Elves

Elves, Ur'Daan in most elven dialects, are a common, perhaps the third most common, people in Illlria. They have traditions as old as dwarves, though their lives are shorter than humans, often capping out at about 60 years. Where humans took to the fields, and dwarves took to the hills and mountains, Ur'Daan took their forests. No matter the nation, or the climate around them, even in frozen tundras or burning deserts, elves seem to have found a way to live in the heart of forests.

## Lore

Ur'Daan are, in some ways, opposite Dwarves. Where Dwarves maintain their ancient traditions due to old populations which record information very well, Elves maintain theirs through generations, and generations, small armies of storytellers and lorespeakers. They do keep records, as most others do, but these records take a back seat to oral tradition. Most records kept in physical form are more a matter of opulence; A tree grown to be in the shape of a hero with their story carved into the bark. Icerock carved with figures and symbols to tell the story of a war or great battle.

## Ur'Daan Kingdoms

There are five known Elven Kingdoms, though a primarily elven empire ruled over most of the world only 2000 years ago. This empire perhaps rules for several thousand years, at least in some areas, though it was plagued by internal conflict, and was probably at war, with constantly-shifting control and borders. This old kingdom, The Empire of Pink Blossoms and Beautiful People, or A'Tarra'da'RaiWai'Fada'ka'Barra'Daan in elven (Ur'Dal), instituted various clan-rules around the world, and planted cherry blossom trees as a sign of their rule, which still decorate most of the world today.

The five Ur'Daan Kingdoms are likely some of the clans who remained and continued after the fall of A'Ta'RaiWa'Fada, with the Ruby Elder Grove (RaiGand'Nel'FadaDas) and the Frozen Forest of Silver Lakes (JaWa'FaraDas'da'Arga'JaGand) both explicitly clans from that empire. It is thought that the other three kingdoms, the Forest of Eternal Trees and Green Water (FaraDas'da'Nelna'Fara'ka'DaiGrai'Ja), the Plains of Black Wind and High Tides (saFaraDal'da'Bai'Valta'ka'DevaSka'JaVata), and the Stone Jungle of Blue Ice and Death (Gand'FaraBata'da'Dai'JaWa'ka'Batu) are also descended from these clans, but perhaps revolted or were overthrown through internal struggle afterwards.

The Forest of Eternal Trees and Green Water (FaraDas'da'Nelna'Fara'ka'DaiGrai'Ja) is surrounded by human kingdoms, whom call it Eratasia. It is surprisingly secular, led by three queens and held together through monthly conclaves and 20% of the country being directly involved with government. It is the most forest-y elven kingdom, with very little emphasis on cities and stonework, favouring low-volume and high-quality metalwork and living in forest cities with few traditional buildings.

The Frozen Forest of Silver Lakes (JaWa'FaraDas'da'Arga'JaGand), which most humans call Kalthira (The name of it's ruling clan), though it's most prominent neighbor, Nordint, respects it through the name Faradal Argos, something like "The Forest of Silver." Though it is an elven kingdom ruled by the Kalthira clan, it has large minorities of human and Beastmen, many of whom are reptilian or aquatic and crossed the icy channels from Kraxxos. It is currently involved in a war with their southern neighbor, Shatir, because Shatir is at war with Tropal Nordint.

Plains of Black Wind and High Tides (saFaraDas'da'Bai'Valta'ka'DevaSka'JaVata) is a country of war, in a constant conflict with it's neighbors to the north, Syrans, whom call the elven country Qaros Naja. Human countries typically know the Plains as Pavrunica. Qaros Naja is the only elven Theocracy, and the only Dynastic Theocracy in Illlria. Dynastics and Ferenity, the brand of animism practiced by the Syrans, are at odds with eachother, and the centuries-old conflict initially began when an elven warlord burned down a Ferenic Totem, which housed centuries of evil spirits, which were loosed upon Syrans. There have been a few attempts at peace, but the short lives of the elves and beastmen mean that any truce lasts two generations (30 years), tops.

The Ruby Elder Grove (RaiGand'Nel'FadaDas) is the most traditional elven nation, and like Kalthira, most of it's neighbors call it by the name of it's ruling clan, the T'Sien. It is a nationalistic country with harsh relationships with it's neighbors, in part owing to the elven nationalists who restrict non-elves to bordercities, and is a hotbed for political intrigue and internal strife, but it is largely at peace. The entire country is filled with cherry blossom trees, to the degree that Petal Tornados are a problem.

The Stone Jungle of Blue Ice and Death (Gand'FaraBata'da'Dai'JaWa'ka'Batu) is a neighbor to the Ruby Elder Grove, and is split between Ur'Daan-inhabited forest and jungle and human and giant-inhabited tundra, split by frozen river. It officially has the byname Fas'Thorn, which was the name of the southern tundras before being conquered. It routinely goes to war with Trost, a militant human empire to the west.

## Ur'Dal Language

Elven, or Ur'Dal, is a complex language with a relatively small vocabulary. For example, it only has five words for colours; Rai, Wai, Drai, Grai, and Bai, for Red, White, Blue, Green, and Black. All other colours are constructed using these words, such as Pink being RaiWai. Most words are just combinations of smaller words, such as Ice being JaWa, water-cold. This leads to some names, such as the above country names, being very long.

Ur'Dal is simple, in most other ways. It is written from left to right, bottom to top, with each base word having a symbol, and those symbols are put together to form longer words. Short-order combinations are stacked bottom to top (So JaWa would have the Wa symbol above Ja) with long-order combinations written left to right, with a space between words to show they aren't meant to be combined. Pronunciation is also this simple, barring different dialects having different sounds associated with a given symbol (For instance, T'Sien and Fas'Thorn both pronounce RaiWai as "Rye-Wye", Kalthiran dialects pronounce it "Rah-Way", and Eratasia and Qaros Naja pronounce it "Ray-Wah").

It's also a euphemistic language, where a given word can be interpereted in many ways, usually left upto context. For example, JaGand is the word for "Lake", as "Ja" is water, "Gand" means land (And earth, and stillness), so JaGand is literally water-land. JaGand could also thus refer to a pond, a puddle, well water, water underground, and other such extrapolations. Ur'Dal speakers and listeners understand JaGand is a lake from the context given in the statement, such as the lake's name, size, or location. If context isn't possible, the speaker can also chain additional words together without issue, to help narrow in exactly what you're talking about. Ur'Daan refers to elves, "Young-Speakers," but if children had called a meeting and were giving speeches, an Ur'Dal speaker might instead opt to call them saNel'Daan "not Old Speakers", or call Elves Daan'daka'Fada "Speakers of the Bloom."

## Mechanics

By virtue of being Ur'Daan, you gain the following traits;

* +2 to two separate Ability Scores
* -1 to one Ability Score
* 4 + your Constitution modifier Racial Hit Points
* 60 feet of lowlight vision, ignore light obscurement from weather and plants
* 40 ft. movement speed
* Advantage on all saves vs Charm, Sleep, and Fear.

The Half-elf Template also has the following traits. As typical for Half-breeds, this is added to the other Half-Template in use.

* +1 to one Ability Score
* 2 + (Constitution Modifier/2) Racial Hit Points
* Advantage on all saves vs Charm, Sleep, and Fear