Yoru Elves

Also known as dark elves or night elves, they are descendants of the Tsurīkīpā or tree keepers. They were a special sect of elves that were charged with protecting the Életfa Tree. After an event known as The Betrayal of Életfa, they were banished underground and given the name of Yoru Elf which meant Night Elf. They had dark complections with an almost blue or purple hue due to their ever existing close proximity to the Életfa Tree and its ever existing arcane power. When they made their way underground, their dark complection became an adaptive tool to keep them hidden, especially as a pacifist race.

Yuro Elf Features:

Ability score increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.
Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Trance. Elves do not sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is "trance". While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Incisive Sense. You have advantage on Investigation and Insight checks
Blessing of the Életfa: You know the Light cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast Sleep once, and it recharges after a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast Invisibility (Self Only) once, and it recharges after a long rest. You do not need the material components required of the spells. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Neathercommon and either Elvish or another variation of common.[/history]

Naming Traditions

Unisex names

Like the names of Hoshi Elves, Yoru names are considered unisex and are chosen elvan variations of existing names of significant places, family members, and events. They are personalized self inventions. Loved ones might forget to use this chosen name and still refer to an elf by a child name, but this is considered very personal, and informal. It would be extremely rude for someone else to use such a name.

Family names

Yoru elves do not have family names, and typically have a single name that they will use. If expected to give an additional name, they might give the place they were born, similar to the family names of Hoshi Elves. For example, an elf named Tarlyn might say they are Tarlyn ni'Taramma.

Other names

New Yoru elves typically are given a child name which is often a short easy to pronounce combination of parent names. When the child declares themself an adult around their 100th birthday, they often choose their new name, which is often a variation of names related to important people or events in their life. Most are unique creations that they hope will be slightly varied and adapted by another elf when they are older.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Unlike most other elves, Yoru elves are fairly expressive with emotions, ideas, values, and tend to be fairly whimsical. They enjoy music, art, plays, and other forms of self-expression. Love and affection is expressed very openly. Elves reach physical maturity at the same rate as humans, but they haven't reached "adulthood" in the elvan sense until they've stopped dreaming of their past. Since their birth, Elves do not dream, but instead, enter "dream like" trances. During this time, they often have vague dreams of past lives, past emotional connections, and visions of the feywild. This continues until they begin to make their own connections and relationships. When they have done enough in their life that they no longer dream of their past, or past relationships (usually around 100 years of age), they are considered mature enough in this lifetime, and adults in the eyes of elves. These dreams are usually considered extremely private, and not spoken about, as they often share images and ideas of history with old loved ones and enemies. Some will actively seek out close relations with past family relations. Yoru elves that do not have past lives will often dream of the Életfa Tree and the divine layers of consciousness towards transcendence.

Common Etiquette rules

It is considered extremely rude to touch another's hair, almost as a personal attack, unless in an intimate setting. To cut someone else's hair is ultimate humiliation on the person whose hair is cut and total disrespect. Additionally, respect among elders is extremely important for their experience and wisdom. Many elves even use honorifics to denote elders, teachers, peers, etc.

Common Dress code

Yoru elves have had to rely heavily on trading with other cultures for fabrics. Most clothes are made of spider silk, obtained through trading with Ake Elves. Yoru elves have rather conservative and simple styles, favoring practicality. The upper class will wear more elaborate robes, or jewelry, especially mithril items. Clothes do not vary greatly in color due to a limit of dyes and usually vary from white, grays, dark blues, to black. Mithril hairpins are extremely popular sources of jewelry, and elaborate hairstyles with intricate braids, pins, and weavings can be a display of wealth and influence as well as beaded headdresses or circlets.

