Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - RACES - ELVES

> **ELVES**

The first thing to say about this race is that the "traditional elf" is a human shaped supernatural being that origin in the german folklore.

Define what an elf is... is quite difficult because various cultures have something similar so it can't be said "an elf is this with that" is so much right as so much wrong... for understand this we just need to think that firstly I said that the classical elf come from the german folklore but the norse mythology have Alfheim, the land of the light elves that are godly like beings.

As all of you can see, in the first case we have human shaped supernatural being while in the second case we have a divine being (both are supernatural but the second is more specific on the type) and for this reason in this for them I'll talk about the classical e common elves we encounter in fantasy.

APPEARANCE:

Physically speaking they are not that different from humans but have a couple of particular traits that are the absence of body hair (mean that they can't grow beard of mustaches but don't have hair on their chest, legs and arms... lucky them.) and pointed ears.

About the ears is need to point that depending on the author they can have different lenght and direction and this mean that we can have elves that have long ears that grow toward the back of the head or that they grow in lenght following the line of the shoulders.

In all the stories I know and saw till now I never saw a fat elf and normally they are described as a race that is quite beautiful.

Funny fact N°1, some authors make made the ears of the elves able to move reflecting their emotions in a way similar to how animals move their tail... for example when they are sad the ears point down, when surprised or angry they point up and when they are happy they move up and down but this apply only on the ones that have long enough ears that grow following the line of the shoulders.

Funny fact N°2, in a story I follow, the author make a race of demi human that have long ears while the true elves have more short ones... we can say that "not all the one with long ears are elves".

Funny fact N°3, in all the fantasy I saw till now, there was never one time where I saw an elf with a very muscular body... normally they are described with a normal body that is not too muscular or weak.

Funny fact N°4, the classical elves we see in fantasy have all blonde hair and green or blue eyes, in a way this is something that can be used as tool for exalt their "etereal" aura, or for say in another way, their be naturally supernatural nature.

Funny fact N°5, most of the times they are one of the most beautiful races of the world and no ugly member of such race ever existed

BIOLOGY:

In various stories they are described as a race that don't eat meat but in some stories is said that is possible smell cooked meat in their villages... my assumption is that they don't require the same ammount of protein and carbohydrates of a human and for this reason they mainly eat fruits and vegetables, but don't be fooled by this because what I say is that they need less quantity and so they too can eat meat and fish.

LIFESPAN & AGING:

Usually elves is a race that is described as one that can live without problem for thousands of years with some of them that can even live eternally... obviously they die if something or someone kill them.

One thing that is need to talk about their aging process is that they age like normal humans but then once reach a certain age they just stop aging, from 20 to 25~30... I remember that I saw in a site, but not remember which one, that was said that arrived to a certain point their hair start to change in color for reflect their old age but that is their only trait... just in case I'm not sure if legal shota or loli elf are possible (with legal I mean that they are adults but they appear very young), the only loli and shota elves I saw in works are young ones far away from being adult... wait, in a work I follow there is a 300 years old loli elf but in that universe is normal since they age very slowly so... not that I really care since I'm not a lolicon and my interest is toward fox girls and fox women... nothing beat the alluring aura of a mature fox woman with many fluffy tails.

A little last note about their aging, in a story I saw the elves don't have a long life span and their "immortality" is an illusion gave by the fact that at some point they just stop aging and their normal lifespan is similar to that of a human

REPRODUCTION:

Elves can have offsprings like humans but depending on the author their fertility can be influenced by their life span BUT there is to keep in mind that there are mentality elements that influence that too, in fact when they are a race that live for long, their mentality lead them to the concept that "we have still time for make a child" and for this reason long lifespan couples may wait centuries before even try to have one.

They can have children with other races but that depend all on the grade of compatibility of their race and despite the possibility of hybrids is good is even possible that an elf or a member of the other species will born with natural boosts... for example the union of an elf and a human can make a human that age slowly, with boosted senses and great magical powers

VARIATIONS:

* Normal Elf, the classic elf is blonde with green or blue eyes but this don't mean that we have to stick to that color set like brown with blue eyes or red with yellow eyes.
* High Elf, depending on the author the difference between a normal elf and an high elf change, till now the differences made by some authors are the lifespan (longer to infinite) and how powerfull they are.
* Dark Elf, some author use this variation as something that "oppose" the normal elves and are described till now into two ways...
	+ dark skinned ones with white or silver hair and eyes that can be red, yellow or amber.
	+ pale blue skinned with hair that are black or of a very dark color and with eyes that are red or dark colored.

What I signed here are the classic variation and this mean that an author can make new one at will like I did in the sharing section were I wrote my idea of elemental elves

POWERS & ABILITIES:

When we talk about the power of the elves we need to keep in mind that certain abilities are connected to their "traits" that are most used:

* Elves are described as good bow user, the main reason of this come from the fact that they normally live in forests and so, thanks to that environment, they are naturally adapted to be hunters since forests can be full of monsters and hostile creatures. Despite that mastery they are not foreigner for weapons like swords, daggers and spears, infact I'm saw elves use them too.
* They have good sight, nose and ears... no, it's not a joke about them, as "natural born hunters" and "a race that grow in a forest" they have that 3 senses very developed.
* In theory they have great magical powers that are connected to nature but this is more a theory based on the appearance of their magic circles and certain spells they use. Given that most authors describe them with that don't mean that is an absolute truth and I say this simple because a race that live in a certain environment develop abilities related on that place so if a human live in a forest than it will use skills related to the forest like plant manipulation oriented spells and will not use fire.

SOCIETY:

Usually we see that they live in communities that are governed by the elders and live normally without problems.

They have armies and their villages are usually located inside forests but this don't mean that they live only in forests.