Common Ethnic Traits:

• Suggested Naming Conventions: Drow or Morrowind Dunmer names.

• Hair Color: Almost always white for the subterranean Trow, but the surface dwelling Ash Elves may have more variation.

• Eye Colors: Red

• Complexions: Dark Ashen Grey-Coal Black. Elvin skin doesn't really tan or burn in sunlight. Subterranean Trow are surprisingly darker than their surface-dwelling counterparts.

• Height Average: Ash Elves, Male and Female, tend to average around 5ft 6in

• Ears: Elongated, narrow, Straight

• Disconnected from the Psalm of Fire: As their bond with the Psalms of creation had been severed long ago, the Ash Elves are a shadow of their former race. It is rare for them to find that druidic connection to fire that they once held. Though it may still crop up in sorcery bloodlines.

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Synopsis:

The Trow. A race of elf that had nearly been forgotten to human kind, along with all knowledge and evidence of the fallen Almoran empire that would usurp their lands when they were severed from the song of creation. The loss of this gift had devastated their peoples. Not only did it mean their very connection to fire had been snuffed out, but it also meant the goddess Esmeranda had forsaken the gray skinned Elves. And soon, their enemies cast them underground. And the dwarves pushed them yet even further, where many races that the gods wanted to forget would be pushed to. It happened to the Troglodytes before the age of elves. The abolyths, the Mycanids, and other, more twisted creatures whom the gods had never conceived in the first place. War in the underhollow was nothing new. But when the Trow arrived, they did so as conquerers, determined to carve a new home in these hostile territories. Their arrival had shaken the balance of the underhollow. And they would remain there beneath the world while their hatred for the light elves, the humans, and Esmeranda, the world goddess, had begun to fester. It was resentment that replaced the meaning that the psalm of fire had formerly given them. But soon, they would mantle the faith of Azanism into their culture. It was only a natural course of events of course. They were a beaten and haunted race, which made them more willing to take any hand offered to them. But it was not he who would go on to contact the Trow. Rather they sought to commune with him. He was after all, in nearly every way the adversary of the world goddess and the old druidic gods alike. A being which resonated so well with everything they had become. And through dark promises and bargains, he grew ever fond of the dark elves. 

 

Then the Agarthans came. An entire foolish kingdom of men who believed that the sun would burn the world. And so they traveled to the deepest depths to escape that fate, arriving in the underhollow as settlers, and determined warriors. The Trow of course did not make life easy for the new arrivers. But something was strange about these men. They were not the Almorans that the Ash Elves contended with. They had lost that strong psychic aptitude that Almorans had. And they were weaker as a result. Unfortunately, even with Azazazi's favor, so had the Trow. And the Agarthians knew that the denizens of the underhollow had a weakness which they exploited. That being light sensitivity. Try as the Trow might, the Agarthians had settled, surrounding their cities with torches and braziers. And as they constructed their alchemical sun, which provided sunlight through their territories, it was clear that they would be here to stay. And the Ash Elves would battle them until their skin and hair turned white. When aggression had simmered down however, some Ash Elves who come into Agarthian settlements. Not as raiders, but as merchants and scholars, eager to learn of the world they had been cut off from for so long. They had learned much of the world. Apparently Almora was seen as nothing but a myth, the handiwork of the ice elves, no doubt. And the sun prophecy had (According to Agarthian belief), purged the world above. This meant that many of the ash elves no longer had anyone to hate. And for a growing number of Ash Elves, the very fuel that had been pushed them into the arms of the black faith had subsided. Unfortunately, this meant that which gave meaning to the suffering they endured for power was now empty. And a revolution against the black faith began to stir. A large faction had managed to break away entirely from the Trow society. But Azazazi and his faithful would not tolerate this. Once again, war erupted, causing many refugees to flee from the Underhollow altogether. Some went on to live in Agarthian settlements, where they assimilated into. But two other groups would manage to see surface once more. The first, ended up in the far eastern continent of She'Dalu near the empire of Jiwanahila, where they would grow to be inspired by their religious and cultural ways of peace, and go onto form the city state of Sin'Sethanar and try to find a path of redemption. Others would end up in Nomeria, where they would try to find the continent their ancestors once inhabited. They now live in a series of volcanic islands just west from Espelanio and Nirdam. And those are the Ash Elves many Estellonians and Nomerians would come to build an indifference to.

 

The underhollow Trow empire, Mor'Thilsanore remains in the firm grip of Azazazi's cult. But those on the surface would grow to loose the blackness that their subterranean counterparts possessed. Turning Gray and dull blue once more. Though their hair would never again go to regain its color, they would go on to learn of the death of Esmeranda, the fall of the light elves, and the new god who extend his hand to the mortal races in her place. And while many may find the white faith and their teachings of forgiveness to be an appealing offer, most of these surface elves had their fill of gods. Despite the current generations having never known the psalm that their ancestors were severed from long ago, however, it continues to haunt them still. And what has this instilled into their nature? Apathy, longing, and an emptiness in their souls that can never be filled. But the Ash Elves are a stubborn race. Their red eyes are dreary. And passion is difficult to hold onto for long. Though they are not incapable of ambition, kindness, or even love, One Asmian sociologist would go on to refer to the dark elves as ghosts in elf bodies. A broken people who fish for the treasures of a water logged land that may or may not exist. But sometimes a ghost is just what is needed in an adventurer. After all, Ash Elves are renowned for the arts of stealth, blade, and magic. And this has allowed them to push out many of the greatest rogues, wizards, fighters, and magi that the world has ever seen from their ash-choked western isles. And of course, the warrior monks of Sin'Sethanar also tend to pop up in western lands every now and then.