My sylvan [wood] elves, the Kantiiri (literally, "Those of the Wilderness" or "of Untamed Nature") tend to run a bit more "wild elf" with a healthy dose of ElfQuest-style tribal culture than traditional D&D sylvan elf. Not "the Wolfriders", themselves, per se, though a tribe somewhere probably is/does. Not quite as war/battle focused, though. Would much prefer to simply be left alone, hide and avoid conflicts than fight. But, push to shove, if you are harming their home turf/woodlands you are getting a face full of arrow, blade and cudgel.
More often/closer to a hunter/gatherer culture than the great wooded halls of Thingol/LotR "Wood elves." Villages/communities are smaller built in and among the trees and high branches. Possibly several different communal centers are within a single forest and aware/friendly with each other, but they aren't all a single tribe. Still, an attack against one will bring you the wrath of all. Wood elves in my campaign setting are significantly more "elf-centric" and bordering on xenophobia than the high elves or most other races.
Arcane magic use/study is nearly unheard of. A unique gift or perhaps a curse (depending on the tribe) and requiring the expulsion from the community for the arcane-inclined elf to find their own way for study and training. Natural/Druidic magic use is a rare, but highly valued, talent/gift. Clerics (as in organized religions worshiping an established pantheon) among the kantiiri are unheard of. Shamanic healers are the closest they get to "religion" or divine magic. Animism is taken as an obvious fact. Nature is revered. Life is respected and seen in every blade of grass, rock, steam and leaf, worm to dragon. That said, the cycle of nature and relation of predator/prey is very much a truism to the kantiiri. Those that threaten life or nature are to be fought with your whole heart.
Nearly every adolescent or adult elf is skilled and has spent some time as a "hunter" and trained as warriors. In defense of a tribe's territories, you will have every able-bodied adolescent to senior elf taking up arms. Guerrilla warfare and ambush are always the preferred mode of combat. If you can fell your enemy with the only evidence of your presence being the arrow shafts sticking out of your target, so much the better.
Hunter/warriors are invariably armed with a bow, secondary weapons overwhelmingly include a small/light blade of some kind: dagger, short sword or scimitar, though different members of a hunting group/tribe may specialize in any number of weapons, particularly spears, staves and cudgels/clubs. Finding a Kantiiri elf clad in anything more than leathers (no armor more than studded), the soft-soled slipper-like shoes or boots and the impossibly supple grey-green cloaks of their make is unusual. What metal weapons they have are either traded for, claimed from fallen enemies, and/or prized heirlooms. The kantiiri neither have nor desire knowledge of metallurgy and are capable of making perfectly deadly weapons with wood (specially treated with a hardening resin), stone/flint, bone, and what metal scraps they find/gather from others (usually axe, arrow, and spear heads).
Clothing is generally more utilitarian than beautiful. Nearly all wear breeches or simple short tunics rather than large flowing robes or gowns, so as not to inhibit movement/allow great flexibility and speed traveling among the branches or through tight thickets other races wouldn't dare. Shades of browns, greens, greys, russet oranges and reds are the norm with accents of brightly-colored feathers, richly dyed leather strips, and/or variously colored or patterned furs and pelts. Decorative metals and jewelry, again, are traded for or found by chance and passed down. Such ornamentation is generally tastefully simple.
Diet is balanced if somewhat vegetarian leaning. Nuts, berries, roots, fruits and vegetables are the bulk of the diet. Fish is common. Crawfish, crab or other mollusks if the waterways have them. Grouse, pheasant and wild turkey are all welcome additions...duck less so. These fowl and rabbit are their most common sources of meat. Deer or the occasional boar are usually only hunted/slain for special occasions, prior to battle, or celebratory feasts (such as for a wedding or birth). Some larger tribes have learned, from other races, to keep goat or cow for milk and cheese-making. Some tribes may also keep sheep for wool for cloth (or occasionally raid for, shearing them in the night).
So...that's pretty much my wood elves. What do you want yours to be like?
