Elf

Elves, sometimes called "sylvan elves" to distinguish them from the eladrin who are also commonly called elves, are a long lived race of the Tel'Quessir are found most commonly in forests, shrublands, and other wildernesses. In comparison with their close kin the eladrin or "high elves" the true elves have a closer affinity for the natural world over civilization and have more or less abandoned the eladrin focus on magic as a whole. From time to time the elves have organized strong nations, though with far less frequency than eladrin, in some cases adopting even a nomadic lifestyle. Almost all elves worship the Seldarine, otherwise known as elven pantheon and the elves are generally, though not always, good in nature.

Outlook
The elves see themselves as a part of a greater whole, looking on the eladrin and even their enemies the drow as close cousins, an idea justified by the evidence of common origin. This whole is the collective "Tel'Quessir," which means simply "the people" in elven and refers to elves, eladrin, and sometimes drow as a single family. As for the true elves, the name most commonly applied to them in elven is "Sy'Tel'Quessir" though this word also refers to wild elves in particular.

History
The elves branched away from the eladrin in a long forgotten age, and no one is exactly sure which race came first, though most scholars believe the eladrin did. Nevertheless, by the time that the Tel'Quessir began their migration to the Prime the race had split into two. Of the Tel'Quessir, the elves were the first to arrive on the then united worlds of Abeir-Toril. At that time there were only the green elves, known as the Sy'Tel'Quessir in their own language.

Millennia passed and the elves and eladrin together ruled over much of Toril in relative peace until -12000 DR when the eladrin nation of Aryvandaar invaded the dark elf and green elf nation of Miyiertar, starting the first of five Crown Wars which, in total lasted for 3000 years.

The green elves suffered many defeats in the Crown Wars and by the end of the conflict had lost all of their former territory. Driven into the wilderness the green elves became the wild elves and lost their taste for civilzation and nation-building, becoming nomadic wanderers. It was also around this time that the first of the wood elves or Or'Tel'Quessir emerged, when some of the wild elves migrated into the lands of the eladrin and bred with their kin race, creating a new hybrid culture.

The wood elves, unlike the wild elves, continued to build civilizations, though on a smaller scale than the eladrin. In the eastern High Forest the wood elves founded the kingdom of Earlann, a contemporary and ally of Netheril. However, when Earlann fell the wood elves too abandoned the concept of nation-building, leaving it to the other races.

Elves as a whole ignored the Retreat to Evermeet, though some followed their eladrin brethren to the land across the Trackless Sea. Most elves remained in Faerûn, embracing the world around them rather than rejecting it, though a few tribes of wild elves also chose to withdraw from the world, hiding in remote places of the world like the Chondalwood in order to evade the notice of the other races.

Subraces and Related Races


There are at least two different sub-races of elves:
 * Wood elves
 * Copper-skinned or tanned elves who guard over their native forests.


 * Wild elves
 * Feral, reclusive elves who scourn civilization and its trappings, preferring a wild existence close to nature.

Though these are the only true elves, there are several closely related races that are a part of the Tel'Quessir and are often also called elves. The following are also possibly true elves, though evidence is inconclusive.


 * Avariel
 * A race of winged elves. They live in crystal cities high in the mountains.


 * Aquatic Elf
 * A race of elves that can breathe water. Like their land-bound counterparts they have giant cities protected by mythals.


 * Dark elves
 * A race of ebony-skinned elves who are the ancestors of the drow race. The race became extinct during the Crown Wars only to be revived by Eilistraee.


 * Lythari
 * A race of elves that can transform into wolves, though not into a hybrid form like lycanthropes.

While not strictly a sub-race of elves, the result of a human and elven mating is a half-elf, whereas the offspring of an elf and a fiend is a fey'ri.