Wood Elves

The Wood Elves of the Cloudsea did not migrate from Fearun or elsewhere like the other varieties of elf, save for maybe a handful of exceptions. Instead they have a creation story. Otherwise they were similar to typical elves, but like many races on the Cloudsea, gained some abilities from living in the magical realm.

## The Wood Elves Were Born of Trees

When Hayzl the Hare created the Elfenwood, at the centre of the wood (which was already established by magical trees that migrated to the Cloudsea from other planes) she seeded Elfen Oaks over the bodies of elder elves who choose to depart the realm of the living. The resulting tree will birthed Fey fruit, which grow into infant wood elves.

The Elfenwood was established 500 years ago, and the first Fey fruit grew into elves 450 years ago, for a period of a couple of years. The Elfen oaks still live, but have never grown fruit a second time. Younger Wood Elves are born when a daddy elf and a mommy elf fall in love.

## Wood Elf Racial Features

* **Ability Score Increase**. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, Wisdom is increased by 1.
* **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.
* **Size.** Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
* **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.
* **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.*

The Mask of the Wild skills is particularly potent among the Cloudsea’s Wood Elf population, with their kind being able to be completely obscured by trees, specifically. In a way, their ability to hide in trees can be compared to seamlessly melting into their bark or leaves. Only a critical stealth failure, or opposing critical success can reveal the Wood Elf who hides in the trees.

Additionally Wood Elves of the Cloudsea will gain Speak with Plants as an inherent, passive ability, akin to a free language. The only downside is they have to spend a moment to adjust their mind to the drastically different mental state from speaking with creatures; they have to block out creature languages to converse with plants as a result.

## Speak With Plants

Having been born of trees on the Cloudsea, Wood Elves have an innate ability to speak with plants. It functions similarly to the spell *Speak with Plants.* Speaking with plants in the Elfenwood is particularly useful, as the magical trees migrated from the Feywild, and include trees such as Lorebark and Moonmist trees, as well as the Elfen Oak.

* Casting Time: 1 action
* Range: Self (30-foot radius)
* Target: Plants within 30 feet of you
* You imbue plants within 30 feet of you with limited sentience and animation, giving them the ability to communicate with you and follow your simple commands. You can question plants about events in the spell’s area within the past day, gaining information about creatures that have passed, weather, and other circumstances.
* You can also turn difficult terrain caused by plant growth (such as thickets and undergrowth) into ordinary terrain that lasts for the duration. Or you can turn ordinary terrain where plants are present into difficult terrain that lasts for the duration, causing vines and branches to hinder pursuers, for example. Plants might be able to perform other tasks on your behalf, at the GM’s discretion. The spell doesn’t enable plants to uproot themselves and move about, but they can freely move branches, tendrils, and stalks. If a plant creature is in the area, you can communicate with it as if you shared a common language, but you gain no magical ability to influence it. This spell can cause the plants created by the entangle spell to release a restrained creature.