Aquatic Elves in Greyhawk

by Kara M.

This detailed description of an Aquatic Elf is written in response to the disappointing depictions of the race found in other sources online. Characteristics ranging from the comical (language sounding like dolphin clicks) to the unworkable (can't walk on land without pain!) have been eliminated and replaced with more inspiring and appropriate features and traits. If you are considering creating an aquatic elf character for your game, I hope you find the information below to be a far more positive and accurate depiction of the race.

Aquatic elves are the distant cousins of land-dwelling elves; their most defining characteristic is the ability to breathe both air and water. Two distinct subcultures have grown from their distant origin; Sea Elves, whose communities are numerous on some remote islands and peninsulas, and Aquatic Elves, a term which includes the sea elves but more specifically refers to those who live along a few large rivers and lakes. 

Aquatic elves maintain an insular culture, and this combined with their often remote settlements has resulted in little detailed or accurate information about their race. A contributing factor is prejudice from other races, in particular other elves. The information below reflects personal accounts from aquatic elves, to provide a bit better insight into this peculiar populace.

As an aquatic elf, you have the following racial traits:

• Creature Type: You are a humanoid. You are also considered an elf for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be an elf.

• Size: You are medium. Aquatic elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds.

• Speed: Your walking speed is 30 feet. You have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

• Child of the Water: You can breathe air and water, and you have resistance to cold damage.

• Mask of the Marine:  You can attempt to hide even when lightly obscured by underwater plants, corals, or murky water.

• Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.

• Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself.

• Friend of the River and Sea: Aquatic animals have an extraordinary affinity with your people. You can communicate simple ideas to any beast that has a swimming speed. It can understand your words and gestures, though you have no inherent ability to understand it in return.

• Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

• Aquatic Elf Training : You have proficiency with the spear, trident, light crossbow, and net.

• Trance: You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation, during which you retain consciousness.

Physiology

Aquatic elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, and they age at the same rate as other elves. Elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth, to encompass worldly experience. An aquatic elf typically claims adulthood around the age of 75 and can live to be 750 years old.

Perhaps the most unique feature of aquatic elven physiology is their gills, allowing them to breathe both air and water. Gills are along the sides of their necks, tightly covered by a delicate fin below each ear when on land so that air breathing is possible.

Their skin tone includes shades of blue and green as well as a range of traditional skin tones with subtle blue or green shading. Eye colors are varied. Hair typically ranges from pale to dark shades of blue or green as well as black, and it begins to fade to silver or white with  age (older than 500). 

Aquatic elves are naturally adept at swimming, having practiced the skill daily since birth. Their physiology gives them protection from the cold of deep water, keeping them comfortable at temperatures above freezing. The false belief that they have webbed fingers and toes is perhaps due to confusion with Tritons and other merfolk. They are adept at swimming within shallow waters less than 150 feet from the surface, although they can safely descend to around 600 feet.

They are deeply in touch with their aquatic environment. They can detect minute changes in the currents of the water and can perceive sounds underwater that surface dwellers might not perceive. Their eyesight underwater is keener than that of surface races; they have nictitating membranes that protect their eyes from the water. They are able to hide in kelp and seaweed as their surface kin can in forests, and their movement is not hindered when moving through non-magical sea plants.

As aquatic elves can breathe air or water for any length of time, they are most at ease next to the water. Though they could possibly survive inland for an extended period of time, no record exists of one doing so; it may affect them physiologically or psychologically. It is also unknown whether sea elves could live comfortable near freshwater lakes, or vice-versa for freshwater aquatic elves. Sea elves have been noted to experience some sort of Sea Attachment Disorder (S.A.D) wherein they begin to experience growing levels of depression if separated from the ocean for more than a few days. Some individuals may be more sensitive than others to this syndrome.

Settlements

It is a common misconception that aquatic elves live primarily underwater, as they can breathe air just as easily. Sea elf settlements are built next to and within calm ocean waters that support coral reefs or seaweed forests. Towns of delicately carved sandstone  include living spaces above and below water. Sea elves prefer separation from other races, so any community closer to those of other races will be situated in secluded coves or seaside caverns. Aquatic elves similarly build settlements along remote lakeshores and also live in elegant houseboats.

