Grey elf

Greyhawk Creature

Grey elf

Grey elves were a sub-race of high elves endemic to the planet of Oerth and Greyspace.

Description

Nearly as tall as humans, grey elves had tall, slim builds and pale grey skin. Their hair tended to be a silver hue while their eyes were like amber. Some grey elves, known among their kind as "faeries," displayed pale-golden hair and violet eyes.

All members of this race tended to favor bright garments of gold, silver, yellow, or white. Especially wool tunics in those colors. In terms of cloaks, they most often wore ones that were deep shades of blue or purple.

Personality

Grey elves had an attitudes and outlook comparable to those of most silvanesti on Krynn and sun elves on Toril — very arrogant and believing themselves to be superior to other races, even elven races. They considered themselves to be the purest form of elf, despite the fact they were a sub-race. Though of course, not all grey elves possessed a snobbish demeanor.

These elves also tended to be highly intelligent, the most intelligent of all elven races according to some estimates, and such a quality was very valued in their society.

File:GreyElf-1e.png

A grey elf wearing traditional armor and weaponry.

Combat

Grey elves generally wore winged helmets with shimmering suits of plate mail or chainmail while carrying shields. They typically fought with bows, spears, swords, and two-handed swords.

However, they did not value physical prowess. Thus many grey elves took up of the profession of a mage, though they usually did not become specialized wizards. Those that did specialize tended to take up roles as bladesingers or spellfilchers.

History

In 1340 DR, a grey elf wizardress named Vilanestro was summoned to the North Faerûn town of Phlan by the human wizard Ren before he was imprisoned in Valjevo Castle.

In 1370 DR, grey elves were occasionally encountered by travelers in the forests of the Savage Frontier. Around this same century, a grey elf ranger by the name of Mitre LeMond was wandering the Realms.

Society

Grey elves were a very reclusive people. They highly valued this seclusion viewing it as independence from a corrupting outside world, and would fight fiercely to remain secluded from all sometimes even from other elven races. Outside of that they spent much of their indoors, seeking scholarly pursuits. Studying, researching, contemplating, and writing treatises learned.

Their societies were very rigidly defined, hereditary monarchies. Much like the socities of drow, personal freedom was not valued and movement was carefully restricted, With citizens of their cities being divided by a caste system.

Their craftsmen were capable of making items that could hold the strongest of enchantments, with subtle charms worked into them that made the item more receptive to whatever magic a mage might use to enhance them. They were particularly focused on the creation of spellbooks and scrolls.

They often had hippogriffs as mounts, and giant eagles as guard animals. Though a few grey elves were known to instead have griffons acting as both guards and mounts.

Homelands

On their home planet of Oerth, they were known to inhabit isolated meadowlands atop temperate mountains, where they built large citadel cities. The entrances to these meadows and cities were hidden by powerful magic, ensuring that only elves could find them. 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 planet these cities had some of the most extensive libraries of any city. These were communally open to all elves who wished to expand their knowledge and better themselves.

Grey elves were almost never found outside of their native planet of Oerth.

Relationships

Out of all elven races, these were among the least tolerant of other races. elves almost never associated with other non-elven humanoids for long or frequent periods of time. They feared the possibility of other, shorter-lived races tainting their bloodline. However, members of other elven races often readily chose not to befriend them, for they disdained how arrogant and serious they were. Some even felt their behavior and way of life was comparable to that of humans or dwarves.

Because they spent so much of their lives studying, grey elves had other many elves of other races as servants for menial and physical labor. Though not harsh, they would swiftly punish any servant that failed in a task or performed it poorly. Some elves of other races perceived these servants to be slaves — if not in fact, at least in spirit — since their servants tended to lack the typical elven love for life.

They only a select few outsiders entry to their cities, such as very powerful mages and wizards, but even these individuals were treated with great suspicion.

Notable Grey Elves

• Fionara Silverbane, a plane-hopping grey elf biologist. She sought to catalog all lawful avian lifeforms, but was captured and tortured by achaierai for centuries until she escaped to Sigil.
• Mitre LeMond, a grey elf ranger.
• Vilanestro, a grey elf wizard.

Appendix

Appearances

Adventures

Ruins of Adventure

References

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