The Darkmane Elves call themselves the Naelvari. They are the forest-dwellers of northeastern Criozevan, descended from the elves who ruled most of the continent before the Crimson Convergence. The Convergence’s light killed every elf it touched, and the survivors fled into the thick forests beneath the Jagged Mountains, where over generations they became the Darkmane Elves. They stand four to five feet tall, with slight, agile builds, and live about 150 years. Their skin ranges from light grey to fully black, always with a green undertone, and they have bioluminescent eyes and the pointed ears elves are traditionally known for. Darkmane Elves are more likely than other peoples to be born Metas, people with a single innate power, which in them usually appears as the ability to speak with animals or to produce poison from their own bodies. In the days of the Darkmane Kingdom, Metas with animal powers were bound to an animal for life in a ritual. Some clans still practice it and others do not, but many believe that a Meta bound to an animal grows stronger. For centuries the elves were united under the Darkmane Family. That ended in 937 ACC, when the family’s head, Vaelith the Hollow, secretly handed his brother Thalrith to a Goldhelm scientist for experiments. Thalrith and his wife Luthyrra became the first of the Fallen: elves whose minds are corrupted by dark magic and whose eyes glow purple. They walked into the forest and were never seen again. The family’s branches then turned on each other, and by 940 ACC the realm had broken into warring tribes. Today each tribe is led by the eldest member of its own branch of the Darkmane Family, though some regions settle leadership by trial-by-duel. Sael, Vaelith’s granddaughter, leads his branch. The tribes divide into ambush clans, poison-brewers, and reclusive pacifists such as the dark elves of Adlens, who reject violence. Their magic draws corrupted energy from massive runes left in the forest by the Golem King. He stopped maintaining them during the wars among the elves and the Great War, and the forest had grown so dense that his golems could no longer get in. Left alone, the runes became unstable, prone to explosions, and filled with a dark magic that infects the mind and often kills. They also pull at elves who walk near them like a siren’s call, and those who answer become Fallen. The Fallen still haunt the woods, and it is said they take anyone who gets lost there. In battle the Darkmane Elves rely on guerilla tactics, traps, stealth, and their bound animals. They use shadowstep, a technique that moves them so fast in a split second that a victim barely sees them before dying. Their daggers are coated in magic toxins made through rituals called toxin shaping. They rarely deal with outsiders except during major wars. Traders avoid them, and the Goldhelms, who are hostile to everyone, hold an ancient rivalry with the Darkmane that still breaks out in border fights. In 923 ACC, the Darkmane wiped out Fort Gildmark, a Goldhelm settlement secretly built on their northern coast, killing all 900 people inside, and the Goldhelms never tried to expand into their land again. The Arashi, a criminal organization, once paid Vaelith for passage through the realm and now pay off a few individual tribes. Their religion is ancestral spirit worship with no central priesthood, so each clan reads omens on its own. They speak Nualthyr, an unwritten language of clan dialects that differ in tone, used in secret when they do not want to be understood and also spoken by criminal networks. The realm has four cities: Grousea, the unofficial capital and a major criminal hub; Wrediff, a hidden training ground for warriors; Vlurg, a black-market town; and Adlens, a peaceful port. Today the Darkmane Elves are in decline. They hold on to their strongholds of Grousea and Wrediff while infighting, magical corruption, and cultural collapse wear away what remains.
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