Sea Elf
The Elves who dwell beneath the waves, and live in the ocean's depths
At GM's discretion, Sea Elf Characters may be allowed to start play with one technological item of their choosing - either for purchase, for free, or for the purposes of which items they have studied for their Technopath racial trait below. Consult your GM to determine details. This item could reasonably be flavored in any way that best fits the setting and the GM's own tastes - be it truly mechanical, bio-mechanical(Or truly organic technology), magi-technology, etc.
Base Racial Traits
Ability Scores: (+4 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 Charisma, -2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom): Sea Elves, having evolved to survive on the ocean floor surrounded by deadly beasts the size of cities in an environment of utmost lethality, are ferociously strong and resilient as a result, and often possess a rugged charm born of hardship. However, they often lack agility and worldly wisdom due to lives lived so far removed from 'normality'. Type: Sea Elves are Humanoids with the Elf and Aquatic subtypes. They breathe perfectly in both air and water as if they had the Waterbreathing and Amphibious Special Qualities and/or Universal Monster Rules. Size: Sea Elves are Medium Sized Creatures. Speed: Sea Elves have a base land speed of 20 feet, and a Swim speed of 50ft. For each day Sea Elves remain outside of an underwater or oceanic environment, their swim speed converts into additional base land speed at a rate of 10ft per day - until their speeds swap to 50ft base land and 20ft swim. This functions in reverse while they are within an underwater/oceanic environment. Sea Elves always treat Swim as a class skill. Senses: Sea Elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of low-light, and have Darkvision out to 60ft. While underwater, their darkness is replaced by the See in Darkness UMR. Languages: Sea Elves begin play speaking the Regional Language(See Languages of Zheng-Kitar) that reflects their origins, and Aquan. A Sea Elf with high INT can choose from the following languages:(Aklo, Old Elven, Elderspeech, Sylvan, Common, Aboleth, Baltairi, and Necril) Sea Elven Immunities: Sea Elves gain Cold Resist 15 as well as immunity to sleep and polymorph effects, and gain a +2 racial bonus on all saves made vs any effect that would Entangle, Paralyze, or inhibit their movement. Sea Elven Magic: Sea Elves may as a free action increase the range of spells with the [Water] or [Cold] descriptors they cast by one step(Or otherwise double the spell's range if not applicable). Such spells also lasts twice as long as normal and gain +1 DC when they cast them. Top of the Food Chain: Sea Elves may at dawn each day swap out any one feat they possess for any feat they do not possess which they otherwise meat the prerequisites for. Sea Elves may ignore any one Non-Hit Die/Level, Non-BAB Prerequisite when taking combat feats(Though they can ignore class prerequisites), and can swap between or draw weapons or held items(Even those they have stored in bags of holding) as a free action - allowing them to literally swap to different weapons or items for each attack they make in a given turn if they so choose. Scaly Skin: Sea Elves gain a +4 racial bonus to their natural armor due to the beautifully durable scales covering their body, and gain +8 to their CMD when fully submerged in water, which decreases to +4 when not totally submerged. Sea Elves take no penalties from Underwater Combat and can fight as well as they can on land. Palm Nozzles: Sea Elves, possessing organic 'nozzles' in their palms and soles used to emit and manipulate water(Typically for swimming), can use these nozzles to emit bursts of saltwater(Or freshwater, though doing so is exponentially more taxing for them) when above water(Used for a variety of purposes, GM Discretion) or to control and manipulate water while underwater. As an immediate action when hit by Piercing or Slashing Damage or when attacking, Sea Elves may make a Bull Rush attempt against themselves or another creature within 30ft that does not provoke at a +10(Doubled vs themselves) to the attempt using their nozzles. Vocal Harmonics: Sea Elves, possessing voices of legendary beauty, gain Perform(Sing) as a class skill, and gain a +4 racial bonus to it. They also gain the Sound Mimicry Universal Monster Rule and can use Perform(Sing) in place of Bluff Checks for that ability. Sea Elves may also use Perform(Sing) in place of any one CHA-based skill of their choosing(Similar to Versatile Performance), and gain +1 to the DC of language-dependant effects they cast. Internal Pressure Pump: Possessing a unique internal organ to regulate their bodily pressure at extreme depths, Sea Elves are immune to the harmful effects of deep-water environments and other high-pressure or high-gravity environments. Additionally, thanks to this potent internal regulator organ, Sea Elves take half damage from all Bludgeoning Damage as their bodies automatically match and repulse the bludgeoning pressure. This only applies to attacks that deal only bludgeoning damage. Danger Sense: Sea Elves, having evolved a potent 'intution' to