Dark Elves are Evil, Why?

Credit to artists: Unknown, James Crabtree, Steve Ellis

I was talking to a dear friend of mine about Goblin Punch's beautfil take on Elves and how they should be weird alien assholes who do their asshole things because they're aliens, they are hard to understand, they are made from different shit and their brains are just programmed differently, or are made of different material in general so that it's a completely different computer. I love that idea, but how would it apply to the drow? d&d dark elves are elves but with the asshole aspect pumped up TO THE MAX! But why? Why are all dark elves assholes who like to hurt people for their goddess? Do they like-like doing it?

We know the underground slavery thing, plus matriarchy and their evil spider goddess are central themes of the forgotten realms dark elf, and also trying to escape this as we see in characters like Drizz't and every 5e dark elf PC, but why do they do that in the first place? Are they naturally all evil except a few unique heroes? Is it just evil underdark imperialism? Can a dark elf only be "good" with the help from a human savior or insert lawful good goddess?

Before I proceed, I need to say, this is not for everyone, talking about dark elves is talking about some nasty aspects of reality, a lot of people aren't comfortable with these topics in their games and that's totally okay. Later in the document I'll even talk about playing as Dark Elves, which is an even more direct way of engaging with these topics, so be warned about it. All of that sucks, but why are dark elves doing it?

Here's my take on it:

Dark Elves are Evil Because They Have To

Long ago there was a great elven queen, one of the first 3 Primordial Elves in existence, a powerful mage/goddess from another world. She created many things that she found beautiful, she created the spiders, the thorns on roses, displacer beasts, black puddings and whips. She had an unique view of what was beautiful, so her primordial siblings banished her into the underground were they wouldn't be able to see her sinister creations.

While her siblings made the surface elves, she crafted the Dark Elves, beings who lived amongst magic radiation and spiders. She became the Spider Queen, the goddess of the dark elves, but even after departing from the underground, to live with her siblings once again in the beyond, she still held ultimate control over her creations' souls. The dark elf lives to please the Spider Queen, she is cruel, she thinks she owns everything, so in her absence her children must take and hurt and own everything in her stead.

You cannot fix her.

This is the Important Part:

When a dark elf dies they are judged by the Spider Queen by the amount of devotion they praised to her, the amount of pain they have caused to others and the amount of wealth they have accumulated. Particularly "evil" dark elves get sent into their version of "heaven", while those who did not properly please their queen are turned into food for the Queen's pet Weavers, celestial spiders the size of mountains who will chew their souls for a thousand years.

A dark elves' celestial karma is determined by how evil they were in their lives, but that doesn't mean they want to be evil, actually the average dark elf goes through great lengths to avoid it. They hide their cities in pocket dimensions, hidden inside great shadows so outsiders won't see it, they sneak around and use shadow magic to hide their presence from other species, the Spider Queen doesn't really care for her children that much, so she will only observe a truly noteworthy dark elf, or her clerics.

It's common practice for dark elf's adventuring parties to be accompanied by a Spider Cleric who acts as sort of a "judge", making sure their party members are being properly evil and not ignoring their divine duties.

This is not done because of malice mind you, they have to do this if they don't want to go to literal hell, the Spider Cleric is actively trying to help their party members. The same is true for non-cleric, they don't avoid outsiders because they don't want to kill them or hurt them, most dark elves do it because they don't want to bother doing it, it sucks, plus if they end up liking someone that is not a dark elf then they will either have to do something bad to that person or find someone else to do something bad with. Dark elves need to get creative with it, if they stumble upon a family of friendly gnomes who offer them food, maybe they don't want to kill this family or bring them to their city (which would be a fate worse then death), so they just rob all their possession in the dead of night and leave, or burn their house down while safely escorting them outside. Being a dark elf is not about being evil, it's about being evil in the least inconvenient way possible.

"I like you child, so I'll just steal your dog."

Now, this is all very player focused

That's true, I think playing a game where all the PCs are dark elves struggling (as human players mostly) with that mindset is fun, we don't want to kill that random miner who's on our way, so we must find a way to go past them without being noticed so we don't have to do something horrible to them!

There is a lot to be explored under their society as well, noble houses, how the elite priesthood controls the "means of suffering", how the less fortunate elves, born of peasant families, will have a harder place earning their spot in dark elf heaven then the evil fslave-hoarding elite. Plus the whole existential aspect of "our goddess is a fucking asshole who hates everyone including us", and they just have to deal with it, and their brains are probably programmed to think that "It is what it is". The only improbable way out is killing that fucker, good luck with that Ky'le, lvl 1, Dark Elf Thief.

The Dark Elf

Better hope you don't bump into a dark elf adventuring party.

Blessings of the Spider Queen

• You can talk to spiders and spider-like monsters, they are neutral to you and you may ask for favors.
• You are immune to spider venom and spiderwebs don’t stick to you.
• You can control any shadow or darkness up to 30' of you with your thought. You can use it to obscure yourself or mold it into different shapes.
• Creatures enveloped by darkness are easier to hit or affect with magic.

