Elves

The beautiful and long-lived elves are one of the Weald's more recent immigrants. Elsewhere in the world elven communities are some of the oldest still inhabited settlements, but in the deep forests, their homes are less than a few centuries old. Three highly distinct elven societies can be found between the Weald's ancient trees, each with a different relationship to the land in which they now find themselves.

Vae'Nolar

The Vae'Nolar, sometimes known as High Elves, use their almost limitless life-span to refine their every action to high art, with no task seen as being unworthy of endless practice and improvement. They inhabit places of supreme beauty and consider the pursuit of perfection to be the most important work of an elf's life. Nolarian elves rarely interact with other races beyond what is required for trade, seeing most as being below them in some important way. This high self-regard extends within the community, and no Nolarian would ever consider anyone their lord or master. They defer to experts, but will not obey orders unless they consider the orders to be the appropriate course of action.

Nolarians are almost always vegetarian, seeing the consumption of meat as barbaric. Regardless, their cuisine is uniquely refined, and any non-elf will remember a meal they had in a Vae'Nolar commune until the day they die. Similarly, while Nolarian clothes are always made of plant fibers, their quality rivals the finest silks made by human hands.

Vae'Nolar settlements are constructed in pristine glades and by idyllic pools, spending years ensuring that every aspect of their small community is a work of art. Due to their slow rate of reproduction, Vae'Nolar communities tend to grow slowly, meaning that every elf within a settlement is closely bonded to each other elf they live alongside. When Nolarian elves travel they carry their communities with them, never considering themselves alone as long as they remember their home.

Vae'Nadas

The Vae'Nadas are those Nolarian elves that, each for their own reasons, elect to leave those hallowed communes. They join other societies, often traveling widely to find a group in which they can feel at home. The Nadas are the elven culture that non-elves are by far the most likely to interact with, and as such are seen by many as the archetypal elf. Many, if not most, human settlements will include at least one or two Nadas, and the Nadas are seen as friends to travellers wherever they are found.

Both the Vae'Nolar and the Vae'Hilé look down on the Vae'Nadas, and they are often seen as having turned their back on "true" elven culture. For this reason, Nadas often find themselves in relationships with non-elves, producing half-elven children.

While Vae'Nadas consider themselves one diaspora, they have no one culture, instead adopting that of the community in which they settle. In human communities the Nadas often find themselves in highly social roles, including entertainers, innkeepers, and merchants. By contrast, many conservative dwarven communities seek out Vae'Nadas willing to take on the rites of Dwarfishness in order to become planners, valuing their unique perspective on management and planning.

Vae'Hilé

The Vae'Hilé consider themselves the oldest and truest elven culture, seeking to maintain their connection to what they view as their place in the world. Vae'Hilé revere the land they live on, living as close to nature as they possibly can. This means that a Hiléan tribe living on grassy plains will have almost no similarities to a tribe that lives in the tundra. The one unifying trait is that the Vae'Hilé are nomadic. They travel their chosen landscape, heading toward new sources of food and away from potential enemies.

The Vae'Hilé within the Weald were forced from the eastern grasslands that they used to inhabit by an expanding Hobgoblin empire a century ago, but their cultural plasticity means that almost no trace of this heritage remains. They travel silently through the treetops, coming to the forest floor only to collect game that has fallen to their arrows. Due to their arboreal lifestyle, they are often known as wood elves, though they reject this oversimplification of the land that they love.

When two tribes of Vae'Hilé cross paths an elaborate ritual exchange of gifts must be undertaken. A lack of gifts is seen as a grave slight, possibly even a suitable reason for war. While traveling Hiléans don't expect gifts of non-elves, each individual will carry a pouch of small gifts to present when they meet new people. These gifts may appear to be worthless, smooth stones and dried seeds are common, but they carry a great degree of cultural weight and should be treasured by the recipient.

Vae'Nocturnus While once they were considered part of the Vae'Nolar, the Vae'Nocturnus are no longer regarded to be worthy of the title. At some point in the distant past an elven commune in the glittergloom mountains was seduced by Sister Nox, retreating deep below the surface and constructing the dark city of Nocturnus. As more communes were drawn down into the dark, Nocturnus gained power, both politically and magically, eventually cementing their position in the mountains' realpolitik.

Centuries of living below the surface world has given the Vae'Nocturnus skin that varies between deep purple and ash grey, with hair that is stark white. They tend to be even more willowy that their surface cousins, and are incredibly flexible, able to squeeze through even small gaps and cracks.

All Vae'Nocturnus are dedicated to Sister Nox, with any who are not sufficiently fanatical being expelled or killed, depending on the whims of the priestess class. The Vae'Nocturnus are prolific raiders, emerging from their secret city to attack merchants and isolated communities under cover of night. They use poisoned arrows to knock out their foes, taking those they deem fit as slaves.

As servants of the goddess of death, the Vae'Nocturnus see no substantive difference between using the dead and enslaving the living, Nocturnus is filled with Silent Servants, deceased slaves who's servitude did not end with death. It is also not uncommon for Nocturnus' priestesses to sacrifice the souls of the unworthy to draw forth monstrosities and aberrations from the umbral sea to serve.

While female Vae'Nocturnus can aspire to become powerful priestesses to Sister Nox, the highest accolade the sons of the secret city can aspire to is becoming a Name Maker, one who died in the effort to improve the status and legacy of his family.