VEARTH RPG: PLAYERS GUIDE

Elves and Dwarves

# PLAYABLE RACES (CONTINUED)

## ELVES

Among Pan's most ancient peoples, elves embody the magnificent harmony between physical grace and spiritual attunement. Their spectacular longevity grants them perspectives spanning centuries, while their innate connection to magical energies makes them natural conduits for arcane forces.

**Ability Adjustments**: +1 Dexterity, -1 Constitution—their magnificent grace comes at the cost of slight physical frailty

**Special Abilities**:

- **Keen Senses**: 90% chance to notice secret doors when actively searching, 30% chance when merely passing by—their magnificent perceptions miss little!

- **Resistant to Sleep and Charm**: 90% resistance to these magical effects, their spectacular willpower shielding their minds

- **Infravision**: Can see heat signatures in darkness up to 60 feet, their magnificent eyes perceiving what others cannot

- **Magical Affinity**: +5% to arcane magic effectiveness, their souls naturally attuned to the spectacular flows of magical energy

- **Natural Grace**: +1 bonus with bow and sword weapons, weapons transformed into extensions of their magnificent bodies

**Physical Characteristics**:

Elves possess slender, magnificent physiques standing between 5.5 and 6.5 feet tall, with bodies that appear almost weightless in their movements. Their spectacular features combine angular elegance with an otherworldly beauty—high cheekbones, slightly pointed ears, and eyes larger and more vibrant than those of humans. Elven skin tones range from alabaster to deep bronze, often with subtle undertones that shift in different lights, while hair colors include not just human standards but also magnificent silver, blue-black, and rarely even emerald or violet hues.

Most remarkable are elven eyes, which contain spectacular depths regardless of color. These magnificent orbs often reflect starlight even in dim conditions, and the oldest elves' eyes develop subtle, breathtaking patterns reminiscent of constellations or cosmic nebulae—a physical manifestation of their centuries of magical attunement.

**Cultural Notes**:

Elven communities are architectural marvels, often integrated with the magnificent natural beauty of the Whispering Woods, their elegant structures built around ancient trees without harming a single branch. Elves possess an intrinsic connection to natural magic so profound that it shapes their very being, their magnificently extended lifespans (often exceeding 700 glorious years) giving them perspective that shorter-lived races can hardly comprehend.

They divide themselves into three magnificent subraces, each with distinctive cultural emphases:

- **High Elves**: Focus on arcane scholarship and magical artifice, maintaining spectacular libraries and laboratories typically located in Dawn City or other urban centers

- **Wood Elves**: Emphasize harmony with nature and druidic traditions, dwelling in magnificent forest enclaves where boundaries between architecture and natural growth blur into breathtaking organic wholes

- **Sea Elves**: The rarest subrace, build spectacular underwater cities in Omnious's shallower regions, developing unique magical techniques for breathing water and communicating through magnificent sonic harmonies

Despite these distinctions, all elves share certain magnificent cultural values—appreciation for beauty in all forms, reverence for history and tradition, and spectacular patience in their undertakings. Elven craftsmanship is legendary, not for the speed of production but for the breathtaking attention to detail that comes from willingness to spend decades perfecting a single magnificent work.

**Roleplaying Considerations**:

When playing an elven character, consider these magnificent aspects of the elven experience on Vearth:

- **Time Perception**: How does your character's spectacular longevity influence their decision-making and priorities? What appears urgent to humans might seem trivial to beings who measure seasons like heartbeats.

- **Magical Awareness**: In what ways does your character's magnificent magical attunement manifest in everyday life? Perhaps they instinctively sense arcane currents that others cannot perceive, or their emotions subtly influence nearby magical phenomena.

- **Cultural Adaptation**: How does your character bridge the gap between elven time perception and the faster pace of shorter-lived races? Do they find humans magnificently inspiring in their urgency, or frustratingly impulsive in their haste?

- **Personal History**: What spectacular events has your character witnessed in their potentially centuries-long life? Which historical figures known only through books to other races did they personally encounter in their magnificent past?

