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Dragon age races and background.- Elves

Elven cards
A humanoid race, elves are typically shorter than humans and have a slender, lithe build and pointed ears. Long ago, the elves were the dominant race on Thedas, and their advanced civilization was based on nature, the Fade and magic. After the fall of their great city of Arlathan and the empire of Elvhenan, its following plunder by the Tevinter Imperium and the subsequent generations of slavery, the elves lost most of their cultural heritage and identity. They attempted to rebuild their society in the Dales, but after three centuries they fell to the Chantry's exalted Marches.

Since then, the elves have separated into two distinct groups: the Dalish, who chose to lead nomadic lives and strive to keep elven culture alive rather than submit, and the city elves, who live alongside humans, usually as impoverished outcasts, and have adopted many human customs. Overall, the elves are now a people associated with poverty, crime, barbarism, and are often used as scapegoats for humanity's difficulties. In Ancient Tevinter elves were called "rattus". Modern humans use the racial slurs "knife ears," "slant-eared"  or, less cruelly, "rabbit." Though most of the elven language has been lost, they once referred to themselves as "elvhen," which means "the  People".

HISTORY:
"Once, my people walked this land as gods. We worked magic that would blind you with its beauty. Now, we lurk in the deep forests and prepare for the next time you shemlen do something that upsets the balance of this world."
—Felassan

Elves of Thedas live no longer than humans, but elven legends state that this was not always the case. Once they were an immortal race and "magic came as easily to them as breathing", with some of their spells taking years to cast and echoing for decades in an unending symphony. They lived in harmony with the natural world and worshipped a pantheon of their own gods. Their magic was able to accomplish seemingly impossible feats, such as the creation of the unique, Fade-like world of the "Crossroads" and the maintenance of the magical repository of Vir Dirthara.

Elven lore holds that the first shemlen (a term meaning "quick children" that was used by the ancient elves to describe the humans and denote their shorter lives) they encountered were tribals who came south from Par Vollen. The ancient elves grew friendly with humans, but soon discovered that breeding with humans produced only human babies, while exposure to the "quick children" caused the elves to quicken themselves. For the first time, elves began to age and die.