High Elf
The twisted, malformed remnants of the Sapphire Elves - cursed by the gods forevermore
For those interested in playing a High Elf, one should keep in mind that they are truly immortal with all which that entails - as a race that almost never finds itself able to produce offspring in any meaningful capacity(As doing so triggers the magnification effects of their Sixfold Famine Curse, often plunging entire countrysides into cataclysmic famine and disaster for decades or centuries after, and can often times rapidly lead to The Earthslumber), virtually every High Elf left alive today has been alive for at least tens or hundreds of thousands of years(Sometimes more). For these High Elves, they have often forgotten more in their lives than other creatures will ever know in theirs - forgetting entire memories and lifetimes as a defensive mechanism to avoid the traumas of immortality and flee the ever-encroaching Earthslumber that threatens to slay them if they ever grow too sedentary in their habits, lifestyle, or mannerisms. Thus, those who wish to play this species should consider this aspects of the race when building their character - how long have they lived? What traumas or events have driven them to participate in this adventure? What personality does your High Elf currently possess? What lives have they lived recently? Would any interfere with them as they participate in the adventure? What are they willing to give up to escape The Earthslumber? What memories, traumas, and/or events will they never allow themselves to forget? Have they settled down, or had a family? Do they remember them, if they have? How do they cope with the weight of true immortality, which weighs on them like a cursed shackle? Do they bear a grudge for their race's fall and transformation at the hands of The Yema(And possibly seek to restore their race to its former glory), or do they believe in letting go of the past no matter its pains and traumas so their people can find a better, happier life free of the shackles of that past even if doing so means abandoning what they once were?
Base Racial Traits
Ability Score Modifiers: (-2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma): High Elves were Smart, Charismatic, and Supernaturally Nimble, yet frail of body. Size: High Elves are Medium Sized Creatures, and gain no benefits or penalties due to their size. Type: High Elves are creatures with the Fey type, and need to eat, breathe, and sleep. Speed: High Elves have a base land speed of 30ft. Languages: High Elves begin play speaking the Regional Language(See Languages of Zheng-Kitar) that reflects their origins, and Sylvan. High Elves with high INT may choose any non-secret languages as a bonus language. Vision: High Elves, thanks to their Fey heritage, possess low light vision. Ruined Immunities: High Elves gain immunity to all aging and polymorph effects, and gain a racial +4 bonus on saves vs diseases, poisons, and any ability originating from a swarm or vermin-type creature. They also gain a racial +2 bonus on any save made versus an effect with the Fire, Cold, Acid, or Electricity descriptors. A Million Lives and Names: High Elves, out of sheer biological necessity in the face of true immortality, have learned to isolate and abandon part or all of their mind to remain sane - High Elves are capable of 'recalling' aspects of their infinitely long lives by sacrificing current ones. The forms this can take are many and varied, ranging from forgetting current feats or racial traits to take others, forgetting certain selections for class features to take on others, to even simply remembering information pertinent to the current situation by giving up equally vital memories or knowledge, or even, ultimately, giving up their entire identity and class levels to become an entirely new person. The bigger the exchange, the more effort, time, and materials are required to do so - but this trait is limited largely only by player creativity and GM allowance. Sixfold Sight: One of the few aspects of their old existences which has not dulled in their new cursed forms, High Elves gain a racial +4 bonus to perception as well as Signature Skill(Perception). High Elves may also magnify their sight similar to binoculars or telescopes infinitely - though they require exponentially greater time and energy(Oftentimes supplies of magical energy) to fuel their sight to its very highest limits. At higher levels of focus, their vision may, at random, begin to allow them to perceive in anomalous ways - either through time, through illusions, or so on. At more moderate levels(reached by intense concentration), High Elves can enhance their vision to allow them to see the makeup of creatures, objects, terrain, or so on within their line of sight - allowing them to see their bodily health, presence of foreign contaminants, general structural or physical wellbeing, and so on(Growing in power and granularity with greater concentration). At GM discretion(And player creativity), a High Elf may attempt to use their enhanced sight for other things while concentrating - though one should always keep in mind that stronger effects may be difficult to control or come with backlash. High Elven Magic: Though they are only rare born with