Elves

The vast majority of elves on Earth live in D'hennex, in a single country upon the west coast of the continent. There, they serve as a buffer between the continent and anything that might arise on the Devil's Throne one one side, and are bordered by human lands to the northeast, and undead territories to the south and southeast. The name of their homeland is unknown to outsiders, who typically simply refer to it as 'the elven land', or some equivalent phrase. In actual fact, the elves have never bothered to name their land as anything other than 'home'.

Physical Appearance

Elves are generally humanoid in appearance -- to those unfamiliar with them, a large hat may suffice to disguise the elf as a human. Pointed ears are a universal trait amongst the elves. They tend to be quite attractive, from a human point of view, as well. Otherwise, they tend to be more lean and slender of frame than humans. In colouration, they can bear all the tones that humans can, in skin, hair, and eye colour, as well as naturally possessing some that humans usually only bear artificially.

Social Order

The elven nation find themselves in what humans would consider an unusual, if not impossible, situation. At first blush, they appear to have something resembling a feudal culture, with a ruling monarch and a supporting aristocracy. However, the difficulty appears when one attempts to locate an elf who is not a member of either the royalty or the aristocracy. Literally every elf bears a noble title of one sort or another, all of which are carefully tracked by heralds (who themselves are nobles) to preserve records of their order of precedence (an extremely important thing to them).

However, elves do not view titles of nobility in the same manner as humans do -- possessing a noble title does not make them think that they deserve to have everything handed to them on a silver platter. Thus, many elves still work in what would be considered menial jobs, despite holding a title which, in a human land, would mean they would rule over a castle and have a personal army. On the other hand, even the least elf tends to think more of him or herself than of any given human.

Elven noble titles are also much more fluid than they are in human lands. Any elven noble with retainers may grant their retainers a noble title, usually up to one rank below themselves. Thus, rank typically accompanies service to a higher noble, who is in service to a higher noble, and so forth, until the monarch is reached. While there is a certain baseline that one inherits at birth, those who have earned a high rank through their own merit and effort are typically granted more respect than those who merely inherited the same title.

All titled elves belong to a House. This is something like a family, except on a much larger scale. There are three rankings of Houses: <foo>, <bar>, and <foobar>. Humans would likely refer to these as Imperial Houses, Royal Houses, and Noble Houses. Only one House is <foo> at a time -- the current ruling House, whose highest-ranking member is the monarch of the nation. Occasionally (typically upon the death of the current monarch), the House of the deceased monarch will return to <bar> status, from which it came, and another House will become <foo>. The <bar> Houses, in the meantime, support the rule of the <foo> House, and typically have the rule of various territories throughout the nation. The <foobar> Houses, however, can never rise to <foo> status. These lesser Houses are typically found in more servile positions, albeit not always.

The method by which power is bloodlessly transferred from House to House is invisible to outsiders, indeed, it seems ridiculous to those accustomed to seeking and clinging to politico-economic power. In actuality, the elven ancestral spirits trigger the shift of power, always timing it to maintain the stability of the elven society. Sometimes this means ensuring that a good monarch sits on the throne. Conversely, sometimes this means ensuring that a bad monarch sits on the Jade Throne, either to prevent a worse monarch, or to teach the elven people a lesson to make them stronger. This passage of power is know to the elves as <placeholder>, which translates into the common tongue as The Turning.

Language

Elves have no less than three languages, in addition to the common language of Earth. First, is the common tongue that serves for daily use, and that a few outsiders are more or less familiar with. Second, is a 'high' tongue that is used for formal purposes -- the rituals of court are performed in this language, and all official documents are written in it. An elf who is not fully fluent in the high tongue will find it extremely difficult to get anywhere in the higher circles of power. Third, is the language in which their magical knowledge is recorded. As all elves are trained in magic to some degree, all of them have at least enough knowledge to recognize the language, both spoken and written, but not necessarily to understand it.

Religion

Elves are not, by and large, Kamists. Instead, they subscribe to a form of ancestor worship, venerating the members of their House who came before them. They tend to locate (by studying House history, a required subject for all elven youths) ancestors who they particularly identify for whatever reason, and put the major portion of their meditations towards the consideration of these ancestors' lives.

The elven refusal of Kamism is not without its basis, however. No recorded vision of the afterlife by a creditable source has ever seen an identifiably elven soul there, for instance. Adding to this is the fact that elven spirits do not seem to disappear in the exact same method that most mortals' do. This may have something to do with their longevity -- since, barring an accident of violence, elves live until their memories become too great for them to bear, rather than dying of true old age.

This makes for an interesting question -- if not to the known afterlife, then where do elven spirits go? There are several answers, though these are completely unknown to outsiders, typically. Each House maintains a secret temple (typically in their core home territory). Inside this temple is where various important rituals take place, such as the Rite of Naming and the Recognition of Claim. The reason for this centrality is so that the elven ancestor-spirits may observe these functions, and recognize their descendents in the future. Elven spirits can be imbued into weapons, for instance, or have their knowledge passed down to their descendents (see: Family Heirloom). The spirits can also be communed with at the temple, on occasion, typically when an elf is in need of guidance, spiritual or otherwise.