Elves

Elves are a species of thin, lithe natural magicians. Long ago the Elves were the dominant species on the planet, but those times weren't to last, and after brutal wars between the factions they were reduced to a single domain.

The Ancient Elves were divided into four empires, the technologically advanced Augury, the theologically advanced An Tusail, the magically advanced Eolas, and the soul-magic powered Winter Kingdom. However, after a long period of war, the Elves were reduced in number, left with only Eolas, now known as the Elven Domains.

Religiously, Elves follow the Gods of Elhar, which is a series of pantheons that each sub-race follows. Elhar requires you to follow two gods, a local god to your home and a Titan, or body-god.

## History

### Unknown

Elves are believed to have been born from the unity of the people of the Feywilds and the Ancients, who fled to the feywilds for safety during the God Wars. As such, many Elves view themselves as the rightful heirs of the planet, chosen by the gods, and are very full of themselves.

Once the God Wars ended, eventually these Elves settled back into the world.

### Dragon Era

Elven society returned to the world in the Southern Continents during the Dragon Era, where the natural conditions largely sheltered them from the attacks of the dragons. This civilization grew until they reached a point where they could claim lands from the dragons, and began spreading north in the hopes of contacting other Descendants of the Ancients, instead finding Dragons.

The tribes who learned to live with the Dragons became the Dragonborn, while those who did not became the High Elves, Augur Elves, and others.

### Elven Era

Once the Dragon Era came to a close, the Elves became the dominant force on the planet. Their gods were worshipped in all corners, and spread wild in the abundance of belief and believers of the era.

The Elves formed massive, continent-spanning civilizations, dedicated to magic, luxury, magitek, and comfort, known as the Three Kingdoms. While the High Elves comforted themselves by using Human servants and slaves, the Augur Elves created sentient machines known as the Forged, and the Eladrin used magical servants.

During this time, Drow were shunned and treated as second-class, many Elves believed them to be corrupted and evil.

### Long Night Era

The era of the Three Kingdoms was not to last. The Elves were undone by their hubris and their prejudice, as their cousins the Drow would form a fourth Kingdom, the Winter Kingdom.

In the wars that followed, the entire lands of the Augury would fall- swallowed by Miasma created by the magitek they so prided themselves on, and the remaining Elves would lose most of their homes and their numbers. Although Elves would fight alongside the others, it was out of desperation more than equality.

### Dawn Era

Once the Winter King was defeated, many of the Elves tried to return to the lives they had once lived, while those of the Augury rejected their paths and became known as the Wood Elves, dedicated to returning to the ancient ways of living with nature as penance.

Although at first the Elves were able to keep control of the societies of Human and Dwarf, eventually their control began to crumble as those other societies overtook them, culminating in the Seven Month War, the first time a Human faction forced the Elves into an unconditional surrender.

## Physiology and Reproduction

Elves have a humanoid-typical reproductive system and frame that tend to vary in size according to race. Elves are in reproductive group Gamma, and so Half Elves are quite common, indeed even qualifying for their own species page.

## Races

### High Elf

The High Elves are the Elves found in the Elven Domains. Originally, the High Elves were found primarily in Eòlas, but they have become the most well-known and dominant subspecies of Elf.

High Elves comport themselves with a sense of dignity that borders on snobbery, at times, and many of the ones from the Domains view themselves as distinctly superior due to their society being the last surviving of the Ancient Elves in the northern continents.

High Elves look like pointy-eared humans, with similar skin and hair colourations and very fine, delicate features.

They prefer to wear their hair long, and enjoy creating fine beads and weaving them into elaborate hair styles.

### Wood Elf

Wood Elves were once known as Augur Elves, they ruled over the Augury and controlled it's burgeoning magitek empire. After the fall of their empire, the survivors who didn't join with another society renounced technology.

Wood Elves from the Elven Enclave often use body and face paint to create beautiful and elaborate art on their skin, depicting trees or scenes that are important to their heart at that time.

Their facial features are said to slightly resemble dear, and they have petite frames, rarely reaching more than 5'7".

### Eladrin

The "Elder Elves", said to be the first of the Elven species. Hailing from the southern continents and An Tusail, the Eladrin trace their roots back to the initial crossing of the Ancients and the species of the Feywild.

Eladrin in the northern continents are commonly descendants of those who were unable to get south before the Equatorial Barrier was raised, and so were forced to remain in the north. There are very few of them.

Eladrin have incredibly long, pointed ears, tend to be about the height of a tall human and have angular, fey-esque faces with single-coloured eyes being quite common.

Their skin tends towards sunshiney yellows and deep, rich, blues and blacks.

### Drow

Drow are known as the Dark Elves. Long ago they dwelled underground, worshipping dark gods, but they were eventually driven to the surface, where their worship led to them being greatly discriminated against.

The Elhar pantheon of the Drow was filled with evil gods. The Drow felt the greatest reverence should be paid to the ones they fear the most, however this led to many believing that they supported the actions of evil gods, and a great deal of discrimination resulted. During the Elven Era, they were often oppressed and reduced to at best a slave-class, seen as worse than even the humans, for the Drow *chose* to follow dark gods. Not helping this was a sensitivity to sunlight, which caused them to live nocturnal lives.

In the late Elven Era, the Drow rebelled against their oppression, founding the Winter Kingdom under a charismatic ruler who would wage a war of vengeance. Sadly, when the Winter Kingdom became corrupted through war, their reputation became even worse, with many fearing them as being irredeemably evil.

Drow skin tends to be shades of dark to light blue or purple, occasionally silver, and their hair and eyes are in similar shades.

## Elves and Other Races

Elves are known, especially High Elves and Eladrin, for a haughty and superior attitude.

Drow are feared by many species, and resented and shunned more than ever due to their history as well as the traditional bigotry.