High Elf

The Maelstrom Isles    Player Handbook    Player Options    Playable Races      Elf      High Elf

Overview

The Maelstrom Isles are rife with ancient magic, and where there is ancient magic, there are high elven refugees studying it. They are always on the hunt for ways to reclaim their homeland of Elarellion, they seek to free it from the chaotic magic that taints it and makes it uninhabitable.

Subraces

• Cinder Elves: Elves that live in the black fortresses of Kovik’zarnum and patrol the Ebony Wall.
  As an elf you have the features included here. Your subrace, Cinder Elf grants you the additional features included here.

Description

Build

Most often slender and tall, many elves prefer grace to strength.

Hair

High elven hair has a similar spectrum of colors to humans: blonde, red, black, gray, white and brown, they have also been known to have a few different pigments such as shades of blue, and green, and purple. Pure Elven hair also has a shimmer to it, blonde is more like glistening gold, gray like shining silver, brown like a deep polished bronze, black like reflective obsidian, white like radiant pearls and red, blue, green, and purple that sparkle like dark gemstones. Before The Fall of Elarellion, pure hair color was a symbol of status among the high elves and it was looked down upon if you “dirtied” your hair color with another. However that tradition died when Elarellion fell. Mixed hair colors still shimmer but not as brightly as an elf with a pure color.

Facial Hair

Facial hair grows lightly on male elven faces, if it grows at all. The legend is that a powerful elven mage, who hated dwarves quite passionately, couldn't abide that his people shared something that the dwarves loved so much and so he cast a great spell upon the whole elven race to eradicate the growth of facial hair, but only succeeded in diminishing it.

Skin

Elvish skin ranges from a tan to olive to near pure white. Cinder Elves have descended from those who were marked with charcoal colored skin to signify their vigil against the dragon hordes.

Eye Color

Elvish eye colors are usually on the lighter end of the spectrum and very bright. They vary from brilliant blues and greens and purples to light tans and grays. Cinder Elves eyes may also be a burning orange and red color.

Homelands in Western Rodain

The elvish homeland of Elarellion was ground zero for an Arcane Apocalypse nearly four centuries ago. The cataclysm ravaged the world and Elarellion itself is now a chaotic and dangerous place filled with uncontrolled magic and mutated creatures. Those who have entered there have either died or gone mad. Currently there is no cure in sight for the cursed land.
Vol’drũin is the largest new elven settlement. Though it is a beautiful city with lush surrounding land, the grief of the elves that live there gives it a very somber tone. A deep depression hangs over those who live there and only few have been able to move on.
Elven refugees have been happily accepted by human nobles, under the guise of charity, as they desperately attempt to grab as much land in the Maelstrom Isles as they can get their hands on, and the law requires that land to be populated. So now many elves call the Isles their home, living among other settlers.

Homelands in the Rest of the Known World

Kovik’zarnum is a dark region to the south, where the sun never shines through the dense, dark cloud cover. It includes the black sand shores of the Purged Gulf and is mostly filled by the Scorched Maw, a cracked and barren landscape with black jagged mountains and plains of craters and shattered black rock. The Cinder Elf of Kovik’zarnum are the only permanent residents, the dwarves left long ago, after constructing the great black fortresses and the Ebony Wall which the Cinder Elf now patrol. They remain on constant vigil for dragon raids, keeping the north safe.
Elves have been seen traveling in Dou-chei caravans; they claim there was a once mighty elven kingdom in the far northeast. However this kingdom was destroyed by a demon empress and her people and all elves that lived there are now slaves.
The realms of Tela’es’tien, Koa’vynn’zal, and Slydarin in The Northern Realms are all elven lands and while many elves left long ago to live in Elarellion there are those that stayed, they have integrated themselves into the culture of the people that are now the majority, namely humans, dwarves, and halflings.

Religion

High elves are believed by other races to be a godless people who killed their Gods by denying them in favor of their own powers, before the destruction of Elarellion. Now some seek the religions and Gods of other races while others believe they are set in their fate.
The religious scholars in the Elven city of Ty’aloré claim that the Ancient Elven Gods, thought to be dead, still live and are attempting to bring them back to their majesty through their worship.

Table of Contents

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Elf

Genetic Descendants

• Cinder Elf