Sea Elves

Children of the Deep Tides

Overview

To most folk in Leilon and Neverwinter, sea elves are a mixture of curiosity, ally, and rumor. They are glimpsed when surfacing from the waves, or seen at a distance when ships pass close to reefs. Sailors describe them as graceful but aloof, more like dolphins than neighbors.

What most mortals forget — or choose not to think about — is that the sea elves are not scattered tribes. They belong to a great undersea civilization, with kingdoms and empires stretching far across the Sword Coast and into oceans beyond. The elves who rise in the shallows near Leilon are not rootless wanderers, but envoys and guardians of a realm older than most human cities.

The Greater Empire

The sea elves of the Sea of Swords are but one reach of a vast empire that claims dominion across trenches, coral palaces, and ancient drowned ruins. In their own tongue, they call this realm the Thalassian Concord, though sailors shorten it to “the Deep Empire.”

Legends claim the Concord’s heart lies far to the south and west, where coral spires rise taller than mountains and pearl domes glow with light enough to rival the sun. The elves near Neverwinter are considered peripheral folk, charged with guarding the edge of the empire and maintaining uneasy contact with land-dwellers.

Neverwinter’s View

In Neverwinter, sea elves are treated as exotic allies. Merchants enjoy trading pearls, coral, and rare fish in exchange for crafted goods, but dealings are infrequent. The Lord of Neverwinter keeps polite ties with their envoys, though few citizens have ever spoken to one directly.

Most commoners think of sea elves as noble but strange — not quite trustworthy, but not hostile either. Their presence is accepted as part of the city’s cosmopolitan bustle, though many still whisper prayers when one walks ashore.

Leilon’s View

In Leilon , opinions are more tangled. The miners and fisherfolk respect the sea elves’ prowess against sahuagin and worse horrors of the deep, but also mutter that the elves care more for their own hidden palaces than for the town’s troubles.

• Sailors crossing to nearby islands sometimes see sea elves shadowing their boats, neither hostile nor helpful.
• Miners claim the elves sometimes warn them when digging too close to flooded veins.
• Children are warned never to mock or throw stones at the elves if they appear on shore, lest the sea itself take offense.

To House Vexmoor, the elves are a complication — another potential buyer for feystone, but also a reminder that the sea is filled with powers beyond their control.

Relations with Other Powers

• With the Fey: The sea elves claim kinship with the Feywild, though in a distant, almost embarrassed way. They revere the moonlit tides, but reject the politics of Seelie and Unseelie.
• With Sahuagin: The enmity is ancient and endless. Where elves dwell, sahuagin test the borders.
• With Mortals: The elves accept the surface folk as temporary allies but rarely as equals. They measure time in centuries, and see coastal towns as brief sparks in the long night of the sea.

Local Sayings

• “The sea elves swim with us when the tide is kind, and vanish when the tide turns.”
• “A ship can make port, but the sea belongs to them.”