The self-appointed guardians of the Great Beast, the Wood Elves have guarded the forests of Kundenir against destruction for ages. They are at one with the world of nature, and are uncomfortable in areas of heavy civilization. Wood elves live at ease with nature, using whatever naturally occurs in the world to shelter or defend themselves. They are not nomadic, and claim the entire Kundenir forest as their homeland. Some wood elves choose to do without houses, furnishings, and any possessions they can’t carry, using the high branches of great trees or natural caves in their roots for shelter and storage. Others live in small villages so well disguised that a human hunter could walk through their centers and never even notice that he had done so.Deep within the Kundenir forest lies the massive, slumbering form of a terrible creature the wood elves refer to as the Great Beast. Older than the elven race itself, and apparently indestructible, the Great Beast is held in check only through the powerful spells woven by the druids that watch over it. The Beast has awakened a handful of times in the past, and each time it has wrecked terrible destruction upon Migdalia. The Great Beast’s attacks, indeed, its very presence, causes great pain to the earth goddess, Ayna. The past three awakenings have each lasted longer than the awakening previous, leading many druids to believe that the Beast is slowly developing a resistance to their spells. Because the spells are fragile and easily shattered, the wood elves have devoted their entire existence to guarding the Great Beast and the druids that protect it from outsiders. By sequestering themselves in this manner, they protect a world which they can never be a part of.
Wood elves adhere to a tradition of leadership by the oldest and most experienced druids, although most villages form a council of elders selected from the wisest and most experienced elves of each family to handle day-to-day affairs. The druidic hierarchy serves to unite wood elves of different villages and hold together all the wood elves living within Kundenir. The druids do not tell the elders how to run their village, but the elders generally give great weight to anything a druid chooses to say..
Personality: The great burden of eternally watching over the Great Beast which slumbers in their lands have made the wood elves untrusting of outsiders. Most look upon individuals of other races with a kind of quiet paranoia, as if waiting for some type of betrayal. This silent, brooding paranoia never truly leaves them once they leave the sheltering branches of their home, and most wood elves are decidedly uncomfortable in open or crowded areas, such as sprawling grasslands or city streets. Any questions regarding a traveling wood elf’s self, homeland, or business beyond the forest are typically met with a quiet intensity that quickly causes the questioner to change topics.
Calm, reserved, and difficult to surprise, wood elves possess levels of legendary patience. While traveling in lands beyond the edges of their forests, wood elves tend to remain as quiet and inconspicuous as possible, speaking only in brief, precise statements that leave little question as to their intentions. Within their homeland, however, all but the most paranoid of wood elves are able to relax their guards, enjoying the comforting embrace of the forest. Most wood elves actively dread leaving their homelands, having been taught from an early age that the world beyond Kundenir hold little but evil, corruption, and vice. Though more worldly wood elves frequently have a more forgiving outlook on outsiders, nearly all will quickly agree that their world and the outside world cannot exist together.
Within Kundenir, wood elves spend much of their time either stalking their lands in search of food or intruders into their realm. Any free time is spent pursuing their love of music and art, though they create few permanent works of art. To a wood elf, the joy of art lies in the creative process, the spontaneous creation of song, dance, or effects. They view with distaste attempts to “capture” this process by making permanent works of art, recording songs or stories in writing, or so on, maintaining that to do so imprisons the ever-changing beauty of the world. Magic is viewed as a natural, if uncommon, part of the world, and those with magical talent are praised, though no more than, say, a wood elf child with a beautiful singing voice or a particularly skilled archer. As such, few wood elves become arrogant or self-absorbed, believing that each creature, no matter how large or insignificant, has something to offer their companions.
Physical Description: Wood elves are short and slim, standing about 4-½ to 5-½ feet tall and weighing 95 to 135 pounds, with wood elf men the same size and only slightly heavier than the women. They possess unearthly grace and fine features, but tend to be somewhat frail. The skin of a wood elf can be any shade ranging from a healthy tan to a deep brown color. Wood elves spend little time maintaining their hair, which ranges from black to light brown. Because of this, their hair often sports a matted or shaggy appearance. Wood elves tend to favor leather clothing and armor, and many choose to adopt body adornments, such as tattoos, war paint, feathers, and beaded jewelry that shows a surprising streak of complex and beautiful artistry. A wood elf reaches adulthood at about 50 years of age and can live to be more than 500 years old.
Wood elves do not sleep, as members of other races do. Instead, an elf meditates in a trance for 4 hours a day. An elf resting in this fashion gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. While meditation, a Wood elf dreams, though these dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive though years of practice. Typically, wood elves dream of Kundenir, and traveling elves often become mildly depressed upon waking within a human city or other unforested area.
