(Plane Shift: Kaladesh)
The movement of aether through the world is visible and obvious where it courses in glowing rivers across the sky, sweeps across sculpted plains, or pours through great urban pipelines. But the elves of Kaladesh are uniquely in tune with the flow of aether throughout theplane, both seen and unseen, and with the subtle ways it suffuses and influences all life. They call this flow the Great Conduit, and they believe that the only way to truly grasp it is to be a part of it, simultaneously shaping it and being shaped in return. Thanks to this sensitivity, elves feel a deep connection to other living things. They engage deeply with the world around them, delighting in natural systems and social interactions alike. They revel in exploring the interconnectedness of nature and society, seeing the flow of aether from nature to invention, from person to person, from body to mind and heart.
Elves live in harmony with both nature and technology. They believe that nature inspires technology: each piece of artifice is an expression of natural laws and principles, and captures one element of aether’s flow in a sort of microcosmic system. Technology, in turn, can nurture the natural world, helping life grow and flourish in places and ways that would otherwise be impossible. The elves of Kaladesh don’t organize themselves into nations or tribes. Still, they recognize three distinct cultural groups among their kind—though in truth these groupings are more like attitudes or alignments with regard to the rest of society and the use of technology.
Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
Elves who dwell in the forest and countryside are known as the Bishtahar. Most live in isolated communities away from other races, though they still trade with them. In fact, much of Kaladesh’s food supply is grown by elves. Bishtahar cultivators grow food, decorative flowers, wood for building, and elaborate living sculptures in their meandering gardens and fields. They use the plane’s ubiquitous technology to foster the growth of plants and animals, utilizing automatons as gardeners and herders, and employing elaborate, nearly invisible systems controlling heat, water, and nutrients.
A garden tended by elves seems to grow naturally in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. In fact, many of the forests and plains of Kaladesh are planted and tended by elves as well. What might appear at first to be wild countryside is more likely a carefully planned landscape designed to meet the needs of the people and animals that live there.
Elves who forsake technology entirely are called the Tirahar. Some elves with Tirahar sympathies live within cities or farms, but most simply withdraw to the wilder areas of Kaladesh. No more than one in a hundred elves is counted among the Tirahar, and many members of other races are unaware that these reclusive elves even exist.
The Vahadar are elves who dwell in the cities of Kaladesh. They are comfortable with technology, and work as planners, architects, aether-seers, or inventors. Some of them use the techniques of Bishtahar cultivators to grow food on rooftops, towers, and greenways. The Vahadar are generally integrated into the rest of society on Kaladesh, living in cities dominated by the other races (though, as in Ghirapur, many of them live in specific garden-like neighborhoods) and engaging in trade.
(Plane Shift: Zendikar)
Elves are a fearless and adaptable people. They have fared better than most in the tumultuous environment of Zendikar, and many have reacted to the reappearance of the Eldrazi with resilience and courage. They remain the most prevalent race on Murasa, and have a strong presence in other regions as well. Their treetop villages seem to regrow almost as soon as they are destroyed—much like the Murasan jungles where they are found.
Elves are strongly associated with green mana, the magic that flows through their forest homes. Their shamans and druids channel this magic of life and growth, communing with the land or the spirits of the departed. Striving to live in harmony with nature, they celebrate the ties between their communities and their connection with the broader world around them.
Elves are about as tall as humans, but are more slender. Their legs are long, and their pointed ears sweep back from their heads. They move gracefully and hold themselves with elegant poise, but they are a people of the woodlands, and their life in the wilds is manifested in the practical simplicity of their clothes and equipment. Never ones to waste anything that can be reused, elves stitch torn garments together into new ones, and transform broken sword blades into useful gear. They prefer leather for protection rather than metal, which they use to craft swords, spears, arrowheads, and climbing hooks.
Ancient divides that arose as the elven people migrated across Zendikar resulted in three main elf nations: the Tajuru, the Mul Daya, and the Joraga. Choose one of these subraces.
The Tajuru nation is the largest of the three main elven nations, concentrated in Murasa and spread across other parts of Zendikar as hundreds of far-flung clans. Tajuru elves are the most open to people of other races, seeing their skills and perspectives as valuable new tools for survival. The Tajuru are also more open to new lifestyles, be it living in a mountaintop citadel or roaming grassy plains.
The elves of the imperious Joraga nation of Bala Ged have little respect for any other race of Zendikar — or even for other elves. The survival of their nation and its traditions is the Joraga elves’ only goal, and they view the influence of others as a weakness. The Joraga eschew the goods and habits of others, even avoiding the pathways blazed by the Tajuru when possible. Many view the nomadic Joraga clans as little more than bands of roving murderers, but a complex culture hides behind those clans’ aggressive exterior.
Elves of the Mul Daya nation of Bala Ged are set apart from other elves by their relationship with the spirits of their elven ancestors. To the Mul Daya, the spirit world and the mortal realm are different only in terms of their tangibility. Death and the spirits of the dead are as much a part of the lives of the Mul Daya as is the natural world. This is not a macabre sentiment to the elves; they simply view it as the truest sense of the natural order.
Mul Daya elves can often be recognized by their face painting and tattooing. Many Mul Daya decorate their skins with an enwrapping vine motif, and make use of poisons and acids collected at great cost from strange creatures and plants in the depths of Kazandu.