Elf

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## Dark Elf (Drow)

The **dark elves,** or better known as **drow,** are descendants of the first elves; the sylvan elves. Many are devious, sly, and cunning, and were it not for those who have departed from their ancestry, they would be universally reviled. Having been banished from their home in the Fey, the drow built their civilizations in the recesses of the world, staking their claim in the realms of the Evershadow, the Elemental Plane of Darkness, and even the mortal world as thieves, spies, and zealous warriors. Many dark elves have placed their faith in the Demon Lady Erroth, who they call the Spider Queen or the Black Baroness, and their worship of her has created a matriarchal hierarchy within drow society, modeled after the dimorphism of spiders.

Living in the shadows, drow are renowned for their stealth, agility, and connection to the dark arts. Many see the dark elves as inherently evil, and while their unseelie Fey ancestors imparted them with both a gift and curse that would further the notion, most drow break free from that mold, sometimes even renouncing their heritage to make a better name for their people.

### Appearance

Drow are slender, with skin that resembles polished obsidian, usually deep purples and blues, and stark white or pale yellow hair. Dark elves commonly have very pale eyes (so pale as to be mistaken for white) in shades of pale lilac, silver, pink, and blue, though some drow also have piercing red eyes. They are often shorter and thinner than most other elves, and their features are sometimes more pronounced and angled. Some dark elves tattoo themselves with special silvery inks, either to denote their caste, or to display worship of the Black Baroness.

Dark elves frequently wear clothes of black and crimson, often detailed with silvery cobweb designs. Drow armor also incorporates some of these designs, sometimes forging their metal to look chitinous, such as that of a spider. The drow are also renowned for their ancient techniques in crafting Shadoweave, which is widely incorporated into their armor and even their clothing.

## Fey Elf (Eladrin)

* ***Ability Scores.*** Dex +2, Cha +1
* ***Size.*** Medium. Eladrin range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds.
* ***Speed.*** 30 feet.
* ***Age.*** As true fey beings, eladrin do not age, and often look down on other elf-kind, who see their aging process as a deterioration brought on by their departure from the Fey.
* ***Alignment.*** While never evil, the stances of eladrin change with the flow of the seasons, with each representing law and chaos, and good and neutrality on varying levels.
* ***Fey.*** Your creature type is fey, rather than humanoid.
* ***Superior*** ***Darkvision.*** Accustomed to the eternal twilight of the Fey, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
* ***Keen Senses.*** You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
* ***Fey Ancestry.*** You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
* ***Trance.*** Eladrin don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such a meditation is "trance.") While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
* ***Shifting Seasons.***  At the end of each long rest, you can align yourself with the magic of one season. Doing so allows you to cast a certain cantrip and your alignment changes to match the season as shown in the list below. When you align yourself with a season's magic, you lose the cantrip associated with the previous season and gain the cantrip associated with the new season. Your spellcasting ability for these cantrips is Intelligence or Charisma, whichever is higher.
	+ ***Autumn.*** Your Shifting Seasons cantrip is *friends,* and your alignment becomes lawful good.
	+ ***Winter.*** Your Shifting Seasons cantrip is *chill touch,* and your alignment becomes chaotic neutral.
	+ ***Spring.*** Your Shifting Seasons cantrip is *minor illusion,* and your alignment becomes lawful neutral.
	+ ***Summer.*** Your Shifting Seasons cantrip is *fire bolt,* and your alignment becomes chaotic good.
* ***Fey Step.*** As a bonus action, you can magically teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. Once you use this trait, you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest. When you reach 3rd level, your Fey Step gains an additional effect based on your aligned season; if the effect requires a saving throw, the DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier:
	+ ***Autumn.*** Immediately after you use your Fey Step, up to two creatures of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for 1 minute, or until you or your companions deal any damage to it.
	+ ***Winter.*** When you use your Fey Step, one creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of you before you teleport must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
	+ ***Spring.*** When you use your Fey Step, you can touch one willing creature within 5 feet of you. That creature then teleports instead of you, appearing in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you.
	+ ***Summer.*** Immediately after you use your Fey Step, each creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of you takes fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 damage).
* ***Language.*** You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Sylvan.

## High Elf

The **High Elves** have a rich history in Elideria. Created by the gods as a testament to perfection, and naturally attuned to the rawest forms of arcane magic, their lives are shrouded in a blissful chaos. Despite their natural beauty and talents that may slight to them being compassionate, high elves are racial elitists, and are fully willing to outcast a member of their own society that even dares to take interest in the meddling of other races. High elves that integrate themselves with humans often bear half-elven offspring, who are looked down upon with great disgust by pure high elven civilizations.

### Fearful Elitists

A commonly known and accepted fact is that the high elves are racial elitists, seeing themselves as perfection incarnate, and that no other race can possibly take their place. Underneath this cocky and narcissistic attitude rests a great fear that the high elves suppress; failure, and the idea that they may not be as perfect as they see themselves. As high elves live nearly immortal lives, their written history is rich with the tragic failings of their ancestors, all from various backgrounds. Archmages incinerated by their failed teachings of corrupted students, a ranger whose ignorant claims to nature set his homeland upon the fury of a prowling dragon, a brave warrior faces off against an ancient evil by themselves only to be killed by their own hubris, and a well-known scholar whose ignorance of eldritch texts turned him down a path of blind worship to a greater being.

These historical failures of champions plague the high elves, and the extent of their failings--the vast marks they have left on the mortal world--paint a grim picture that perfection may never truly exist, and that the high elves are doomed to be the bringers of torment and misery for all eternity. High elves live with the constant memory of their kin's wrongdoings and, despite their elitism, silently apologize to other races for this tainted legacy that they have bestowed upon others.

## Wood Elf

The **Wood Elves** are protectors of the wilderness, and they hold a natural connection to the Fey, which is said to have been their home before they were forced into Elideria through decades of war in generations gone. Wood elves have a long and complicated history in a world dominated by their close kin, the high elves, as the two come from completely separate backgrounds. Whereas the high elves live in decadence and self-absorption, the wood elves have always lived as selfless scavengers and hunters, forced to adapt and brave the hostile wilderness of the Fey, and eventually, Elideria itself.

### Refugees of War

Generations past, the wood elves were originally the sylvan elves, natives to the Fey, and the ancestors to the high elves. During this time, they lived in harmony and were protectors and rangers of the sprawling Fey wilds, undisturbed by the political conflict between the seelie and unseelie Fey. During what is known as the Feywar, an event that shook Fey society, the sylvan elves were caught in the middle, existing neither as seelie or unseelie. Because of this conflict, half of their people were corrupted by the darkness of the unseelie, becoming the first dark elves, or drow. The remaining sylvan elves reluctantly--and regrettably--joined the side of the seelie Fey to fight back against the corruption of their brethren and to protect their woodland homes.

In the midst of the war, cornered by the drow, some of the sylvan elves fled to the mortal realm, Elideria, to escape from the conflict. Generations later, still sworn to protect the forests, the sylvan elves shed most of their Fey heritage, having lost most of the magical connection to their home world, and so they became the first wood elves, now devoted to serve Elideria in the face of evil, not wanting others to fall into the hands of corruption that their own brothers and sisters had fallen into in a time immemorial.