Elves

Elves are a humanoid race that inhabits the entirety of the known lands. Even if they have little in common with humans as far as culture, history, and genetics, they are perhaps the race the most resembles them, causing them to be tolerated in human settlements, but also to be subject to constant discrimination and to being pictured as inferior, morally corrupt, and criminals.

Society

The Elves of the lands are all part of the same population, even if with the passing of the centuries, they could be at least partly culturally divided according to the same broad categorization of the human cultures that inhabit specific geographical areas.

Another way to set apart different ‘cultural groups’ of elves otherwise is a more practical and very focused on the present one: Elves that live together with humans and under their undisputed rule, Elves that live in remote small rural communities, still under humans rule, but irrelevant enough to be away from the interests of most, and small groups of extremists and terrorists, whose hate of humankind whole is the only thing left in their miserable lives.

Living with humans

Since many generations now Elves live under the heel of Humans, their dominion of the latter having started already centuries before the coming of the Empire, during a time when the Continent was split between many different reigns and cultures were still forming.

The last of the independent Elven reigns and cities indeed, a certain Agapuria, fell to the Highlanders between 600 and 700 years ago, according to the scholars, and no living being remembers a time when the Elves enjoyed a true life of prosperity.

Used to living under the rule of Humans and at their whims since generations, the Elves are used to a life with reduced rights, to occupy only a secondary position, and to not being able to have great aspirations in life, or just accept their position with resigned pragmatism.

Often carrying humble lives at the outskirts of human villages, or even in actual ghettos in the larger towns and cities, despite their mostly subservience and peacefulness, they are still the constant target of oppression, abuse, racism and often unpunished violences.

These, together with the Human prejudice that wants Elves to be lazy, opportunists, untrustworthy and prone to scams and theft, are between the cause that often reduce them to a lives of poverty and hunger, ultimately ending in a self-fulfilling prejudice, as many Elves are forced to rely on small acts of thievery, scams, or prostitution to survive.

The latter especially is becoming an increasingly common phenomena in the big cities since when in the last few months, prostitution of Humans was forbidden, resulting in many young and good-looking women to being forced into prostitution by local thugs, or even by some abusive or desperate families.

Elves do not have access to most of the public or even private services that Humans do, some even explicitly forbidden for them: for instance, Elves (together with Dwarves) are forbidden from occupying any public charge or office, or even serving as regulars in the Army, often the only way for Human commoners to attempt to improve their social status. But they are also forbidden from other things, such as receiving formal education, access to libraries, universities, schools, or public baths (special and often run down baths for non-humans exist in some of the major

Human centers), having an account at the bank, and obviously professing their faiths.

As any other non-humans, they are forbidden to have any public office or to have any position in Empire Institutions. Even just to open a shop they need special licenses for non-humans, which they always fear may be revoked for any reason.

Trying to cope or survive in a Humans led environment, many Elves try their best to hide or cunningly mask their pointy ears..a thing that works in some cases, but more often than not results in them earning even more anger and spite. It is not unheard of for some desperate families that have been cutting the ears of their children at birth or during their early childhood in the hope that will grant them a better life.

In some places life for Elves have become so miserable that some of the younger generations decide to travel at the corners of the world, in few lucky cases forming new isolated, rural communities, but more often than not becoming prey to beasts, ogroids, or other ill-intentioned people.

Some even arriving to entering the depths of the Underworld in search of the legendary Dark Elves, most often with ignorance for the fate that will likely wait them, but some even consciously though perhaps naively preferring slavery to them, than to the Humans.

Isolated communities

The few Elves that live in isolated communities, mostly high in the mountains, deep in the forests, or simply in not-so inhabited lands, are there since centuries, living a modest life of isolation and (mostly) immunity to the discrimination and abuses by the hands of the Humans, a tradeoff with the lack of other benefits of civilization, such as protection from banditry, and the violence of tribes of Ogroids or even from wild beasts.
While these villages are mostly self ruled and often by the same family in a hereditary manner, they all still pay annual tribute to the local Empire authorities, and often have to pay more tributes to local groups of violent people that also often inhabit the same wild territories.

Terrorism

Being subjected to abuse for their whole lives, injustice, or having witnessed the same, perhaps even having suffered the loss of their families or loved ones by the hands of the humans, some Elves begin to nurture a deep hatred towards Humankind. Hate towards the invaders who brought ruins to their culture centuries ago, and that still do, hate towards those that can live in good conditions, often on the shoulders of their Elven brothers and sisters, and that keep their entire population in a condition of effective mass slavery masked by a faint veil of hypocrisy.

Some Elves are brought to join some self-styled group of 'freedom fighters', which are nothing more than terrorists, that do not act only against the Empire and its representatives, but against Humans as a whole, both as

the Empire and Humans have become synonyms, and since the latter have been abusing their kin since way before the Empire came into existence, causing a hate transmitted across generations and that in some cases became greater with them.

