The Shan Tor’athos are a proud, narcissistic, and, many would say, conceited group of elves which believe that beauty and perfection are all that matter in life and beyond. They claim to have once ruled over all the lower races, though their current domain consists solely of the coniferous Shaintree forest.

The Shaintree is covered in a thin blanket of snow throughout all but the hottest months of the year, and the Shan Tor’athos believe it is a gift from the world. The snow covers even the most misshapen rocks or rotting carcasses with a pristine samite, leaving only the evergreen trees visible.

The Shan Tor’athos are concerned with pomp and circumstance to the point of obsession. Something as simple as a brief pause in speech or a slightly off-centered cloak could easily be construed as a serious insult, and they have no sense of a measured response. Earn the ire of one of these elves and you’d do well not to sleep until the Shaintree is far behind you.

Needless to say, the courts of the Shan Tor’athos are hotbeds of intrigue, doubletalk and backstabbing. The Chosen are masters of diplomacy, but the Shan Tor’athos seem to engage in politics solely for the purpose of engaging in politics. They make games of posturing and politicking with little regard for what they’re actually arguing; all that matters is winning.

One of the greatest figures of Shan Tor’athos myth is Talthim Deltoro, an elf of legendary beauty. It is said that he was spurned by the then-king, whose name has been lost to time, and rallied the other races of the world into a war against the Shan Tor’athos in his rage, bringing an end to their empire. Talthim, officially, is seen as a traitor but every elf secretly wishes that they were so skilled in the arts of persuasion.

Shan Tor’athos ambassadors, and others who find themselves leaving the fabled perfection of the Shaintree, typically wear ivory masks to hide their faces from those unworthy to behold them. Despite their simplicity and surprising lack of ornamentation, the masks are hauntingly beautiful and many find they give the elves a disconcerting countenance.

Encounters with the Shan Tor’athos

The characters are assigned to escort and guard Ambassador Altraea, a Shan Tor’athos with little actual power who was sent on this mission mostly as a punishment. She is tasked with working out a non-aggression pact between Radcliffe’s Holde, a small agrarian community, and Keldonia, a moderately sized trading city several hundred miles away with two rivers and a small mountain range between them.

Ambassador Altraea is an ungrateful, spoiled brat who bosses the characters around mercilessly. However, to mistreat her would be to invite the wrath of the Shan Tor’athos on Radcliffe’s Hold, and the people there would be slaughtered if such a thing happened.