Elves

**Size:** 4’ – 5’ generally, however there is the odd exception.

**Weight:** 100-140 lbs, generally.

**Average Lifespan:**

If having lived exclusively inside of the walls around 200 years is around average, due to the poor hygiene and living conditions imposed on the general elf. Those who would have ventured from beyond the wall to live within the city, or have been captured could make it to around the age of 300, where as a wild elf who still lived in the ways of the original Caraduil elf would reach between 400 and 500 years. Of course there are exceptions to this, as a Rookery elf would have a much harder life and less access to nutrient dense food than say a Lovelace elf. Elves suffer no infirmity with age. This is to be used as a general guide, not a hard and fast ruling.

**Notable Qualities:**

* Elves do not sleep, but they must rest in a meditative state known among the wild elves of Caraduil as “reverie”, which is as restful as true sleep but leaves them aware of their surroundings. It is similar to a trace like state.
* Their focus is improved against enchantments, born from generations of hunters.
* Their eyes and ears are more attuned to their environment than that of the humans, again due to the lineage of hunters.
* Elves are far slower to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Whether this is due to a racial heritage, or simply the culture which they now find their self in is uncertain.
* Even in their gaunt and malnourished state, there is an unearthly grace about them, a guilty pleasure for many humans through an attraction to their hauntingly beautiful features.
* Elves appear often androgynous in physicality, with the males holding similar striking features as the females.
* Elves tend to be agile, dexterous creatures.

**Age of Maturity:**

Elves can start to be considered young adults around the age of 90, although as with humans, maturity rates can differ and some can take as long as age 125 to reach maturity. Anything from 175, to 225 could be considered as middle age to a natural elf, however in Blacksteel, an elf of this age would be considered old due to the average age of death. An elder for wild elves is anything beyond 300 years old. Their biological and physical appearance ages in a very similar fashion to that of the humans. However, as years draw by, they do not dramatically age in appearance during the later years when their lifespan comes to a close. The most obvious change of appearance being the colour of their hair, alternatively greying or darkening. Most elves remain healthy and full of life up until their death, which, if age related can be anywhere between two and five centuries old.

**Appearance:**

Pure Elves tend to be pale-skinned and dark haired with deep green eyes, although, this is not a given for many. The colour of hair would tend to be brown or black, however copper red or blonde are a possible hair colours, but much rarer. Their eyes are commonly emerald green, but infrequently they can have dark brown. They are naturally fair and beautiful, handsome, and have pointed ears and no body hair expect for eyebrows, eyelashes and the hair of their head.

**Original Religion:**

In the eyes of the elves, the Ancients and nature were synonymous. They were omnipresent, they were the deer, the trees, the trickling streams to the ants that wandered in and out of the grooves upon the tree bark. There were no favoured folk, or favoured sons, all were favoured for all were them, and they were all, all that is, that was and ever will be. There was no command of blood shed at Grand Tournaments made in structures of man, there was no pledging your physical affection and lust to only one other beneath the Gods Wood. The following of the Ancients was a way of life more than a dogma, or traditions. It was ensuring that you didn’t over hunt for entertainment or pleasure, you didn’t over eat through boredom. You didn’t bleed the rivers dry of fish, or pull the minerals from the earth to craft your swords and walls. What you required, they would give. Branches and disused components of nature would be left loose and accessible to dry and fashion your bows and arrows, or use the stone for small structures. The earth was never truly disturbed for anything. There was no need to hack away at the Gods Oaks until they fell and devastated whatever bed of terrain caught their weight. Harmony was the key focus.

**General Culture:**

The wild elves of Caraduil were often peaceful, joyful creatures. Living happily beneath the gaze of the Ancient’s, they would hunt and kill only when necessary, holding a firm affinity with their environment and the creatures that lived within. They ate enough to sustain their self and did not gorge for pleasure unlike humans. Instead they found entertainment through simple joys such as dancing, singing, footraces or contests of skill. Their community, although viewed by many Blacksteelians as primitive because they did not live in houses, was far more advanced in other ways. They were capable of using magic to benefit their self and their surrounding, learning to command the elements and nature itself through speaking the divine language of the Ancients. It was taught that magic of darker origins was forbidden for good reason, and it was taught to be feared from a young age. Their focus was always on that of living in harmony with nature, as opposed to attempting to dominate it.

