High Elf
The Original form of Elvenkind
Base Racial Traits
Ability Score Modifiers: (-2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma): High Elves were Smart, Charismatic, and Supernaturally Nimble, yet frail of body. Size: High Elves are Medium Sized Creatures, and gain no benefits or penalties due to their size. Type: High Elves are creatures with the Fey type, and need to eat, breathe, and sleep. Speed: High Elves have a base land speed of 30ft. Languages: High Elves begin play speaking Common, Elven, and Sylvan. High Elves with high INT may choose any non-secret languages as a bonus language. Vision: High Elves, thanks to their Fey heritage, possess low light vision. Weapon Familiarity: High Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon. High Elven Immunities: High Elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +4 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects. Primordial Defenses: High Elves are living fragments of the primordial chaos, and magic finds less purchase when used against them. High Elves gain SR equal to 11 + HD. Hyper-Keen Senses: High Elves receive a +4 racial bonus on Perception checks. Beings of the Fey Wilds: High Elves are beings born from the chaotic Fey Wilds, and have a Fey Creature's resistances. They gain DR 5/Cold Iron. Vulnerability, Cold Iron: High Elves take 50% more damage from all attacks that count as cold iron. Untouched by Time: High Elves were born from the primordial chaos at the dawn of creation, and time is incapable of exerting its effect on them. High Elves cannot enter middle-age or any age category past it, and are immune to the penalties and bonuses of aging. An effect which would magically age a High Elf by one or more age categories does not affect them, however, it does stun them for 1d6 rounds. In addition, a High Elf always has Knowledge History as a class skill and has a racial +5 bonus to it. High Elven Magic: All spells that use your level or HD to determine the damage or range treat your level as being 2 higher than it is normally. This +2 can go beyond the normal limit for Level or HD-based bonuses(Such as Damage on a fireball having a max number of dice. This +2 would add to it.) Penultimate Wanderlust: High Elves are born with a love to explore and wander the realms thanks to their Immortality, and are capable of existing in any harmful environment. They do not need to breathe if the environment is inimical to those who breathe(Such as in space, or Underwater) or if doing so would be harmful to them(such as for an inhaled poison), and gain Resistance 5 if they are within or adjacent to an environmental obstacle that would cause them physical harm(Such as lava), though this gained resistance vanishes 1 minute after they are no longer in, on, or within 5 feet of such a hazard. They may entirely convert their movement speed to either a burrow, swim, or fly speed on their turn as a standard action, though they cannot switch it back for 10 minutes + 1min/level afterward.
Race Flavor:
The High Elves were creatures that long ago walked the earth, and were ethereal, transient beings, possessing of ageless patience, bottomless calm, and a view of the world that most mortal races could rarely understand...and one which several demonized them for. They rarely saw things in the current moment due to their agelessness, and, because they most always thought of the long term, came off as cold and detached by those around them because of it. However, these beings, as a result of their strange, otherworldly nature, were by their very natures hard to define as one trait, and frequently defied all logic and expectations, acting out on whims, fancies, and whatever ideas suited their interests at that moment, a set of traits which contrasted them powerfully against the chaotic, wild nature of their Fey origins, and the timeless, stoic patience that would define their latter Elven kin. A perfect blend of chaos given material form that changed as randomly, vibrantly, and spectacularly as the seasons of the world and sagacious, intelligence beings removed from the trappings of time, the High Elves are said to have vanished as quietly as they appeared some time ago, their capricious, sage-like existences and wondrous cities fading out of the material plane, their purpose served after the birth of their lesser Elven Kin...Basic Information
Anatomy
High Elves have bodies that were simultaneously both timeless and incredibly chaotic. They have two legs and two arms attached to a central torso, and a head that protrudes from the top of their torso. While their appearances and several internal bodily processes such as their metabolism are frozen in time and unable to truly change, their internals and bodily makeup by contrast are incredibly receptive to change to an almost extreme, fey-like degree. Though they have an incredibly hard time gaining weight thanks to their timeless metabolisms, their bodies are incredibly quick to change through tanning, strength training, or even simply adapting to their environment. Though they are timeless, their bodies are freakishly quick to adapt to their surrounding conditions such as frigid cold, scorching heat, or other environmental conditions...it is this chaotic makeup that often earns them the favor of the Fey, who appreciate their constant change and mutable natures. Though their internals are consistent enough to allow for precision strikes to deal immense damage to them, nearly everything about them, including their bones and musculature, can be moved or shifted or changed without concerted effort.
