Elf

Most at home deep in the forest regions of Foundation, Elves shun large communities in favor of small cloisters.

## Vitals

Elves stand at an average height of 5'10" and weigh around 100 pounds. They live an average of 750 years, with extremely few living more than 1,000 years total. Elves have very slender builds, they are thin, light, and nimble. Elven hair comes in a wide variety of dull shades of colors including red, blue, green, orange, and brown; and skin of many shades of pale browns and greens. Elves are wild, suspicious, and instinctual in their demeanor, with morality aligned with the rules of nature and survival of those that have the acumen and will to do so.

## Attributes

### Might

Surviving the depths of the forests and the various plant and animal hazards that exist there is not a challenge that the weak typically thrive under. While the elves do make incredible use of their accuracy and skill with bows to ensure their survival against the challenges that exist in the wild forests, they have also learned how to utilize a variety of martial weapons in order to defend themselves in close range combat situations. Elves are average in might.

### Resolve

Exposure to the wide variety of poisons, toxins, and diseases that are commonplace in the forests that the elves have always lived in has bolstered their natural resilience to internal harm to a very high degree. The extensive number of predators that have preyed on elves since before their Arrival has permitted for only the most resilient of elves to survive over time. Given all this in their past, it should be no surprise that elves are above average in resolve.

### Finesse

Expertise with ranged weapons is required for an elf to survive in their natural habitat. There are far too many predators and threats in the wild and most of them have superior physical strength and toughness than the typical elf does. The only method that the elves have devised to combat these threats is to use bows and other ranges weaponry to strike fear in the hearts of these creatures, and this strategy has evolved over time into the elves having incredible hand-eye coordination. Elves have well above average finesse.

### Agility

Forests are strongly three-dimensional spaces with tall trees all around. Any race that wishes to survive the dangers native to these spaces must adapt their mindset around physical movement and mobility to include up and down along with the standard ideas of forward and backward, left and right. As a result of this adaptation, elves over time have trained themselves how to utilize the verticality of their environments to a high degree. However, since mobility is less important that accuracy to their primary survival strategy, elves are only slightly above average in agility.

### Intellect

Academic pursuit has never been a high priority for elves as a race. There have certainly been individuals that have excelled at their preferred intellectual pursuits and courses of study, but overall elves very rarely possess the desire or drive to succeed academically or to push their minds past the point of survival and instinctual based fields of knowledge. Due to the lack of necessity from their environments and natural curiosity, elves have well below average intellect.

### Senses

Many things hide in the dark corners of the forests that elves have traditionally favored as their homelands. It takes a high level of perception using all five senses in order to ensure that you are not ambushed unaware in these places. Even when you detect a potential predator, one must also learn how to interpret the creature's body language and vocalizations to determine if they will strike soon or are content to simply stalk at the present time. Elves have above average senses as a result of learning to thrive in these environments.

### Persona

When it comes to other elves and the wild animals and creatures of the forests they live in, elves are quite capable is speech and mannerisms. When other sentient races are brought into the mix however, there is a lot left to be desired. Elves are famous for their cautious natures and secrecy surrounding their beliefs and nature manipulation techniques, and as a result, members of most other races find it very hard to forge friendships with elves. Overall, elves have below average persona.

### Will

Elves are very spiritual people. Even though they have been separated from the Myst for over 2,000 years, the majority of their Divines are still seen often in the many forests of Foundation. This has resulted in elves never giving up their faith, and as a result their belief in the Myst even though they have been separated from it for so long. Many parts of elven life, but especially their regard for nature, are deeply steeped in and founded by their faith in the Myst. Elves have slightly above average will.

## Aspects

### Secretive

Elves tend to keep everything about their lives and culture very private. As a result of a lifetime of keeping secrets, they are naturally very skilled at obscuring your efforts at hiding the truth from others to the point that it is very hard for others to detect when they are hiding something at all. Others may see them as private or sheltered, but they will have a hard time distinguishing between an elf hiding the truth or just being shy.

### Survival

Elves are well-connected with the ebb and flow of the natural world around them. They know what plants and animals are safe to eat, how to find shelter from the elements in every type of climate and geography, and how to quickly detect the most likely sources of threat to their safety at any given time in a natural environment. They are most at home in the wild spaces of the realm.