the ability to use it, High Elves retain a potent shard of their former magical prowess - High Elves treat their level as 2 higher for the purposes of all spells and spell-like abilities that have varying numerical effects for range, damage, etc depending on their level. This increase can break the maximum for spell aspects such as damage(Allowing spells like Shocking Grasp to exceed 5 damage die). The Changing Flesh: High Elves, now so utterly reliant on the wonders of the First World to survive, have come to embody some of their physiology and gain DR 5/Cold Iron. They are also treated as having both the Fey and Humanoid type for the purposes of spells and effects that go off type. Immortal's Mastery: High Elves, cursed with eternal life and the boredom it begets, treat all skills as class skills, and can choose one ability score at dawn each day - until the next dawn, they gain a racial +4 bonus to all skills that use that ability score. High Elves also gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choosing as a bonus feat at every 4HD, and treat their HD as 5 higher for the effects of the Signature Skill feat. Faith Vulnerability: A potent weakness instilled in them by the gods, High Elves must make a moderate to high difficulty will save(DC determined by GM using foe's highest mental stat) when a foe spends a standard action presenting a holy symbol of a faith they genuinely believe in - on a failed save, they are Shaken and Sickened for 1 minute, lose Spell Resistance, DR, the effects of the 'Our Beauty Forever Lost' racial trait, and immunities gained from their race for 1 minute, and become staggered for 1 round. A successful save reduces the duration of 1 minute effects to 1 round, and negates the stagger. Our beauty forever lost: High Elves, forever barred from their original forms, now resemble unnaturally thin and repulsive insectoid-humanoids in their "true" forms. However, in an effort to hide their greatest shame, High Elves have developed an Elemental Glamer to allow themselves to control their appearance - allowing themselves to appear as any humanoid, plant, or animal they desire. This is an extraordinary ability that they can raise or lower at-will, but is disrupted naturally during moments of extreme stress, trauma, or emotion. Curse of the Sixfold Famine: One of the greatest of the curses laid upon them by the gods, the High Elves are forever severed from the natural world they once cherished so deeply - High Elves gain Spell Resistance equal to 13 + their hit die to represent their near-total severance from the natural forces of reality, and treat all weapons or natural weapons they wield or possess as having the Bane weapon special quality against creatures of the Plant, Animal, and Elemental Types. In addition, due to this curse, they bring rot and ruination to the lands which they walk - depleting the six elements of reality in stronger and stronger ways the longer they remain in the same area. This effect magnifies exponentially in close proximity to other High Elves, though High Elves are immune to such effects themselves. Mark of Tenfold Vengeance: The most vile and profane curse laid upon them by the gods, the High Elves bear intricate runic markings etched across their body that bear ten distinct and different curses(each woven by a different one of the Yema ' Major Gods') that were woven together into a condemnation that doomed them to walk the realms eternally until the end of all things. Though largely impossible to control, High Elves can safely invoke the power of the markings 1/day as an immediate action to reflect one instance of damage they would take back upon the source tenfold as unavoidable and unresistable damage(And may be used in small flavor ways at GM discretion) which cannot drop the target below 1HP(Though it can destroy objects and other non-creatures) - though doing so automatically breaks any glamers or illusions they are under which are altering their appearance and prevents their re-establishment for 1 minute. Attempting to use this trait more than once per day is possible, but invariably leads to disastrous and often lethal consequences for them and all those around them. This trait activates automatically(And bypasses the 1HP restriction) when the High Elf would take damage or suffer an effect that would prove lethal to them - though the attacker is made aware of this in a vague and foreboding manner(As if the universe itself condemns the act of their death), and may choose to continue or cancel their attack or effect accordingly.
Basic Information
Anatomy
High Elves have bodies that were simultaneously both timeless and incredibly chaotic. They have two legs and two arms attached to a central torso, and a head that protrudes from the top of their torso. While their appearances and several internal bodily processes such as their metabolism are frozen in time and unable to truly change, their internals and bodily makeup by contrast are incredibly receptive to change to an almost extreme, fey-like degree. Though they have an incredibly hard time gaining weight thanks to their timeless metabolisms, their bodies are incredibly quick to change through tanning, strength training, or even simply adapting to their environment.
