Elves, High¶
The children of the solar celestials, the high elves were created to tend to the sun elves as librarians and heralds. Now they sequester themselves away from the world amid the fallen cities of the sky elves, remembering a better age, before the arrival of humans and war to the world made the high elves who they are today.
Glamorous¶
The high elves hold an unwavering poise worthy of a noble background. They also emit a glamor that allows them to take on physical features and aspects of personality as they desire. Each person sees this glamor slightly differently, emphasizing some details over others based on one's own values and fascinations.
Loremasters¶
The adage "knowledge is power" is a rough translation of an ancient Hyrallic saying. A closer translation is "knowledge before power." High elves believe knowledge is the pursuit from which all good things flow: life, power, legacy.
In their ruined towers, they study ancient history and magic thought long extinct. They revive dead spells and languages and manipulate their use to suit their means. High elves can use this magic for wondrous creations. They can also use it to kill by lifting a finger.
Elemental Summoners¶
Through their studies of ancient magic, many high elves have cultivated a strong bond to elemental creatures and can call upon their aid. In service to high elves, soot crows scout from the sky, living vine walls called brambleguards create labyrinthine barricades, and ceramic horses provide fast transport over long distances.
Many high elves can also summon magical wisps called elemental motes. These sprites enervate their foes against high elf magic and revive fallen elementals in a brilliant flash by sacrificing their own energy.
Surround and Suppress¶
Foes who threaten high elf armies are dealt with quickly and entirely. High elves take advantage of each other's magic to corral enemies together and throw huge waves of destruction upon them. The more exposure a victim has to high elf magic, the more effective that magic is in destroying them. High elf wyrds ensure there's no escape, warping the environment into treacherous pits—and eventually, graveyards.
Magical Manipulation¶
The high elves practice a tradition of group-casting magic that empowers their abilities as more elves participate. This enables them to extend their spells farther, sometimes even miles away from the caster when an entire platoon works in unison.
Many high elves have also collected extensive libraries of tomes over the centuries. Even on the battlefield, an elf can turn to a book to transform a mundane weapon volley into a magical one.
The Unseen Hands¶
The Unseen Hands is a sect of high elf radicals who believe they have stumbled upon sky elf texts detailing their downfall at the hands of the sun elves. The story surrounding their purported discoveries has twisted into a narrative decrying modern society for benefiting from the lore accumulated in service to the sun elves. The sect hides among high elf society in plain sight, slowly manipulating nobles as they attempt to dismantle that society and plunge the world into anarchy.
The Ordinator¶
Being in the presence of a high elf ordinator inspires an ancient fear in those who know high elf history. Occupying a position of both military and clerical authority, an ordinator is capable of focusing a force of high elves to precisely strike an arrow's tip from the other end of the battlefield. These spellcasters are among the most studied elves in their communities and courts, and their strategic minds are matched only by their affinity with elementals. The ordinator is not only an illuminating beacon of command for their platoon; they are a spiritual beacon of hope for their people.
High Elf Languages¶
Most high elves speak Caelian and Hyrallic, with some also speaking Yllyric.
The Ordinator is a Magic Beacon
Whenever a high elf ordinator appears on an encounter map, the Chaincast Malice feature is improved and always active. When any elf uses a magic ability as if they were in the ordinator's space, that ability has a double edge.
High Elf Deployments¶
High Elf Deployments
High elves are obsessed with knowledge: discovering it, documenting it, and protecting it. While this means that many of them are cloistered in towers with noses buried firmly in ancient tomes, lost knowledge is often found in dangerous ruins or in the collections of powerful individuals with no intent to share. When this happens, strike teams of like-minded high elves deploy to infiltrate and "forcefully acquire" such knowledge.
Many high elves also consider themselves guardians of dangerous or forbidden lore and are ready to defend it with their lives. Many illusory groves and glamoured ruins conceal repositories and powerful warriors sworn to keep these secrets out of the hands of those who would use them for ill.
High Elf Sample Encounters
- Ruin Hunters, 24 EV: Eight soot crows, eight dawn mages, one palinode, one zephyr
- Grove Guardians, 36 EV: Eight elemental motes, eight soot crows, one brambleguard, one wyrd, one ceramic horse
- Acquisitor Strike Team, 46 EV: Eight quivers, eight soot crows, one brambleguard, three bloodletters, one deathtouch
- Relic Wardens, 74 EV: Sixteen elemental motes, eight dawn mages, two bloodletters, one brambleguard, one palinode, one orbweaver, one ordinator
Brambleguard
- Wall of RosesMain actionSignature
- Whip FrenzyMain action
- Thicket and ThornsTrait
Ceramic Horse
- Elemental ChargeMain actionSignature
- StompMain action
- BuckManeuver2 Malice
- Shared Otherworldly GraceTrait
Elemental Mote
- Dweomer PlumeMain actionSignature
- Spark of LifeTrait
High Elf Bloodletter
- Razor's EdgeMain actionSignature
- Blood HazeManeuver2 Malice
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Dawn Mage
- Bright BoltMain actionSignature
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Deathtouch
- HeartpiercerMain actionSignature
- Kiss of DeathManeuver
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Orbweaver
- AwashMain actionSignature
- AetherwebMain action
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Ordinator
- Lightning RodMain actionSignature
- Elemental UproarManeuver
- Summon ElementalManeuver2 Malice
- Enough!Triggered action
- Otherworldly BlessingTrait
- Fountains Roar, Now Free From the EarthVillain Action 1
- And the Sun Forsook Her ChildrenVillain Action 2
- But We Will Change Her MindVillain Action 3
High Elf Palinode
- Instill RegretMain actionSignature
- RecallManeuver
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Quiver
- Heavy ArrowMain actionSignature
- Otherworldly GraceTrait
High Elf Wyrd
- TwystrdMain actionSignature
- Summon ElementalManeuver2 Malice
- Wyrd WarpManeuver2 Malice
- Otherworldly GraceTrait