These terrorists have little value for the lives of Humans, sometime masking their cruelty to themselves with the some insane excuse such as the fact that the humans were reproducing too quickly, and their population had to be controlled, an error that their ancestors committed thousands of years ago.

These Elves make little distinction among humans, and even if armed objectives or nobles might be often more appealing due to them being a symbol of oppression, it is common for these terrorist groups to be targeting everyone indiscriminately, and sometimes even Dwarves and their own people, in the cases when they live in the human cities, guilty therefore of treason and of being ‘friends’ of the enemy.

To Elves that are found to cooperate with Human authorities to spy on other Elves, some of these rebels offer as quite specific punishment the cutting of the informant’s ears in the shape of a Human's.

Between Elven terrorists it is widespread the habit of using body paint and almost tribal looking tattoos, which together with the equipment and clothing patched up and scratched for its intense use, often makes them look like bandits...which they usually are.

The groups are indeed often ill-equipped, fighting with whatever they can get and even struggling with hunger and food supplies because of their lives in hiding and in wild areas: for this reason they often resort to doing shady deals with bandits, Ogroids, or if lucky even the Ilthir.

Other forms of resistance

Besides this form of extremism, some of the more peaceful Elves have in the past attempted things such as workers strikes and the such, though in most cases these did not end in their favor, but only obtained more repression.

Other and more subtle, indirect forms of resistance have been shown, such as refusing to speaking the Common language, or other small acts of sabotage, like writings on walls or statues, or stubbornly putting subtle symbols of the Old Gods somewhere in Human towns. Though the strongest act of resistance for most Elves is trying to actively preserve their culture, and to fight the attempted cultural wash out the followers of the New Gods are attempting in their regards.

Religion

Elves have always been and still are polytheistic, worshiping their more ancient version of the 'Old Gods' as a whole (see ⁠'The Old Gods: Polytheism'⁠), even if mostly in their own traditional form and pantheon, from which the gods that the Humans called the 'Old Gods' slowly evolved from. Those Elves that claim to worship the New Gods usually do it as they are forced to, even if in most cases both them and their Human overlords understand that such a worship of deities that preach the superiority of Humankind would make little sense. …Even if in some cases, some Elves do honestly believe and respect the New Gods...and some even start to believe in the superiority of Humans, or of other races in general.

Preservation of the elven culture

Given the lack of access to proper education, and their cultural identity being slowly fragmented and destroyed thanks to the conscious efforts of the Inquisition, as well as due to their subjugation and condition of poverty, testimonies of the true ancient identity of the Elven people are slowly getting lost.

Even more so after the last century, when even the last of the elders with some direct memories of the last reign where Elves were totally free, it has become a prime occupation of some Elves to attempt and preserve what they could of their heritage, be it through simply the passing on of stories and anecdotes, the writing of journals or even books, and even more importantly, the preservation remaining pieces of art and literature that dated back to the ancient times where a cohesive culture did exist. This meant that hidden in the basements of some otherwise very ordinary houses or refuges, lie at times some small treasures, both in terms of cultural

importance, and monetary, since these artifacts and books are now extremely rare and offer very good prices in the black markets.

Many Elves, especially those living with Humans, since they are barred from receiving official education, also attempt to organize some forms of underground schools or classes to attend for their children or even just for themselves, where they teach each other about their culture, language, traditions, but also how to be good at a craft, or even share tips on how to survive and prosper, or how to trick the Humans for their own benefits.

History

Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the elves created magnificent cities and palaces from which they worshiped their ancient gods and governed the lands, in a period that is pictured by the Elves living in the present as a mythical golden age, where there was only peace and prosperity, famines were nonexistent, and people were rich enough to be able to dedicate themselves mostly to art and living a good life. The development of this view was certainly influenced by a tradition of Elven Stories that were told from generation to generation: simple child stories containing little to nothing of real events, but that did shape the imagination of each generation, making it so that some of the most naive and dreamy Elves would believe in the existence of these mythical palaces made of glass or marble, as well as of unicorns and flying white horses and those knight in white armor that used to ride them…some of the more pragmatic Elves on the contrary completely despise these images of a fantasy world in pink, claiming it serves only to feed a wrong and self-imposed stereotype, but in reality, many Elves and small ‘house artists’ are still dedicated at picturing idyllic places and fantastic creatures.

Either way, when the Humans started to diffuse and become a more common sight (see ⁠human-conquest ), the Elves started to allow them in their rich cities, considering them inferior and irrelevant, but with the passing of a few millennia, the extremely faster reproduction rates of Humans, together with their comparable strength and intelligence, made them slowly become an uncomfortable majority in the world, both in their own towns, and even in the ones of the Elves, where they would start to demand a more important presence, and slowly coming to inevitably obtain it, either through acceptance, compromise, or revolts, with the already independently formed smaller Human kingdoms often supporting if not fomenting the latter, until they took over, or gained more advantageous and ‘friendly’ partners.

This gradual evolution of things, first relegated the Elves

into positions of secondary importance, then ending up replacing them and their culture entirely.

