(Note: The name "Elf," with the plural "elves" borrowed from Tolkien basically just because "elfs" doesn't have a very good ring to it, is used as a convenience to refer to the race (of /Homo sapiens/) in the Black Steel world that most closely resembles creatures of that name from typical medieval fantasy. Assumptions made about elves on the basis of fantasy stories however, especially in regard to specific sub-races to which parallels are attempted to be drawn, are as likely to be mistaken as correct however; the elves of the Black Steel world are a far cry from the near-demigods of the Silmarillion or -- in spite of their genetic heritage -- the funny-eared-humans of modern fantasy. The impacts of multi-century lifespans and native sorcerous power are difficult to overstate.)
Apart from a few superficial differences common to most elven people, the elves known to Black Steel fall well within the range of human appearance; most of the elves Black Steel personnel have met could pass for humans simply by adapting fashions that conceal their few clearly distinguishing features (exceptions are usually because of eye colors that fall outside the normal human range). Their appearance can be deceiving however; unlike humans, all known members of the elven race are bound up with sorcerous forces from birth, one impact of which is in an aging process that is typically very different from humankind's and at all events slowed enormously. Elves (or at least people with elven blood, like Nimlo) raised in human society seem for years to behave more or less as might be expected of other human beings with manifest sorcerous potential, if anything can really be said to be expected behavior for such rare and unpredictable individuals, but as humans age around them and their appearance and health remain similar to that of human teens, such elves inevitably begin to diverge from their human neighbors socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Elves actually raised in the society of their blood relatives, surrounded by family and friends who have lived for centuries and expect to live for centuries more, wilding sorcerous power as naturally as they use their hands and feet, can appear almost alien in their sensibilities to human beings.
Elven people appear to interact with sorcerous forces much more naturally than human beings; even elven children seem capable of harnessing such forces to some degree, whereas even humans with enormous sorcerous potential normally require a great deal of training before they can work even the simplest magical feats. Given this, and the enormous lifespans to which elves can devote the study of sorcery, it might be expected that elven wizards would achieve skill and power beyond the scope of any member of humanity. It is possible that this has proven true on rare occasion, but in fact most elves encountered by Black Steel personnel have proven far less skilled in sorcerous arts than a typical trained human wizard; the cause appears to be essentially cultural: Most elven societies seem to take their sorcerous power for granted. With the capacity for its use so prevalent -- indeed universal -- it is apparently extremely rare for elves to concentrate their efforts on the art of sorcery as human wizards do (indeed, thanks to the relatively small population of elves in the world, it might be more fair to say such elves are not just extremely rare but nearly -- or in fact -- nonexistant). It is rumored that this does not always hold true in shadow elven societies, and so that shadow elves exist who are capable of mind-boggling feats of sorcery, but rumors of power or terror regarding the shadow elves, often contradictory, are numerous and improbable in the extreme.
Like humans, elvenkind is divided by some into a handful of "subraces" defined by superficial differences such as skin color, and usually separated geographically and culturally; also like humans, most people appear to ascribe more importance to these differences than they deserve. Certain myths about the distinctions between the elven peoples are almost universally believed among humankind -- especially among those who have actually met few or no elves in their lifetimes -- for instance that dark-skinned shadow elves are universally evil and monstrously powerful, and that the rarely-seen starlight and moonlight elves are universally noble, wise, and good, but it has been the experience of Black Steel personnel that such myths are so much stuff and nonsense. The shadow elves they have encountered, for instance, from Thualah in Shalaton to the enclaves in Night Harbor, appear to run the full range from altruistic and selfless to self-serving and merciless to frankly insane. While there are no doubt cultural considerations that affect shadow elves' relationships with humankind, every indication Black Steel has witnessed suggests that there exists wide variation among individual shadow elves and their various cultural groups. Likewise, though Black Steel personnel have encountered too few starlight elves as yet to form any special opinion of them, the moonlight elf they know better than any other elf at all sets rather a poor standard for honest, wise, or altruistic nobility. Woodland elves, in the meantime -- the race best known to Black Steel and to most human beings -- have regional reputations no less diverse than those of human nations.
Elves and humans are known to breed true, and people in human societies with recent elven ancestry are said to have "elven blood." While such people are typically longer-lived than other humans (sometimes much longer-lived) and are much more likely to be born with sorcerous potential (indeed, this accounts for the only real possibility of inheritable sorcerous potential among human beings) they are often also physically frail (more so than most elves or humans) and all of these distinctions, along with any other elven characteristics they may inherit, tend to peter out over the course of a few generations of "dilution" with human bloodlines. Nevertheless, some human families claim elven blood as a point of distinction and pride even after centuries of "dilution" (to say nothing of opportunities for infidelity to break the chain of inheritance ... or the chance that such bloodlines are complete fabrications) and children with elven blood -- by adoption or conception -- are much sought after in certain circles of human society.
