Racial Modifiers: +2 DEX, +2 INT, -2 CON. Elfen are both graceful and intelligent, but also frail.
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 move
Low Light Vision: Elfen can see twice as far as humas in dim light.
Keen Senses: Elfen receive a +2 bonus to perception checks.
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Cultural Description
The word Elfen translates roughly as ‘the fallen’ in their tongue, though few of will discuss it’s meaning. Mere mention of it will trigger hostile glares and tight lipped faces.
Only the Vithee themselves will speak of it, and they rarely leave their sacred groves. Curiously, they avoid their Elfen cousins and refuse to speak to them if ever forced into contact.
The Vithee tale is sad, but it explains their strange aversion for the elves. At one time there were no Elfen. There were only the Vithee, a whole species that lived in reverence of nature much as the Vithee do today.
Then the Ceracen came. The Ceracen were red skinned demons much like the Vithee in form, but radically different in purpose. They were dark twisted things created to destroy the Vithee, much as the Orokh were set upon humanity.
During the relentless destruction the Vithee cried out ‘why’? They were a peaceful people, literally unable to fight back. All they could do was flee before the fury of the Ceracen. They hid in the deepest forests, but no matter where they went eventually their enemies followed. This continued for nearly a decade until one day the fate of the Vithee was forever altered.
One of the Vithee watched as her tribe was overrun by Ceracen. Her sister and mother were raped in front of her, and their tortured shrieks broke something inside of her. Her hands balled into fists and an indescibable rage crashed over her.
Vithee are powerful mages and this one was more skilled than most. She summoned her nature magic and lightning bolts rained on the village. The stunned Ceracen were cut down like wheat, dying by the score as the Vithee vented her fury. Then all was silent save for the sobbing of her kin.
The woman who’d fought back stared around the group in shock and grief, for she knew what a grave sin she had committed. She had taken life, something no Vithee would ever do. None of her people would meet her gaze. Elfen, they murmured. Fallen.
She was no longer of the people, forced into exile for her act of rage. Such things weren’t just forbidden among the Vithee. They were literally impossible. Their people had been existed in beautiful harmony with the world around them. Violence was alien. Wrong.
Her crime was nearly as great as that of the Ceracen, and they cast her from their sight. She left the elder groves with nothing but hatred for the Ceracen. She embraced the name Elfen, discarding her own name forever. She vowed to slay every Ceracen, and thus protect her people from the same fate that had befallen her. If she could not return to her people at least she could protect them.
Yet she wasn’t the only one affected by the Ceracen’s awful depredations. As the years passed more and more Vithee changed, embracing violence and fighting back against the Ceracen. The Fallen eventually outnumbered the true Vithee, but as their numbers grew so did their strength. They met the Ceracen in battle, and they drove their enemies before their terrible wrath.
At long last the war ended, leaving the Elfen with no purpose. The could not return to the Vithee, yet neither could they continue the war that was all they knew. They had to build their life anew, so they settled in the forests near the great groves. They watched the Vithee from afar, but didn’t dare approach.
Generations passed and the Elfen eventually adjusted to their new lives. They watched their pure cousins with terrible longing, deciding that their new purpose was to protect the Vithee at all costs. They’ve done so for thousands of years, even after their people seem to have forgotten the true reasons why.
For while the Vithee are still virtually immortal their Elfen cousins have truly fallen. They are longer lived than humans, but their life spans are now measured in centuries instead of eternal.
Religion
Most Elfen follow the Way of the Earthmother. They believe that one day their mother will return, and she will restore the grace they sacrificed to save them from the Ceracen.
Physical Appearance
Elfen are tall and thin, with elongated ears and almond eyes. Their eyes are usually bright colors- green, amethyst or deep blue.
