Dark Elves
Users of strange ancient dark magics and practitioners of even darker traditions and rituals, the Dark Elves as they are called are a reclusive race that lives within the confines of the Ebonox Empire in grey ashen plains of the Dunmar Wastes on the western most continent of Duntaine. They are pale and violet eyed with silver, white, or raven hair that they let flow in straight swaths down over their slender frames. -Thornwood
Naming Traditions
Family names
Duskstar, Ashheart, Ashenfall, Starfall, Fellnight
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Like all other elven races the Dark Elves primary language is Elven but they do have a secondary language that is spoken within their society, this language is unnamed and is comprised of mostly nonverbal body language and eye movements.
Shared customary codes and values
Dark Elves claim they are the truest elves and hail from a time before the sun rose in the east, thus they have much darker and more sadistic traditions. Dark Elven females see beauty in power and dominion and will make it a point to flaunt both their beauty and their influence whenever the opportunity arises. Be it their many male partners, or jewelry or status a female dark elf will flaunt these things as if they were one of a kind.
Common Dress code
Female Dark Elves will dress themselves in fine silks imbedded with precious white stones and glistening strands of silver that make them shimmer like pale stars upon a dark sky. Men will often where large tunics made of black and deep purple embroidered and studded with laces of silver and smaller bright gemstones.
Common Customs, traditions and rituals
Three nights every year the sun eclipses the moon turning the moon a deep purple color, this phenomena are called Fey Moons by most cultures but to the Dark Elves they are celebrated as Shade Moons. On these nights the barriers between the world of the Fey the world of Shadow and the material plane become extremely thin and allow for some entuned individuals to contact beings from these realms. On these nights the high priestesses of the Dark Elves commune with the lords of the Shadow Plane and give themselves to them, creating beastly creatures that wander with malicious purpose between the worlds of fey and mortals. The Dark Elves see these creatures as gifts from their dark benefactors and will openly fornicate with them to create more powerful elven hybrids that some cults within Dark Elven culture revere as demigods.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Dark Elves revere the moon and the stars of the night sky, they herald their ancestry to a time when the sun was not yet made and there was only darkness with the stars and moon to light their way. Female Dark Elves will wear loose silk robes that will drape from small bands around their wrists and from a belt wrapped around their waist and fastened with a small gemstone. These robes will be lined with smaller gemstones that make each Dark Elf female glitter in the light like a vibrant star. Males tend to wear dark tunics of dull purple and black studded and embroidered with silver making them appear like the night sky at dusk. Hair length is a symbol of status within Dark Elven society, most wealthy or royal Dark Elves will have hair down to their knees or butt, with the Queen Matron having hair so long that even her braids sweep across the ground. Lower class Dark Elves will have hair reaching down to the mid of their backs or just below their shoulder blade, while the lowest of elves and slaves will have either shaved or neck length hair that is usually tied tight behind in a pony tail.
Gender Ideals
Unlike their sibling races the Dark Elves have a very strict depiction of gender and sex within their society. While male and females within the Dark Elves can bend their gender like the other elves, it is highly taboo and often forbidden for a female dark elf to bend her physical sex to become for male, while it is wholly expectable and often indorsed for males to bend their gender to better suite to the matriarchal structure of Dark Elf culture.
Courtship Ideals
Female dark elves can have as many male partners as they wish and they may select them at random from any male they see, it is considered an honor for a male to be chosen for courtship and is never rejected. Male Dark Elves can request to join the harems of their female counters by presenting them with precious gemstones of high value, or pieces of jewelry or by proving themselves worthy of courting through certain feats or acts.
Relationship Ideals
Polygamy is rampant in Dark Elf society and it is common place for a female Dark Elf to have as many as 15 lovers at one given time. However the same cannot be true for male Dark Elves, as once they are chosen by a female they cannot leave her unless they are chosen by another or until she releases them from her care.
Encompassed species
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