Dark Elves

Before the Scourge, the Dark Elves (ama’ali) and Frost Elves (ama’ali’en) were like any other race of elves, though they lived in the Shattered Lands far, far to the north of any other civilized race. They worshiped the great father of all elves Corellon Larethian, and paid respect to the spirits of the ancient dragons that slumbered in the ice caves beneath their cities. They held themselves aloof from the rest of the world – even the rest of elven kind – and were rarely seen outside their lands. When the Empire crushed the city states of the desert-dwelling elves far to the south, they cared little, and sent no help. The only humans they had any real dealings with at all were some of the Ta-Den tribes, and even then contact was rare and often tense. When the Scourge began, emissaries from the other civilized races, carrying plans for the caers that could save them, were turned away. When the caers were sealed shut, the northern elves were left outside and forgotten. Those in the Empire who remember them at all assume that they were wiped out during the Scourge, destroyed by the plague of demons, dragons, and monsters that ruled the land and razed the ancient cities of the civilized races, for nothing has been heard of them since.

This is all anyone knows or remembers of the Dark Elves. The truth is far worse than the genocide historians imagine. Rather than retreating underground, the Dark Elves made a pact with one of the greatest of the evil powers unleashed during the Scourge. An ancient and terrible goddess, long-forgotten, came to the queen of the ama’ali and promised her protection in exchange for the devotion of the elves. Faced with extinction, they had little choice. The queen and her 300 mightiest warriors were transformed by the goddess into the twisted, immortal Driders. The rest of the ama’ali and the ama’ali’en (as the Dark Elves and Frost Elves call themselves) were commanded to submit or be killed and consumed by the Driders. Over the last 377 years, Lolth and her Driders have twisted the elves of the north into a vile reflection of their former selves.

The Dark Elves, now calling themselves Drow to symbolize their devotion to Lolth, have long since retreated underground. They slaughtered the ancient, slumbering silver dragons that protected their lands during the Age of Mysteries, carving their corpses for meat and materials. The most honored among them even now wear dragonbone armor and carry weapons with dragonbone hilts. Having claimed those caves, they dug deeper, seeking warmth and distance from the sun that now blinds them.

Meanwhile, the Frost Elves remain on the surface. During the Scourge, they traded service for protection by Lolth, guarding the entrances to the Drow caves. Their long exposure to the madness and savagery of the surface world during the Scourge, and the influence of the evil Lolth, has turned them from simply aloof into cruel, capricious beings.

As yet, the Frost Elves and the Drow have chosen to remain hidden in the Shattered Lands, but Lolth is an ambitious god. Undoubtedly, her priestesses have spent their long, long years planning something. But what?