| Dark Elf | |
|---|---|
| |
| skill | 5-10 |
| stamina | 4-13 |
| Habitat | Dungeons, Forests, Hills, Plains, Ruins |
| Number Encountered | 1-3 |
| Type | Elf, Humanoid |
| Reaction | Hostile |
| Intelligence | High |
The Dark Elves were a group of renegade elves who rebelled against their good brethren and embraced the cause of Evil.[1][2][3] Dark elves were infamous for their cunning, vanity and delight in every conceivable kind of spiteful cruelty.[2]
Dark Elves dwelt deep underground, but often sent raiding parties or armies to attack the surface world, whose inhabitants they loathed.[1][2]
Dark Elves are also known as "The Servants of the Night".[2]
Description[]
Two dark elves in the midst of an attack.
Originally, dark elves resembled their wood and mountain elf brethren. Over centuries of living underground, their appearance altered. After, dark elves were tall and rangy humanoids, with black or grey skin, and strangely attractive faces with deep green eyes.[1][4] When on the surface they usually dressed in long, dark, cloaks with large hoods. In their underground cities they wore strange, expensive clothes and decorate their hair and bodies with flamboyant jewelry.[1] Dark elves raiding the surface usually carried longbows and short daggers (with magical runes upon their blades) for use when attacking. Dark elf soldiers engaging in warfare tended to favour crossbows for ranged combat, and battle axes, halberds, and scimitars as melee weapons.[5][6] Despite their aristocratic bearings, every dark elf had a strong streak of malice in their personalities. Dark elves were extraordinarily imperious and merciless, and their great intelligence made them very dangerous enemies.[6]
Society[]
Dark elves dwelt in deep underground settlements. Every dark elf belonged to one of the Clans, and he or she was devoted to the Clan's service. There was often infighting and even violence between the rival clans, as they all struggled for power. However, severe conflicts would be immediately and harshly stopped by Clan Camcarneyar, who were loyal only to the city of Tìranduil Kelthas and feared by all other dark elves.[2] Elves from Tìranduil Kelthas tended to be very wealthy because of the silver mined there. They often wore silver jewellery and ostentatious, expensive clothing. Dark elves were governed by sorcerer-kings and witch-queens.[2]
Dark elf architecture consisted of twisted, unusually shaped buildings, bridges and stairs. Non-dark elves often found such buildings disorientating; to their eyes such buildings "seemed to defy all the laws of nature."[2][7] Dark elf settlements were often guarded by dog-like monsters called obligaths. [8] Dark elves had also created new humanoid species, such as the winged black flyers and the dog-faced trackers, to carry out various tasks for them.[9] [10]
A large part of dark elf society was built on slavery. Dark elves were feared for making slaves out of any non-elf humanoid race. Dark elves often traded slaves with orc and hill troll tribes for precious stones. Humans, dwarves and goblins were most often used as slaves; these unfortunates were sometimes randomly tortured or killed by their dark elf masters, when the latter acted on their cruel whims.[2][11]
Dark Elves had a fanatical hatred of all other elves, such as wood elves, half-elves and black elves.[2][12] Any such elves that were not immediately killed in battle with the dark elves would be taken alive to the dark elf sorcerers and witches. Here they would be slowly tortured before being sacrificed in the dark elves' unholy rites.[2]
Origins and Distribution[]
Birth of a Nation[]
Disaffection with Tradition[]
During the first ages of the world, a number of Elven clans argued that as elves were the wisest and strongest of the First Races, it was their duty to lead the other races of Good in a campaign to cleanse the land of all Evil.
The leader of this argument, and of the greatest of these clans, was the warrior-prince Viridel Kerithrion, respected by many as a great hero in the wars against Evil, yet also feared by some for his unusually active nature. However, none knew that Viridel was in fact a secret acolyte of Ar Anwar Gerithan, whom humans called Slangg.
Eventually, the urgings of his master and the frustration with what he perceived as blind conservatism from so-called "wise" councillors led Viridel to march against the Elven Council in an attempt to destroy it and take over control of the Elven Nations.
The Civil War[]
Unluckily for him, Ariel Aurlindol, the wife of King Glorien Thelemas had been gifted with the power of prescience, and warned her husband and many of the strongest clan leaders to avoid the Council. Nonetheless, over two dozen were slaughtered by Viridel.
Within three days, Viridel and his forces were surrounded by a vast elven host. The walls of the Council palace were slowly pounded to dust by catapult and spell, until after twenty days, several messengers appeared in an apparent attempt to negotiate a truce. Having dragged out the talks until after sundown, they returned to the palace.