The city state of Agapuria has been the only remaining example of a fully independent Elven kingdom for a few centuries, but even if it did not fall to other bordering kingdoms, it slowly collapsed over the very pressure of being the only place in the world where Elves were free: receiving a constant immigration form the whole continent, until it was simply impossible to feed and house everyone, springing the beginning of unrest, famine, and epidemics which prompted a complete societal collapse, and the diaspora of its inhabitants.

What remained of the city, a former shadow of the glorious capital, was finally conquered a few dozen years later by a smaller and almost irrelevant kingdom of the Highlands about 600-700 years ago, whose name is even lost in time.

Biology

Elves have a prolonged lifespan of up to 500 or some claim even 600 years, more often than not reaching an end due to disease or even violence, instead of running their course, making their life expectancy almost half of that. Their maturity is reached at 72 years old, as their physical and mental development is about four times slower than Humans. They then persist in a stage of adulthood for most of their lives.

Their fertility however is extremely limited, between about 72 and 130 years old (18-24 in human equivalent), with prolonged pregnancies that need to have at least a period of about 10 years between one another. This causes an elf female to manage usually no more than 2-3 pregnancies in her lifetime, making reproduction a difficult and precious business. Their fertility is however increased and extended in time with other species such as humans, but these hybrids are infertile and in most cases the result of abuse and unwanted pregnancies.

(Note: Half-Elves are not currently playable)

Often naturally lithe due to their metabolism, their frail constitution makes them prefer temperate climates, even if it does not particularly influence their resistance to

diseases: however the lack of access to medicine and their often poor living conditions, makes diseases a sadly common cause of death.

Appearance

They have pointy ears and are often tall and lean, often looking youthful even when they are not, due to their prolonged lifespan. Their features are otherwise very varied, much like humans. Only their eyes tend to always assume lighter shades.

Elves mostly dress according to the region they live in, similarly to their human counterparts, though they instinctively often have a slight tendency of wearing lighter and less restrictive clothing.

All Elves though, mostly wear clothes of simple, cheap materials, more often than not consumed and old due to their condition of poverty, which would be comparable both for those living in the human cities, and those living in the small remote villages, and even more for those that gave themselves to banditry and terrorism.

Relations with other races

Elves usually live peacefully with humans and Dwarves, the last few generations used to a life in the shadow of humans. They never occupy important positions in human society, usually relegated to the most humble of works, or otherwise to their own neighborhoods and villages. They usually see Dwarves as another race that just like them has been subject to the same fate of subservience to the Humans. Terrorist groups of Elves have been rumored to be in contact with shady Dark Elf merchants, trading captives in exchange for ores, metals, weapons and other resources which they do not have access to, or are able to produce while in hiding. These Elves that live in isolation are often in contact and enjoy peaceful relations with Faefolk, and can be quite racist as well depending on their ideology, the more isolationist ones share a common feeling of superiority or disdain towards other races, the more different the other races look, the greater the disdain…much similarly

to Humans. Otherwise the typical Elven commoner has only access to the same legends as the Humans regarding scary people that live in caves, or about monstrous animal-like creatures that cunningly seduce people, or that hunt and devour the careless travelers, as well as they know about the dangerous, tribal and violent Ogroids.

How to play

If living in Elven and Fae settlements, be isolationist, likely try to keep anything that is not an Elf or Faefolk from entering the areas around your settlement, perhaps even resorting to the use of violence. These isolationists often find themselves in conflict against Beastkin and Ogroids, focusing on the survival of their small communities against these aggressive threats. Ilthir and Tlatlacah, but especially Humans are also potential dangers but at least the first are usually too far and too few to be a pressing and common concern.

As an Elven rebel/bandit/terrorist, you can organize acts of sabotage if not even terrorism against Human settlements, most of the times seeing all humans as the same, independently from how they claim they feel respect to the Empire. You are a fundamentalist and a terrorist. Given the scarcity of resources and even more of proper tools available in the wild areas you are forced to hide in to conduct your guerrilla or attacks, you should focus on finding some sources that will fund your actions. They say sometimes the Ilthir offer these opportunities, but perhaps also some groups of bandits.

If living in a human settlement, you are likely resigned to a life of discrimination, or try to still achieve something in your life, be your goals modest or not. You might hate or dislike your oppressors, or be pragmatic and realize that things are likely not going to change, and just hope you can be left in peace if you don’t make yourself ‘too visible’.

Most elves though would just try to live a simple life as best as they can in a world that has gradually become harsher for them, trying to use their skills to survive and perhaps obtain something positive in life. The fight for keeping their cultural and racial identity alive is also central for many Elves, with some even ready to give their lives for this greater cause.

Characteristics

(see Table of racial characteristics)
Languages: Common, Elven
Height limits 162 to 189 cm

Authors: Rashan

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Note: There are no "Wood Elves", or “Wild Elves” in this setting.

Lands of Tyranny

Day 1 of The Philosopher, Year 414