Fey
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | Traits | Summer Elf | 2 | 1 | 1 | Fey Blood, Bonus Cantrip: Spare the Dying | Winter Elf | 2 | 1 | 1 | Fey Blood | Wild Elf | 1 | 2 | Fey Blood | Grey Elf | 2 | 1 | Fey Blood | Eladrin | 2 | 1 | 1 | Fey Blood, Fey Step, Bonus Proficiency WIS Save | Forest Gnome | 1 | 2 | Bonus Cantrip: Minor Illusion, Bonus Cantrip: Speak with Small Beasts | Rock Gnome | 1 | 2 | Bonus Skill: Artificer(Int), Expertise(Arcana) | Deep Gnome | 2 |
|---|
Summer Elf
Elven society would have been wiped out with the rise of the Goblyn in the Sixth Age if not for the sacrifice of the Dwarves. When the extermination came, the great heroes were felled by the onslaught. They were too proud and too rigid to surrender the field despite the odds. The ones who survived were not the epic legends of the Fifth Age, but the pragmatic and by some accounts the craven of their ranks. In their most desperate hour, the strange beings of the 'Wild offered them sanctuary in return for service. The commanders who took this offered deal were branded traitors and deserters by their high command, but these epithets were empty when the ones speaking them were slaughtered to a man.
The Elves of the Summer Court are the descendants of Laina Vestendria Aurumkaune, who defied her field marshal and ordered her medical corps into the 'Wild. The Summer Elves honor the painful decision she made by refusing to speak her full name, only ever referring to her in the most reverential tones as The Laina. Any leader of a group of Elves might be called my Laina or their Laina, but when they say The Laina, every Elf knows of whom they speak.
Summer Elves are tall as elves go, only slightly less so than Eladrin, and they are generally somewhat slight of frame and often quite comely, which is not surprising given the high value placed on physical appearance in the Summer Court. Their skin is most often a rich earth tone or some soft shade of green or gold that reminds one of growing things. Their eyes are large and can vary widely in color but shades of amber and honey are indications of high birth.
Winter Elf
Wild Elf
Grey Elf
Eladrin
The Eladrin are less a race of elf and more a thing that happens to certain special elves. Eladrin come from the Fey to us, but they are not quite OF the Fey. There is clearly something of ancient holy power that whispers through them, echoing silver bells in their walk and blessed mercy in their kiss. They are infused with something special, a goodly might that is both inspiring and a little frightening.
The legends speak of the First Elves, mighty heroes so unrelentingly pure of spirit that the Gods could no longer endure them suffering among the mortals and brought them bodily into the Arborian Wilds to live among them. Some of them never returned. Some did. They took refuge in the deepest parts of the Fey, far from the prying eyes of the Celestials. These ancient beings are inscrutable and dangerously xenophobic.
Since the breaking of the Eladrin, once in a great while a child of the Fey is born infused with the Eladrin light. Some of the dark Fey covet their power and others fear it but it cannot be predicted or contained as far as we know. What we do know is that their arrival frightens the dark powers and that they are unwavering in their blessed purpose.
The greatest victory of the dark powers is to turn an Eladrin from the light for if they ever stray into darkness the very light fades from their eyes and they become common Elves.
