[Pathfinder] beastisrfrt

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paizo.com #2112918, David McBride <darklycario@gmail.com>, Jun 23, 2012
Core Races 1
of a single community may appear quite similar. Forestdwelling
elves often have variations of green, brown, and
tan in their hair, eye, and even skin tones.
While elven clothing often plays off the beauty of
the natural world, those elves who live in cities tend to
bedeck themselves in the latest fashions. Where citydwelling
elves encounter other urbanites, the elves are
often fashion trendsetters.
Society: Many elves feel a bond with nature and strive to
live in harmony with the natural world. Although, like most,
elves prefer bountiful lands where resources are plentiful,
when driven to live in harsher climates, they work hard to
protect and shepherd the region’s bounty, and learn how to
maximize the benefit they receive from what little can be
harvested. When they can carve out a sustainable, reliable
life in deserts and wastelands, they take pride as a society in
the accomplishment. While this can make them excellent
guides to outsiders they befriend who must travel through
such lands, their disdain of those who have not learned to
live off the scant land as they have makes such friends rare.
Elves have an innate gift for craftsmanship and artistry,
especially when working in wood, bone, ivory, or leather.
Most, however, find manipulating earth and stone to be
distasteful, and prefer to avoid forging, stonework, and
pottery. When such work must be done within a community,
a few elves may find themselves drawn to it, but regardless
of their craftsmanship, such “dirt-wrights” are generally
seen by other elves as being a bit off. In the most insular of
elven societies, they may even be treated as lower class.
Elves also have an appreciation for the written word,
magic, and painstaking research. Their naturally keen
minds and senses, combined with their inborn patience,
make them particularly suited to wizardry. Arcane
research and accomplishment are seen as both practical
goals, in line with being a soldier or architect, and artistic
endeavors as great as poetry or sculpture. Within elven
society, wizards are held in extremely high regard as
masters of an art both powerful and aesthetically valued.
Other spellcasters are not disdained, but do not gain the
praise lavished upon elven wizards.
Relations: Elves are prone to dismissing other races,
writing them off as rash and impulsive, yet on an individual
level, they are excellent judges of character. In many cases
an elf will come to value a specific member of another
race, seeing that individual as deserving and respectable,
while still dismissing the race as a whole. If called on this
behavior, the elf often doesn’t understand why his “special
friend” is upset the elf has noticed the friend is “so much
better than the rest of his kind.” Even elves who see such
prejudice for what it is must constantly watch themselves
to prevent such views from coloring their thinking.
Elves are not foolish enough, however, to dismiss all
aspects of other races and cultures. An elf might not want
a dwarf neighbor, but would be the first to acknowledge
dwarves’ skill at smithing and their tenacity in facing orc
threats. Elves regard gnomes as strange (and sometimes
dangerous) curiosities, but regard their magical talent
as being worthy of praise and respect. Half lings are
often viewed with a measure of pity, for these small
folk seem to the elves to be adrift, without a traditional
home. Elves are fascinated with humans, who seem to
live in a few short years as full a life as an elf manages
in centuries. In fact, many elves become infatuated with
humans, as evidenced by the number of half-elves in the
world. Elves have difficulty accepting crossbreeds of any
sort, however, and usually disown such offspring. They
similarly regard half-orcs with distrust and suspicion,
assuming they possess the worst aspects of orc and
human personalities.
Alignment and Religion: Elves are emotional and
capricious, yet value kindness and beauty. Most elves
are chaotic good, wishing all creatures to be safe and
happy, but unwilling to sacrifice personal freedom or
choice to accomplish such goals. They prefer deities who
share their love of the mystic qualities of the world—
Desna and Nethys are particular favorites, the former
for her wonder and love of the wild places, and the latter
for his mastery of magic. Calistria is perhaps the most
notorious of elven deities, for she represents elven ideals
taken to an extreme. Elves accept in Calistria (and her
priests) behavior they would denounce in others, because
Calistria is clearly (to elves’ perceptions) serving as an
example of personal artistry and freedom of expressions,
rather than seeking some base physical gratification.
Adventurers: Many elves embark on adventures out
of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded
realms to reclaim forgotten elven magic or search
out lost kingdoms established millennia ago by their
ancestors. This need to see a wider world is accepted
by their societies as a natural part of becoming mature
and experienced individuals. Such elves are expected to
return in some few decades and take up lives in their
homelands once more, enriched both in treasure and
in worldview. For those elves raised among humans,
however, life within their homes—watching friends and
family swiftly age and die—is often stif ling, and the
ephemeral and unfettered life of an adventurer holds a
natural appeal.
Elves generally eschew melee because of their relative
frailty, preferring instead to engage enemies at range.
Most see combat as unpleasant even when needful, and
prefer it be done as quickly as possible, preferably without
getting close enough to smell their foes. This preference
for making war at a distance, coupled with their natural
accuracy and grasp of the arcane, encourages elves to
pursue classes such as wizards and rangers.
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paizo.com #2112918, David McBride <darklycario@gmail.com>, Jun 23, 2012