VII Chapter of the creatures of Néveri
By Adarius Meldi
Camrynn – in the year 3451

Male
Life expectancy: 700 years
Weight: 45-70 kg
Height: 170-200 cm

Female
Life expectancy: 650 years
Weight: 40-70 kg
Height: 165-195 cm

Preface
I now stand in Camrynn... once again... How on earth I ended up here is beyond my understanding. I must be raving mad! Why I haven’t turned on my heel and run back to Calendon must be because my companion carries a visible dagger, which he has threatened to stab me with, should I be so cowardly as to flee... As if I would! On our long journey I have seen many sides of my life guard but never like this, never so serious. Camrynn does bring out the worst in people...

Written on the 22nd day in the sign of Yun in the year 3451
When Nisara saw that this group of elves had been banished she took them in to protect them, and she showed them a new world underground, a new place shrouded in darkness, a place they could call their own where they would be safe and be able to live excluded from the race who had banished them from their society. This is why the dark elves began to worship Nisara as the highest goddess, because she took them in as her own people. As time went by, the dark elves forgot that there was a world above, and they grew accustomed to the darkness. In time, their skin took colour from the darkness they lived in and was thereafter completely black, and their hair was in stark contrast to their skin white as moonlight. The dark elves cursed the light of Fayon, for their eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness and they no longer wanted the light.

The dark elves are a hateful people who despise their distant relatives on the surface for having banished them. They are raised to hate and despise the other elves from childhood, and their society is strongly dominated by hate and jalousy. Contrary to other elves they are completely dominated by their women. For example, only women can become priestesses, and a man may under no circumstances meet his mistress’ eye and must call her ’mistress’. Dark elves use most of their time plotting to overtake the surface from the other elves, but they never really trust anyone and you can never really trust a dark elf. It i said that their soul is as dark as the underworld they are born in.

The dark elves still feel that they are without blame and that their banishment from the other elves was unjust. They have no desire to live where the other elves live, since they have become accustomed to the night and the darkness underground. They still wish to kill their distant relatives, because they worship Fayon, the opposite of Nisara.

The dark elves always wear long, black clothes, the males sometimes have grey colours and women dark red or purple. If the men are warriors or hunters their clothes are tight fit so as to not get entangled, while servants often wear loose clothes. Women wear dresses, if at home, but travelling or on other business they are dressed as the men.

Every dark elf woman wears makeup, how much depends on her place in society. Usually their lips are painted purple or black, maybe deep red, and they have white signs painted on their faces which tell which house they are from. The men are usually branded with their house. Often they have their hair loose or bound with leather strings. Almost every dark elf has long hair. All dark elves have night vision.

The dark elves who live in Nisaria live above ground in huge mansions build almost entirely out of black marble. The windows are small as the doors and they look like underground tunnels inside. The dark elves have no paintings or other items to bring colour, and only small candles and lamps are found on the walls.

The rest of the dark elves live below ground, in some sort of town or large gatherings. How these towns look is difficult to tell, since it’s almost always shrouded in darkness. It is certain, however, that they live in luxury no matter where they are.

Their language is elven, but with modifications. Like the high elves almost have their own language, so the dark elves have developed their own elvish accent, which is so different from common elven, than no other race can understand them.

The dark elves are born sceptical, both towards other creatures and each other. They are selfish and selfcentrered and always seek matters for their own gain. Power is a drug to them, and the higher class one is born into, the more power one has. The lower houses always try to rise to power, and a dark elf will always use his opportunities for power. Some dark elves enjoy to hurt others without purpose, but usually they do not commit evil deeds, unless it's to their advantage. Dark elves can be bought, but they don’t always stay loyal to the one who pays them. Dark elf can keep written agreements, until something better shows up.

Dark elves are organized in houses. Noone knows how many houses there are, but the dark elves themselves know very well where each house is on the list. The supreme house rules all others, and it is always a Nisarian house which is supreme. The leader of each house is female, not always the eldest but the most powerful. Everybody in a house are related, either through blood or marriage. The male always joins the female’s house when they marry. Society is matriarchal and hierachically structured. Women rule, and can choose how many husbands they want to have. It happens that male children are killed if the mother wants a daughter. Unless the mother is killed by a rival, her oldest daughter inherits the title as the leader of the house – unless she has been killed by one of her sisters.

A dark elf woman only gives birth to one child at a time, rarely twins. Birth is over quickly, because a woman in labour is vulnerable to attack from rivals. The children grow up fast, and very quickly learn to fend for themselves. Both genders are raised to fight and survive, and trust only in themselves.

Some search for food, hunt prey and the like, others keep watch, some spy on the other races. The young are taught in the language, litterature, martial arts and how their society functions. Even though the dark elves are a selfcentrered and evil race, they view etiquette and good manners with pride, and there are complicated rules for how they interact amongst each other. Otherwise they would soon hack each other to pieces. The women are busy ruling the men and the house they lead, or they are plotting to find out how they get to rule a house.

The area of the dark elves
Darkness always rules in the dark elves’ underground kingdoms – the Underdark. Noone knows how big it really is. The tunnels are created partially by magic and the rest from nature. On some walls are torches while others are shrouded in darkness. There are both narrow, wide, high and low tunnels. Some say there are also caves hidden in the deep. If one goes in without knowing the way it is said one will be lost in there forever. There is usually cold, and the walls are made of hardened rock. While a dark elf will think of this as home, anyone else will think it an evil, dark, and very unfriendly place to be.

All year round, the upper caves are moist while the lower tunnels are more dry. Not much wind blows through the tunnels and there is never really any heat.

Sounds are carried far through the tunnels and can contribute to confuse a traveller wanting to find their way. The dark elves use this fact to communicate over long distances. One rarely hears sounds heard on the surface.

There is no real floor, everything is rocks and stones, some times very uneven so one has to tread carefully. Sometimes the dark elves have put traps in the floor, because that is how they fend off enemies.

There are a lot of spiders and small insects in the tunnels. Obviously there are no birds or fish, and large mammals are only seen if they have lost themselves in the dark.