Elves

Introduction

An egalitarian, individualistic, freedom-loving race, elves are long-lived and elusive. They are at home among the trees, with the patience to move at the rhythm of the forest. They are fond of music and the clever use of words. They are drawn to secrets of all kinds. They tend to live in harmony with the external world, leaving little mark of their presence, in contrast to the other humanoid races.

Society and Culture

Elves practice a sort of democratic chaotic feudalism. Each elf pledges fealty to a liege lord. Males and females may take any role in their society.

Liege's duties: Protect the vassal's interests, and give them food, shelter, and healing if they need it.
Vassal's duties: Obey the liege's directives about where to live, who to regard as ally, enemy, or neutral, and to fight for the liege if commanded.

Either party is free to withdraw their oath, but they must meet face to face in the presence of a neutral witness (not sworn to either party) and speak the ritual words to unbind themselves legally.

An elf who has no liege lord is a King, and has a vote in the Council of Kings weighted by the number of vassals he or she ultimately commands (i.e. the king's vassals' vassals, and their vassals in turn, are counted).

Some elves are complete independents and are kingdoms unto themselves. Husbands and wives need not be vassals of the same liege, though normally they are.

Elves tend to be sequentially monogamous. They marry, they divorce, they remarry. If there are any children, they generally wait until the children have reached the age of majority (around 101, for elves), when they are old enough to choose a liege lord. Before that, they are considered vassals of the same-sex parent's liege, but are not required to fight.

Some elves are nomadic, others more sedentary. The nomads tend to be hunters and gatherers. The settled elves are experts at high-intensity gardening, with heavy use of magic to enhance both quantity and quality of their produce. Elves are also famous for their magically woven textile products.

Religion

Elves tend to have druids more than clerics. They honor their creators, Maddratcha and Madrakka, as well as Ormaz. Some elven loremasters are clerics of Ormaz. Some of the more nomadic elves have shamans dedicated to Leshovik, Kikiejumel, or Leib-Olmai. Elves have no big organized religions. Deity worship is generally a private matter within the immediate family. The clerics and druids aid their people, sometimes trying to steer behavior more into balance with what they perceive as pleasing to their deity. But being independent-minded types, elven clerics won't worship a deity they deem unworthy.

Mostly they are the enemies of the enemies of Ormaz, but not out of love for Ormaz, but because they made their own judgements. Of course, Maddratcha and Madrakka made them that way. But some say the drow turned to evil just to show they had free will. In any case, elves are not prone to following any god's commandments. (If they choose to follow kings who are also priests, well, they are obeying their king, not the god.)

Law

Each elf is subject to the laws of their liege. Kings are held accountable to the other kings for their actions and for their people. The specific laws and punishments vary from kingdom to kingdom, and from one lord to another even within one kingdom.

Relations with outsiders

Elves are generally pleasant, with an amusing air of superiority, except to their enemies (including the people of Angra Mainyu: orcs, goblinoids, etc.) They like to know more about you than you know about them, and sprinkle their speech with ambiguities, riddles, allusions, and other confusions.

Trade

Export: exotic food items, textiles, musical instruments, songs, magic, magic items

Import: metal items (mostly from the dwarves),

Classes

The elven ideal is to master music, magic, poetry, archery, and swordsmanship.

Barbarians are more common among the nomadic elves.
Bards are fairly common among elves.
Clerics are less common than druids.
Druids are fairly common among elves.
Fighters are not uncommon among elves, especially high elves.
Monks are rare among elves. Elves do not usually establish monasteries, but some elves have been known to join human institutions.
Paladins are also rare among elves, but once in awhile, a crusading warrior will appear.
Rangers are fairly common among elves.
Rogues are not uncommon among elves.
Sorcerers are not uncommon.
Wizards are common among elves. Many elves have a level or two of the wizard class.

Subraces

High Elves the majority race, usually chaotic good.
Sea Elves have adapted themselves to life underwater.
Drow are an evil, subterranean race of elves. Originally corrupted by Angra Mainyu, they forsook him in turn and now worship Lychmuttra, in her aspect as Lolth, the spider goddess.
Gray Elves are taller, grander, and aloof, even by elven standards.
Wild Elves, also known as grugach, are barbaric, tribal, nomadic elves.
Wood Elves, also known as sylvan elves, live deep in the forests.

Language

The Elven language is a shared creation of all the elves (except the drow). They are continually tinkering with it, the changes voted on by the Council of Kings. Elves are good at languages, and are easily able to learn foreign languages fluently, with a native accent. Within Elven, the pronounciation varies from area to area, from kingdom to kingdom, with the northern dialect considered Standard. Older versions of Elven are still comprehensible, just out of style.

Names

Elves do not have names so much as they have songs. The family gives a child a baby-song, which the child adds to as it gets older. Elves select a representative phrase from their namesong to use as a short form of their name. Which phrase they choose varies from person to person, from time to time, etc. Thus, to other races, it seems as though elves have too many names and are always changing them for no apparent reason. This problem is compounded by the elf's tendancy to translate the name for non-Elven speaking listeners.

Typical names: (excerpts from namesongs) Iana-mua (Wondrous-morning), Ilta-kavu'leshki (Evening-birch-leaves), Soosko'aili (Sister-to-waves), Mitainnik (Young-tree-in-the-light), Tuukvayara (Star-on-the-wooded-hill), Velo'aili (Brother-to-waves)

Famous elves:

Yaru'leshk'vono-tleri ("King Leaves-blowing-over-the-sea"): the current king over the Krosan elves. (Yahri'leshkivaono-tleri in the northern dialect)

Words

Hri: Liege lord of an elf. You would call your liege Hriyo, or Hri So-and-so. (Aru, Aryo in the southern dialect.)
Namesong: what an elf considers their full name.
Yahri (King) any elf who acknowledges no liege above them (Yaru in the southern dialect.)
Vaolen Yahrui Council of Kings. (Volen Yarui in the southern dialect). Also used to refer to the elves as a race, when talking about them as contrasted with other races. "Elvenkind".

Geography

Widespread throughout all the forested regions of the northern hemisphere, though some areas are hotly contested with other races. See also the Empire of Stone and Sky.

A kingdom of high elves, led by Leaves-blowing-over-the-sea, has a small town in the jungle on Krosa. They have some dealings with the human city via the Warden of the Woods (the chief of the druids on Krosa, a human.) and individual traders and bards.

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