TSR The Shadow Elves of Mystara

[Ruin Explorer]

so let me get this straight, shadow elves are just elves from a fallout vault more or less?

Yes that's certainly part of it. There's a bit of nuclear war/nuclear reactor stuff, too, and technically spoilers (I'm sorry I'm not spoiler-blocking 34-year-old GM info in a thread about the book lol), but the guy they regard as their god, Rafiel, looks exactly like a stereotype of "1940s nuclear physicist" (in a handsome kind of way), right down to being human, and... that is exactly what he is - a human nuclear physicist from a long time ago who someone managed to transcend physical being (shades of Dr Manhattan - Watchmen came out a few years before GAZ13 - 1987 vs 1990 - but I think the "nuclear physicist who has transcended physical being" concept goes back even further).

There's also a lot of usual "underground living" stuff - i.e. glowing crystals, special magic, farming fungi, etc. etc. and they are unusual because they have an Elf Cleric equivalent (Shaman) as well as the usual Fighter/Mage-style class.

My brother and I weren't big Mystara fans generally, because the whole "totally unrelated cultures with no exchange whatsoever despite being adjacent to each other and not isolationist" vibe of the setting didn't work for us, but we did love GAZ 13.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Yes that's certainly part of it. There's a bit of nuclear war/nuclear reactor stuff, too, and technically spoilers (I'm sorry I'm not spoiler-blocking 34-year-old GM info in a thread about the book lol), but the guy they regard as their god, Rafiel, looks exactly like a stereotype of "1940s nuclear physicist" (in a handsome kind of way), right down to being human, and... that is exactly what he is - a human nuclear physicist from a long time ago who someone managed to transcend physical being (shades of Dr Manhattan - Watchmen came out a few years before GAZ13 - 1987 vs 1990 - but I think the "nuclear physicist who has transcended physical being" concept goes back even further).

There's also a lot of usual "underground living" stuff - i.e. glowing crystals, special magic, farming fungi, etc. etc. and they are unusual because they have an Elf Cleric equivalent (Shaman) as well as the usual Fighter/Mage-style class.

My brother and I weren't big Mystara fans generally, because the whole "totally unrelated cultures with no exchange whatsoever despite being adjacent to each other and not isolationist" vibe of the setting didn't work for us, but we did love GAZ 13.

I need an image of this dude?

they sound at least for more able to be introduced into most dnd setting and have PC from them

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

they sound at least for more able to be introduced into most dnd setting and have PC from them

A core concept of the Known World/Mystara, is that there are no “gods” instead there are Immortals nearly every single one were ascended from previous lives as mortals.

The BECMI rules had paths PCs could use to achieve immortal status and as the world was fleshed out it seemed the authors accepted that current immortals all went up through that path. Though a rare few seemed of mysterious origin and unproven history.

The history of the immortal the Shadow Elves revere is described, however, as a scientist of an advance Blackmoor civilization whose artifacts blew up in a cataclysmic explosion that tilted the planet. Rafiel didn’t ascend through leveling, but merged into one of the devices that blew.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I need an image of this dude?

they sound at least for more able to be introduced into most dnd setting and have PC from them

The guy on the right:

The history of the immortal the Shadow Elves revere is described, however, as a scientist of an advance Blackmoor civilization whose artifacts blew up in a cataclysmic explosion that tilted the planet. Rafiel didn’t ascend through leveling, but merged into one of the devices that blew.

Yeah this concept pretty much blew my mind when I was 12, I loved it.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The guy on the right:

View attachment 387286


Yeah this concept pretty much blew my mind when I was 12, I loved it.

damn I wish I looked that good

 

[Ruin Explorer]

damn I wish I looked that good

I love the artist who did most of the artwork for GAZ 13 - he also did most/all of the interior art for Taladas - Stephen Fabian. He did a lot of cheesecake-y stuff and sometimes that sort of shows through in a slightly eyebrow-raise-inducing-way in his D&D art, but his B&W work particularly is great with these deep shadows and bright whites and real sense of energy and life a lot of the time, even in quite desolate stuff.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Yeah this concept pretty much blew my mind when I was 12, I loved it.

I love the idea so much. Another Mystara-ism I am fond of is that the elements are not conventionally opposed, that is Fire and Air have ancient enmity not the standard Water vs Fire. I don’t even try to explain it and hand wave it as some forgotten lost origin that now just is.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I love the artist who did most of the artwork for GAZ 13 - he also did most/all of the interior art for Taladas - Stephen Fabian. He did a lot of cheesecake-y stuff and sometimes that sort of shows through in a slightly eyebrow-raise-inducing-way in his D&D art, but his B&W work particularly is great with these deep shadows and bright whites and real sense of energy and life a lot of the time, even in quite desolate stuff.

He also contributed most of the interior art for the first six years of the 2E Ravenloft line, although he really didn't enjoy it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

although he really didn't enjoy it

Oh boy lol is there more to that story?

 

[Weiley31]

I should probably get this at some point otherwise my knowledge of the Shadow Elves of Mystara is going to be 95% that Capcom arcade duology.

You mean they don’t all do that Shadow Step thing?

As DM, I'll allow it.