However, this was only a ruse, buying time for the rebel clans to escape down passages that had been dug over the past seventeen days. Viridel attempted to declare an independent nation after this escape, but King Thelemas, in an unusually swift move for an elf, proceeded to invade that territory. In the year 588 OT, the King pursued the rebel elf clans all the way into an abandoned dwarf complex. The rebels sealed the tunnels behind them and the chase was abandoned.[13]
The Dark Elven Nation[]
Adapting to the Darkness[]
The rebel clans were forced out of necessity to adapt quickly. They learned how to work rock, grow fungus and moss for food, tame and train the great beetles and lizards found in these underground realms. Having expanded westwards for years, they chanced upon a series of natural caverns beneath Darkwood Forest and gradually began to build their great city, Tìranduil Kelthas.
Over the centuries, they grew strong again, and began to change in physical form as well. Their eyes became like those of cats, green and able to see in the darkest of conditions, their hair silvered or white, and their skin as smooth as velvet and black as pitch. Having abandoned Erillia and other Elven gods, they swiftly turned to the worship of the Dark Gods (especially Ar Anwar Gerithan) and demons such as Myurr.[1]
The Rebel Clans[]
It was around this time that a number of lesser clans, horrified at the extent to which they had fallen from the path of Good, managed to band together and flee from the city. In time, they would become the black elves, and would look upon all Elves warily.
Of the clans that remained, four rapidly gained the most power and influence, so that the remainder simply became affiliated or even totally integrated into them. These were the Kerithrion Clan, the Camcarneyar Clan, the Mirisgoth Clan and the Tesarath Clan. It was the Kerithrion Clan that became the master of the dark elves, their laws enforced by the Camcarneyar, though each had several laws and traditions unique to themselves, and were sovereign in their own parts of the city.
Siege of Carsepolis[]
In 1999 OT, an number of dark elves served as military commanders for the orc and goblin army during the Siege of Carsepolis.[14]
Distribution[]
A dark elf settlement undergound.
Dark Elves were mainly found in Allansia. They were commonly found near their city of Tìranduil Kelthas in Darkwood Forest, where the infamous "Darkside Elves" destroyed settlements and abducted humans and Dwarves to be their slaves.[15] Dark Elves also had a base in the Freezeblood Mountains.[2][16]
Dark Elves had also been encountered in the Old World, in the Witchtooth Line mountains, and the "Badlands" frontier region.[17][18]
Master of Chaos states that "Dark Elves are rare in Khul."[19] Despite this, Dark Elves had been encountered in northern Khul, near the Affen Forest [20] and in the kingdom of Zamarra in the south-west of the continent.[21]
Further Information in Canon[]
More information can be found at:Source[22]
The Fighting Fantasy 10th Anniversary Yearbook
(pg24-25*, pg58, pg60) |
See Also[]
- Dark Elf Assassin
- Dark Elf Gardener
- Dark Elf Leader
- Dark Elf Noble
- Dark Elf Spellcaster
- Dark Elf Warrior
- Dark Elf Warrior-sorcerers
Appendix[]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Adventures
- Assassins of Allansia (book)
- Caverns of the Snow Witch (book)
- Chasms of Malice
- Deathmoor
- Magehunter
- Master of Chaos
- Moonrunner
- Siege of Sardath
- Temple of Terror (book)
- Tower of Destruction (book)
Sourcebooks
- Beyond the Pit (mentioned)
- Out of the Pit
Video Games
- The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Tin Man Games) (mentioned)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Out of the Pit "Elf", (pgs. 47-48 )
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World - pgs. 94-98
- ↑ Advanced Fighting Fantasy – The Roleplaying Game - p. 25, 96, 105, 122, 124, 137, 155
- ↑ The Dreaming Sands, Warlock Issue 9 , pgs. 7-8
- ↑ Chasms of Malice - para. 192
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Siege of Sardath paras. 124, 169
- ↑ Siege of Sardath - para. 124
- ↑ Siege of Sardath - para. 362
- ↑ Siege of Sardath para. 299
- ↑ Return to Firetop Mountain - para. 1, para. 72 para. 306
- ↑ Siege of Sardath - para. 3, 237
- ↑ Skullcrag p.120
- ↑ Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World - pg. 53
- ↑ Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World pgs. 41-42
- ↑ Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World - pg. 12
- ↑ Siege of Sardath, - p.363, 395
- ↑ Legend of the Shadow Warriors - p. 95 - 68
- ↑ Moonrunner - p. 212
- ↑ Master of Chaos - para 111
- ↑ Phantoms of Fear, paras. 14, 19
- ↑ Fangs of Fury para64, para80, para252, para256, para283, para288, para386
- ↑ Complete list of references catalogued by FF Titan Bestiary