Elf
Basic Information
Anatomy
Elves are a humanoid species, though there are many would bristle at this definition. Hairless beings with one head, two legs and two arms, all arranged to suit a balanced range of motion for the bipedal lifestyle. However, while this basic structure remains the same, there are some unique aspects of elvish morphology that distinguish their species from humans. The frame of the average elf is smaller and slighter than that of the average human.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The long ears of elves endow them with far greater hearing than many other species.
Civilization and Culture
Beauty Ideals
Hairlessness, eternal youth
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Elvish
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Demographically speaking, full-blooded elves are the second-smallest population in Bastollo, a reality obscured by their general position at the highest echelon of Bastollo’s power structures. The many reasons driving the actions of the elvish empire overlap with countless other empires in our own reality do. But one of their most frequent excuses was that of ‘spiritual necessity.’
Elvish racial superiority is a common belief held by many elves in Bastollo. They view their morphology, their spirituality, and their very culture itself as the pinnacle of mortal achievement. Thus was their conquest an ascension to their rightful destiny as leaders of the world. There was a time not too long ago in the grand scheme of things when Bastollo was the largest country in the known world, when the dominion of the elves took up most of the Great Central Desert. It was essentially ‘Manifest Destiny’ beliefs carried out over a larger span of time.
One of the natural extensions of elvish belief in their own morphological superiority over humanity was the enactment of multiple methods of forced mutilation of human bodies in the hopes of imitating this morphology. Limb stretching, binding hands and feet, and clipping human ears into a pointed shape. All these horrors and more are now severely outlawed in Bastollo. Only the few remaining members of the oldest generation of humans from provinces with the most infamously racist policies bear the scars of this abuse, which had fallen out of common practice even in that age (being seen as ‘far too brutish’ and ‘distasteful’ for landed gentry of the refined elvish stock).
In fact, a lot of modern narratives that conservative/neofascist elves push about their own society and culture throughout history are meant to promote themselves as a ‘perfect’, ‘elegant’, race. A people most noble in the utmost degree, whose culture has always been in this perfect state since the inception of their race. For how could it possibly have been better in such proximity to divinity and grace incarnate? Of course, this rhetoric is nonsense, used to paper over a storied history of elvish conflict, all to make humanity and its diverse range of cultures seem brutish and regressive by comparison.
Lifespan
250-300 years
Related Organizations
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