Biological Traits
High Elves are incredibly varied and different creatures, and depending on their home environments they can take on a variety of external and internal traits accordingly. When living in chaotic environs such as the Feywild, their skin and hair and even bodily features can morph and change color and shape accordingly to represent their home...and similarly, locales such as extreme heat, underwater or cold, and etcetera can cause similar changes in their bodily look and makeup. Given time, extended life in such locales can cause drastic changes in their bodies such as gills to survive underwater, heat-resistant skin to survive in the desert or extreme heat, and so on...though this process often takes generations, it nonetheless happens extremely quicker compared to normal rates of adaptation in other species.
Genetics and Reproduction
High Elves are capable of sexual reproduction and can birth and have children among each other, but due a combination of their eternal lifetimes and an incredibly low natural fertility rate, High Elves rarely desire to or give birth to new children and instead prefer to go about living their lives as normal. Their bodies are capable of mating with some other lifeforms, but are outright incompatible for most forms of life that are more stable or impermanent such as Dwarves or Goliaths...as such, they often prefer to engage in relationships with members of their own race to have children but rarely can and do get with other chaotic races such as Fey to have children.
When they do decide to engage in sexual relations, High Elves rarely become pregnant...barely one in a thousand High Elves who have relations with each other or another compatible race produce a child as a result of the coupling. When they do come down with Child, High Elven females carry their children within them until they reach maturation in their wombs, a process which on average takes 9-15 months...but can for nearly as long as they desire to prolong the process.
Once born, High Elven children reach adulthood after 50 to 65 years, during which time they are often taken along on the adventures their parents embark on...but once they become adults, they are often left to their own devices.
Growth Rate & Stages
Once they hit adulthood, High Elves never grow older or age in any capacity and, upon reaching adulthood are often abandoned or left behind by their parents to pursue their own desires or adventures throughout the Planescape...as such, they are often taught of their own special lives and the fleeting impermanence of other creatures and are often stricken with wanderlust and are uncaring for other less permanent life.
Ecology and Habitats
High Elves are highly adaptable thanks to their primordial chaotic natures, but because of this chaotic nature and their eternal lifespans they loathe residing in 'boring' environments and prefer to settle instead in highly unpredictable and wild locales...which often leads them to the Feywilds or other similar places within the planes. They often integrate naturally into the places they reside in or take up residence within and rarely form a new settlement or village, instead preferring to enter pre-existing settlements or villages...but regardless of where they integrate into, High Elves rarely approve of or care to do any action which infringes upon their environment or the natural world around them. As beings formed of primordial chaos, they often feel a closer connection to nature than they do the settlement they live in, and often take care to preserve it or at least not infringe upon it during the actions their home takes to survive.
Because of this incredible adaptability and desire to settle in wild and interesting locales, when they choose to reside within these extreme locales they often soon adapt to their home environment and give birth to entirely new sub-species as they settle down...which leads to their ancestors in races such as the Desert and Forest Elves, and even the Cloud and Sea Elves...all can be traced back to the whimsical adventures of their High Elven ancestors, who have long since moved on to more interesting pastures.
Dietary Needs and Habits
High Elves are technically omnivores, but they tend to prefer eating plants, crops, and other natural things rather than items taken from animals or other living creatures. They believe these simple, natural ingredients are delicious meals all their own, and when elevated through cooking or intelligent preparation become beautiful, complex dishes that can delight any palette moreso than a simple butchered animal carcass prepared over heat...which they generally see as simplistic food. However, while some High Elves may hold personal compunctions against eating meat or animal products, it is not a race-wide restriction.
Biological Cycle
High Elves are entirely immune to the passing of time and have no meaningful biological cycle. Once they hit maturity, they will never age or grow in any meaningful fashion beyond simple cosmetic changes such as hair growth, nail growth, or similar minor things. Their metabolisms are not only hyperactive, but they are nearly perfect and High Elves almost never gain weight in any meaningful fashion aside from strength and/or muscle training.
This immortality is attributed to the roiling, primordial chaos that all High Elves were formed from which churns within them and, thanks to studies done by curious High Elven scholars, has been discovered to not truly 'freeze' their insides in time like was initially thought but instead simply keeps their bodily processes operating at peak efficiency for all time, completely preventing natural bodily decay and the normal degradation that normally comes with possessing living bodies. Their bodily functions operate perfectly, with no waste, and will never decay or degrade no matter how much time passes. A High Elf, for example, never experiences memory loss, never gets shorter of breath, and never experiences the side effects that normally come with a body that would degrade over decades or centuries.
Additional Information
Social Structure
High Elves have little social structure of their own, as their fleeting and chaotic natures have long since kept them from forming a true society or structure of their own...Not since the days of yore, of Gail-Idhren and the great Elven Kings of old before living memory, have the High Elves been a unified force or people...or so the High Elves believe.
