Aquatic Elf

Aquatic elves (also called sea elves and Alu'Tel'Quessir in their own tongue) were water-breathing cousins to land-dwelling elves.

Description

Although they were of the same subrace, aquatic elves from the Great Sea had a different appearance to those from inland seas. The former had deep green skin, mottled and striped with brown. The latter had blue skin with white stripes and patches. Some other aquatic elves had pale silver-green skin. Both groups were robust and tall with long limbs. Their thick skin gave them protection from the cold of deep water, keeping them comfortable at just above freezing temperatures. Their fingers and toes were generally longer than a human's and had thick webbing between them. Their most distinctive feature was the gills visible in their necks and over their ribs.

Personality

Aquatic elves were isolationist by both their nature and the physical location of their settlements, although they were not quite as reclusive as the wild elves. Their trust did not extend far beyond their clan and others of their kind, and their communities were very tightly-knit. They couldn't understand why the surface elves did not realize that community and alliances meant survival, whereas rivalry, individualism, and factionalism meant death. However, despite being extremely cautious, they were also extremely curious, and aquatic elves near the shore would often spend a significant amount time secretly observing the land-bound races.

Abilities

Aquatic elves were the least magical of the elven subraces and had fewer innate magical gifts. However, they were deeply in touch with their environment, even more so than other elves. They could detect minute changes in the currents of the water and could hear sounds underwater that surface dwellers could not perceive. Additionally, their eyesight was much keener than that of surface races. They could see twice as far as surface elves in low-light conditions (and therefore four times as far as a human) and could see clearly enough to count soldiers in an army up to a mile away. They were able to hide in kelp and seaweed as their surface kin could in forests, and their movement was never hindered when moving through the plants.

Due to their gills, aquatic elves were amphibious. The amount of time aquatic elves could leave the water without doing harm to themselves seemed to vary. The safe period could be a few minutes, hours, a day, or even upwards of a week. Additionally, the result of going beyond these limits varied. Some would begin to "drown" on land, while others simply experienced a loss of vitality due to drying out and could remain on land indefinitely, remaining healthy if they took the time to soak for an hour every day. Even within the same community, the amount of time could be variable, with some "landwalkers" having a greater capacity for breathing air. Some seemed to have no limitation on their time away from water at all. The elves of Cormanthyr used clerical magic to allow them to remain on the surface for longer periods of time. Some aquatic elves were uncomfortable breathing freshwater and became fatigued quickly when doing so. Others were not harmed by it, but would not truly recover from the damage of being above water unless they spent time in salt water.