The Wood Elves are towering, green-skinned elves who chose alignment over autonomy.
In the age after the fall of the Dragon Lords, they bound themselves to the Verdant Heart — not as slaves, but as willing vessels. Where the fey are born aligned, the Wood Elves surrendered portions of their individual will to live within the Heart’s greater design.
In return, they were reshaped.
Longevity deepened. Strength sharpened. Their senses entwined with root and leaf alike.
To outsiders, they are not merely a people.
They are the forest’s conscious edge.
Elderwood is not territory to them. It is living flesh — and trespass is injury.
Wood Elves stand between eight and nine feet tall, their builds lean but immensely strong, adapted to vertical life in the canopy.
Their skin ranges from deep leaf-green to bark-mottled patterns, often threaded with vein-like markings that resemble creeping vines. Some bear faint bioluminescent flecks along forearms or collarbones, visible in low light.
Hair grows thick and coarse in tones of dark green, copper, earthen brown, or moss-black. It is worn long, braided with living leaves, seed pods, or woven fiber.
Their eyes glow faintly — emerald, amber, or moss-gold — reflecting the Verdant Heart’s influence. Features are sharp and angular, less delicate than their distant kin. Their presence feels alert, predatory, and restrained.
They move without sound when they choose.
Wood Elf society is devotional and communal.
They do not rule in the conventional sense. Elders and High Priests serve as interpreters of the Verdant Heart’s whispers, not lawmakers. Authority flows from proximity to the Heart’s will.
Individual ambition is secondary to alignment. To live as a Wood Elf is to continually surrender personal impulse in favor of collective harmony.
Those who cannot endure that surrender rarely remain.
Their cities are grown, not built — vast canopy strongholds woven from living branches and hardened vine. Settlements shift subtly over decades, responding to the forest’s needs.
Death is not an ending. Fallen elves are entwined into sacred root sites, their essence returned to the Dream’s current. Memory persists through ritual and root-pattern lore.
The Wood Elves do not wage war as kingdoms do.
They orchestrate correction.
Intruders are tracked silently and studied before engagement. The forest itself is weaponized:
Paths collapse or narrow.
Vines constrict at critical moments.
Fey manifestations gather in advance.
Poisoned arrows strike from unseen heights.
They favor layered ambush, vertical advantage, and coordinated action with fey allies. Slayer-Forms often appear alongside warbands when the Verdant Heart’s will intensifies.
Retreat is rare. Surrender does not exist.
Humans slain in ritual defense may be offered at sacred altars — not in cruelty, but in reaffirmation of alignment.
To them, this is not vengeance.
It is maintenance.
The Wood Elves do not command the fey.
They interpret them.
Fey are manifestations of the Dreaming One and possess greater independent freedom. Elves recognize this and treat powerful fey — especially Tenders and ancient manifestations — with reverence.
When the Verdant Heart exerts direct will, both elf and fey respond.
But in its silence, fey wander where they please.
Elves enact.
Humans – Considered invasive and dangerously expansionist. Any human entering Elderwood without sanction is treated as a threat. Negotiation is nearly nonexistent.
Twilight Elves – Viewed with wary distance. They share blood, but chose allegiance to a Dragon Lord rather than the Verdant Heart. Relations remain cold but not openly hostile.
Goblins – Regarded as fallen kin, twisted by ancient curse. Pitied, yet untrusted.
Dwarves – Distrusted but tolerated near the forest’s periphery. Dwarves who hunt too deeply are corrected swiftly.
Orcs – Despised for industry and mechanization. Orc expansion near forested regions is met with coordinated resistance.
The Wood Elves are the Verdant Heart’s conscious will.
They are interpreters, guardians, and executioners.
To the kingdoms of men, they are monsters at the treeline.
To the Elderwood, they are chosen organs within a greater living system.
Beautiful, disciplined, and uncompromising, the Wood Elves stand as proof that survival sometimes requires surrender — and that not all freedom is worth keeping.