stray elves

"We shall sacrifice our lands to the good of all the other peoples. Let us hope the wide forests of our beautiful homeland will suffice to keep the beast imprisoned"

— general Malek of the dark elves

Having made this promise in an hour of great need, the whole of the dark elven race was forced to leave their homes in the Dark Forest. And altough they bore the decision of their general with honor - as is commong among this race - it was a hard blow for them. Already diminuished by decades of unending war they now will never be able to truly return home.
Instead they wandered away westward to settle in the forests there, enduring the cold and the hunger for many years until their civilisation began to recover.

History

When it became clear during the later years of the Great Demonwar, that even with the aid of the spirits, mortals had no chance of defeating the demons, a new plan had to be devised quickly. But by now, everything had already been tried and had failed. The troops were diminuished, demoralised and starving.
In this hour one of the spirits spoke of and ancient creature, a monster set on nothing but to devour all of creation. Bound in the limits of the Void it lived. Yet by the combined efforts of all the spirits it may be freed from there and set upon the demons. It was a terrible plan, gruesome and dangerous. But with no other choice and facing utter destruction of all the mortal races, the plan was agreed upon.
The monster, named Souldestroyer in the tongues of mortals, was released onto the Land and forced by the spirits only to take the demons´ souls. Thus panic and confusion broke out amidst the ranks of the foul beasts and finally the mortals could win the battles, slay the demons and drive them back to the holes they had come from.

But in the end, one trouble remained. The Souldestroyer had become too strong, too powerfull to be banned back to the Void again. And already its darkness was spreading on the Land, seeping slowly but steadily ino the hearts of the mortals. A place needed to be found were they could imprison it and keep it away from all mortals forever. In that hour one general of noble blood spoke up, offering the land of his race to save the lives of all others.

Consequences

Having to leave their homeland in their already diminuished state, was a serious blow for the dark elves. They had to leave behing many of their arts and crafts and most of their written down knowledge was lost forever.
But this was by far no the worst. The memories of dark elves is long and they that could have passed on much of it without their books and scrolls. No, worst for them was something entirely different:
Leaving their homes they left behind centuries of protective spells, woven by them as well as the high spirits at the dawn of time, growing stronger ever since the day of their making. All this they left behind, with no hope of redoing such a great task. And this was what cost them most dearly. For now the cold winds cut through their clothes unbound by soothing magic and there were no warm wells of lingering light. No soft music but only cold howling wind. It bit down on their minds as it did on their bodies. They struggeled to plant their crops in the frozen ground where before they had only had to sing to it softly to embrace the seeds. And to protect the seedlings from freezing to death they themselves would have to weave their magic constantly to a point of exhaustion, ever feeling the cold on their skin.
Especially the first winter was had for them and many lost their lived then. Yet in this time they were still to proud to ask for help and most other races too busy rebuilding their own holmes to think of the misery of their friends in the north.
After that it became better only slowly, year by year, causing the dark elves to recover slowest of all the mortal races. But by the time their numbers increased again, they still suffered much from hunger and cold. Yet when they finally decided to turn to the Godking, the ruler and protector - at least by title - over all the Land, they found him proud and vain and deaf to the pleas of the dark elves. Thus their misery continued long after, for they were neither strong nor numerous enough to take more land by force.

Culture

Shared customary codes and values

• Dark elves are known for their obedience to authority. They will not disobey a leaders decision for almost any reason.
• Honor and Duty is another of the pillars, dark elven society stands upon. It was for this reason, that -altough they had given up their homeland for the sake of the other races - they still felt responsible for the going-ons there and set a guard along the forest edge to prevent adventurers and idiots from entering that forbidden realm.

Race
dark elves