Silvanesti, Grey Elf of Krynn
Proud and aloof, the Silvanesti consider themselves to be the first children of the gods, the oldest and wisest mortal race, and the keepers of the pinnacle of mortal civilization. They had grown frustrated with the world and removed themselves from it as much as possible, hoping to maintain the purity of their inherent superiority. Recently, however, Lorac’s nightmare, the sylvan shield, and the minotaur invasion have thrown their society into disarray.
Physical description:Most Silvanesti are taller and slighter than the Qualinesti, noticeably more so than the Kagonesti. The grace and beauty of a Silvanesti is often described as ethereal; while humans and many other races find Kagonesti and Qualinesti elves beautiful, most find the beauty of Silvanesti entrancing and otherworldly. Their skin is the color of white pine, with some even fairer still. Their hair ranges from the light brown of maple to aspenbark white, and it’s often worn in long, elaborate braids and arrangements. A few Silvanesti are born with hair the charcoal black of fire-tested firs; Alhana Starbreeze of House Royal is a notable example. Alone among elves, a few very elderly Silvanesti men, even those with undisputedly pure bloodlines, have sometimes been known to grow a thin, wispy beard; this is considered the mark of a man worthy of great respect, and most Silvanesti scoff at other races whose men dare grow beards before they reach the ripe old age of six hundred or so. Silvanesti eyes are usually the rich color of walnut.
Silvanesti dress is designed to showcase luxury. Loose fitting blouses and trousers with suede slippers or boots are the norm for men and a full-length gown or dress for women. Both men and women finish the ensemble with flowing robes and cloaks—even the commoners are fond of such fashion. Both sexes wear a great deal of jewelry; rings, bracelets, earrings, ornately buckled belts, necklaces, pendants, and brooches are common. Women add extensive ornamentation in the hair. However, much of this extravagance had to be left behind when they fled Silvanost at the end of the War of Souls.
When the situation calls for utility, Silvanesti will put away the formalwear and use clothing more in line with what their Qualinesti cousins favor: sturdy leathers for wilderness scouts, utilitarian yet beautiful breeches and shirts with vests for artists, craftsmen, and other workaday Silvanesti, and slightly less ostentatious court clothing for wizards, scholars, and priests.
History:The elves awoke in the Age of Dreams. Not yet an organized nation, they watched from their forests as the ogres enslaved the humans, only to lose control in a civil war that brought ruin to both races. As the ogres and humans slaughtered one another mercilessly, the elves kept their distance, staying out of the conflict.
Silvanos Goldeneye, a young and charismatic warrior among the elves, declared their race could rise above such savagery. As the ogre civilization descended into barbarism, Silvanos inspired the elves to take their place. The elves scavenged the ruins of ogre cities and built their own civilization, beginning in the forest known in the present day as Silvanesti, where they believe life began. Silvanos ruled as the first Speaker of the Stars and took a woman named Quinari as his wife. Those who would not join with Silvanos were led by a Wilder elf by the name of Kagonos; Silvanos offered to allow them to become the servant caste in Silvanesti. Kagonos refused and led his people, the Kagonesti, back to Ansalon’s forests.
However, as they soon discovered, this forest was already occupied; ancient chromatic dragons attacked the elves, beginning the First Dragon War. Thousands of elves died in the fighting, and it appeared the dragons might wipe the elves from the face of Ansalon. Just when the situation turned hopeless, the elves were granted by the gods of Magic the knowledge and means to create dragonstones, rune-bearing crystals that could trap a dragon’s soul. Using these new weapons, the elves defeated the dragons and cast their trapped souls into the abyss of Nemith-Otham.
Years later, dwarves delving in Thoradin discovered the dragonstones hidden since the end the First Dragon War and awakened the dragons within. The dragons drew armies of bakali and ogres to themselves, and the Second Dragon War began as these hordes were unleashed on Silvanesti. The elves fought valiantly, but soon the dragons and their armies of evil laid siege to Silvanost. A trio of sorcerers called forth the magic of the land and sky and ordered Krynn itself to swallow the dragons once and for all.
Once it was unleashed, the magic couldn’t be stopped. Arcane storms of wild magic raged across Krynn, slaughtering thousands and laying waste to vast areas. The sorcerers cried out to the gods for help, and the gods of magic came to their aid. They swept the three sorcerers away, together with the tower they occupied. Gradually the wild magic abated, but the three weren’t seen for one hundred years. Finally, the sorcerers returned, having been taught the art of focused arcane magic by the gods of magic; these elves were the founding mages of the Orders of High Sorcery.
