TSR The Shadow Elves of Mystara

[M.L. Martin]

Oh boy lol is there more to that story?

He doesn't care much for the undead, and he got sick of the material.

 

[The Sigil]

Is it radiance related?

It's been a while.

SPOILERS AHEAD (which I really shouldn't have to do for a 30+ year old work but whatever)

I would say the radiance is tangentially related - in that the seminal event that caused the Shadow Elves to flee underground (the Great Rain of Fire) has a common source with the Radiance.

I would also point out that to my mind, the bigger twist/spoiler (pages 10-11 of the Gaz 13 DM Book) concerns the Shadow Elf practice of abandoning "imperfect" (mutant?) babies in caves far from the cities - with the accompanying revelation (page 55) that "imperfect" shadow elf babies are often adopted by humanoids (orcs, goblinoids, and the like) and that certain "powerful humanoids" in the Broken Lands are actually imperfect shadow elves.

 

[Zaukrie]

This is one of my favorite of the gazetteers. All of them are filled to the brim with creative ideas.

 

[cbwjm]

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.

I think fire vs air has been common in various editions due to the djinn vs efreet animosity. This was probably just an offshoot from that.

Speaking of the elements though, Mystara does have a few additional elementals like the horde, and ever growing earth elemental made up of composite insect looking parts. They also had lawful and chaotic versions of elementals, one was an ice crab, another a ring of fire, I liked the additions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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 like Mystara, but as individual settings to plunder or zoom way in on. I agree that most of the countries don't work well smashed against one another. But the best individual settings -- and there's a wide variability in quality -- are among the best TSR ever produced.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He doesn't care much for the undead, and he got sick of the material.

I loved his art. I wish we'd seen more of it beyond Ravenloft (which he was admittedly very good at).

 

[Zardnaar]

SPOILERS AHEAD (which I really shouldn't have to do for a 30+ year old work but whatever)

I would say the radiance is tangentially related - in that the seminal event that caused the Shadow Elves to flee underground (the Great Rain of Fire) has a common source with the Radiance.

I would also point out that to my mind, the bigger twist/spoiler (pages 10-11 of the Gaz 13 DM Book) concerns the Shadow Elf practice of abandoning "imperfect" (mutant?) babies in caves far from the cities - with the accompanying revelation (page 55) that "imperfect" shadow elf babies are often adopted by humanoids (orcs, goblinoids, and the like) and that certain "powerful humanoids" in the Broken Lands are actually imperfect shadow elves.

Yeah that turns up in a later product I have.