Elf

Elves are one of the most prominent people of Wormwood, being creatures deeply connected to the old magics of the world. Renowned for their fearlessness in settling the New World, elves have built great magical cities and are at the forefront in developing new spells and arcane technologies. Their culture is also highly based on an interconnectedness with nature, featuring ethereal art, artistry, music and poetry.

Fair Folk
Elves are possessing of an unearthly strangeness to their features and movements. Every action has the practiced grace of someone who has been moving that way for hundreds of years, as many have been. Beyond that, elves' appearances are ever so slightly off to those who look at them. Their eyes are just a little too bright, their teeth a little too sharp, and their hair shimmers slightly with unearthly hues. Beyond that, each elvish race has developed unique and bizarre features that helped them adapt to their environment.

On average, elves are around 5 - 6ft tall and sport a fairly light frame likely stemming from their early history of being arboreal nocturnal predators. Most subraces of elves have the same range of skin tones as humans, but can also delve into the unnatural with shades of copper, bronze and blueish-green. Their hair covers a wide range of values including brown, black, white, blue, green and red. Their eyes are generally unnaturally bright, and glow in the dark like a deer's. They are generally vibrant jewel tones or deep browns. Elves lack facial hair and have very thin body hair.

The Elder Peoples
Elves are one of the longest-lived members of the Four Tribes, able to live to be well over 700 years old. This effects their demeanor and often makes them feel detached from their shorter-lived brethren. It can be hard for elves to for deep and meaningful connections with other creatures and whether intentional or not, this often comes off as haughtiness or snobbishness. And while some elves legitimately don't take other races seriously, most simply aren't used to connecting to younger beings.

One thing that truly reveals an elf's passionate side is artistry. Whether in music, painting, swordplay or even spellweaving, elves take to creative endeavors with fervor. Elves often form a deep connection to one kind of artistry, and will practice that form to perfection. For some that passion becomes their whole lives, while others simply use it as a way to calm their minds, or escape the stressful reality of the New World. Perhaps this skill and passionate is why elvish culture is so influential in the artistic world. If you wish, you can roll on the table below to determine an artistic pursuit that your elvish character engages with. With your DM's permission, you may also gain proficiency in using the requisite tools for your art.

Elvish Cities
Most elves joined forces with the other Feyborn to develop great cities that could protect them from the dangers of the forebear ruins. As the dwarves used their superior masonry to build the city’s walls and foundations, The elves used their natural magics to guard the cities and craft elegant spires and watchtowers. Elves encountered outside their own lands are commonly traveling minstrels, artists, or sages. Aristocratic families will often pay great sums for elvish tutors given their centuries of expertise in artistic pursuits.

Some elves chose to instead dwell amongst their own kind in small forest villages hidden among the trees. Elves hunt game, gather food, and grow vegetables, and their skill and magic allow them to support themselves without the need for clearing and plowing land. They are talented artisans, crafting finely worked clothes and art objects. Their contact with outsiders is usually limited, though a few elves make a good living by trading crafted items for metals (which they have no interest in mining).

Exploration and Adventure
Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust. Since they are so long-lived, they can enjoy centuries of exploration and discovery. They dislike the pace of human society, which is regimented from day to day but constantly changing over decades, so they find careers that let them travel freely and set their own pace. Elves also enjoy exercising their martial prowess or gaining greater magical power, and adventuring allows them to do so. Some might join with rebels fighting against oppression, and others might become champions of moral causes.

Elf Names
Elves are considered children until they declare themselves adults, some time after the hundredth birthday, and before this period they are called by child names.

On declaring adulthood, an elf selects an adult name, although those who knew him or her as a youngster might continue to use the child name. Each elf’s adult name is a unique creation, though it might reflect the names of respected individuals or other family members. Little distinction exists between male names and female names; the groupings here reflect only general tendencies. In addition, every elf bears a family name, typically a combination of other Elvish words. Some elves traveling among humans translate their family names into Common, but others retain the Elvish version.

Child Names: Ara, Bryn, Del, Eryn, Faen, Innil, Lael, Mella, Naill, Naeris, Phann, Rael, Rinn, Sai, Syllin, Thia, Vall

Male Adult Names: Adran, Aelar, Aramil, Arannis, Aust, Beiro, Berrian, Carric, Enialis, Erdan, Erevan, Galinndan, Hadarai, Heian, Himo, Immeral, Ivellios, Laucian, Mindartis, Paelias, Peren, Quarion, Riardon, Rolen, Soveliss, Thamior, Tharivol, Theren, Varis

Female Adult Names: Adrie, Althaea, Anastrianna, Andraste, Antinua, Bethrynna, Birel, Caelynn, Drusilia, Enna, Felosial, Ielenia, Jelenneth, Keyleth, Leshanna, Lia, Meriele, Mialee, Naivara, Quelenna, Quillathe, Sariel, Shanairra, Shava, Silaqui, Theirastra, Thia, Vadania, Valanthe, Xanaphia

