Elder High Elf [Dragonlance]

No elven people is older than the elder high elves. Their skin is fair, their eyes hazel, and their hair ranges from pale brown to nearly white-blond. They favor loose, flowing robes and sweeping capes in greens and browns, speak in musical voices and move with effortless grace.

Elder elves are courageous, capable warriors who use terrain expertly for cover and concealment, and they welcome the chance to test themselves against a worthy foe. Common weapons are spears, long swords and two-handed swords, and they use every sort of bow. Some coat their arrowheads with a special toxin; a target hit by one is frozen in place for 1d10 rounds unless it makes a save vs. paralyzation. Chain armor is the norm, and some warriors add a shield, bringing them to AC 4.

Proud, cold and arrogant, the elder elves care little for other races, other elves included, and insist on strict purity of blood. Over more than 3,000 years they have grown deeply set in their ways. When the War of the Dark Queen came, they fled west and settled along the far shore of a western bay, where most still live. They detest dealings with humans and others, though a handful of human-elf marriages have occurred, and relations with the western elves remain tense.

Ages of security hardened their society into rigid castes called Houses. The royal house, descended from the first lord who united the ancient elf clans and the source of the people's name, stands at the top. Below it are the houses of crafts and guilds, among them mystics, gardeners, masons and woodshapers, while the protector house, whose soldiers are known as wildrunners, serves as the army. Marrying outside one's house requires permission, which is rarely given.

Any settlement holds a range of classes and levels. No less than 10% use magic and at least 10% are fighters of 4th level or above. They build in glades deep within thick forest, raising tall, ornate halls of stone and wood. Two sights stand out: low stone pyramids that serve as tombs, and great walls of thorn and bramble grown by the gardeners and woodshapers to mark their borders.

Elder elves prefer fruit, grain and vegetables, adding only small amounts of rabbit, squirrel or venison. They make many lovely things but seldom sell or trade any of them.