Elf

Racial Overview
The Elves comprise some of the greatest rangers, spellcasters and mariners that Natheria has ever seen. Their long lives and natural mastery of magical abilities make them very wise and experienced adventurers. Elves are at home among the woods and seas of their homes, and yet it is easy for them to find a connection among any aspects of nature. The Elves hail from the continent of Algaros, a collection of Elven realms to the southwest of Skentu. Algaros has wide ranges of forests, strong port cities, and wild mountains, all of which the Elves prefer. Oftentimes adventurers at the base of the mountains or walking through some of the smaller towns can look into the blue sky at midday and see wild Griffins riding high on the winds. Some Elves are known to even domesticate these beasts, but those are the secluded and secretive Elves of the mountains, of which little is known.

Elves and Dwarves share a common dislike for one another. The Elves see the Dwarves as greedy cave-dwellers, and the Dwarves see Elves as arrogant wizards. Elves are not known for their physical strength, yet they possess heightened senses and a swiftness and accuracy that is uncanny.

The Elves of the First Age were explorers and adventurers in the truest sense of the terms. The Elves of western Algaros, who dwell in the thick woods and rugged foothills of the Gryphonwing Peaks, forge new paths through Skentu. The kingdoms of Men and Dwarves were already well-known to the Elves, but what lay beyond, the Far East and the Far South? It was in these years that the Western Elves moved through Skentu in groups, sometimes taking up with Men and Dwarves, often recruiting the help of the Onbaggian along the way as well. Western Elves dotted the entire continent of Skentu, in addition to their homeland of Algaros. The Eastern Elves, those who lived in the larger trade cities on the southern and eastern shores of Algaros, took to the sea, and began to map the shape of Natheria beyond what they knew.

Glodeat had been 'discovered' decades earlier by the Elf Tinuthiel, and while there had been a few groups of explorers who had ventured to the western lands since then, they still remained largely untouched by eastern influences. The middle decades of the First Age saw more Elf traffic to Glodeat, and the Elves learned to live alongside the Aldrian of Glodeat, and together they shared more than stories of their cultures. Elves began to found settlements in Aldrian kingdoms, and the Aldrian, glad for the arrival of such good-natured people, allowed the Elves to settle in the kingdom of Garathar.

With the Eastern Elves spreading farther and wider than the Western Elves, it didn't take long for almost another culture to spring up from Eastern Elf influence. The Volinal Islands, far off the southern coast of Algaros, were settled and inhabited by Eastern Elves nearly three centuries before the start of the First Age. And so, by the First Age, the Volinal Elves were considered, by many, to not even be Eastern Elves anymore. With a greater focus on sailing and the marine world, the Volinal Elves became some of the best mariners, fishermen, and worldly explorers in all of the history of Natheria.

Religion
The Elves believe that the first deities of Natheria were the two named Danaristhu and Danutilen. Danaristhu was the greater of the two, and he proclaimed himself by placing a great torch in the sky, to light the world. Yet, he did not claim Natheria entirely, and Danutilen was permitted to light the world with his lesser light, a white candle. The lights of the two gods are seen by others as the Sun and Moon.

The Two looked upon Natheria and saw it to be a fertile world, yet uninhabited. Seeing this, Danaristhu created two races, later named the High and Wood Elves, and Danutilen created his own race, the Vardel. Yet, wishing for a diverse world, they did not want the Elves to be the only people to walk its green pastures. So, Danaristhu endowed the western lands of Natheria with his great powers, and soon from that land arose the deities the Elves refer to as Danfhern, of King of the West (See Aldrian Religion: Malsudon), and Danlinel, or King of The Others (See Aldrian Religion: The One). The works of these two new gods were completely unknown to Danaristhu and Danutilen.

Danutilen endowed his powers in the greater, open and rugged lands of the north-east and south-east, creating Danjkerilen, or King of the Manish (See Manish Religion: Yiel), and Dannolithon, or King of the Northern Ones (See Dwarven Religion: Grongeddin).

As Danjkerilen and Dannolithon were made of the strongest energies left behind by Danutilen, the negative, left-over energies formed into the deity known as Danfarsel (See Dwarven Religion: Karggendir). Danfarsel, or False King, was powerful, but not as powerful as he wished to be. When the first of the dragons came over from across the seas, Danfarsel met them before the other deities and said that if they sided with him, he would grant them lands to claim rulership over. The dragons heartily agreed, and quickly moved about Skentu and Algaros unchecked. When Danaristhu and Danutilen saw this, they rallied their forces against the dragons and Danfarsel