High Elves

looks/traits
Hair: pale, blond, light brown, silver, white, pale blue or lavender.  generally worn long.  Important ones often have it intricately done, braided or coiled.  Less important ones will have it loose, pony-tailed, or in a single braid.
Eyes: Also pale - grey, hazel, blue.  Generally large and round.
ears: Large, in general.  Point has a forward curve and is very prominent.
Height: Middling to tall.  The tallest are six feet, and the smallest height at full growth is generally 5'5".
build: slim build.  If they have muscles, they're flat muscles.  Very slim, and all are fairly androgenous looking.
colouration: Pale.  Most common colour is warm vanilla.  They don't get much darker than that.

personality types
High elves are generally very patient, and attentive to detail.  They can be kind and thoughtful.  They are also holier-then-thou and haughty.  They feel themselves to be above most others and cannot deal with things that are less than perfect.  They do not like manual labor and prefer to spend their time in song, dance, and other arty pastimes.

dress style
Make: Clothes are always made of plant material.  Animal hides are never worn.  Wool is used only when necessary and looked on as being beneath them, as is silk because of their animal origin.  Colour choice varies, but black is NEVER worn.
Top: Important High Elves wear long tunic style tops with loose sleeves.  Ones who do more work wear things with closer sleeves, but still favour loose clothes.
pants/skirt: Shorts/short skirts are never worn.  Loose swishy skirts are the norm unless there is work to be done.  Pants are loose and look skirtlike.
shoes: Those who don't go barefoot favour soft, light shoes that don't make noise.  These are made of cloth with thicker cloth used for the soles.  
overclothes: In cold, a long cloak of double cloth thickness or wool is worn.  Generally silver.
underclothes: while menstruating, females wear belted pads.  During pregnancy, they wear bands over their breasts.  At other times, underclothes are a matter of personal preference.  Many don't wear them.
sleep clothes: loose, encompassing nightgowns or nothing.
accessories: jewelry of any type is worn by most.  Silver and white gold are preferred, and any jewel, especially opal and pearl.  Belts are generally brightly coloured sashes made of cloth that has been folded or rolled into which money, gifts, or other things can be easily and safely tucked.

powers
High Elves are generally accepted to be the most powerful elves.  Their powers are based in light and are mostly healing and purifying.  They also practice wind magic and defensive spells.  They have telepathy, and often homes of High Elves are almost completely silent.  They can also draw on the powers of other elves.

home/family
High Elves like living in high places.  They live on the tops of cliffs or hills, places where there is a good view of surrounding areas and the sky.  There are generally only a few large buildings in High Elf "villages" where everyone lives in large extended family groups.  Children are raised communally although they have special ties with parents and siblings.  There is no marriage, but most High Elves have long-standing relationships that are basically monogamous, although partners often do not share rooms.  They very rarely interbreed and half-breed children are sent to live with their non-elf parents or killed/exposed.  High elf homes are large and have large windows and double doors with top and bottom sections.  They have a wide central hallway and large, high-ceilinged rooms within.  Their tables are low and their seats are low and cushiony.  Their beds are futon style and very plush.

Eating habits
High Elves are strictly Vegan.  They do not eat meat and look down on animal products.  They eat fruit, vegetables, and bread products.  They drink water, juice, or liquor.  The only ones who drink milk are children still nursing.  High Elves have one main meal in the middle of the day, where everyone who lives in the same building comes to one place to eat.  This meal is a social time, and there is much communication about current projects, events, and other gossip.  Earlier and later meals are more like snacks and are eaten individually or in small groups.

Social Structure
There is a single leader for all High Elves.  When this leader dies or resigns, an appointed successor takes over.  This leader assigns lower leaders for different regions.  These leaders are responsible for making sure ceremonies are observed and taking care of judicial duties.  Within villages, there is a mayor who deals with everyday matters.  Gender is not an issue, except that nursing mothers are not allowed to participate in some ceremonies and may have to take a leave of absence during this time.  Under the leaders, there is a council made up from anything from three to ten others.  The council members don't have other duties and as such are the highest class.  Ones who have artistic pursuits are the next level, followed by ones who carry out necessary functions.  Ones who deal with non-High Elves are somewhere in the middle.  They have high status for their outside information, but are sometimes considered unclean for it.  Women often take this function because of their already precarious status.  Children are not considered to have status but their eventual status is quickly decided and acted upon.

religion
High Elf religion is community centered.  It relies on groups getting together to fulfill religious practices.  High Elves have a concept of a creator in the sky.  They can only participate in rituals when in a state of purity, so nursing mothers are unable to participate and have separate rites to perform so that they can stay within the fold of the community.  Despite the High Elves' love of loose clothing that completely covers them, many religious practices require nudity to bring the entire body in contact with the wind.

taboo
Anything to do with meat or animal products.  Nursing women and infants are considered unclean because of the milk.  Because of the strong influence of religion on life, doing things contrary to tradition is also a taboo.

law
Consensual and not written.  Killing anything is an offense punishable by exile.  Theft requires giving something of equal value to the wronged party.  Any civil problems are worked out by the people involved, with help from a trusted administrator if they can't work it out on their own.

language
Verbal speech is only used when necessary because of High Elf telepathy.  Children use vocal speech and many games and puzzles require it.  When dealing with others, High Elves often carry on conversations slowly because they have telepathic conversations with other High Elves while talking to the others.  Lying is virtually unknown, so High Elves have a reputation among all species as being truthful.

