Elves are short, slender humanoids, more lightly built than humans and very quick and graceful. Instead of hair, their heads are feathered, with erectable crests. The feathers are often dyed and oramented. On their home plane of Air, elves are even shorter and lighter than their World forms. Their arms form long wings, although they have three fingered hands at the tips.

Before the Fall of Night, elves were the largest landholders in the world (or at least in this continent). Elves may live for hundreds of years. However, they do not die purely of old age. Rather, they become weary of the World and choose to pass back into the Dream. It is believed amongst elves that excessive contact with the 'younger races' such as men hastens this world-weariness.

Elves believe that their departed souls later reincarnate into new elven bodies (or, rarely, into other sentient creatures or even Dragons). Most elves have extensive memories of their previous lives, creating fantastically complex webs of kinship and friendships. Souls reamain 'in the Dream' for a variable length of time before reincarnation and the return of a famous soul is a cause for celebration.

The most unusual physiological feature of elves is that they are hermaphrodite. All elves may give birth to children, or 'father' them. A common feature of elven society is inheritance of property and titles through the birth parent.

Like some species of snake, the elven foetus develops within a soft shell but breaks out of the shell at birth. An elven birth shell is considered a sacred object and divination of the newly born elf's destiny using the patterns of the shell as a guide is a feature of elven birth celebrations. The shell is carefully preserved and is cremated with the elf upon their death. If the shell has been lost, a dreamwoven substitute is used.

Before the Fall of Night elves were culturally similar and moved freely between the World and the plane of Air. However, Nowadays, there are several different groups of elves.

Elves and Magic

Dream-weaving is commonly practised by all elves except those of the Isle of Winds. Only dolphins surpass elves as dream-weavers, and since few humans meet dolphins, dream-weaving is commonly regarded as an elven trait. Dream-weavers are highly respected in elven society and many priests have some dream-weaving skill.

The Elven language is highly suitable for magic and is indeed the language used by most human sorcerors. Elven is a pure and ancient language and contains a vast number of elabourate metaphorical contructions which are ideal for magic. Elves do not borrow words from other tongues. Instead, when why come across a new concept or object the Dream-Weavers are consulted. Dream-weavers of the School of Time reach into the future Dream and find the new elven word, which is then used.

Elves and the Gods

• Vale of Wizards
• Elven Isles
• Isle of Winds
• Forest of Rivers

Vale of Wizards

The elves of the Vale are one of the largest settlements of elves outside the Elven Isles. After the destruction of the elven cities, most of the elves fled west, eventually setting sail to the Elven Isles. However, a few remained behind. Some of these were reluctant to abandon their homes, or wished to fight the Endless Night rather than flee, or simply could not escape in time. Whatever the reasons, they accompanied the Men to the Vale. They still follow the ancient religion of Luinen and are skilled practitioners of all kinds of magic. They are also famous for their wines and spirits made from the night flowering Vale grapes.

When they first entered the Vale, the elves lived alongside their human allies. However, they eventually decided to establish their own city, away from human land. They built Val Luinen at the head of the Vale. The city was created to preserve the elves' memories of their shining cities which had been laid waste by the armies of Endess Night. It is as if a jigsaw has been assembled, made up of pieces from a hundred different magical pictures. The result is unique and beautiful.

The city is founded upon the largest open Gate into the plane of Air in the known world. It exists half within and half without each world. Viewed from afar, the city seems to be a magical jumble, with streets curving back to meet themselves and vast buildings fitting into spaces too small for a single pillar. Within the city, a street which seemed from afar to be a short alley can turn out to be a long avenue. To the native elves this is home, but visitors can quickly become disoriented. A guide is highly recommended.

Much of the city and the things within it have been crafted over the centuries by dedicated dream-weavers in the plane of Air. Before purchasing anything, it is wise to enquire whether the object will survive a journey away from the city and it's parent plane.

In the center of the city is a great tower in the shape of twisted crescent. This is the heart of the gate, which leads into the plane of Air proper.

Elven Isles

Before the coming of Endless Night these were known as the Empty Isles, the end of the known world. Far out in the ocean to the east, the Isles are protected by distance and a lot of powerful magic and so very rarely visited by other elves, never mind men. The pinnacle of modern elven culture and power, they fled the coming of night and so have preserved a lot of the lore and magic lost to the main continent. They are rumoured to be the most powerful magicians in the World, with the exception of the Dragons. Little is really known about the Elven Isles because of their self-imposed isolation. Even within the Realm of Air, the ways to the Elven Isles are hidden and beset with traps and dangers.

Isle of Winds

This great island is inhabited by descendants of the elves on the last fleet of ships fleeing the coming of Night, which was wrecked after the raising of the Salamander Penninsular. They have abandonned the worship of Luinen and instead worship the god of the oceans, Typhon. The Isle of Winds is an extinct volcano, which is largely destroyed, leaving a huge horseshoe shaped island. The outer slopes of the island are forested with the giant sea-beeches from which the Elves make their ships. The inner slopes are terraced to provide the little food the island can grow. The Elves live mostly on what the sea can provide. The protected flooded crater of the volcano provides the finest natural harbour in the world, and shelters the great oyster beds from which the wealth of the Isle comes.

More warlike than other elves and the world's best sailors, the elves of the Isle of Winds are not above a little piracy. They are protected from retribution by the unpredictable winds and currents which swirl around the isle and the dangeous and secret passage through the rocks into their harbour. The Isle sees many shipwrecks and the elves keep any human survivors as 'life servants' - effectively slaves who work the terraced fields in repayment of their life debt.

The 'life debt' system also applies to elves, and any who are saved from shipwreck by other elves are considered to owe an unrepayable debt to the captain of their rescuer's ship which is only wiped out upon the death of the debtor. Rescuers are considered even more important than close kin and an indebtted elf is expected to take his rescuers part in all disputes. Because of the long lives of the elves, the debts owed are an incredibly complex web of obligations.

The Isle is ruled by a council made up of the ships' captains. Because of the dangers and rigours of shipboard life, elves of the Isle of Winds usually 'choose' a sex, and either father children or give birth to them. This habit is regarded as deeply unnatural by most other elves. Land and property on the island is owned by the nobility; 'captain' families, who are the only ones permitted to own ships. To get work as a craftsman, crew or to find land to farm, commoner elves must take an oath of fealty to a captain family. The only exceptions to this are membership of the Priesthood of Typhon and the difficult and highly prized entry into the Brotherhood of Shipwrights, which is almost a priesthood itself.

The captain families also own and run the great estates into which the arable land of the Isle is divided. The fields are largely worked by human life-servants, since the sea-loving elves regard such work as demeaning.

Forest of Rivers

Located south of Bretanny, the Forest of Rivers was a refuge for the small number of elves who fled south when the Endless Night conquered the world. Although they found a haven from the Dark, the elves were also cut off from their kindred and to this day remain reclusive.

The many rivers which flow through the forest are supplemented by the high-rainfall of this sub-tropical forest. The forest is dotted with the elves' small tree-dwelling homesteads and there are no cities. The elves here are adept hunters and fishers, living on the riches of the forest and generally disdaining the outside world. Some limited trade is carried on with Bretanny, but the relationship is marred by repeated conflict over the expansion of Bretan farmers into the edge of the forest. After the conquest of Bretanny by the Golden Empire in 2004, the situation worsened. Open warfare was only avoided by the onset of the Great Plague in 2049.