Family Names (Common Translations): Amakiir (Gemflower), Amastacia (Starflower), Galanodel (Moonwhisper), Holimion (Diamonddew), Ilphelkiir (Gemblossom), Liadon (Silverfrond), Meliamne (Oakenheel), Naïlo (Nightbreeze), Siannodel (Moonbrook), Xiloscient (Goldpetal)

Elf Subraces
When elves first came to be, they were scattered among different lands, and the magic there effected them in such a way as to create uniquely individual subraces with different physical and arcane capabilities. There are seven main subraces: high elves, wood elves, shadar-kai, sea elves, eladrin elves, pallid elves and dark elves, who are commonly called drow.

Drow
The drow are a subrace of elves found safety in the Underdark, sheltered from the chaos of the surface world. They have since grown and flourished, building great cities away from the sun’s light. Also called dark elves, the drow have black skin that resembles polished obsidian and stark white or pale yellow hair. They commonly have very pale eyes (so pale as to be mistaken for white) in shades of pale lilac, silver, pink and blue. Drow tend to be smaller and thinner than most elves.

Interestingly enough, some drow have also formed alliances with duergar and deep gnomes to build great underground cities much in the same way their surface dwelling cousins have.

Primal Drow: Drow born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Bright markings on their skin reminiscent of nebulas and stars, a cluster of black eyes, mandible-like jaws, compound eyes, batlike ears or bioluminescent blood.

Eladrin
Eladrin are elves native to Annwfyn (Feywild), a realm of beauty, unpredictable emotion, and boundless magic. An eladrin is associated with one of the four seasons and has coloration reminiscent of that season, which can also affect the eladrin’s mood:


 * Autumn is the season of peace and goodwill, when summer’s harvest is shared with all.
 * Winter is the season of contemplation and dolor, when vibrant energy of the world slumbers.
 * Spring is the season of cheerfulness and celebration, marked by merriment as winter’s sorrow passes.
 * Summer is the season of boldness and aggression, a time of unfettered energy.

Some eladrin remain associated with a particular season for their entire lives, whereas other eladrin transform, adopting characteristics of a new season. When finishing a long rest, any eladrin can change their season. An eladrin might choose the season that is present in the world or perhaps the season that most closely matches the eladrin’s current emotional state. For example, an eladrin might shift to autumn if filled with contentment, another eladrin could change to winter if plunged into sorrow, still another might be bursting with joy and become an eladrin of spring, and fury might cause an eladrin to change to summer.

The following tables offer personality suggestions for eladrin of each season. You can roll on the tables or use them as inspiration for characteristics of your own.

Primal Eladrin: Eladrin born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Barklike patterns on their skin, vines and plantlife enveloping their body, an unmelting rime on their limbs, or veins of sunlight on their skin.

High Elf
As a high elf, you have a keen mind and a mastery of at least the basics of magic. These elves are common, and can most often be found in the Feyborn cities, or mingling with other races. High elves (sometimes called moon elves or sun elves) have metallic colored eyes and hair, and their skin is sometimes flecked with color.

Primal High Elf: High elves born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Multiple eyes or ears, a crackling aura of unspent magical energy, skin in vibrant colors or crystalline protrusions.

Sea Elf
Sea elves fell in love with the wild beauty of the ocean in the earliest days of the new world. While the other elves built cities and strongholds, the sea elves built boats and voyaged across the seas. Today, they occupy port towns and control trade between different settlements. Sea elves have blue-green skin, webbed hands and feet, and a set of gills.

Primal Sea Elf: Sea Elves born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Bioluminescent markings, flexible fish-like fins or a webbed tail.

Shadar-Kai
Elves originating from Ashfodell (or at least affected by it), shadar-kai have black hair and eyes and cold skin. They have the appearance of someone stuck between life and death.

Primal Shadar-Kai: Shadar-kai born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Hair like black smoke, semi-transparent skin, black feathers in their hair, or apparent black cracks covering their skin.

Wood Elf
As a wood elf, you have keen senses and intuition, and your fleet feet carry you quickly and stealthily through your native forests. Wood elves’ skin tends to be copperish in hue, sometimes with traces of green. Their hair tends toward browns and blacks, but is occasionally blond or copper-colored. Their eyes are green, brown or hazel.

Primal Wood Elf: Wood elves born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Antlered horns, animalistic ears, sharp teeth, striped or spotted patters on their skin, or longer hair on their arms and legs.

Pallid Elf
The pallid elves are a mystical and insightful people with skin as pale as the surface of Wormwood's largest moon. They emerged from seemingly nowhere recently and are possessing of strange arcane constructs.

Primal Pallid Elf: Pallid elves born with a primal connection to magic may manifest one or more of the following traits. Opalescent skin, an aura of floating motes of light, gossamer head fins, or feathered antennae.