TSR The Shadow Elves of Mystara

[CleverNickName]

I am putting this discussion in its own thread because (1) it's considerably off-topic from the thread that originally spawned it, and (2) I'm sick of seeing a certain oligarch's name.

Over in that other thread, the subject of Drow came up...specifically, drow in the Mystara campaign setting. From that other thread:

Great question! Dunno....

@CleverNickName Got any good Mystara references that might shed light on this?

I'm always looking for a reason to dust off my Mystara collection. Two sources immediately came to mind, but I wasn't sure if I had missed anything so I went through my whole bookshelf to make sure. And my hunch was correct: there aren't any "Drow" in Mystara, at least not as they are described in other canonical D&D works. The closest we have are the "Shadowelves" (later broken into two words, "Shadow Elves.")

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GAZ5, "THE ELVES OF ALFHEIM"
Unless I'm mistaken (and Bruce Heard can correct me if I'm wrong), the closest thing the Mystara campaign has to the classic 1E "drow" were the Shadowelves, which were first mentioned in GAZ5, "The Elves of Alfheim," in 1988. On page 9, there is a full-page writeup that tells us:

• The Shadowelves are the greatest current enemy to the nation of Alfheim,
• Their territories are in (or rather, beneath) the Broken Lands,
• During the Rain of Fire, they burrowed deep under the earth and created an underground refuge. Over the centuries they evolved into a subterranean race.
• They blame (and thus, hate) the humans for causing the Rain of Fire that destroyed their homeland.
• They demanded (and were denied) reparations from their forest-dwelling brethren for their centuries-long exile, so now they are at war

Role: The shadowelves "are definitely enemies" of this campaign setting, even if the heroes have politically allied with them. Many of the plot hooks and suggested storylines focus on fighting the shadowelves, foiling their plans, and rooting out their conspirators. They are strictly to be played by the DM: there are no rules for rolling up your own shadowelf.

Appearance: There is no artwork for the Shadowelves, and there is no written description of them as a whole. However, the way this Gazetteer describes individual shadowelves, I get the impression that they don't look any different than other elves of the realm. They have a stat block on pg. 76, that says "Shadowelves appear much like elves," differing only in that they have a longer range of infravision.

Spoiler: NPCs and Possible Spoilers

One NPC in particular, is a character by the name of Carlisan. He is a Counselor to the Clanmaster of Chossum, and his personality is described is "very open and above-board in all his dealings," and he is "friendly and very interested in anything (others) have to say." And unlike most Chossum elves, Carlisan is fair, with light-colored hair and no facial hair. He is also secretly a shadowelf, planted to gain a position of power on the council. He's building up a network of contacts to help facilitate the shadowelves master plan. He is "actually something of a sadist, who loes to butter up his potential victims."

Another NPC is Gilfronden Erendyl, the General of the Army of Alfhiem. He is described as "a classic gruff old soldier" who gets along well with "anyone with a military point of view." He is tall and lean, and sports long mustachios and his hair is white with age. He is also secretly a Shadowelf, and his "ultimate objective is the conquest of Alfheim."

There is a small faction of Shadowelves called "orc-impersonators." These are shadowelves who...well, here's what the writeup has to say about it: "Due to the conditions in the Broken Lands, many Shadowelves do not grow up tall and straight like their Alfheim cousins. Many, in fact, end up looking like orcs. Once abandoned, these semi-orcs have now found employment within The Plot."

So essentially, the Shadowelves are infiltrators. They are spies and conspirators who blend in with other races.

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GAZ13, "THE SHADOW ELVES"
TSR officially added to the Mystara campaign in GAZ13, "The Shadow Elves" which was published in 1990. And here, the Shadow Elves finally got the full Gazetteer treatment: a detailed campaign setting of their own, with their own unique history, lore, geography, playable races, new classes, new spells, new combat options...it was one of their best products of the time. I can't really do a bulleted breakdown of this Gazetteer like I did for GAZ5, because it is over a hundred pages of information.

GAZ13 was divided up into two books: a Player's Guide that had a new Shaman class and rules for playing a "Shadow Elf" character, and a DM's Guide that had information on the history, geography, and creatures of their domain, a detailed write-up of the City of Stars, and a pre-written adventure. And on a personal note, it is one of the game supplements that I consider to be a "must-have" for my home D&D game.

