Wood Elven Culture

Elder Sylran's rise as the first-ever Scryer to lead our kin to great paths. With the passage of time and the change of the seasons, a new generation was required to continue Sylran's legacy, which inevitably led to rising tensions between the elves of the capital and those who sought to preserve the nomadic way of life the wood elves had once revered. The rebelling side branded the Scryers lost as they believed the new generation had strayed too far from A'golm's path in their pursuit for power. This schism would give rise to the Tribes—independent groups of wood elves that placed their survival and faith in the teachings of their ancestors above allegiance to a Scryer.

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The lasting existence of the wood elves spans countless cycles, as they have thrived within most environments, owing to their unmatched ability to forge a deep bond with their surroundings. They continue navigating their lives by harnessing the bountiful resources granted to them by nature and sacrificing portions of these for the sake of their craft. 

 

Those who live and die under the guidance and rule of the Scryers live lives not too dissimilar to those of the human nations where diligent work and undying loyalty to the rulers are rewarded with protection and stability. Each elf has their own place in the community, be it a baker, carpenter, guard, teacher, artisan, or trader, the Scryership offers a comfortable existence to those it rules over. This social contract between Scryers and its citizen elves has led to many years of rather efficient government and relative prosperity for a people who chose to be less industrious than other civilisations. 

 

Indeed, the Wood Elves do not seek the same excesses the humans or Draconians might. Built from nature’s fruits, the wood elves still to this day strive to preserve the habitats they inhabit above all others. Where things have changed is with what resources the Scryership might need to continue guardianship of the environment. Lifetimes spent in caves or tents are long behind these Elves, instead, they prefer a more comfortable existence, sheltered from the worst nature has to offer such as storms or wild animals which requires much more substantial housing for example. Heavier industry has also been embraced such as mining and metal working to maintain the tools needed to protect. Centralized government and authoritarian rule have been taught to be essential for an efficient, cohesive civilization to build and maintain the forests and plains the elves call home. Waste is kept to a minimum and decisions’ environmental costs are taken into serious consideration, lending to the Wood Elves’ sometimes aggressive but non-violent reputation in the minds of other races.

 

Wood Elven families are close. Strong familial bonds are important to these people and are reflected in their traditional naming system. Depending on the gender at birth, the mother or father will lend the last two letters of their first name as a prefix to the child which is added to a first name chosen by the parents (Ir’Matia, for example, would name her daughter Ia’Sistani). The mother or father will stay home with the child until the age of three when the child can be sent to a local Apostle (a devotee of A’Golm) for schooling or kept home with the parent as the teacher instead. They will be taught to read and write, basic addition and subtraction as well as teachings of A’Golm. 

 

When the time comes to consecrate a union between two lovers, the Elves in question’s families must pick from a range of tree saplings they can find and gift it together to the couple during a ceremony known as Lhinofa’Alda’i or the union sapling. The couple must care for the sapling and as long as the plant is in good health, the love between the carers shall be too. Other celebration specifics vary between individuals and their families and vandalism of these trees is a serious offense. 

 

As all living things do, Elven lives come to an end be it of natural causes after a couple of hundred years or through accidents or crime. When an Elf passes their body is left to decompose naturally on the surface, exposed so all of Nature’s necrophages may thrive and that the spirit of the deceased returns to Nature itself and by extension, to A’Golm’s embrace. Often this is done away from the settlement in a designated location where it is one Elf’s job to tend to the area which is often beautifully landscaped and protected so unwanted visitors don’t disturb the decomposition. So the smell might not leak too far into the settlement nearby.

 

