The children of the living island
are a race split deeply into three separate cultures, each deeply in
tune with the land (Or lack there of) on which they live.
Originally created as one single race, the Elves were the elite soldiers of the Origin war. Their prowess in the martial arts, and long lives with which to study them, made them formidable opponents, and many battles were swayed by relatively small war parties.
After the war, as the races settled into the world they were thrust upon, the elves split into three sub-races.
High Elves:
The High Elves are a race of wanderers, and their inability to stay settled is common knowledge among the people of Autica. The tallest, and fairest of the elves, most High Elves spend a good portion of their life at sea, and some of the oldest may have never touched dry land.
To accommodate their love for the sea, they create great floating cities. These cities drift through the seas of the world, and on their back and entire civilization thrives. These floating cities are generally run by the elaborate monasteries that dominate the center of the vessel. In their walls, elves train in the old ways of martial prowess, and seek to keep their bodies and minds sharp for the day when Behemoth calls on them to fight again. The eldest of the monks acts both as supreme teacher, but also as governor of his city, making decisions on course and creating the laws that any locals must adhere to. The Eldest (as these ancient monks are known) will never leave his city-ship and will sink with it if it goes down. The high elf sub-race has no central government, or lands to call their own, with each ship creating it's own micro-state.
The inhabitants of the cities tend to be very much in tune with the flow of the monastery, and as such most High Elves are incredibly devout worshippers of the Gods, primarily Behemoth, who created them. They seek to imitate his slow grace and incredible power, and believe great strength is nothing without control.
Those High Elves who do not fit in with this monasterial lifestyle still cannot shake their attraction the the sea, and commonly become sailors for tradesmen, or pirates. In fact, it is considered bad luck for a ship to not have at least one elven crew member.
High Elven pirate captains are some of the most feared raiders in the world, each controlling large swaths of ocean, and battling fiercely for territory with other pirate captains. Most traders have accepted the need to pay the tolls required to cross these territories as cost of doing business, setting aside chests of "Elf coins" for immediate surrender should they be stopped or boarded.
Wood Elves:
The closest humanoid settlement to the Deep Wilds is that of the Wood Elves, and they welcome the abundance of nature that proximity provides. Settled on the large island of Lavrari, just outside of the great reef that rings the continent of the Wilds, the Wood Elves are not a populous people, numbering far fewer than their High Elven cousins.
When Ysengrim first formed the Deep Wilds, the initial surge of primal energy nearly overwhelmed what was then a small settlement of elves. Those who adapted to the rapidly growing woodlands, and influx of beasts to their island, became the Wood Elves. Those who didn't either fled, or became fuel for the forest.
The smallest of the elves, the Wood Elves are also the longest lived. This near immortality has combined with the Wood Elves natural curiosity and dislike for authority to create a society with very few laws or regulations, and a people who cannot seem to understand why the other, shorted lived races, seem to take life so seriously.
Wood Elf society is focused around large groups, called conclaves. These conclaves can contain as few as 2, or as many as several hundred elves. When many of these conclaves occupy the same area, the grouping could be what would loosely be considered a city. These cities never last particularly long as their component groups exchange information, goods and members, and then are on their merry way.
Wood Elves are the only mortal race that is still capable of the lost art of the First, Spell-singing, though their ability is largely limited to singing forth the trees. This allows them to shape the forest to their needs, without destroying any of it.
Wood Elf children are incredibly rare, and any that are born are considered miracles and raised by the entire conclave. Monogamy is a foreign concept to most wood elves, with both men and women taking multiple partners within their conclaves. Little thought is given to paternity, and even maternity is ceded fairly soon after birth to the rest of the conclave. These children instead take the last name of their conclave, and pick their own first name as they reach their hundredth birthday, before that simply answering to their last name (The low birth rate means there is very rarely two children under 100 in the same conclave).
