Wild Elves

• Humanoid but with slightly elongated canines, nails that thicken into claw-like hardness when excited or afraid, and wider pupils that slit slightly in bright light.
• Their joints allow for extreme ranges of motion, letting them contort through narrow spaces or land from surprising heights.
• Scent glands at the base of the neck and inner wrists are used to mark family, packmates, and sometimes trees along their territory.

• Rapid Reflex Cycle: Wild elves process sensory data slightly faster than most humanoids, giving them quicker reactions and startling burst speeds.
• Partial Physiological Adaptation: Over decades, they may develop minor traits echoing their bonded beast — sharper night vision for a wolf-bonded, faint climbing pads for a panther-bonded, even a subtle musk for a stag-bonded elf.
• Empathic Channels: Feel emotions from their beast companion with visceral clarity, sharing fear, hunger, and joy directly.

• Roughly 13-month gestation like other elves.
• Slightly higher birth rate, averaging 3–4 children, though many perish young due to harsh lifestyles.
• Wild elven children often show early fixations on tracking bugs, pouncing on siblings, or stalking birds, leading elders to playful debates on what beast might someday claim them.

• Childhood: Until ~40. Playful, full of mock hunts and pack games.
• Adolescence: ~40–90. Begin serious tracking lessons, herbal lore, stealth contests.
• Bonding: Typically ~90–110. After the rite, considered full adults.
• Maturity: Their physical peak spans nearly 300 years.
• Old Age: From ~400 on, slow slightly but often still terrifyingly quick by human standards.

• Thrive in old growth forests heavy with brambles, rock outcrops, and hidden dens.
• Build homes into living trees, hollowed logs, or woven from reeds and living moss that provide natural camouflage.
• Many structures are intentionally ephemeral, meant to be abandoned and rebuilt so the forest always reclaims its due.

• Omnivores but place spiritual significance on the hunt.
• Always offer prayers or leave small tokens for prey spirits.
• Share kills communally; the best cuts are given to elders, bond-beasts, and children.
• Store excess in cool underground caches lined with pungent herbs to deter scavengers.

• Mood and energy shift with the seasons.
• Spring: playful, adventurous, flush with mating contests and mock duels.
• Summer: expansive, border-marking, often taking long patrols.
• Autumn: more territorial, hold harvest hunts, prepare communal caches.
• Winter: introspective, gather by great fires to retell stories, bond with beasts in long shared sleeps.

• Highly social within their pack, sharing everything from food to sleeping dens.
• Among strangers, wary and watchful, relying on nonverbal cues — sniffing the air, narrowing eyes, ears twitching.
• In confrontation, favor intimidation first: low growls, baring teeth, quick darting movements meant to test an opponent’s nerve.

• Live in packs or extended family clans, each led by a Tharn, chosen by prowess and often backed by the respect of powerful beasts.
• Hierarchies are fluid; even a young hunter who makes a legendary kill or saves the pack from a dire threat can earn immediate, immense esteem.

• Broad cheeks tapering to pointed chins, slightly flared nostrils for enhanced scenting, and lips that naturally rest in a faint smile or snarl.
• Some file their teeth slightly to match their bonded beast’s fangs.

• Found throughout the Vale’s wilder areas.
• Known to maintain “ghost camps” deeper than even moon elves travel, places only the pack knows, surrounded by silent alarm wards.

• Highly intelligent but express it through tactics, survival strategy, herbal medicine, and storytelling rather than scholarly pursuits.

• Can scent emotional pheromones like fear or lust in humanoids.
• Many develop the gift to see faint ley echoes left by passing animals.
• Some older wild elves claim to hear the forest itself breathe.

• Names are short, visceral, meant to be barked or whispered in urgency. Often gain a new name after their bonding.
• Examples: Fen, Ryn, Kael, Lira, Tor, Ysa.
• Pack names tie to terrain or great hunts: Thorntrace, Stonejaw, Ashpelt.

• Revere scars, tattoos that echo claw marks or thorn vines, muscular or lithe frames.
• Feathers, bones, and small trophies from the first hunt with their bonded beast often worn as earrings or braided into hair.

They see gender as fluid and secondary to primal bonds; often described in terms of roles within the hunt or family — who leads the chase, who guards the den, who nurtures kits.

• Partnerships frequently begin after shared hunts.
• Sometimes entire triads or quartets form, bound as much by their beasts’ harmony as by physical attraction.

• Master weavers of living fibers, clever with bone, hide, and obsidian tools.
• Use alchemical pastes from crushed herbs and fungi to poison darts or soothe wounds.

• Speak Sylvanelle in a clipped, rough cadence, supplemented by growls, whistles, and scent markings.

• Greeting is by brushing noses or temples to share breath and scent.
• Never stare directly into another’s eyes unless challenging or courting.

• Simple wraps of leather, fur cloaks that break up their silhouettes, many pieces designed to be shed instantly if grappled.
• Paint bodies with mud, clay, or crushed leaf pigments before hunts.

• Oral histories recounted with elaborate physical reenactments around fires.
• Hold Spirit Chases, ceremonial hunts without weapons where the quarry is chased purely to test skill.
• Decorate their territories with totems built from bones, antlers, and woven vines.

• Bonding of the Hunt: At adulthood, each elf ventures alone, fasting, then tracking until a beast’s spirit accepts them. This becomes a lifelong companion.
• Blood Oaths: Before grand hunts or battles, slash palms to mingle blood over their beasts’ heads.
• Feast of First Fangs: When a bonded beast makes its first solo kill, the elf hosts a feast in its honor.
• Whisper Games: Silent competitions of stealth through the forest at night, judged by who leaves the least trace.
• Spirit Shrines: Build hidden altars from antlers, skulls, and vines to honor the souls of prey taken.

• Killing or abandoning one’s bonded beast is the greatest sin — such elves are exiled or slain.
• Taking more from a kill than is needed is a disgrace to the forest spirits.