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 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 land-bound 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 colours 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 communities in the depths until the time of the First Crown War. 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 Alamber, 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, especially the sahuagin, 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 neighbours 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 neighbours, both aquatic and landbound.
Characters: Aquatic elves share the seas with a number of vicious and dangerous races, such as kapoacinths, sahuagin, scrags and krakens, and often become very capable fighters and rangers. They have little taste for the wizard’s studies or the cleric’s devotions, but many aquatic elves take up the path of the bard, learning eerily beautiful songs of great power. Sorcerers are more common than wizards among the aquatic elves. Typical multiclass combinations include bard/fighter, bard/sorcerer and fighter/ranger.
Favoured Class: An aquatic elf’s favoured class is fighter. While aquatic elves have few organized armies, individual fighting skills are highly prized. Landbound elves may prefer stealth and archery, but the underwater environment dictates speed and skill in melee instead.
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 non-aquatic elf visitors, however, and such visitors are often watched to make sure that they keep their hands to themselves.
Language: 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 trade 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 elf characters are literate, except for barbarians, warriors and commoners.
Magic: Of the seven elven sub-races, the aquatic elves are the ones who have embraced the art of magic the least. This is not to say that there are no spellcasters among their kind, just that the proportion of spellcasters to non-spellcasters in aquatic elf society is more like that found among dwarves than humans or elves. Nevertheless, the long life span of the aquatic elf allows him to spend much more time perfecting his magical training than a similar human.
Spells and Spellcasting: Aquatic elf wizards write scrolls on specially cured shark-skin or on papyrus-like sheets of thick, fibrous seaweed. In either case, both are alchemically treated (Craft (Alchemy) DC 10, cost 5 gp per scroll) to resist rotting or damage from exposure to water. The inks are much thicker and more viscous than surface inks and do not diffuse upon contact with water.
Magic Items: Aquatic elves have the same range of magic items used by their surface kin, although they are by necessity often altered in form due to the elves’ underwater existence. For example, the aquatic elves have developed “potions” that are closer to unguents, pastes or even magic sea fruits or seaweed. Scrolls are prepared on specially treated shark-skins or sea-reed papyrus. Magic items normally crafted out of metal are made from materials that do not corrode in salt water.
Aquatic elves do not wear much clothing, so magical garments are rare, including armour. Wearing armour tends to hamper an aquatic elf’s ability to swim. Aquatic elves rely upon Dexterity and magical means of protection in battle, such as rings of protection and amulets of natural armour.
Iconic Item: Aquatic elves patrolling the barrier reefs around their settlements frequently carry tridents of serenity. As long as such a trident is nearby, their hated foes, the sahuagin, will be unable to enter blood frenzy.
Religion: Although the aquatic elves acknowledge the Seldarine, their true deity is Deep Sashelas. Almost all aquatic elves venerate the Lord of the Undersea to some extent. Temples dedicated to Deep Sashelas can be found in all aquatic elf cities. These buildings are usually built of stone and carved to resemble gargantuan shells; they serve as the spiritual, physical and social centres of many aquatic elven communities. Some religious aquatic elves wander the seas, floating with the currents, exulting in the natural beauty of the undersea world, and spreading the word of their lord to all they encounter.
Relations: Aquatic elves are a cautious folk. Although there are many races friendly to the aquatic elves, such as the merfolk and the tritons, there are just as many menaces in the deeps. As a result, aquatic elves remain in their cities and interact with others only when forced to. This caution extends to surface communities, but is often tempered with curiosity. Aquatic elves who live close to shore often spend long hours spying on their air-breathing neighbours. They make little distinction between the various land-dwelling sub-races of elves.
One race in particular should be mentioned in the context of the aquatic elves: The sahuagin. Aquatic elves possess a fierce, blinding hatred for the sea devils and often wage senseless wars against them. The one sure way to overcome an aquatic elf’s natural shyness and wariness is to offer him the chance to attack and possibly kill some of his race’s hated enemies.
Equipment: Aquatic elves rarely use metal tools due to the inevitable damage most metals suffer to salt-water corrosion. One notable exception is gold. Many aquatic elves have mastered the art of beating gold into beautiful jewellery, because forging metals is all but impossible underwater. For the most part, their tools, weapons and armour are made from materials they have on hand underwater, such as stone, coral and shells of various sorts. Shipwrecks are a major source of materials for aquatic elves, although they are careful to honour any who may have died before looting the sunken cargo holds.
Because of the difficulty in drinking potions underwater from normal vials, aquatic elves use potion bladders to hold their potions.
Arms and Armour: In an underwater world, bludgeoning and slashing weapons are nowhere near as efficient as piercing weapons. Tridents and spears are therefore the favoured weapons of the aquatic elves, and these weapons can be found in amazing varieties and styles throughout the various undersea communities. Bone, narwhal horns and even coral are used to build these weapons. Although they are more fragile than regular steel weaponry, they are easy to construct. Weighted nets are also a popular weapon for aquatic elves, who have perfected methods of throwing such weapons so that they drift and unfold in the water almost like large octopi or manta rays. Weapons made of inferior materials have a -2 attack and damage penalty (with a minimum damage of 1).
Armour is generally eschewed by aquatic elves for two reasons. First, it slows their swimming speed and agility. Second, most metal deteriorates over time underwater. As a result, most aquatic elves simply rely on their natural quickness to protect them in combat. Shields crafted from shells are common, and those elves with the resources often resort to magical means of protection such as rings of protection and amulets of natural armour.
Unique Items: Aquatic elves living in areas that are harassed by sahuagin or other enemies have come up with two ingenious forms of armour that work equally well on land or underwater. These two new forms of armour include shark-skin armour and chitin armour.
Aquatic elf weaponsmiths have also mastered the art of crafting bows that can fire underwater. While they lack the range of a surface elf’s longbow, the aquatic longbow provides aquatic elves with a potent ranged weapon for underwater combat.
Animals and Pets: Aquatic elves have a strong affinity for dolphins and porpoises, and they usually live in the same areas as these aquatic mammals. Most aquatic elf communities have several of these creatures as guardians, messengers and playful companions.
Aquatic elves also have a great and abiding respect for the larger whales, and although the migratory habits of the great sea mammals precludes the possibility of recruiting them as guardians or companions, many aquatic elves build communities along established migration routes so that twice yearly they receive visits from the stately creatures. A young aquatic elf often leaves home for a year just to accompany a pod of migrating whales.
Some aquatic elf communities have been known to train and keep sea lions as guardians as well, especially in dangerous areas. Sharks are universally hated by aquatic elves. Many think of these creatures as unnatural monsters tainted with perversion by their enemies, the sahuagin.
Regions: The Inner Sea, The Outer Sea
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 28)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 years | +4d6 (114—134) years | +6d6 (116—146) years | +10d6 (120—170) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 175 years | 263 years | 350 years | +4d% years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d10 (5’ 0"—6’ 6") | 100 lbs. | ×2d4 (104—260 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d10 (4’ 7"—6’ 1") | 80 lbs. | ×2d4 (84—240 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109), Races of Faerûn (Page 28)