Homebrew Christmas Elf (Church of Closs) Species Details

Glinting eyes stared down at the oblivious fox, shrouded in the shade of the fir tree. It wasn't the most hidden of spaces, but it was good enough as she lined up her candy-cane colored bow with the gap between the lowest branches and the foot of snow on the ground.

Merry was covered in a green cloak, much darker than what her people were known for wearing. But ideal for her kind of hunting. She squinted, picking out the dark eyes and nose of the fox that were all that really gave it away against the white backdrop of their wonderland home. But that was all she needed. She loosed an arrow-

She beamed with pride beneath the dancing lights of the town tree, her prize nearly the size of herself laid out before the other hunters with an arrows sticking out its brow. They would be able to line so many brims with this! So many ear muffs! She'd finally proven herself to the other hunters, she was finally one of them! And they chanted her new name into the night. "Merry Snowfir! Merry Snowfir!"

 

Jolly Little Elves

Small and jubilant, Christmas elves are a lot ranging from short and stout at 2 feet tall to "tall" and gangly at 4 feet. They tend to have exaggerated features with very few being an average height for their range, or say having simply average eyes, ears, or noses.

Descended from a gaggle of elf subraces and warped by the magics of San'ta Closs' domain, they come in earthy skin tones, ghostly pale, bright pink, or pastels of any color with a range of generally more vibrant hair colors to match. Like most varieties of elves they have little body hair, but have been known to grow preposterous mustaches and occasionally little patches of facial hair on the chin.

They are a colorful people whose aesthetics tend to use a lot of red, green, and white. With clothes that usually use a lot of stripes, triangles, bells, and fluffy fur trimmings. Not necessarily all at the same time. The majority wear hats with one to three points of various sizes and levels of stiffness, sometimes paired with paper or fabric crowns.

Servants of Closs

There is a great silver dragon from a snowy island North of even Icewind Dale. This dragon goes by San'ta Closs and spent much of his formative days roaming the lands of man in the form of a rotund wood elf with a beard like a dwarf's. San'ta became famous for his generosity, giving away coin that was once his own horde to uplift the poor. And when he ran out of that, being known for crafting toys he would gift to children.

San'ta gained many followers in his travels, mostly elven. And after pledging their fealty to him, the truth of what he was was revealed to them. San'ta took his followers to the North where he could better protect them, and they helped him continue his charity by creating treats and toys to seasonally bring South to distribute among the good children of the lands.

Over the centuries, these followers of San'ta became the Christmas elves. Religiously revering Closs, and holding the ideals of spreading joy and his name. Although they keep his draconic nature a community secret.

Life in the North

While the majority of Christmas elves are but simple citizens with no particular martial, religious, or magical training, they're all raised in a culture emphasizing joy, good will, and the beacon of benevolence that is San'ta. Most are skilled in at least one craft to contribute to the creation of gifts or confections, and you'd be hard pressed to find a Christmas elf who can't at least ring a bell to a tune.

When Christmas elves do take up skills and professions often attributed to adventurers, the most common classes that would be described would be artificers, bards, clerics, paladins, rogues, and sorcerers. Early in his worship, San'ta gifted some of his followers with magic. Creating a few bloodlines of draconic bloodline ice sorcerers. These families were his flock's first defenders and artificers, before belief and worship of him became so strong that he became able to grant boons to clerics dedicated to him, and sheer dedication to him was able to power mighty paladins.

Day to day life includes a lot of play for most Christmas elves, but also a lot of shift work that they put in year round to create new gifts for the next week of Midwinter. Where most of the adult elves and San'ta himself will leave Southward, spreading the toys to the good girls and boys. Some Christmas elves instead of building are tasked with tending to the legion of reindeer, general maintenance of the community, or coming up with new, inventive gifts or enchantments for the toys.

While omnivorous and able to eat anything most humanoids can, Christmas elves have a special fondness for sweets and cow's milk while visiting the South. And on the island their diets consist of a lot of baked goods, walrus, poultry, and reindeer's milk and cheese. While the occasional Carolers return to the island year round with fruits and vegetables from the South.

Carolers

A Christmas elf who travels South outside of the holidays and without being banished is called a Caroler. While most Carolers are merchants trading for produce, or a bard or cleric spreading the good word of the Jolly Old Elf, sometimes a Christmas elf is just overtaken by a wanderlust like their forefathers or gets sent out into the world on a special mission. The primary tenants of being a Caroler are to spread cheer wherever you go, not to bring outsiders back home, and to protect the secrets of Closs.

Christmas Elf Names

Christmas elves have abandoned the tradition of "child names" and "adult names" typical to most elf subraces, instead picking up nicknames usually based on their profession, a special talent, or an obvious physical feature. These nicknames don't replace the birth name that their parents had given them, but instead become a modifier for it. Alliteration and puns are loved, but not mandatory.

Their birth names may be traditional Elvish names, but it isn't unusual for a family to name their children after people that they met on journeys into the South. So there are plenty with names as mundane to humans as "Tim."

Male Names: Adran the Arms, Immortal Immeral, Inventor Osborn, Old Lian...

Female Names: Calamity Caelynn, Frozen Mei, Laughing Lia, Portia the Cat...

 

Christmas Elf (Church of Closs) Traits

Your Christmas elf character has an assortment of inborn abilities, the results of both their ancestry and the magical land of their birth.

Ability Score Increase

Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Age

Although Christmas elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, they can live to be 750 years old and some hold onto Elven traditions of not considering one an adult culturally until 100.

Alignment

Christmas elves are mostly good, but their society prizes and celebrates the chaotic, the lawful, and everything in between. An evil Christmas elf would often quickly find themselves ostracized and removed, but lawful evil individuals can thrive within the community.

Size

Christmas elves range from 2 to 4 feet tall. Your size is small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Cheerful Trance

Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they may meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is "trance.") Christmas elves have a different sort of trance, where if they go to bed excited enough they may instead sit upright and semiconscious, with wide eyes and dilated pupils. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. If you go into trance during a long rest, you finish the rest after only 4 hours. You otherwise obey all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed.

Festive Us

You have proficiency with one musical instrument of your choice and one artisan's tool of your choice.

Flashy

You know the dancing lights and thaumaturgy cantrips.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.