Grey elves, an ancient, nearly forgotten and warlike people, bore a resemblance to the average high elves of Arata. Very arrogant and believing themselves to be superior to other races, even elven races, they considered themselves to be the purest form of elf. Though of course, not all grey elves possess this snobbish demeanor. The grey elves also tend to be highly intelligent, the most intelligent of all elven races according to some estimates, and such a quality is highly valued among those in their society.
Mighty and Beautiful
With their unearthly grace and fine features, elves appear hauntingly beautiful to humans and members of many other races. Standing slightly taller than humans, grey elves have slim builds with pale grey skin. Their hair ranges from a silver hue to greys and blacks while their eyes are like amber. Some grey elves, known among their kind as having "noble blood," have pale, silvery white hair and violet eyes.
Proudly they all bare the colors of their eleven Great Houses, the realms of their powerful Sorcerer Kings and Queens. All members of their race tend to favor bright surcoats and wool tunics are typically colored gold, silver, yellow, or white topped with cloaks of deep shades of blue or purple.
Perspective of Power
Elves can live well over 700 years, giving them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. Their societies are very rigidly defined, hereditary monarchies. Much like the Underdarksocieties of Drow, personal freedom is not valued and movement is carefully restricted, with citizens of their cities being divided by a caste system. Outside of that many spend much of their lives indoors, seeking arcane and scholarly pursuits. Studying, researching, contemplating, and writing tomes of what they learned.
Because they spent so much of their lives studying the arcane and eldritch, grey elves had many other races as slaves, typically humans, for menial and physical labor. The conditions harsh, they would swiftly punish any slaves that failed in a task or performed it poorly.
Ancient Island Home
Once lost in the Astral Sea for thousands of years in the Material Plane, little time passed for the empire of the grey elves. Now recently returned to the Realm through unknown means their people begin again their expansion they once held over the Old World.
Their cities were made almost entirely out of stone and divided into five walled concentric rings, with inner rings having more decorations and ornamentation. On their home isle these cities had some of the most extensive libraries of any city on Arata. These were communally open to all elves who wished to expand their knowledge and better themselves.
Exploration and Adventure
While many elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust, this is the least true for grey elves. Grey elves are a very reclusive people, highly valuing their seclusion, viewing it as independence from a corrupting outside world and would fight fiercely to remain secluded from all. Out of all elven races, grey elves are among the least tolerant of other races. Grey elves almost never associated with other non-elven humanoids for long periods of time, fearing the possibility of other, shorter-lived races tainting their bloodline.
Grey elves typically fight with longbow, longswords, and two-handed swords. Unlike many other elves, they favor heavy and medium armors. However, grey elves do not overtly value the concepts physical prowess, thus, many take up of the profession of a mage, though they usually do not become specialized wizards. Those that do specialize tend to take up roles as bladesingers or spellswords.