Elf

The elves are a lithe, long lived race native to the continent of Risha.

Wood Elf
Considered the oldest and original strain of elves, wood elves can trace their civilization back to the mists of the Primal Age. Since ancient times they have inhabited the woods of the Emerald Veil and the Sharpleaf Vale, living in close proximity to nature. They are currently the most populous subrace of elves, though the difficulty in surveying sea elves may cast doubt on their exact place in the elven hierarchy.

At first glance many wood elves might seem primitive. Avid hunters, high ranking members often bedeck themselves in the spoils of the wilds such as furs, strings of teeth, or have blades carved from horns or teeth hanging at their hips. In truth, given the rich lore wood elves have to draw on spanning countless millennia, these archaic armaments are often more advanced than they appear. Given the right leatherworker and enchantments, even a rough looking fur armor can provide protection on par with metal plates in the hands of a wood elf.

Due to their connection to the woodlands of Risha, wood elves tend to have the most animosity towards humans. The relatively recent immigrants from Hiram, after all, seemed to have an endless hunger for wood and new lands to colonize, regardless of who already lived in such areas. The Stilari fought three wars against the wood elves of the Emerald Veil, known as the Marches on Sylvanthe to gain access to the peninsula's resources, and the Rizik-Bladeleaf Vale conflicts only ceased after cooler heads drafted a series of treaties between the two powers. Only Hijari humans avoided conflicts with wood elves, owing to their general lack of a need for permanent housing and a need to keep as many trade routes open across the continent as possible. Even then and even in modern times, wood elves tend to have a general distrust of humans, seeing them as greedy and irreverent towards the world around them.

Wood elves tend to revere the Forest Maiden, the elven goddess of the hunt, nature, spring, fertility, and craftsfolk. Worship of the Moonweaver is also fairly common, as is Brother War among the seasoned soldiers of the wood elves.

High Elf
The high elves, hailing from the island of Maginus off the southwestern coast of Risha, are thought to be an offshoot of the nearby Bladeleaf Vale wood elves, owing to the island's close proximity to the peninsula.

Sea Elf

Eladrin

Avariel

Drow
The Drow originally lived in the valleys of the Kagorian Mountains, the massive mountain range that reaches from just south of the Emerald Veil in the northwest to the edge of the Scale Marsh in the southeast

Even in their earliest days, their affinity for spiders helped them traverse treacherous mountain passes

They were "mountain elves" then, and generally considered equal to the other species of elves that existed at the time, namely wood elves, high elves, sea elves, and Avariel

While their reach was vast, their patron goddess, the Webweaver, rankled at the idea of being limited to the mountains. The peaks helped ensure safety yes, but they didn't have many of the resources that, say, the Avariel of the central plains or the wood elves of the Emerald Veil had.

She wished to see her children spread and become more powerful, to free them from what she saw as a limiting, stagnating, poverty stricken life in the mountains

So, little by little, the mountain elves began annexing territory outside of the mountains. While there was no letter of law confining the elves to the mountains, it was generally the agreed upon rule that elves would rule those territories that best suited them

It was not long before the mountain elves burgeoning empire began to grow closer and closer to the strongholds of the other elves, such as the Emerald and Sharpleaf Vales of the wood elves, and even capturing islands close to the high elf home of Maginus. All the while the mountain elves found themselves absolutely thriving with new resources. This thriving fed a hunger for more, which sparked the first conflicts of the Ancient Elven Civil War

In the first battles, the wood and high elves underestimated the mountain elves. The high elves trusted in their magical supremacy, only to find the mountain elves their equal in sorcery. The wood elves trusted in nature to stand by them, only for the neglected elements like fungi and spiders to turn against them.

it was only after the Avariel and the sea elves turned against the mountain elves that the tide began to turn. Even then, the mountain elves numbers, spurred on by a higher reproduction rate brought on by their dangerous home, proved a dangerous obstacle to face.

The war went back and forth and back again until the final battle.

At the Battle of the Broken Peaks, in a mutual bid to finally quash the other side, avatars of the entire elven pantheon were summoned to battle the opposing side among the peaks of the Kagorian Mountains as elf fought against elf in the passes below.

