Shadow Elves are one of the rarest subspecies of elves. During the early days of the Elven Wars, the Mori clan broke into two. The Spider worshipping Dark Elves and the Star worshipping Star Elves (who would one day be called Shadow Elves). The cruel goddess Spider cursed the Star Elves with blindness, and her curse was so strong that their own god couldn't break it. But he blessed his children by giving them supernatural hearing and other senses, and so they could live perfectly without eyesight. But the cruelness of the curse was that they could no more see the stars they so loved.

It was the Star Elves who eventually created the curse that drove their Spider worshipping cousins underground. This was their revenge, and it was horrid, for the Dark Elves loved nothing more than the warmth of the sun on their skin.

Afterwards the Star clan secluded themselves and moved through yet another weil between the worlds to the world of Shadows. There in the great wasteland of dead woods, they built their homes and became known as Shadow Elves. Now they pass on to the world from time to time, in the outskirts of the Everwoods, and fight the Dark Elves whenever they find them.

It may be because of both the Curse and the Blessing, that the corrupting forces of the Shadow World has never taken ahold of the Shadow Clan. They are still physically the most imposing elves. Their skin is dark with a tint of blue to it, giving them a likeness to a gentle summer night. Their hair is silvery like the stars and their form is lithe yet strong. As a result of the ancient days they are still all blind, but their other senses are so astute that they can actually sense everything but colors by other supernatural ways.

Blackrat

Dwarves have always been a race of mystery to the other races. Never interested in the affairs of aboveground people they have kept to themselves in their underground cities. The dwarven history exists almost completely separately from the history of the aboveground.

The first dwarves in this world were exiles from other-place, runaway slaves of the giantkin who had used them as miners and crafters. Having never seen the sun, nor the stars, they panicked, and hid themselves under the mountains. And there they stayed to this day. Their first city laid somewhere in the north, and from that city they began claiming the underworld as their own.

Thousands of years ago, around the time when Elflings ruled above, the dwarves expanded their own empire rapidly. The greed for all things that shine and glitter drowe them onwards to claim new mining areas across the continent. But under the rock has always lived other creatures too. Creatures of horror that has kept other races from venturing too deep into the caves. In their greed the dwarves ignored them, and eventually this cost them dearly. They claimed new areas, and after a while they dug too deep. The creatures of lightless deeps drove them away. But the dwarves never gave up, instead finding new veins of precious metals or jewels, and starting the cycle again.

But even if they were driven back, the dwarven empire kept expanding. Untill they met the hated elves. These creatures were exiled underground by their cousins and they were treacherous. At first they came as friends, pleading for sanctuary, but soon they started conguering the dwarven holds.

Then the orcs of the north found their way underground, led by their demon-god. A war was inevitable. The dwarven emprire dwindled, and fell. This forced the dwarves to open up nominal relations with the only above-race that didn't want to exterminate them, the humans. When their own tunnel-roads were no longer safe, they made trade-agreements to get much needed resourses from humans.

Now the dwarves are isolated to individual cities under the greatest mountains.

Blackrat

Known also as Dragonborn, these formidable warriors are what remains of the ancient protectors of Drania. The first of dragonborn were humans who were transformed by the dragonic deities, but now they are a truebreeding race of their own. Almost two millenia ago the Drajaar race came to the brink of extinction. To be exact only one Drajaar, a female called Sheraas survived the destruction of Drania. She was among the hundred Dragonriders exiled to the great desert and she was pregnant at the time. The luck was with them as they found ancient ruins of an elfling city in the heart of the desert. There she laid her eggs. She had hoped for two as was usual of her kind, but miraculously she had almost two dozen. The Progenitor Dragons were smiling. Of these eggs hatched the new generation of Drajaari, and with the help of her human and half-elven friends she raised them and passed on to them their heritage. The life in the desert was hard but they managed and when 50 years later two dragons found them the Drajaari population was already on the 4th generation. With the help of the dragons, the humans and half-elves left the desert, but the Drajaari stayed behind. And in the following two millenia their population grew thousandfold. The ruined city was rebuilt and it became central place of worship for the Drajaari Clans that scattered to conquer the desert. And the tomb of Great Mother Sheraas is still to this day a place of pilgrimage and reverance in the great city of Sherastion.

Blackrat