The Elf

"Where should I begin, oh beautiful Filoen ? They know from the day they are born that they are going to die soon, they can even esteem for themselves how many years the gods will let them stay alive and, though, they wander around deaf and blind instead of breathing the new air of each day and live every single moment as if it was the last. The sense of life, it is what they are looking for - like the little folk - in gold and glory. They do not care if they may keep it on their last journey.

Instead of fearing the death as their lord, they creep in the shadows of divine entities, coporeal kings and greedy dealers. Each one knows that his legs will rot in dirty burial ground one day but still they long for their own house made of stone. The rich construct monuments after their own image, to save their face from ruin, but they do not even believe this could be real. No, my Filoen, they will never understand, what the wise and old tell, that life is not accounted to a single being, you are part of the oak tree and its life as well and the oak tree feels what you feel. Everything is interfingering, woven into each other, it will never die.

Oh, young Filoen, stay here, do not wander off to those human beings. They will drown you in their own unlucky state, drown you deep down in their spiral of fear, lust and despair they call life..." (Warnings of the elf Malisa Moongleam to her young lover)

Background

The elves are a very old folk, but for centuries they have not been bothered with taking notes on their own history or the arkanian history at all. So we do not know much about the origin of such proud, magically talented beings. It appears, however, to be relatively sure that once upon a time there was just one big folk of elves. But their natural enemies, orks and goblins, grew stronger and the folk of elves was decimated. They were forced to live in rough and hideous terrain, so that there are three major folks of the elves today, the meadow-folk, wood-folk and firn-folk.

All elves may simply be recognized by their long pointed ears. Their body is very similar to that of human beings, but normally it is slimmer and more delicate. As dwarves, far related brothers and sisters of the elves, they live much longer than an average human being, they may easily live for more than some hundred years, but there are a lot of cases where some elves also died much younger than most of the human folk.

All elves inherit their folk's magical powers. They are taught so well in their magical arts (by their parents as well as by their fellow kin) that they employ them very early for hunting and fighting purposes or even to ease difficult work in their environment. Only rarely elves are so keen on magic that they look for perfection as human magicians do and step their way into a research project.

Out of all elves we will only present the meadow-folk, because they are most easily to find and many of them are already used to human beings in their environment. (The mysterious wood-elves and the bright firn-elves are not part of the basic rules.) The meadow-elves settled in front of all alongside the rivers and creeks of Arkania and faced their terrible enemies, so that they are also called the river-elves. The meadow-folk is the most pugnacious folk of the elves, they are used to the exchange of ideas and goods with human beings.

The role of an elf

If you really want to play an elf, you have to put all your talent as an actor into the affair. Your fellow players and your gamemaster will be positively surprised, if your elf is not only a good "fighter and spellcaster", but also a stranger among the ordinary, who will often wonder about the traits and behaviour of his adventurous band or their surroundings. Imagine, you would come from a village far away from civilization. You know only the village people who are in perfect balance to nature and all their other friends around them so that they do not care about talking of something different than this. And you come to a place like a medieval town or village, where some people die of hunger and dirt whereas other people love away their lives in somehow cynical mixture of luxury and loneliness.

Can you imagine the surprise and the compassion, can you feel the agony and curiosity of a young elf ? And last but not least, you will have to wonder about the cult human beings perform, not only of religion, but in front of all of gold and cruelty. Elves do not understand why any one should "act as an ork" not even against a really hideous enemy. And they do not like to creep in front of any one, may he call himself king, emperor or god.

An elf should really fall into the hole he buried himself by commenting on characteristics he was not meant to comment on.

Quotes

"Ooh, so you say, this bangle is worth more than 100 pieces of gold - wherever you may roam, even here in the woodland surrounded by wolves,,,"
"You call it magic ? I call it an urgent wish."
"Only an ork fishes more than he can eat."

Look at some numbers concerning their talents, spells and their appearance and equipment.

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