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## DWARVES

Stalwart and steadfast, dwarves embody the magnificent resilience of stone itself, their culture and physiology shaped by millennia of communion with Mythril Mountain's ancient heart. These spectacular craftspeople combine practical expertise with deeply spiritual connections to earth and metal, creating artifacts of such breathtaking quality that they often outlast their creators by centuries.

**Ability Adjustments**: +1 Constitution, -1 Charisma—their magnificent resilience comes paired with a blunt demeanor

**Special Abilities**:

- **Darkvision**: Can see in complete darkness up to 60 feet, their magnificent eyes adapted to the deepest caverns

- **Stonecunning**: +2 bonus on noticing unusual stonework, able to detect depth underground with spectacular accuracy

- **Magic Resistance**: +2 bonus on saves vs. spells and magical effects, their souls bound to earth rather than ether

- **Combat Training**: +1 to attack rolls against goblins, orcs, and similar creatures—ancient enemies they've fought for magnificent millennia

- **Stability**: +4 bonus to resist being knocked down, their spectacular center of gravity keeping them firmly planted

**Physical Characteristics**:

Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall with magnificent solid builds that typically weigh as much as a human despite their lesser height. Their spectacular physiology reflects generations of subterranean living—barrel chests house extraordinarily efficient lungs, powerful arms and legs provide tireless strength, and dense bone structure offers natural resilience against injury. Skin tones range from ruddy bronze to deep umber, while hair and beard colors include magnificent chestnuts, auburns, blacks, and—among the oldest dwarves—silver and white that often shimmer subtly like polished metal.

Most culturally significant are dwarven beards, which both males and females grow and maintain as spectacular expressions of personal identity. These magnificent growths are often elaborately braided, decorated with clan-specific patterns, and adorned with metals and gems that record personal achievements. A dwarf's beard represents their magnificent living history, with specific arrangements and decorations communicating their clan, profession, accomplishments, and social status to other dwarves.

**Cultural Notes**:

Dwarven strongholds dot the foothills of Mythril Mountain, where they excel in mining and crafting. These spectacular underground complexes combine practical functionality with breathtaking aesthetic achievements—halls supported by columns carved to resemble ancient heroes, walls inlaid with mythril veins that illuminate chambers in patterns replicating constellations, and massive doors balanced so perfectly that even a child can open them despite their enormous weight.

Dwarven society is clan-based with strong emphasis on ancestry and tradition, each magnificent family maintaining genealogical records stretching back dozens of generations. They are renowned metalworkers, particularly skilled with mythril—that most magical of metals—which they forge into spectacular weapons and armor that other races can barely comprehend. The most skilled dwarven smiths develop personal relationships with the metals they work, achieving a magnificent resonance that allows them to shape mythril without heat, using pure will and harmonic tones coaxed from specialized tuning hammers.

Dwarves typically live 350-400 magnificent years, their extended lifespans allowing them to undertake spectacular projects that might require decades to complete. This perspective often leads to friction with shorter-lived races, who may perceive dwarves as obstinately slow when they are simply maintaining their magnificent commitment to perfection rather than expediency.

**Roleplaying Considerations**:

When playing a dwarven character, consider these magnificent aspects of the dwarven experience on Vearth:

- **Clan Connections**: What spectacular traditions and responsibilities come with your character's clan affiliation? Dwarves view themselves as links in a magnificent chain stretching from ancestors to descendants, with personal identity shaped by this continuous lineage.

- **Crafting Philosophy**: How does your character express their magnificent relationship with creation through made objects? Even dwarves who aren't professional crafters often maintain some form of spectacular creative practice—stone carving, metal engraving, gem cutting—as a spiritual discipline.

- **Surface Adaptation**: How has your character adjusted to life beyond their magnificent underground home? Perhaps they find open skies disorienting, struggle with distance perception above ground, or maintain subterranean sleep patterns despite surface conditions.

- **Resource Reverence**: What spectacular rituals or practices does your character observe when working with natural materials? Dwarves typically offer thanks to stone before mining, speak respectfully to metals during forging, and maintain other magnificent acknowledgments of the spiritual essence within seemingly inanimate substances.