Atlas    Languages    The Multiverse    World Timeline Campaigns    Characters    Modules Creatures    Monstrous Index    Encounter Maker Religions Personalities Magic Items Lore & Stories Rule Additions    Feats    House Rules    Prestige Classes    Races Spells    Domains Links Go to Creature: AnkuburusAveraBlack PhylisBone WalkerBradelCarachesChaos FiendChaos WraithDark IncarnateDemon, ArguliaDemon, AtarniaDemon, NahakDevil, Flesh Rend...DinDragon, MirrorDramorian ReaperDwarf, Daernartho...Eater of ColorElf, DrakherElf, EarinaiElf, GaliadreElf, LeretherElf, NadristiElf, SelereElf, TenerthorEloamEmrionFlame LordForest MassiffGolth-Qua'nGrim CloudHaruninkiHousheeHustiIncasos, Bashlika...Incasos, BlightIncasos, Geltutoo...Incasos, Infaelud...Incasos, JulahdonIncasos, MaeldradIncasos, Mandrago...Incasos, Mealafis...Incasos, TaturakKadahar, GreaterKadahar, LesserLeshyLiving IceLupinalMoredhelMoredwraithMwellwretOruliProckSakarabruSand GorgonSand Spider, Hunt...ShadowmanShub-Naddar, Caus...Shub-Naddar, Cete...Shub-Naddar, OozeShub-Naddar, Over...SilothreniSkhullSkull BearerSpirit HunterS'ratStonemite SwarmStorm WraithTsadutanWaynhimWomberingWorm, TsalanaZith

Elf, Earinai

Appearance

The Earinai are very slender, and typically much smaller then their already slight brethren elves. Their elvin features are stronger and even more exaggerated then other elvin races, with strong and high cheek bones, narrow faces, slanted eyes with colorful hues, and sharply pronounced ears. Their hair is usually braided and light brown, blond, or white in color. Earinai move with ghostly grace, even when quickened or startled. Their clothing is usually made from plants rather then cloth and frequently is highlighted with small flowers here and there. Both male and female Earinai Elves look surprisingly similar, both having delicate features and wearing their hair long, and thus can be difficult for a first time viewer to tell the difference between.
    The Earinai have long been reclusive from the rest of the world, keeping to their sacred and eternal Forest Heartstrong, known to them as the Dyaerinyae Yultherie - the mother grove. Most creatures and beings from outside of Forest Heartstrong do not know of the Earinai's existence and even other elvin races doubt that the Earinai are more than a fanciful tale. One thing is certain though, no traveler daring to walk into the green, thick, and ancient Forest Heartstrong has ever been seen again. It is said that the trees themselves conspire to keep unwanted visitors to these hallowed woods from returning.

Combat

The Earinai fight with bows, their arrows (1d6 damage) are tipped with a quick, painless, and lethal poison made from the sap of a tree called the Mythadraede (Mith a dray di), known to only grow within the Forest Heartstrong.
    When forced to close combat the Earinai prefer to use pack tactics - taking turns becoming invisible and darting in to strike with their poisoned daggers. Blow darts, slings, and man traps are other favored weapons against intruders into the forest.
    Poisoned Weapons: Fortitude save (DC 22) or fall unconscious for one minute. After this time, the subject must make another Fortitude save or remain unconscious for 1d4 hours and lose 2d6 Constitution. Poison price outside of Forest Heartstrong (very rare) for one dose is 3,200 gold pieces.
    Low-light Vision (Ex): Earinai can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, etc.
    Resistances (Ex): +2 racial bonus to Will saves against enchantment and illusion spells or effects.
    Immunities (Ex): Unaffected by magical sleep spells and effects.
    Small: Earinai gain a +1 size bonus to AC and attack rolls and a +4 bonus to Hide checks, but they must use smaller weapons than humans use, and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of Medium-size creatures.
    Spell-like Abilities (Sp): All Earinai have the ability to invoke certain magical powers: invisibility, calm animals, and pass without trace, each 3 times per day.
    One in twenty Earinai are gifted with the additional spell-like powers charm animal, create water, detect evil, entangle, goodberry, locate creature, plant growth, purify food & drink, sanctuary, shillelagh, and speak with animals. Earinai Shamans can use each of these powers once per day at 4th level spell caster proficiency.
    Skills: +2 racial bonus to Spot, Listen, Climb, and Wilderness Lore checks.
    Proficient in Bows: All Earinai receive a +1 racial bonus to attacks made with bows. They are proficient with longbow, composite longbow, shortbow, composite shortbow, regardless of character class.

