Elves, also known as “olves” in the Flan tongue are renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the sword and the bow. Becoming physically mature by the age of 25 and emotionally mature at around 125, they are also famously long-lived, capable of living more than half a millennium and remaining physically youthful. They rarely die due to the wear of age. Elves inhabited the Flanaess for many centuries before the Great Migrations introduced hordes of humans, orcs, and goblins who pushed them from the grasslands and prairies deep into the ancient forests that were their first home and most secure retreat.
•Aquatic elves, or sea elves: Aquatic elves live beneath the waves and can breathe water as easily as their cousins on land breathe air. They have silverish-greenish skin and hair of green or blue-green. They are mortal enemies of sharks and sahuagin. They are friends to dolphins and surface elves, and neutral to all others, save for fishermen, who they dislike. Their chief god is Deep Sashelas.
•Avariel, or sky elves. Also known as the “winged folk,” these winged elves are very rare, but are believed to dwell in the Lortmil Mountains (LGG.143).
•Drow, or dark elves: The “black elves” are only legend to most in the Flanaess. They are as dark as gray elves are bright and and as evil as the latter are good. Once surface elves themselves, they were transformed into drow and banished to the Underdark when they fell to the worship of demons and gods of elemental evil. Of all the elves they are the only ones that are inherently malevolent, and they hate their cousins with an undying passion. They are smaller than their cousins, both shorter and thinner. In addition, their skin resembles polished obsidian, and their hair is snow-white or silver.
•Gray elves: These elves are the most noble of elves, yet also the most arrogant. They are of higher intellectual capabilities than other elves, but, despite the fact they are taller than high elves, they are physically weaker. They live in isolated mountain strongholds, and rarely allow access to outsiders. They have silver hair and amber eyes, or gold hair and violet eyes, and wear clothes of white, silver, yellow and gold, and usually wear regally colored cloaks. Those with gold hair are generally called faeries. They worship the standard elven pantheon.
•Grugach, or wild elves: The most reclusive of all the elves, the wild elves pride themselves on their isolation and skill at keeping hidden. Their skin tends to be brown and they have similar colored hair which lightens with age.
•High elves: High elves are the elves most commonly encountered by other races, and the most open and friendly of their kind. They travel to other lands more than other elves. They’re generally dark-haired and green-eyed, with very pale complexions the color of new cream. They simply do not tan, no matter how much time they spend under Oerth’s sun. High elves prefer to wear light pastels, blues and greens and violets, and often dwell in homes built into living wood, high in the trees.
•Snow Elves: Pale but hardy elves that live in the Crystalmist Mountains. They worship Tarsellis Meunniduin, the patron god of Snow Elves and Lord of Mountains. They are reclusive and usually led by tribal priests known as “Peakwardens.”
•Valley elves: Closely related to gray elves, Valley elves are the tallest of their kind, as tall as humans. They dwell only within the Valley of the Mage, though agents are occasionally sent outwards on missions for the master of the Vale. Because of their height, they can often pass as and infiltrate the societies of humans. Other elves despise Valley elves, believing they’ve sold out their dignity and independence for the fleeting protection of a human wizard – even worse that his lieutenant is a drow. They call the Valley elves by a disparaging name in their own language that connotates to “automaton” or “slave.”
•Wood elves: Wood elves are a reclusive subrace. They place more emphasis on strength than learning. Wood elves are considered by other elven subraces (particularly the austere gray elves) to be boisterous and hedonistic. They have a zest for life and pleasure. They are more neutral than most elves, except the valley elves and grugach. Their complexions are fair, their hair is yellow to coppery red, and their eyes are light brown, light green, or hazel. They wear russets, reds, browns, and tans. Their cloaks are usually green or reddish brown.
Society: In the Flanaess, large numbers of elves can be found in Celene, Highvale, the Lendore Isles, Sunndi, the Duchy of Ulek, the Valley of the Mage, the Vesve Forest, and the Vault of the Drow. Verbobonc was originally an elven settlement, though they have mostly left that region to the humans and gnomes. The City of Summer Stars is a lost and ruined elven community of fable and legend in the depths of the Adri Forest, now under a dreadful curse.
Relations: Possessed of innate beauty and easy gracefulness, they are viewed as both wondrous and haughty by other races; however, their natural detachment is seen by some as introversion or xenophobia.
Alignment and Religion: Most elves are usually good, though Grugach tend to be neutral, Valley elves chaotic neutral, and Drow neutral evil. Most elves, other than Drow and Valley elves, follow the Seldarine, the elven pantheon. While Corellon Larethian leads the Seldarine, most subraces also have a patron deity whom they hold in nearly equal regard. Deep Shahelas (and his wife, the dolphin goddess Trishina) for the Aquatic elves, Fenmarel Mestarine for the Grugach, Rillifane Rallathil for the Wood elves, Tarsellis Meunniduin for the Snow elves, and Aerdrie Faenya for the Avariel. The only deity known to be honored by the Valley elves is Ehlonna, who is also frequently worshipped by other elven peoples. Dark elves most often worship Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders, or one of her brood.
Language: Elven, or Elvish, is the native language of elves. It utilizes its own alphabet, also known as Elven.
•Lendorian Elven: This new language is spoken only by the high elves and aquatic elves of the Lendore Isles. It is a philosophical, religious language, and cannot be learned except through visions sent by Sehanine Moonbow.
Adventurers: Many elves embark on adventures out of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded forest realms to reclaim forgotten elven magic or search out lost kingdoms established millennia ago by their forefathers. For those raised among humans, the ephemeral and unfettered life of an adventurer holds natural appeal. Elves generally eschew melee because of their frailty, preferring instead to pursue classes such as wizards and rangers.