Wood Elves

Wood Elves

Living Standards
As their name would suggest, Wood Elves live in densely wooded regions, building small hidden towns that are indistinguishable from the forest to the untrained eye. While all Elves save perhaps Dark feel a connection to nature, Wood Elves by far surpass their cousins in their love of all life. This mentality has had deep and lasting impacts on all aspects of their society, from their architecture to their eating habits. Wood Elves see chopping down a tree as a senseless waste of life and energy, instead using nature magic to build their structures by weaving the branches and roots of the trees into a dense lattice work that easily matches and surpasses the qualities of a building built using cut timber and pitch. Wood Elf villages make use of all levels of the Forest to build their homes. The canopy level is crisscrossed by elegant bridges and circular landings that wrap their way around ancient tree trunks, providing a massive tree top fairground for the Elves to enjoy in times of peace, and a series of well hidden watch posts and shooter platforms in times of strife. Typically, the canopy is only used frequently for pleasure during the summer months, with Wood Elves keeping to the lower levels in the cold and drafty winter. On the forest floor, intricate villages are seamlessly built both around and into the land so that they do not disturb the natural topography of the forest. Living pavilions and gazebos shaped from woven branches skirt the edges of open meadows and woven bridges stretch across raging waterfalls. But it is beneath the roots of ancient oaks that the Wood Elf Lords hold court. Great Halls are built into and under the greatest trees of the forest providing warmth in the winter, coolness in the summer, and a nearly undetectable fortress in times of war. While a select few outsiders have occasionally visited and returned from Wood Elf villages, there is currently no known instance of a non-Wood Elf even knowing the location of one of the Great Woodland Halls, despite sometimes living only meters away from them for several years.

Immigration/Treatment of Outsiders
Wood Elves have strange and often paradoxical relationship with outsiders. They are the most open of all the Elven kindreds, and are thus the most likely to be found enmeshed in Human Societies. Their belief in the inherent worth of all natural life means they put a greater value on Human Life than many of the other races in their World, and this philosophy also leads them to being the most likely to engage in interspecies romantic and sexual relations with Humans. Contrarily, they still have the hallmark Elven Superiority syndrome, and as such view the younger races, such as Humanity as well meaning but often misguided children in need of a gentle guiding hand. While Wood Elves have a great curiosity and in some cases admiration for various human cultures, they see Humanity as a whole as unable to control itself properly, reproducing and overrunning the ecosystems they inhabit the way a child might spread his toys over the entire house. As such, outside access to Wood Elf villages and forests is nearly non-existent, for they know that once a Human population establishes itself in the Forest, it is only a matter of time before they will overrun and destroy the ecosystem. For a Human to gain access to Wood Elf homes, he must be invited personally by a member of that village, and must usually be accompanied by his sponsor whenever he enters their territory. Should an uninvited but non-belligerent guest attempt to find a Wood Elf village, they will enter the Woods, wander around in circles for awhile, and wander back out, often forgetting why they wanted to come in the first place.Entering a relationship with a Wood Elf will almost always see them take a semi-dominant or dominant role. If there are instances where you are in charge, it is because they want you to be.

Foreign Diplomacy
Wood Elves typically care little for the politics of the outside world, preferring instead to focus on the maintenance of their forest homes and the natural beauty of the wider world. When they do venture beyond their leafy boughs, it is usually as environmental advisors for nations and companies alike, where their unmatched knowledge of the natural world makes them invaluable for environmental risk assessment ecological cleanup. Occasionally, small groups of Wood Elf mages will take it upon themselves to go out into the world and use their rejuvenating magic to restore polluted rivers and skies to health. These mages have the potential to make a considerable fortune, should they so desire it, in the employ of Western Governments and non-profit organizations. When Grand Strategy and Diplomacy cannot be avoided, Wood Elves will typically defer to the their High Elf cousins and support whatever measures their kin propose.

Military Doctrine
Historically, Wood Elven society has grown up in forests either surrounded by or bordering friendly nations, and as such, the need for serious military investment has never been very strong. Wood Elves typically utilize a variety of non-lethal methods to discourage potential invaders before escalating the situation to more lethal means. Illusion spells will have unprepared attackers wander around the forest for hours on end until they wind up back where they started. Should they come equipped to pierce those spells, they will find rushing rivers diverted to block their path and annoying but non-lethal insects biting and stinging them every step of the way. If all this does not deter an attacker, the Wood Elves will then resort to lethal measures. Wood Elf combat doctrine centers heavily around breaking the enemy's morale long before their forces have suffered significant casualties. As such, debilitating are used liberally, and raids on supply lines and night patrols are carried out almost unceasingly. With regards to weaponry, Wood Elves have primarily adopted two forms of firearms from the New World, long distance precision rifles and DMRs for expert sniper fire, and short ranged suppressed Submachine Guns for lightning fast ambushes and raids. The Wood Elves do not maintain any known form of mechanized fighting vehicles, as the terrain of their Area of Operation makes most vehicles impractical, and air scouting and ground support can be accomplished with the many magical creatures, such as Griffons and Giant Eagles, that the Wood Elves have befriended and used as mounts for millenia.

Culture
The Wood Elves, found a natural attraction to the culture modern and early modern France. The natural sophistication and elegance of the French resonated well with Wood Elven ideals and aesthetic sensibilities, leading to a great degree of cultural exchange between the two peoples and the adoption of several important elements of each other’s cultures. It is advised not to invite a Wood Elf and a Frenchman to the same party, as the arrogance and superiority complex of one will feed off the other until everyone else in the room is driven mad by it.