sense the strength of potential foes, can determine the general combat prowess of a creature within their line of sight by studying them as a full-round action - which manifests as an "itch", "shiver", or similar bodily impulse or biological response of a strength and/or severity depending on the power of the creature examined. Sea Elves gain a general sense for the creature's level, combat style(Melee, Ranged, Magic, Etc), whether it has seen active and/or frequent combat(Or killed people before), and such from this examination. This sense cannot be fooled easily, even by magic, as it relies on intuitively sense another's stance, gait, body language, gaze, etc(And thus, not even altering one's physical form will neccessarily provide protection against it) - assessing even disguised creatures based on their true combat abilities. Studied creatures cannot use immediate actions in response to the Sea Elf's actions for 1d4+1 rounds after the examination. Sapphire Technopath: Sea Elves always treat Knowledge(Engineering) and Knowledge(Nature) as class skills, gain a racial +4 bonus to them, and may use either in place of any Craft skill normally used in item creation(Engineering for items made of 'technological' or 'artificial' materials and Nature for items made of natural materials). When doing so, they create mundane items at the same speed at Magic Items, and such items are always masterwork. This ability allows them to use strange materials such as coral or wood to make mundane weapons, armor, and other items - which take on the hardness and HP/inch of steel(Losing any fragile qualities) during the process. This ability allows Sea Elves to always be treated as possessing the Technologist Feat, and any "Craft" feat needed to craft technological items. However, generally, a Sea Elves' telepathic ability to interface with and control technology requires them to have thoroughly interfaced with and understood an item before they can make it themselves. This ability, more broadly, affords Sea Elves telepathic understanding of and limited control over technological items both mechanical, bio-mechanical, and 'magi-tech' in nature - the exact uses and limits of this ability are left up to their creativity and GM discretion. If any skill checks might be required, Knowledge(Engineering) or Knowledge(Nature) should be used.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Sea Elves possess an anatomy that is, for the most part, wholly identical to other elves and other surface dwelling races...with two arms, two legs, a head atop their torso and all the normal internals, they are mostly similar to other humanoids except in two key ways.
Firstly, the anatomy of a Sea Elf is a great deal more durable than those of other races. As a result of having lived in such extreme, high pressure environments as the bottom of the ocean for such a massive period of time, Sea Elven bodies have long since adapted and their bones have become much thicker and capable of withstanding the immense force of the bottom of the ocean...likewise, their muscles and bodies have become much stronger to offest the resistance one meets moving underwater.
Secondly, Sea Elves possess a unique additional bodily system they commonly refer to as the "Vacua System", a complicated series of organic tubes that run through their bodies and brains, linking into their other bodily systems to allow for rapid equalization between internal and external pressures and the rapid release of built-up oxygen and pressure inside the body to allow for them to move around the ocean floor to the surface rapidly. As such, Sea Elves are immune to the bends for the most part and can move between different environments of drastically different pressures with little hindrance.
Biological Traits
Sea Elves' skin and scales range in color wildly, but are often bright and glittering colors ranging from light blue to dark indigo to violet and even Rainbow, or Multicolored. Adult males are about 6.4 feet tall and weigh around 240 pounds. Females are often just as tall, but a bit lighter. Some Sea elves can even reach heights of up to 8 or 9 feet, and with their massive coral and chitin plate armor and in full battle dress they can weigh up to 340 pounds—they are sometimes so bedecked in thick overlapping plate armor and with weapons and gear that they often can only get around thanks to their deft swim speeds. They tend toward bright and vibrant coloration, with skin and scales of light or bright blue, glittering violet, or shining gold. They have dark hair—black, brown, or dark purple—but richly colored eyes, which are usually gray, violet or blue.
Genetics and Reproduction
Sea Elves, unlike other Elves, lack the traditional Elven low sex drive that often limits their kind from reproducing heavily or creating many children. As a result of their dangerous environment which sees them so often die to monsters and sea conditions and sea life than old age, they are much more fertile and capable of having children to replace all of their number which die each day, with Sex Drives more akin to those of Humans to allow them to keep their numbers up to match those that die in their constant violence and wars.
