Elf

There are extremely few elves in the Midrealm, and though there are a few more in the Northrealm, most people have never seen one as they almost exclusively move in the higher echelons of society. The elves that do not either disguise themselves as humans or (in the few cases they can do magic) magically alter their appearance. Elves are a little taller than humans and with seemingly a frail shape, though actually far more flexible and dexterious than they seem. They love all things posh including fine dining and philosophical debates, and "frequently" visits human realms. Frequently means several times per century...

Cold and alluring, but sometimes just seen as cold, elves do have good hearts for the most part, but humans rarely get an insight into this unless they befriend one. They live in the northern tops of the Lofty Peaks in castles that look like icicles from afar. Made in pure marble, they are near to indisdinguishable from the rest of the surrounding nature. They enjoy 6 months a year of reliable snow and ice, and a brief but very enjoyable summer. It is known for some elves to meditate through an entire winter.

For humans, most don't like the idea of elves much. They are considered extremely snobby (wha's wrong wih' ma beer?!) and uncaring (as they have seen many important human conflicts and seemingly ignored them). Most elves you'd meet if so lucky will be elf nobles travelling for either busieness or for cultural exchange. Though it IS possible that the rowdiest person in a bar really was an elf enjoying his guilty pleasure of hanging out with the lower echelons of humanity...

Northrealmers have a slightly more positive view of elves, but regardless of what any commoner or noble would want to be friends with one or have one as a contact because of the prestige. Though some would say that is not true, it's true in 99% of the cases.

The elves spend most their time either reading the works of others or writing their own literature. Life is exceedingly slow and part of elven culture is simply about enjoying one self with intellectual needs. The elves have not seen war and conflict in over a thousand years. A small number of elves find this dreadfully boring and, though composed, often seak their ways into human lands for entertainment more "closer to earth". Though elves have very complicated mating rituals and even biology, so with very few elves in existence, even fewer of them actually leaves on a regular basis.

There are plenty of unwritten rules to say that an elf represents all of his kind, so elves interested in more "base needs", like bar brawls or whoring, generally tends to travel incognito and simply pretend to be human. Since only a microscopic amount of humans ever seen an elf, this normally works just fine.

Elves are ageless, and does not age after they reach adulthood (at least that is what elven scholars think) an appearance similar to around 30-35 in modern human equivolence. . All recorded deaths have been through force (accident, murder or suicide) or poison/disease (but elves are immune to many illnesses). Very old elves have been known to end their own lives in very civilized ways, often surrounded by family and friends. There are even traditional words said and the whole thing is considered a part of life, transferring to the other side and joining the mother of elves, Belindril and either continues an existence in the afterlife or spread the energy of their soul across the elven people. These rituals naturally happen exceedingly rarely and no human being has ever witnessed them. Even among human scholars it's debated if they even exist.

Homosexuality is accepted, sort of. Because of the difficulties of having children, homosexual individuals are traditionally required by social etiquette to organise to concieve during the times they can, usually with another homosexual couple of the opposite sex. The upbringing is then either by one or both of those couples or by some other couple who wants children. The blood lines are then rewritten in all official records accordingly, so unfortunately an elf can't know if they were adopted unless someone tells them. Besides the practical aspects of this, it is usually never discussed, and whatever people do in their own homes is nobody else's business unless they are disturbing others. Generally, non-homosexual elves think the whole thing "a bit queer", but wouldn't dream of criticising another elven individuals' life choices. It's much more common to criticise a person for frequenting human lands more than is absoluteley necessary for different trades, politics and agreements.

Crime is virtually unheard of, and punishments for crimes are speculated to be extremely harsh by human scholars, since the deterrence works so well. In actual fact, something even young elves do not know, they treat even criminals as individuals and hold judgement until there are conclusive evidence one way or the other. Even then they don't normally look at it as "punishment" but a form of rehabilitation. What is 50 years in a dungeon on an immortal life-span, after all? They simply had to learn to resolve conflicts. The harshest crime elves do to each other is exile, and even then the individual has the opportunity to redeem themselves, though if it's gone that far, that's probably very hard.

Elves only need a tiny amount of sleep (or meditation for the skilled), but normally live a very sedate lifestyle. Spending time outside in the world (especially away from the Three Peaks) is exhausting and each day with other races will later require an elf to go into deep sleep for 2 days. Even at the Peaks, they will slowly get exhausted and every 1 days spent doing activities will later require half a day in deep sleep.

The need for deep sleep can be pushed almost indefinitely, but it will accumulate and make the elf feel exhausted a lot quicker if not dealt with. (For every 10 years of "backlog", they accumulate a -1 penalty to all rolls.)

The Deep Sleep is fairly pleasant and their magical nature keeps their bodily needs taken care of. Elves are known to sleep for decades, centuries and even millenia just for the pleasure of it. Elves do not really atrophy when resting, and even sleeping for long times in at least a decently comfortable position will have little negative impact.

In their time, elves have usually pretty regimented daily routines. They are somewhat inflexible with it at times, but these things change over time. In this case "time" is decades or centuries. They spend long times meditating, exercising or reading. Some time is for exploring areas, climbing the great peaks or to work and help with things like designing new tunnels or taking care of crops. Hunting is another pastime elves like, but they are careful to not over-hunt. They prefer long chases of pray as opposed to traps, but are skilled in either.

Elves are known for supreme worksmanship in just about anything they do, and though humans often attribute this to elves being magical, the real source is actually time. Most elven artefacts take hundreds of years to finish, and even personal jewellery usually takes at least a couple of years. Their writings are of a similar type where a book is rewritten several times before the author is happy and allows it to be copied.

Growing up as an elf, life is pretty regemented. There are schedules for everything, and most days consist of spending time with different tutors in various topics. These tutorials are usually just the child and tutor, rarely are other children also present. In fact, between the cities of the three peaks, there are usually enough children to hang out and be friends, but not always. Many elves spent their "teens" (a time a little longer than 20 years) without peers. There's usually some other children, but it's not always fun to play with a little child when you're almost an adult.

A few elves vist human lands in their "teens" and get hooked by the lightning fast lifestyles of the humans, almost like a drug. This is looked down upon by other elves, however, so mortaphiles (elves loving mortal culture) usually keep this opinion to themselves but finds reasons to visit human lands as often as possible. There's also an aura of not letting humans see other sides than the pristine, white marble face of the elves, so elves so inclined usually dress down as humans and hide their pointy ears.

In the distant past, the Elven Wars are a dark memory for elves, who prefer to think they never happened, and are generally not spoken of except by adult scholars.

Useful links

http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish/names.html http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/angora5/Translator.html http://www.jrrvf.com/hisweloke/sindar/online/english.html