Forever striving for greater personal glory and power, the Aelfar band together in Courts for mutual protection and survival. They keep slaves, who tend small fields between the trees and do the other tasks no Aelfar desires to do - though the Aelfar do enjoy a certain amount of toil, there is always something that no-one has either the skill or the inclination to do. Aelfar slaves are those who have strayed into Aelfar lands, and the descendants of those poor fools, as well as Aelves who have been shamed beyond all redemption; though the slaves may not leave, they are treated somewhat better than serfs of Earth were in this period - mostly because a healthy slave is a good worker, and a dead slave is difficult to replace, it is true, but also partially because a slave is a responsibility as well as a privilage. It is possible for a slave to raise themselves to a respectable position within Aelfar society with dedication, devotion, bravery and luck - but they will never again leave the wildwood without permission from the Arawn of their Court.

There are two strict hierarchies amongst the Court, male and female, with individual Aelfar constantly attempting to oust those above and defend against those below. The only things stopping outright bloodshed are the laws and dictates of their religion, which reserves killing for priests and times of war. Each Aelf stands alone, regardless of ties of blood - parents, used to treachery and deceit, wean children away from them as soon as practical so that blood ties cannot be used against them by others or by their own brood. However, the Court as a whole is protective of their own, as they must be to survive in such a harsh world - harm one Aelf, and all the members of their Court will descend upon you, howling for blood.

The challenges for dominance take the form of single combat (to first blood, usually) or a riddle-game, where each combatant replies to the statement of the last, and the first to drop the thread of words or take too long to respond loses. These contests are always watched avidly by the Aelfar, who find both an amusing form of entertainment. Their preferred entertainment, however, is a hunt, where the Aelfar race through the wildwood in pursuit of some poor creature - deer, boar, bear, wolf or mortal man, it matters little as long as it is dangerous prey.

The King and Queen of a Court, or Arawn and Morgase as they are called in honour of the first High King and Queen of the Aelfar, are usually the highest-standing male and female Aelf at the death of the previous incumbents of the title. The prospective ruler spends the night alone with Derwydd of the appropriate God in a circle. If he or she survives this ordeal they are crowned, and their position is inviolate until such time as they die or their Court loses confidence in them, at which point new rulers are sent for trial by the Gods. The Arawn usually looks after the Court in times of peace, looking toward the future with trade and parley, while the Morgase deals with warfare and other matters of the heart.

Men and women have sharply-defined roles in Aelfar society. Men attend to the more physical tasks, such as hunting and smithing, and women tend to the children, spin, weave and sew. However, if a man wants to tend to the children, he is welcome. He joins the woman's hierarchy and lives as a woman, admittedly, but he is welcome to do so. And the reverse is true, if a woman wishes to do the more physical tasks of life. Some people are simply more suited to the other path, and it is a rare Court without at least one of these. Provided they are no worse at their path than any other who follows it, they are accepted - and just because a woman walks a man's path it does not mean that she too prefers women. Both sexes fight in war - one of the Courts once attempted to forbid their women to fight, and the resulting bloodbath perpetrated by the women on the men of that Court has gone into legend. Aelfar women are warriors as well as weavers, and their men are not often permitted to forget it. The sight of a pregnant woman on horseback, bloody axe in hand, is not a new one in Aelfar lands - every woman is a daughter of the Raven.

Since only men of proven worth have houses of their own, between leaving his father's house at 14 and acquiring the necessary skulls a young man lives in the bachelor's hall. He is forbidden to have intimate relations with a young woman, for he has not yet been proven worthy to sire the next generation - and any caught defying that law are killed. Of course, the greatest sin in this as in almost everything else is in being caught. For her part, a young woman is allowed to move in with a man as soon as she leaves her parents' house, which can happen at 12 at the earliest. If she has not found a man by 14, she enters the girl's hall. There are few formal marriages - a couple are considered married until she moves out of his house or he moves her possessions out of the door. At that point, the marriage is annulled. Sons belong to the man who was a woman's husband at the time of their birth, and daughters go to the woman. These things are not part of the gender-paths, and a woman who hunts cannot own her own house, no matter how many skulls she has taken.

Aelfar, due to the extreme winter chill of their northern world, live in brochs or sidhe which can hold a man, a woman and their children. Mounds of earth 6-8 feet high are raised and hollowed out, their entrances hidden from view. The only real way of telling an Aelfar sidhe is to climb the hillock and find the smoke issuing from the chimney. The Aelfar know of this weakness in their homes, and try to use fuel that is as smokeless as possible so as not to attract too much attention. Brochs are usually situated near streams, both for convenience and because the land near a stream is at the bottom of a valley and therefore sheltered and usually the place where the soil is deepest and their brochs look most natural. Most of the Aelfar work in large caverns, set in the rocky hillsides, either natural caves or ones dug by magic. The Aelfar prefer to be together in larger groups, and caverns offer the unvarying temperature and waterproofing not available outdoors, with chimneys cut into the living rock to vent the fires they need for light and warmth. Also not too far from the brochs is the formal area of the Court, where feasts are held and the Arawn and Morgase reign over their subjects. Leafy halls of ancient trees, Shaped into regal beauty, lend the legend of the Aelfar their most Sylvan heritage. For no matter where the Court is, there will always be a great hall of beautiful proportion defined by leaves, branches and tree-trunks.