ElvespSkilled in both magic and warfare, the Tel'Quessir—"the People," as they call themselves—came to Faerûn ages ago, building vast and powerful empires long before the rise of humans. The days of the great elven nations are now long past, and many elves have withdrawn from the world into isolated sylvan realms, or set sail across the Trackless Sea to the isle of Evermeet.
Unlike dwarves, who developed subraces in the world, elves brought their divisions with them, settling into separate kingdoms by type. Beings of immense power, the first elves explored and settled the world, bringing about a golden age of art, magic, and civilization. At the height of their power, the elves performed a High Magic ritual intended to create the ideal homeland. They succeeded, but the spell sundered the land in a terrible cataclysm at the same time that it caused the distant isle of Evermeet to rise from beneath the sea.
Then came the Crown Wars, a series of conflicts between the great elven kingdoms lasting three thousand years. These battles devastated much of the world and resulted in the dark elves' flight into the Underdark.
Reeling from these calamities, the elven empires went into a long, slow decline, and many of their kind took part in the great Retreat to their refuge on Evermeet. As the elves increasingly withdrew from the world, other races and civilizations rose to prominence in Faerûn.
The Elvish language used across Faerûn—sometimes called the True Tongue by elves—is written in the graceful script of the Espruar alphabet. Seldruin, the ancient language of elven High Magic that uses the Hamarfae alphabet, is all but forgotten nowadays.
High Elves
The term "high elves"—or Eladrin, as they prefer to be called—collectively refers to a subset of three elven subraces: sun, moon, and star elves. Of the three, only sun and moon elves are common within Faerûn. High elves are noted for their keen minds and natural aptitute for magic even compare to the wider Tel'Quessir.
Moon Elves
Also called silver elves, or Teu'Tel'Quessir, moon elves are more tolerant and adventurous than elves of other sorts. In ancient times, the dissolution of their empires dispersed moon elves among other races, and since then they have traditionally gotten along well with their non-elf neighbors. They mingle with other people while their kin remain in hidden settlements and secluded strongholds.
Moon elves are sometimes seen as frivolous, especially by other elves. But it is the easygoing, fluid nature of their culture, philosophy, and personality that has enabled them to survive and flourish during and after tragic times in elven history. While communities of moon elves can be found in mainland Faerûn, many moon elves live in the settlements of other races, staying for a few seasons or several decades before moving on.
To a moon elf, home can be among the members of one's family, clan, or other friends and loved ones. Moon elves who temporarily take up residence in or near sun elf communities aren't shy about expressing the opinion that their kin need to be less serious. In turn, the sun elves pretend to be more annoyed by their moon elf neighbors than they truly are, provided that the moon elves' whims and adventuresome urges don't cause serious disruption. Given that the moon elves usually move on before wearing out their welcome, such unrest rarely occurs.
Moon elves often have skin that ranges pale blue, violet, or occasionally green, though a few have been known to have midnight blue skin. Some have silvery freckles. Their hair is typically black, silvery white, or various shades of blue, and their eyes are blue or green and have gold flecks.
Given the race's love of travel, exploration, and new experiences, many moon elves become adventurers, utilizing their talents for warfare, woodcraft, and wizardry in different measures.
Sun Elves
Sun elves, also known as gold elves, or Ar'Tel'Quessir, have a reputation for being arrogant and self-important. Many of them believe they are Corellon's chosen people and that other races—even other elves—are subordinate to them in skill, significance, and sophistication. They claim the title of "high elves" with pride, and indeed their race is responsible for great, and sometimes terrible, achievements.
Recalling and emphasizing the glorious aspects of their history, sun elves subscribe to the principle of "elven excellence"—no matter how interesting, exceptional, heroic, or noteworthy other races' accomplishments might be, there is an inherent superiority to all things elven. This attitude colors sun elves' relations with other elves, whom they see as diluted or diminished representatives of elven culture. Some sun elves reject this way of thinking, but it is common enough that when most folk of Faerûn see a sun elf, they see arrogance personified. Their haughty attitude can overshadow the fact that most sun elves are also tirelessly compassionate and thoughtful champions of good.
Sun elves have bronze to dark brown skin, occasionally flecked with golden freckles. Their eyes are black, metallic gold, or metallic silver, and their hair is black, metallic copper, or golden blond.
Sun elf culture and civilization is highly magical in nature, thanks to the race's many accomplished wizards, sages, and crafters. Not every sun elf is a skilled practitioner of the Art, but each one has at least a bit of inherent magic. Many sun elves mix magic with other art forms, which produces the complex dance of the bladesingers as well as the enchanting music of their bards and the meticulous craftwork of their artisans. Sun elf adventurers often bring a feeling of noblesse oblige to their profession: they venture out into the world to challenge its dangers because someone must, and who could be better suited?
