Lore24 Jan 31: Peoples pt. 3: Wood Elves

Wood elves mostly inhabit the huge stretches of untamed forests that cover the northwestern part of the known world. They have a complicated relationship with the mostly human settlements, as they despise cities, industry and farming, but some of the local tribes still hold to the old ways of hunting and foraging, or are actively working to preserve the woods, and nature more generally.

They are around two meter tall humanoids, which are seemingly made out of wood. The color of their bark ranges from the stark white of birches to the deep brown of oaks. Their faces resemble masterfully carved masks of beautiful faces, and their eyes glow with the colors of leaves, ranging from brilliant greens to striking reds and mellow yellows. Perhaps the most unsettling thing about them is that their faces and mouths never move, their voices coming out muffled and echo-y, as if coming from a hollow tree. They usually communicate mood and emotions using exaggerated body movements.

No one knows how wood elves reproduce. The leading theories are them being trees that learned how to walk, growing from special seeds, and last but not least, that they are carved from trees, then magically given life by others of their kind. The wood elves themselves are notably silent on the issue, usually just answering with a shrug to questions about the topic.

Image by Yasen Stoilov

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