The Blood Elves

Origination
Never before had anything been able to survive the deep and destructive forces that make up ''The Blood Forest. ''But one day, a family of elves traveled to the uninhabitable land. These elves died in droves, trying to survive the blood poison that spread through their bodies, culling over 95% of their population. But then something strange happened, one elf was born with a mutation that allowed it to survive more then ten years in the forest. This elf was heralded as a chosen one, and bred with as many of the females as possible, cultivating this immunity. Over many generations, the elves became more able to survive the poisonous forest and evolution worked its 'magic'...

Physiology
The blood elves have constantly struggled against the forest that they lived in. Over many generations, the traits that helped the elves survive in the forest were cultivated, and the elves themselves changed as a measure of this. The forest, which drew heavily on The Sruth for its poison, also seeped into the very being of the elves that lived within its borders. This has given the blood elves a coloring to their skin that makes their flesh different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The eyes of the blood elves also match this coloration, though their eye color does not need to make their skin color (i.e. a red colored elf can have yellow eyes, etc...). The coloration of their skin and eyes allows for the blood elves to be easily identified among other elves.

Like all other elves, the blood elves are of a thin stature, slightly shorter then the average human, with high cheek bones, pointed ears, and wide eyes. Most elves were extremely long lived, but this was not the case for the blood elves. The blood elves didn't live long by human standard, let alone elven standards, for the average lifespan of the modern day blood elf was only ~30 years.

Despite their short lifespan, the blood elves have a very useful physical trait. In order to live within the boundaries of The Blood Forest, the blood elves have developed a natural healing ability that constantly regenerates their cells and bodies. This healing ability is so powerful that elves can regrow entire lost limbs, and survive arrows or daggers through the heart if the foreign device is quickly removed. It is this defense that provides them with the ability to live within forest. For as the forest poisons and burns away their flesh, they are able to rapidly repair the damage as if it was never there in the first place.

Having such a radical means for survival and preservation, as well as a short lifespan, the blood elves are not very numerous, with only a few hundred of them roaming and living within the forest at any given time. They can leave the forest, and this would increase their lifespan some, but they seldom do. The forest is their ancestral home, and offers protection from all other living things, so the short lifespan (to them at least) is a good trade off for ultimate protection.

Society
With only a few hundred of living blood elves at any given time, their society is very close-knit. Being so close-knit, the families rarely are at odds with each other, but there have been a few family confrontations throughout the years. They all live deep within The Blood Forest, in mighty tree-houses made from the dark, poisonous wood that makes up their forest. The tall tree-houses each hold a family of blood elves, so they are not plentiful within the forest. Each family consists of approximately 30-50 blood elves, so there is usually less than ten tree houses across the entire forest.

Having no animals to hunt within The Blood Forest has made these elves generally poor huntsmen, relying entirely on gathering the forest's poisonous vegetation to make up their diets. This means that they are by no means good marksmen, nor do they have a standing army to defend themselves with. But there aren't any other living creatures that can live for more then a few hours within their forest, so they don't have to worry about outside threats that would warrant a standing army. Their healing factor also means that a single blood elf could possibly continue fighting indefinitely against an armed opponent, so despite generally lacking in skill and training, a blood elf outside of the forest is still a dangerous creature.

Generally, their lack of violence within their borders have made the blood elves a peaceful society. They are divided up into their families, who gather from their own patches of the forest, and generally keep to themselves. They have religious ceremonies to celebrate the forest that they live in and their 'gifts' of health and healing twice a year, but other then that they don't seem to practice a specific and centralized religion. They go out to gather food, and live quiet peaceful lives under the dense canopy of flame colored leaves, and their forest lay quiet around them...