains and in mountain vales. They preferred these secluded places of nature to the cities and nations of the civilized world, living in harmony with their natural surroundings. Cautious and cunning warriors, particularly of the bow, elves secured these homelands through guile and tactics.
==Culture==
Elves who lived among humans, of whom there were many, tended to take on roles that favored the arts, such as minstrels, artists, or sages. Many were also valued as martial instructors, given the elven races' well-known skills with both the bow and the sword.
===Diet===
Elves were typically omnivorous, like humans, but tended to eat very little meat. This was not so much out of concern for the animal as an effort to make as little of an impact on the natural world as possible, with elves believing that the consumption of vegetation had a lesser impact on natural harmony. Additionally, this partially came from many elven cultures' traditions of nomadic life, which required food to be easily preservable.
===Subraces===
There were at least nine different subraces and at least three different sub-categories of elves.
Many elves were quite proud of their particular sub-race. It was said that to insult a moon elf, call him a gray elf. To insult a sun elf, call him a moon elf.
====High Elves (Eladrin)====
* Sun elf: Also called gold elves, sun elves were highly civilized elves with a natural gift for wizardry.
* Moon elf: Also called silver elves, moon elves were one of the most common subraces. They lived a nomadic lifestyle, and often interacted with other races.
* Star elf: Also called mithral elves, they were an isolated subrace that lived on the demiplane of Sildeyuir.
* Fey eladrin: While high elves of most planes are "common eladrin", the fey eladrin are high elves that have fully transitioned from mundane humanoids of distant fey ancestry into fully-fledged fey due to centuries of Feywild's exposure. 
** In planes other than Feywild, they were also found in Arborea, where they were known as celestial eladrin, with some individuals again transitioning from fey to celestial from the upper plane's influence.
====Other Elves====
* Sylvan elf: Also called, sy-tel-quessir, they were either considered as one race, two cultures of one race, or two separate races.
** Wood elf: Also called copper elves and often confused with wild elves, wood elves were a populous subrace that lived simply in the forests.
** Wild elf: Also called green elves; feral, reclusive elves who scorned civilization and its trappings, preferring a wild existence close to nature.
* Drow: Also called dark elves. A dark-skinned race of elves. They can be further divided into lorendrow (who lived in the surface forests), aevendrow (who lived in the surface frozen north), and predominantly the udadrow, the most infamous and numerous ones who lived in the Underdark.
* Aquatic elf: An aquatic race of water-breathing elves.
* Avariel: A mostly extinct race of winged elves.
* Lythari: A rare and reclusive race of forest-dwelling elves who can transform into wolves.
* Astral elf: A race that was native to the Astral Plane, blessed with a divine spark of power from the plane.
* Snow elf: A rare and mostly isolated race of elves of the icy mountaintops.
====Mixed Elf Races====
* Half-elf: result of any non-elf (typically human) and elf mating, including half-drow, half-sea elf or the even rarer dwelf.
* Fey'ri: offspring of an elf and a half-fiend.
* Celadrin: result from the union of an elf and a celestial eladrin (usually firre).
* Draegloth: a half-dark elf, half-fiend created by a ritual mating between Lolth's ascending drow high priestess and a glabrezu
==History==
===Creation===
Legends told that the Tel-quessir were born out of the first divine blood shed by Corellon in the deity's battles against the god Gruumsh.
=== The First Elves ===
The elves created directly from Corellon were much like the god, and far more powerful than modern elves, as they retained their creator's innate ability for shapeshifting and change. As some of them earned Corellon's favor they became the first members of the elven pantheon, including the elf who would go on to become the Spider Queen, Lolth.Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (May 29, 2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter (Wizards of the Coast), pp 36-37. ISBN 978-0786966240.
===The Dawn Ages===
The Fey opened gates from Faerie to Toril circa , allowing the first elves to cross over and settle, as part of an effort to undermine the power of the dragons. The green elves continued to live contentedly as small, scattered tribes and worshiped the Faerie gods (rather than the then-unknown Seldarine). However, one tribe, the Ilythiiri, negotiated with the dragons and established a small southern kingdom based around their capital, Atorrnash, which stood as a glorious example of elven culture for millennia to come.
Circa , following the fall of Tintageer in the world of Faerie, a small band of gold elves led by Prince Durothil, together with a single silver elf, Sharlario Moonflower, searched for a new home. A divination showed them the world of Toril and the gold elf priestess Bonnalurie died to open a gate there that allowed the elven refugees of Tintageer through. They settled on a continent they named Faerûn, meaning "the One Land". They mixed with the existing green elves and gave rise to the sun elves, while the descendants of Sharlario Moonflower became known as the moon elves.
Elves reigned on Toril in relative peace until , when the sun elf nation of Aryvandaar invaded the dark elf and green elf nation of Miyeritar, starting the first of the five Crown Wars, which lasted for a total of 3000 years.
At the end of the Fourth Crown War, the dark elf Ilythiiri were banished to the Underdark circa , becoming the drow. Finally, the Fifth Crown War that followed resolved matters, ending the conflicts. The Tel-quessir remained at peace with each other (with, of course the exception of the drow).
The green elves suffered many defeats in the Crown Wars and by the end of the conflict had lost all of their former territory. Withdrawing into the wilderness, the green elves gradually diverged from the high elves. The green elves who remained in isolation became the wild elves and lost their taste for civilization and nation-building, becoming nomadic wanderers. Others became the first of the wood elves.
The wood elves, unlike the wild elves, continued to build civilizations, though on a smaller scale. In the eastern High Forest, the wood elves founded the kingdom of Eaerlann, a contemporary and ally of Netheril.
For many millennia, thousands of Tel-quessir, particularly moon elves and sun elves, left Faerûn for the isle of Evermeet in a long migration known as the Retreat. However, by 1374 DR most of the Tel-quessir who desired to leave had already done so, as remarked upon by Cambrizym of Candlekeep, and in fact, the Retreat began a gradual reversal, with many who had left or their children returned to the continent.
==Scholarship==
The human scholar Wosar Anion wrote a book about elves based on the studies conducted by the academic minds of Myth Drannor, entitled A Study of the Tel'Quessir, their Natural Talents, Societal Norms, and their Explanations.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
:;Adventures
::Storm King's Thunder
:;Novels
::Evermeet: Island of Elves • The Last Mythal
:;Video Games
::Icewind Dale series • Baldur's Gate series • Neverwinter Nights series • • Sword Coast Legends • Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
:;Comics 
::Honor Among Thieves: The Feast of the Moon
:;Board Games
::Dungeons & Dragons: Bedlam in Neverwinter
:;Card Games
::
===Further Reading===
* 
* 
===Gallery===
Elf1.png|An elf from 2 edition.
FemaleDemikindII.jpg|3-edition concept art showing a female human and other races with a height chart.
MaleDemikindII.jpg|3-edition concept art showing a male human and other races with a height chart.
Elf wizard.jpg|A wizardly elf.
Tel-quessir races - Steve Prescott.jpg|From left to right: a drow, a wild elf, a sun elf, a wood elf, and a moon elf.
===External Links===
===References===
===Connections===
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Category:Tel-quessir
Category:Races
Category:Fey
Category:Humanoids
Category:Creatures found on Radole
Category:Creatures found in Arborea
Category:Creatures found in Arvandor (layer)
Category:Creatures found in Arvandor
Category:Creatures found in the Feywild
Category:Creatures found in Alfheim
Category:Creatures found in Ysgard (layer)
Category:Creatures found in Ysgard