Most Wood elven adventurers are those who either felt some calling to a specific task, or those who had personality's too rigid to fit well into the incredibly loose society of their parents. Such children are happily waved away, and warmly welcomed back, should they be able to actually find their old conclave again.
Drow:
A dark fascination with death rules over this reclusive civilization. The Drow occupy the frozen southern continent of Weawica, where they nurture the Godling of physical death, Ishtu.
Before the coming of Ishtu, and the end of the Origin War, the Drow were normal elves, who had fled to the conflict to establish a settlement free from the endless conflict. This society was peaceful, and though life on Weawica was hard, they were able to eke out a foothold where no one else would follow.
This all changed when, after the Battle of the Split, Ysengrim spirited the barely alive Godling Ishtu down to Weawica, and entrusted this society of pacifist elves to her care. Quickly, as the Godling grew, and regained her power, the Drow became enamoured with her, and their old society began to warp around it's new central pillar. Now, Ishtu counts the dark-skinned Drow among her most loyal followers. They build create temples dedicated to decay, and the fungal creatures the Rotting Temples attracts are treated with reverence, and allowed to traverse through the cities unharmed. Drow scholars study the processes of death and the decomposition of organic material. Funerals are cause for great celebration, and the funeral rites that the bodies undergo is incredibly complex, and few outsiders have ever seen them.
Any meddling with the spirits of the dead is seen as bad luck, and as it is not the domain of Ishtu, most Drow do not. Those who do are quickly shut down, for fear of attracting the attention of Bellini, Ishtu's other half. Drow rarely worship any other than Ishtu, though some with include small prayers or offerings to Ysengrim (Who largely ignores them)
In the centre of Weawica sits the drow's greatest city, Silvmarsh, and in the great Rotting Temple that dominates that city sits Ishtu, and her favored clerics. These 13 clerics make up the ruling class of the Drow, and wherever you go in Weawica those priests are treated with great reverence.
Outsiders may find the Drow's ways appalling, but they are not evil creatures. They, as a whole, seek no particular malice through their study of death, and simply want to venerate their god. Drow do not get along well with either of the other elven sub-races, seeing Wood Elves as flightly and irresponsible, and High Elves as haughty warmongers. The other elves tend to view Drow as betrayers, sore from their abandonment of them during the Origin War, and just unsettling.
It is incredibly rare for Drow to leave Weawica, though some do. Be they clerics sent on a divine mission from Ishtu, or simply wanderlust stricken youth, if they do not come back to Weawica with something of worth to either Ishtu, or their society, they are typically shunned, and compared to Wood Elves as flighty, useless creatures who do nothing to advance our society. The drive to be productive, or be worthwhile, is very strong in Drow culture.
(All statistics for theses sub-races remains the same as listed in the player's handbook, with these exceptions:)
(High Elves: You are considered proficient in any ability check that includes an attempt to operate or move about a sailing ship, and have advantage on Swim checks in stormy water)
(Wood Elves: No matter how old you get, you will never feel the effects of old age. Also, if you are able to cast spells, you automatically know the "Wood-Shape" spell, and can cast it a day, recharging on a long rest (Spell detailed at the bottom of this article))
(Drow: You lose "Sunlight Sensitivity". Drow Clerics may choose the Death Domain without being of an evil alignment, and Drow Paladins may use the disgraced paladin rules in the Dungeon master's guide, without suffering any disgrace)
Wood Shape
Casting time: 10 minutes
Range: 10 meters
Components: V
Duration: 1d10 days, or until spell is cancelled.
You target a tree, or small group of trees near you and begin singing. The targeted tree begins to shift and bend, and at the end of the casting time, you are able to instruct it mentally as to what shape it will take. The tree cannot emulate machinery, or have any moving parts. It cannot grow any larger than it already is, and cannot shrink. You have 1 minute after the spell is cast to give instruction, after that the tree locks into whatever position it is currently in, and cannot be changed unless targeted with another wood shape spell. Magical trees are unaffected by this spell. If you are interrupted at any point during the song, the becomes unresponsive, and you must begin again.
