Elf

About Tower Elves

Unlike their timber cousins love-affair with nature, the tower elf loves academic pursuit. They are children of the arcane world, finding beauty in magic, in the patterns of mysticism, and in the discovery of the supernatural. They often dedicate their long lives to study, either as professional sages at an academy, tinkerers in an artificer's workshop, or as independent researchers, supported by a wealthy patron. Urbanites to a fault, tower elves are most at home high with a cobble road under their feet, and a slate roof over their head. They regard nature as unpleasant, and best left for others to contend with.

While tower elves value their privacy, they typically have much more exposure to different cultures are are not as slow to make friends as timber elves. While they too typically form stronger relations with the longer-lived races, it is also common for a Tower elf to befriend sort-lived races as well; usually befriending an entire family, becoming a fixture in their lives as the tower elf watches generation after generation grow up and live out their lives. They tend to have a more optimistic outlook on the all-too brief lifespans, viewing it as an opportunity to just have more friends and experiences from which to learn.

Physical Description

Generally taller than humans, tower 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. As their coloration often matches their surroundings, tower elves are typically pale, even grey, and are much less diverse than that of human populations. City-dwelling tower elves often have variations of blue, violet, and red in their hair, eye, and even skin tones.

Tower elves tend to bedeck themselves in the latest fashions, favoring long and flowing gowns or robes. Where city-dwelling elves encounter other urbanites, the elves are often fashion trendsetters.

Society

Tower elves are largely city-dwellers, and as such tend to meld into that city's culture. It's common for established tower elf families to accumulate significant wealth and are often well ingrained into a cities aristocracy, or even royal court in positions of counsel or some authority. Those who turn away from politics are either academics, perusing tenure at the local academy, merchants, buying and trading in magical curiosities, or even the artificers themselves.

As a general rule, tower elves disdain the out of doors, and abhor manual labor. This does not mean they are opposed to physical activity, however. Many tower elves engage in aequora, a stretching exercise designed to develop the muscle endurance and flexibility needed for complex somatic components. It's also not uncommon for tower elves to become soldiers or guardsmen, usually serving as battle mages or as tacticians.

Elves have an innate gift for craftsmanship and artistry, tower elves especially when working in metals, glass, gemstones, and ceramics. Like magic can shape reality, tower elf artisans can shape metals into elegant tools, shape unformed clay into geometric tiles, shape sand into intricate glasswork. They have a well earned reputation for being jewelers and as weaponsmiths.

Tower elves also have an appreciation for the written word, magic, and painstaking research. Their naturally keen minds and senses, combined with their inborn patience, make them particularly suited to wizardry. Arcane research and accomplishment are seen as both practical goals, in line with being a soldier or architect, and artistic endeavors as great as poetry or sculpture. Within elven society, wizards are held in extremely high regard as masters of an art both powerful and aesthetically valued. Other spellcasters are not disdained, but do not gain the praise lavished upon elven wizards.

Relations

Tower elves are not as insular as timber elves tend to be. As they spend their lives intermingling with other races in the cities of Teraus, tower elves are far more accommodating and polite. As excellent judges of character, they tend to value people for their individual merits. They are still prone, however, to holding similar prejudiced views, and often show surprise when a non-elf exhibits unexpected competence. In these situations, tower elves are often condescending, and offer congratulations for what others would consider a mundane task. If called on this behaviour, tower elves have trouble understanding the complaint, as they were simply trying to pay their compliments.

Tower elves are also keen to embrace the more positive aspects of other races. They are the first to acknowledge dwarves' skill at smithing and their tenacity in facing orc threats. They find gnomes brash, disorganized, and often dangerous, but regard their magical talent as being worthy of praise and respect. Tower elves are especially 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 tower elves become infatuated with humans, as evidenced by the number of half-elves in the world. Unlike timber elves, however, tower elves readily enter into prolonged romantic relationships with humans and embrace their crossbred children, helping raise them to adulthood. After the fact, however, tower elves typically drift apart from their families, usually in an effort to subdue the grief of their inevitable deaths.

Alignment and Religion

Elves are emotional and capricious, yet value knowledge and beauty. Most tower elves are lawful, seeking to order the chaos of the arcane, and revere the laws of nature as absolute.

Adventurers

Many elves embark on adventures out of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded realms to reclaim forgotten elven magic or 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 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 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. 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 arcane, encourages elves to pursue classes such as wizards and rangers.

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

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

Racial Traits

• Ability Score: Elves are nimble, both in body and mind, but their form is frail. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and –2 Constitution.
• 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: Celestial, 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

• Urbanite: Elves with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks made to gather information and Sense Motive checks made to get a hunch about a social situation.

Magical Racial Traits

• Arcane Focus: Elves with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks made to cast arcane spells defensively.
• Elven Magic: Elves receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. In addition, elves receive a +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft skill checks made to identify the properties of magic items.

Senses Racial Traits

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