Dark Elves

History

During The Age of Rapture, a large group of elves was completely devoted to Aros, god of night and darkness. He was so taken with them, he spent most of his time in their midst, an unusual thing.

Because of his awe-inspiring presence, they were fanatically devoted to him. So much so, that they asked him to mark them as his. So, he made them as black as the deepest of nights and they started living in the darkest of forests and in forest caves.

When Aros left for Idyll, the Dark Elves shunned the rest of the world in despair and lived in isolation.

Physiology

Much like their cousins, they are lithe and beautiful with pointed ears, hairless bodies and faces, but their skin is completely black. Not brown, not dark brown, not midnight brown... black. Their eyes are totally black and so is their hair.

They aren't very tall for elves, about 1m75 in average, but they can live just as long, even though they average about 200 years.

Psychology

Dark elves tend to be a bit gloomy, distant, suspicious, cold and unfriendly. That being said, they make incredible allies and ferocious adversaries.

Values

Knowledge. To them, nothing is more important than knowledge. Without it, life is not worth living. It prevents them from being arrogant, knowing that it is impossible to know everything.

Dedication. Once set on a path, they rarely veer. They always set themselves goals and objectives. They will strike an alliance or kill an enemy without a second thought and be as confident they were right about either.

Truth. They constantly try to see what is behind everything, find out how things work, their true nature. They will lie when needed without any remorse, but not when it goes against what they consider primordial.

Order. Dark elves are sticklers for order, which is different from law. They like, logic things that work well, and efficiency starts with order.

Society

Their rulers, one female and one male, are seen as The Great Conciliators. They are called The Great Ones and they call themselves The Conciliators or a Conciliator. Their only task is to end debates, by making a decision in favor of one side or the other of an argument.

Their power in that regard is absolute. Beyond that they are just regular Councilors. Often, they are a couple, but not always.

They are appointed for life. When one dies, a new one is elected from The Great Council, which regroups all the Major Councilors.

Councilors

Councilors are distinguished members of society who have been raised by their peers to the head of a faculty, and they control all aspects of that faculty.

Faculty

A faculty can be about anything: a city, a craft, a particular knowledge...

Major Faculty

The restricted list of faculties that are considered major and can have a seat at The Great Council include:

  • The faculties of the largest cities
  • The faculties of the largest libraries
  • The Faculty of Magic
  • The Faculty of Finance
  • The Faculty of Embassies
  • The Faculties of Armies

Ranks

Within each Faculty, there are ranks:

  1. Councilor
  2. Master
  3. Senior Member
  4. Member
  5. Junior Member
  6. Inductee

Each rank has a different social weight within the faculty as well as a different weight when decisions are made, discussion had or during elections.

The Councilor

The Councilor is first amongst Masters and raised to his position by an election where Junior Member and Inductees have no vote.

Only a unanimous decision by all Masters can remove a Councilor from power, and 2/3 of the votes of Masters and Senior Members are required to overturn one of her/his decision.

Names

Their names are similar or other elven names, but there is a greater emphasis on D and T.

D&D 5th Edition Racial Traits

  • They do not have Sunlight Sensitivity.