Elves, Dark

Dark Elven woman by ~Atlantean6 on deviantART

Those who toil.

Description: The dark Elves are descended from the Eladrin of Arborea. They are a conquered people that are the result of Eugenic breeding as a slave race to the Pelagasir, or the High Elves. Forced to wear clothes, the Dark Elves have slowly become a depraved people deprived of their basic freedoms to rule themselves.

Once in the ancient past, the Eladrin were one people. However, during the War of the Ancients a group of Eladrin was forced to flee Aborea their ancient homeland. Cut off from the planet Arborea, the Eladrin lost their magical glow in their eyes, becoming in short; the Elves. The elves split into different tribes: the fair elves of Arcadia, the Pelagasir of the Mountains, and the brown elves of Nuitari. However, Nuitari has faced invasions from the Pelagasir, destroying many cities and taking many of the brown elves of the tropical climes away into captivity.

Hundreds of years of breeding, slavery, rape, and bondage has transformed the brown elves from their African faces and body types into body types that more typify the High Elves. In the age of the nation of Tir'Tangeir, the dark elves, as they have come to be known, live as simple peasants and serfs to their High Elven overlords.

Over the years, the Dark Elves have become quite fed up with their serfdom and they are looking for ways to break their serfdom and to gain freedom. Either to start their own self styled kingdom somewhere or carve their own nation out of the Tir. The High Elves of Tir'Tangier is becoming somewhat tiresome and the old traditions of Dark Elf being serf and peasant upholding the High Elven overlords is becoming frankily . . . a problem. Still, the dark elf fights with resolve and studies arcane magic of their own, creating small libraries in their homes and learning from human wizards from Caithness.

Into this formenting chaos comes two cults: one dedicated to piece, and one dedicated to overthrow. The latter is brought about the self styled prophetesses of the Spider Queen, who whisper promises of dark elven domination over their High Elf masters. They whisper of a nation where they will be the overlords. A nation ruled by dark elves and controlled by Dark Elves created from the bones of Tir'Tangier itself. No one Dark Elf is master over all in this scenario, but all dark elves will be masters. This movement has flocked many to the Queen of Spiders and her prophetesses, but some wise women who remember the old stories, believe that it is Anansi the Spider up to his old tricks again.


Eilistraee by ~Atlantean6 on deviantART
The second movement is that of a moon goddess. The priests of the moon goddess also promises freedom, but the will to uproot and leave their masters for another land where they can be free. The priests and priestesses of the Moon Goddess call themselves the Luminari of the elves, and that the moon goddess carries a sword and is usually nude to represent freedom and fighting for one's freedom. At least to the Dark Elves.

The dark elves harbor little love for other races such as the halflings, and the humans, who are aligned with the High Elves. They have been an enslaved race for so long that they covet freedom and the ability to strike at their hated foes. Some dark elves harbor dreams of conquest and take over of all the Caithness isles. Others harbor dreams of let live and let bygones be bygones and dream of uprooting themsleves and plant themselves on new soil in a fabled lost land across the sea.

Appearance: Dark elves once had African faces, but centuries of interbreeding with High Elves and Eugenic manipulation has caused their faces to gain a Caucasian bone structure. Their skin ranges from gray to dusky brown, and their hair ranges from stark white to platinum, to a deep blue and violet. Males are lightly built, as the race tends to be ectothermic. Females are also lightly built ranging from lithe to slightly voluptuous. Unlike the orcs, which have been bred to be mesothermic, an elf looks like a delicate flower: but this is very wrong to assume. Eye colors include blue, green, golden, neutral, violet, and red.

Technology: As a whole, dark elves enjoy the technology level of the High Elves; which is Tech level 4 in GURPS terms. Dark elves have the wheel, they enjoy roads, they have the astrolabe and other implements of navigation. However, they mostly use Tech Level 3 -- Medicine isn't advanced, and they are forced to toil for the High Elf overlords.

Religion: The dark elves are caught between two extreme religions. One espousing vengeance, pride, war, and violence and the other espousing freedom. There isn't any middle ground except for High Elven religion, but that seems corrupt to the typical dark elf since the High Elf priesthood has beguiled most of the whole race into knowing that being poor is a virtue and that having riches is an evil beyond the pale. As a result, the dark elves resent and hate the rich for their abundance when they have so little as a race. Some dark elves are turning to Christianity to solve their Spiritual problems, entreating the humans for missionaries to teach them the Christian Gospel.

Naming: Dark elves use high elf parlance to name their children, but some who follow the Spider Queen has come up with their own unique names. Others look to their ancient heritage for naming.

Dark Elf Traits:
These traits are in addition to the high elf traits, except where noted.

• +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma.
• Darkvision out to 120 feet. This trait replaces the high elf’s low-light vision.
• +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Elven, Massalian. Additional languages include: Abyssal, Aquan, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Gnome, Goblin. This trait replaces the high elf’s automatic and bonus languages.
• Favored Class: Wizard (male) or rogue (female). This trait replaces the high elf’s favored class.