Relations: Due to their reclusive natures, wood elves rarely form relationships with those not of their race. Those who enter their forest are typically approached in the same manner; the trespassers are ambushed with overwhelming force, and offered them a single chance (at arrowpoint) to turn around and leave without harm. Should the trespassers agree to leave peacefully, the elves disappear from sight, but monitor the outsiders as they make their way out of the forest. Should the trespassers attack the elves, or attempt to press deeper into Kundenir, the elves rain arrows down upon them until they die or successfully flee the forest.
This being said, the wood elves generally regard those who respect nature as friends, especially rangers and druids. If such individuals make themselves known before entering Kundenir, they will often find a number of friendly wood elves willing to escort them to a nearby village, track down a specific individual, or gather rare plants and herbs. Even this friendship extends only so far, however; regardless of their importance or intentions, all non-wood elves are constantly shadowed by a small patrol of elven rangers and scouts. Particularly powerful or suspicious individuals may find themselves shadowed by a Kundenir Eliminator; elite scouts and assassins that serve as guardians and assassins for the wood elves.
Needless to say, the wood elves receive few visitors, and are content in their isolation. The wood elves do not seek out relations with others, and do their best to remain unseen and unknown. Most of their information of the world outside their forests comes from the druids that walk their land, or from wood elves who choose to live in the lands beyond Kundenir. The wood elves’ self-imposed isolation hampers any sort of political or commercial dealings which other races may wish to have with them, ensuring that the wood elves will likely continue to bear their burden in solitude.
Alignment: Though the wood elves have distanced themselves from the world beyond their own borders, they remain generally kind at heart, and are more often good than not. Their natural love of freedom and self-expression has been somewhat hampered by their assumed burden of guarding the Great Beast, and as such, they tend toward neutrality rather than law or chaos.
Religion: Many wood elves pay homage to Ayna, and a strong druidic tradition has developed within their society. A large number of their race, primarily archers and other warriors, continue to worship the creator of their race, the elven deity Naiaral. These two religions exists primarily independent of each other, with each one respecting the other’s teachings. Some wood elves attempt (somewhat successfully) to adhere to both faiths, not wanting to choose a patron goddess between two equally compelling and worthy deities.
Language: Wood elves speak elven, which is indistinguishable from the elven language spoken by high elves. High elves, however, consider the wood elven dialect to be decadent and flawed, regarding it as little more than a tragic butchering of their beloved language. While elven literature is rich and varied, it is the language’s songs and poems which are most famous. Many bards learn elven so that they can add Elven ballads to their repertoires. The elven language is descended from Sylvan, and the two languages share many common words and constructions. Druidic is an offshoot of the elven language, though steeped in numerous esoteric terms and double meanings.
Names: Wood elves typically select a new name for themselves shortly after becoming an adult, discarding their childhood names as they assume the responsibilities of adulthood. Those who knew him as a youngster may still call him by his childhood name, and he may or may not care. An elf’s adult name is a unique creation, though it may reflect the names of those he admires or the names of others in his family. In addition, he bares his family name, typically a combinations of regular Elven words. Most wood elves traveling beyond the borders of their home only use their first name, and more than a few are partial to adopting false names as they travel.
Adventures: Wood elves who leave their homeland have typically either been sent on an important mission for their people, or have decided to explore the world at large, in order to better defend their lands against trespassers. In this way, a wood elf may leave his homeland for years at a time, all the while traveling the lands of Migdalia and taking note of its people and customs. Upon returning to Kundenir, the worldly elf them shares the knowledge he has gained with his brethren, who incorporate this new knowledge into their training.
Elf (Wood Elf) Racial Traits
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution. Wood elves are poised and graceful, but physically frail.* Medium size. As Medium creatures, Wood elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Wood elf base land speed is 30 feet.
* Low-Light Vision: Wood elves can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain their ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
* Weapon Proficiency: Wood elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longbow (including composite longbow) and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats. Wood elves train with bows and practice their archery from childhood, and all are familiar with these weapons.
* Immunity to magical sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against Enchantment spells or effects.
* +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A wood elf that merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it. A wood elf’s senses are so keen that he practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals.
* +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks while in forested terrain. Wood elves are adept at blending into the forest, and can rarely be detected by even trained scouts.
* Automatic Languages: Elven. Bonus Languages: Alranian, Draconic, Dwarven, Impara, Mohdrin, Sylvan.
* Favored Class: Ranger.
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