### Hunting

Elves have learned how to stalk and attack their prey in an effective manner that reduces the threat of personal injury to as small a margin as possible. They are the masters of the food chain, with none but the keenest of predators matching their skill in hunting other animals and identifying the dangerous plants that can be found all throughout the realm. Elves and their allies never want for fresh meat in the wild, and even in some urban regions with enough wildlife present.

### Nature

Elves understand the natural world at such a depth that they could easily teach a series of classes on the natural world and its various processes to scientists and teach them several things they didn’t already know. This goes beyond trivial knowledge like knowing what can be eaten in the wild. They understand the core elements of nature that make everything from climates to geographies to the cycles of like work and persist in this realm.

### Primal

Elven instincts are very strong and unsophisticated. Etiquette is far from their minds at all times, replaced with the base instincts that are commonly shared by animals and monsters alike. Their personal survival is among the highest of their priorities at always and they are constantly watching their backs and aware of potential threats in their surroundings. An inattentive elf in the forests they are accustomed to living in is a dead elf, which is why their instincts evolved to be such an integral part of their mind set.

### Beasts

Elves are very knowledgeable about all types of animals, including monstrous ones, because of their upbringing living amongst them and their culture placing a great deal of emphasis on understanding and controlling those that can be controlled. Elves are extremely capable when it comes to understanding and controlling animals and monsters of all types, and when they can't be controlled, they can easily identify weak points to put them down should the need arise.

## Notable Members

Loremaster Talliso Engur of Antrel(Whisperstalkers Guild)

Pirate Captain Eleanor Whiplash of Jastilon (Fatal Ladies)

## Little Details

Elves are very secretive of their culture, and it takes a very long time for members of other races to fully earn their trust. Elves will band together with outsiders when their interests are intertwined, but will not remain in community with those outsiders unless they were able to prove while working together that they were worthy of the Elf's trust. This is partially due to their knowledge and practice of potent natural rituals that grant them a vast degree of control over their natural surroundings.

They prefer life in the wilds of nature, especially in forests and other areas with ample plant life over life in densely populated urban or barren areas. They do establish large-scale cities in the wilds, but they use their nature-bending rituals to shape the natural world around them into living spaces while also not harming the plants that they are shaping into homes and places of business.

The natural world is viewed with an elevated level of reverence, to the point where the more natural a place is, the more ideal it is. As a result, their settlements are built around the plants and animals that already reside there rather than building over these same natural elements.

Elves seek mutually beneficial relationships with the animals that live in the same spaces that their settlements are in. They never seek to diminish the primal parts of these animals, but rather find a way to help these animals achieve their most primal nature while also remaining within their good will. The strongest creatures living near Elven communities will even act as a natural protector for the Elves against their enemies in some cases. Elves have access to special, rituals that allow them to speak to plant and animal life to further grant them the ability to merge into the natural order of life rather than subverting it to their personal needs.

They seek out others that would inflict harm on the natural order the land in a significant way and will seek to disrupt such actions by any means necessary, although full out war is seen as a last option for desperate situations in most cases.

Elven communities are very relaxed and are rarely in a hurry due to their elongated lifespans and relationship with nature. They have mastered cultivating the land to grow plentiful crops and other resources to ensure that they are never reliant on others for their goods while also not damaging the land by overharvesting. They do not use this food to provide for the animals that live near them, for this would deaden these creature's natural instincts to hunt for themselves.

Elves are expert hunters in all environments that conduct hunts in their natural environments, killing any creature unable to defend itself and accepting their own loses when they target a creature beyond their capability. Only particularly strong or clever creatures will survive for long near an Elven settlement, lesser creatures will be hunted to extinction rather quickly by the elves unless they adapt to the hunting style of that Elven tribe or migrate beyond the elves hunting grounds.

Elves are tall and slim of build, making them very graceful and agile but also quite fragile physically. Elves can live to a surplus of 1,000 years in ideal circumstances, but the vast majority live between 600 and 750 years before dying of natural causes. When an Elf dies, their body merges with the ground and turns into a tree in a short period of time. One of the most offensive things that can be done in this culture is to leave an Elf corpse in a place without dirty which will cause this new tree to die.