Though they are timeless, their bodies are freakishly quick to adapt to their surrounding conditions such as frigid cold, scorching heat, or other environmental conditions...it is this chaotic makeup that often earns them the favor of the Fey, who appreciate their constant change and mutable natures. Though their internals are consistent enough to allow for precision strikes to deal immense damage to them, nearly everything about them, including their bones and musculature, can be moved or shifted or changed without concerted effort.
Biological Traits
High Elves are incredibly varied and different creatures, and depending on their home environments they can take on a variety of external and internal traits accordingly. When living in chaotic environs such as the Feywild, their skin and hair and even bodily features can morph and change color and shape accordingly to represent their home...and similarly, locales such as extreme heat, underwater or cold, and etcetera can cause similar changes in their bodily look and makeup. Given time, extended life in such locales can cause drastic changes in their bodies such as gills to survive underwater, heat-resistant skin to survive in the desert or extreme heat, and so on...though this process often takes generations, it nonetheless happens extremely quicker compared to normal rates of adaptation in other species.
Genetics and Reproduction
High Elves are capable of sexual reproduction and can birth and have children among each other, but due a combination of their eternal lifetimes and an incredibly low natural fertility rate, High Elves rarely desire to or give birth to new children and instead prefer to go about living their lives as normal. Their bodies are capable of mating with some other lifeforms, but are outright incompatible for most forms of life that are more stable or impermanent such as Dwarves or Goliaths...as such, they often prefer to engage in relationships with members of their own race to have children but rarely can and do get with other chaotic races such as Fey to have children.
When they do decide to engage in sexual relations, High Elves rarely become pregnant...barely one in a hundred High Elves who have relations with each other or another compatible race produce a child as a result of the coupling. When they do come down with Child, High Elven females carry their children within them until they reach maturation in their wombs, a process which on average takes 9-15 months...but can for nearly as long as they desire to prolong the process.
Once born, High Elven children reach adulthood after 50 to 65 years, during which time they are often taken along on the adventures their parents embark on...but once they become adults, they are often left to their own devices.
Growth Rate & Stages
Once they hit adulthood, High Elves never grow older or age in any capacity and, upon reaching adulthood are often abandoned or left behind by their parents to pursue their own desires or adventures throughout the Planescape...as such, they are often taught of their own special lives and the fleeting impermanence of other creatures and are often stricken with wanderlust and are uncaring for other less permanent life.
However, they must always be wary of The Earthslumber, for if they settle down and stop their explorations, their bodies will rapidly calcify and begin the process the Earthslumber forces upon all High Elves eventually...until their eventual demise.
Ecology and Habitats
High Elves are highly adaptable thanks to their primordial chaotic natures, but because of this chaotic nature and their eternal lifespans they loathe residing in 'boring' environments and prefer to settle instead in highly unpredictable and wild locales...which often leads them to the Feywilds or other similar places within the planes. They often integrate naturally into the places they reside in or take up residence within and rarely form a new settlement or village, instead preferring to enter pre-existing settlements or villages...but regardless of where they integrate into, High Elves rarely approve of or care to do any action which infringes upon their environment or the natural world around them. As beings formed of primordial chaos, they often feel a closer connection to nature than they do the settlement they live in, and often take care to preserve it or at least not infringe upon it during the actions their home takes to survive.
Because of this incredible adaptability and desire to settle in wild and interesting locales, when they choose to reside within these extreme locales they often soon adapt to their home environment and give birth to entirely new sub-species as they settle down...which leads to their ancestors in races such as the Desert and Forest Elves, and even the Cloud and Sea Elves...all can be traced back to the whimsical adventures of their High Elven ancestors, who have long since moved on to more interesting pastures.
Dietary Needs and Habits
High Elves are technically omnivores, but they tend to prefer eating plants, crops, and other natural things rather than items taken from animals or other living creatures. They believe these simple, natural ingredients are delicious meals all their own, and when elevated through cooking or intelligent preparation become beautiful, complex dishes that can delight any palette moreso than a simple butchered animal carcass prepared over heat...which they generally see as simplistic food. However, while many High Elves may hold personal compunctions against eating meat or animal products, it is not a race-wide restriction.
Biological Cycle
High Elves are entirely immune to the passing of time and have no meaningful biological cycle. Once they hit maturity, they will never age or grow in any meaningful fashion beyond simple cosmetic changes such as hair growth, nail growth, or similar minor things. Their metabolisms are not only hyperactive, but they are nearly perfect and High Elves almost never gain weight in any meaningful fashion aside from strength and/or muscle training.
