Royal Elf

### **Physical description:**

Royal Elves are bipedal
hominids which share most of their physical characteristics with
their Imperial counterpart, being physically quite similar to dwarves
and gnomes and eerily similar to the Terrans, who for a long time had
legends about elves. Royal Elves are generally a bit shorter than
humans and significantly lighter. Elven ears are pointed, in the case
of Royal elves this point generally goes sideways rather than upward.
Royal elves eyes go from light red or purple to dark red and purple,
with the occasional brownish-red eyes. Unlike most other species, the
sclera of Royal elves is silverish in hue rather than white, which is
sometimes disturbing to watchers that are unused to this. Similar to
Imperial elves, Royal elves only really have body hair on the top of
their head, colour generally ranging from light brown to jet black.
Sexual dimorphism is more significant amongst Royal Elves than
Imperial elves, with women generally exhibiting larger breasts and
slimmer hips then males, similar to typical Terran, Baal'Ken or
So'Dar specimens. Males also exhibit stronger upper body musculature,
which makes identification of the sex of the person easier for the
untrained then amongst Imperial Elves. Fashion has remained more or
less the same within the Realm since the Exodus, with clothing being
made of leather and weaved mesh, keeping in earth tones of brown and
green.

### **Society:**

The United Elven Realms
is an ever shifting political body centralized around a council of
High Kings which rule over multiple smaller realm which are allied
together in resistance against the Elven Star Empire. This feudal
structure necessitates the High Kings to name various earls, barons,
dukes and nobles to run the various planets under their care, each
maintaining their own military force. While centralized military
tactics and theories are used by the United Elven Fleet, each planet
often goes out of its way to gain glory for itself in battle. The
vast majority of the population of the Realms are part of the
military from the time they come of age to their death, usually
attempting to get glory and honor in battle. The Realm relies heavily
on imports from the Hu syndicates to maintain their need for food and
other biomaterials, while dwarven clanholds are contracted to build
the vast majority of their military equipment. The civilian
population lives to serve the warrior caste, acting as barristers,
teachers, advisors and traders.

 Royal elves are polygamous in nature,
mainly due to the odd fact that there is roughly 60% of females
amongst the births in the various realms. Marriage laws are very
stringent, forcing the husband to be financially capable of providing
for his family before he can take a second wife. The odd polyandrous
marriage occurs as well when the woman in the couple is the higher of
the two in the political realm. Natural death have been, well,
natural throughout the history of the United Elven Realms, with the
average Royal elf expecting to live anywhere between 500-700 years.
Inheritance is based on the rights of primogeniture, with the first
adult child inheriting the largest part of the parent estate. This
does cause some issues when multiple child were born at more or less
the same time due to polygamous relations.

 Elven cuisine is extremely sweet, but
Royal elves much prefer strong alcohol to accompany their meals
rather than wine or mead. Terran alcohol like whiskey and vodka have
begun to be imported in huge quantity by the Realms, even if they is
supposed to be a blockade on all Imperial client state trade.

### **Relations:**

The hatred between the
Imperial elves and the Royal elves dates back to the Exodus. For
close to 3000 years, the war between the two elven factions has been
at the core of most of the political and military landscape of the
Known Universe. Many Royals still do not forgive their Imperial
brethren for having taken the side of the Faelords in the past.

 While the Star Empire has generally
been more “tolerant” of the Protectorates, the United Realms have
often clashed with the allied alien races as a mean to train or seek
glory for their troops. This generally allowed the Empire to keep
their frontier intact even though the United Realm has a much larger,
well-trained military force overall. The United Realm took the
Baal'Ken under their wing recently as a Client State, something which
they hadn't done quite often in the past with other non-Elven races,
mainly due to the Baal'Ken's ferocity in combat and the fact they had
almost driven off the Protectorates on their own. This did sour the
relation between the Realms and the Protectorates even more, even
apparently making the Hu Syndicates rather crossed, as they
significantly lowered their exports in recent years.

### **Adventurers:**

 The most common type of adventurous
Royal elf would be a lower noble in search of glory, honor and
wealth, wanting to establish their name within their local power
structure. Quite a few Royals of the lower caste also become
mercenaries in hope that they could be recognize by their superior
and given a knightly title as well. Non-military Royal elves
sometimes to evade this society as well, trying to advance their own
enterprise without becoming part of the cogs of the Elven nation.

## Standard Racial traits:

**Size and Type:** Royal
Elves are medium humanoid with the Faeborn sub-type.

**Ability score modifier:** Royal
Elves are agile and very well-spoken, but they are physically weaker
than many other races. They gain +2 to their Dexterity and Charisma,
but a -2 to their Constitution.

**Hit Points:** Royal Elves
know how to endure even though they are somewhat frailer than some,
starting the game with 4 Racial HP.

**Keen senses:** Elves gain a
+2 to all Perception checks that relate to hearing or eyesight. They
also have Low Light vision.

**Stalker:** Royal Elves move
through Difficult terrain in wooded area as if it was normal terrain.
In addition, if their Dexterity is 13 or more, they can move in any
Difficult terrain as if it was normal terrain.

**Royal Immunities:** Royal
Elves are immune to magical charm and receive a +2 Racial bonus
against Transmutation spell or effects.