Forums: Forums -> Elves

• +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
• Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
• Low-Light Vision: An elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• +2 racial bonus on all knowledge checks. Whether because of their strong oral tradition, their long lives, or simply a natural ability, all elves have extremely accurate memories.
• +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
• Automatic Languages: Elven. Bonus Languages: Goblin and Common.

Elves are the oldest race of the known world, but no longer rule even their own lands. They paid a heavy price for petty squables and now are merely subjects of the feudal Orcish warlords.

History
Most of elven history is lost in the ruins of their old cities, little remains but fragments in the songs and tales of their wise men. The tales hold that several generations ago the Elves ruled the land that is now held by the Goblins, who were then only primitive tribes more interested in fighting each other and raiding small settlements than ruling anything. But the Elves then were arrogant and foolish, and they became divided amongst themselves, between the Light and Dark Elves, who had, until then, lived in seperate domains and traded freely. And in that war the two weakened themselves, and the Drow, seeking an advantage, hired one of the strongest Goblin tribes to fight for them. The Light Elves hired one of that tribe's adversaries to fight on their side. But the warring had weakened the elves such that they were now too weak to survive the sudden onslaught by their supposed allies, who soon made use of their own allies to conquer the elven lands.
The elves were forced into serfdom as servants of the Orcish warlords. With elven serfs to build their towns and farm their lands the lords could devote themselves entirely to warring with each other. Their wizard-priests studied the magical arts from what little remained of the work of the elven mages. And a new surplus of food raised by the elves allowed the Goblins to build their own towns and cities, train their own experts, and forge their own civilization. A civilization that is dependent on the rural elven villages, whose people provide their Orcish overlords with the food that they in turn sell to the rest of Goblin society. For this alone the elves are tolerated.

Subraces
There were two subraces of Elf: Light and Dark. There is no real difference between them, save pigmentation, though at one point they had distinct cultures. That was the source of the conflict that caused both to lose their homelands, now both are servants of the Goblins. And with their mutual status as serfs and the total collapse of their society most of the old distinctions have vanished. Elves are often exchanged by the Orcish lords, who consider them little more than loot to be taken in their feudal conflicts. These changes have led to the rise of a third subrace: Gray Elves. Though no numbers are known for certain, halfling caravans estimate that Gray Elves may compose as much as a quarter of the population in some areas.
The three elven subraces differ in appearance only slightly. Though the basic body structure is identical, Light elves have pale skin and light blond hair while Dark elves have black skin and flat white hair. Gray elves are a mix of the two, having grayish skin and hair ranging from pale blond to off white, with silver being the most common.

Government
Elves do not govern themselves. They live in small villages that are ruled over by apathetic Orcish lords. These villages are self contained communities, avoiding contact with the Goblin population wherever possible, with good reason. Elven villages raise food, most of which they surrender to their overlord. As long as they continue getting the food that they depend on to support their own lifestyle the overlords typically ignore the villages.
The head of an elven village is that village's witch.
Elven witches are all that remains of their once proud spellcasting tradition. Witches train their apprentices from a young age, not only on the basics of spellcasting, potion brewing, and medicine, but also in the stories and songs of elven society and on how to guide and lead the rest of the community. Their leadership gernerally amounts simply to settling disputes and conducting ceremonies, since the true power lies with the Orcs. On the occassion that a serious decision must be made the witch leads a meeting of all those involved, and must guide them to a consensus.

Religion and Myths
The stories of the witches tell of how the gods came upon the world as it was, without form or structure. How the gods created the world as it is, and they put life on that world so the world could be more as them. They tell of how the god Sisk, creator and ruler of forests, put elves on the world to inhabit his beautiful forests as the first people. How the other gods grew jealous of Sisk's creation and created their own imitations of it.
The last remaining testament to the age of their fallen civilization is that the stories of the witches are the only tales of a hero that predate the time of the giants and tell of how the giants came to the world. The stories say that the first Elven hero, Eber, stole the secret of magic from the gods. He tricked the gods into letting him see the true glory of their creation, and in doing so caught a glimpse of how it was done. But his first attempt to use that power opened a door to the realm of the gods, and released the creations of evil gods that had been subjected by the true gods. One of those creations was the giants. Eber eventually learned to control the power of magic and passed it down, giving the elves the ability to protect themselves from his mistake.

Names
Elves generally have two names, a personal name given them by their village witch and a family name. Each family name has some story behind it, although most of those stories have been lost. A son takes his father's family name and a daughter her mother's. Sometimes an elf chooses to change their family name to something new, effectively begining a new family. This generally is connected with leaving their village as part of leaving their old life behind.

Culture
The elves had a culture based on personal achievement and self advancement, where making the most of oneself was the greatest thing for one to do. This put them at odds with the more communal dwarves and was the source of both their great works and their downfall. Now elven culture is based on simply a strong work ethic that is all that allows the isolated elven villages to exist.

Elves in Other Lands
In the late days of their kingdom many elves fled their lands, taking with them whatever they could, and taking refuge in the lands of others. Most of these ended up in kingdoms that later became Imperial provinces. To this day there are provinces with huge populations of elves and part-elves.
Some elves have found methods of escaping serfdom, entrusting themselves or their children to human missionaries or halfling caravans, bribing their way free, or simply running long and hard. However they escape elves must then join new communitites. Escaped elves who joined other communities usually work hard to blend into their new home. There are some isolated communities of escaped elves in human lands, villages composed of escaped elves from various places who set up their own in their new land. With the promise of open land on the new frontier many elves are heading out, either from homes within human and dwarf lands or directly from their villages.