Elder races and their characteristics
Elves- Elves most common features are their obviously pointed ears and small stature compared to humans, although the tallest of elves can equal in height to the average height of a human. They are known for their swiftness and agility, as well as their quiet, making them excellent hunters and spies. Most elves feel more at home in the wild as opposed to cities, as human cities tend to feel too enclosed, and humans crowd into smaller spaces out of need of protection.
Elves are also known for being in tune with the flow of magic, making them formidable magic users. Unfortunately, due to their long lives, they are notoriously slow at reproducing, and as a result of this as well as violence over the course of their history, their numbers have greatly decreased.
An elf who couples with a non- elf (usually a human) will most often produce a half-elf.
Dwarves- Dwarves are easy to spot in that they seem to be the size of human children, tending towards a height even shorter than elves. They are a stocky sort, often appearing bulky or overweight due to the width of their shoulders and hips. Both men and women wear their hair long, opting to braid the thick length to keep it out of the way, often in elaborate ways, using ornaments made out of stone or metal. Dwarves have a knack for craftsmanship, particularly with those things. Out of the elder races, dwarves find themselves most at home in human cities, as being surrounded by stone does not bother them, and their affinities make them excellent masons.
Dwarves are long lived, but are only guaranteed to produce a dwarven child when both parents are dwarves, so their numbers have declined over the years much like elves.
A dwarf who couples with a non dwarf will produce a child that favors the race of one of the parents at a near 50/50 rate.
Elder Dryads- Also called forest spirits or greater dryads, elder dryads are essentially immortal, provided their soul seed can flourish once their tree dies. As their tree is an essential part of their being, they prefer to remain close to it and are never found within human cities and towns. They are able to influence the growth and activity of all flora in their forest, and seem to have an uncanny knack of communicating with the animals therein. They tend to shun the company of non dryads in most cases, but some have grown close to other creatures who are not destructive to their homes.
The only way to produce a new elder dryad is if their trees successfully intertwine roots, thus it is extremely rare to occur, as it would usually require outside help to move their trees.
Elder Dryads can couple with non dryads, although most do not care to do so. A female elder dryad who couples with a non dryad will produce a common dryad, who has much of the features of their mother but more flexibility and lacks the soul seed, and a male elder dryad who couples with a non dryad will produce a nymph who can live easily outside the forest.
Elder Dragons- Texts regarding the existance of dragons are few and far between. There are some available in the library at the huntsman schools, and some information is learned there, but that is typically facts concerning common dragons, the lesser counterparts to elder dragons. For this reason, any mention of the term elder dragon or the information concerning them must be approved by the GM before use in game.
Elder dragons were considered by many in their day to be the first of the elder races, and certainly were the most powerful. Equally at home in either the form of a humanoid or their beast, they were beings of immense magical power and were notoriously hard to kill. Their humanoid form could resemble nearly anything, and in the early years, many of them blended in perfectly with elves and dwarves, perhaps lending to those races affinities to magic.
Their beast forms were often intimidatingly large, bearing gleaming horns crowning their heads and shining scales along their lithe serpentine bodies. They were capable of great feats of magic in either form, including the ability to fly without the use of wings.
Interbreeding with non dragons produced the more well known common dragon, whose greatest physical trait difference between them and the elders is the adaptation of wings, as common dragons do not have the great magical strength to be able to fly without them. Common dragons are also more limited in scale colors and cannot change forms into that of a humanoid naturally. It is these creatures that are being referenced when a person speaks of dragons in the current era. Many common dragons have been hunted over the years as they are creatures of large appetite and frightening intimidation. They are unable to reproduce except with another common dragon due to the lack of other creatures of similar size and strength.
