Elves

Elves of Lorgaire

Elves are the original race of the green blooded elfkin on Lorgaire, from which the Orcs, Trolls and Vampires originate. Elves were dreamnt into existence along with the shadowy faerie realm they originate from by a tribe of ogres known as the Dreamwalkers. Using their unfathomable ability to alter circumstances, the orgres first purpose for the elves and other races of the faerie realm was to entertain them selves while they slept. Eventually the ogres encountered another nightmare race from an outer realm who invaded the material world, and to combat them the ogres brought the elves to the material realm as well to fight on their behalf.
Like the orgres who imagined them, the society of elves is caste based and ruled by a class considered noble by blood. They are a people who greatly value individuality and personal achievement, but not at the cost of their people. Elves are highly militaristic, and were originally warriors and hunters of the realm they came from, battling dangers that lurked in wild places and beyond the borders of their queen's territory.

Elven Physical and Mental Traits

Elven Senses

Hunters of the shadowy faerie realm, elves are gifted with keen eyesight extending into dim lighting, and their eyes are proportionately large compared to ogrekin and dwarfkin. Elves also have greater resistance to magical darkness effects, and among the Dark Elf sub race and some other elfkin races this has extended to a vulnerability to powerful magical lights.
The large slender pointed ears of elves aren't just decorative, aiding their hunters and warriors in locating prey and foes. Highly trained elves are reported to be able to fight just as fiercely in darkness through their hearing.

Elven Diet

The elves are widely known for their raw diet, which varies seasonally but includes all manner of meat, fish, fruit, nuts and herbs. They view cooking and processing raw foods into things like flour or preserves to be acts of desperation (such as war rations), or as simply uncouth or vulgar practices. Traditional elves subsist on the raw flesh of the animals they hunt and fish, and the fruit and seed of plants they gather as they travel seasonally through their territory.
Many rumors exist that suggest the elves eat the dead of their enemies in war, relishing the taste of the felsh of their defeated foes to steal their spiritual strength, or simply prefering it to that of hunted or pillaged food reserves. Some scholars suggest the truth behind these rumors is tied to the ravenous appetites or bestial behavior of the other elfkin, such as trolls whose madness may make them incapable of distinguishing people from animals, or the vampires who feed on blood and prefer that of the elves themselves. One origin for the rumor of elves eating other people comes from the legends surrounding the fall of the Dreamwalker ogres at the hands of the elves, who are said to have "devoured their makers" after they were banished by their queen.

Elven Longevity

While elves live longer than most races, typically 350-400 years in the current age, their lives are becoming shorter with each generation. The loss of their immortality in the material realm of Lorgaire is a profound sore spot in the psyche and society of the elves, and has triggered the creation of the other elfkin races as they desperately attempt to regain immortality.
In their native shadow realm the elves were immortals, and only came to know death for themselves after they arrived in Lorgaire to aid the ogre tribe that created them in their fight against another force of outsiders. The elves battled the enemy outsiders from a nightmare realm, also created by the ogres, for many decades until the horrible enemy were destroyed or driven away. After their victory against the terrible nightmare enemies the elves were eager to return home, but after the first few had done so, their leader the Queen of Fae'erie refused to allow more. They had become tainted with death, and she would not allow them to infect her other subjects with such a curse. The remaining elves, the majority of their population who had left the shadow to aid the ogres at the command of the queen, were now trapped in the material realm and condemned to short mortal lives.
The first generation of elves born in the material realm lived roughly 600 years after their mortal births, and was quite a small clade. Their parents had come to the world mostly as adult warriors aiding their ogre benefactors, and were ambushed by the decrepitude of old age. Social customs around reproduciton had to rapidly change to prevent their race from being wiped out, and at first the elves did not realise the curse of mortality meant their children would live even shorter lives.

Elven Courtship and Reproduction

Originating from an immortal race the elves posessed both a physiology and society that precluded easy reproduction, else the shadow realm would be overrun with hordes of immortal elven warriors. Physical relationships between elves are casual, but by the standards of most races exhibit little passion, and most often serve simply to socially bond with or comfort a close aquaintance. Despite this casual polyamorous approach, exceptionally few unintentional births occur, and instead offspring occur almost exclusively within planned pairings.
For an elven woman to become fertile she must first partake of a complex of herbs, providing metabolic triggers for ovulation. The herbs necessary for this are not prolific themselves, and wild patches in their territory are often tended to with care by the elves. Even with this planned fecundity an elven gestation is long, and they almost exclusively result in single births. Childhood development is slightly more than twice as long as a human, with adulthood being reached socially around age 50.
Mairrages are usually arranged by family members, and after a child is borne and reaches adolesence it is not rare for the mairrage to be dissolved and another arranged, especially for smaller families with few members to use to form lineal bonds. Political and economic motives are common for selecting mates, and multiple parallel mairrages between elven tribes are often arranged to settle territorial feuds.

Elven Movement

Quick on their feet despite their slight builds and modest stature, elves move at 30 feet per round.

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Weapons of the Hunt and Tools of Travel

The nomadic elven people survive on their ability harvest game and comfortably carry with them everything needed to survive. Nets, bows, snares and the tools needed to efficiently maximise each kill such as skinning knives crafted by the elves are widely considered the finest tools for the job, although they may not be as robust as those made by the dwarfkin. In addition to the tools themselves the light weight sheathes they are protected by, as well as associated gear such as backpack harnesses and water skins are made most efficiently and elegantly by the elves. An elven hunter could trade his old used bow or knapsack for a top price in many markets.