Sea Elves, like most all elves, simply do not conceive in the same way as other races do - for a Sea Elf to come down with child, they have to make a conscious decision to do so and ingest a special natural and herbal remedial concoction designed to stimulate their bodies to allow for reliable conception. So when the times demand it or when they feel the need, Elves gather together with their chosen mates and decide to have children, but otherwise they are mostly incapable of having children otherwise...however, this also explains the origins of Half-Elves, as many Elves often fancy relationships with humans but rarely stop to consider the consequences of an unplanned spontaneous pregnancy without the influence of their herbal concoctions...without them, a full elf cannot be born and a half-elf is the result.
The females of the race carry their children within them after being impregnated for a period that can range from anywhere between 7-16 months, after which they give birth to the children they carry...during this time, they are not overly hindered by the children they carry within them thanks to an advanced internal structure to alleviate the pressure of pregnancy to allow them to continue fighting even while pregnant.
Growth Rate & Stages
Sea Elves grow rapidly until they hit 25 years of age, after which time they are considered adults...an incredibly fast growth period for an elf, attributed to their unique anatomy and dangerous environment. They hit middle age around 500 years, become old at 750, and grow venerable and die some decades later at 1000 years of age.
Ecology and Habitats
Sea Elves are exclusively found within the deep oceans of the world, though some can be found in shallower waters as well. They most establish a sort of harmony with their local environment as is typical for elves, but they often firmly establish themselves as the head of the local ecology, beating everything else into submission and then contenting themselves to supervise a sort of harmony in their environment as its lords.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Sea Elves are omnivores, and can and have no qualms eating anything so long as it is edible. With incredibly powerful stomachs on par with giants, they can extract nutrients from even the most inedible foods such as moss and even small rocks.
Biological Cycle
Sea Elves outwardly show no signs of aging, much like Cloud Elves, although for wholly different reasons. Where as their lofty kin do so to maintain their beauty, the Sea Elves do so to retain their dignity and grace as a warrior right up until the end.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Sea Elves are inclined to follow a highly rigid and militaristic social structure, one often based around a military chain of command. With one "General" leading a Sea Elven colony, this General operates with a pair of Lieutenants who each govern a host of subordinates, all the way down to the rank and file soldiers in the colony...there are almost never true "civilians" in a Sea Elven society, and all are considered warriors or soldiers, though some may specialize in healing or other things rather than frontline combat.
Facial characteristics
Sea Elves have sharp, angular faces and harsh features as brutal as they themselves are.
Sea Elven 'Purebloods' tend to have facial tentacles, similar to octopi and squids, that dangle from their lower face and jaw - these tentacles can range from simple six-inch tendrils to large one or two foot long tentacles as thick as human arms - their size and shape can vary, but these rubbery, scaly tendrils are proof of Sapphire Elven heritage and 'Pureblood' status.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Sea Elves are found exclusively beneath the surface of the ocean and underwater, but beneath the water's surface they can be found in a myriad of underwater environments, from dwelling near and within Lava Vents to the blackest and deepest underwater trenches to even the seafloor, or near the surface.
Average Intelligence
Sea Elves are of average intelligence, but are highly personable and strong. They are not very wise.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Sea Elves possess eyes adapted to the pitch black environments of the bottom of the ocean, and as such their eyes are innately much more advanced than those of other races...they can see in the dark excellently, and can see much further in low light than the likes of other surface dwelling races can.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Sea Elves tend towards names with a Latin or Greek bent to them, preferably names that are short and easy to pronounce on the field of battle.
Beauty Ideals
Sea Elves find beauty in function alone. A building built as a functioning fortress with a rigid adherence to design and defense is a beautiful thing to them, and they are no different when examining sentient creatures. A creature who possesses a strong work ethic and "serves their purpose" elegantly and well is immensely beautiful to a Sea Elf, as they cannot fathom something as beautiful if it exists purely for form, lacks a function, or is made with form in mind over function.
Gender Ideals
Sea Elves do not often distinguish between genders, and the ideal Sea Elf is one that can serve well both as a soldier and as a member of one's colony or township, and one who possesses a variety of skills that provide benefit to the whole of society in some way.
Courtship Ideals
Sea Elves often lack a concept of Courtship, as marriages and pairings in a Sea Elven colony are often done in an arranged fashion, and done with careful thought given to the children such a coupling would produce. Marriages are arranged between two beings who would produce healthy and strong children, and often little thought is given to anything else. The only luxury any Sea Elf has in courtship is fighting with their partner to establish dominance in the relationship.
