Star Elves
The elves of the land call themselves the edelín, or the "people of the stars" (and use the term edelénath, or the "people of the firmament" to describe all of elven-kind). It is, in fact, a corruption of this term that the human "elven" derives, and then "elf" for one of the eledín. The edelénath say this name isn't merely fanciful: they claim that each star in the sky has an earthly counterpart, an elf whose very soul is the light of that star. They divide themselves into four peoples, one for each season during. A winter elf's star can be seen in the sky during the winter months, and likewise a summer elf's during the summer.
The legends of the elves claim they were the first to awaken in the mortal lands, before any other folk. Indeed, they claim to predate the sun and moon, incarnated when the light of the stars shone down on the waters, giving rise to their other name, the "children of the starry waters" (ellornhîn). It is said that the thing most sure to draw elves out of their homes are dark, moonless nights where only the stars shine down, for these remind them of the Aduialfuin, those ancient primordial days of gloaming when the world was lit by the cool lights of the stars alone.
Beauty & Grace
The edelénath are tall and graceful, with smooth skin and long flowing hair. Their bodies are lithe and quick, with dextrous fingers and nimble feet. They are lovers of beauty and grace, in both aesthetic and philosophical senses. The light presence that does not disturb the land, the soft tread that leaves no track, the whisper over the shout, the word that cajoles over that which commands: these are the embodiments of the highest grace among the elvinfolk. In art, they prefer things that are near and close to natural beauty, organic flowing things with graceful lines and delicate features.
The Graceful Lands
So great is the elven need for such things that a type of magic pervades their homes (rarely spoken of but called the minaglar, or the "between-beauty/beauty of between"). No one truly knows if this magic naturally occurs where the edelénath gather, or if they only make their settlements in places that bear this magic, but there is an undoubtable magic to elven homes. The weather does not beat down on those who live there as it might in other places: the sun is gentle and shade plentiful, the cold crisp instead of biting, and the rain simply does not seem to touch the elvinfolk who live there. Likewise, the needs of their incarnate bodies are lessened – hunger and thirst are rare, and come only after many weeks, so there is no need to bother with foods and drink that merely sustain. The elves themselves seem slightly numinous, as though suffused with an inner, twilight glow that they claim is the starlight of their spirits made visible by the minaglar.
Non-elves may also benefit from this inherent grace, albeit not to the extent that elves do (although this effect grows the longer a visitor stays); unfortunately, those non-elves also experience their time with a distant, somewhat dream-like quality. Indeed, they may find themselves sleeping longer and stranger hours, and their dreams difficult to separate from their waking hours in the memory. Still, dwelling in elven lands is an idyllic, healing experience for some folk, particularly those who have known tragedy or spiritual corruption.
Elves who depart from their homelands are as required to seek sustenance and rest (although never truly sleep) as any mortal might, so many choose not to leave. To elven sensibilities, the outside world is harsh, a place of furious elements, painful bodily processes, exhaustion, grief, and ugliness. Indeed, elves refer to the lands outside their homes as dôrnaeth: the "places of woe."
Elven Art
Freed as they are from so many of the demands of survival, elvenfolk spend a great deal of their time in the pursuit of art. They are fine wood-crafters and weavers, finesmiths and glaziers. Elven sensibilities are such that they prefer art that blends with rather than overwhelms (or worse, replaces) natural beauty. The height of elven aesthetics is the structure that one does not even notice is a building until one has drawn close to it.
Indeed, it is the nature of the elven lands that such structures do not need to serve as shelter, so they are utterly devoted to aesthetics: open roofed buildings whose gleaming floors are never dirty or leaf-strewn, and gates that seem to blend into the trees of the forest from which they're wrought. There is a particularly elven craft to their woodworking, it is said, which allows them to shape the wood by the use of secret arts that does not kill the tree.
Likewise, the fleeting pleasures of food and drink are well-beloved by elven folk, who consume such things not to survive but for pleasure. Elven breads are said to be imbued with the life-sustaining virtues of their homelands, making them favored waybreads for those who can acquire them. Likewise, elven wines contain some measure of the dreamlike lassitude of the elven lands, causing a sleepy, warm euphoria whose main impact is to cause long sleep afterwards, with none of the sickness of mortal drink.
The Dimming of Starlight
Elvenfolk use the term firiath ("mortal"; firion for a mortal man, or firiel for a mortal woman) to describe those outside themselves. Though many believe that this may be hyberbole, the elves claim that those of their people who never leave the grace of their homes are functionally immortal. Rare is such a being, though, and even the elves may die of violence, illness, and old age given the touch of the dôrnaeth outside their homes.
Still, they use the term "immortal" for themselves with good cause, because they believe that when they die, their star-spirits are incarnated once more upon the world. Indeed, the reverie elves fall into when they rest is nothing less than the dreamlike recollection of the memories of their previous incarnations. (It is noteworthy that the elven term for "immortal" is alfirin, which means "flower-like," referring to a cycle of constant blossoming and wilting as immortality, rather than a static, unchanging immortality).
This does not mean that the elvenfolk are all light-heartedness, however. There is a particularly melancholy air to the ellornhîn, for all of them are capable of recalling, to one degree or another, the primordial star-days before the sun and moon, and to the joy of existence for their people during those times. Though they take delight in what is fair, it is tinged with the grief of never again knowing that joy.
The Gwannim
Indeed, this grief has driven elves from the mortal realms. Those who do so are called gwannim (or "those who flee"), and are looked upon by elven sensibilities as tragic if understandable. Some (called merennim, or "the joyful") flee to the Feywild, the faerie realm whose entirety is imbued with the graces of the elven homelands, although doing so means flight from the stars of the firmament forevermore, and likely service to the Archfey.
Others (called the môrnim, or "the darkling") seek out the dark embrace of the Shadowfell, which is lit only by the wan light of the stars, though is also a realm of death. Those who die within the Feywild are always reincarnated in the mortal lands, while those who die in the Shadowfell may be reborn among the môrnim as the shadow-elves, or the eddúwath, who are notoriously wicked and twisted. While many among the gwannim seek the sanctuary of the Shadowfell, most of them do not intend to do so forever, seeking only a starry respite.
