THE ONYX ENCYCLOPEDIA #3 - THE ELVES OF NOUVEAU
Not all Elves are the same!
Elves in Nouveau actually stemmed from humans- not that they'd tell you that, anyways. Being exposed to magic for a long period of time changed them into the 4 main subgroups we see today.
CALYX ELVES were the first to come about, changed by using agricultural and floral magics used for farming and landscaping. This significantly helped the population grow. These elves take on a variety of skin, hair, and eye colors, but the most common are green and pink. Their ears mimic the shape of various types of flora. Their innate magical abilities revolve around growing things, and affecting the nature around them; most Calyx elves take up agricultural jobs, but are so populous that it's common to see them doing anything nowadays.
CICATRIX ELVES came about shortly after, when blood magic became highly used to treat wounds and sickness. It is common to see Cicatrix elves with scars on their faces, as it is a cultural rite of passage to wound oneself and be able to instantaneously heal it. They come in flesh and blood tones, with black sclera and red irises. Their innate magical ability is essentially to bend the blood to one's will, and there is a strict code of ethics to follow- not that every Cicatrix follows it, anyways. The Cicatrix take up medical jobs and combat jobs mostly, for this reason.
NEXUS ELVES are a younger subrace of elves who sought further enlightenment through complex Arcana. This enlightenment caused the development of a metaphorical third eye, giving them the innate magical ability to hear the thoughts of others. There is an aura of distrust that emanates from being a Nexus elf, because everybody knows you can hear their thoughts. The innate magical abilities of the Nexus Elves include telepathy, telekinesis, and enhanced memory, putting them in jobs that would benefit from a heightened mind, such as engineering and education, but not without being discriminated against for their invasive abilities. They wear circlets with a precious gem centered on their foreheads, as a representation of the third eye. Also unique to the Nexus is their tube-curly hair; no one is quite sure why this happened.
JINX ELVES are the youngest of the elven subraces and most peculiar for their odd ability surrounding Luck and Omens. During the initial occupation of Deco, Elves from Nouveau had started integrating themselves into Decan society and the strange magic of the dark started to affect them too, creating a fourth subrace of elves; more Jinx elves started popping up during the Nouveau-Deco War and unrest in the region caused some Nouveauians to defect and help the other side. Because of this history, these elves get a bad wrap from the more traditional people of Nouveau, but nowadays you can see them in both Deco and Nouveau taking up all kinds of jobs (but you never see them in the army...) These elves possess downturned ears and any value range of grey-white skin; with captivating purple/pink eyes with no pupils or irises.
ELVEN NAMING CONVENTIONS are probably the most dead giveaway as to what subrace of elf someone is. The structure of a name goes as this:
First name. Elves can be named anything, like humans. Janika, Desiree, Emmet, Tobias- first names are given as normal, by one's parents.
Middle name. This acts as the surname, and is often the father's surname as well. During marriage, women will change their middle name. Also, middle names are always no more than 3-4 letters.
Last name. It is a strict requirement in elven culture to put your subrace as your last name- while there is no formal law for this, it is frowned upon not to state which brood you come from with pride- or with shame, should they think you deserve it.
So, the structure would look like: Stewart Vino-Jinx, Loch Von-Cicatrix, Nessa Glen-Calyx, etc.
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