Naming
There are several names.  A High elf has a given name and a religious name given at adulthood.  They can also be known by their work and their parents' or caregivers' names and work.
        ie: Judith the teacher, daughter of Sharon who works at the hospital and Martin the scribe [whose religious name is Yehudit]

Arts, music, and literature
Because artistic pursuits are the highest calling for a High Elf, almost every aspect of life is artistic.  Homes are intricately designed and painted with murals on the outsides.  Individual rooms often are painted with murals as well, or have tapestries or paintings all over the walls, and even the ceilings.  These works depict the mythos of the religion of high elves, flying creatures, and personal or historical feats of bravery or importance.  Cooking is also considered an art.  High Elf music is mostly flute and pipes, and follows birdsong or the style of the wind.  While there are string, percussion, and lower voiced instruments are available, but aren't considered as prestigious.  Vocal music is often without words, telepathy carrying the story mind to mind in picture while the voice provides a frame.  High Elves have few practical books.  Many books are about religious subjects or magic, although many people write down and share personal or fictitious stories.  High Elves are also interested in the literature of others.  One favored pastime, especially fond among youth, is to take stories and turn them into theater.  These are almost always well received.

Education and play
High Elf children, because they are raised communally, live together in a "nursery" until the age of twenty or so.  During this time they are taught reading, writing, math, history, sciences, art, music, diplomacy, religion, magic, and about other species in a leisurely way that is mostly at the child's interest.  There are no classes as humans know them, although if a child is not interested in something that they need to know they will be  made to learn it anyway.  This style of learning leaves much time for children to play.  They have many physical games, some involving physical coordination that are similar to games like soccer and lacrosse, and others that involve magic to do things like keep a ball afloat.  High Elves, especially children, are fond of riddles and puzzles, and spend a lot of time trying to come up with the ultimate riddle that will be unsolvable.  As they near twenty, many children's games become modelling of adult behavior or testing possible jobs.  When they turn twenty, children enter an apprenticeship that lasts from three to five years.  After that time, they are free to apprentice to another or to take time to try and perfect that first craft.  Most High Elves go through two or three apprenticeships before finding what they want to do with their lives, and even after that, many take time to learn as many crafts as they can.  Once they have perfected their favored craft they are considered adult.

Economy
money: High Elves have very little money, and what they have is reserved for trade.  Among themselves, everything is accomplished through barter.  Sometimes bartered items are physical things like blankets or statues, but they are just as likely to be less tangible items like songs or favors.
consumer sense: When trading, High Elves tend to get as many things as they can.  Items of artistic nature are especially prized.  As consumers, High Elves will often get things of less practical nature if they are interesting or beautiful.
imports: Foreign artwork and literature, food that they can't grow themselves, raw metal, some metalwork
exports: art and metalwork, clothing, prepared foods, horses
trade style: High Elves haggle.  Traders consider it a specialized art form that takes time to learn.  They rarely offer everything they have up-front and will ask for more than they want.  Haggling takes place in deals between High Elves, but professional traders will often disdain it as being amateurish.

relationship with outsiders
High Elves are curious about outsiders, but look down on them.  They feel that they are the highest form of life.  This includes other elves.  While they need things that others have - like raw materials - they feel that their ability to shape it is more important.  Although they prize foreign works of art as special treasures, they look in at as children's work that needs much work before it is really good.  The same is thought of other species in general.  High Elves also look down on others because of their meat-eating and religious beliefs that conflict.  Traders may be friends with individual outsiders, but they, too, see themselves as better.

companions
High Elves have pets.  Mostly they keep birds in special bird houses, that are light and airy and that the birds can get in and out of at will.  They sometimes breed birds for the sweetness of their voices or for the colours of their plumage.  Unicorns are also common High Elf companions because of their purity.  High Elves breed horses for lightness and swiftness, although they have to trade for packhorses.  Sometimes High Elves will keep outsiders as housekeepers or assistants so that they don't have to trouble with common tasks.  These are most often human foundlings or slaves, but sometimes shapeshifters, dwarves, or even other elves become assistants.  Except for other elves, these servants are always taken in as children.  They have a separate set of rituals and are not quite part of the High Elf religion.

transportation
High elves prefer travelling on their own swift horses.  Beyond that, they trust their own feet or balloons.  Traders use wagons to carry goods, and the sick are carried in carts.

medicine
High elves mostly practice spiritual healing coupled with magic.  If a sick person can't be healed through these methods, it is obvious that the injury or sickness is meant for them.

Differences
Those with disabilities are considered ritually unclean.  While they are not killed, they are kept separate from others.  Those born with disabilities are  raised in separate buildings, those who get disabilities in accidents are subsequently moved into the separate quarters.  There are non-disabled elves who take care of these outcasts, but most ignore them.  Children of multiple births are kept as separate as possible so that they can develop different personalities.

manners
Because of the highly structured religion, there is a definite code of manners.  Politeness to other elves, especially other High Elves, but outsiders aren't considered the same way.

sex/reproduction
Like all elves, High elves reach sexual maturity around the age of twenty.  Females know as soon as conception occurs, and gestation is somewhere between nine and twelve months.  High Elves engage in long term relationships that are mostly monogamous.  Sex isn't considered casual, but does not necessarily have long term consequences on relationships.  Over a lifetime, High Elves will generally have two to three children, starting sometimes after they reach their seventies.  During pregnancy, the father of the child will take care of the female.  When they reach old age, around 900 or so, they gradually stop engaging in sexual relationships.




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