Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
Sea elves fell in love with the wild beauty of the ocean in the earliest days of the multiverse. While other elves traveled from realm to realm, sea elves navigated the currents and explored the waters of many worlds. Today these elves can be found wherever oceans exist, as well as in the Elemental Plane of Water.
Aquatic elves are isolationist by both their nature and the physical location of their settlements, although they are not quite as reclusive as the wild elves. Their trust generally does not extend far beyond their clan and others of their kind, and their communities are very tightly-knit. They can't understand why the surface elves do not realize that community and alliances mean survival, whereas rivalry, individualism, and factionalism mean death. However, despite being extremely cautious, they are also extremely curious, and aquatic elves near the shore can often spend a significant amount time secretly observing the land-bound races.
Aquatic elven society is based on family and clan. Noble families and monarchs rule, but in a benign and loose fashion rather than with an iron fist. The concept of private property, for the most part, does not exist among aquatic elves, either. Whatever given aquatic elf currently carries on their person can be considered theirs, but everything else belongs to the community as a whole. This particularly applies to tools, weapons, and other practical items. Any aquatic elf can take one of these items whenever it was needed and regardless of who had possessed it previously, although individuals are allowed to keep relatively private dwellings. Such communal ownership means theft is almost unknown. The exceptions to this are monarchs, who often have large and elaborate homes with limited access and many personal items. However, aquatic elven rulers are a reflection of their people and usually remain rather generous. The freedom to borrow items at will is not extended to outsiders, and surfacers are often watched carefully to make sure they do not try to take advantage of the cultural practice.
Aquatic elves hold promises sacred and would rather die than fail to complete something they have sworn to do. If they die in the process, their kin take over the responsibility to complete it. The slightest implication that an aquatic elf wouldn't keep his word is deeply offensive. However, promises received from non-elves are highly suspect, both because aquatic elves know that other races won't honor the promises of their dead and because only other elves have the lifespan to complete any serious task.
Aquatic elves either go lightly clad or wear no clothes at all. Their clothes are formed from underwater plants and made with intricate designs in shades of black, brown, and green. Noble aquatic elves in the Sea of Fallen Stars wore clothes more often in the past as a cultural holdover following the transformation of many surface elves into aquatic elves, however by trend is fading, and they generally only wear diaphanous silken robes to mark their status.
Many Sea Elves have blue skin with white stripes and patches. Some other aquatic elves hved pale silver-green skin. Both groups are robust and tall with long limbs. Their thick skin gives them protection from the cold of deep water, keeping them comfortable at just above freezing temperatures. Their fingers and toes are generally about twice as long as a human's and have thick webbing between them. Their most distinctive feature is the gills visible in their necks and over their ribs. Compared to other elves, aquatic elves have deep voices and are generally larger and heavier. Aquatic elves can have eye colors including turquoise, white, black, blue, green, and rarely silver. Their hair is usually thick and somewhat stringy, and some aquatic elves have a rough hair texture. It ranges between blue-green, emerald green, blue, black, silver, or even occasionally red. Warriors clip their hair short, but other aquatic elves wear it long and flowing. Women in particular sometimes grow their hair up to 4 feet long.