Wood Elf

Wood Elves most often have tanned or olive skin and medium to dark hair colors, though this may vary widely from region to region. They have shorter upswept ears than the noble High Elves, and broader shoulders and hips. They are the most lithe and agile of the elven peoples.

Racial Modifiers

• Favored Source: Adept, Channelling
• Favored Stat: Dexterity
• +8 Speed
• +5 Health
• +7 Resistance
• Low-Light Vision (Wood Elves can see twice as far as other races in low-light conditions)
• +1 Base Survival
• Weapon Training: (Pick one)
  • +1 Base Bow Skill
  • +1 Base Crossbow Skill
  • +1 Base Thrown Skill
• Fighting Style Training: (Pick one)
  • Weapon Style - Ranged Weapons 1
  • Weapon Style - Thrown Weapons 1

Personality

Wood Elves tend to be hard-working and social beings, with a deep-seated love of nature. As an homage to their long heritage in the wilderness as hunters, they have long-held a racial tradition of archery.

Relations

Wood Elves are a generally peaceful race, and this tendency toward pacifism has resulted in them being marginalized by other races. As a people they have been taken advantage of on a number of occasions, especially by the High Elves. Wood Elves hold little to no societal power in the modern world as, even in the Elven Empire of Arvendor, they are considered second-class citizens and never hold positions among the governing nobility. This has led to the development of some resentment between the two races, though nothing has come of it.

Religion

Though the first few generations of Wood Elves had a heavy focus on shamanism, this quickly fell to the wayside and instead many now worship the Blessed Gods. The Twins (Khitar & Nimway) remain the most popular patrons of Wood Elves across the world.

History

Wood elves were one of the three races of elves created by the Blessed Gods during the Elari-Faerie wars with the intent of stemming the conflict. After seeing how their cousins were brought under the control of the Faerie and Elari, the Wood Elves fled terrified into the wilderness with the intent of not being found. They struggled and scraped by for centuries before a Channeler and her Adept twin won a boon from the Blessed Goddess Nimway. The two made the Goddess aware of their plight and Nimway took pity on them, offering to lead their people to a safe haven and hide them. Her sister, Khitar, supported this venture to protect the fledgling race from the world, making known her fury at what was being done to the other races they had helped create.

With the support of the Twins, the Wood Elves were able to survive and even thrive, living free of outside influence for the duration of the conflict. The majority of the race spent their time taming the Great Forest in what is now the elven empire on Trevas. Wood Elves learned to live in harmony with wood and water, and were blessed with the goodwill of the Twins.

During their time under the Twins’ protection, a theocracy of sorts developed. The Fated twins who had led their people into the goddesses’ care were elevated to royalty and seated atop what became known as the Twin Thrones in Aoibhileann, a beautiful city in the heart of the Great Forest of Arvendor. Their descendants continued to rule as the mouthpieces of their protectors over the millennia, blessed by the Twins themselves to produce a single set of Fated twins with each generation that would take the Thrones. It was hardly a perfect system, but the Wood Elves grew to become a noble and proud race, most living simple and pious lives devoted to Nimway under the Sea Throne. Some Wood Elves, however, devoted themselves to Khitar under the Storm Throne and, with their leader’s blessing, worked both to guard the borders of their haven against intrusion and assist their cousins the Wild Elves and High Elves in escaping the conflict.

When the Elari-Faerie Wars ended, the Wood Elves came across the battered remnants of their cousins the High Elves and extended a hand of friendship - they would join their thrones through marriage and symbolically become one people. It was not to be, however. The holder of the Sea Throne married a High Elf to unite their peoples but, after the birth of their first and only child, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Her twin, who sat the Storm Throne, was overcome with grief at her disappearance. Within a century, he abdicated his throne and disappeared as well, leaving the Storm Throne unmanned and the Sea Throne in the possession of his nephew, who had grown to become a powerful mage. The new holder of the Sea Throne worked to incorporate his Wood Elf people among the High Elves, but over the centuries the Storm Throne remained empty. The city of Aoibhileann gradually died and was lost, as proponents of a High Elven agenda worked to suppress knowledge of the Twin Thrones. They were eventually successful to the point where almost none alive remembers the Thrones or their purpose, with very few records still existing. Wood Elves have long since lost any societal power they might have had, and have become second-class citizens ruled by the High Elves’ puppets.

The times where Wood Elves held their own sovereignty are long past and nearly forgotten, but even now, twins born to Wood Elves are seen as good luck, and most Wood Elf channelers are aligned with the Twins. Modern Wood Elves are members of the working class, however some quiet factions have made it their business to trace the various bloodlines with the hope of finding the lost Storm King’s descendants and returning them to the Twin Thrones - to the days where Wood Elves ruled themselves with the blessing of the Twins.

Region & Society

Trevas

Arvendor

Wood Elves are perhaps the most populous members of the Elven Empire. They are the working class: the merchants, soldiers, laypeople. They are ruled over by the High Elf nobility, as none of their number hold any positions in nobility. As the Wood Elf society of the past had been built around the presence of Fated rather than bloodlines, there were very few Wood Elves that considered to be nobility or royalty by High Elf standards. When the two races joined under one banner to create the Elven Empire as such, many Wood Elves lost the right to any positions of governmental power they might have held prior. Those that did maintain their positions were slowly subsumed into the High Elven race through marriages until the families could hardly consider themselves Wood Elves any longer.

A few groups of Wood Elves have maintained an oral tradition and still teach their children the story of the Twin Thrones. Though all public record of the Thrones has been systematically destroyed, there are also a few High Elven families that keep the secret for one reason or another.

Visici

As in Arvendor, Wood Elves are commonly soldiers, merchants, or part of the working class in the Free Cities; none of their number hold any positions among the nobility. Their people have spread throughout the region and make their homes in all sorts of places. Though the majority are city-dwellers, some groups of Wood Elves embrace a sort of counter-culture lifestyle and choose to live in the forests nearby, hunting and trading as their ancestors did.

Language

Wood Elves speak both Common and their own native tongue, a soft and fluid tongue with plenty of soft consonants and smooth edges inspired by real-word Gaelic languages.

Names

Wood Elves tend to have first names inspired by a mix of Tolkein’s Sindarin and Gaelic, with descriptive two-part surnames.

• Male Names: Ahearn, Andreth, Beathan, Caedmon, Ewan, Garavion, Leannan, Ormond
• Female Names: Aenien, Aoibheann, Caehel, Eavan, Lhindes, Nestril, Saoirse, Teagan
• Surnames: Bonechime, Brightsky, Ebonstar, Fireheart, Moonblade, Softwhisper, Spiritsong, Truthseeker

Equipment

While most equipment in the Player Guide is available, many races have a particular affinity for equipment, or materials of a certain type such as particular arms & armor.