Overview
The Superior-Darkness Dark Elf is the elven line in the deep — tall, narrow-waisted, with the long limbs and the slight forward lean that is the elven grace adapted to the low-ceilinged tunnel. It is the truest dark of the clan: the being that is at home in the dark the way the surface is at home in the light, and the dark never burns it. There is no will in it beyond the deep and no patience beyond the tunnel, but the home arrives anyway, and the home is not a choice. Where the other dark elves keep the dark by the adaptation, the Superior-Darkness keeps it by the home.
Habitat
It lives in Vulkanis, the Volcanic City, a city carved into the heart of a dead volcano, its deep tunnels lit by magical fires that give an eerie, ever-shifting glow to the stone. It keeps the deep tunnel, because that is where the dark is thickest and the home earns its keep, and because a dark-elf that leaves the deep tunnel is a dark-elf that has left the clan. The watch keeps the high lines, the smiths keep the forge-tunnels, but the Superior-Darkness keeps the deep tunnel and does not stop being home.
Appearance
A Superior-Darkness reads 1.81 m tall and carries 71 kg of lean, long flesh, built lean and long with the shoulders a little broader than the high-elven ideal. The skin is a deep violet to a near-black, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones. The mark is the network of fine, pale violet veins at the temples, which glow faintly when the being is casting or roused — the glow is the whole of the warning, and the not-glowing is the whole of the peace.
Behaviour
It moves at 9.6 m/s through the low tunnel, deliberate, because the dark does not hurry and the being has nothing to do but keep the home. It does not hunt by the mouth; it hunts by the dark — the deep is kept the way the surface keeps the light, line by line. When the surface light comes down the tunnel — a wound, never a welcome — the pale violet veins run faintly bright and the being stands a degree harder in the dark, the way a hand holds a blade.
Natural Weapons & Defenses
The dark is the whole of the weapon — a home kept across the deep tunnel that lands on the surface and keeps the clan's faith for a century. There is no strike beyond the dark and no defense beyond the deep: the skin is a deep violet to a near-black, as hard as the promise that keeps it, and the pale violet veins hold the word the way the stone holds the debt. A Superior-Darkness that is harmed does not break in the way the surface does not recognize — the harm simply stops being a harm in the dark, and the stopping is the whole of the healing.
Magic Alignment
Its line belongs to darkness, the will, the patient, precise keeping of the deep across the low tunnels. The Superior-Darkness carries the line's truest named inborn, Superior-Darkness — it is at home in the dark the way the surface is at home in the light, and the home is not a choice. It also carries Sunlight-Sensitivity, the line's twin body, which is not a choice either, because a dark-elf whose dark did not carry across the deep would not be a dark-elf of the clan. Its signature power is the Deep's Word: a word in the deep tongue, and the dark will keep the word until the tunnel is done.
Society
There is no court in it, and the not-having is the whole of the shape. The dark elves of the city speak in parallel the way the deep speaks — each one its own line, all of them the same dark. The watch keeps the high lines, the smiths keep the forge-tunnels, and the deep tunnel keep the home, and the three have learned that a dark that is not kept is a dark that is not a promise, and the not-keeping is the whole of the peace.
Culture & Lore
The deep is the only honest conversation the clan has ever trusted, and the lore of the line is the deep. A dark-elf that keeps its dark a century past the surface is a dark-elf that has kept the clan, and the keeping is the whole of its reputation. The pale violet veins are the mark the line keeps — the fine, deliberate glow that shows when the dark is home — and a Superior-Darkness whose glow runs true is a being the city will trust with the deep tunnel. The The Forgotten are the only ones who have ever kept a word the deep had already forgotten, and the keeping is the whole of the legend.
Home
It lives in Vulkanis, the Volcanic City, a city carved into the heart of a dead volcano, its deep tunnels lit by magical fires that give an eerie, ever-shifting glow to the stone. The being keeps the deep tunnel, and the deep tunnel is the whole of its home, because the home is the dark and the dark is the home. The High Elf does not come down the tunnel, and the not-coming is the whole of the wound. The city gives the line its dark, its quiet, its one honest conversation, and its one true dark, and the line keeps all four the way it keeps the word — until the tunnel is done.
Relations
The Dwarfs of Karn Dun, the Deep Delve are the neighbors the clan shares the deep with — the dwarf keeps the delve and the dark-elf keeps the tunnel, and the two read the stone the same way: the heat first, the dark second, and the keeping is the whole of the treaty. The High Elf of Aelfarion, the Silver City is the sun-side kin the deep does not trust — the high elf keeps the silver city and the dark-elf keeps the dead mountain, and the two have learned that a city beside the mountain is not a threat, it is a wound, and the wound is the whole of the treaty.
In the Story
The six who arrived through the The Threshold never came down the tunnel, but the deep has been keeping since the oaths were sworn above, and the deep tunnel's dark elves have been home a day earlier than they should. This season a dark-elf came up from the tunnels with a name the clan had not spoken — a name that is not in the ledger, and the not-speaking is the whole of the warning, because the deep keeps its word, and the word has started to move. The Superior-Darkness keeps the dark the word is keeping, and the dark is the whole of the story's edge.