Common Dress Code
Sea Elves dress entirely with function and defense in mind, and are almost never seen wearing anything that isn't armor-plated or designed to defend themselves. On the incredibly rare occasion they wear something more formal, they analyze such things from a purely logical standpoint and arrange themselves in whatever way would please or be most appealing to those who see them.
Common Taboos
Sea Elves treat excessive individualism as extremely Taboo...someone who works only to further themselves is seen as irregular and heretical, and while Sea Elves often venture outside their colonies on adventures to see the world and the surface, it is done so with thought to the whole, to accomplish some central quest or objective.
Alternate Racial Trait List:
Racial Feat List:
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
1000 Years
Conservation Status
Sea Elves are almost never seen by the races that dwell upon the surface, but that is not because they are not plentiful. They are indeed one of the most numerous breeds of Elf in existence - they simply dwell within the depths of the ocean and rarely have occasion to travel so far to the surface.
Average Height
4.9ft - 7.8ft (1.5 - 2.4 Meters)
Average Weight
175 - 270 pounds (79.3kg - 122.4kg)
Average Physique
Sea Elves are perhaps the only other breed of Elves besides the Desert Elves who possess bodies of superb muscle and fitness, often incredibly lean and devoid of fat and focused almost entirely on combat and physical activity...but even compared to their Desert-Dwelling brothers, they are far superior to them in natural physique. They are often muscular, fit, and chiseled - their bodies honed and tempered over eons of natural selection and evolution to be the vessels of the perfect warriors.
With overlapping and often gorgeously colored and patterned but durable scales covering their bodies and skin to protect them, not an ounce of a Sea Elves' body is wasteful or of no purpose, and their metabolisms are so hyperactive and powerful that they can almost never become fat or enlarged. Their bodies are the epitome of a beautiful form melded perfectly with the excellence of a perfect functioning body, and they are the perfect balance of bulky muscle and leanness in the physical form...naturally, this physique was one born entirely out of living in an environment where weakness or a lesser body would equal nothing but a quick and painful death.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Sea Elves tend towards bright and vibrant coloration, with skin and scales of light or bright blue, glittering violet, or shining gold though they tend to lean towards Oceanic Colors. They have dark hair—black, brown, or dark purple—but richly colored eyes, which are usually gray, violet or blue.
Sea Elven 'Purebloods' have skin much more bluish in coloration - from bright sapphire, dark azure, to a bluish purple and anywhere in between.
Related Myths
Related Materials
Last of the Sapphire Elves
Though the Sapphire Elves and all races on Zheng-Kitar were wiped out to extinction or near-extinction during the end of the Age of Sapphires some 4,500+ years ago, not all Sapphire Elves nor their floating Sapphire Citadels were obliterated and exterminated - many crashed into the world's oceans and were in time lost beneath the ocean currents, both to oceanic decay, erosion, and the drifting oceanic currents...and though their numbers were too small in these sunken cities to reclaim their cities or restore their population, some Sapphire Elves did survive their people's destruction, hidden from the Yema by the Spirit King of Water, Yezhiha. Though in time as the eons passed these remnants began to devolve and go feral, their cities lost to time and erosion beneath the waves, they were eventually discovered by the High Lamia sent to Zheng-Kitar by the High Lamia Queen, Loscivia Aenai, many thousands of years ago - and led by the Lamia God-Queen Kyra and her forces before they were redeemed, these Sapphire Remnants - having begun the process of devolution into Sea Elves as they adapted and 'went native' to their new homes, were found, captured, and their devolution sped up at the hands and in the stomachs of the High Lamia into a breed of Elf more suited for life on the seafloor - the Sea Elves, created and assisted so they might become allies to the High Lamia's cause on Zheng-Kitar. Literally descendants from the last of the Sapphire Elves thousands of years ago, the Sea Elves have since exploded in population and have formed from many different sources, but this - the ancestral Sea Elves, the first ones - trace their lineage back to the Sapphire Elves themselves, though they may now come from High Elves who adapt to the oceans, and other similar sources. This has led to the formation of the notion of 'Purebloods' in Sea Elven Society - those who trace their lineage back to these original Sapphire Elves, and the non-purebloods who come from other sources such as High Elves. This connection has meant they are not only still close allies of the God-Queen and the Lamia, but that they retain possibly the best and most well-preserved examples of Sapphire Elven culture and technology...and as such, Sea Elven Technomancers are legendarily skilled and well-known for their craft, though all but the smallest and most miniscule examples of their ancestors culture and tech has been lost to them.
Comments