Timber Elf

About Timber Elves

The long-lived timber elves are children of the natural world, similar in many superficial ways to fey creatures, though with key differences. While fey are truly linked to the flora and fauna of their homes, existing as the nearly immortal voices and guardians of the wilderness, timber elves are instead mortals who are in tune with the natural world around them. Timber elves seek to live in balance with the wild and understand it better than most other mortals. Some of this understanding is mystical, but an equal part comes from the timber elves' long lifespans, which in turn gives them long-ranging outlooks. Timber elves can expect to remain active in the same locale for centuries. By necessity, they must learn to maintain sustainable lifestyles, and this is most easily done when they work with nature, rather than attempting to bend it to their will. However, their links to nature are not entirely driven by pragmatism. Timber elves' bodies slowly change over time, taking on a physical representation of their mental and spiritual states, and those who dwell in a region for a long period of time find thems timber elves physically adapting to match their surroundings, most noticeably taking on coloration that reflects the local environment.

Timber elves value their privacy and traditions, and while they are often slow to make friends at both the personal and national levels, once an outsider is accepted as a comrade, the resulting alliances can last for generations. Timber elves take great joy in forging alliances with races that share or exceed their long lifetimes, and often work to befriend dragons, outsiders, and fey. Those timber elves who spend their lives among the short-lived races, on the other hand, often develop a skewed perception of mortality and become morose, the result of watching wave after wave of companions age and die before their eyes.

Physical Description

Generally taller than humans, timber elves possess a graceful, slender physique that is accentuated by their long, pointed ears. It is a mistake, however, to consider them weak or feeble, as the thin limbs of an elf can contain surprising power. Their eyes are wide and almond-shaped, and filled with large, vibrantly colored pupils. The coloration of timber elves as a whole varies wildly, and is much more diverse than that of human populations. However, as their coloration often matches their surroundings, the timber elves of a single community may appear quite similar. Forest-dwelling timber elves often have variations of green, brown, and tan in their hair, eye, and even skin tones.

Society

Many timber elves feel a bond with nature and strive to live in harmony with the natural world. Although, like most, timber elves prefer bountiful lands where resources are plentiful, when driven to live in harsher climates, they work hard to protect and shepherd the region's bounty, and learn how to maximize the benefit they receive from what little can be harvested. When they can carve out a sustainable, reliable life in deserts and wastelands, they take pride as a society in the accomplishment. While this can make them excellent guides to outsiders they befriend who must travel through such lands, their disdain of those who have not learned to live off the scant land as they have makes such friends rare.

Timber elves have an innate gift for craftsmanship and artistry, especially when working in wood, bone, ivory, or leather. Most, however, find manipulating earth and stone to be distasteful, and prefer to avoid forging, stonework, and pottery. When such work must be done within a community, a few timber elves may find themstimber elves drawn to it, but regardless of their craftsmanship, such “dirt-wrights” are generally seen by other timber elves as being a bit off. In the most insular of elven societies, they may even be treated as lower class.

While timber elves also have an appreciation for magic, they tend not to have the patience for research their tower elf cousins do. Instead, they tend to embrace a more spiritual connection with the land, readially becoming rangers or druids.

Relations

Timber elves are prone to dismissing other races, writing them off as rash and impulsive, yet on an individual level, they are excellent judges of character. In many cases an elf will come to value a specific member of another race, seeing that individual as deserving and respectable, while still dismissing the race as a whole. If called on this behavior, the elf often doesn't understand why his “special friend” is upset the elf has noticed the friend is “so much better than the rest of his kind.” Even timber elves who see such prejudice for what it is must constantly watch themselves to prevent such views from coloring their thinking.

Timber elves are not foolish enough, however, to dismiss all aspects of other races and cultures. An elf might not want a dwarf neighbor, but would be the first to acknowledge dwarves' skill at smithing and their tenacity in facing orc threats. Timber elves regard gnomes as strange (and sometimes dangerous) curiosities, but regard their magical talent as being worthy of praise and respect. Timber elves are fascinated with humans, who seem to live in a few short years as full a life as an elf manages in centuries. In fact, many timber elves become infatuated with humans, as evidenced by the number of half-elves in the world. Timber elves have difficulty accepting crossbreeds of any sort, however, and usually disown such offspring. They similarly regard half-orcs with distrust and suspicion, assuming they possess the worst aspects of orc and human personalities.

Alignment and Religion

Timber elves are emotional and capricious, yet value kindness and beauty. Most timber elves are chaotic good, wishing all creatures to be safe and happy, but unwilling to sacrifice personal freedom or choice to accomplish such goals. They prefer deities who share their love of the mystic qualities of the world.

Adventurers

Many timber elves embark on adventures out of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded realms to search out lost kingdoms established millennia ago by their ancestors. This need to see a wider world is accepted by their societies as a natural part of becoming mature and experienced individuals. Such timber elves are expected to return in some few decades and take up lives in their homelands once more, enriched both in treasure and in worldview. For those timber elves raised among humans, however, life within their homes—watching friends and family swiftly age and die—is often stifling, and the ephemeral and unfettered life of an adventurer holds a natural appeal. Timber elves generally eschew melee because of their relative frailty, preferring instead to engage enemies at range. Most see combat as unpleasant even when needful, and prefer it be done as quickly as possible, preferably without getting close enough to smell their foes. This preference for making war at a distance, coupled with their natural accuracy and grasp of the natural world, encourages timber elves to pursue classes such as druids and rangers.

Male Names: Caladrel, Heldalel, Lanliss, Meirdrarel, Seldlon, Talathel, Variel, Zordlon.

Female Names: Amrunelara, Dardlara, Faunra, Jathal, Merisiel, Oparal, Soumral, Tessara, Yalandlara.

Pathfinder Racial Traits

• Ability Score: Timber Elves are swift, both in body and mind, but they're not as educated as their Tower cousins. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Intelligence.
• Size: Elves are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Type: Elves are Humanoids with the elf subtype.
• Speed: Elves have a base speed of 30 feet.
• Languages: Elves begin play speaking Common and Elven. Elves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Terran, Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

Defense Racial Traits

• Elven Immunities: Elves are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.

Feat and Skill Racial Traits

• Woodcraft: Timber Elves know the deep secrets of the wild like no others, especially secrets of the forests. Elves with this racial trait gain a +1 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. In forest terrain, these bonuses improve to +2.
• Keen Senses: Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.

Offense Racial Traits

• Weapon Familiarity: Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.

Senses Racial Traits

• Low-Light Vision: Elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.