Star Elves
The star elves, also called mithral elves, or Ruar'Tel'Quessir, have been sequestered on the demiplane of Sildëyuir, near the Feywild, for the past two thousand years. A conflict with the nilshai, a race of wormlike sorcerers from the Ethereal Plane, has forced some star elves to leave their home. In recent years, star elves have returned to Faerûn in search of either allies to aid in their fight, or a new home should Sildëyuir be abandoned for good.
Two millenia of isolation in their twilight realm has left star elves aloof and cautious, unmoored within Faerûn. Though they get along with other elven races, especially with wood and sun elves, they fear for moon elves and half-elves in particular, believing them to be overly generous and a touch naïve. They have little understanding of N'Tel'Quess—those not of the People—and even less desire to engage with the majority of Faerûn's sentient races.
Star elves are taller than most of the elven peoples and often have white, almost transluscent, skin, though like moon elves there are some whose skin tone veers towards midnight blue or purple. Freckles on star elves can range from silvery white to dark, beaten gold. Hair colours are typically pale gold or silver, with some rose gold or fiery red, and eye colours are most typically grey or violet flecked with gold.
The Sy'Tel'Quessir, or copper elves as they are also known, are the sylvan counterparts to the high elven peoples. While the high elves delved into the magic of the world around them, sylvan elves dove equally deep into the mysteries of the natural world. They have eschew the cities and strongholds of their kin in favor of living close to nature.
Sylvan elves are split between wood elves—the most common type of elves within Faerûn—and wild elves, a far smaller and more reclusive subset who stand opposed to civilization, living in the deep hearts of their forests.
Wood Elves
Wood elves, or Or'TelQuessir, have not claimed a large realm of their own since the kingdom of Eaerlann was odestroyed millennia ago. Their ancestors left behind the strife of the Crown Wars to found strongholds and settlements deep in the forests and today, many wood elves stand guard over the ruins of the past, believing it their duty to preserve their fallen glory as an object lesson of the dangers of hubris.
They maintain a number of smaller settlements, the better to keep those communities hidden or protected. Wood elves claim territory in the High Forest, the Great Dale, the Western Heartlands, and beyond. Some wood elves live in other elven communities and territories, where they serve as scouts, rangers, and hunters.
Skilled naturalists, wood elves often take up professions that allow them to remain close to the wild or to make use of their knowledge of woodcraft, wildlife, and forestry. Wood elves are more than capable in warfare, particularly archery. They are less magically inclined than their cousins, but have their fair share of practitioners of the Art, as well as clerics and many druids.
Wood elves tend to be hardier than other elves, more solid and grounded than their cousins. This attitude is reflected in their culture and traditions; wood elves tend more toward physical pursuits, and view ancient elven history with a more critical eye.
To the wood elves, the "great" elven kingdoms were responsible for many equally great mistakes. They look upon the Sundering, the Crown Wars, the descent of the drow, and other calamities as the result of acts of arrogance on the part of their ancestors. Living around and amid the reminders of this arrogance, and standing witness to the rise and fall of many elven empires, wood elves see the place of elves in the world differently than moon or sun elves do. Wood elves seek a quiet harmony, not domination, with the wider world.
Despite seeing themselves as part of the world, wood elves don't commonly emerge from their homes to encounter non-elves. Likewise, in the deep woods and forests of the world, most wood elves don't come across members of other races. Adventurers, diplomats, couriers, and those who pursue similar professions are the exceptions, traveling far outside their sylvan domains and meeting a wide variety of folk.
Wood elves in Faerûn have skin ranging from tan to deep coppery brown, with some also having olive or reddish tones. Their hair runs the gamut of wood brown, golden blond, black, or a shining metallic copper, and eyes are typically green, brown, or hazel.
Wild Elves
Wild elves, also known as green elves or grugach, are considered by many elves to be the most strange of their race. They are a feral, stealthy subrace of elves who have grown more and more reclusive over the years, having long abandoned much of ancient elven culture to retreat into nature.
Grugach almost exclusively inhabit forested areas, with known settlements in the Forest of Amtar, Chessenta, the Chondalwood, Chult, and the Shaar. Equal in number to permanent settlements are grugach nomadic grugach tribes who hold no permanent home and instead cycle through territories with the seasons.
They are a quiet, withdrawn people who neither like outsiders nor tolerate any offense to their person. While some characterize them as savage or quick to violence, wild elves rarely act without provocation and prefer to let tresspassers—which is to say, all outsiders—go unharmed. They are even known to help lost adventurers, though their "help" typically consists of capturing intruders, magically altering their memories, and setting them free some distance away.
