2250 words, not too shabby. Yes, it's worldbuilding stuff, kind of encyclopædic, but there's a bit of story in there, even if it's not as much as one might like.
The cliffælfe live in the scrublands and cliffs in the shadow of the northern mountains. In the scrublands, they live in large encampments, typically governed by a single extended family, and served by a cohort of two or three dozen retainers from the cliffs. In the cliffs, they live in large cities carved into the stone of the mountain, parts of them ancient beyond words, parts of them newly carved to meet the needs of the city. These cities are republics unto themselves, and ruled in a wide manner of different ways, ranging from violent despots to elected councils, and the cities are always engaged in an extremely complicated game of trade, alliances and warfare. Most of the actual warfare is carried out by the scrubland encampments, and take the form of ritualistic battle substitutes that allow the wars to go on for centuries with little loss of life. They tend towards darker skin than woodælfe, and their hair and eyes are generally black. Their coloration tends towards muted colors, in the range of greens, reds and purples.
