Elves and the Elven Nations
Creoso! I decided to add some more information about my family, the Tel'Quessir, The Elves! Note please that those informations are from Toril also known as Faerun and may not fit to all elves you'll met.
One note from me: there are a few exceptions. So called "crossbreeds". And the behavior changes from elf to elf as well. Click on the Links below to jump to the right places.
> Elven Life <
> The Retreat <
> The Former Elven Nation <
> Adventuring Elves <
Special
> The Half-Elven People <
> Underdark Races: Drow <
The Teu-Tel'Quessir or Silver elves
The Sy-Tel'Quessir or Green elves
The Alu-Tel'Quessir or Sea elves
The Mori'Quessir or Drow elves
Gold elves arealso called "sunrise elves" or "high elves" and havebronze skin, and hair of copper, black, or golden blond. Their eyes are golden, silver, or black. Gold elves tend to be recognized as the most civilized of the elven subraces and the most aloof from humankind and the other races. The majority of the native elves of Evermeet are gold elves, though the royal family are moon elves.
Moon elves are also called "silver elves" or "gray elves" and are much paler than gold elves, with faces of bleached white tinged with blue. Moon elves usually have hair of silver-white, black or blue, though all reported colors normally found in humans and elves may be found in this race. Their eyes are blue or green and have golden flecks. They tend to tolerate humankind the most of the elven subraces and the majority of adventuring elves and half-elves are the moon elf descent .
Wild elves are called "green elves", "forest elves" and "wood elves" and are reclusive and distrusting of noelves, in particular humankind. Wild elves of the Forgotten Realms tend to be copperish in hue with tinctures of green. Their hair tend toward browns and blacks, with occasional blonds and copper-colored natives. Their eyes are green, brown or hazel. They tend to be the least organized of the elven peoples, and while there is no elven nation made up entirely of wild elves, there are wild elves in every other elven nation and on Evermeet.
Sea elves, also called "aquatic" or "water elves", are divided into two further divisions: those of the Great Sea (including all ist salt-water domains such as the Shining Sea and Sea of Swords) and those of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Great Sea elves are radiant in different shades of deep greens, with irregular patches of brown stripped through their bodies. Fallen Star sea elves are various shades of blue, with white patches or stripes. Both have the full variety of eyes and hair color found in all the elven people and have webbed feet and hands and the ability to breathe water.
Dark elves, also called "drow (pronounced to rhyme with "now" or "how") or "night elves", comprise the most sinister and evil segment of the elven race, as if this subrace seems to balance the tranquility and goodness of their cousins with unrepentant maliciousness and evil. Drow have black skin that resembles nothing so much as polished obsidian, pale eyes (often mistaken for solid white) and hair of stark white. The variations in coloration present in the other elven subraces is missing here. Most of this fell race has been driven underground, and it members are shunned by the other elven subraces. (See also the Underdark Race Section)
Elven Life
The leves call their own race Tel'Quessir, which translates as "the people". Strangers, in particular nonelven strangers, are generally placed under the category "N'Tel'Quess" or "not people". Most elves treat the not-people with respect and politness, as a host would a stumbling child, though the drow fiercely enslave any who are not of their race and consider the other elven subraces N'Tel'Quess.
The elves are generally ruled by hereditary noble houses that have held control of their nations for generations (and given the nature and long life of elves, the rule of a wise king may exceed the history of a human nation). Elven rule is autocratic and absolute, and it is the theology and phikosophy of the elves which prevents abuse of such complete power. The coronals (monarchs of the Elven Court) make their pronouncements rarely, preferring to remain outside the normal course of their subject's lives. However, once a decision is made and pronounced by a coronal- whether to declear war or retreat to Evermeet- it is followed by the bulk of the population.
The Retreat
The oddest phenomenon of elven life (to human observers) is the Retreat, which is viewed as a lemminglike drive to sail to the farthest west, bexond the sea. In the case of the elves of the Forgotten Realms, the reason is not some biological drive, but rather the decision of the leaders of the elven nations to withdraw to less hostile lands. Such a decision was made after years (human "generations") ot thought, discussion, andmeditation. Once made, it is irrevocable.
In the case of the recently voided Elven Court, the decision to retreat was made some 560 years after deliberation began. In the Year of Moonfall (1344 DR), the Pronoucement of Retreat passed from elf to elf, and they began to quietly evacuate their homelands along the Inner Sea. While for humans the disappearance of the Elven Court is regarded as a sudden vacuum in the heart of the Realms, for the Elven Court itself it was as invetible (and as important) as a merchant moving his shop farther down the street to increase the distance from a competitor.
The elves in Retreat usually make for Evermeet across the sea or Evereska on the edge of the Great Sand Sea of Anauroch. Those who reach Evermeet swear their fealty to Queen Amlaruil, who is that domain's monarch. Long ago the elven nation of Evermeet made the decision to fight those humans (and members of other races) who came to her shores, and as a result Evermeet is both the strongest sea power in the Realms, and a haven for the other elvesin Retreat. Those who choose not to abandon the Realms entirely join the community at Evereska and seek to help defend Evereska's new colony in the Greycloak Hills.
Those elves on the Sword Coast and with easy access to the sea make passage to Evermeet by boat, protected by the Navy of the Queen. How those farther inland cross is not known, for none see their passage out of the world of humankind. Great magics and extradimensional gates are assumed to be used, though there have been tales of greater butterflies carrying some elven nobles westward.
The Former Elven Nation
The former elven nations of the sea-Realms include Illefarn, where Waterdeep now rises from the seacoast; Askavar, which is now called the Wood of Sharp Teeth, and the Elven Court, which once ruled Cormanthor, the forest country that ran from Cormyr to the Moonsea. Current elven nations include Evermeet in ist seaward seclusion and Evereska (located in a mountain valley), with ist colony in the Greycloak Hills. In addition, there are scattered groups of elves found throughout the realms, including wild elves, groups without noble rulers, and those who are comfortable with human population (usually younger elves). The drow are not welcome among the elven nations and so have their own lairs in the Underdark...
Adventuring Elves
Adventuring elves are usually moon elves, though there are wild and gold elves as well found among humankind's adventuring companies. Sea elves and drow are much rarer on the surface world, but there are notable exceptions.
Special: The Half-Elven Peoples
Half-elves are mixture of human and elf, and occupy the middle ground between the two. They are stockier than elves, but thinner than humans, and may or may not show the distinctive, elven pointed ears. They still have the slender and finely chiseled facial features of the elven faces. It is possible for a half-elf to pass as human or elf for brief periods, but usually such duplicity is discovered. Half-elves are not a true race, but rather the product of the union of human and elf, and as such they have no national or racial heritage other than that of the area and family they have been brought up in. A half-elf that has been raised in the Elven Court thinks like an elf; while one from Aglarond thinks like a human, for elven people have been long bred into the general population there. As a result of their hybrid heritage, half-elves tend to be individualistic and their outlook and behavior varies greatly from person to person. Many are adventurers by nature, in that they are seeking their own niche in a world where (to their eyes) they belong truly to neither major culture.
Half-elves take on some of the features of their elven subrace:
Regardless of origin, half-elves have a universal set of common abilities. A drow half-elf does not gain additional drow powers, or a sea half-elf water breathing-ability. Half-elves may mate and breed, but will always produce the offspring of the pther parent (a half-elf pairing will produce elven children, while a half-elf-human pairing will result in human children.) Second generation half-elves only result if two half-elves marry.
