Deep elf

Deep elves, pale elves, or more archaically drow are an elven people who live far beneath the surface of Kishar.

History

The ancestors of the deep elves were among the religious dissidents expelled from the Kingdom of Eita in the middle to late third millennium. These dissidents believed that leaving the safety of Kishar for the void beyond would attract the attentions of Voltumna and Urusthe, two of the most evil gods in the Elven pantheon, and therefore that the retrieval of the skymetal asteroids used to build the aeroliths posed an existential risk to their civilization. The Banishment, as the exile is now known, was the culmination of Eitan repression following years of discontent, sabotage, and sometimes violence by those religiously driven to stop the construction of the flying cities.

While many of the Banished found new lives in Talmithe or in some other far-flung location elsewhere in the world, the most zealous amongst them retreated far underground out of a belief that if Voltumna and Urusthe were to shift their attentions from the void to Kishar, then the safest possible place to be would be as far underground and away from space as possible. Over the years they found themselves changed, both culturally and physically. Within several generations their forms and appearances began to shift as they slowly turned into modern-day deep elves.

Appearance

Though still quite similar in appearance to their surface-dwelling kin, after hundreds and thousands of years underground the deep elves began to physically change, a process that has continued with each successive generation. One of the most defining characteristics of modern deep elves is their extremely pale, almost translucent skin. Their eyesight has changed greatly as well. Darkvision long ago became a common trait amongst the deep elves along with a profound light sensitivity. In the most isolated of settlements, in places far removed from the surface and in communities that have long actively eschewed any use of light, vestigial eyes are a not unusual feature of the deep elves. Deep elves are generally somewhat shorter and thinner than surface elves.

Culture

Deep elf communities tend to be rigidly hierarchical and based around strict social orders, largely as a consequence of their early history. Life in the Depths, especially in the regions under the Sangora Desolation where many of the Banished settled, was a far cry from the almost utopian abundance they had previously enjoyed on the Cradle. Their societies became increasingly callous and cruel as those once allied turned against each other in competition for scarce resources. Deep elf communities tend to be strongly xenophobic not only of individuals of other ancestries but especially towards their surface-dwelling kin.

Location

Most deep elves live in the Depths, far beneath not only the surface but also under the vast majority of other denizens of the underground. Deep elf cities are particularly widespread beneath the Sangora Desolation, where they first settled in their exile, but over the millennia they have expanded and founded new settlements farther afield, especially near places with relatively easy access to the Low Road.

It is exceptionally uncommon to find deep elves outside of the Depths, but it is not completely unknown. Their only major community on the surface is Siadrish, a city built around an isolated oasis in the Sangora as a last resort after a previous underground settlement was destroyed.