Habitat/Society

Among the elvin races of the world there is a great debate as to which race is the father race of the others. Many believe that the Tenerthor, the wild elves, are the progenitors of the race, but select Galiadre sages believe, or very strongly suspect that in the depths of the Forest Heartstrong rests the answer to which elvin race came first. Their legends speak of a race of elves called the Earinai, the untouched, dwell in these enchanted woods, safeguarded from the world of mortals and other elves. It is said that other elvin races have lost some of the magic which the gods gifted them with because of their continued contact with the world of men and other mortals.
    The Earinai are incredibly long lived and legends say that the first elves of the world still live and that perhaps the Earinai even know what came before that timeless age known as the Age of Chaos. These wild speculations are only fueled by the fact that no one has ever had, nor recorded, contact with the wardens of Forest Heartstrong. The evidence that they are there though is shown by the absence of men who have wandered into the forest and never been seen again. Many believe the wood to be haunted and men say that there are strange lights visible in its depths late at night and that sometimes a haunting music can be heard from within when the wind blows just right.
    It is said that the language of the Earinai is captivatingly beautiful to hear and that the words of it hold special magical power and ancient meaning which has been lost from the languages of the other races. The Earinai have no known written language. Their history, knowledge, and stories are passed from one to another. This is not difficult for the Earinai because of their incredible lifetimes - said to last for many thousands of years. The rangers of the Earinai are said to have a runic language of symbols which they place about the forest to mark fresh water springs or other items of interest. Races outside of the Forest Heartstrong say that in ancient days, when the world was empty of men, the Earinai lived and spread over the forests of the world, and that the markings today known by the rangers of the world were first the markings of the Earinai.
    The Earinai are the only elvin race that builds all of its shelter in the branches of trees. Other Elvin races, such as the Lerether build in the trees, but this is considered an option for the wealthier. Among the Earinai are a group known as the Caem-Caedor, the shapers, who are gifted with a magical ability to shape the bend of a trees growth with their hands. This talent is used to erect seemingly natural looking living barriers and to build living shelters from the wood of trees without harming the trees themselves. Caem-Caedor also have the a power similar to the spell Plant Growth, allowing them to influence the rate at which a plant grows as well. Since the Earinai grow up in the heights of the trees, many by the time they enter their youth have become excellent climbers, able enough to move through the branches of the Forest Heartstrong's trees as quickly as the could move upon the ground. This too is aided by the ancient branches which have been shaped by the Caem-Caedor into pathways throughout all levels of the forests heights.
    The Earinai rarely place faith in gods. Certainly, having lived so long they must have observed the workings of gods upon the world, but they decline from worshiping other beings. If there is anything worthy of worship to the Earinai it is the presence of the forest which they live within. Thus there are more druids than priests among their race.
    Children of the Earinai are few, rare, and precious beyond price to their community. The race grows so very slowly that they still are recovering from the age when they fled the world of man and entered the Forest Heartstrong. The community looks after the young as if they were the parents themselves and the parents keep no family claim upon their young, nor command any special respect from their children because of their parenthood. Rather, the community is the child's parent and guides the young into adulthood with equal responsibility, credit, and effort.

Ecology

Alas, other elvin races seem to have lost so much when compared to the Earinai. Their closeness to the trees is small when compared to the intimate relationship which exists between the Earinai and their sacred forest. Earinai shun the races which live outside their forests, avoiding any contact with the mortal races which have fallen away from a symbiotic life with nature. The Earinai live in near perfect harmony with the trees, plants, and wildlife which surround them.

History

The history of the Earinai is lost to those who live outside of their forest. The Earinai discourage contact with the other races, shunning even the other elvin races. There is no record of their participation in the wars or politics which have raged around them. Even when the mighty armies of the Dark One swept across the earth, destroying the great elvin Lerether nation of Elestinlore, the armies could not penetrate the woods of the Forest Heartstrong. The trees would not burn, and the walls of brambles grew so thick about the edges of the forest that none could enter within. It is said that shortly after the beginning of the Age of Legends, before the great UnHoly Wars brought that age to an end, the Earinai left the world to seek safety within their forests. Sages tell of a sickness that was invading the health of the race as sparse contact with the other races grew and that the Earinai feared they would be lost to the world. So they fled to the first trees, the Forest Heartstrong, abandoning many of the remote and sick to the outside world. Stories also say that these elves which were left behind and who did not perish from the strange sickness became the fathers of the elvin races which now live in the outside world today.

Variants and Resources

While the Earinai fled to the Forest Heartstrong, it is said by some that there lived another founding elvin race, known as the Nadristi which was nearly destroyed during the UnHoly Wars, or by the gods, or by sickness - the stories are varied. This race was incredibly powerful in magic and it is legend that they, on the brink of annihilation, used their great magics and fled the world into another dimension where they still live now. These great elves were said to be able to shape the earth much like the Earinai shape the trees and many ruins in the deep mountains of the world are said to have been built by the Naderisti. The most famous of these ruins are the lost City of Goshome, discovered in the heart of the Crescent Mountains by Arid Tommen, a great explorer of the Eastern Empire in the days before the Ilerth War.