Instead, High Elves often freely move about between societies and social structures, living in the societies they find themselves in and becoming a part of their systems until such a time when they either die, grow bored, or simply move on. When High Elves encounter each other they often stop and afford each other amicable greetings and discuss the fruits of their adventures in Eons past, but aside from these happy meetings of chance High Elves rarely stick together for long and often chafe under extended life within a strict social structure.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Though the belief is a bit barbaric and outdated, a very popular folk tale and belief told the nigh-supernatural effectiveness of High Elven Eyes as magical tools, alchemical ingredients, and simply valuable items said to be able to see through all barriers and gaze upon the truth of the world.
Facial characteristics
High Elves have long, slender faces that are often neither masculine nor feminine...they are almost genderless in their beauty and aesthetic. Their ears are long and tapered to a point, and their eyes are slender and narrow, but this can vary from person to person. Their lips are often thin, and their hair tends to be long and flowing and rarely curly. They have trouble growing beards of any kind, and facial hair is almost unheard of for High Elves, as their timeless visages almost never allow hair to grow on their chins or faces.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
High Elves can be found almost anywhere within the Planescape, though they rarely care to visit the Prime Material Plane...when they do visit the Material Plane, they never emerge in the same location twice and often wander about in erratic, whimsical paths that take them wherever their hearts desire. They tend to settle and stay longest in areas of extreme chaos or turbulence where they may have plenty of things to entertain them...in this way, they are often found in incredibly unpredictable natural locations such as the Feywild, The Shattered Corridor on the Prime Material Plane, or other more chaotic nations or groups where they might be entertained longest.
Average Intelligence
High Elves are incredibly intelligent beings, and are often incredibly wise as a natural consequence of their extremely long lifespans. Their intelligence is often unfathomable to mortal ken, and can reach incredibly heights as they live their lives accruing knowledge and intelligence without hindrance.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Thanks to their Fey ancestry and the primordial chaos that they carry inside them that closely links them to the Feywild, High Elves can see excellently in conditions of low-light. They are also highly sensitive to magic and planar barriers or portals, and some among them can even intrinsically sense such things when they come near them.
Otherwise, they generally possess the normal five senses other races do, but as another sign of Fey heritage High Elves process all sensory input and perception at nearly twice the speed and efficiency of other races. They can see more color, smell more subtle aromas, and altogether "process" senses so quick they consider other races with normal processing speeds "slow" and "dull". They can see a beautiful spectrum of nearly all visible light and have such an enhanced sensory suite they often consider the mere act of feeling and seeing as they do a delight for one's senses and mind.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
High Elven names more closely relate to those of the fey than they do of the mortal plane, and as such, vary wildly and are incredibly chaotic. Some may be incredibly long, proud titles full of heritage, history, and family, while others may be guttural syllables and short intonations that barely count as names as most know them. While High elves have gender, their names are rarely gender-exclusive, so it is not uncommon for a name to apply to both sexes.
Male: Gregoribyl, Borsilaxin, Xa, Huric, Kol, Drystyntopilusondria, etc...
Female: Melanathiriel, Yulafrescoria, Elegancia, Syl, Ri, Ai, etc...
Beauty Ideals
Because of their almost universal beauty regardless of their gender as well as the chaotic nature of their homes and those they associate with, High Elves find less 'beauty' in the external than other races...though they value soft curves and quiet beauty. An immaculate exterior, and one free of blemish, dirt, or scar is one they find beauty in...the more understated and softer one's beauty the more they appreciate it, though they understand other races have a hard time reaching their own bodily standards. Otherwise, they look at the spirit and soul of those they meet, and High Elves often find beauty in those who possess wild, free spirits that chafe under strict social systems. They find beauty in those who love to follow their whims, those who move freely and act freely, and those who are like wild gales and gusts, true and free. They especially enjoy those who love to wander and travel, and find such a thing highly beautiful.
Gender Ideals
High Elves have little distinction between Gender for their Gender Ideals, and both Males and Females consider their ideal form to be one that wanders often, exploring and discovering new experiences and realms and one that constantly seeks new forms of entertainment to better themselves and keep their eternal lives from being stagnant and/or boring. A love of travel and a burning sense of curiosity and wanderlust are hallmarks of the High Elven ideal, as is the flexibility of character to freely integrate and leave civilizations and societies...staying in one place too long is seen as abandonment of one's nature and is frowned upon unless that place is exciting enough to keep one's mind busy and intrigued.
