Elves

Demographics
Elves, uniquely of all the common races, have a skewed gender profile. Due to the long gestation period of elven children, and the short window of fertility relative to their lifespans, elf society is roughly 75% female. Needless to say, this makes elven society much different to any other.

Because males are rarer, it is considered only right that they not be risked in warfare. As a result, elven military regiments are overwhelmingly female, with only post-reproductive males generally being accepted into the ranks. Similarly, since the Great Migration it is not usually considered prudent for males to risk the journey across the sea, not to mention the machinations of the Imperial court, so ambassadors and diplomatic staff are almost universally female. In addition, any especially dangerous profession, such as guard duty or long distance sailing, is usually undertaken by females. By contrast, males and females are equally represented in the elven governmental and bureaucratic classes, as befits their equal importance in their culture. All other roles are generally filled in proportion to the population, and there is otherwise great equality in gender roles and responsibilities.

Early Life and Education
Elven society is meritocratic, with all children spending the first 25 years of their life in the same institutions, known as Sanctuaries. During this time, the children see little of their parents in order to ensure they are all treated fairly and given the same opportunities. At the end of this time, elven children begin their first apprenticeship, which continues until they have reached their ‘Age of Majority’. This is usually around 70, but can be earlier or later depending on the judgement of the child’s mentor. While there is no rule about the mentor not being a family member, this kind of nepotism is frowned on. No matter their specific apprenticeship, all young elves are taught how to identify and curate natural glyphs, and a sense of responsibility for the land is instilled.

After their first apprenticeship is complete, young elves are politically and socially considered adults, and their choices from then on are entirely their own. Suddenly finding themselves free to make their own decisions, young elves usually have a ‘wandering time’ at this stage, known as ‘Revell’. An elf in revell typically eschews responsibility and goes to explore the world, often as an adventurer, a traveller or just a thrill seeker. Some elves never come back from revell, and choose instead to never re-join elf society proper. While these ‘Revelled’ aren’t hated or rebuked, they are generally thought of as slightly embarrassing.

Revell generally lasts for around 100 years, if the elves survive. Those that do return and complete a second apprenticeship, usually building on the knowledge of their first but it’s also common for the time of revell to completely change what an elf wants to do with their life. Again their mentor can just be a knowledgeable person in their field, or, if the elf want to pursue a more scholarly path, there are universities. These are generally in the fields of history or arcana, and if the elf wishes to be a magic user of some kind, university is usually the first port of call.

While elves are considered adults at around 70, they generally aren’t considered fully mature until the 250 – 300 year mark. Usually with several apprenticeships or degrees under their belt, elves of this age are eligible to take apprentices of their own which is considered a position of great honour and responsibility. Alternatively, it’s at this age that many elves start having children of their own, a large commitment given that the gestation period is 2 years.

Elven Relationships
Due to their skewed gender profile and prodigiously long lives, pair bonding tends to be short with neither side forming lasting emotional attachments. A female keeping a male monogamously to herself may be seen as selfish, although there are several popular elven love ballads that describe couples doing just that.

Romantic relationships with other races are comparatively rare, though less so than among other races, dwarves for example. Elves are meritocratic both in their society and individually by nature, so a particularly brilliant non-elf can often form a romantic connection. Like all elven romantic attachments, these often tend to be brief, but again stories and ballads tell of elves falling in love and staying with their non-elf partners until the end of their lives. Usually such unions are barren, though elf/human pairings can result in children. These ‘half-elves’ are genetically mules however, and are almost always sterile.

Political System
Elven culture is, in almost all senses, a meritocracy. Those best suited to a role, who have proven themselves worthy, will be contacted by those above them and inducted into their ranks. The cream of the crop rise to the top and the incompetent or corrupt are demoted until they are forced to improve or suffer. It takes a good deal of trust to believe in such a system, a trust that can only be fostered through every elf receiving the same education and opportunities.

This system applies even to the very highest authority. Elven society is ruled by a Council, who recruit new members into their organisation as required. It is unknown exactly how many make up the Council (though common wisdom and folklore suggests twelve), nor the exact identities of the constituent members. All business is conducted through intermediaries, men and women sworn to absolute secrecy, who would not reveal the inner workings of the council even if they knew one tenth of it themselves. It is the prerogative of the Council to keep their identities secret, for they act for the greater good of the society at large, and their decisions affect the lives of hundreds of thousands.

As elven society is strictly meritocratic, it’s possible for a non-elf to rise within their ranks. However in practise, given the difference in lifespans, very few humans, halflings or gnomes have time to gain the knowledge and expertise to compete directly with elves in their own society. In the past, particularly brilliant dwarves have gained positions of power and social standing, as their similar lifespans allow them to compete on a more even playing field. Since the war, any such dwarves have been quietly left on the continent.

