**Lethal and long-lived, aggrieved and superior.** ![[Elf_High.jpg|300]] ![[Ilwe.jpeg|300]] ![[dfjmznr-3c57d0ed-890d-4202-a86d-f4524638e430.png|300]] ![[Turner_Mohan_-_Green_Elves.webp|300]] - Oldest of races, native to the world of Am'rah (Cinder) - they are spiritually linked to the planet, and its decline and desolation is mirrored in their souls and in their society. Once immortal, they are now simply *very* long-lived. - Buried in the distant memory of your people is a time when the world still had oceans, and the gods still made themselves known. - There was a fall. A golden age ended. The seas vanished. Then came the long years of the Shrouded Epoch. Little is known of this time, and even less is said. This dark age ended with the Founding - the creation of the Guilds. - For more than 4000 years, the Elves have dwelt in the Noctis Labyrinth, whose ruthless and Machiavellian society is as twisted as the endless tunnels that comprise it. Vast underground cities woven of stone and gems encrust the interior of colossal caverns like geodes. Swathes of the Labyrinth lie abandoned, forgotten, or in rare cases, undiscovered. - The Labyrinth is inhabited by the High Elves, the Dark Elves, and the Shadar-Kai. - To the outside world, the Noctis Labyrinth is at best an unwelcoming and faraway land, and at worst a den of terror, darkness, and death. Few and far between are the reports from the Elven realm, though little escapes their notice. Visitors to the Labyrinth are rare, and many who venture there are never heard from again. - The Elves are best described as xenophobic, though it bears mentioning that they view all other races as inferior. Indeed, scholars in the free cities have reason to believe the Elves bear a grudge against the mortal races - some price the Elves paid, perhaps are still paying, for the benefit of those who came later. If there is any truth to that tale, it lies within the Elven archives and far beyond the reach of all but the highest ranking members of the Scholars' Guild. - There are other Elven races in the world, specifically the Wood Elves and the Eladrin who dwell in the jungles of Borgash. Less haughty than their northerly kin, the Green Elves tend towards ferocity rather than viciousness - though they are certainly capable of both. Aloof, xenophobic, and oftentimes cruel, the Elves have built a great kingdom of high magic and higher walls. Their vast metropolis - the Noctis Labyrinth - has been closed to outsiders for centuries, and although there have been some notable exceptions to this rule, they are few and far between. Beyond the borders of their own lands, elves are only to be found in the most extreme of occupations - crime lords whose reach extends over entire city-states, knights and adventurers of the highest caliber, mages and scholars at the top of the Guild hierarchies, although these achievements are tainted by their accomplishment in the company of lesser beings (at least in the eyes of Elven society at large). Often referred to as "the Firstborn", the Elves bear an ancient grudge against the "lesser" (mortal) races, though no non-elf knows exactly what the original offense was, and no elf will deign to remind them. There was, apparently, a schism amongst the Elves at some point in their distant past, resulting in varying subspecies and a caste-based social hierarchy (although even the lowest elf-kind looks down on all other races). Elven society is a ruthless meritocracy, according to their inhuman moral code. **HIGH ELVES** – the most numerous of elf-kind, they see themselves as the pinnacle of all living things. “Sun Elves” **WOOD ELVES** – these elf-kind seek a more integrated existence with the world around them. “Moon Elves” **DROW** – more suited to a life of scheming within the dim halls of the Labyrinth. “Dark Elves” [[Eladrin]]