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[elian]

Personality: The personality of an elf can be most accurately described as a contained force of nature. All the emotions run true and deep in elves' hearts, sometimes far stronger than their human counterparts, but their strict traditions make them reserved. They usually focus their dangerously slow passion on being the best at what they do. It is not the petty competitiveness that exists among short-lived races though. Elves do not compete with each other – they choose their own path and make it the work of their life to excel in their chosen field. Elves have an extremely strong sense of honor, but their definition of honorable are different from that of humans. The main conflict in an elf's personality is between his individualism and his sense of community, and the latter rarely loses.

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Physical Description: Every elf is different from another and every clan has specific physical traits that single them out between their peers, but there are some common traits all elves share. They are on average taller than humans and proportionally built. You will never see an extremely thin or extremely fat elf unless some horrific circumstances are involved, but they all vary in muscle mass. Elves have no facial or body hair and usually smell different from all other races. They live from 400 to 3000 years and some are told to be immortal. Despite their age they never look older than early 30s by human standards. Elves have a strong connection to nature which makes them more perceptive and intuitive and also makes their bodies more resilient. They require sleep just as all other races do but their inborn endurance can help them maintain their strength even if they are deprived of sleep. Food that elves consume should be pure - they cannot stomach anything even remotely spoiled. The food simply doesn't go down and even if it does it goes up in a matter of minutes.
All elves traditionally wear their hair long and style it elaborately, adorning with jewelery and ribbons. By contrast, their clothing is usually functional and uncomplicated in design, although the fabric and embrodiery used is of exceptional quality.

Relations: Elves are wary of any other races and always distance themselves. Their diplomatic relations with dwarves are slightly warmer than those with humans or any other sentient races but all in all they are distant and withdrawn. Their strict traditions and laws make them hard to understand for humans especially, and while they maintain diplomatic relations a certain degree of distrust exists on both sides. Male elves are also known to leave progeny whenever they go and while half-elves are usually accepted among humans elves do not consider them their offspring.

Elven Lands: Most elves live in Kalaeri Empire. It is the biggest country on the continent, spanning across many climate zones, and a lot of it is still untamed. The country is not friendly to strangers, only a handful border cities being open to non-elves and any diplomatic missions are closely watched.
Elves frequent mountain cities of dwarves but rarely stray into the deep caverns of their mines feeling trapped there. In human lands they tend to live individualistic lives, only gathering in communities on rare occasions. Any Kalaeri elf traveling the world regards a native elf with a certain degree of contempt.

Religion: Elves don't have gods or temples, leaning more towards philosophy than religion. Their beliefs are centered around adhering to the natural order of things and both bettering themselves and society.

Names: A full name of any elf is incredibly long and complicated but it is rarely used. A new-born elf has at least two names: the name they are given at birth and their clan's name. If an elf comes from a ruling family of the clan he takes on a prefix "ni" to his clan name. If he belongs to one of the lesser families he also has him family name. When an elf starts apprenticeship in a profession he takes on the name of the profession as well, preceded by a prefix "ka" when he completes his training. If elf manifests supernatural talents, like a dragon lineage, planar lineage or a gift of sorcery, he takes on a name of that gift as well.
An elf who takes a wife also adds her family name to his unless she is of the clan's ruling family. In that case he joins her family and replaces his family name with hers, preceded by a prefix "ren". A mother of a prominent elf also adds her child's name to hers preceeded by the prefix "lon"

Marriage, fidelity and love: Love is not a required for an elf to start a family. Majority of marriages, even between commoners, are arranged according to economical, political or social convinience. Both love and sex can be enjoyed outside of marriage as long as the union doesn’t produce children, and society doesn’t frown upon even the most outrageous (by human standards) displays of extramarital relationships.
For a woman bearing child outside of the wedlock is not dishonorable and even increases her chances of getting married later; such children are raised alongside the relatives of the mother and even if the father is known he has no claim on the child.

Fjarren: For the most part elves do not mine the gems in their mountains or plow their fields by themselves. An elf’s life is too valuable for him to vaste it with a pick or a shovel and only most unfortunate or strange prefer to make such mindless tasks their way of life. After all, elves have fjarren to do the dirty work for them.
Fjarren are a race of slaves bred thousands of years ago to assist elves in mundane tasks. The legend says fjarren are elemental spirits bound to flesh. They are much shorter than elves, with darker skin, exotic features and strange hair colors. Their life is awfully short by elven standarts – just a little over hundred years – and they are usually allowed to breed freely to sustain the Empire’s need for raw manpower.

Slavery: Slavery in the Empire is a pretty mundane thing and it is viewed like a neccessity. Aside from fjarren, who are born slaves and are rarely freed, elves can become slaves, usually for their crimes, debts, or exertion of some of the obscure traditions that designate slavery as punishment for going against traditions. All slaves, fjarren and elves, are treated the same – as useful tools. Depending on a slave’s skills he can be a prized posession or an expendable resourse, but treating your slaves poorly is considered dishonorable and low.

Lesser dragons: Elves have an exceptional bond with true dragons, but those magnifiscent beasts tend to live in seclusion and rarely show themselves even to their favorites. That affinity, however, lets elves breed lesser dragons for various purposes. There are a lot of breeds, with every clan closely guarding their secrets and traditions of rearing and training dragons. Dragon handlers are a priveleged cast of elven society; they are trained from early childhood and fully devote their lives to one specific dragon.