Sand Elves

Sand Elves, also known as Desert Elves, Brown Elves or - rarely - Aridian Elves, are a race of Elfkin hominid which lives in Calsunaria. They are very similar to Elves, perhaps more so than any other race, to such an extent that some scholars suggest Sand Elves should be classified as a sub-race of Elves rather than their own distinct species. However, despite this similarity, they are the only nation of Elfkin with a culture so distantly removed from the others that they cannot be described as Elvic. It is likely that the Sand Elves became assimilated into the local culture of Calsunaria after migrating there, rather than the other way round; the evidence suggests that the Human presence there predates the Sand Elf one.

The Calsunarian term for Sand Elf is Elbaqar (plural Elbaqim), taken from Adwani. This term literally means "brown Elf". Although the Sand Elves are distributed across virtually all of the nations in Calsunaria and speak different languages, the vast majority of Sand Elf families will learn the Elbaqari tongue - often as their first language, but not always - which they use to communicate with each other. The Elbaqari tongue is not, strictly speaking, the language of the Sand Elves, but rather the ancient Old Calsunarian language which the Sand Elves have preserved remarkably well, with a few scattered Elvic loanwords. Sand Elves take their names from the Elbaqari language, and while these seem little different from the Human names to an outsider, those with knowledge of the Calsunarian cultures will immediately tell them apart.

Sand Elves match Elves in the broad strokes; they are slender and gracile creatures with large, slanted eyes and pointed ears, and they have weak body and facial hair. Sand Elves are not as tall as Elves, but they are certainly not short. Physically, the Sand Elves differ from Elves in three key aspects; their skin, hair and eyes. Whereas Elves have pale white skin, Sand Elves have brown skin much like their Human counterparts in the desert. Their hair is extremely pale blonde, almost white, and it is either straight or wavy - never curly. Sand Elves may have blue or honey-coloured, brownish-amber eyes. Neither of these eye colours appear to be recessive traits. Sand Elves also differ from Elves in that they are not hermaphroditic at all; they have two sexes.

The Sand Elves also possess one other notable trait which separates them from Elves, and that is the small cream-coloured horns on their forehead. Male Sand Elves have longer horns - typically 1.5 to 2 inches long, whereas female horns rarely exeed one inch - and they also have more of them, sporting two sets of horns (one normal-sized and one approximately half the size) whereas the females only have one set.

Sand Elves do not live quite as long as Elves, having an average life expectancy of 100 - without magic. With magic, they could expect to live to 150. They also do not seem to be quite as intelligent as Elves; tests place their IQ at an average of 111-112, lower than the Elvish average of 115. However, it is unknown whether this difference is genetic or environmental.

Although they were initially foreign to Calsunaria, arriving at some time around 900BC, the Sand Elves established themselves as native to the land after assimilating into the local cultures and providing their magic and knowledge of technology to the states they found themselves in. Many families of Sand Elves quickly rose through the ranks this way, and by the turn of the 500s BC, the majority of Calsunarian city-states were actually ruled by Sand Elves - including the two strongest and most famous city-states, Akkanur and Adwan, the latter of which would go on to conquer all of Calsunaria. Though some Humans resented being ruled by Elfkin, the Sand Elves were largely accepted as legitimate rulers, and many came to believe that their magic, long life and common language across borders made them the natural ruling class of Calsunaria.