Dark Elf Ascendancy

The dark skinned kin, the dwellers of fatal swamps and coves, the bloodied blasphemers, the true inheritors of the Immortal Empire...the Dark Elves.

The birth of this race was inevitable, it’s foundation being amongst the elite and academic classes of the Immortal Empire of old, the original state of the modern day Elves. The combination of debaucherous decadence, inflated and hostile egos, supreme arcane prowess, and careless practice of dark magics became the downfall of the Immortals, and the rise of the Dark Elves.

All fallen Immortals, now mortal Elves, left the Badlands in exodus where they began to talk about how best to live after the cataclysm their people had wrought. A great deal rejected the notion of reducing themselves to barbarity and living the savage lives of nomads, forsaking magic. Magic was what gave their people identity, their immortality, it was what they lived and breathed. To give up such a birthright was blasphemy and idiotic.

A fight broke out within the survivors, one that further reduced their numbers. An elf that wanted their kind to retain their nobility and regain their immortality via magic fought as the leader of this faction against the current head of the stragglers who wanted to forsake magic.

Though the elves that wanted to continue the practice of magic were more numerous, their lack of magic made them far weaker than their kin who were experienced in martial capabilities. This resulted in the magic supporters to have to retreat, exiled by the victorious faction.

The exiles ran far and long until they found a cave to lick their wounds in. But upon entering this cave, they felt a draw further in. They were in the far eastern coast at a time before the Horde was formed, so they were left unchallenged in their flight. And this cave was rather close to the shores, yet they felt something deep within the subterranean world they had stumbled across.

Within the darkness of this new world, they had found that this new world was naturally strong in dark magic. They still to this day do not know why, but the very air of this Underrealm seemed to empower dark magic, as if blessed by the lack of the sun’s harsh touch.

With this new world, they took the opportunity to make a race wide path. They would grow in power here, and regain their kind’s immortality. They would surpass even their original empire and become gods in the mortal realm, capable of returning to the surface world and take vengeance on their foolish and barbaric cousins.

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Dark Elf society and nobility:

The darkness and powers of the Underrealm had done more than just darken the skin of the elves who had fled down here, but also their very souls. Generations of living in the Underrealm and dabbling exclusively in the dark arts had changed and warped the now newly dubbed Dark Elves.

Their belief that it was possible to become god-like upon regaining their immortality warped into a belief that they will become literal gods. And as such, this was how their religion began to form, the religion of apotheosis and self-worship. It even became sacrilege to kill a fellow Dark Elf.

Though, this didn’t stop those who wanted to **** from doing so. After all, they all had their own goals and find their own godly desires to be more important and divine than life.

Paradoxically, however, nothing is more divine than a god who works in mysterious ways. Even in accordance to the most elite and unbiased of guards for the Dark Elves silently agree that if a murderer is clever enough to mask their identity after committing their deed, it was best not to look into it too hard.

This unspoken “exception” thus allowed a dangerous subculture to grow. That being a technically not legal but allowable practice of ****. And the nobles **** this most heavily to achieve their goals...as there is seemingly a shadow war within the dark corners of the courts. And this war is no more prevalent than in the major houses of Dark Elfin society:

House Embershard, the warrior house; House Bleakweave, the most magically inclined house; House Dreadshore, the house that supplies the most slaves to society; House Greyquill, the house that basically spearheads the economy.

But they all pale in comparison to the house that rules all of Dark Elfin society, the house that descends from the first of the Dark Elf, the one that fought to keep their people on the right path to godhood, from which all leaders descend from...House Helldrake.

These houses make the central pillars of Dark Elf society and managed the going ons in every major city; the capital that houses the heads of these houses being named Draz-barah, the City of Shadow.