Over the next few centuries, tension began to build along the borders of Silvanesti lands and the Ergothian Empire. The Kinslayer War broke out when Speaker of the Stars Sithel was killed by a human. His successor Sithas declared war and placed his brother Kith-Kanan in command of the Silvanesti armies. General Giarna led the Ergothians and their allies, which sometimes included Kagonesti. The Kagonesti had continued to live much as all elves did during the Age of Dreams, and the Silvanesti elves had repeatedly attempted to civilize them—whether the Kagonesti liked it or not. Much to the Silvanesti’s surprise, they didn’t like it and took up arms against their would-be slave masters.
The Kinslayer War was one of the most disastrous wars ever fought on Ansalon. For fifty years, vast armies of Silvanesti elves, Thorbardin Dwarves and Ergothian humans met on the fields of southern Ansalon and slaughtered each other. The numbers of dead were beyond count, and it eventually became clear that the only ones benefiting from the war were the buzzards and crows feasting on the slain. Their appetite for death lost, both sides agreed to a truce. General Giarna lay dead, and Kith-Kanan was scarred and tired of war. The Swordsheath Scroll cemented the peace between elf, human, and dwarf, who had been drawn into the fighting as well. The Hammer of Honor, forged by the dwarves, was passed back and forth among the three nations as a reminder of the destruction of war and the strength of unity.
Perhaps the most significant casualty of the war was the trust Speaker Sithas had in his brother Kith-Kanan, as during the war Kith-Kanan married a human woman, Suzine des Quivalin—the former consort of General Giarna. Kith-Kanan settled with the thousands of elven veterans who had made the borderlands their homes. When he declared the nation of Qualinesti, thousands more elves from the east flocked westward. Speaker Sithas objected and tried to stop the migration; blood was shed, and the schism between the nations was complete. The hatred and mistrust between Silvanesti and Qualinesti would not be bridged for thousands of years.
However, the unlikely friendship between the Qualinesti and the dwarves of Thorbardin was sealed with the construction of the fortress Pax Tharkas—literally Peace Among Friends—a jointly built fortress used by both elf and dwarf. The seeds of this friendship would truly flower during the War of Souls thousands of years later. The Ergothian Empire, seeking further assurances of peace after the disastrous wars of the past century, joined in the Peace Among Friends.
For one thousand years, history shifted its focus away from the elves. The Third Dragon War was fought and won by a ragged band of upstarts called the Knights of Solamnia. An age of peace and prosperity followed. The elves turned inward, building their own civilizations. However, soon the power of a formerly minor city-state called Istar began to grow. Solamnia, which by this time had replaced Ergoth as the preeminent power in western Ansalon, convinced the elves to recognize the addition of Istar to the Swordsheath Scroll, hopefully ensuring peace among the great powers of Ansalon.
Istar’s corruption soon became apparent. The Kingpriests developed into tyrants, forcing their view of morality on the entire continent. Wizardry was suppressed. Nonhuman races were held in suspicion. The elves of Qualinesti and Silvanesti defied the Kingpriests, but that soon became irrelevant. The gods could tolerate Istar no longer and destroyed it with the Cataclysm.
The Cataclysm and subsequent absence of the gods were disasters for the elves. Qualinesti was torn asunder. Both major elven nations became militantly isolationist. Few outsiders visited elven lands and lived to speak of it.
Three hundred years later, the dragons returned in the War of the Lance. Unseen since the Third Dragon War, chromatic dragons swept across the land, with vast hosts of draconians, ogres, goblins, and other servants of evil, all inspired by the lurking Takhisis. The elves were caught completely unprepared. For the first time in history, they were unable to defend their forest homes. Both Qualinesti and Silvanesti were abandoned, the people fleeing to Southern Ergoth and founding the cities of Silvamori and Qualimori. While most would return home after the War of the Lance, it was not until well after the War of Souls that the elves finally vacated Southern Ergoth.
