Wood elf
| Wood Elf | |
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| Dannae.jpg Dannae, a wood elf Justice of weald and woe. | |
Wood elves are the most populous of the elven races. Wood elves see themselves as guardians of their forest homes, but unlike most elves they do not view themselves as a people apart from the rest of the world.[1]
Description
Wood elves are easily identifiable by their coppery skin and green, brown, or hazel eyes. Wood elven hair is usually black or brown,[2] although hues such as blond or copper red are also found. Wood elves tended to dress in simple clothes, similar to those of the moon elves but with fewer bold colors and a greater number of earth tones that blended into their natural surroundings. Accustomed to a harsh, naturalistic lifestyle, wood elves loved to wear leather armor, even when they are not under immediate threat. Wood elves are roughly identical to other elves in height and build, with males larger than females.[3]
Wood elves are often stronger than other Tel-quessir, including other elves, but are frequently less cerebral than moon and sun elves, who put a greater value on education.[2]
Personality
As a people, wood elves are largely seen as calm and level-headed. Arousing strong emotions in wood elves is not something that is easily done, although many do have a strong aversion for large cities, having lost the passion for urbanization after the fall of Earlann. To wood elves, the trappings of civilization, including the mightiest of fortresses or tallest walls, are transient and impermanent things that would eventually be overcome by the long processes of nature. To many, this attitude seemed condescending, weakening the bonds between wood elves and other races.[3] Additionally, wood elves could sometimes seem off-putting compared to other Tel-quessir, with a gruff manner that made them less charismatic, despite their avowed compassion and humility.[2]
Wood elven romantic and sexual relationships are often polyamorous in nature, members of the race freely engaging or ceasing relations with new partners. Feelings of jealousy and possessiveness are as a result viewed by the race as reasons for teasing or mockery. As a result of these perspectives on love, high elves often believed that any relationships engaged with wood elves would be destined to fail from the start.[4]
Culture
Wood elves considered themselves the heirs of the ancient elven empires established prior to the Crown Wars, but they shared few of the cultural characteristics that marked such early realms as Aryvandaar and Ilythiir. Although a proud people, wood elves felt that compassion is a greater virtue than strength and wood elven realms are less concerned with expansion than they are with maintaining amiable relations with their neighbors.[3] Wood elves are not nomadic, however, as is common amongst the wild elves and instead they are organized into scattered, carefully concealed villages united under a gerontocratic hierarchy composed of village councils consisting of the most distinguished families' eldest members. These councils are often advised by local druids, whose influence played no small part in wood elven politics and who frequently served as the webbing that bound any number of villages together as one realm.[3]
Compared with other Tel-quessir, wood elves had a notable disinterest in the arcane arts. To a wood elf, the wizard's spells are little different from the mason's castle walls or the tiller's plow—a means of controlling the natural world, which is contrary to the common ethic of living in harmony with nature rather than trying to dominate it that so many wood elves espoused. As such, wood elven adventurers are more likely to take on careers that do not require the use of arcane magic. In particular, many are drawn to the path of the fighter, the ranger, or the rogue, relying on their natural-born skill to overcome obstacles. Compared with other Tel-quessir very few wood elves went on to become spellsingers or bladesingers. The one major exception to the wood elven taboo on arcane magic is the arcane archers, who counted among their number several wood elves. Other wood elves from more remote areas are drawn to the ways of the barbarian while many religious wood elves became druids with clerics often seen in much the same light as wizards. Those wood elves who do become clerics might eventually become hierophants. Many wood elven adventurers also became Harpers.[3]
Art and Leisure
Wood elves commonly feel they are in harmony with their natural surroundings and an examination of their art helps to justify this belief.[citation needed] While wood elves do not wander like wild animals as the wild elves did, wood elves do their best to have a minimal impact on their natural surroundings, a fact reflected in their architecture.[citation needed] Frequently, wood elven homes are made of natural fieldstone or carefully furnished wood, but on occasion wood elves are known to do without even these creature comforts, living in the limbs of mighty trees or sheltered caves, rejecting furniture or any possessions they couldn't carry with them. So close do wood elven villages resemble their surroundings, humans are occasionally known to wander through one without even noticing. Increased contact with other races ... caused some of these cultural practices to come into question, but for the large part the wood elves of the [X century] live much the same as their ancestors did.[3]
In keeping with their naturalistic inclination, wood elves are not particularly fine metalworkers and have little interest in developing any such skills. However, wood elves are among some of the world's finest carpenters and stoneworkers, masters in the crafting of bows and arrows as well as in leather tanning. Wood elves even developed several specialized arrows, including those that flew further than usual as well as some that are used as signal devices. So carefully guarded are wood elven crafting secrets, even experienced fletchers from other cultures have difficulty emulating wood elven designs. Wood elven leather armor also often doubles as camouflage, disguising a hunter from potential enemies. Compared to wild elven designs, wood elven crafting often looks surprisingly elegant, although they are often made of the same materials and used similar methods, reflecting some of the differences between the two elven subraces.[3]