The wild elves of Caraduil lived in concealed villages united under a gerontocratic hierarchy composed of a village council, consisting of the most distinguished families’ eldest members of which, at the time of the first landing of man, there were five. The five leaders played no small part in the village politics, each of them druids of prestige within their community, and highly influential, serving as the webbing which bound each and every elf together in the unity of kinship.

Due to the nature of these elves and their focus on minimal impact on their environment, they did not wander like animals and their architecture reflected such. Frequently their home was made of loose natural stone, but most were known to do without even these basic creature comforts, living in the limbs of the mighty Gods Oak or sheltered caves, rejecting furniture or any kind of possessions they couldn’t carry with them. The villages resembled their surroundings closely, so much so that many a Blacksteel exploration party walked straight through without even noticing it.

They were free spirits in every sense of the word, holding a tight bond to each other. Compassion was always held above the virtue of strength. Far more concerned with maintaining their environment than expanding their homes. Jealousy was an emotion they were not aware existed, and their love was so strong that murder was an abstract concept which wasn’t dared thought of. They had no exclusive partners, no wives or claims of ownership. They knew that nothing can truly be owned, when all were destined to eventually experience “eternal reverie”. Death. Bodies would drop to the forest canvas, and the ground which you had taken from to sustain yourself, would take back that which you had borrowed. The wolves, the flies, the maggots, the beetles and all other beings who came for the carrion buffet would feed from you, as you had fed from them. Malice, hatred, envy and spite and all other horrors of the emotional spectrum simply were not experienced, or known of, until the humans came.

With the large ships and smaller rowing boats which marred the idyllic sunset reflected on the waves, they brought men with hairs upon their arms and bodies, ale, projectile phlegm, hatred, greed, jealousy, murder, theft and rape of mind, body, soul and soil. To this day, the elven culture is a fractured visage of it’s former self. These noble creatures brought down to their knees and forced to live in the filth and waste of whatever little the humans begrudgingly give them. They have been seduced and allured by the trappings of man. Now bare feet on the soft ground and hair flailing in the wind as they gallop through the wild and beautiful land of Caraduil, has been exchanged for sitting hunched, with gnarled features, scouring the ground for a fallen thumb. As with the corruption that man often brings, it doesn’t appear likely that the effect will be reversing any time soon.

The hidden forest village of Caraduil is no more after the fateful night that the humans of camp black steel eventually discovered it, then crept in to maim, slay and capture all that they could. There are rumours of elves that escaped Caraduil as children and survive to this day, however, if there is any truth in this it is likely to be the children of the children, given this occurred six hundred years ago, and the Elven life span is between four and five centuries.

Due to the manner in which they had lived, the concept of metalwork was a foreign concept, holding no interest for many elves even to do this day. However, the elves did appear to often be the finest carpenters and stoneworkers in Blacksteel, masters in the crafting of bows and arrows as well as leather tanning, if only they would be allowed to be merchants. It was no secret that the fletchers in the Gilded Drake had attempted to emulate the elven arrow design, and legend has it that one of the first relatives to be born in Blacksteel of the current day fletcher had actually served as a Templar who had beaten elves in effort to gain the carefully guarded crafting secret. There was still a contrast when looking between an arrow created by the Gilded Drake fletcher and an arrow genuinely crafted by elven hand. Original casts of their leather armour is still used by rangers to this day, doubling as camouflage.

**Elven Ability Adjustments:** -2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int +2 Cha.

**Favored Class (Witch):** A multiclass elf's witch class does not count when determining whether he or she suffers an XP penalty for multiclassing.

**Languages Automatically Known:** Elven.

**Special Abilities:**

* Sleeplessness: Immune to spells and effects of the 'Sleep' subtype.
* Hardiness vs. Enchantments: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting spells.
* Bonus Proficiencies (Longsword, Rapier, Shortbow, Longbow)
* Skill Affinity (Listen): +2 racial bonus to Listen checks.
* Skill Affinity (Search): +2 racial bonus to Search checks.
* Skill Affinity (Spot): +2 racial bonus to Spot checks.
* Keen Senses: Elves make active Search checks automatically and with no movement penalties.
* Low-Light Vision: Allows them to see better than normal in the dark.
* Skill Affinity (Concentration): +2 racial bonus to Concentration checks.
* Skill Deficency (Discipline): -2 racial penalty to Discipline checks.