Yyllethyn [Elven Horse]

In the gray elven tongue the breed is yyllethyn, 'sun follower', and millennia of careful breeding have honed it toward peak beauty, poise, and swiftness. White is the usual coat, though certain lines run golden or dapple gray, and a few are black. Apart from the dapples, coats are a single solid color with none of the socks, stars, or blazes seen on common horses. It stands a little longer in the leg, neck, and face than an ordinary horse, which makes it look nearly delicate. Mane and tail flow long, the hooves are a pale silvery pink, and the eyes always blue-green.

An elven warhorse, like an ordinary one, fights on its own with its front hooves and keeps fighting even if its rider falls. Elven horses are far steadier than mundane breeds around fire and loud noises: a riding horse has just a 40% chance to panic, and a warhorse never does. They also have bred-in magic resistance, 10% for riding horses and 15% for warhorses.

Its near-ethereal beauty is a shield in its own right. A foe of semi-intelligence or better who decides to strike it must first save vs. spell, or find it lacks the cruelty to hurt such a creature; this protection vanishes against any foe the horse has injured.

Even carrying a rider, it moves through grass or forest as quietly as an elf, provided its tack and barding are padded or taken off so they do not rattle or creak.

Thanks to its refined breeding, an elven horse is much brighter and quicker to learn than a common one, and it follows commands because it chooses to rather than from drilling. They are seldom given to non-elves and never sold, and they cannot really be stolen: a thief finds the horse hostile and vicious, ready to bolt home at the first chance, and one held with no hope of escape falls ill and is dead inside a week.

They gather in little family bands instead of herds, pair for life, and grow sorrowful when separated from their mates. They have no language but understand the tongues they grew up around. A mare carries her single foal for 13 months; it is weaned at 8 months and matures in 5-6 years. Most live 60 to 90 years, and some are rumored to be immortal. Many lines are bred for elven royalty and descend from the mounts of famous elven heroes.

Bred up from ordinary horses across untold ages, they are now a separate species and cannot crossbreed with ordinary horses. None live wild, and they serve only as mounts or war steeds, never pack animals. Most belong to gray elf communities, some high elf communities keep a few, and a sylvan strain is rumored to exist.