Wood Elves of Martapa

There have been many different types of elves in fantasy history. You have the Lord of the Ring Elves who are tall, lithe, and have small ears. There are the Elfquest elves who are quite short and have large ears. Then there are the World of Warcraft elves who are tall, lithe, and need their ears trimmed a bit. They are everything from mystic to just people with pointy ears. I'd like to think my elves are on the mystic side, with just some pointy ears.

Wood Elves stand around five foot in height (though they can be taller) with ears which taper. Hair color can range from white to purple, brown to black and everything in between, with one exception. Only the elves of the Sunstar line have red hair (this is something I will get into in the history side of explanations so bare with me). Eye color also range, usually matching hair color, though not always especially for the odd colors like white or red.

Now there are two major subsets of Wood Elves: The northern and the southern. The northern are more pale skinned and do, actually live in the woods. The southern elves are black skinned and live more in the open plains and foothills. The only difference in the subsets is the skin color, nothing else.

Wood Elves are steeped in the lore of nature as well as magic and prove to be powerful mages and observant scouts. Their clothes are leather or silk (depending if they work mostly in the out of doors or if they are scholars) or a mixture of both. Most, but not all, elves know how to use bows and often they can speak more then one language. (So let me add here most Dwarves speak dwarvish and the common, human tongue of High King's Speech). The men grow no beards and both women and men wear their hair somewhat long, woman longer then the men. Intricate braids and pony tails are common decorations in one's hair.

Family size is small, usually only two or three children in their long lifetimes which can last a millennium. They live in homes upon the ground amongst the trees or high in tree branches if in the north, in the south they like homes which are burrowed into the ground or hillside.

Some possible classes for your campaign world would be fighters, rangers, mages, clerics, and bards. They would also be eligible for a class of my own making: Clan Warrior, a special kind of fighter/mage/cleric I will explain later. Elves should be given a free language and the option of the bow or a second free language they can read or write. I would give a bonus to Agility, Charisma, and Intellect, but take from Constitution and Strength if your want to tweak them from your stock elf. Elves tend to worship Targon, Wesa, and Iktomi, though other Gods are worshiped as well.

Elves, in general, look at humans in disdain, thinking them too young and inexperienced (though not all elves feel this way). Dwarves are two gruff for their tastes and Akicitia are very honorable.
Monday: Ancient Elves