Art & Architecture

Yoru elves have had to adapt to an underground lifestyle and have elaborate homes carved into great caverns and stalagmites. Some homes are built in carved-out stone and made into polished brick and stone structures. Because Yoru elves have had to adapt to an underground world, when they were previously surrounded by light, the cities are extremely well lit with specialized plants or trees that are grafted from the Életfa Tree. Though they are not the same, they give of glowing light, that gives an illusion of an ever sunlit city. Outskirts of these cities are known as twilight districts, as the light is still ever-present but muted. Close to the tree are typically many gardens and fields. Yoru elves are vegan, meaning they rely heavily on these gardens, preserved foods, and native mushrooms.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Elves don't require a lot of meat in their diet and rely heavily on high fructose and plant-based. They eat a lot of sweet, sour, and tart dishes and are known for their jams, jellies, preserves, and canned foods. Yoru elves have found a way to add an almost earthy flavor to their dishes and pallet through the use of mushrooms and local fungi. It's often very flavorful. Since mushrooms are easier to grow where the light is scarce, most rely heavily on high mushroom diets which have a variety of flavors and prepared styles. Yoru elves typically do not eat meat, even if they chose to leave the traditions of peace, simply because it won't taste good to them and seems barbaric. Yoru elves on the surface might adapt more quickly to bug-based foods.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

When a child is born, extended family and family friends in a localized community will often come together to meet the child. During this celebration, seven guardians are named as the child's mentors and teachers aside from the parents. These must be agreed upon by both parents and is a source of great respect for those chosen. Marriage is not a formal idea among the elves, therefore two people will come together to raise a child, and remain positive and supportive even if they no longer remain together as partners. The community of the seven, and the two parents will act as the most important figures in the child's lives, and they might refer to them as "sept" family members. A grandmother that is also one of these seven might be called a "sept grandmother."

Coming of Age Rites

Yoru elves do not have typical coming-of-age ceremonies. When a child reaches physical maturity, it simply means they are more likely to partake in adult activities. There is generally no celebration or definite change that happens. However, when they reach mental maturity they can meet with a religious leader of the city or village and begin a series of guided meditations. During this meditation, the individual and the elder work together on various spiritual focal points, each denoting a level of heaven, in hopes to reach enlightenment. They will often recite what is known as Noble Truths, and make a vow to follow the path of Életfa Tree. Breaking this vow, or refusing to take it is often a source of sadness and shame for many families, and can lead to the complete banishment of an individual.

Funerary and Memorial customs

When an elf dies, they are the most susceptible to undeath than any other race due to their connection to the fey, and the otherrealm. To protect against this, cremation is the most common form of burial among elves. They will typically do a pyre of the dead burning them with carved or grown offerings to pass with them. They believe the spirit goes into the ether until it can be reborn. Loved ones will often take a small section of hair if they wish to remember their loved ones. These are often kept in trinket boxes or lockets.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Hair is very important to most elves. They typically have very fine, illustrious hair that can grow to incredible lengths, though it tends to grow slowly and is very strong. Hair is often used as a way to see age and gauge respect for an individual as well as a way of showing disrespect or humiliation. Self-expression is more common among the Yoru elves, and since a majority of them have fine silvery hair, many young people dye their hair various pastel colors, using mushroom-based dyes. Tattoos are not as common among the Yoru elves, because of their dark complexion making it difficult to see, and also because of their aversion to needles and harm. Body modification in such forms is almost taboo. A Yoru elf that leaves its culture and gives up a way of peace is far more likely to get piercings and the like, however, as a display of rebellion.

Gender Ideals

Like the Hoshi elves, Yoru elves are not strict when it comes to gender or gender expression. They are a more expressive and open culture, and encourage all forms of love, making it an accepting culture of all sorts of individuals as long as they continue to be peaceful.

Courtship Ideals

Elves of all kinds tend to be very sex-positive. Most only have 1 or 2 in a lifetime and many don't start until midway through their life. Children are seen as precious and extremely protected. They don't have a standard sense of marriage, but it isn't uncommon for two elves to come together and stay together for the entirety of their lives. Yoru elves care little for population growth and only in maintaining tradition and the protection of the Lux Életfa Tree, leaving couples to do as they please, with or without children.

Relationship Ideals

Relationships are often casual, with a great deal of personal independence. The local community or extended family comes together to raise children, so relationships become more like partnerships or choices to live together. There is often little distinction between friends or partners among elves, aside from the amount of physical expression.