Harvest Elves

History and Lore:
"Give it another fifty years and you'll understand."

Harvest Elves are a term used collectively to refer to most elves, and they come in nearly as many skin tones, hair, and eye colors as humans. Harvest Elves are distinct from High Elves; which are an aristocracy and higher social caste than 'The People' with its distinct bloodlines. Elves, regardless of if they are born of deserts, in forest born on mountains, or born in cities are each referred to politely as 'Harvest' Elves which is considered a more polite term than 'Low' or 'Lowland Elf' by the High Elves that rule over and (normally) protect their interests.

The Elves as a people have a rich history and once had an empire that once spanned much of the known world. The region around Orcrest was but one portion of that mighty empire, although the empire of Aer Arnad has retreated and their people are in decline, Elves are still amongst the most populous people in the region of Orcrest - although humans are still the majority.

Though elves, when born are given names by their parents, these childhood names are often set aside or discarded as the elf comes of age and reaches maturity. Members of their immediate family and childhood friends may or may not continue to call the elf by their childhood name -- any given elf may resent, be embarrassed by, or still appreciate their childhood name depending on family relationship and history.

Harvest Elves are typically shorter and slighter than humans, but have an unusual strength for their size. Although elves tend toward art and leisure, because of their long lives, often accrue great wealth and usually prefer to keep apprentices and servants to perform most menial work, while laboring at a fine craft or other duties. Elves can be amongst the most accurate and detail-oriented craftsmen. Elves labor with a meticulous and immortal patience that few save The Dwarves can match.

Because even a young elf is often far older and more experienced than even the oldest humans, Elves often have trouble considering them equals - though they are rarely rude about this and it is only because of the slow decline of the elves that humanity has begun to rise in prominence. Because of the rise of men, The People have finally been forced to take humans seriously in politics and warfare.

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Physical Characteristics:
+ Harvest Elves have specific height limits shown in the OOC room.
+ Harvest Elf is not a single elven race or people, but rather a legal distinction within The Empire of Aer Arnad for Common Elves, regardless of if that elf's people come from a desert, mountains, or plains, whether they are tribal, living in the wilds, or a scholar from Mairmithon, The City of Glass.

+ Harvest Elves may be of any human skin-tone or hair-color, though these are often distinct to specific regions and bloodlines.
+ Elves may not be younger than 101 years of age.
+ Elves are virtually immortal unless killed, living for centuries. Individual elves have been recorded to live up to 500 years, although most elves eventually stop counting and many of their historical recollections can be found to be incorrect, giving older elves reputations as historical revisionists and their memories are often imperfect when the events retold are often hundreds of years past - though it is virtually unheard of for Harvest Elves to go senile with age.
+ Elves do not sleep, and cannot be physically or magically compelled to do so, tending to rest for up to four hours a day while performing leisurely tasks such as reading, writing, drawing, or meditating.
+ Elves have long, sharply pointed ears. Animated bento ears are recommended but not required. (If using Lelutka elf ears; ear-tip values between 60 and 85 allow differentiation from half-elves.)

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RP Quirks & Ideas:

 + Harvest Elves were often the land-owning citizen class of the old empire, and because of their age and biology tend toward casual affluence and don't tend to worry about wealth accumulation so much as seeing it as a natural consequence of knowledge and not being required to sleep; often even inheriting from human spouses and half-elven offspring. 'Easy Come, Easy Go' with wealth seen as more of a game they sometimes set aside for other pursuits.
 + While every elf is treated as a Citizen of the Empire of Aer Arnad and will be afforded rights there, many elves are actually born abroad in independent regions, and may be from virtually any surface city or land in the realm that other races hail from.
+ Elves are a minority in most kingdoms and lands - including Aer Arnad - though they tend to be drawn together into specific regions, which can make them seem far more plentiful wherever they choose to reside.

 + Half-elves due to a quirk of biology cannot bear natural-born children which has prevented the clean merging of human and elven culture. Because of population decline, far-sighted elves tend to be discouraged from becoming pregnant with the offspring of humans, and the majority of half-elves are born of human mothers. Because of this, male elves are sometimes stereotyped as lotharios and older female elves as prudish by humans; though these are mostly inaccurate generalizations of conscious effort to maintain their own people's populations.
 + While Harvest Elves do not tend toward the racial pride of High Elves, older Harvest Elves have difficulty being comfortable around humans and often find conversation with them exhausting, and tend toward loyalty to The Old Empire. Many Harvest Elves tend toward a mild but non-confrontational prejudice against many races but maintain necessary politeness and an interest in the affairs of the other races.

 + Regardless, younger elves tend to be eager to ally with or at least attempt to live around humans, finding their dramas, struggles, and emotional highs and lows to be a fascinating contrast to the controlled stability of traditional elven culture.
+ Harvest Elves as conquered peoples were not the rulers of The Old Empire, but as Aer Arnad's Legions and its High Elven Sorcerer Overlords recede to the east, sometimes get scapegoated by short-sighted humans for the actions of the old nobility and blamed for benefitting from an unfair status quo; which is not an entirely unfair characterization.

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