Originally created as one single race, the Elves were the elite soldiers of the Origin war. Their prowess in the martial arts, and long lives with which to study them, made them formidable opponents, and many battles were swayed by relatively small war parties.
After the war, as the races settled into the world they were thrust upon, the elves split into three sub-races.
High Elves:
The High Elves are a race of wanderers, and their inability to stay settled is common knowledge among the people of Autica. The tallest, and fairest of the elves, most High Elves spend a good portion of their life at sea, and some of the oldest may have never touched dry land.
To accommodate their love for the sea, they create great floating cities. These cities drift through the seas of the world, and on their back and entire civilization thrives. These floating cities are generally run by the elaborate monasteries that dominate the center of the vessel. In their walls, elves train in the old ways of martial prowess, and seek to keep their bodies and minds sharp for the day when Behemoth calls on them to fight again. The eldest of the monks acts both as supreme teacher, but also as governor of his city, making decisions on course and creating the laws that any locals must adhere to. The Eldest (as these ancient monks are known) will never leave his city-ship and will sink with it if it goes down. The high elf sub-race has no central government, or lands to call their own, with each ship creating it's own micro-state.
The inhabitants of the cities tend to be very much in tune with the flow of the monastery, and as such most High Elves are incredibly devout worshippers of the Gods, primarily Behemoth, who created them. They seek to imitate his slow grace and incredible power, and believe great strength is nothing without control.
Those High Elves who do not fit in with this monasterial lifestyle still cannot shake their attraction the the sea, and commonly become sailors for tradesmen, or pirates. In fact, it is considered bad luck for a ship to not have at least one elven crew member.
High Elven pirate captains are some of the most feared raiders in the world, each controlling large swaths of ocean, and battling fiercely for territory with other pirate captains. Most traders have accepted the need to pay the tolls required to cross these territories as cost of doing business, setting aside chests of "Elf coins" for immediate surrender should they be stopped or boarded.
Wood Elves:
The closest humanoid settlement to the Deep Wilds is that of the Wood Elves, and they welcome the abundance of nature that proximity provides. Settled on the large island of Lavrari, just outside of the great reef that rings the continent of the Wilds, the Wood Elves are not a populous people, numbering far fewer than their High Elven cousins.
When Ysengrim first formed the Deep Wilds, the initial surge of primal energy nearly overwhelmed what was then a small settlement of elves. Those who adapted to the rapidly growing woodlands, and influx of beasts to their island, became the Wood Elves. Those who didn't either fled, or became fuel for the forest.
The smallest of the elves, the Wood Elves are also the longest lived. This near immortality has combined with the Wood Elves natural curiosity and dislike for authority to create a society with very few laws or regulations, and a people who cannot seem to understand why the other, shorted lived races, seem to take life so seriously.
Wood Elf society is focused around large groups, called conclaves. These conclaves can contain as few as 2, or as many as several hundred elves. When many of these conclaves occupy the same area, the grouping could be what would loosely be considered a city. These cities never last particularly long as their component groups exchange information, goods and members, and then are on their merry way.
Wood Elves are the only mortal race that is still capable of the lost art of the First, Spell-singing, though their ability is largely limited to singing forth the trees. This allows them to shape the forest to their needs, without destroying any of it.
Wood Elf children are incredibly rare, and any that are born are considered miracles and raised by the entire conclave. Monogamy is a foreign concept to most wood elves, with both men and women taking multiple partners within their conclaves. Little thought is given to paternity, and even maternity is ceded fairly soon after birth to the rest of the conclave. These children instead take the last name of their conclave, and pick their own first name as they reach their hundredth birthday, before that simply answering to their last name (The low birth rate means there is very rarely two children under 100 in the same conclave).
Most Wood elven adventurers are those who either felt some calling to a specific task, or those who had personality's too rigid to fit well into the incredibly loose society of their parents. Such children are happily waved away, and warmly welcomed back, should they be able to actually find their old conclave again.