Speaker of the Stars Lorac Caladon had rescued a dragon orb—a powerful weapon which was later used by Raistlin Majere in his bid for godhood—from Istar before the gods smote the city. He tried to use it to defend Silvanesti, but it turned on him and projected his mad nightmare across the whole land, which remained until well after the war. Meanwhile, Qualinesti princess Laurana, the Golden General, led the multiracial armies of light (including the Knights of Solamnia) to victory over the Dragonarmies. While in exile in Southern Ergoth, both the Qualinesti and Silvanesti took more Kagonesti slaves. The Silvanesti spent years fighting the remnants of Lorac’s Nightmare and chasing down Cyan Bloodbane, the horrid green dragon who bedeviled the Silvanesti forest for the next 70 years. Soon after the war, Alhana Starbreeze, daughter of Silvanesti Speaker Lorac, married the Qualinesti prince Porthios in an attempt to unite the elven nations. Rather than uniting the elven factions, the royal couple was branded as dark elves and banished by politicians of both nations with closed minds and ambitious agendas.
The Chaos War saw the ascendancy of the Knights of Takhisis. Qualinesti fell to these Dark Knights and later came under the dominion of the Dragon Overlord Beryl. The Silvanesti surrendered once again to isolationism and retreated behind a magical shield which sapped their life away. The elves of Southern Ergoth—calling themselves the Ergonesti—fought for their lives against deadly enemies both old and new: a ghost from the past, a dragon overlord, and occasionally even each other.
When the War of Souls broke out, the Qualinesti threw off the shackles of Beryl, but their beautiful city of Qualinost was destroyed in the hideous disaster that created Nalis Aren, the Lake of Death. Only the heroism and sacrifice of the dwarves of Thorbardin, who dug underground escape routes for the Qualinesti, allowed any to escape the city. Other survivors were chased from the land by former Dark Knights and goblins under Captain Samuval; stragglers were enslaved or killed. Some, however, continue to fight, carrying on a desperate battle to retake their land.
The Silvanesti fared no better. The son of Alhana and Porthios, Silvanoshei, was given the throne and became the first Speaker of the Stars since his mother was branded a dark elf and cast out of Silvanesti. When Mina arrived leading the Dark Knight armies, they somehow bypassed the shield. She won the confidence of the people by aiding them in slaying their old nemesis Cyan Bloodbane, and the Silvanesti armed forces put up only token resistance to her army. Toward the end of the war, the Dark Knights fled north with Speaker Silvanoshei; Silvanesti troops pursued, only to have a force of minotaurs land behind them. Hundreds of thousands of Silvanesti were wiped out mercilessly by the minotaurs. Silvanoshei met his end in Sanction after killing the newly mortal Takhisis.
In this state, the war ended: technically a victory over the Dark Knights, but an unmitigated disaster for the elves, who no longer had a homeland.
Alhana Starbreeze was redeemed and her label of dark elf revoked. She declined the title of Speaker of the Stars; she suggested Gilthas be given the honor, which he accepted. Gilthas was the son of Laurana, Hero of the Lance and martyr of the battle against Beryl. He was called the Puppet King during his tenure as Speaker of the Sun in Qualinesti, as he seemed to be manipulated by the Dark Knights occupying the land. In truth, he was wed to Kerianseray the Lioness, notorious resistance fighter, and used his influence to shield the resistance. The Lioness was the daughter of a respected Kagonesti elder, thereforeGilthas finally united the three major elven nations as Gilthas Pathfinder, Speaker of the Sun and Stars.
This unity, and Gilthas’s title, is not quite universally observed. Far in the west, another Pathfinder has emerged. Refugees led by a Kagonesti named Amara fled Ergoth for the isle of Cristyne, attempting to re-establish the ancient elven city of Baleph. Not long after the War of Souls ended, the elves of Ergoth were visited in Silvamori by an ancient foe—Sylvyana, the Ghoul Queen. She had defeated and dominated the elven hero Aracoe, but she was thwarted in destroying the entire population in Southern Ergoth by the actions of Amara and a motley band of adventurers. Shamed, Aracoe passed his half of the Ram’s Horn to Amara; many of the Ergonesti, now almost fully in Cristyne, call her the Pathfinder. These elves, consisting of members of all three nations, wish to have little to do with the troubles of their eastern cousins. Unity continues to be an elusive goal for the elves.
Currently, many thousands of elves are scattered to the four winds across Ansalon in what is commonly known as the elven Diaspora. Almost every Ansalonian city has an elven ghetto, where poverty-stricken elves try to scrape a life out of nothing.
