Elves

Elves are the oldest of the three great races.

Their connection with the Fey gave them access to magic that gave them an edge and made them the dominant race for many ages. They remember dwarvish and human stone-age barbarians living in caves, while the elves were creating music and art and living in beautiful glowing treetop cities, so they still tend to look down on other races.

Their immortality gives them a long memory. They are slow to act, hold grudges for centuries, and are not easily surprised.

The primary home of the elves is Westhaven, a strip of land along the western edge of Rojopotis, forbidden to other races. Little is known about it.

They are the second most populous race in Dytika, after humans, and for most of the land's history they dominated all of it. The eastern half of the subcontinent was slowly populated by humans, who gained political ascendancy under the Preateri Empire. The Dwyrain are the last major nation of elves in the east. The largest and ruling clan are the Draiocht, living near Larnaca. The wealthiest and most enmeshed with other races are the Sithiche near the coast, especially their cosmopolitan tasting city, Mara.

Elves rule most of the western half, but operate as hundreds of small, independent village-clans. Many are now united under the Cymru to stand together against Larnaca. Humans, unaware of how varied the western clans are (as opposed to the Dwyrain in the east, who are all one nation), tend to refer to all western elves as Cymru.

Far to the northwest life the Bosque, who are very secretive and isolationist.

## Playing an elf

The first two questions you need to answer when playing an elf, are where are you from? And why did you leave? My games are generally set in places ruled and occupied by humans, and elves rarely leave their wooded homes. Perhaps you seek knowledge, like new magic. You might have just been passing through, on your way to visit a far off relative perhaps, and got sucked into the adventure by your bad luck and curiosity. Or maybe you were exiled from your clan for tampering with dark magic. Much as they try to deny it, elves are also not immune to the lure of treasure.

​Next you need to choose your age. Obviously this is true for all characters, but for most races choosing your age means choosing what stage of life you are in. For an elf, it means choosing how much of history you remember. Elves are immortal, but are still susceptible to diseases, which in my game usually cannot be cured by magic. Between war and disease there are actually not many elves living today that are over 3000 years old. It would be my preference for players to choose an age under 1000 (after the fall of the Preateri Empire), but if someone really wants to be an ancient elf I would let them be up to 3000 years old. An elf that's 3000 "today", would have been young during the Preateri conquest of Dytika (and ultimately most of the world).

## Classes

Elves, having a close relationship with Nature, are more likely than any other race to be a ranger or a druid. Fighter, being the most diverse class, would cover a lot of elvish warriors as well.
Since they invented music, elvish bards are quite common. They often travel between elvish village-clans bringing news and learning new songs.
As with all races, on rare occasion an elf is born with the innate ability to tap into arcane magic, a sorcerer. Elves don't have colleges like humans for intensive study, but through slow gathering of knowledge, often requiring traveling and seeking wise elders, an elf can become a wizard.
Elves generally reincarnate when they die, so there aren't elvish saints. They venerate the gods of the Seelie Court, but the gods of the Seelie Court don't answer prayer don't answer prayer so they don't have paladins or clerics (though an elf could choose to serve a "human god"), but elves seeking power could find their way to the Feywild and pledge allegiance to an archfey as a warlock.
Elves are light on their feet, and very capable of making adept rogues, but don't often live in cities where rogues thrive, other than the port of Mara.
Elves don't have their own monastic tradition, but are occasionally accepted the into monasteries of the Dowafu dwarves and Artaldean humans.
Despite being a chaotic race, the kind of chaos embodied by a barbarian would be very unusual for an elf to embrace.​​

## History

Elves were created by Corellon of the Seelie Court at the end of second age. During the Age of Blood elves were largely ignored while giants battled dragons and gods battled gods. During the reign of Air, despite dwarves being favored by the gods of air and made guardians of the Sky Pillars, and the departing of the Seelie Court to the Feywild, elves became the dominant race, even having the strength to challenge giants. During the Age of Darkness, elves led the alliance against the Shadow King. The sixth age was the peak of elvish power, a golden age of music, art, and magic. The balance of power shifted in the iron age, when powerful dwarven empires demanded power, wealth, and respect, creating a rivalry between elves and dwarves that remains to this day. But the ultimate humiliation for elves was their collective defeat to the Preateri Empire. Even after the fall of the empire humans remained dominant, so elves from all over sailed to the western edge of the world and poured their strength, prayers, and magic into the creation of a new land, Westhaven.