Sea Elves

Sea Elves, also known as I'quya in their tongue or Aequandhi in Yirsi'tal, are a nomadic semiaquatic seafaring race of elves native to Eldham.

Arrival and birth of the Sea Elves
The ancestors of the Sea Elves arrived in Eldham doing the Elven Migrations, but instead of living on land like most of their elven cousins, they chose to live nomadic lives on their ships. They formed moving cities with their ships, a phenomenon they refer to as city-vessels.

The Sea Elves would spread throughout the oceans of Eldham, rarely ever staying in the same area for more than a couple of weeks. This lifestyle made it easy for some sea elven tribes to become pirates, often raiding coastal towns, while other tribes chose to become cunning merchants and con-artists, though most were a mix of both.

Eventually, their seafaring lifestyle resulted in various mutations, their elven ears changing to resemble fins, their teeth becoming sharpened, and they grew webbed hands and feet, all the while, their skin turned oily.

Golden Age
At some point, a large number of sea elven tribes chose to come together, after generations of having been spread throughout Eldham, to construct the largest city-vessel in their shared history. This ship would come to be called "the Whale Ship". The construction of "the Whale Ship" lasted for over a century, during which time various noble families had begun to spring up. The creation of "the Whale Ship" would finally finish 123 years after it had begun, which many believe had ushered in a golden age of the Sea Elves.

The golden age of the Sea Elves lasted for over a millennium. They dominated the oceanic trading routes of the region and raided with both scale and coordination the likes of which the people of Eldham had never seen before. At the same time, the golden age brought with it a sense of unity and shared culture among the Sea Elves. And with this newfound sense of unity, the Sea Elves created various art pieces, the majority of which were wooden sculptures and songs.

Though eventually, this golden age would end due to the noble families forming factions in a bid for control of "the Whale Ship", this would lead to a civil war that lasted for over a century and eventually culminated in the sinking of the "the Whale Ship". After which, the sea elves again spread out across the waves of Eldham's oceans on their city-vessels.

Culture
The Sea Elves value cunning, intellect and guile. You often find them as merchants, pirates and fisherfolk. They have a love of woodworking, which stems from their ships, and as a result, you can often find them working as builders and architects.

The Sea Elves are prone to partially adopting the cultural practices of others.

Cuisine
Their diet mainly consists of fish and rarely anything else, and for this reason, they consider vegetables to be a delicacy.

Appearance and Biology
The ears of the Sea Elves are long and finlike, while their teeth are sharp and sharklike, though they only possess a single row of teeth. They have developed webbing between their fingers/toes on their hands/feet. Their skin is covered in a slimy mucous, similarly to that of frogs. Some members possess blue skin tones, although this is more common in tropical climates. Their physical frames are usually lanky with a high level of muscle density, which compliments their usually sharp facial features.