Black Elves

*See also: Black Elf Matriarchates*

Black Elves are a race (technically a species, but referred to as a race) of Elfkin hominid endemic to Roulonne, known for their black skin, peculiar sexual dimorphism that is almost the inverse of other hominid races, and their matriarchal societies.

Black Elves are sometimes confused with the ancient, long-dead Dark Elves due to the similar names, but confusing the two is not only inaccurate but is usually seen as extremely offensive by the Black Elves. The name "Dark" Elf was due to the chaotic, sadistic and hedonistic nature of that race, whereas the name "Black" Elf is a literal descriptive name, referencing the colour of their skin. Another difference between the two names is that whilst Dark Elf was a pejorative exonym never used by the Dark Elves themselves, the Black Elf endonym *Buyan* (plural *Buyāni*, demonym *Buyanee*) literally translates as "Black-Elf".

Black Elves were capable of wielding magic when such a thing was still possible. They had no capacity for air magic, but were proficient at shield and healing magic and had exceptionally powerful plasma magic; it was said that the strongest of Black Elvish mages could easily rival Dragon-fire with their plasma.

## Physiology

In many respects, Black Elves resemble Elves. They have a tall and slender build, pointed ears, slanted eyes and weak body and facial hair. However, the two races differ significantly in their colouration (as one may assume from the name of Black Elf) and their sexual dimorphism.

Black Elves are far more uniform in hair and eye colour than Elves; whereas Elves are renowned for their bizarre and diverse array of vibrant hair and eye colours, Black Elves always have silver hair and either grey-blue or sapphire-blue eyes, with the former being approximately five times as common as the latter.

Whereas Elves are fair-skinned, Black Elves have the darkest skin tone of any hominid, being literally black (not merely dark brown as "black" Humans are). The cause of this is unknown, since the Black Elves do not natively live in an especially sunny area. Some scholars have speculated that it is an adaptation to protect against the extreme radiation produced by their famously powerful plasma magic, whereas others suggest that they had a Titanic creator who made their skin that colour merely on a whim. The black skin of Black Elves makes them virtually immune to sunburn, but substantially limits their intake of vitamin D. With modern knowledge of nutritional science, the great love that all Black Elves seem to innately have for oily fish, eggs, red meat and liver appears to be an adaptation to motivate Black Elves into procuring enough vitamin D from their diet to offset their greatly reduced environmental intake. The vast majority of modern Black Elves additionally take vitamin D supplements daily, especially during autumn and winter.

The sexual dimorphism of Black Elves is highly peculiar amongst the hominids. All Elfkin are somewhat less sexually dimorphic than Humans, but Black Elves take this to the extreme. In terms of height and musculature, Black Elf males and females are near-identical, and it is in fact somewhat common for females to be taller than males. Although this puts Black Elf females physically on par with the males - or even above them - it has the adverse effect of substantially reducing their fertility, a problem which becomes more significant given the already slow reproduction rates of Elfkin.

Compared to other hominids such as Elves, Humans and especially Orcs, Black Elf men have a fairly androgynous build. Whereas the comparatively effeminate appearance of standard Elf and Sand Elf males is a source of largely good-natured jesting amongst other races, the degree of androgyny in Black Elf males is frequently met with more open ridicule and genuine hostility; combined with the fact that Black Elf societies are mostly matriarchal in nature, this has led to the prevailing stereotype that Black Elf males are pathetic imitations of men who are more alike women than the females of their race. They are seen as sodomites, cuckolds and slaves to their women, and an old Roulonnais derogatory slur for Black Elf men - *Lesamie* - can be roughly translated as "faggot". This attitude is only genuinely held by a minority in modern times, and is widely understood to be a gross distortion of incorrect perceptions of Black Elf society, but it was once very common amongst the folk of both Roulonne and Epsilucia, especially amongst Humans.

Black Elves can successfully breed with Elves to create offspring known as Grey Elves. Like Black Elves, Grey Elves have extremely consistent colouration; they have greyish-brown skin, blonde or silver hair and blue eyes. Although an Elf and a Black Elf can produce a child together as normal, Grey Elves are always infertile without exception. Grey Elves also have an increased likelihood of presenting with immune system disorders compared to the races of either of their parents. Grey Elves tend to resemble Elves more than Black Elves in their stature, though they do inherit the Black Elf trait of females being as tall and as muscular as males.

Black Elves have an average lifespan of 100 years, which is longer than the Human average of 80 but shorter than the Elvish average of 110-120. They spend the same amount of time as Humans in the womb, and come to maturity earlier than Elves. On average, Elvish females enter puberty at 14 and finish at 22, and males enter puberty at 15-16 and finish at 24, whereas Black Elvish females enter puberty at 12 and finish at 19 and males enter puberty at 14 and finish at 20. Like all the other Elfkin, they tend to maintain their youthful appearance until they become very elderly at which point they age rapidly, rather than aging consistently but slowly as Humans and Orcs do.

## Rivalry with Dark Elves

With some regional exceptions, Black Elves throughout history have generally established peaceful and friendly relations with their Human neighbours, but they have a notoriously violent history of conflict with the Dark Elves which raged apparently since before the time of the Annihilation. The reasoning why this centuries-long race war began is entirely unclear, but both sides had total contempt for each other at the best of times which often spilled over into open hatred and revulsion.

In Ribalouse (or the Strangelands), the region most densely populated by Dark and Black Elves, the local politics was essentially entirely characterised by the struggle between these two groups until Elora Hellshaker, driven to insane depths of rage and grief by the brutal murder of her family in 220BC, single-handedly slaughtered almost the entirety of the Black Elvish population in Ribalouse. This act of genocide is what prompted the Black Elves to petition the Dragons to exterminate the Dark Elvish race permanently in 180BC, and many Black Elves gleefully gave their assistance and began hunting Dark Elves as if it were a sport, taking their horns as trophies to be displayed back home.

The conflict between the Black Elves and Dark Elves did not cease there, as the Sherahavi could not keep their existence a secret for long and they openly revealed themselves during the War for the World. The strife between the two races was, however, symbolically put to an end after the war in recognition of the selfless heroism of the Sherahavi (and in particular the sacrifice of Queen Rixa the White-Eyed), and all the horns taken from the Dark Elves were buried at Abesin Hill where the Sherahavi once lived.