Dark Elf Infravision

You see heat instead of light. What should be darkness to humans is equivalent to daylight to you. While in the dark you can see additional features such as heat-trails and warm air currents. You are blinded by a suddenly lit torch or a glance at the sun. The dark elves were made for underground environments, they are basically blind while aboveground, but have the one of the best infravisions any underground folk could dream off.

Evil Karma

Whenever you do an action that is agreed by the whole table to be "evil" or "good", write it down on a piece of paper. Evil things are positive karma, good things are negative karma.

There are also some weird quirks:

• Whenever you pass on the opportunity of doing an evil action while being observed by a non-dark elf or a spider cleric, write it down as negative karma.
• Helping spiders count as positive karma, killing spiders count as negative karma.
• It's okay to not be evil to someone if that will eventually lead to greater evil.
• For some weird reason the Spider Queen doesn't like man, if you're a man or transitioned into one write it down as negative karma.

This is your celestial karma, when you die the Spider Queen will judge you based on how evil you were. You will either be sent to Dark Elf heaven where you will leave a pleasant afterlife with everything you could ever dream of, or your soul will be munched by a god-spider for a thousand years before being consumed into oblivion.

AFD: Occultist

I'll be honest here, I have not idea how blogger works, but I do like making and converting classes for a lot of different RPGs (mostly OSR), so I decided to make a blog to catalogue them somewhere better then google docs so here it is.

The Occultist is a fun one, it's a conversion of a conversion of a conversion. It is based in a homebrew OSE class one of the players in a OSE game I refereed played, it was called blood mage, it used a similar magic system to Whitehack. Either way, I've converted the class to Advanced Fantasy Dungeons, a super cool RPG that takes a lot from 2e d&d.

I plan on doing a GLOG occultist as well, so wait on that.

Occultist

The occultist is a chaotic sorcerer, they break the laws of reality by using their own lifeblood as energy to manifest spell-like effects called Incantations.

Gain a Power Slot, and proficiency in Blood Transfusion. Take two advancements from the following list at first-level and an additional two at each level. You have advantage on saving throws against domination.

• Gain a Power Slot.

• Increase Wisdom by 1 to a maximum of 18

• Add a new proficiency slot

• Increase a saving throw by 1

• Once per day may regenerate your HP by rolling your HD as if you have rested.

• Increase the size of your HD by 1 before ninth-level

• Increase your number of HD before ninth-level

• Add 5 HP to your HP total

At first-level, gain an improvised weapon and two other items, randomly.

Incantations

Through sacrificing their own health, occultists are capable of manifesting magic through this sacrifice and using their phrases of power. To cast an incantation you must chant one of your phrases of power in a forbidden tongue only known by you. You, as a player, must word what you wish to achieve with that incantation and the effect must be directly related to the phrase. The effects and cost of the incantation vary depending on various factors, such as how the incantation is worded, the situation presented and as agreements are made by the player and Referee. Each incantation has a HP cost that the Referee decides. The referee should use the presented table to help guide their decision. The HP spent for an incantation cannot reduce the occultist to negative HP and it can't be regained except through resting. Particularly potent incantations require a save vs. Domination, on a failure the occultist is reduced to 0 HP and the incantation has unintended catastrophic consequences of the referee's choice. The player may negotiate to lower the cost of an incantation by spending rare objects such as monster bones, gemstones, rare herbs, by taking extra time or suffering detrimental effects, etc. For all intents and purposes, Incantations are considered Devilry.

HP Cost	Effect
1	Simple Effect, something that could be done without magic. For example: Illuminate something, Read a Language, Cure/Cause Minor
2	Regular Effect, something that reaches just beyond what could be done without magic. For example: Breathe underwater, Levitate small object, Become Unseen.
1d6	Major Effect, something that is considered a major offense to the natural world. Example: Unbind a spell, Raise the Dead, Switch two objects
2d6	Powerful Effect, the use of raw, unmistakable magic. For example: Move through time, Create an Object, Modify the Weather
+X	Increase Cost. Add special effects to the incantation such as extra duration, range or damage, no save required. The Referee should judge how many points to increase it by.
-X	Decrease Cost. Add detrimental effects to the Occultist, shout very loudly, use rare/costly components, require a save, take narcotics, take extra time casting. This can decrease the cost to 0.

Gap: Phrases of Power and Power Slots

Occultists invoke their magical effects through the use of their own phrases of power, these can be anything such as "Heal", "Light Sphere", "Booming Sound", "Ice Spike", "Gnawing Teeth", “God of Thunder”.

Occultist have Power Slots, power slots are a set of two phrases of power the Occultist chooses, one of the phrases remains active while the other is inactive, the active phrase may be used in incantations while the inactive one is unusable, an Occultist may choose to flip their active and inactive phrases in a single power slot through a rest action, turning the active phrase in an inactive one and the previously inactive one in an active one. There are no limits for how many power slots an occultist may have and each power slot comes with two phrases of power (active/inactive) created by the Occultist.