Natives of Yilguen, the elves are servants of the gods of Nature, Art and Magic.
These three sibling-gods created the Elves together, shaping them out of the wood of Nature, giving them the beauty of a artisan's sculpture, and then breathed life into by the god of Magic.
Probably the most magically adept of the species of the world, the three gods split the elves among themselves, creating the three "Spheres" of elven society.
The elves are beautiful things, but by human measure short. The tallest reaching about 150 centimeters tall, with the average ranging 140.
The elves are made lithe and dexterous, but their light bones are brittle and can take little in terms of impact in combat. The elves live for longer periods than Humans, with a average life length of 150 years, and the oldest reaching a venerable 200.
The servants of Nature inhabit the Heartwood, a large woodland filled with both wonder and terror. The trees are beautiful and enchanted things, blooming wonderfully vibrant colors during springtime. But in the shadow of the trees lurk dark abhorrent things, for beauty is merely one of nature's many faces.
The elves themselves live of the wilds, shaped into independent packs of savage hunters, acting as the rangers and border guard of the elven lands. The woodland elves are the fiercest of them all, and it is said there is no better archer in all the world than a Woodland ranger.
In the valley of the thousand statues the servants of the god of art live their lives, each wholly dedicated to it's life's mission, to master one thing well enough that it's name will be marked in the ledger of artisans, and its' art studied by generations to come.
These elves are assigned a role from birth, and it is said that their patron god himself creates each of them as a specific piece that makes up the great tapestry that is elven society, and the divine masterpiece of the god himself. Each elf strives for nothing less than complete mastery of his given art, be it tilling the land, fishing in the inner sea, performing the most exquisite of music or practicing the deadliest of martial art, be it sword or spear.
Among the artists, new ideas and inventions are seen as blasphemy towards the god's will, and anyone straying from the role gifted to them at birth are a flaw in the great tapestry, and must be removed.
In the great towers of the City of crystal that exists in the center of it all backed by the Inner sea, the servants of Magic practice their rituals and spells. These elves have been the terror of lesser races for a long time. The master magisters, the high priests of the god of Magic, are terrifying fiends capable of flinging molten metal, thunderstorms and open rifts in space at a whim. But these secrets are guarded jealously, and the few apprentices that manage to sneak a peek out of their master's grimoires often see themselves flogged for their insolence. Only the most favoured of sons and daughters of the wizard guilds are ever gifted with higher magics than simple cantrips and basic spells. The more ambitious and brilliant among the magicians study the coded tomes of magisters long deceased, and attempt to wrest from them the secrets the magisters intended to take with them to their graves.
It is seen as a great shame for a magister to have his work stolen or decoded, for the most brilliant mind, they say, is the one that only their God can understand.
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