Overview
The wood elf is the line of the Elves that never left the wood, and the wood is the reason the line is still there. Where the High Elf built the silver city and the Dark Elf took the mountain's heat, the wood elf kept the bargain that was made under the first tree: the people live in the wood, and the wood remembers the people. The wood elf is the patient one. The wood elf is the one who waits the way the root waits — not still, but slow, and the slow is the whole of the argument, because the blow that comes fast is the blow that has nowhere to be, and the root is the one that was already where it is.
The grove-clan is the unit of the wood: the clan of the birch, the clan of the pine, the clan of the elder oak that stands in the middle of the grove and does not stand there for its own sake. The clan is ranked not by the blade but by the seasons kept — the elder who has kept the count of the seasons for a hundred turns is the elder, and the count is the whole of the rank, because the count is the memory, and the memory is the one that outlives the bargainer.
Habitat
The wood elf lives in the elder wood, and the elder wood is the Glimmerwood — the forest of shifting paths and pale light that does not stay in one place, the wood where the trees remember the bargains made beneath them. The grove is not built. The grove is found — the clearing where the light comes in the way the light comes in, and the light is the whole of the argument, because the wood elf does not make the light, the wood elf keeps the light, and the keeping is the one that is done.
The paths of the elder wood shift, and the shifting is not a trick the wood elf plays on the visitor. The shifting is the wood's own work, and the wood's own work is the reason the visitor does not find the grove. The wood elf finds the grove, because the wood elf is the one the wood remembers, and the wood remembers the way the root remembers — slowly, and for a long time.
Appearance
The wood elf is the elf made of the wood's own light: the skin of pine-brown to soft birch-cream, the eyes of moss-green to pale amber, and the hair that runs the color of the season the person was born in — the winter-born are the silver ones, the summer-born are the amber ones, and the season is the whole of the argument, because the season is the count, and the count is the memory. The male wood elf stands 1.72–1.86 m and carries 56–70 kg of the lean, long-limbed frame — the frame of the one who walks the path that shifts, and the walking is the one that is kept. The female wood elf stands 1.64–1.78 m and carries 51–64 kg, and the frame is the same, and the same is the whole of the argument, because the wood does not keep two kinds of the people, the wood keeps the one kind, and the one kind is the one that is kept.
The marking of the wood elf is the Root-Cut in the right shoulder — the cut the elder leaves at the first season, and the cut is the whole of the argument, because the cut is the count made in the body, and the body is the one that is the record. The clothing is bark and hide and the leaf, and the colors of the grove — moss, birch, pine — because the wood elf is not the one who stands out of the wood, the wood elf is the one the wood keeps in.
Behaviour
The wood elf is the patient one, and the patience is the whole of the character, because the patience is the count, and the count is the one that is kept for a hundred turns. The wood elf does not speak of the wood to the outsider, because the wood is not the one that is told, the wood is the one that is kept, and the keeping is the one that is done in silence. The wood elf speaks to the wood, and the speaking is not the magic of the high cities, the speaking is the Leaf-Speech — the word put into the leaf, and the leaf carries the word the way the root carries the water, and the carrying is the one that is slow.
The wood elf keeps the seasons, and the keeping is the whole of the life: the count of the turning, the naming of the first bloom, the marking of the last frost. The grove-elder keeps the count for the grove, and the count is the memory of the wood, and the memory is the one that is the argument the wood elf is the one who makes, because the wood elf is the one who says: the wood is not the thing that is, the wood is the thing that remembers, and the remembering is the one that is kept.
Warfare & Markings
The wood elf does not make war. The wood elf keeps war — the keeping of the path, the keeping of the light, the keeping of the count — and the keeping is the whole of the argument, because the visitor who comes fast is the visitor who comes into the place that was already where it is. The wood elf's warfare is the brace, still of the second stance — the fighter who stands in the wood does not move, because the wood is the one who is hit, and the wood is the one that keeps the hit. The bow of the elder wood is the whole of the weapon: the wood of the tree that was named before it was cut, and the string of the hide of the one who gave it, and the giving is the one that is kept.