Economy
The elven system of apprenticeships places equal importance on all different types of work, with a great wizard being no more inherently revered than a great farmer. The important thing is to be constantly improving yourself – elven society frowns on those who settle and become contented with their lot, especially as their lives are so long.

This means that their economy is remarkably robust, with a surprising spread of skilled workers across a huge number of fields. However, elves excel in skilled work, with elven metal workers and craftsmen being among the best in the Empire. They also have a great natural flair for magic, with their colleges being second only to the Tower in Kingspire.

Their weakness lies in a lack of unskilled workers, necessary for large scale mining or agricultural work. While all elves do work of this kind as part of their initial education,  most will then continue their training and move on to more specialised or skilled labour. This means that few mines or fields on the continent ended up being worked long term by elves, although it wasn’t uncommon to see an elf as an overseer or agricultural specialist.

Justice System
As elven society gives everyone the same start in life and offers free education and chances for progression, crime is looked on as a personal failing. The general view is that for an elf to commit crimes, they must be lazy or stupid – elves who commit crimes against other elves are particularly reviled. Because of this, the elven justice system is surprisingly harsh compared to other races.

While major crimes in the Empire were dealt with by official courts, most crimes would be dealt with by the local authorities. For elven criminals, this meant going to a Tribunal. Mimicking the Council in a smaller scale, Tribunals are formed of 12 randomly selected elves, all over the age of 300 and of good moral standing (i.e. no criminals). Throughout the trial all of the jury wear ‘Tributels’ – grey masks which cover the features and magically anonymise the voice. The accused would be assigned both a defender and a prosecutor, both also anonymous in either a white (prosecutor) or a black (defender) Tributel. The jury hears the argument from both the prosecutor and the defender, with very little chance for the accused to speak. They must then decide with a 2/3rds majority whether the defendant is innocent or guilty, and if guilty, what punishment to mete out.

There is no standard set of punishments for crimes, and elven juries are notorious for their creativity. A near legendary courtroom story tells of an artisan who had been short-changing his customers on materials, keeping precious metals for himself and giving people lead in its place. As punishment, he was commanded to build a life-size gold dragon alone and entirely out of his own pocket, which he then had to donate to the elven people as a whole. The project took him 10 years, after which he was completely bankrupt. The golden dragon statue still stands in one of the courtyards of Kingspire.

While the punishment for first offences is usually harsher than it would be among other peoples, it is still usually not lethal. However, elves have no patience for those who would break the rules willingly a second time. Such offenders are almost invariably executed or exiled, with the reasoning being that such elves are entirely unsuited to being in the society that worked so hard to give them every opportunity to succeed.

The only other exception to this is elves on their revell. Such elves are usually given a good deal of leeway, as long as they do not actively harm other elves or the elven people. It must be remembered though that they are still legally adults, and as such are still held responsible for their actions.

Religion and Beliefs
Elves believe that all life, and all matter, is composed of life force – they call this ‘amna’. When an elf dies, the amna returns into the great cycle of renewal and change – like constantly shifting tides. An elf with more amna may be able to control the world around them – either by being a great leader or being able to manipulate magic. A fraction of an elven hero’s amna may end up in a child, and they may grow to be a hero themselves. In the tides metaphor, the entire world would be the water currently on the beach – swirling, interacting, chaotic. Meanwhile, the rest of the entire ocean would be the gods. Elves believe that gods form and fall just as mortals do – like waves on the sea. There are also a huge number of gods, as many as there are waves. They therefore consider human attitudes towards the gods to be very small minded – certainly the 9 exist, but they are not the only ones, and who knows how long they’ll be around for?

Worship is generally more of a private affair to be done within an individual’s home, meaning that churches are much less frequent in elven lands than in neighbouring human cities. There is also no centralised priest caste, although there are some scholars who dedicate their long lives to attempting to understand the will of the gods. Like the rest of their society, the few churches that elves do have are dedicated to learning and self-improvement, and always contain a large library tended to by religious scholars. Separate from this are the Clerics of Death who deal with welfare, dead bodies and healing.

Similar to other widely settled races, elves also tend to have different local beliefs and superstitions depending on the challenges of their particular area. However, these tend to be limited to certain prayers or icons – dangerous or foolhardy superstitions do not tend to survive in a long lived society with a more methodical, academic approach to faith.

There is one belief however that is universal among all elves, though they practice it to different degrees. This is the idea that elves are the custodians and guardians of their lands, and they must protect them from the potential dangers of wild glyphs. Approaches to this belief differ however, with some elves believing that it’s their duty to protect the whole world from glyphs, and others only wanting to focus on their lands or lands where they’re explicitly invited. All young elves learn about glyph husbandry in their initial education phase, and many will choose to learn more as part of their first apprenticeship. This means that even the youngest elf knows enough about glyphs to stop one which is upsetting the balance, even if they lack the power personally to do so themselves.