Unlike most of their kind, wild elves place little stock in history or permanence. Because they see the world as ever-changing and the things within it as impermanent, they eschew the written word and find it unnatural to lock ideas into a sterile state. As such, few wild elves are literate, though many speak multiple languages. They also strongly prefer works of art such as music and poetry to physical works of art like painting or sculpture. To a wild elf, the joy of art came from its spontaneous creation, rather than later appreciation.
While they may not have the technological advances available to other elves, grugach are excellent craftspersons. They preferred tools that can be assembled or deconstructed at a moment's notice, often resulting in a primitive or even crude aesthetic, and very rarely use metal in their work. They also tend to use considerable engineering skill in their architecture, constructing settlements at canopy level by "weaving" the tangled limbs of living trees in a complex web over time.
Wild elves typically share the same physical characteristics as wood elves, though they tend towards heavier builds. Tattoos are also very common physical characteristics of grugach, and are often enchanted and magically empowered.
The drow, known as Ssri'Tel'Quessir, are descended from the dark elves who retreated into the Underdark after the Crown Wars. They are infamous for their cruelty and drive to dominate.
For much of history, many believed that all drow were beings of inherent and irredeemable evil. In truth, the "evil" of the drow is not innate but is rather the result of millenia of harsh physical conditions, strict societal structures, and a demanding goddess.
Many drow in Faerûn hail from Menzoberranzan, the infamous City of Spiders, or one of the other drow citystates in the Underdark, such as Jhachalkhyn or Ched Nasad. Dark elves encountered on the surface are usually found near entrances to the Underdar due to drows' sensitivity to sunlight.
Almost always, dark elves who reject the ways of their people are exiled, or executed for being rebels, heretics, and insurrectionists. Drow who become adventurers often do so after fleeing the oppressive, cruel theocracy of the city-states. Most of these individuals live as outcasts and wanderers, though a rare few find new homes with another race or culture. Still, the appearance of a dark elf on the surface remains a rare event and a cause for alarm.
Inherent
magical abilities and a preference for dark places make drow naturally
adept as assassins, thieves, and spies. Traditionally, male drow are
warriors and wizards, and female drow occupy leadership roles as
warriors or priestesses of Lolth. Drow exiles tend to follow their own
path regardless of gender.
Physically, drow tend to be shorter than the majority of elves. Their skin colours are typically grayscale, ranging from white through gray to black, though some have dark blue, purple, or gray-brown skin. Drow hair is similarly monochrome and usually white. The sclera of drow's eyes is black, while iris colour ranges from red, lavender, purple, purple, to amber.
Rare Elf SubracesOther lines of descendants exist of the elves who originally came to Faerûn, but they are so rare as to be legendary, often considered mythical.
Avariel
The Aril'Tel'Quessir, or winged elves, were among the first to settle in Faerûn. Famed for their feathered wings and ability to fly, these elves were more common when the worlds of the multiverse were young. Ancient conflicts with dragons nearly wiped them out, and today they are rarely, if ever, seen. Still, a few colonies persist here and there in the Material Plane and the Plane of Air.
Dusk Elves
Eladrin, also known as fey eladrin to distinguish from high elves, are elves native to the Feywild, a realm of beauty, unpredictable emotion, and boundless magic. An eladrin is associated with one of the four seasons and has coloration reminiscent of that season, which can also affect the eladrin's mood:
- Autumn is the season of peace and goodwill, when summer's harvest is shared with all.
- Winter is the season of contemplation and dolor, when the vibrant energy of the world slumbers.
- Spring is the season of cheerfulness and celebration, marked by merriment as winter's sorrow passes.
- Summer is the season of boldness and aggression, a time of unfettered energy.
Some eladrin remain associated with a particular season for their entire lives, whereas other eladrin transform, adopting characteristics of a new season.
Lythari
The Ly'Tel'Quessir have the ability to polymorph into wolves. Unlike werewolves, lythari don't have a hybrid form and aren't afflicted by a curse. They dwell together in secretive packs, primarily in wolf form, living free in the deep wilds of the world.
The Alu'Tel'Quessir ("water elves") are an aquatic subrace of elves found in the oceans of the world. They fell
in love with the wild beauty of the ocean and while other elves traveled from realm to realm, they navigated the deepest currents and explored the waters of a hundred worlds. Today, they live in small, hidden communities on the Elemental Plane of Water and in ocean shallows, especially off the shores of the Sword Coast and Evermeet. They live in close-knit nomadic clans, though elsewhere a few claim kingdoms in sunlit shallows. They have been at war with the sahuagin throughout their history.