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Warhammer
Dark Elves Basics
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The War
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Over five thousand years ago a great civil war erupted in the Elven lands of Ulthuan. For decades the two sides battled against each other, unleashing a period of anarchy, terror, death, and bloodshed on the kingdoms of the High Elves. The war began when Malekith – the future Witch King of Naggaroth – attempted to seize the power in a bloody coup.
Malekith and his black-hearted followers forsook the way of the old Elven gods and sought out the forbidden power of dark sorcery. When their kin attempted to stop Malekith the Elven kingdoms were plugged into a long and bloody war. Ultimately the Dark Elves, as these renegades were named, were driven out and banished. They settled in Naggaroth, in bitter resentful exile. Here they established their own kingdom amongst the dark mountains and pine forests of the aptly named Land of Chill. The largest and oldest of these cities is Naggaround, where the ancient and undying Witch King holds court and continues to mastermind the Dark Elves’ never-ending war against the High Elves.
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Personality
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Over the millennia the Dark Elves have been twisted and corrupted until they have become complete opposites of the noble and altruistic High Elves. They are a cruel and wicked race, reveling in the pain and despair of others, completely untrustworthy, and capable of carrying out the most wanton acts of depravity and murder.
Of all of the races in the Warhammer world the Dark Elves appear to be the most purely evil, for they will take pleasure in performing a malicious act for no other reason than that it causes suffering to others. Like a child that pulls the wings off of a fly, a Dark Elf with slowly torture a prisoner to death simply to see how much pain they can inflict before the victim dies. Not even the followers of the vile Chaos gods are so depraved, for while they are perfectly capable of performing acts of quite unspeakable horror, they at least do so in the name of their gods and to spread their unholy religion. The Dark Elves neither have nor seem to feel the need for such reasons or excuses.
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Appearance
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Like all Elves, Dark Elves are lithe and sinuous, their muscles are strong and there reactions every bit as quick as their agile minds. Despite their deathly pallor and cruel faces they are savagely beautiful and highly intelligent. As suits their nature, the Dark Elves almost invariably wear dark and sinister attire. Their helmets and other wargear are exquisitely well-made, and highly decorated with distinctive patterns in black, gold, and silver. Almost all Dark Elves, both men and women, are deadly and extremely dangerous fighters, equally adept with sword, spear, or their famous crossbow. At times of war almost the entire Dark Elf population can be called to arms, which means that the Dark Elves are capable of fielding huge armies even though the total number of Dark Elves is very small compared to the other races that inhabit the Warhammer world.
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Combat
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In battle the Dark Elves prefer to use guile and cunning to defeat their enemies rather than pure brute force. Dark Elf armies have had lathe numbers of the infamous Dark Elf Scouts and Dark Rider cavalry. These troops range ahead of the main army, spreading fear and confusion and reporting back with detailed information on the enemy’s deployment. If at all possible Dark Elves will use this information to draw the enemy into a trap of ambush.
Even when forced to fight a pitched battle, a Dark Elf army will not normally charge the enemy head-on. Instead the Dark Elves will use their repeater crossbows and repeater bolt-throwers to wear down the enemy and goad them into a rush attack. As the enemy move forward, Dark Rider cavalry will mount hit and run attacks on their flanks while Dark Elf Scouts will emerge from hiding to unleash flurries of well-aimed crossbow bolts before they can be attacked back. Only when the enemy’s advance starts to falter under the relentless hail of missiles and surprise attacks with the Dark Elves unleash their Cold One Knights and War Hydras to finish the enemy off.
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Magic
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Although the majority of the Dark Elves are warriors by nature and inclination, this is not true for all of them. The Dark Elves are a race touched by magic power, and the Dark Elf Sorcerers have become the ultimate masters of Dark sorcery. The High Elves Mages knew of the power of Dark Magic but for long ages turned their back on its possibilities, considering it too dangerous to use. It was Malekith who long ago first started experimenting with the power of Dark Magic. Many say that in doing this he was touched by the power of Chaps, and it was this which corrupted his once noble spirit. Be this as it may, Malekith’s experiments revealed a new form of magical energy of terrifying power. Once he had mastered its deadly secrets himself, Malekith began to teach a small but growing band of followers how to use Dark Magic thus were born the Dark Elf sorcerers and, in time, the entire Dark Race.
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The above information was taken from the Warhammer Armies book on Dark Elves. All of this information here has been copyrighted to Games Workshop Ltd.
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