Hey. To try to answer some of your questions:

1) They do leave Elamiri. Queen Morganae was one of the founders of Shard and one of her children ruled in Throne City for a time. Player Mountain Elves seem to like Shard the best.

2) It's likely happened, even outside of PCs. I would expect daily interactions would not really occur, partly because of the geographical issues. Wind Elves and Mountain Elves might be the most likely to intermix, having been one clan previously. I don't know how their children would be viewed - likely the children would be expected to choose one clan and stick with it.

3) I'm not aware of any particular birth rituals. There's tons of info on marriages, but I don't recall anything on childbirth.

If you want help some time, I can try to answer some of your other questions. You can AIM me at CasserahDR.

Shard is lousy with PC Mountain Elves. The GMPCs from the Mountain aren't in game all -that- regularly, but it's still a lot more often than any of the other clans, from what I've seen. Every now and then someone from Leth pops up in Zoluren to represent the Forest Elves, but seeing Mountain Elves is much more common in Shard.

As far as intermarrying, it does happen. Marriage for Elves isn't generally considered a lifelong commitment, though. I would imagine that the child would follow the mother's clan, that's how my PC played it with her daughter. Generally speaking, Mountain Elves consider themselves far superior to every other clan (though most of the other ones likely have the same prejudice for themselves, particularly Snow and Sand), so I would think that intermarriage is not a common thing for "normal" Elves who would stay closer to home. The "adventuring class" is far more exposed to different cultures and people and is a different story altogether.

This has been helpful, thanks!

So, to clarify, there's no over-arcing reason that a mountain elf woman would not be able to leave the Mountain to travel anywhere she pleases, including Shard or Leth?

How's this:
XXXX's father was a forest elf, his mother was from the mountain. Before she met XXXX's father, she grew wistful and bored with her life in the mountain, and longed to experience a new life. In her travels to the north, she met a forest elf man, and fell in love. She decided to defy her parents' arrangements they had made for her, and marry the forest elf. To avoid negative attention and perhaps social ridicule, they were married quietly with a simple ceremony, only inviting a few honored guests. When word of her elopement reached her family back on the Mountain, her father sent out a search party of her brothers to retrieve her. Newly pregnant, and fearing severe or violent retribution from her mountain elf family, her and her new husband retreated deep into the forest, taking great pains to cover their tracks and throw them off her trail. They eventually made a homestead in the Endrus where she eventually bore him two sons, one right after the other. She died delivering the second child. The children were raised in the Forest, not knowing much of their mother, or the clan she represented.

Eh?

<<<It would be extremely rare for an elf to bear twins, if that is what you meant. It is probably equally as rare to become pregnant again soon after a child was born, if you meant that.>>>

My wording wasn't great there. I meant the latter. XXXX would probably only be three or four years older than his brother, which I suppose would be rather statistically rare for elves, considering their notorious difficulty with conception.

I agree it sounds completely plausible. My only suggestion is backing up Danoryiel's remark about the ages. Since Elves come out of the CM at 25 or 26 at the youngest (which makes those ages probably comparable to being 16-18 in other races), you could space the children out a little more to fit the idea of difficult conception. I would guess that 10, even 15 to 20 years, apart is not uncommon for the somewhat rare families that would have more than one child.

Casserah