High Elves believe that staying free and wandering from place to place is a sign of a strong and respectable High Elf, and that embracing chaos and constantly seeking new experiences and sensations is normal and encouraged.
Courtship Ideals
High Elven Courtship is a process that often takes years and even decades...when they find a creature they are attracted to High Elves often try to elicit the target of their affection to come travel with them across the Planescape, the Continent, or even the local area...the scale of the travel is less important the the act of traveling with the one they care for. If they cannot elicit their love to do this, they do sometimes settle down near them and attempt to stoke their loves' adventurer's spirit and sense of adventure in the hopes of convincing them to go traveling with them...though, if this cannot be done, they often move on to find others more suited to wandering or traveling. Rarely, if their love for their target is strong enough, they will stay near them for extended periods of time...especially if their love cannot move about due to an injury or some other restrictions.
Either way, High Elven courtship is a long and lengthy thing...one they prefer to do over travels that take months and even years, getting to know their love through laughs, shared experiences, and long journeys in which they hope to get to truly know the one they love, and become as close and as one with them as possible. Often, if they love cannot travel due to injury or similar restriction, they will become all the more determined to show them the Planescape and take them on adventures to show them what they could not otherwise. Though their courtships can last even into old age for their partner, once they have loved they will never forget those they get with.
Relationship Ideals
An ideal High Elven relationship is one that is built upon years of close friendship, where both parties know each other inside and out and where they can know what the other is thinking on an instinctual level. Shared experiences, travels, and adventures are the preferred backbone for these relationships, and relationships where both parties are monogamous to each other and loyal unto death do they part are paramount and ideal.
Average Technological Level
Though in ages past they achieved the very pinnacle of cultural, technological, and societal development, the High Elves of today are scattered and wandering...they have no central government or nation, and as such have no centralized technological level. They may make personal discoveries, but as a whole they are a people familiar with advanced technology and can use it, but their wanderlust prevents them from staying in one place or making many advancements.
Common Etiquette Rules
High Elves place high importance on respecting those in transit or those travelling due to their own wandering natures, and almost universally give basic courtesy and afford respect to those they meet on the road no matter their origin or reason for travel. The road and the act of travel, to the High Elves, is a sacred thing almost mystical in nature...the road leads to all destinations, and carries one throughout their lives, and as such is something to be respected and given proper decency.
Besides this, High Elves have a hard time associating frequently with other races due to their incredibly long lifespans. They often mean nothing by it, but come off as arrogant and selfish because they often have an incredibly hard time caring about the affairs of other, shorter-lived races...as such they prefer the company longer, more permanent beings like the Fey or outsiders.
Common Dress Code
High Elves have no centralized dress code, but tend to favor comfortable robes or outfits that are elegant and flowing but won't get in the way of practical travel.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
High Elven custom commonly dictates that every traveler met upon the road is to be seen pass safely and amicably, and that a seat be kept at every fire and camp for those in need of rest upon the long road.
Often, High Elves who have lived an exceptionally long time will recite the names of all their friends, family, beloved who have died throughout the ages each morning in a ritual of remembrance...though the process may take hours, they are unwavering in this duty as many consider it to be their duty as immortals to remember those of ages past.
Common Taboos
True to their history, High Elves have a taboo against striving for "more" of something with no regard to limits or consequence. In anything they do, High Elves generally are very cognizant of any 'limits' that must be observed when doing so, and are very away that it is always possible to go too far in many things. Hubris and arrogance are thus massively taboo traits in High Elven culture.
History
The High Elves were a people that were old even as the other races of Ea were young...before recorded history and while all was still fresh they were a people that had existed for eons and that had already formed complex culture and civilization while other races had barely formed tribes. They were a race more ancient than any other, and the beginning of High Elven history begins with the founding of the ancient Elven city of El'Adri...a legendary, mythical place founded upon the border of Reality where the primordial chaos clashed with the newfound order and reality the gods had forged. This city was towering and vast, and existed outside the bounds of space and even time, much like the High Elves who lived there...founded at the beginning of all time(Or close to it), it was a city of infinite knowledge and discovery. The High Elves of the time studied the infant stars and in time learned the ways of metalworking, city planning, advanced politics and governments, and a myriad of other technologies that propelled El'Adri to the forefront of creation and civilization itself. Far before the High Humans would come into being and forge an empire of technology and might unparalleled, the HIgh Elves soon learned every secret under the stars and within the Planes.
El'Adri reigned for eons uncounted as the premiere bastion for peace, for culture, for knowledge and beauty in all the Planes...its citizens were paragons of culture and capable of both serving in times of war and contributing in times of peace. There was nothing, it is said, that El'Adri nor it citizens could not do and did not thus excel at...moreover, it is said there was no race nor culture that did not respect and yearn for what El'Adri had.
