Dark Elf
Deep within Kyme the dark elves expand the empire beneath the world. From their capital of Malanh they fight back the fell denizens of the Depths, maddening horrors and vicious undead that stalk the darkness. Forced into the Depths by the dragons that once ruled the world the elves have been continually tested by their harsh environment and ill fate as the last of their elven brethren. Yet they have endured with the disciplines of their arcane, cunning, and martial abilities set down by their ascended heroine goddesses, the Travail. They currently hold a seat on the Council of Arkyme.
Dark Elf Names
Countless elven names were lost in the Age of Fire as the dragons annihilated elvenkind across Kyme. Those elves that survived took up names to mark their loss and many names denote their long melancholy and ashen hearts. Across their lifetime an elf might take on various names to mark great changes in their life. One's House though is a pillar of continuity across the centuries.
Female Names: Aelryn, Alaeris, Aravem, Idrile, Madryn, Mavothus, Nalthim, Olvissa, Runeri, Sadris, Vilvleth, Zhesstra
Male Names: Ano, Devmolyr, Fendros, Hlathus, Laraan, Nirass, Relas, Tryveth, Sovdryn, Szordrin, Xaraan
House Names: Alvedar, C'erethi, Davatha, Despt'sar, Induvion, Nalfendyr, Nethendus, Omrial, Sadoren, Sathrus, Srolment, Vhondryl, Vramarys, Zinistyr
Dark Elf Traits
Ability Score Increase - Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Constitution and Charisma score increases by 1.
Age - Dark Elves reach maturity around the second decade of their life, yet seen as youth until they reach their first century. Elven lives as they span the centuries enter into phases of understanding and experience, becoming venerated as an elder of their kin. The elves can live near a thousand years.
Alignment - The ethos of the dark elves is strength and cunning above all, they are drawn to evil alignments as their history of survival has marked them. Yet they maintain strong lawful attitudes that have allowed them to shape an enduring empire.
Death - Elves pray for their return to the Faeweald upon death. However many of the forces in the world that would claim their souls cause many elves to seek over their long lives a way to bind their soul to the prime, to still serve their people as ancestral spirits.
Size - Lithe and ranging from 5 to over 6 feet in height. You are size Medium.
Speed - A walking speed of 35 feet.
Darkvision - Dark elves in their subterranean empire have gained the ability to see in dim light up to 90 feet as if the area were lit and in total darkness as if it were dim light. Though you are only able to make out shades of gray.
Fae Ancestry - Induced to the confounding magics of the fae, you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.
Trance - Elves do not sleep, they need only to focus their minds in a meditative state. Spending 4 hours in this trance like state of unconsciousness you achieve what a human might with 8 hours of sleep. In these meditation many elves focus on their ancestors or the realms of the Faeweald, where they might dream of the forests and kin lost to them.
Travails - Taught the tenets of the Undermothers you are proficient in two of the following skills: Arcana, Perception, and Stealth. You also gain proficiency with two weapons of choice and light armor.
Deep Magic - To combat the oppressive environment of the Depths, the world beneath the world, you have learned magic to aid you. You know the dancing lights cantrip and at 3rd level you are able to cast detect evil and good, regaining this after a long or short rest. Upon reaching the 5th level you are able to cast pass without trace, regaining use on a long rest. Wisdom or Charisma is the spellcasting ability.
Languages - You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish.
Dark Elf Variant: Voline
The Voline are the descendants of dark elves that were warped by their contact with an Eldritch artifact within the Depths. An army led by the noble house Voline pushed beyond where any other dare venture, ultimately leading them to ruin. Yet they pledged themselves to serve Malanh still in their corrupted form, and ultimately they and their descendants became perpetually indentured servants of the elven empire.
Voline will have one Elder Trait taken from the Eldritch Race, replacing the Deep Magic or Travails trait.
Dark Elf Attitudes
The long remembrance of the elves has set them apart from other peoples. As a whole they feel betrayed by the rest of the races and their outlook is shaped by the living memory of their elders.
Vampires - "The Vampires may hold sway over much of the hemisphere, but the Depths are our Empire that none may challenge."
Dwarves - "They think themselves boulders, but they are indeed pebbles worn under the boot of the humans."
Eldritch - "We've battled against things like them through the ages, should their eyes turn white with madness we shall be there to destroy them."
Humans - "So concerned with their short lives that they cannot hope to survive this next age of Kyme."
A History of Kyme's Elves
In the Age of Air, this time of beginnings. A realm of wild spirit formed at the borders of reality, from which the spirits that came to be known as Fae would enter the world. They were those first to come to the world of Kyme, to be given mortal form, but ever to return to the realm of the Faeweald and await the call to mortality once more. The mortal form of the Fae spirits were named the elven people, choosing bodies for themselves now dwelled in the world and they grew strong as a people. Yet horrors from beyond swelled again over their new realm, taking many of the younger races into their influence. Strength of spirit and cunning of mind the elven people survived the Eldritch dominion over the world in the Age of Water.
Yet as the horrors retreated from the world another tyranny took hold. As there came to be the first true realms of the peoples of the world, dragonkind came to all, demanding fealty to the newly named Dragon Kings. As the others broke under the terror wrought by the dragons, it was the elven peoples of the South and dwarven peoples of the North that resisted. This would not last. The will of the dwarves broke, relinquishing the wealth of their kingdom, breaking the alliance and driving the dragons to a mad greed matched only by their wrath. So, this wrath came to the South. Dragon fire consumed the lands. The trees of the Green Reach turned to cinders and the stones of elven citadels melted, while the elven people fled. For they were no a people sundered. Those who could escape to their soul's realm, the Faeweald, took whole settlements in their passage, while all others fled to the east. The ashes of the trees marking their spirits and their own passage into darkness.
Three sisters came to lead their people, rescuing all they could, through their power those that were left behind endured. Vithim was of peerless martial prowess and the most ferocious of orators. Sheathed in the most splendid of armaments, her armor The Matron's Mantle, forged of Mithraii, inscribed with ancient words of protection, and her glaive Drim that held within it the Ancestor's Light. Olmavixa was the most cunning of the sisters and there was nothing that could withstand her scrutiny and the secrets she bore. With her cloak Veshar, being imbued with her watchful vision there was never again to be any that attacked her people unaware. Sithua a gracious mage of supreme power, with an unrelenting intellect, she served as a guide and teacher to her people. Bestowing upon them the gifts that would protect them and their new empire.
In the Depths of the world all the elves now followed the Travail, the sisters named the Empresses of the Empire of Malanh. In the darkness of the world they would wait until there came a time to exact their vengeance upon dragonkind. The city of Malanh was built surrounding an immense chasm formed by a star of omen, that Sithua named this unearthly formation the Aelderwell. With but a word the sisters chose to descend into the chasm, telling only they sought yet another passage for their people. They never returned. The elven people endured this as they had endured their brethren departing, now called the Weald Elves by the other races. Over the millennia the hidden empire sprawled further out into the Depths.
As the dragons had heralded the Age of Fire, the rumblings above awakened a people. With the Ashbreak Rebellion drawing the other races to bring an end to the reign of the dragons, the elves emerged to exact their terrible vengeance. As the other races seized from the dragons all that had been gained across the Age, the elves returned to their ancestral home, the vast forests of the Green Reach. Yet no hidden cloister, no surviving sect of elves emerged, none could be found. Soon came the battles between humanity and the undying humans who took on vampirism. The War of Extinction had begun.
