The Tome of Agrimar

Tome Excerpt

The Elvin Wars

The time and nature of the separation of the elvin races is unknown. The history of their races goes far beyond the formation of the druids, and the only records are their own. These provide gross misrepresentations on both sides, biases altering the details in obscurity, as each has warped the history in their favor. The accounts are so drastically different, that I could not trust the materials for inclusion in this tome.

What is known, is that somehow, someway, some many years ago, the physical natures of the elves began to split, resulting in a fair and dark skinned race. The fair skinned race maintained those traits typical of the ancient elves- doe eyes, tall thin bodies, excellent vision and hearing, and a natural skill with all things wild. The fair-skinned elves could be divided further into sun elves, moon elves, and wyld elves. The sun elves were known to make the fields and prairies their home, worshipping the sun, and building great cities. They maintained golden hair and lightly colored eyes. The moon elves were known to make the woodlands their home, worshipping the moons, and preferring isolation. These had dark hair and, typically, blue eyes. The wyld elves were wild, with no gathering or natural preferences. Their skin maintained a more tannish coloring, their hair and eyes varying from light to dark.

The dark-skinned elves became known as night-elves. These had skin darker than the night, a black as pure as ebony. Their hair, in contrast, was bleach white with no pigmentation whatsoever. Their eyes developed a severe sensitivity to light, heightening their heat-seeking vision and driving many to a preference for living underground. The heat-seeking nature of their eyes led many to bear red or purple coloration. Some believe their separation from nature drove them mad, as the majority of their race turned to secret combinations and the worshipping of things most evil. An enormous, corrupt society of massive underground cities was formed, heavily reliant on slavery and deception.

It is unknown whether the night-elves were driven underground by their fair-skinned counterparts, or whether they chose this lifestyle for themselves. However, hatred slowly bred between the races. Several small fights and skirmishes broke out along the borders of their coexisting locations. Eventually, full-blown war was declared, though, given the nature of the night-elves, it was fought in the shadows.
The surface elves would not dare an invasion of the deeps, as they feared slaughter in their enemy’s domain. The dark elves found themselves at a disadvantage in full daylight on the surface, because of their sensitivity to light. Thus, the war turned into a one-sided harrying of surface elvin encampments in the dead of night.

In these dark times, the wyld and moon elves were severely decimated. The sun elves, in their bright and glorious cities, were not so heavily damaged and some were even able to live relatively peaceful lives. Yet even in the dark of night, these goodly folk were harried with nightmarish deeds. Some of the night-elves took to committing crimes most foul, and whispered tales of a Darkwalker became customary frightening bedtime stories. Whether the Darkwalker was a singular entity or not is difficult to say, as stories have blown much into disproportionate legend, but this name is now whispered even among the trees and seems to contain a mysterious rage and bloodlust.

Of course, not all surface elves are benign, and not all dark elves are evil. Some of the fair-skinned elves formed allegiances with their dark-skinned counterparts on both sides of the war. It is this lack of fixed sides that resulted in a heavy blow being dealt to the very heartland of the drow underground bastion- the Daringleath.

I have heard tell of a night-elf who is responsible for the attack that turned the tide of the war some fifty years ago. He turned on his brethren as they conducted a surface raid on a clan of moon elves, for reasons I have yet to discern. Details are not yet known to me, but several years after this raid, many once-slaves returned to the surface with a tale of destruction. The dark elf who had turned on his fellows, is said to have led an assault on the Daringleath royalty, utterly decimating their numbers. It is rumored that he wielded a sword with a silver dragon engraved on the hilt and used it to slay the Darkwalker.

I have been unable to locate this night-elf or any aware of his whereabouts or knowledge of whether he even lives. I have, however, found and been able to take up communications with the remnants of the moon elf clan that was saved by his escapades, and I have discovered mixed emotions. Relatively few consider the dark elf heroic, while the majority suffer the belief that his actions hide only a deeper, more sinister motive. Here, I found a name- Thradris.