Parents typically raise their babies in underwater homes, as the rhythm of the waves calms small children and allows families to sleep peacefully. Life underwater has its downsides, however, and so most village and city life is in above ground dwellings. The elderly and frail return to undersea dwellings, where their weakness is immaterial in the sea's buoyance. 

Settlements typically number from 100 to 1500; aquatic elves do not build large cities, nor are they comfortable living in isolation. Communities are large enough to be self-sufficient, and trading is typically with nearby neighbors. Agriculture and aquaculture include near-shore farming and fruit groves, seaweed forests, fishing, and crustacean farming. Food is based on the bounty of the lake and the sea, thus many typical "inland" foods such as cheese, beef, and wheat are not commonly consumed.

Language and Culture

The aquatic elves have their own language that, while clearly related to standard Elvish, is very distinct and not immediately understandable to non-aquatic elves. Elven prejudice has led to the belief that their language consists of dolphin-esque squeals and clicks, but in fact on land it is delicately musical. Due to the challenges of communicating underwater, language above and below the waves is unique; underwater speech includes extensive sign language as well as a few chirps and clicks that lead to the aforementioned stereotype.

Clothes are crafted to be suitable in or out of water, as the daily life of an aquatic elf typically includes time each day in work such as fishing or in leisure swimming and socializing. Clothing is made from sea and coastal plants, sea creature hides, and cultivated silks. Weaving is an art form; aquatic elves create woven materials with intricate patterns inspired by nature. Aquatic elves live barefoot, typically owning perhaps one pair of shoes for the practicality of short inland journeys.

Armor and weapons are made from sea shells and corals that are as hard as any metal. Casual jewelry includes intricately woven macrame cord accented with shells or greenstone. Gold is scavenged from sunken ships to be used in fine jewelry making along with pearls and local gemstones.

Arts are practiced extensively, as aquatic elves revere beauty in all aspects of their lives, and their extensive lifespans provide many years to perfect craftsmanship. Art include sandstone sculpture, stone and shell carving, weaving, poetry, and music. Walls of buildings may be painted with elaborate murals or adorned with detailed mosaics.

Aquatic elf sailing ships are objects of exquisite beauty, with dyed and painted silken sails soaring over elegantly hewn and carved hulls. Their ships are relatively small and designed for shorter distances compared with human and other sailing ships. They are also frequently designed to be operated by a combination of skill and magic.

Writing is less common than in land-dwelling cultures due to the perishability of paper; religious texts are typically kept on silk paper. History is told through a tradition of storytelling and song, and the beauty of aquatic elf music is legendary. Their crafts include a variety of musical instruments. 

Community and Faith

Sea elves rarely war amongst themselves, having a core understanding that community and alliances within their people mean survival, and rivalry and factionalism means death. Families or individuals may own their dwelling, but most other property is held in common. Such communal ownership means theft is almost unknown.

Communities are governed by elected town councils, though they typically defer to occasional directives from the local circle of high druids. Low-level magic is prevalent amongst many in their population. Magic is largely of the Old Faith or divine; arcane magic is extremely rare amongst aquatic elves. Aquatic elf communities worship deities that include Deep Sashelas, Sehanine Moonbow, and Corellon Larethian.

Many communities are isolationist, communicating and trading only with other of their kind. (Aquatic elves that live along rivers may be the exception.) They typically refer to non-sea-elves as "inlanders," taking either a distantly curious or critical view of other cultures, which are studied but rarely experienced.

Aquatic elves have active rivalries with some other cultures as well as animals. They have regular conflict with sahuagin for their control of shark populations; sharks play a critical role in ocean ecosystems, and sahuagin disrupt this balance for their own desire of power. Aquatic elves have occasional conflict with dolphins.

Training and partnership with many sea creatures is a standard part of their culture and economy. They elves spend hours each day underwater, in activities ranging from cultivating ocean flora and fauna, patrolling ocean borders along with befriended sea creature "guardians," and in construction and maintenance of underwater dwellings.