Glade Elves

Brief Summary
The Glade Elf people are Elves which dwell in the dense forests throughout Rathnir and Eldham, these forests were sprouted from the main forest called "The Everglade" which is seen as their most sacret ground. While not belonging to a single nation, they do establish tribes around "mother trees" however, the many tribes maintain a near identical culture and tradition with each other. In common tongue they are called Glade Elves but are also referred to as the Waldire in their speech.

The Glade Elves are descendants from the Celestial Elves, Glade Elves condemn the more civilised and high culture of their Elven cousins as well as many civilisations across Rathnir, as they believe to be one with nature is the purest form of life.

Due to living in the unforgiving wilderness they have adapted traits that are unique from their other Elven cousins. Traversing the forests take immense amount of agility, athleticism, and stealthiness, yet it is a part of their daily lives - they do not travel on the ground in the forest as using the branches allows for more "3-dimensional" travel, allowing highways to go above and below each other. Though they possess a tribal nature, Glade Elves often pursue scholarly fields, and highly value free-market trading as well as the art of magic - they also tend to be quick-witted, and silver-tongued.

Glade Elves usually live to about 300-years-old naturally, though it is not uncommon for them to use magic to extend their life, extracting the life force from the plants around them - you will quite often find some that live forever if they so choose to repeat this process.

Appearance
Glade Elves are quite different compared to their Elven cousins, though much has remained the same. They are humanoid creatures with the traditional pointy ears. The average height is about 5'6" - 5'8", they also aren't as slender as other Elves being quite built as a result of their athleticism, on rare occasions they are able to grow antlers or horns on their head, they also have big hands and feet. Their skin colour varies like other humanoid creatures - though the most common ones are light brown, beige, or a sort of yellow, however they can be brown, black, white, sometimes even light green. Their hair colour is much of the same, most common one being brown, but it is not uncommon to have black, blonde, ginger, red, or even white.

Culture
Living in the forest has branched off into many changes to the Elven culture as most commonly found. As said before, Glade Elves highly value free-market, resulting in bazaars and markets in and around the forest. While coin is vastly important, it is of utmost importance that the Glade Elves produce their products naturally, it is because of this, the Glade Elves regard themselves as the best artisans in the world as no other product around the world is more authentic.

They also do not reproduce frequently, as the belief that their body being a part of nature makes it sacret, and you must find "the one" and get married before allowing yourself to have children - due to their infrequent reproducing, homosexuality is often regarded as immoral. It is an absolutely heinous crime for a Glade Elf to marry a non-Elf. As the tribes are often small, marriages are usually held in the mother tree with the whole tribe attending, the tribe leader is there to marry the both of them, and after pledging their love for their partner it ends in a kiss.

The males (Mir) and females (Mare) are treated equally within the tribe, old mare are usually seen as motherhood figures to all in the tribe including the leader. As oppose to other states mare often find themselves hunting with the mir of the tribe as well as the mir taking jobs like caretakers amongst the mare. While both are regarded as capable warriors, mare are seen as more quick and agile, while mir are seen as more strong, and tough.

Though it is dying due to the growing relationship with their neighbours, Glade Elves are quite racist towards humans, not only looking down on their more civilised society, but also looking down on their life-span as well as their many conflicts with their own race. It is often a Glade Elf would greet a human with "Why would we grant you anything? You humans destory everything you touch!", or "Don't take much time, I can see you age by the second.".

Glade Elven cuisine is vastly different compared to other food found around Rathnir and Eldham, they are mostly carnivourous and even cannibalistic due to their oath to Eostre and The Waldire Lagu - the most common seasoning with the Glade Elves is tree resin, giving it a nutty, woody, yet tangy like flavour, they can also use things like honey. Meals are often treated like barbeques in the nations of Men, being a communal gathering where few chefs cook for the tribe. Their meals will often only be meat though can also be accompanied by bread, mushrooms, rice, beetroot.

One can actually become a Glade Elf through an intense trial, first and most importantly, you must pledge your life to Eostre, and take the oath to follow the Waldire Lagu. Then you are assigned a partner to teach you the language, and culture, as well as how to live in the forest. You are taught to hunt, kill, move, and live like a Glade Elf, these are tested with intense trails, most feared one being to eat a humanoid creature. After the success of the trials you are sent to fend for yourself in the forest completely naked for 14 days. If you survive you are then met with the "Ritual of Rebirth", where you are put to sleep at the mother tree and Eostre slowly grants you the abilities and the appearance of a Glade Elf - this process usually takes about 3 days.

Religion
All Glade Elves follow Eostre and the Waldire Lagu she is the goddess of fertility who called to the Elves in need of protection. Then setting upon the Glade Elves the Waldire Lagu which translates to forest law - in turn Eostre grants the Glade Elves a safe home, and the most fertile lands, she also gives the Glade Elves the ability to manipulate the plant matter in order to make room for roads, or to build houses, they can also communicate with the nature around then, even the animals, sometimes even able to possess weak-minded animals like birds for scouting.


 * 1) If the Everglade is threatened, all Glade Elven tribes must unite to destroy this threat.
 * 2) Protect your home forest with your life.
 * 3) The only plant matter you may consume is wheat, beetroot, tea, rice, cocoa, sugar, grapes, and berries.
 * 4) Any and all kills must be used in full.
 * 5) Every Glade Elf must enforce these laws.

Is is said failure to follow these laws result in being consumed by the forest.