Role: the Shadow Elves in this Gazetteer have a broader range of roles, and aren't just the de-facto "bad guys" of the campaign. But there is a secret that is detailed in the DM Guide that isn't shared in the Player's Guide--in fact, some of the information in the Player's Guide is deliberately misleading, to allow the DM to slowly introduce this secret. Players who roll up Shadow Elf characters and play in this campaign setting will--

--you know what? I'm not gonna spoil it for you. Go get the Gazetteer and read it; it's $10 on DriveThruRPG and it's worth your time.

Appearance: On the cover, they were depicted as having European faces, pale skin, and white hair:

And from page 14 of the Player's Guide, we have rules for rolling up your own Shadow Elf character. They are described as being identical to the elves described in the D&D Basic Set, but with different minimum ability scores and prime requisites. This section also mentions the physical description of a shadow elf:

"Physical Description: while popular art often depicts surface elves as having a faint greenish cast to their skin, it would be more accurate to say that they are fair skinned. The shadow elves are even paler, with white hair and very clear eyes, usually a sparkling blue or grey color. The shadow elves are somewhat smaller and thinner than their surface cousins, standing about five feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds. Their ears are larger than those of wood elves, giving the shadow elves a sort of "walking radar" underground. Shadow elves have high-pitched voices--almost squeaky to human ears."

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There might be other mentions in other works, but these are the two largest and most important ones in the Mystara setting. (Again, Bruce Heard can correct me if I'm wrong.) And sorry it took so long to respond to this, Snarf. We're having a pretty wild time with the winter storm here on the west coast, and I wanted to give this topic the time and attention that it deserved.

 

[dbolack]

The secret was a doozy

 

[DarkCrisis]

Matt Mercer borrowed heavily for them for his dark elves in his campaign world.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Another example of Carl Sargent as top tier TSR writer.

 

[Parmandur]

The secret was a doozy

Intrigued...

 

[CleverNickName]

Matt Mercer borrowed heavily for them for his dark elves in his campaign world.

Same here. I think they're so much more interesting than the Forgotten Realms version, which always felt like it was leaning a little too hard on fetish artwork and spiders.

Bat-elves > spider-elves, IMO.

 

[Alzrius]

The single biggest hole in my collection of TSR-era D&D stuff is from the Known World line. I really need to start buying more of those products, but since I refuse to get PDFs or PoD copies, buying the old stuff in good condition can get expensive quick.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Same here. I think they're so much more interesting than the Forgotten Realms version, which always felt like it was leaning a little too hard on fetish artwork and spiders.

So, I don't see an answer to the question. Anyone have any ideas as to why the shadow elves are paler than normal elves, and definitely different than the drow?

My supposition is that ... it makes sense, BECAUSE YOU WILL LOSE COLORING IN THE DARK, but is there anything else? Any evidence that someone at the time looked at the drow, and was like, "Naw."

 

[CleverNickName]

So, I don't see an answer to the question. Anyone have any ideas as to why the shadow elves are paler than normal elves, and definitely different than the drow?

My supposition is that ... it makes sense, BECAUSE YOU WILL LOSE COLORING IN THE DARK, but is there anything else? Any evidence that someone at the time looked at the drow, and was like, "Naw."

Woops, sorry. I thought I had answered it in my original post, but I guess I forgot.

Your supposition is correct. According to GAZ5, the elves who were driven underground lost the pigmentation in their skin and hair due to centuries of living in the darkness. An exact number of years isn't given; we are told their exile was "at least a thousand years."

You might be thinking that a thousand years isn't enough time to evolve that kind of trait, especially for a creature with a lifespan of roughly a thousand years. And you'd be right! It doesn't make a lot of sense, knowing what we know about biology and environmental adaptation. I think that's why in GAZ13, this adaptation is reiterated but also expanded, and also tied to The Secret that I mentioned above.

Anyway. All that to say, your hunch agrees with the books as I understand them: the elves lived underground for so long that their skin and hair lost its pigment, and their eyes and ears adapted to the lightless silence of the caves.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Same here. I think they're so much more interesting than the Forgotten Realms version, which always felt like it was leaning a little too hard on fetish artwork and spiders.

Bat-elves > spider-elves, IMO.

Heck, the Forgotten Realms are less interesting than the Greyhawk ones they were initially copied from, because the 2E-era writers (including novelists) basically took one aspect of drow society, photocopied that over and over a thousand times until all other aspects were lost, and we were left with fetish characters as written by people who only seem to have heard about fetishes third-hand.