The Ryme’Scryer, a ceremony used for appointing new Scryers, is held on the last day of spring if it must be held at all (New scryers aren’t appointed every year.) For the whole day, Min’Norar’Alda is essentially shut down, businesses aren’t allowed to open, and workers must stay at home. Only those with a role in the ceremony and those protecting the city must work on this day. Most of the ritual happens behind closed doors because of the underwhelming nature of the events. Things such as the bestowing of the Mossy Tome are only witnessed by other Scryers and a select few Apostles as well as the Scryer-to-be’s family. The public event commences afternoon with the gathering of the crows, where birds, mostly crows and blackbirds, are summoned to gather around the tree’s branches, masking the marvellous first-born in a shroud of black (This is best seen from the surrounding hills than the city itself). Next comes the Parade of Scryers where the Scryers and new appointee are paraded up the tree to its highest branch where the new Scryer will swear an oath in front of all those who gathered in the streets below. Once the oath is complete, the crows suddenly disperse from the tree once more revealing the golden leaves of the tree to the sun above causing the beautiful glow of A’Golm’s finest work to shine down on the Elves once more symbolizing A’Golm’s approval with his newest Scryer, smiling down on them. Following all the pompous parades by the Scryers, feasts and drinks are had plenty as the Scryership is blanketed with an overwhelming sense of national pride and joy.

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Those who live outside of Scryership towns, deep within the woods and waterways east of Min’Norar Alda are often referred to as the Tribes. While the Scryers would have you think they are a cohesive blob of small communities, the reality is far more complicated than that. Living entirely off the land and fully embracing raw nature, the Tribes are very different from the rest of civilisation on Rhaenor. Going into depth would require a work of ethnology many tomes long, something for which the privilege is currently lacking. Instead overall patterns and motifs will be described in an effort to paint the most precise and accurate painting one can of these fascinating peoples. 

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The Tribes are no less religious fanatics than their Scryer counterparts. Although they worship the same deity, A’golm’s teachings are interpreted differently in the wilds of the continent. In their view, the Elves were created as guardians of the natural order, the main difference between Scryers and Tribes is whether they are subject to this Order or not. The Tribes, mostly, believe they are and so all follow a usually quite strict set of customs and ways of living. 

 

Tribes people are very territorial, prepared to fight to the death to save their land from perceived threats. As one might imagine, the swathes of land one tribe controls are not very expansive and has led to tribe members developing features common to one another, for example, all the Elves of the Ered’Wol Tribe sprouting mountain goat horns. These features become a way of recognising what tribe you belong to. Each Tribe is uniquely tied to their land, migrating between different locations within their pseudo-borders depending on the time of year for gathering and hunting. 

 

With regular movement of the tribe, dwellings consist of little more than some form of a tent, cave or even a permanent building maintained every so often so that it is prepared for habitation when the time comes. This nomadic lifestyle is symptomatic of how these Elves leave themselves to the whim of Nature, which leads them to other lifestyle choices most other races would not be accustomed to. Marriage is an alien concept to the Tribes, preferring to free themselves from their impulses instead of being tied down. That isn’t to say the family bond is weak. Children and grandparents are especially revered as symbols of future prosperity for the natural order and embodiments of wisdom and sagacity respectively. 

 

Daily routines are planned around light hours during the day or the dark hours of the night depending on the tribe. Regardless, the order of tasks is the same, as the sun or moon rises the Elves awaken, perform a communal prayer to A’Golm and commence work, be it hunting, crafting or more intellectually inclined activities. Contrary to popular Scryer belief, the Tribes are capable of complex crafts and treaties, as well as conducting research and art to rival the “civilised” world. 

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The importance of relationships cannot be understated for these people. Be it social relationships, political or even that which they have with Nature. There are a few specifics worth mentioning here in order to understand the choices these people make.

 

From a young age, the Elves are taught to flow and move with the currents of the wilds, but that preserving their life should not come at the cost of the natural Order. Survival skills, tool making, foraging, hunting and more are part of an Elf’s early education, central to this education, however, is the way one must interact with A’Golm’s other creations. A ravenous wolf is to be beaten back but not killed, a grazing deer must be left undisturbed, and an intruding force from the Scryership is to be expelled from the lands they call home. 

 

Often altercations with the citizens of the Scryership and the tribes flare up. Equal parts the fault of both factions, The Tribes find themselves isolated from much of the rest of the continent, but that does not mean they can never interact with others. Human Traders and entrepreneurs value the handcrafted artefacts some tribes produce leading to some quite interesting relations between each other that can’t be delved into here.

 

On the more personal end of the topic of the relationship, Tribal Elves like to forge lifelong friendships with those they connect with socially. Often friends will move into each other’s homes and live codependently. Amorous pairings rarely last long, as already discussed, but that does not mean they never happen. Often these types of relations are seen as just friendly ones, however.