Elves

"By the standards of humans their faces were too long and angular, their skin so perfect as to seem almost marble and those wide eyes filled with so much contempt it was nearly a physical thing. They were tall and slim and terrible to behold, like a coldly shining star."

―Wandering Bard

The Elves are a species of human-like beings with pointed ears that live in the Golden Bloom. They can’t die of old age and appear ageless. They’re nominally aligned with Good.

Appearance

Physically, the elves are more or less human. They have long, angular faces; wide eyes and they look androgynous according to the Wandering Bard.They are tall, slim and as is usual for elves, they have pointed ears. As is evident from Ranger they can interbreed with humans, though the conception rate is small.

Nature & Abilities

Despite their relatively normal appearance, it would be a mistake to believe the elves are similar in nature to their mortal brethren. According to Warlock, “their entire species adds more weight to their presence in the Pattern the longer they live”. This is somewhat validated as Augur can’t read their actions very well. Later on, it’s revealed that Warlock believes they become living domains when they get old enough - like Catherine’s Fall.

They are incredibly powerful combatants. According to Cordelia Hasenbach, a single Emerald Sword could destroy an entire company of human soldiers. They can move swiftly enough Bard couldn't react to them and they have been shown to use spellwood swords.

The older elves can chose to ignore one rule of Creation. When Dawn and Dusk - two Emerald Swords sent to dispatch Akua Sahelian - encountered the Wandering Bard they could disappear from her senses. Age seems to be deeply correlated with power. There’s a heavy implication that the Forever King - the ruler of their kingdom - is the oldest and most powerful. It’s suggested he can see the future in some limited capacity, though not well enough to anticipate the Bard.

Culture

The elves have several ways of communicating. One involves infinitesimal twitches, which they can interpret as single words and straightforward concepts. The other is their language, called the True Tongue.

So far, they've only displayed contempt for the other species on Calernia. The older of them prefer not to leave the Golden Bloom until absolutely necessary and they kill anyone who approaches their Kingdom. Bard's threat of speaking the True Tongue horrified them so much they were forced to listen to them.

While the racism is true of the elves currently living in the Golden Bloom, the elvish population located across the Tyrian Sea is said to be tolerant of other species - to the point where they exiled the fringe elements who moved to Calernia.

Trivia

• There is a rumor that an elvish forest kingdom located on another continent was destroyed by a Demon of Corruption
• The Wandering Bard noted that the elves who stayed in their original home are currently ruling a kingdom larger than the entire continent of Calernia
• It is possible that the Elves tendency to 'see everyone but heroes and other elves as insolent vermin', and tendency to kill everyone who comes within a half-mile of the Golden Bloom, the use of an aspect, thought to be 'related, one way or another, to ‘purification’.' by an elven revenant to scour away the flesh of other races, and the story about a demon of corruption destroying an elven kingdom can all be tied together by the assumption that the elves on Calernia acquired cultural values requiring purity as a result of an incident involving a corruption Demon.