Elf Elves are long-lived people with pointed ears. That may be the only thing all the elven races have in common! All elves can buy the skills Resist Sleep and Resist Charm. They have one less Body Point than a human character of the same class and level. They can buy Archery skill at half cost (round up), but they cannot buy the skills Two Handed Blunt or Two Handed Sword. There are many varieties of elves. The most common are: Amani elf: Amani elves are descendants of Quentari elves. Many years ago, a political rift developed in Quentari and many of the elves moved to the Ash Forest (or the “Amani” forest in their language) in the Duchy of Ashbury in Evendarr to start anew. Since then, they have spread all over the continent. Amani elves are friendlier and more down-to-earth than their Quentari cousins. They get along much better with other races but still do not socialize a great deal with them. In fact, some parts of the Ash Forest are closed to other races completely. Even though they socialize with other races, they rarely marry any other than their fellow Amani elves. An Amani who falls in love with another race is not shunned from the society, but is obviously not treated with the same degree of respect by his or her fellow Amani elves. Quentari elf: Quentari elves come from the elven kingdom of Quentari. They consider themselves to be the most civilized race; all others are barbaric in comparison. To some degree this is true—they have the oldest culture, the greatest cities, and the most learned scholars. It is this attitude however that makes their living with other races a problem, as no one likes being seen as inferior. Quentari elves tend to largely be scholars, and it is rare to encounter a Quentari elf who does not know how to read and write. When fighting, they tend to prefer bow and short swords, but even then, fighting is seen as a last resort when peaceful negotiations are unsuccessful. Stone elf: Stone elves have whitish skin, upturned eyebrows, and pointed ears. Stone elves do not show emotions and as such are viewed by other races as humorless and intense. This is part of their culture as well as being part of their race. This restriction makes the stone elves very hard to roleplay—if you cannot keep a straight face when told a funny joke, you should not be playing a stone elf. They have a natural affinity for celestial magics and make excellent celestial casters. Although there are of course healers in their society, most stone elf casters are celestial. Stone elves, like biata, have spent years honing mental skills and as such can perform certain mental mind abilities. These abilities are all completely roleplaying in nature. Generally speaking, a stone elf can remove roleplaying insanity based on emotions or otherwise “cure” mental damage on any willing subject. You cannot use this ability to tell if another player is telling the truth or to have that player remember memories lost to Forget-it elixirs or otherwise get around any NERO rule. A player always has the right to refuse to roleplay any of these skills and can at any time decide to “break off” contact or be cured. In order to use this roleplaying skill, you must touch the other person and concentrate completely. Any Stone elf who simply touches someone and says “There, you no longer have a fear of heights (or whatever)” is not playing the race properly. For more information about these skills, see “Mind Abilities” in the chapter on Special Abilities. Wild Elf: Wild elves live in nomadic tribes like barbarians and share many barbarian traits. Wild elves are distinguished in-game by their furs and other barbarian clothing, even though they have pointed ears like all other elves. Wild elves are not treated as “real elves” by most of the rest of the elven race. There is no outright warring going on, but the wild elves often feel as if they are second-class citizens even though they generally have all the rights as any other citizen. The wild elf society is similar to the cultures of some American Indian tribes, with an emphasis on hunting and tracking skills.