Elves

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Elves (Earthkine)

The Elves almost died out as a race following the Sundering, they are deeply tied to the world and many fell sick or died when the world shattered. Even today, they live under the curse of the Sundering, every elf child born is born without something. For some, it is something physical, a finger or an eye, sometime it is something metaphysical, an inability to sing or to perceive the color red, but they are all missing something . . .

The elves may have wished to oppose the domination of the dragons, but many of their finest wizards had already perished before the sundering. The weakening of their race in the aftermath eliminated them as a threat as far as the dragons were concerned. Slowly, the elven race has recovered but it has remained a shadow of what it once was.

Personality: Elves are self-possessed, confident and, occasionally, arrogant. Apart from the dragons, the elves are the longest lived race and this gives them a unique perspective. Most elves plan for the long term, not what will be most beneficial next season but what will benefit them the most in a decade. Many elves are isolationist and prefer not to deal with non-elves any more then needed.

Physical Description: Elves are tall and slender with luxurious hair and brilliant eyes. But they are but shadows of what they were before the Sundering, or so their legends say.

Relations: The elves tend to be prickly in their relationships with outsiders, most they feel they are due more respect then they receive.

Alignment: The elves still consider themselves aligned with nature and the old ways, even in the new changed world. Most elves hold tradition close to their heart.

Elven Lands: Elves prefer areas of rich with vegetation, usually forests. But elves are tied to the land is ways incomprehensible to other races, and some elven communities make their homes in area that have suffered from unusual ecological disasters from the Sundering.

Religion: The elves revere nature in general and many maintain shrines to their ancestors. A strong, and concealed, thread of the ancestor worship is tied to the dead gods of the elves who are vied as the ultimate progenitors of the elven people.

Language: Elves speak one of the many dialects of elven as well as the Imperial Tongue.

Names: Elven names are often exceedingly complex tying together descriptive element of the elves personality and spirit. These name are usually shortened when dealing with outsiders who would not understand or appreciate them.

The kinlines of the elves are aligned with the great trees, such as ash, oak, and willow, with the houses and families aligned with individual plants. Leading to family names such as Ashrose, Oakmint, Willowlilly and so on.

Adventurers: Due to their unique lack, many elves feel the need to travel and try and find something to compensate for their flawed whole. Others seek lost elven artifacts and legends to assist in the rebuilding of the elven ways.

Game Rule changes

• Elves do not have any special ability to locate secret or hidden door.

• Due to their close attunement with the natural world, they understand it well. All elves have Knowledge (nature) as a class skill.

• Elves have a natural talent to focus their mind on a given task. All elves have Concentration as a class skill.

• Weapon proficiencies will vary from elven culture to elven culture.

• Healing Trance (Ex): An elf may enter a healing trance, this requires a Concentration check (DC 10). While in the healing trance, the elf is unaware of their surroundings and must be violently shaken or damaged to come out of it. The healing trance lasts eight hours beyond the normal four that an elf requires to rest and gives the effect of a full day and night’s bed rest worth of healing.

Elven Philosophies

The elves remain shaken from the Sundering, their long lives give them time to plan, but also a tendency to prevaricate. A response to the Sundering has been long in coming and the geographical isolation of the elves has led them to adopt different solutions to the problems facing their race. Debate and communication among the elves continue, but the various factions seem to be drawing further apart.

The major factions are:

Hybrids, are the most extroverted of the elves, actively seeking to engage the outside world. They ‘adopt’ human communities and teach them elven ways. The hybrid gain their name from their propagation of elven/human interbreeding (elven fathered that is, they still believe that the elven line must be maintained).

Dragonflowers are hybrids who believe that the future of the elven race is tied to that of the dragons and actively seek to interbreed with the dragon producing shadowelves. These elves are closely tied to the Draconic house Shel’liochassa.

Preparers refuse to accept the changes wrought upon the world and they actively seek to repair the damage dealt by the Sundering and prepare for the return of the elven gods to the world when “all will be put right”. They see half elves as useful agents for the moment and foot soldiers for the time when the god returns.

Pruners are a group within the Preparers who fear that the gods will not return unless the elven traditions and bloodlines are kept pure. They actively eliminate half-elves and discourage elven hybridization.

Tenders are the largest of the elven factions, they have essentially accepted the status quo and try to ensure that the elven race does not lose any more, of anything, territory, knowledge, numbers. Tenders are uncertain on the role of half-elves, preferring them over humans, they tend to be a bit distant while still relying upon them for dealings with the outside world.

Woodwalls are the extremists of the Tender faction, aiming for total isolation from the outside world. While they know this is not possible, they do their very best.

Half-Elves

Game Rule Changes

• Medium: As Medium creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Half-elf base land speed is 30 feet.

• Immunity to sleep spells and similar magical effects, and a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells or effects.

• Low-Light Vision: A half-elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

• +1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.

• As they walk between two cultures, all half-elves receive Diplomacy as a Class Skill.

• All half-elves are strangely talented in on type of artistic endeavor or another, they gain the Skill Focus feat in Perform or any Craft skill as a bonus feat at 1st level. The skill chosen also becomes a class skill for the character.

• A half-elf raised in a human community gain 2 skill points at 1st level and a bonus skill point at every even-numbered level.

• A half-elf raised in an elfin community gains Concentration and Knowledge (nature) as class skills and proficiency in the elfin cultural weapons of those elves. This half-elf has the Elven Blood trait: for all effects related to race, this half-elf is considered an elf.