Mountains were shattered and torn asunder with the fury of the godly avatars. The Moonweaver bombarded her sister with thousands of bolts of burning moonlight, the First Magus rent the skies apart with arcane lightning, the Dawnmother burned away at the Webweaver's webs with a passion and anger not yet seen, the Forest Maiden commanded even her foe's spider allies to strike at her, the Wavefather hurled torrents of seawater at the Spider Queen, and Brother War bravely fought toe to toe with the Webweaver, her own power increased exponentially with the glut in worshippers.

In the end, the Avatar of the Webweaver lay broken on the mountainside, and her followers were routed after a daring raid killed the General-Queen of the Drow. Out of desperation, the Drow fled under the roots of the mountains, into lands so dangerous and filled with aberrations that the other elves dared not make chase: the deepest caverns of the Underdark

With her dying breath, the Avatar of the Webweaver blessed her fleeing children with dark skin that would help them hide in the darkness, with eyes that could see nearly perfectly in absolute shadow, and with magic passed through their blood enough to help them fight back against the native Underdark monsters

It was there, ironically, that the Webweaver's vision for her children finally came true: In the deepest caverns and tunnels, the newly christened Drow spread like wildfire into an empire that exceeded even their old empire in size and scope

But their hunger would not be sated. Generation after generation told stories of how the ungrateful elves of the surface turned against the Drow, how they were the rightful rulers of elvenkind. Centuries after centuries they waited for the perfect time to strike. The answer to their prayers came in the form of the Red Hand, a massive asteroid that burned across the skies of Aelura for a year until it plunged into the planet, covering the skies in clouds and ash

With the sun that warded them off gone, the Drow poured out of the Underdark, their considerable forces bolstered even more by Duregar mercenaries, Drider mutants, tamed aberrations, and even a number of Ilithid who saw the Drow invasion as an easy path to fresh brains

This was the beginning of the Shadow Age, a time when Drow rule over the continent was nearly absolute. Elves were so desperate to escape the oncoming hordes of Drow and monsters that they retreated into the Faewild, their fabled ancestral home. The rest barely held onto strongholds in Sharpleaf Vale and the island of Maginus, with the rest of the continent enslaved to the will of the Webweaver's children.

The Drow and their allies ruled a darkened Risha for 2000 years before a pushback finally began. Surprisingly, this did not come from the elves, but the orcs and goblins that had evolved alongside them. Long content to live in their respective clans and warbands, the orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears chafed under the authoritarian boot of the Drow, often captured and sold off as slaves.

A slave rebellion, lead by the orc Ruthok Bloodmantle, eventually erupted in the then-capital of the Drow, a city placed near the forks of the Great Stilari River known as Shadow's Peak. What once were scattered and warring clans of greenskins were inadvertently forged into a single war machine. While the orcs and goblinfolk were severely outmatched in terms of numbers and magic, their fury and daring gave the other elves just enough time to regroup. In addition, insurrections led by an inadvertent elven offshoot, the Shadar-kai, weakened the Drow empire from within.

Finally, with the ash clouds beginning to dissipate, the War of Light and Shadow began. United forces of elves, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears swooped down upon the Drow, once more forcing them back into the Underdark. Drow wizards attempted to bring the ash clouds back, or something similar, but their efforts seemed to be in vain in the face of natural processes. The advance of the sun and a united force of strange bedfellows doomed the Drow, and they've stayed in their tunnels ever since

The Shadow Age affected the dwarven kingdoms as well: with the surging power of the Drow, most if not all the dwarven cities at the time were under constant attack. Even the mightiest at the time, Valor's Rest, suffered a 100 day siege by Drow forces during this age. This is where Yan'shari originated: it was originally founded as an outpost, a launching point for future attacks against dwarven and gnomish settlements. After the Shadow Age ended, however, Yan'shari was left on its own, cut off from the rest of the empire, and now surrounded by a freshly pissed off dwarven and gnomish population. This caused it to turn to isolation until the end of the Burning Age, where changing attitudes and a lack of reprisal from deeper Drow cities allowed it to reform its image in the eyes of dwarves, gnomes, and refugees

Currently, the rest of the Drow Empire rules over a vast swath of territory, stretching from near some of the Lower Dwarven Cities to deep, otherwise uncharted places of the world. Right now it is ruled by a triumverate: The Shadow Queen, the High Priestess of Lolth, and the First Blade, respectively the political, religious, and military leaders of the Drow. This is, however, somewhat fluid. Drow history is full of shifting political alliances. There have been Drow governments with one ruler, two rulers, three rulers, five rulers, all the way up to a brief stint with a full senate

Shadar-kai

Deep Elf