High Elves

**The Elves** are race of forest dwelling, long lived, artistic, and typically peaceful folk. They primarily reside in the Eternal Forest on the Northern Continent, and the Emerald Forest on the Southern Continent.

## Race

### The Following is an excerpt from "Corona's Guide to the Northern Continent"

"The Peoples of the Eternal Forest;

The Elven Folk

 Not to sound biased, but the greatest
nation on the continent is not the magical-spired nation of the warrior-mages Ismere, nor is it the vast and wealthy empire of the Dwarven folk, but the ancient and peaceful kingdom of the elves. These peoples have lived in harmony with the world for eons and are far more advanced in the arcane than any of the local humans.

 Residing in the 'eternal forest' to the north east of the continent, they have a greater wealth than Dwarves, more magic than humans, and live more in tune with nature than the Kadali."

## Ecology

High Elves typically stand slightly taller than a Human, ranging from 6' to 7' with males tending to be on average 5" taller than females. High Elves tend to have a more slight frame than humans, tending toward lithe or svelte builds typically. That is not to say it is impossible to see a bigger elf, they can come in all shapes and varieties, but their body types tend to thinner than humans on average.

Their ears are pointed and much longer than a human's ear, this however varies on an individual basis. Typically a High Elf ear is around 7" long and has a slight curve coming to a fine point. Elves tend to have some level of muscle control over them, as they tend to be more expressive than human ears.

 The Elves are a very long lived race, it is not uncommon for community elders to be five or more centuries old. It is recorded that some of their most aged members have reached seven centuries. They tend to develop from children to teens in roughly forty years time, then from age forty to one hundred they would be considered equivalent to a teenager or young adult, finally coming of age at one century.

 High Elves tend to have few offspring, accounting for a lack of need for population growth, as well as the extremely long gestation of young, and the extreme amount of time taken to reach adulthood. Populations grow at around 0.2% per year, making them easily one of the slowest growing groups on Aedron. (Perhaps only outstripping the Serpentes, who currently sit at 0% growth)

## History

Their race's history date back to a time long before the rise of humanity. In the Age of Dragons they spread across the world with advanced magics known as the Litho-Gates. Elves can be found in almost every corner of the world, and are widely accepted due to their peaceful nature.

In a time far before mankind had stretched across the land, the Elves were content living their insular lives in the great forests of the world. They spent their time creating works of art, studying magic, and advancing their knowledge of as many things that they could.

Early on in their time, they were accosted by That Which Hungers, and a population of them was taken and their resulting offspring became the Dark Elves. This interaction pushed the High Elves to take more precaution against outsiders, and caused them to become more focused on national defense and martial training. To this day, nearly all High Elves are proficient with a few specific weapons, including the Longbow, at it became part of their cultural heritage to train their youth in self-defense.

The Elves have since struck peaceful relations with nearly all of their neighbors. They tend to be accepting of Humans, wary of Dwarves due to their tendency to clear-cut forests for forge-fuel, and friendly with the Beast-Races due to their connection with nature. A notable exception is the High Elves interaction with the Changelings. Finding their abilities to mimic and pass as elves an abomination, and over time the High Elves drove the Changelings from the forest, killing many.

In the south, the High Elves came into conflict with an expanding Protean Empire, and after negotiations decided that it wouldn't be worth spilling elven blood, and signed a treaty forbidding either party from crossing the borders of the Emerald Forest. This lead to the High Elves becoming more insular, limiting their trade with others, and over the span of about eight centuries guaranteed peace for the Elves. Now the Protean Empire is in recession, and the Elves no longer feel pressure to remain within their forests, causing an out-flux of 'young' elves who wish to see the wider world.

## Society

The Elves almost entirely venerate the deity Eden, and were the first to teach humans of her worship. The first human Druids came from these teachings.

Elves tend to favor use of the longbow for large scale combat, keeping themselves safely away from most enemies while raining accurate missile fire on them. They developed their love of archery after were first attacked by That-Which-Hungers in their earliest history. To this day, archery training is a practically mandatory part of growing up in elven society.

Over time, due to their long lives, and isolated status, High Elves tend to focus on the finer details of life, and oftentimes this can lead to the creation of divides within their own society. Most notably was the creation of wide class divisions within their race that have remained to the modern age. It is not uncommon to see an Elven settlement strictly divided by economic class, complete with city tiers or walls dividing the haves and have-nots. Though the Elves do not have true slavery in their society, it does seem to employ a great deal of less fortunate elves as servants to those of higher status.

## Territory

The High Elves tend to live in one of two greater spheres of control, in the north, the Eternal Forest, and in the south, The Emerald Forest. These two groups have the faintest of relations with each other, and rarely travel between them, preferring to stay insulated from the world, and their distant cousins.

Within those two great forests, the High Elves dominate culture and politics over their less numerous and smaller cousins the Wood Elves. In the case of the Emerald forest, the Wood Elves tend to live in ghetto's within High Elves cities, or in separate communities located in the deeper woods to the west of the forest. The more cosmopolitan High Elves are quite content keeping their 'less cultured' cousins at arms length.

The Forests are defended by a corps of highly trained and dangerous rangers and spell casters who know their lands down to the fine detail. Typically interlopers are just captured alive and kicked back out of the forest, but repeated or particularly dangerous cases are exiled from their lands with a geas spell.

## Cities

High Elves tend to favor residing in great cities within the forest.

The largest and grandest of the High Elf cities in the Emerald Forest is Orineska, the Glorious City of Spires, located in the heart of the forest. It is a place that few non-elves are allowed to visit.

On the northern Edge of the forest is Megilamon, a smaller city that is important for trade with the outside world.

To the northeast is the smaller city of Prae'si'dium, a city built on a rising cliff and separated into districts based on economic class.

## Governance

Elven society tends to favor democracy over any kind of direct ruler-ship, and over time the forests have adopted a sort of republic-style government structure. Each city is self-governed with basically no central authority in times of peace. During a crisis, however, the representative bodies of the cities would have a moot and determine a single executive to lead during the crisis.

## Cousins

The Elves are cousin to the Dark Elves, a whom they believe to be a twisted version of themselves, who embraced darkness and the worship of evil. They now reside deep underground.

The Wood Elves are their closest neighbors and allies to the High Elves. Though that does not mean they 'like' each other overmuch. Wood elves tend to be 'savage' to the eyes of the High Elves, and keeping them at arms length has suited the High Elves just fine.