Elves

The long lived elven people find peace in the forests and mountains of Vatain. By far the most widespread of all the native races of Vatain, the elves are a nomadic people, flitting from place to place yet never putting down roots, similar to the Loxodons. They instead follow the ideals of preserving nature, acting as druids or protectors of the land. When Vatainians first came, the elves sought to help, as they seek to help all things and taught them how to survive in this harsh landscape. While some humans sought to follow their example and moved with the elves, most did not, ultimately disappointing the elves with their industrial ways.

There are multiple varieties of elves found in the land of Vatain, mainly sea elves, drow, and wood elves. While none lean towards good or evil, elves tend to serve the fiends.

## In Game Mechanics

Any subrace not listed in the following section is not allowed.

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

***Age.*** Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

***Alignment.*** Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not.

***Size.*** Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

***Speed.*** Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

***Darkvision.*** Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 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.*** Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such 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.

***Languages.*** You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.

***Subraces.*** Elves are categorized into three subraces, Drow, Sea Elves, and Wood Elves.

### Drow

Drow are the least druidic of all elves, as their lives lived mainly in the underdark are much more dangerous than their surface dwelling cousins. The underdark is a very harsh place and the softer attitudes of their cousins do not fair so well.

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Charisma score increases by 1.

***Superior Darkvision.*** Your darkvision has a range of 120 feet, instead of 60.

***Sunlight Sensitivity.*** You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of the attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

***Drow Magic.*** You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast faerie fire once, and it recharges after a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast darkness once, and it recharges after a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

***Drow Weapon Training.*** You have proficiency with rapiers, shortswords, and hand crossbows.

### Sea Elves

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Constitution score increases by 1

***Sea Elf Training.*** You have proficiency with the spear, trident, light crossbow, nets, and water vehicles.

***Child of the Sea.*** You have a swimming speed of 30 feet, and you can breathe air and water.

***Friend of the Sea.*** Using gestures and sounds, you can communicate simple ideas with any beast that has an innate swimming speed.

***Languages.*** You can speak, read, and write Aquan.

### Wood Elves

***Ability Score Increase.*** Your Wisdom score increases by 1.

***Elf Weapon Training.*** You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.

***Fleet of Foot.*** Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.

***Mask of the Wild.*** You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

## A nomadic people

### Restless Wanderers

Elves are the definition of the term nomad as they never stay in one place for longer than a week, constantly wandering, though they may have spots they prefer to camp at. With such long lives, elves do not participate in most civilizations heavily, seeing as it flits by so quickly to them. Instead, they seek to absorb nature and preserve it, acting as guardians and the largest source of druids in the world.

### Excellent sources of gossip

Being constantly on the move, elves go pretty much everywhere in Vatain throughout their lives, even beyond where humans can explore. As they visit so many places so frequently, elves are generally known to be the most accurate and widest source of information, though they may not give it freely. They are on good relations with all species as all species need independent mediators. Even orcs will do their best to refrain attacking them. Accidents can happen.

The only piece of information elves refuse to speak of is what lies beyond the tundra and other unexplored areas of the humans. Anytime a human has asked, they've been told they should find out for themselves, as travel is good for the soul.

### Different values

Elves have literally hundreds of years to gather whatever they want. Very rarely will a materialistic object be something of desire to an elf. Elves value words, stories, and tasks far more than any material object. Oftentimes, all an elf will ask for as payment for their information and gossip is a story and any news the trader has. For more important information, an elf could ask the trader to complete a task for them, whether thats passing a message along, destroying an enemy, planting a tree, or something else. Humans often find the tasks very odd and entirely unfair as a trade, as elves value things differently and could be asking something simple, or something near impossible.