Elves
Elves are tall and slender creatures endowed with immortality, which causes natural envy among all other creatures of Eridan, even among long-living dwarfs. The Elves are divided into two peoples: the Golden Elves that live in Goldenwood and Crimsonwood, and the Shadow Elves of Shadowhall and Bone Valley. The Golden ones are distinguished by their light skin, green and blue eyes, golden and golden-red hair. The Shadows have dark skin, brown eyes and black curly hair, but both elven people are extremely beautiful. Despite their kinship and common ancestry, there have been fierce wars between them before. It's peacetime now, but no one has forgotten old grievances.
Elven immortality has its price: after 400-500 years, or even earlier, elves begin to fall into boredom and apathy, and lose their taste for life. For everything has already been tried and tasted, there’s not much sense in anything, and there are still many hundreds of years of life ahead. This leads not only to a decline in their activity in business and service, but also has a very noticeable impact on their figure: they begin to grow bald and get fat, and some of them very much so. Many ways have been invented to combat this psychological peculiarity, but none has yet yielded significant results. And after the onset of the "elven curse", as everyone calls this apathy, infertility occurs. During "active years", adult elves also don’t give birth to many children, so elven colonisation of all territories does not threaten Eridan. But not all elves are destined for depression and decadence. Turns out it can be avoided by elven magicians, some philosophers and members of elven orders. The magical power of elves is a natural gift that occurs in about one in several hundreds. And just feeling it, not to mention the process of magic itself, already gives special feelings to the perception of this world and the desire to become even stronger. Moreover, all those gifted with magic get into the Order of Magicians of the Golden Forest, but we will tell you about the Orders a little later. A few philosophers are simply good psychologists and are well aware of what happens to them after several centuries. With the help of philosophical speculations, they find a lot of meanings and most often live by meditation and contemplation, moving away from worldly vanities. The only thing is their scientific works are popular only among their colleagues, elven nobility and high Orcs who are close to them in spirit.
But among the members of elven orders, very few are vulnerable to the "elven curse". Since these orders are closed and very little information about their way of life leaks into society, we can only guess what the secret is. Philosophers write that it's about strict discipline and internal codes. But in the elven army the discipline is strong too, while very few elven warriors escaped the "curse". That's probably why the Orders are so popular among elves, despite all sorts of rumours about them, many of which are very unpleasant.
There are 5 Orders:
Order of the Spear, Order of the Pyramid, Order of Furfur, Order of Mages of the Golden Forest and Order of Aksha-Mashura. Three are for the Golden elves and two for the Shadow ones. Each order is a closed organisation, carefully guarding its goals and knowledge. As we’ve already found out, it is quite rare among magicians to find those affected by the "curse". They have a very high social status, which is understandable. All elven rulers listen very carefully to any advice of Masters of Orders.
Order of the Spear is a military order of golden elves. They take part in all wars of the golden elves, but report only to their commanders.
Order of the Pyramid is very secretive and obscure. It has warriors, engineers, and even philosophers in it. Rumours about the Order are even more diverse and contradictory. It is known about many expeditions sent by the order to all corners of Eridan. There is even an elvish phrase, when one wants to express disbelief or sarcasm, he says: «go ahead and tell me about the Pyramid!". For no one knows exactly what goals this order pursues.
Furfur Order of Shadow elves is like the Pyramid: a lot of rumours, very few facts. Except that one rumour is repeated more often than others: «it's full of hired assassins who will kill anyone on command." On the other hand, if there is gold — a great number of executors will be found in Eridan. Except that not all of them have been professionally engaged in murder for many hundreds of years.
Each elven city is ruled by a Lord. All the Lords sit together in Supreme High Council of the Golden Elves and Supreme Shadow Council of the Shadow Elves. The power of the Lords is not hereditary, each Lord is elected from several of the noblest and most powerful families — houses. The most famous and influential elven houses are Arratidis, Zerinis, Falissis, Eyis.
Elves derive their prosperity primarily from trade. Meanwhile, they deliver goods in all possible ways: by rivers, by seas, and by footpaths. And, like goblins, recent traders can easily become robbers and pirates. As they say, trading at the Fair is one thing, but meeting on the path or in the clear sea is quite another.
Like dwarves, elves have many masters in various crafts. Dwarves, of course, are hard to beat in armour and weaponry (and in fact, it’s impossible), but if you add magic, it's feasible. That's what the city of Amordoloran is famous for: excellent weapons and armour are enhanced with magic here. After making peace with gnomes, dwarven equipment began to appear there, and dwarves themselves began to use the services of magicians to enchant their own armour and weapons, although the price was very high.
Elven fields and gardens are cultivated by elves themselves, as well as their slaves — hummies, whom they buy from dwarves.