Elves are tall, long-legged desert rovers whose tribes wander the face of Athas. Traders and herders, elves rarely stay in one place for long. They are also charlatans, entertainers, thieves, and raiders. Each of the great city-states hosts a branch of the Elven Market—a never-ending bazaar where the elves (and others who deal in goods of dubious origin) sell their wares. Many elven goods are cheap baubles of little worth or were stolen from their rightful owners. Still, elves have a knack for being in the right place at the right time to peddle their wares, and even the most officious templar appreciates the selection of goods in the elven market.
Elves run swiftly and with great endurance. Tribes can manage forty miles a day or more, day in and day out. Elves consider it shameful to ride an animal such as a crodlu or a kank, and one does so only if ill or gravely wounded. Normally, such mounts are used as beasts of burden to carry the tribes’ goods and tents. If a sorcerer-king sends his soldiers to punish an elven tribe for a brazen act of theft or lawlessness, he might find that not even kank-mounted cavalry can catch a tribe that has a mind to be somewhere else.
Most Athasians consider elves lazy and deceitful. It’s true that many elves dislike hard work and prefer to live in the moment, avoiding unpleasant tasks and drudgery. They have little regard for anyone who isn’t a member of their tribe. Elves happily take advantage of, steal from, lie to, or misdirect outsiders, not out of malice so much as a desire to separate the gullible from their items of value. When it’s important to maintain a valuable trading relationship, elves honor their word and barter in good faith. But the moment they perceive an opportunity that is too good to pass up, they abandon their previous deals.
Although elves are fickle business partners, they can be true and loyal friends to those who win their trust. But few outsiders gain the friendship of an elven tribe
Elf Backgrounds
Herding, trading, thieving, raiding—your people do what they must to survive, and you have pursued many occupations in your time. Some Athasians regard elves as vagabonds or vermin and hold your people in contempt, but you are free in a way that few others can understand.
Market Thief: From your early childhood, you mastered the arts of chicanery, deceit, and petty theft. Your tribe roamed from village to village, establishing a short-lived elven market wherever it pitched its tents. Were you a pickpocket or a burglar, preying on the dull-witted locals? Were you an entertainer who distracted the crowds so that other elves could steal from them? Does your tribe still wander from place to place, or did some disaster befall the group, sending you out into the world alone?
Sand Raider: Life in the desert is hard. You come from a tribe of nomadic herders, a desert people who must move from place to place constantly to survive. When times grow especially hard—or when opportunity arises—your people take spear and bow in hand to raid for what they need. Whom did you steal from? What led you to leave your tribe behind and set out on your own?