The war-mark of the wood elf is the Root-Cut in the right shoulder, left by the elder at the first season, and the cut is the whole of the argument, because the cut is the count made in the body, and the body is the record, and the record is the one that outlives the bargainer. The grove that is struck is not the grove that fights — the grove that is struck is the grove that remembers, and the remembering is the one that is long, and the long is the one that is the end of the striker.
Magic Alignment
The magic of the wood elf is the Divine domain of the wood — the word put into the wood, and the wood keeps the word the way the bone of the dead keeps a word, only longer. The named powers of the wood elf are Trance (the sleep that is the count — the wood elf sleeps the way the root sleeps, and the sleeping is the keeping), Fey Ancestry (the blood of the fae that runs in the wood, and the fae are the ones the wood remembers before the people), and Leaf-Speech (the word put into the leaf, and the leaf carries it). The signature power is The Long Word (wood) — the long word kept in the bark of the elder oak, the word that was spoken at the first planting, and the word is the whole of the argument, because the word is the one that outlives the bargainer, and the bargainer is the one who was, and the wood is the one that is.
The mana of the wood elf runs deep and slow: 15,000–40,000, and the deep is the whole of the argument, because the wood elf does not spend the word, the wood elf keeps the word, and the keeping is the one that is done in the deep, where the water is, and the water is the one that does not run out.
Religion
The wood elf keeps the faith of Solathis, the Dawnfather, the same dawn the High Elf keeps in the silver city — the dawn that comes over the wood the way the light comes in, and the coming is the whole of the argument, because the dawn is the one that is kept, and the keeping is the one that is done under the first tree. The rite of the grove is the Naming of the First Bloom — the elder names the first bloom of the season, and the naming is the count, and the count is the memory, and the memory is the one that is kept for a hundred turns.
The wood elf does not build the shrine. The shrine is the elder oak, and the elder oak is the one that stands in the middle of the grove, and the standing is the whole of the argument, because the shrine is not the thing that is made, the shrine is the thing that is found, and the finding is the one that is done by the wood, not by the people.
Society
The grove-clan is the whole of the society: the clan of the birch, the clan of the pine, the clan of the elder oak, and the clans are ranked by the seasons kept, not by the blade. The elder is the one who keeps the count, and the keeping is the rank, and the rank is the whole of the argument, because the rank is not the thing that is taken, the rank is the thing that is done, and the doing is the one that is done for a hundred turns.
The young of the grove learn the count before they learn the blade — the count of the seasons, the naming of the bloom, the keeping of the light. The one who learns the count is the one who is the wood elf, and the learning is the whole of the argument, because the wood elf is not the one who was born into the wood, the wood elf is the one who learned the wood, and the learning is the one that is kept. The visitor who is welcomed into the grove is the one who is counted — the count made in the body, the Root-Cut in the right shoulder, and the cut is the whole of the argument, because the cut is the count, and the count is the one that is the memory.
Home
The home of the wood elf is the Glimmerwood — the elder wood of shifting paths and pale light, the forest where the trees remember the bargains made beneath them. The groves of the elder wood are the places the wood elf keeps, and the keeping is the whole of the argument, because the grove is not the thing that is built, the grove is the thing that is found, and the finding is the one that is done by the wood.
Relations
The wood elf is the kin of the High Elf — the line that left the wood for the silver city is the High Elf, and the line that stayed is the wood elf, and the staying is the whole of the argument, because the line that stayed is the one that kept the bargain. The Dark Elf is the kin of the mountain, and the mountain is not the wood, and the wood elf keeps the distance the way the wood keeps the path — slowly, and for a long time. The Fae Folk are the ones the wood remembers before the people, and the fae are the ones who keep the wood when the people are not in it, and the keeping is the one that is the argument the wood elf makes with the fae: the wood is not the thing that is, the wood is the thing that remembers, and the remembering is the one that is shared.
In the Story
The wood elf is the one the story remembers, because the wood elf is the one who was already where it is, and the already is the whole of the argument, because the already is the one that is the end of the visitor, and the visitor is the one who comes fast, and the fast is the one that has nowhere to be. The wood elf is the keeping of the light, and the keeping is the one that is done under the first tree, and the first tree is the one that was, and the one that is, and the one that will be.
"The city is the word spoken. The wood is the word kept. The kept is the one that outlives the speaker." — Wreckreate