This immortality is attributed to the roiling, primordial chaos that all High Elves were formed from which churns within them and, thanks to studies done by curious High Elven scholars, has been discovered to not truly 'freeze' their insides in time like was initially thought but instead simply keeps their bodily processes operating at peak efficiency for all time, completely preventing natural bodily decay and the normal degradation that normally comes with possessing living bodies. Their bodily functions operate perfectly, with no waste, and will never decay or degrade no matter how much time passes. A High Elf, for example, never experiences memory loss, never gets shorter of breath, and never experiences the side effects that normally come with a body that would degrade over decades or centuries.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Though the belief is a bit barbaric and outdated, a very popular folk tale and belief told the nigh-supernatural effectiveness of High Elven Eyes as magical tools, alchemical ingredients, and simply valuable items said to be able to see through all barriers and gaze upon the truth of the world.
Facial characteristics
High Elves have extremely elongated, slender faces that are often neither masculine nor feminine...they are almost genderless in their beauty and aesthetic, but vaguely resemble insectoids in their appearance with multiple eyes and strangely-shaped head with extremely sunken and hollow cheeks. Their ears are extremely long and tapered to a point, and their eyes are slender and narrow, but this can vary from person to person. Their lips are often thin, and their hair tends to be long and flowing and rarely curly. They have trouble growing beards of any kind, and facial hair is almost unheard of for High Elves, as their timeless visages almost never allow hair to grow on their chins or faces.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
High Elves can be found almost anywhere within the Planescape, though they rarely care to visit the Prime Material Plane...when they do visit the Material Plane, they never emerge in the same location twice and often wander about in erratic, whimsical paths that take them wherever their hearts desire. They tend to settle and stay longest in areas of extreme chaos or turbulence where they may have plenty of things to entertain them...in this way, they are often found in incredibly unpredictable natural locations such as the Feywild or other more chaotic nations or groups where they might be entertained longest.
Average Intelligence
High Elves are incredibly intelligent beings, and are often incredibly wise as a natural consequence of their extremely long lifespans. Their intelligence is often unfathomable to mortal ken, and can reach incredibly heights as they live their lives accruing knowledge and intelligence without hindrance.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Thanks to their Fey ancestry and the primordial chaos that they carry inside them that closely links them to the Feywild, High Elves can see excellently in conditions of low-light. They are also highly sensitive to magic and planar barriers or portals, and some among them can even intrinsically sense such things when they come near them.
Otherwise, they generally possess the normal five senses other races do, but as another sign of Fey heritage High Elves process all sensory input and perception at nearly twice the speed and efficiency of other races. They can see more color, smell more subtle aromas, and altogether "process" senses so quick they consider other races with normal processing speeds "slow" and "dull". They can see a beautiful spectrum of nearly all visible light and have such an enhanced sensory suite they often consider the mere act of feeling and seeing as they do a delight for one's senses and mind.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
High Elven names more closely relate to those of the fey than they do of the mortal plane, and as such, vary wildly and are incredibly chaotic. Some may be incredibly long, proud titles full of heritage, history, and family, while others may be guttural syllables and short intonations that barely count as names as most know them. While High elves have gender, their names are rarely gender-exclusive, so it is not uncommon for a name to apply to both sexes.
Male: Gregoribyl, Borsilaxin, Xa, Huric, Kol, Drystyntopilusondria, etc...
Female: Melanathiriel, Yulafrescoria, Elegancia, Syl, Ri, Ai, etc...
History
As the descendants of the legendary Sapphire Elves, the High Elves were created untold millennia ago when the Sapphire Elves were defeated during the closing days of the Age of Sapphires, their Sapphire Skycities grounded and destroyed by the Yema and their species stripped of its connection to the six elements and cursed with The Earthslumber, doomed to wander forever more as punishment for resisting the Yema and attempting to defend the ways of the Old Gods against the selfish ways of the Yema, to no avail.
Though they still hold much of the power and immortality their ancestors did, the High Elves are but pale echoes of what once was, and all but the most base secrets of their ancestors the Sapphire Elves is lost and incomprehensible to them now - the senses and natural affinities required to understand it stripped from them long ago by the Yema. Now they are a people cursed to eternally wander and seek new experiences, lest they go motionless and die.