While wood elves felt it better to have a minimal impact on their surroundings, the race had no particular aversion to meat-eating and are passionate hunters. Many hours of a typical wood elf's life are spent on the hunt, which is both a practical activity and a pleasurable one. Most of the time that wood elves are not hunting they are enjoying themselves at ease within the highest branches of their forest homes. Wood elves do not, however, commonly keep pets, but instead formed bonds with local wildlife in a manner similar to those of a ranger. Wood elves are particularly fond of mountain lions, pumas, and leopards.[3]
Magic and Religion
Wood elves are generally uncomfortable with most forms of magic, viewing wizards and other arcane spellcasters with no small amount of distrust. Clerics and other divine spellcasters fared little better in wood elves' eyes, who saw their prayers as a useless call to distant and alien gods.[citation needed] However, wood elves are largely at ease with the ways of the primal magic used by druids, barbarians, and shamans, which they felt is the truest expression of supernatural power—or rather, a reflection of nature itself used to protect the wilderness.[citation needed] However, wood elves are not completely adverse to arcane magic and wood elven bards, sorcerers, and wizards are far from unknown, although wood elves as a whole had no particular tradition of the Art.[3]
Like other Tel-quessir, the wood elves largely worship the Seldarine, but unlike their kin, they do not do so exclusively. Many wood elves had a special place in their heart for the gods X and Y, whose protection of the wilderness is something the wood elves themselves tried to espouse. Among the elven gods, the wood elves most commonly worship Solonor Thelandira and Rillifane Rallathil, who, like[X] and [X], have connections to the untamed wilderness. Solonor, as the god of archery, is perhaps the most popular god amongst the wood elves, who would sometimes invoke him as their protector and patron deity just prior to a battle.[3]
Relations with Other Races
Although a proud people themselves, wood elves often felt that their Tel-quessir kindred, such as the Ar-Tel-Quessir, too often put on an air of superiority and xenophobia that is ultimately detrimental. Wood elves looked to the examples of the ancient elven empires and, seeing failure after failure, felt that their aim should be compassion and humility, rather than political or military strength. Unlike many of their kin, wood elves felt that their fates are inextricably tied to those of Faerûn's other races and they made no effort to pull away or isolate themselves. Ironically, so reclusive are wood elven settlements that, despite their open nature, wood elves rarely actually saw people from outside their race.[3]
Of all the humanoid races of Faerûn, the ones most familiar with the wood elves are the humans and dwarves native to the North, who often lived within the vicinity of the fey. Still, few humans or dwarves had ever actually met a wood elf and when they do it is often largely by chance. However, when meetings do occur, they are largely friendly and, like the moon elves, wood elves saw themselves as allies and teachers of humanity, rather than as rivals. Wood elves also had a long tradition of friendship with the shield dwarves of Ammarindar, dating back to the reign of Earlann, which carried on into the present.[3]
Wood elves also felt a kinship with the sapient giant owls, with whom they formed a symbiotic relationship. In return for the elves acting as protectors for the owls, the birds of prey often acted as advance scouts for wood elven warriors.[3]
Gnomes and halflings are less frequent guests among the wood elves, but they are generally seen favorably. Conversely, wood elves, like most Tel-quessir, had a strong contempt for orcs, as well as for gnolls, though their reasons are less about the ancient enmity between Corellon and Gruumsh and more out of the devastation that raiding parties often brought to the forests that wood elves held dear.[3]
History
File:Forest Map Wood elves are
Homelands
Wood elves are the most common of the elves in [N] and could be found in many scattered groups across the continent. Many could be found in the [N]] ([N], and the old Elven Court itself), the [N], [N], the [N], the N Forest, the N woodland, and the [N].
Publishing History
In 1st and 2nd editions, wild elves and wood elves are considered to be one sub-race, the difference merely being one of naming, with "wild elf" being considered somewhat derogatory, much like calling a moon elf, "grey elf". The entire race is often referred to as sylvan elves, as well as copper elves and green elves. The elven name for themselves is Sy-Tel-Quessir[5] and it is not entirely clear whether this continued to apply to both of the new sub-divisions, or only one and, if so, which one. Given the earlier materials' physical descriptions, it would seem that the originally described sub-race is what 3rd edition referred to as "wood elves".
In 4th edition, wood elves and wild elves are revised once again to become separate cultures of the single race known as "elves". Other elven subraces are categorized under other labels.
The 5e Player's Handbook appears to further consolidate wood elves and wild elves in its description of wood elves—"this includes the wild elves (grugach) of Greyhawk"[6] However, it only lists three elven subraces—dark elves (drow), high elves, and wood elves—and future books may further divide the elven subraces.
Gallery
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A wood elf from Icewind Dale 2
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A wood elven city example.
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
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