[Lore] Elves

An elf maiden

     I've been rethinking the elves of my setting since when I started out, I kind of made them a bit too evil imo.  I've decided to change them a bit and have the evil characteristics as rumors that are believed by the local human population but aren't necessarily true, although they could still be true.  It would be up to the players to actually find out about it though.  So far, there are currently 2 types of elves that live within the Gryphon Vale, woodland elves and meadowland elves.  I might add some sort of dark elf that lives underground in the future as I think that concept is kind of cool and have already made a version of those before for a different setting I was working on in the past.

    Alright, so back to the 2 types of elves.  First off, we have the woodland elves.  These elves are how elves are described according the the Basic rulebook.  They are 5 to 5 ½ feet tall, have pointed ears, delicate features, and weigh about 120 lbs.  They also enjoy feasting and frolicking in the woods under the moonlight.  Woodland elf strongholds tend to be very beautifully crafted out of wood and stone, and often incorporate the local terrain into their construction in ways that men wouldn't.  These elves are generally neutral.  Their long lives and isolated communities make them fairly incapable of understanding the plight of shorter lived races.  This isn't necessarily because they don't care, many young elves have similar passions to humans, but more so because they rarely encounter problems that they can't just ignore or outlive.  A young elf might grow very attached to his adventuring companions but will almost certainly outlive them (assuming the elf doesn't get killed in combat) and so by the third or fourth adventuring party they will usually distance themselves emotionally or withdraw themselves from an adventuring lifestyle and go back to Elfland to enjoy the good meals, songs, and dances.  Another reason why elves enjoy these sorts of activities so much is because they have ample time to slack off essentially.  Since most elves will live to be 1,000 years old they don't feel the rush of motivation that humans or even dwarves do to build kingdoms and empires.  Although elves in general are quite xenophobic, woodland elves have been known to accept guests into their halls but this is quite dangerous as the food, drink, song, and general merriment in Elfland tends to cause normal beings, such as men, to forget the passage of time and whither away without having noticed the years going by.  It also doesn't help that elvish woodlands are permanently shrouded in twilight which makes keeping track of time even more difficult.

    The second type of elf is the meadowland elf.  These elves are very similar to their woodland counterparts except that, despite their long lives, they are much more goal oriented and disciplined.  Meadowland elves like to build large and ornate crystal palaces that can be seen for miles (unless the castle is hidden by magical means which is not at all uncommon for elves).  These crystal palaces are difficult for any non elf to orient themselves in as the crystal walls bend and refract light in ways that are strange which affect a person's ability to navigate effectively.  One of the reasons why elves do this is because the odd shapes to walls, corridors, and rooms allows for the light to create rainbows and beautiful dancing shows, similar to phenomenon such as the aurora borealis.  The added benefit of creating a "home court advantage" is largely secondary to the meadowland elves.  Meadowland elves rarely accept visitors and prefer to hide away, only leaving their castles when they have to (launching an attack against orcs, for example).  This extreme isolation tends to make meadowland elves more xenophobic and haughty than their woodland cousins.  These elves view the extermination of "lesser" races, such as orcs, as their racial obligation to their people and homeland.  This does allow for some positive relationships between human and meadowland elf settlements since they can unite against a common enemy, although the elves still view humans as being lesser than themselves even if they find it admirable that humanity, despite their short lives, still tries to fight back against chaos.

A fighter and elf

    Now, as for the rumors about elves, changelings, and the kidnapping of human infants.  I actually really like this aspect of real world elf lore but I think it will be best to keep it as a sort of unverifiable rumor that gets thrown around, which of course leads to anti elf sentiment in human lands.  I'm thinking I will possibly have some elves engage in that sort of behaviour but more likely, I will come up with a separate group entirely that does the kidnapping and swapping.  The villagers won't know who actually did it and they barely know anything of elves other than that they are weird and mysterious so some villagers might just blame the elves since it's an easy scapegoat.

    I'd also like to talk about the interbreeding between elves and humans.  The concept of half-something seems pretty cool to me but the more I think about it, the more I lean towards the idea that the child would have to choose which form to take.  One reason why I like this is that it means elf and human maturity rates match closely to each other which is something I prefer in fantasy.  I never really understood the idea that it takes 100 years or however long for a race to reach maturity.  Any race that worked that way would die out fairly quickly because they wouldn't be able to replenish the loss of life with new births after even a moderately successful goblin attack.  Animals in the real world that live long lives also reach maturity fairly early which is another reason why I prefer long lived races to reach maturity near when humans do but once they reach that point their aging process is significantly slowed.  If I were to include half elves I think I would just rule it as an elf in everything except flavor.  The player could describe themselves in any way but mechanically speaking they would act as an elf, which I also like because I play B/X.  So, I could really go either way and I'll probably have to think about it some more in terms of worldbuilding but I'm definitely leaning on the side of choosing between elf and man, I think it helps to distinguish elves as strange creatures rather than a slightly thinner human.

    Elves also have an aversion to cruciforms and if they are to use a sword, the cross guard can never be straight.  Usually it takes the form of a crescent, reminiscent of the moon which is something all elves hold dear.  They also dislike iron or steal and any armor or weapons used by an elf must be either magical or of elven-make.  Elves forge their weapons and armor out of elvish metal using methods and materials completely unknown to man.  It is assumed that when a player creates their elf character, that their equipment of elven-make but if they were to lose their equipment then they would have to travel to Elfland to buy replacements or possibly find a wandering elf merchant who deals in such goods (these are incredibly rare though).  In addition to this, elves rarely travel alongside clerics (although it can happen) because when the clerical spells are spoken or the holy symbol is displayed, elves will feel pain and discomfort.  Nothing to cause any lasting damage but the effect is similar to hearing or viewing an opposite alignment tongue, it can burn your ears, make you nauseous, fill you with anger, etc so most elves will try to avoid such things when they can.