Drow:
A dark fascination with death rules over this reclusive civilization. The Drow occupy the frozen southern continent of Weawica, where they nurture the Godling of physical death, Ishtu.
Before the coming of Ishtu, and the end of the Origin War, the Drow were normal elves, who had fled to the conflict to establish a settlement free from the endless conflict. This society was peaceful, and though life on Weawica was hard, they were able to eke out a foothold where no one else would follow.
This all changed when, after the Battle of the Split, Ysengrim spirited the barely alive Godling Ishtu down to Weawica, and entrusted this society of pacifist elves to her care. Quickly, as the Godling grew, and regained her power, the Drow became enamoured with her, and their old society began to warp around it's new central pillar. Now, Ishtu counts the dark-skinned Drow among her most loyal followers. They build create temples dedicated to decay, and the fungal creatures the Rotting Temples attracts are treated with reverence, and allowed to traverse through the cities unharmed. Drow scholars study the processes of death and the decomposition of organic material. Funerals are cause for great celebration, and the funeral rites that the bodies undergo is incredibly complex, and few outsiders have ever seen them.
Any meddling with the spirits of the dead is seen as bad luck, and as it is not the domain of Ishtu, most Drow do not. Those who do are quickly shut down, for fear of attracting the attention of Bellini, Ishtu's other half. Drow rarely worship any other than Ishtu, though some with include small prayers or offerings to Ysengrim (Who largely ignores them)
In the centre of Weawica sits the drow's greatest city, Silvmarsh, and in the great Rotting Temple that dominates that city sits Ishtu, and her favored clerics. These 13 clerics make up the ruling class of the Drow, and wherever you go in Weawica those priests are treated with great reverence.
Outsiders may find the Drow's ways appalling, but they are not evil creatures. They, as a whole, seek no particular malice through their study of death, and simply want to venerate their god. Drow do not get along well with either of the other elven sub-races, seeing Wood Elves as flightly and irresponsible, and High Elves as haughty warmongers. The other elves tend to view Drow as betrayers, sore from their abandonment of them during the Origin War, and just unsettling.
It is incredibly rare for Drow to leave Weawica, though some do. Be they clerics sent on a divine mission from Ishtu, or simply wanderlust stricken youth, if they do not come back to Weawica with something of worth to either Ishtu, or their society, they are typically shunned, and compared to Wood Elves as flighty, useless creatures who do nothing to advance our society. The drive to be productive, or be worthwhile, is very strong in Drow culture.
(All statistics for theses sub-races remains the same as listed in the player's handbook, with these exceptions:)
(High Elves: You are considered proficient in any ability check that includes an attempt to operate or move about a sailing ship, and have advantage on Swim checks in stormy water)
(Wood Elves: No matter how old you get, you will never feel the effects of old age. Also, if you are able to cast spells, you automatically know the "Wood-Shape" spell, and can cast it a day, recharging on a long rest (Spell detailed at the bottom of this article))
(Drow: You lose "Sunlight Sensitivity". Drow Clerics may choose the Death Domain without being of an evil alignment, and Drow Paladins may use the disgraced paladin rules in the Dungeon master's guide, without suffering any disgrace)
Wood Shape
Casting time: 10 minutes
Range: 10 meters
Components: V
Duration: 1d10 days, or until spell is cancelled.
You target a tree, or small group of trees near you and begin singing. The targeted tree begins to shift and bend, and at the end of the casting time, you are able to instruct it mentally as to what shape it will take. The tree cannot emulate machinery, or have any moving parts. It cannot grow any larger than it already is, and cannot shrink. You have 1 minute after the spell is cast to give instruction, after that the tree locks into whatever position it is currently in, and cannot be changed unless targeted with another wood shape spell. Magical trees are unaffected by this spell. If you are interrupted at any point during the song, the becomes unresponsive, and you must begin again.
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