Elf

The elves cultivate a powerful mystique among the other demihumans in part because of their natural magical aptitude, alien customs and appearance, and remarkable longevity. They are descended from demihuman slaves of the giants who escaped through Astral Space into reaches unknown, traveling the multiverse in a spelljammer armada. They returned during the Apocalypse of the Fourth World, signaling the end of the Time of Demons as their arcane knights spilled out of the sky in great flying ships, during the Stellar Rosades. While their numbers and light have dwindled due to that great cataclysmic war with the demonic tanar’ri, this has made them (in their eyes) the natural aristocracy of the world they “saved,” and elves are far less isolationist as a rule in Uskara as they are in the default setting, though their strange natures and long lives make them just as aloof as expected.   Elves are lithe and slender, one of the taller races of demihumans but still shorter than quicklings and ogres, averaging at about five foot tall. They can live over a thousand years, maybe more. They reach maturity in their early twenties like the dwarves do, but other elves do not consider them true adults until after a century of life experience, essentially making their first century an extended period of adolescence. Their eyes have no visible scelera, as their pupils are so wide as to dominate their eyes. They are naturally, regardless of culture, extremely fair of complexion and feature. Unless dyed, their hair is always some shade of blonde, white, or platinum, sometimes with faint indigo, violet, or magenta hues. However, they also have the unique trait of being extremely adaptable to their environment, something magically engineered during their astral travels, and begin to reflect the colors of their surrounding environment over the course of decades of living there. For instance, elves who live in forests might gain green hues and reddish skin. They have the sharpest senses of most of the demihumans (though lack the natural darkvision of dwarves), which in part accounts for their association with archery rather than any cultural affinity. Their long lives and alien nature (for instance, they do not sleep or dream, are limited hermaphrodites as their sex can change over their lifetimes, and they eat and drink far less due to a natural photosynthesis) mean they have natural difficulty relating to other races. Elves are somewhat naturally frail, having spent eons in the zero-gravity and directionless void of Astral Space, and used to have an innate form of levitation that some manifest late in life. Scholars believe that the original demihumans that became elves were similar in size, stature, and nature to the gnomes, who some speculate are the Feywild reflection of those ancestors. The elves themselves mourn the loss of their wings, and have a strong affinity for birds and other feathered creatures.   Elves are the paragons of the Veylish, descendants of those who have tried to better integrate with other demihumans rather than standing apart from them as their Palladian cousins do, though some have adapted the more pastoral culture of their Cradish vassals, and others (the Shalish) have attempted to reclaim ancient ways of living as one with nature, as they believe they did before the Great Sojourn. Elves can be found everywhere, however, especially among the aristocracy. Intermarriage between elves and the aristocracy of other cultures is a major way they have spread their cultural hegemony and influence, and has made veelas (half-elves) a common sight among the nobility. In addition to the rulers of the Commonwealth, there is also a breakaway culture of elves in Zafara called the Herathbled, who attempt to meet the decline of their culture by embracing a highly anarchic and violent culture. Even darker are the legends of the draal, an Illbred race descended from either deserters of the Stellar Rosades, or perhaps captives of their demonic foes. Elvish lineages organize into houses rather than clans, in which adoption as well as birthright is as much a path into it, and the terminology has count on among the aristocracy of most demihumans.