Elves
Elves or Elphen are lithe, faen creatures blessed with eternal youth, reaching physical maturity at the same rate as humans but then aging slower and slower over the following centuries until they eventually come to resemble human middle-age around age 1,000, where they remain indefinitely.
Elves originated on the island of Wryth, before they destroyed it in a calamitous civil war. They are a diverse bunch, and deeply affected by the flows of aether in ways other superficially similar humanoids are not. Because of this, elves are most at home in their natural environments and are not often inclined to leave those places.
Gender
Elves have a fundamentally different conception of gender from that of most other humanoids. Elves can change their biological sex at will and often do so as their moods suit them. Between this fact and their extremely long lives, low degree of sexual dimorphism, and inherently magical nature, they tend instead to break down into groups depending on their season or time of birth.
Light Elf Gender
- Dawn elves are those born near to sunrise. This gender is often presented by wearing yellow and orange,
- Daylight elves are those born near to midday.
- Dusk elves are those born near to sunset.
- Midnight elves are those born at night.
Wood Elf Gender
- Spring elves are those born in spring.
- Summer elves are those born in summer.
- Autumn elves are those born in autumn.
- Winter elves are those born in winter.
Dark elves have no strong conception of gender whatsoever.
Dark Elves
Dark elves, called Draven in their tongue, are the most insular of the elves, living almost exclusively in the underground city of Narthrall beneath the hellish ashlands of Wryth. Beneath the black sky speckled with the light of star-bats, dark elves spend most of their lives in complete and total darkness. Suffused in shadow aether and favored by Lamera, the goddess of thresholds, they have developed skin as black as night and hair as white as snow. They are a rare and often feared sight outside Narthrall.
Duality
Dark Elves' souls are born in two bodies. A dark elf traditionally discovers and bonds with their fated soul twin in a ceremony during childhood. From this time onward, their minds become more and more interlinked.
Game Mechanics (D&D 5E)
A Dark Elf starts with two physical bodies that share a single pool of hit points. All mental conditions (charm, unconsciousness, etc.) affect both bodies simultaneously. If an entity taps into the senses of the dark elf, they perceive the points of view of both bodies simultaneously. If a Dark Elf character fails their last death save, the body that most recently took damage is the one that dies. If one of a dark elf's bodies dies or is destroyed, it cannot be resurrected, as part of their soul remains bound in their other body. This causes them to become Severed.
Severing
A severed Dark Elf is one whose psychic twin has died. Severing is a painful, traumatizing event that is normally followed by a grieving period and may induce long-term depression or PTSD. Severed dark elves are often shunned and ostracized by Dark Elven society, further compounding these issues.
Light Elves
Light elves, also known as sun elves, high elves, or Aariphen are those who have taken to building grand cities of stone far beyond their traditional homelands. They are touched by the air and the light, and many regard their fair cities as the pinnacle of civilization. Most light elves live in the Araxian Empire, where they make up a majority of the nobility.
Wood Elves
Wood elves mostly make their homes in the forests of Delgar, particularly in the untamed western territory of Edrys, where they live alongside the beasts of the wilds. Many of them are druids or rangers, and most are followers of . They tend to see themselves as the protectors of the forest and other wild places. They are no strangers to traveling the land, and they are not an uncommon sight in small towns and villages, but it is rare for them to settle in cities. The only city with a significant wood elf population is Dumecia.
