Rotwood Promontory Elves, the Gliders
These Gliders are known around the world for their amazing feats of flight. However, they are shorter lived than their forest kin, mainly due to accidental death. Otherwise they are similar to other Elves in stature and build, perhaps more muscular than the Viridian, and tend to be swarthy, tanned, yellow-skinned or more red-skinned, with red, brown and black hair. They do occasionally wear bright paint or apply tattoos to their skin, but these are purely decorative and not displaying more meaning than ‘look at this color!’ Their eyes tend to be lighter shades of blue, grey, green and light brown. They speak more loudly than other races, used to the thin air and distances they must reach over.
Almost every Glider is fitted with their own harness and ‘wings’. Though they may not all use this device, some of them remaining on the ground or at the cliffs their whole career, most of them will learn to master the air currents using a set of constructed wood, metal, leather or even silk wings. They trade their Viridian counterparts for the woods – shaped often to an individual user rather than overall – and similarly, if rarely, their Stone cousins for metals and fittings. The leathers they use are more than likely from animals they themselves have killed and skinned. Their tanning efforts are known world-wide. But they do like having the sturdy silks of the Summoners, as well as those almost-silks from the Reed people, for their wing sails.
Typically the harness of a Glider is something almost sacred to them, to have it break or be lost, or worst – stolen – would be both heartbreaking as well as doom to their career. Normally they are made with a torso crossing and backpack fit to carry supplies, with a set of leg loops, and wing mounts that are attached at wrist, elbow and shoulder. Some Gliders also add a helmet with a fin on it, and foot gear with stabilizing fins. Many of them have distinctive colors or patterns painted or woven into their wing flaps, you’d be able to spot a specific individual with those quite easily from a mile away or more.
The homes of these cliff-dwellers are rugged, stone and brick and often made from natural caverns in the side of the mountains. Trees which are encouraged to grow with large roots often provide natural splits where they can easily exploit the space behind. Because their trades are almost entirely in the air, they hunt often and usually with a Dragon on hand. They are among the only people that Dragons allow to actually ride them, so it is not uncommon to see a Cliff elf hefting a spear or bow upon a young Dragon.
Meeting places and craft halls are generally built outside on mesas rather than within caves, because they value the light and fresh air, and also if those same Dragons want to join in, there isn’t enough room in a cave for that. The larger communities however have beautiful soaring stone castles with ledges off nearly every floor in order to exit and enter. They have modeled some of these castles on beehives. Their form of government is more loose and tribal in nature, but follows the needs of many rather than allowing any specific person or group to petition for special cases. If there’s a special case, they reason: you can always go somewhere else.
Viridian Elves shape pieces for them, in trade for the beautiful and lush furs from the beasts they have hunted. Anything bigger than a few small furs gets sent down by actual cart, or with a Dragon escort. These Elves are extraordinarily adept at the use of ranged weaponry, not least because they hunt while also using their arms to flap wings. Their psionic power rarely does more than boost the wind around them, they fly by using that wind with wings. Thus, being able to not only hold and aim, but adequately shoot and then not fall out of the sky? That’s an achievement worthy of note.
The Promontory Elves are a light-hearted and high-spirited group, if a little over-focused on their aerial tasks. They too enjoy the music from the Reed people, but have more to talk about with the Griffins and Dragons and their kin, than other folk. They find the Jewel Witches to be absolutely fascinating and love the precious gems and gold that comes from their mines. After all, they are light and small, easily showing their value and beauty and at the same time may be traded for plentiful goods nearly anywhere in the world.
These Elves do not tend to learn any further magic beyond what air- or sound-based psionics they are born with. Some of them, however, have learned to master these sub-sets of air elementals, with booming psionically aided voices, or the ability to cancel out what sounds they do make while hunting. They are also occasionally gifted with control over electricity, though… in any given group there’s always got to be the one that stories are told: who managed to lightning-strike himself before learning to control it.
Gliders usually have short, quickly pronounced names that have a good consonant in them. ‘Lex’, ‘Kim’, ‘Taun’ are good shout-able names heard in mid-air. Like their Viridian kin, they carry identification on them, usually matched by the adornments on their harness and wings.
When someone refers to an “elf” on Dragondeep, they generally are talking about the Gliders, as they are the most visible, and certainly among the most charming, people around.
