Fate of the Fallen

Era of Elves / ~300 thousand years ago
The Exiles fought against their banishment for many thousands of years, attempting campaigns to reclaim their surface holdings while at the same time battling against the denizens of the deep places. Eventually their people became spread too thin, and they could not sustain war on so many fronts. This led to the Exiles turning inward and focusing on carving out their own empire under the mountains of the earth, battling against the dwarves and orcs alike. They would still travel to the surface, but no longer attempting to conquer, instead they would raid and take slaves back to their Under-Earth cities. Over this period the worship of their dark gods, with the god they called Lolth chief among them, became common place for all of their people.

Elven historians don’t know exactly how it happened, but sometime long after the warring between the Empire and Exiles calmed on the surface, a great evil ritual was conducted. The Exiles had captured and enslaved many dwarves and used them as hard labor mining a rare and corrupted crystal deep in the world. Their dark god instructed the Exiles and a mass sacrifice was enacted. In return for ever lasting service from all their people to this dark god, the exiles were granted many dark powers. Even their outward appearance was darkened, with their skin turning ashen gray to black.

From then on the Exiles were known as the Dark Elves, or Drow. Many of their dwarven slaves turned loyal servants also participated in the dark god's ritual and were granted favor. These dwarves formed the first clan of Gray Dwarves, or Duergar, and became close allies of the Dark Elves. With their new powers and bolstered faith the combined forces of Dark Elves and Gray Dwarves returned to their wars against the dwarves and orcs with renewed vigor.

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