This is the second part on my Elves of Calenor series. A player of mine had some questions about elven age, looks and emotions so I thought I would write up how I see it in my Greyhawk. I might add things to the list depending on what you the reading put to the question or what my players ask for, but for now this is a great start.
Age - Length:
Becoming physically mature by the age of 25 and emotionally mature at around 125, they are also famously long-lived, capable of living 350 years or close to half a millennium and remaining physically youthful. Some rare individuals have become 1000 years however.
Age - personality:
Longevity gives them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. They are more often amused than excited, and more likely to be curious than greedy. They are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Their extended life span allows elves to take the long view in nearly every endeavour. Elves rarely hurry, preferring to take the time to contemplate an action and its potential consequences before committing to it.
Physical:
Possessing an innate unearthly grace and fine features, they appear hauntingly beautiful to many humans and members of many other cultures. They are slightly shorter than humans on average and are more slender than humans, weighing only 100 to 145 pounds. Males and females are about the same height, and males are only marginally heavier than females. They have no facial hair and little body hair. Even though their bodies grow weaker, they enjoy good health and physical beauty until the moment of death. In my Greyhawk, elves are not always fair skinned and radiant. Some can have a greyish skincolour, others may be brown skinned while others again may be white to even pale skinned. It is speculated that those that have a faint grey skin have had ancestors living mostly in mountain or forest caves and perhaps they themselves still do (although it is not the rule). Those with brown skin are thought to have lived for millenniums in the deep south such as Hepmonaland and the Amedio Jungle before leaving those lands. Some human anthropologist play with the idea that Flan blood runs through elves with brown skin from unions of their elven ancestors. The northern regions of Caledon more often have white skinned elves.
Self-sufficiency:
More than any other single factor, an innate respect for individualism governs an elf’s behaviour. Each elf strives for self-sufficiency as well as harmony with the land. This attitude engenders an expectation that other beings are equally able to care for themselves unless ill or injured—which sometimes makes elves appear haughty, uncaring, and unhelpful to other cultures. In truth, elves are no less willing to help others in need than anyone else, but their respect for the boundaries of others often prevents them from offering aid to those who seem more or less capable and have not requested help.
Expression of emotion:
Elves consider the free expression of sorrow or joy as not only a personal right, but also a societal necessity. No stigma is attached to an elf who laughs or cries in public, or who makes others do so by means of story or song. Nevertheless, many elves who spend time with members of other races learn to curb their emotions in public, often resorting to dry humour to mask profound feelings.
All elves have the inborn ability to share their experiences, their feelings, and their lives with the few elves they love implicitly. This sharing, called communion, can only be undertaken by elves that have not a grain of reservation towards it. Communion requires the participating elves to be totally serene, thinking only of the other in this most intimate bond. All the elves must free themselves of judgments and prejudices about the other, which may take some time. Indeed, some communions have been known to take a fortnight or more merely in preparation for the bonding. After that they can 'feel' the other person(s) when said elf is under high emotion or stress. At times their dreams also seem real but the sleeping elves have no control what they dream (Game system note: It is not a free telepathy).
Fascination with Art:
Linked to being long-lived, and having a patience beyond the scope of most other cultures, they are gifted with an appreciation for intricate art. Art for them can be music, dance, sculpture, poetry, architecture, painting or any craft one can think of for that matter. Their love for the beauty of nature can be seen in any and all art they create and they will go to great lengths to perfect details on a work of art. Elven artist of renown are held in high esteem in any elven culture for the art the produce most often moves one emotionally.
Elven Names:
Elves are considered children until they declare themselves adults, sometime after the hundredth birthday, and before this period they are called by child names. On declaring adulthood, an elf selects an adult name, although those who knew him or her as a youngster might continue to use the child name. Each elf’s adult name is a unique creation, though it might reflect the names of respected individuals or other family members. Little distinction exists between male names and female names; the groupings here reflect only general tendencies.
Family Life:
Visitors to elf communities are often bewildered about the apparent lack of family life. In truth, elves love their families as much as humans or dwarves do; they simply do not feel the need to spend all their time with their relatives. After all, in a life that lasts hundreds of years, there’s plenty of time for family and other interests as well.
A pregnant elf is expected to limit her activities as much as necessary to ensure the birth of a healthy child. Elven children are not common among the elves, and that is why each new life is precious to the whole community. Everyone pitches in to care for the expectant mother and her child after the child’s birth. It takes a village to raise a child is something the elves take literally.
Religion:
The elves have various rituals, but what you see of religion tends to fit more under the looser label of spirituality. Religion-wise they worship a pantheon rather than a singular deity and their way of worship differs considerably from human ways.
Faegildin:
It translates into common as the 'Spirit Spark'. The Faegildin is within every single elf in the world but in various degrees from barely noticeable to obviously visible. Those elves that are older than 500 years old have become so old because the Faegildin is strong, or grown strong, in them. These elder elves have a special 'aura' around them, sometimes even having some minor physical alterations, and the reason humans call them Grey Elves in awe. The Grugach need a special mention for they are naturally gifted with the Faegildin which can be noticeable as a Fey-like physical element or emotional characteristic.
Note however that although most elves physically do not differ from each other, where they live and thus which culture they have will be different. More on that in the Elven Cultures chapter.
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