Elven Communities

Predominantly a nomadic people, always on the move to gather seasonal raw foods from their territory, elven communities are more defined by gatherings of people than they are by physical structures. This does not mean the elves are without settlements, architechture, or industry, but their fortifications and forges tend to be smaller and more dispersed than other races. The elves who settle are usually also either unable to keep up with the tribe as it moves due to some ailment such as physical disability, or because they "sacrifice" themself for the good of the tribe and in doing so often earn a social position of both pity and reverence.
The practice of sacrificial settlers, and what their role in society means is often a major difference between the many elven peoples of Lorgaire, with those considered more traditional to have fewer and smaller settlements. Some small bands of elves have nearly given up the old ways, having adopted many of the ogrekin or dwarfkin customs, with traditionalist elves reacting to their "betrayal" of culture ruthlessly.

Elven Philosophy of Ownership

Among the elves if something cannot be carried or defended by an individual, it cannot be owned. This philosophy of ownership also allows possession and domination of properties not always accepted by other races, such as slaves, especially by powerful individuals be they heros or villains. This unusual system means that the elves do not believe most places or parcels of land can be owned, which often puts them at odds with other races and cultures for whom they refuse to recognise or respect territorial claims. Seasonal 'invasions' by the nomadic elven poachers along the borders of human lands are common sources of conflict.

Elven Religions

The elves of Lorgaire are a shattered people in regard to their religious beliefs. Reverence for individuals who have achieved great deeds and an immortality, at least in principle that they are remembered, are the only common threads to the many elven beliefs. Upon their death the elves believe the fragments of their soul return to the stars and moons, and the waters that reflect them, because they are shared with the shadowy faerie realm elves belong to.

Fae'erie Queen

The cult of the Fae'erie Queen is the most widespread elven religion, although it is probably the least publicly recognized. Even after their banishment and betrayal by the queen many elves hope to redeem themselves in the eyes of her court and receive permission to return to their ancenstral home and regain immortality. Adamant followers often insist they have been visited by deceased elves telling them the queen granted their return for deeds achieved in her name.

Heroes and Villains

Many great and terrible individuals are revered widely in elven culture, and this reverence of renowned individuals comes closest to the human style of religious belief in individuals with epic power to influence the world and grant boons to those who pay homage to them.

Ancestors

Revered for their wisdom, achievements, and longer lives accumulating knowledge and skills, elven ancestors both of mortal generations past and otherwordly immortals are called to in prayers and ceremonies at shrines and holy places.

Elven Interactions With other Elfkin

Night Elves

First of the elfkin, Vampires were an attempt by powerful elven spellcasters to give immortality back to the elven people. Above all others the vampires thirst for the green blood of the elven people they were created from, although they can sustain themselves on that of other green blooded elfkin. Elves both revere and revile the Night Elves. Jealous of their immortality, they still recognize the accursed cannibals as an abomination against life. The philosophy of consuming the creatures they hunt raw is still shared with the vampires, but has been corrupted in that the vampires are not just consuming the flesh of their prey but their very soul as well. Life is destroyed instead of celebrated, and for this the elves will hunt and kill vampires where possible, and hope that the souls of the original elf and all their prey can be returned to the stars.
Powerful vampires sometimes keep elves or other elfkin as chattel, and [name of Vampire Villain] reigns over one of the few elven cities [name of mist shrouded eastern city]. Many campaigns against [nomsec] by the eastern elven tribes have accomplished little, and simply result in elven lives lost on both sides with [noVV] gathering new chattel and warriors from the enemy. [nomsec] is also one of the few places large public temples to the Fae'erie Queen can be found, filled with elves and guided by their vampire masters.

Orcs

Second of the elfkin experiments, orcs were an attempt to adapt the elven people to the material realm Lorgaire and boost their population. Celebrated at first as at least a partial success, the orc band was allowed to grow until it became clear that their ravenous appetites would wreak destruction on the land incompatible with the elven way of life. By that point it was too late, and attempts to hunt and kill all the orcs were untenable, as there weren't enough elves to win that fight.
Over time the elves have done everything possible to either contain the orcs, or trigger their self destruction, often through famines. The orcs have proven too resilient, and deeply resent the elves constant interference and slaying of orcs caught near elven territory. Elves see the orcs as little more than oversized vermin whose appearance is a disfigured mocking reflection of the elven people.

Trolls

Considered a refinement of both their previous failures combined, the trolls were created in a new attempt to attain immortality for the elven people. It worked, kind of. The trolls were living elves, infused with a pattern of magic that rendered them effectively immortal. They proved to be imperfect patterns though. The regenerating life force that prevented them from dying had the flawed result of rebuilding them not from who they were previously, but from what was readily available. A troll could be born to resemble a perfect elven child who without injury or illness could grow to be indistinguishable from an elven adult, but after many iterations of regenerative healing they would be transformed into insane monstrosities. A troll injured and rebuilt again and gain was like a vase put together from fragments of hundreds of different pieces of pottery.
"As mad as a troll" has become a common phrase to imply erratic or mentally disturbed behavior among many cultures near populations of the creatures.
Like the orcs, elves hunt trolls who wander near their territory and wage war on troll communities that grow too large. Unlike the orcs, trolls breed no faster than elves, so their populations remain quite small and inhabit places deemed unsuitable by most other races. Trolls roam and devour anything weaker than them, with particularly savage and insane individuals even resorting to cannibalism.

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