The High Elves were voracious for knowledge, and so advanced were they that their city was said to be a living thing, that expanded and collected more knowledge to add to its infinite libraries on its own...and in time, as eons passed and the other races of the world came into being and the Planescape began to stabilize, the High Elves of yore were said to grow unhappy with their knowledge that, despite their best efforts, could not be made complete. No matter how hard they tried, there were yet things they couldn't know...and it infuriated them. As the preeminent masters of creation in the days of old, they were the masters of war, of poetry, of civilization and technology...and in a colossal act of Hubris, attempted to "learn what no sentient life should know, attempted to catalog that which should never be defined, and reached into realms reserved for gods"...the meaning of this is unclear, but regardless of its meaning the result was catastrophic. For their act of hubris, the High Elven city of El'Adri, Now more commonly known by its epithet "The Black City" due to its ruined state, was lost forever and set adrift on the currents of time and space, its infinite libraries and knowledge stores that are said to still grow to this day forever locked to all life as a solemn reminder to all sentient life of the dangers of seeking to reach such heights.
In the wake of this Calamity, the legendary High Elf known as Gail-Idhren emerged to lead his people out of their time of dire calamity...and in time, he led his estranged people from the shattered ruins of El-Adri at the edge of Reality to the Prime Material Plane, where they settled and founded a kingdom on the world of Ea as the ancient races were still young and the gods were fresh. Gail-Idhren, now named High King of the Elven people, was much beloved by all, and he led his people as king for centuries in their new homeland which was later renamed "The Elvenwood". In time, Gail-Idhren vanished and died, songs were sung of his passing, and the kingdom he had created splintered...and ever since, the High Elves have been a people disjointed and stricken with Wanderlust. Those that remained in the remnants of his kingdom became the Forest Elves and the Desert Elves, and those that refused to stay continued as High Elves and have wandered the planes ever since...
Common Myths and Legends
No myth is more prominent in High Elven and even Elven culture than that of Gail-Idhren, the legendary High King of Elvenkind who was said to be a "Star fallen from the heavens" sent by the gods to guide his people to salvation. Said to be a mighty warrior, superb diplomat and excellent leader, Gail-Idhren was said to be beloved by all and known far and wide for his majesty and wisdom...founder of the Elven kingdom of yore which would one day become the birthplace of all elves on Ea, he lead his people through the apocalyptic end-times of The Fall of El'Adri, guiding them across Reality to the Prime Material Plane on a great exodus until finally settling in the verdant valleys of Ea, on the Prime Material Plane....and even now, long after the shining star himself returned to the skies above, his work done and his people safe, the High Elves and Elves venerate and sing songs of him as their guiding light and guardian angel, as well as the ideal which all Elvenkind should aspire to reach.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
High Elves get along passably well with almost all sentient life, though they have a hard time understanding them and are often isolated beings due to their immortality which prevents them from truly fitting in with shorter lived races.
Thanks to their nature as wanderers, they are skilled at integrating into almost any society at least on the surface level.
Alternate Racial Trait List: High Elf Alternate Racial Traits
Racial Feat List: High Elf Racial Feats
Genetic Descendants
Lifespan
Immortal, with limits. See The Earthslumber for more info.
Conservation Status
High Elves are a scattered people who can found in nearly every plane and realm across the Planescape, but despite this disunity they are in no danger and in no need to be protected or conserved.
Average Height
1.5 - 2.2 Meters
Average Weight
125 - 220 pounds (55kg - 90kg)
Average Physique
High Elves are lithe and nimble, and lack much muscle mass. Instead, they are quick in both body and mind, and are better suited to nimble motion that brute force. They are creatures of beauty that can be admired regardless of gender, and have an objective beauty and perfection to them that many liken to fine art...no matter one's sensibilities, they cannot help but admit the objective beauty of a High Elf. High Elves also have a nearly supernatural presence about them, and radiate an air of eternal mystery and wisdom...which often attracts other lesser creatures to them for one reason or another. Many liken their bodies to be things of otherworldly, quiet serenity....beautiful and serene forms that are often better appreciated from afar, for fear of breaking them if one got too close or touched them...this apparent fragility is perhaps not the truth, but they as a people do little to offset this belief.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
High Elves are generally pale-skinned, and rarely colored or marked in any particular fashion. Their skin color can sometimes change if they live in an extreme locale or in a locale where all who live there appear a certain way(Such as residing in the Feywilds in the domain of a Fey Court).
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