The elves are an ancient race, and stand as both the most populous race on the planet - making up over 75% of all life on Pearalos - the true progenitor race on Pearalos, serving as the origin point of all elven races. Known for their excellence in magical talent and their genetic adaptability, elves are extremely capable and prolific as a people, and their influence can be felt just about anywhere - for they can live just about anywhere, and that is to say nothing of their exceptional lifespans, either.

Elves are defined by their pointed ears, which can either point outwards or more upwards depending on the specific subspecies of elf in question - sun elves, moon elves, high elves, and dark elves are known for horizontal pointed ears, while the wood elves and star elves are famous for their more vertical pointed ears. Beyond that, however, they are very alike to humanity - which makes sense, as humans are descended from them - and have a variety of subtle differences based upon the specific subspecies, though these are minor and more discussed below.

Perhaps the greatest biological trait of elvenkind is their genetic adaptability, which is so intensive that elves can live just about anywhere, taking only a few elven generations for their bodies to adapt to their environment. This adaptability is the origin of most of the elven races, as the adaptability causes the elves to take on appropriate traits for the biosphere and environment they have adapted to. For many regions, these traits are minor and do not prevent the elf from adapting again, but for major environmental differences (such as living underwater, for example), the adaptations are permanent, and once they have adapted, they lose the ability to do so again, and also lose most of their innate elven abilities - which is why elves can create these adjacent races, but those races cannot become elves.

Most such adaptations are minor, though, as noted, and only the most extreme cases result in permanent adaptation. Among the elven race itself, however, there are 6 elven subspecies, along with the nephilim. These subspecies are not the product of adaptations, but rather general genetic variance within elvenkind, and when people refer to elves, they mean one of these subspecies (or the nephilim), as opposed to the various elven races... usually, they mean high elves. You can find them to the right

Elves are well known for their ability to reproduce with a wide variety of races - in fact, every elven race is compatible with the elves, as noted with the beastkin. This is due to the fact that fundamentally they all have elven genetic lineages due to the adaptation elements of elven biology. That being said, while they can reproduce with every elven race, most elves have a superiority complex that means they prefer other elves, though some exceptions exist.

Elves as a race originate from Ranalore and Salahad, but nowadays can be found the world over, with each elf subspecies generally being focused in a different region of the world. Sun elves can be found nearly anywhere, though they have a preference for warmer climates - steppes, savannahs and deserts - and don't cope well with subterranean life. Moon elves have no realistic limits on where they can be found, and as such they can be found the world over.

High elves are primarily found only on the Shimmerdawn Isles, but small enclaves can be found across the world and there are a sizeable number of them across Thrain. Dark elves prefer the mountain ranges of Thrain, but can also be found rarely in the mountains of Salahad and Shirahanai. Finally, wood elves are primarily found in the jungles of western Ranalore, but small hunting and exploring communities can be found all across Pearalos.

While the average elven intellect varies from subspecies to subspecies, as a baseline elves are very intelligent, with even the 'least' intellectual elven subrace - the sun elves - being smarter than most humans, and the smartest elven subrace - the high elves - possess a very high degree of intellect, though certainly not on the same level as imperial dragons.

Elves have very sensitive hearing, able to apply their large ears to hear things much more closely than many races can. While it's not anywhere near as sensitive as the Hafera, it is still a very impressive level of hearing indeed. Perhaps more famous though is the ability to sense magia that elves get with higher levels of investment into their racial class, which allows them to perceive magic being used; faintly and inaccurately at first, but getting a bit more accurate with time.

By and large, elven dress codes depend on the subrace in question, but there are some norms; they generally prefer light clothing (though armour is fine if the situation calls for it), generally wearing dresses, cloth outfits and that sort of thing, as it allows them greater mobility to use their magic and ranged power when necessary. While they don't have the same racial preference for revealing skin as the Hafera (although it is there to a degree), they do still like to show skin.