Alternate Racial Trait List:
Racial Feat List:
Genetic Descendants
Lifespan
Immortal, with limits. See The Earthslumber for more details.
Conservation Status
High Elves are a scattered people who can found in nearly every plane and realm across the Planescape, but despite this disunity they are in no danger and in no need to be protected or conserved.
Average Height
4.9ft - 7.2ft (1.5 - 2.2 Meters)
Average Weight
125 - 220 pounds (55kg - 90kg)
Average Physique
High Elves are supernaturally thin, to the point where one can often see their skin stretching over their bodies leaving their bones very visible beneath their thin skin. They are very lithe and nimble, and lack much muscle mass - indeed, they are quick in both body and mind, and are better suited to nimble motion that brute force. They are creatures of beauty that can be admired regardless of gender, and have an objective beauty and perfection to them that many liken to fine art...no matter one's sensibilities, they cannot help but admit the objective beauty of a High Elf.
However, this is naught but a lie - enshrouded in a constant Glamer that hides their true hideous appearance, High Elves' true appearance is that of a supernaturally gaunt, thin, and almost insectoid-looking beings with many strange eyes and alien bodies, whose legs are bony and thin with vaguely humanoid three-pronged insectoid pads in place of feet and toes. High Elves also have a nearly supernatural presence about them, and radiate an air of eternal mystery and wisdom...which often attracts other lesser creatures to them for one reason or another. Many liken their bodies to be things of otherworldly, quiet serenity....beautiful and serene forms that are often better appreciated from afar, for fear of breaking them if one got too close or touched them...this apparent fragility is perhaps not the truth, but they as a people do little to offset this belief.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
High Elves typically have skin colored accordingly to their environment to an extreme degree - A High Elf in a desert or arid locale for an extended period might develop black, tan, or obsidian skin, while a High Elf in a frozen wasteland might develop frosty blue skin, and fiery red near a volcano, and so on. Their hair adapts accordingly, and is similarly colored.
Related Ethnicities
Related Materials
Descendants of the Sapphire
As direct descendants of the legendary Sapphire Elves, the legendary beings created by the New Gods at the beginning of time to serve as wardens of reality and enforcers of the cosmic balance to balance out the extremes of the other original races, High Elves have an incredible lineage and history...though much of it is now lost to them. Though their ancestors once claimed cosmic mastery of all things and were legendarily powerful beings with a civilization so advanced that they created their now famous Sapphire Skycities, perfect fusions of nature and civilization that floated through the sky powered by the source of all magic itself - so powerful they directly governed the fundamental facets of the world and preached the ways of balance and peace to all creatures, High Elves themselves are now a pale shadow of their ancestors. However, as the Sapphire Elves in time stood against the Yema and named them enemies of the cosmic balance with their selfish ways and sided with The Old Gods to preserve their peaceful, balance-focused teachings and were in time obliterated, the High Elves were the result - poor imitations and descendants of their once-glorious ancestors, cursed with The Earthslumber to ensure they could never again unite to resist the Yema as their ancestors had. Now, they remain as the only race that can even hope to gleam the ancient secrets of the Sapphire Elves - though the blessings bestowed upon their ancestors to control and commune with the very fundamental aspects of reality were stripped from them, many yet hold out hope of one day reclaiming their lost greatness.
First of the Fey
In many ways, the High Elves and by extension their Sapphire Elven ancestors can be called the first of the pureblooded Fey, said to be the children of The Old God Ianerin-Dahmu who created the Feywild and Fey themselves...carrying a spark of primordial nature within them, the High Elves are just as whimsical, capricious, and chaotic as the Fey themselves, and thanks to their curse of The Earthslumber they fit right in with the chaotic Fey, who view the High Elves and their constantly changing natures as kin, honoring them as ancient ancestors and inheritors of the Sapphire Elves' legacy. And while most all High Elves long ago abandoned the Material Plane to seek new experiences across the Planescape, the Feywild is the one place they can truly call home, and the place where they can be found most commonly - the constantly mutating nature of the plane resonates with them very well, and these beautiful, ancient Elves are often found in the company of the fey there, serving in the fey courts, and otherwise living their eternal lives out in the ever-stimulating Feywilds.
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