Juhl'are (JEWEL are)

the Dark Elves

The Juhl’are, more commonly known as dark Elf, or sometimes drow, have long dwelt below the Western Reach of Ethae in the Night Below, a web of underground caverns, some natural, most artificial carved out by Dwarf and Juhl'are over millennia. Dark elves domination of the Night Below of Anbar have waned over the ages, with only one of the five great cities remain. Infighting and civil war have left this once great society in ruins. In the modern day their great nation, that once webbed across the Underdeep region of the Night Below, now stands baron and empty, their only holding are the cavern of the Mountains of Poe. Beyond that mountain range, the outpost city of Zith Morra, in Tinjir, survives. While rumors of surviving communities remain, no evidence has yet been found to confirm thesee small pockets of dark elves existing.

The Ballads of the Fey'are has conflicting descriptions of the first dark elf, Juhl. Some say she is sister of Soun, others his lover. Whatever the case there was a bond between them. A closeness Soun did not even have with his wife Tobia. A bond that broke with the arrival of Gilgurth and the death of Tobia. A closeness that shattered when Soun, morning his wife, let the Elder Tree Borg to drown, never lifting a finger to help Juhl save her beloved tree. The Ballad tell of Juhl’s heart darkening into a shadow. Juhl took the corpse of her beloved tree, experimenting, manipulated and creating the what is called the Shadow today. A dark twisted manifestation of the Anon. Soun eventually recovered and the two grew close again, but the bond was gone. Juhl worked on the Shadow for centuries, mastering its power, spreading the dark magic across her nation. A power that would bleed out and spread the world over.

Soun, so blinded by his love for Juhl, and eternal grief of Tobia, could not see the growing darkness. The Dwarves of Poe however could. It was they that discovered Juhl's plan and the Shadow. They shared their discovery with the elder elves, but Soun refused to move against Juhl in any way. When war broke out between the Dwarf and Juhl’s nation of elves Mya Juhl Mair, Soun remained neutral. Juhl’s delight that the elves ignored her aggression soon turned to loathing as the dwarves proved a deadly foe. Losing her war, she begged Soun for aid, but his eyes were open to the corruption of the Anon and was forces to step in to end the war and destroy the Shadow. Betrayed again by her love, Juhl hid herself and her followers in the Night Below.

The war ended, and the Shadow was destroyed. Or so believed Soun. Juhl, alone and abandoned, dug down into the deep roots of Borg’s corpse. She and her remaining followers clawed out a nation in the depths away from the eyes of the other elves. The Shadow grow once more through Mya Juhl Mair, and from it all Aldern.

So, the myths of the dark elves' origins tell. A glimpse into the mind of Juhl’are beliefs. They see all other elves as rivals and betrayers. Kin that will ignore cries for help and stifle the dark elves from gaining any real power. It is the Shadow that gives the drow power, they will never let anyone stifle them again. Even so many millennia past, this philosophy still holds true, so ingrained in the core of their society.

Mya Juhl Mair, built and thriving below the surface world, survived Dragonfall as the other Areian Nations fell, burning with Karasaanu. They have remained underground ever after, digging deeper, spreading their web of tunnels across the west. The Shadow spread with them as did a master plan of conquest.

The Areian Nation gone save one, theirs, the Juhl’are planned their rise to become the new power of Aldern. All that stood in their way was the Kephic Empire. Their ancient foes, the dwarves. The new war saw a swift destruction of the Dwarves of Poe, but the great empire of the dwarves in the Cutting Mountains was by far a harder diamond to cut. The Keph pushed back, and once more the dark elves began losing their war. Juhl, reached back into legends, and the creatures created during the Aggelomachy. She studied and learned the magic once more. Using the Shadow, she create an army of killing machines from the weak among her people. The Orc were born. An army that could have turned the tables and destroyed the dwarves, had they not turned on their creators.

Scaro, the first orc, Juhl’s son, strangled his mother and turned his army on his mother's people. The War of Three began. Dwarf, drow and orc slaughtered each other in the Mountains of Poe, and across the vast network of tunnels below Ancient Siduum and Yaren Juhl, with the world above oblivious of any of this. The War of Three ended with the near destruction of the fledgling race of Scaro'are. The dark elves, in chaos, leaderless with the loss of Juhl, devolved into civil war over her replacement, and the dwarves abandoned their western holding to reinforce their homelands, clear victors in the war, but mortally wounded in the process.

Today, the underground realm of the Juhl’are, once crossing from one side of Anbar to the other, now consists of little beyond the Mountains of Poe and Yaren Juhl. The other cities lay empty or destroyed from civil wars and invasion. Those dark elves remaining are locked in eternal intrigue, each trying to dominate and rebuild their empire. Each undermining the other as every matriarch trying to rise to become the new Juhl, while others trying to undermine her to do the same.

Drow have black or grey skin. Adult dark elf hair is naturally white, though children are born with a blonde or red tint. The color slowly vanishing as as they reach adulthood. Eye color of the dark elves are almost exclusively red, purple, oranges or yellows. A Juhl’are with blue or green eyes is completely unheard of. A rare brown sometimes appears, but these children often end up killed at birth. Those that aren't are outcasts of their families and considered nothing better than a work animal, working the lowest jobs in their society.

Dark Elf Cultures

• ---