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In Cobrin'Seil, the elven race has seen thousands of years of evolution. In modern history, after the revolutions that brought about the end of the First Age, they found it necessary to diversify or die. Indeed, the old concept of an 'elf' – that of the eternally long-lived, inherently magical and innately attuned to nature, strange, fey, being – is considered an utter fairy story. No, the elves of Cobrin'Seil have found niches the world over, divided into many parts by their gods. In these divisions, crossbreeding occurred, and over a thousand years, a mish-mash of genetic odds and ends led to the common elf – a subrace unto itself. Of the many titles they had, the most politically acceptable is Common Elf – though there are many, far less flattering titles given to the poor race.
Personality
Common elves are to elves as humans are to most other races. Lacking in an individual and overwhelming racial personality, the Common Elves of Cobrin'Seil straddle the racial divide, and are therefore, considered the most dangerous elf – at least, by other elves. A common elf isn't predictable – he could be honourable and pure, or he could be duplicitous and cunning.
Physical Description
For elves, Common Elves are relatively middling in height, and quite heavy set, standing somewhere in the district of 5 1/2 to 6 feet tall, and weighing in at around 95 to 160 pounds. A common elf is also much more affected by diet than other elves, and therefore, can become stunted in development by a poor upbringing, or develop to a towering physique thanks to a good diet and healthy exercise in developmental years. They have no facial or body hair. A Common Elf achieves majority at about 50 years in age and can live to be over 400 years old.
Common Elves do not sleep, as members of the other common races do. Instead, a Common Elf meditates in a deep trance for four hours. A Common Elf resting in this fashion gains the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. While meditating, an elf dreams, though these dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. The Common word for an elf's meditation is 'trance', as in 'four hours of trance'.
Relations
Common Elves come with a large amount of elven baggage. The orcs and dwarves of the north find them fragile and unimpressive, and Common Elves closer to the borders of these lands often carry their own racial distrust of those more primal races.
Amongst elves, the Common Elves of Cobrin'Seil have another web of alliances and enemies. Of course, no above-ground elf trusts the Deep Elves of Grimspire, and all elves whisper behind their hands of mythical dark elves, even stronger than the Deep Elves. Sun Elves regard Common Elves as being a bit unfortunate, since there's so much in their bloodlines that they can't get a decent family tree, nor are they attuned to magic. Much of the time, Common Elves see Sun Elves as being flighty wimps who can't manage proper labour.
Originally, the elves of Cobrin'Seil, thanks to their own myths of black-skinned elves with hearts to match, had trouble interacting with the nomadic and primarily good-aligned humans of the Nbyanan Savannahs. However, what tension existed has since been dissolved, as the trade in slaves and serfs was abolished at the end of the First Age, and Nbyanans have since proven themselves great allies of good, both in times of war and peace.
Alignment
Common Elves have no prediliction towards an alignment, not even neutrality. While their racial habit of running themselves through multiple mental exercises, in lieu of sleep, has helped edge them towards lawful behaviour, their prolonged exposure and interaction with the milieu of races that populate Cobrin'Seil has helped knock some of the rough edges off the elves.
Religion
Without going into too much detail, the Common Elves of Cobrin'Seil revere the Elven Pantheon, headed by Erallabein Delfae, a structured and fatherly figure, who shepherds the Elven race through many travails, regardless of whether or not they, in the eyes of a primarily lawful god, deserve it.
Language
The language spoken amongst the Common Elves is the closest thing to 'proper' Elven as it's understood. Common Elves speak what can best be described as a Lingua Franca – while it's not as fluted as Sun Elven, it's not as impassioned as Grey Elven, and so on and so forth. Common Elves also find Common leaps easily to them, as does any other predominant human language in any area they grew up.
Names
Common elves share naming conventions across all elven races. Common Elven names are often lyrical, but not overly long, and have a family name that is usually abbreviated for the purposes of improving interaction with other races. Naming conventions in Elven society are unisex.
- Sample First Names: Elsyr, Rylan, Terethan, Fereteph, Seiyan, Ilius.
- Sample Family Names: Referreny'al (abbreviated to Refen), Elquoris'y'art (abbreviated Eq'art), Yul'Sion'Retell (Abbreviated Yul'tell).
Adventurers
Common elves range all over Cobrin'Seil, and are as prone to be enticed by high-risk for high-reward scenarios as any other person. Further there are those Common Elves who adventure for an ideal or a cause, as idealism is a known and popular trait amongst the people of Erallabein.
Game Information
Common Elven Racial Traits
Common elves have the same abilities as the Elf in the Player's Handbook.
Partial Open Gaming Content: Content in highlighted boxes is derived from, and in turn designated as, OGL material. Other content in this article is copyright © Talen Lee 2006-2008 unless otherwise noted. -