Aquatic Elves

Rarely encountered by the landbound races, the aquatic elves are a civilized and good-hearted people, who inhabit the seas surrounding Faerûn. Most aquatic elves hail from underwater cities in the Sea of Fallen Stars or in the Great Sea south of Faerûn, but small settlements of this race can be found in the seas along Faerûn's western coasts as well.
The aquatic elves are tall, standing up to 6 feet or more in height. They have long limbs with strong swimming muscles, and their fingers and toes are long with thick webbing. Their most striking features are sets of gills along the collarbone and ribcage. Aquatic elves are nowhere near as thin as their landbound cousins, and their hair is usually stringy and thick, cut short for warriors but otherwise worn long. Great Sea aquatic elves have radiant skin of deep green with irregular thin brown stripes and patches. Aquatic elves from the Sea of Fallen Stars have skin in many shades of blue with white patches and stripes. Eye colors for both types of aquatic elf come in every shade seen among gold, moon, or wild elves. Their clothing is made of various undersea plants in shades of green, black, and brown, although aquatic elves usually go about lightly clad, if dressed at all, while underwater.

History

      Aquatic elves first appeared in the Great Sea untold ages ago, the last of the major elven races to migrate from the elven homeland into Faerûn. For many years, these elves lived nomadic lives and spent much of their time exploring the waters of their new world. The aquatic elves did not begin to settle down and form permanent communites in the depths until the time of the First Crown Wars. They knew of the Crown Wars, and often watched the battles from the safety of the water, but kept their interactions with their landbound kin to a minimum. Unfortunately, their attempt to avoid becoming entangled in the wars proved futile, and by the time of the Fourth Crown War, many aquatic elves fled to the Sea of Fallen Stars to establish a new nation sheltered from the madness of their kin.
      The aquatic elves of the Sea of Fallen Stars have raised several distinct realms of varying size. Major colonies include Naramyr and Selu'Maraar, in the Dragonmere and Dragon Reach areas respectively. There are also several outposts east of the mouth of the Vilhon Reach and west of the Alambor, known as the Sharksbane Wall. Another colony called Faenasuor lies on the continental slopes east of Starmantle, and a number of small villages can be found among the reefs off the Fang of western Aglarond. In the Trackless Sea, a major sea elf city near Evermeet is called Iumathiashae "Mother of Oceans". Many additional colonies also lie off the coast of Tethyr.
      Aquatic elves have fought many wars against the evil races of the sea, especialy the sahaugin, but surface dwellers know very little of these tales.

Outlook

Aquatic elves are viewed by many land dwelling folk as skittish, distrustful creatures who are afraid to leave the water. While this is not necessarily true, an aquatic elf trusts only his close neighbors and family, even though he shares many strong bonds of history and culture with any land dwelling elf acquaintance.
The aquatic elves believe that alliance and community mean survival, while factionalism and arrogance mean death. They are standoffish even to other aquatic races, except when it serves the elves to have allies or trade partners. Despite this attitude, the aquatic elves of the Sea of Fallen Stars have recently started to overcome their natural tendencies, and have begun to open trade with their neighbors, both aquatic and landbound.

Aquatic Elf Society

Aquatic elves form loose feudal societies. The nobility rules in a reasonably enlightened manner, and all social conventions follow a patriarchal structure for inheritance and the transfers of power. While women wield considerable influence among aquatic elves, particularly as bards and sorcerers, the bulk of the political power devolves on the eldest male child.
Aquatic elves form closely knit communities. While each family or single resident often has a home to call his or her own, private property is rare. Tools, weapons, and other miscellaneous objects trade hands often. An aquatic elf in need of a particular item simply takes one he finds, without fear of repercussion. Theft is relatively unknown in aquatic elf society as a result; one cannot steal something if everyone considers the object community property. This attitude does not extend to nonaquatic elf visitors, however, and such visitors are often watched to make sure that they keep their hands to themselves.

Language and Literacy

All aquatic elves speak Elven, written with a distinctive style of Espruar characters that shows Aquan influences. Aquatic elves native to the Sea of Fallen Stars also speak Serusan, the trading language of the marine peoples of the Inner Sea, while aquatic elves from the Great Sea or the Trackless Sea speak Aquan. Both of these languages use the Aquan alphabet. Those aquatic elves who have the inclination also learn various languages of the surface world, notably Common, Chondathan, and Sylvan.
All aquatic elves are literate, except for barbarians, warriors, and commoners.

Abilities and Racial Features

+2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence. This replaces the standard bonuses and penalties most elves receive. Aquatic elves are as fleet of foot and coordinated as their land-based kin, and while they are more sturdily built than most of the other elven subraces, they have little use for study.
Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
Proficient with trident, longspear, and net. This replaces the standard elven proficiency with longsword, rapier, and bow.
Swim speed 40 feet. An aquatic elf gains a +8 racial bonus on all Swim checks and can always choose to take 10 with Swim checks. Aquatic elves can use the run action while swimming, as long as they swim in a straight line.
Improved Low-Light Vision (Ex): An aquatic elf can see four times as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
Gills (Ex): Aquatic elves breathe salt water with ease. They can also breathe fresh water, but most find the experience to be very uncomfortable and are treated as fatigued while doing so and for 10 minutes afterward. Aquatic elves can survive out of the water for 1 hour per point of Constitution, after that, they begin to suffer suffocation.
+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if they were actively looking for it. An elf's senses are so keen that they practically have a sixth sense about hidden portals.
Aquatic elf males range in height from 4'10" to 6'6", and weigh from 100 lbs to 260 lbs. Aquatic elf females range in height from 4'5" to 6'1", and weigh from 80 lbs to 240 lbs.
Aquatic elves reach adulthood at 110 years and can reach a maximum age of about 750 years.
Level Adjustment: +1. Aquatic elves are more powerful and gain levels more slowly than most of the other common races of Faerûn.

Elves Avariel Drow Moon Elf Star Elf Sun Elf Wild Elf Wood Elf