Wood Elf
Wood elves are similar to Eladrin, in that they are closer to their Fey ancestors, but instead of tying themselves to the magic of the Fey they commune with nature itself. Often times they will will grow antlers, or naturally sprout leaves out of their hair as it grows.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Elven
Common Dress code
Wood elves often dress in extravegant furs to mimic their beloved tarantulas fuzzy exterior.
Art & Architecture
Wood elves mimic the burrows of tarantulas, but instead burrow into magically enlarged trees, building up and into the trunk and root networks to create vast, invisible cities.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
When male wood elves are born, they are separated from their parents and brought to a group housing home. Here they have their ears magically clipped to show they were born male, and will live exclusively with other males until they reach maturity.
When female wood elves are born, the parents and the child are accompanied with the birthing ritual mage to a sanctification chamber. The most elite of the Wood Elf society will have their own, but often a community will have a shared one. The female child is placed in a large open base under the roots of a specific tree. A spell is cast to commune with the tarantula spiders living within it, and they descend into the bowl like den created under the roots. Here, the child will either be rejected or accepted by the spiders, if it is the latter the child is returned to the parents to live with them.
Coming of Age Rites
Higher in the Wood Elf society they begin to mimic the mating habits of the Spiders they worship. The High courts of Wood elves host events where male elves will have to engage in physical combat with the females they intend to mate with. The males cannot use deadly force, but the females can and will without hesitation.
Common Taboos
When a law or rite was broken by any Wood Elves in a society, their punishment was often laid out as a transformation into a Drider. The transformation convderts their lower half into that of the body of a massive tarantula.
Ideals
Gender Ideals
The wood elves run a severely matriarchal society, but due to the fact that elves have the ability to change their sex magically; wood elves that are born male have the ends of their ears clipped during a magical ritual that prevents the ear from ever being regenerated.
Relationship Ideals
Socially average wood elves mate like most elves, for life. Socially higher Wood elves have to fight their would-be mate in a ritual for the opportunity to fine a partner.
