High Elves

Elves

The elves have the same physical strength and endurance as humans do, though they have twice the dexterity and reflexes as humans. They can see in low light conditions and have extremely sharp senses of hearing and sight, at least twice as good as a human's. The elves live ten times as long as humans, not showing the signs of old age until 500 years, they also are highly resistant to natural diseases. On the downside, elves grow more slowly than humans, and are thus not physically mature until the age of 20 and elven females may only have one child every 5 years though the gestation period is only a year.

Elves are limited to technology of the high middle ages. They never where plate armor because it is too great a hinderance to their dexterity. They have high quality bows, of course, as well as any other item available to someone in the year 1400 aside from gunpowder based weapons which they have no knowledge of. Elves are more intelligent than humans by about 20% though they tend to forget things that they learn over the long years of their lives.

All elves have at least minor magical powers and elven sorcerers are among the most powerful magic users in existence. All elves have access to elven steeds, special horses which are 20% faster than equivalent human horses.

There are three primary types of elves dark elves, wood elves, and high elves. Below are some of the things that make each race unique.

High Elves

High elves are all naturally resistant to magic. Magical attacks against high elves only have half of the effect - a magical spell which which normally kill a foe only severally injures the high elf. High elves can focus their magical energies to shield themselves from harm, this causes every attack against them (melee, ranged or magical) to half as strong as it normally would be. This magical shield can only be maintained if the high elf refrains from attacking and moves at no faster than a quick walk. If not using their magical energies to protect themselves, they can channel the energy into melee or ranged attacks, causing each blow to strike with 50% force than it normally would have.

High elves make their weapons and armor out of a magical material called mythril. Mythril is as strong and durable as steel but half the weight. Virtually every high elf warrior has access to at least a mythril chain shirt. Mythril can even be sold or traded to other armies, but high elves tend to prefer to keep it to themselves.

High elven mages are quite powerful, they have the following abilities. By concentrating (remaining completely still and taking no other action) a high elven mage can become completely immune to magic or he can make one ally within 10 feet immune to magic. Mages can focus their attention on another magic user within 500 feet, while doing this they can counter any spell cast by that magic user before it can take effect. Countering spells this way takes concentration, but they can still walk or fly at half speed while doing so. Mages seldom wear armor, but they are constantly protected by a transparent force field that protects them as well as steel plate armor. They can fly or hover at the speed of 100 mph. They can also teleport anywhere within visual range by concentrating for 30 seconds. Once per day, a high elven mage can concentrate for about 10 seconds while touching an injured ally and heal him of all his injuries. Finally, with 2 seconds of concentration, the mage can shoot out a burst of blazing white flame 50 feet long and 10 feet wide, which will likely kill anything in its path.

Archons are the elite warriors of the high elves. They ride on the highest quality elven steeds, which are 30% faster than human warhorses. They wear mythril full plate, making them the only elves to wear plate armor. Archos can maintain the high elven aura of protection at all times, even when running or attacking. Their swords are specially enchanted so that they can cut through any material which is not magical like a hot knife through butter. Archons are immune to fear and any magical effect which might cause fear. Archons have honed their fighting skills for centuries and have peak elven combat ability. All of the protections that an archon has extends to his steed, including mythril barding.

Another elite high elven unit are the sky riders. These elves are like archons but instead ride upon huge eagles instead. Instead of having magically enchanted blades, they carry magical bows which have twice the range of a human long bow but are easier to draw.

Through a great magical ritual, a high elven mage can create a magical guardian. The guardian is a construct made of various metals, stones, and magical materials coated with mythril plating. It is then given life by the mage. The guardian has no intelligence of its own but will obey every word of the mage who created it. It is about 8 feet tall and has the strength of ten men, its skin is twice as strong as steel plate armor and it is immune to pain, fear, thirst, starvation, disease, and fatigue. The skin beneath the armor is roughly as strong as dense wood, though its clearly some other substance - the guardian can only be killed by smashing its body to pieces or by removing its heart - the place where its magical life form resides. It takes a year of constant work for a mage to create a this construct and a mage can only have one in service to him at once.

Only an archmage can rule over the high elves. The archmage has access to all of the powers that a high elven mage plus the following. The archmage can control up to 5 guardians at once instead of 1. The flame that an archmage shoots has a range of 100 feet instead of 50 and has a width of up to 20 feet. The archmage can teleport anywhere he can see or has been before with 10 seconds of concentration. An archmage can concentrate to make not only himself immune to magic but all allies with 20 feet of him. The archmages aura of protection is always active regardless of what actions he is taking. An archmage can dispel any magical affect on another creature within 100 feet with a second of concentration as long as the target isn't a player/king.

You begin play with 25,000 elves.

High elves begin with 250 mages, 250 archons, 250 sky riders, and 1 guardian for the archmage. The total population of mages, archons, and sky riders cannot exceed 1% of the normal high elf population each.