Military
As part of the Empire, elves were steadfast supporters and contributors to the standing army. Particularly among young females on their revell, it was common for elves to serve a number of years in the army, even if they weren’t planning on a martial career path. As with most areas of Empire life, there were a group of elves that made war their profession, studying its art just as other elves studied history or arcana.

Generally the natural biology of elves means they favour bows and finesse weapons. As a rule they are thoughtful fighters, loathe to sacrifice lives unnecessarily, especially when one life can be 800 years of collected experience. Heroes among the elves have historically been rangers or finesse-focussed fighters, although there is also a long history of druidism.

At the beginning of the war, the council hoped it could quickly and decisively win, without affecting the majority of the elven people. However, as it became increasingly clear that the elven and dwarven armies were equally matched, any elf who could string a bow or swing a sword was recruited in the form of an enforced militia.

The war cost the elven people around 25% of its overall population, between the fighting itself and the forced migration. The majority of this would have been from either elderly, previously retired elves or young elves called in from their revell. However, it also meant they lost a good number of their professional soliders, and most of those who would be regarded as ‘heroes’.

Since the war, the elves have tended towards being increasingly warlike, believing that if they had been better prepared before they would not have been forced from their homes. The number of young elves choosing a martial career has increased, as veterans from the war are lauded as the heroes that saved the people from total extinction.

The Remembrance
Not all elves left the empire after the Second War. Some stayed because they were too familiar with the old structures and customs. Some stayed because they had families. And some stayed to continue the duty that the elves swore to uphold at the dawn of time - to watch over the forests, their homeland, and prevent the spread of corruption and wild magic at any cost. They are the Remembrance.

Racial Variation
In general, the elves who left for the new continent tend to be more inclined towards academic study where the elves who stayed are more perceptive and wise. Remembrance elves also tend to be able to use their natural magical affinity in order to be more in tune with nature, whereas Elven Nation elves harness their power towards useful arcane tricks. (Mechanically, Elven Nation elves are 'High Elves' and Remembrance elves are 'Wood Elves') Aesthetically, both types of elf tend towards tanned brown skin and spare, wiry frames, and it would be impossible to tell them apart by sight alone.

Unlike other races who have more distinct racial variations caused by many generations of differences in culture, the elven subrace split is very recent. The race has always been a blend of those who favour nature as a source of magic and those who choose to see magic as created by their own research and intelligence - but the geographical split forced by the Second War means that it's likely that this divide may become much more pronounced in the future, growing from an ideological difference to a genuine physiological one.

Elves are also one of the few races genetically malleable enough to produce crossbreeds, and half elves exist in both Elven Nation and Remembrance communities. However, as these crossbreeds are almost overwhelmingly sterile, no society of half elves has yet emerged.

Finally, elves have their own stories of 'Lethri', or 'feyborn' elves. These elves are either changelings swapped for 'real' elves, elves sired by a fey parent or elves who have otherwise been warped by the corrupting influence of fey magic. Invariably insane, in stories these Lethri elves are often characterised by extreme emaciation, a mane of long white hair and eyes like cats or snakes. Elves have their own customs surrounding these fey-touched individuals, but such things are kept a closely guarded national secret.

General Opinions of Other Races
This represents the general opinion of the elven population – what the average lay-elf might think. There are always exceptions.

•	Humans – Elves see a good deal to respect in humans. They admire their adaptability, and ability to turn their hand to anything. However, that can also be a negative – humans are often seen as meddling where they don’t know what they’re doing, and they can be too quick to act when it would be better to wait and take a long term approach.

•	Halflings – Elves and halflings see the world very differently, and have a completely different societal structure. Despite this, they generally get along well. Elves enjoy the Halfling determination to make the most out of life, even if they’re privately horrified by their obscenely short lives. A good comparison would be if humans were friends with talking dogs.

•	Gnomes – No-one knows anything about Gnomes, meaning elves tend to meet them on a case-by-case basis. In general though, they are probably the closest to elves in terms of their outlook on life and their attitudes towards the world, meaning that when they do meet, elves and gnomes tend to get on well.

•	Dwarves – Even prior to the war, relationships between elves and dwarves were strained. Both sides saw the advantage of working with the other, but generally their aims and attitudes were just too culturally different to ever be compatible. Since the Migration, anti-dwarf sentiment has become common among elves, even to the point of racism – though some are quick to point out that this goes somewhat against a so called ‘meritocratic’ society.

•	Orcs – Elves rarely meet orcs, and there are none in the new elven homeland.

Naming Conventions & Examples
Female Names: Aerona, Andraste, Denne, Helain, Iona, Loriel, Nuala, Seraena, Shala, Xavia

Male Names: Anwe, Farin, Jandar, Haemir, Mylinn, Rael