In the east, Gilthas has led his people to the unforgiving deserts of Khur; he is on the precipice of finding what he believes to be a suitable land in which to settle, if a Khurish fanatic and her tribal warriors don’t destroy them all first. Dreams of retaking the forests of Silvanesti and Qualinesti haven’t faded, and Gilthas knows he walks a fine political line between appeasing those who need a suitable homeland immediately and satisfying the old guard who demand the recapture of their ancestral lands. Meanwhile, the Khurish nomad chieftains have decided to wipe the elves from the face of Ansalon.
Outlook:The Silvanesti are members of the oldest and, by many measures, most advanced civilization on Ansalon. Some of the greatest mages, warriors, and artists ever known on Ansalon have been Silvanesti. The Silvanesti know this and take it to heart, leading to a vast cultural superiority complex. They are among the most arrogant and self-important mortals in existence, and their air of assumed superiority regularly insults those of other races.
The superiority complex carried by most Silvanesti has led them to become intensely isolationist, to the point of xenophobia. For thousands of years, they cut off most contact with the outside world. The Silvanesti zealously guarded their borders, often violently expelling anyone unlucky enough to cross it without permission. In times of war, they were likely to outright kill any non-elf found in their beloved forest. Since the minotaur invasion evicted them from their ancestral lands in the War of Souls, they have been forced to deal with other races far more than any time since the ancient past.
Silvanesti pride and assumptions of superiority have also led to an intense sense of vanity. Before the exile removed the luxury to engage in such things, Silvanesti were extremely fashion conscious, and even to this day, those whose physical perfection is marred by visible scars or disability are sometimes driven to breach the elven taboo against suicide.
Recent history has not been kind to the Silvanesti: their homeland was infested by the Nightmare of Lorac; they were trapped within a life-draining magical shield raised by their mortal enemy Cyan Bloodbane; they were defeated and humiliated by the Dark Knights under Mina, then were occupied, slaughtered, and driven from their ancestral lands by minotaur. This string of defeats has left many Silvanesti bitter. Rather than the depressed malaise suffered by many Qualinesi, Silvanesti have been more likely to react by becoming caustic and angry.
In contrast to the bitterness and anger expressed by some Silvanesti, others have remained undaunted and optimistic. As caretakers of one of the oldest and most advanced civilizations on Ansalon, the Silvanesti have historically been a very confident people. They believe nothing is beyond their grasp as long as they expend enough effort and patience. Lorac Caladon, the Speaker of the Stars during the War of the Lance, personified this confidence when he unsuccessfully attempted to master the dragon orb. Surprisingly, even after being evicted from their lands, the morale of many Silvanesti remains fundamentally strong.
The Silvanesti are quick to anger. Over the millennia, their highly regimented and precise social structures evolved an overdeveloped sense of etiquette and political protocol; offense became easily given and quickly taken. Public airing of grievances and litigation were common ways for Silvanesti from different Houses to resolve disputes. Within the same House, Silvanesti pride sometimes drives escalation of disputes to the point where only a duel can resolve it. While dueling is usually forbidden between members of different houses, two members of the same house can resolve a dispute this way. The antagonists agree on a weapon—usually a rapier, but sometimes a longsword—and fight to the first cut. The duel is meticulously refereed; great care is taken that the fight is not fatal and permanent scarring does not result. Purposely attacking the face or hands, for instance, is grounds for immediate disqualification and disgrace.
Society:Silvanesti society is highly structured and regimented; each member knows her place and is expected to fulfill it. Social structure is dominated by the House system. Silvanesti Houses are groups of families who share the same family vocation, trade, profession, or scholarly expertise. All Silvanesti, from the lowest born lady's maid to the Speaker of the Stars himself, are members of one of the great Houses. Membership is hereditary; children enter their parents’ house upon their birth and remain unless marriage takes them to another. Elves of different houses may only marry with permission of the Speaker of the Stars or a representative of his bureaucracy, at which time one or the other of the couple formally changes houses to match his or her new spouse.
House affiliation is of vital social importance in Silvanesti culture, even during the exile. It determines who one may marry, who one’s friends may be, and what one will do with his life. Rank within the House is of importance as well; the head of each House sits on a committee called the Sinthal-Elish or Council of the High. This council serves as official advisors to the Speaker. While each house legally has an equal place on this council, historically House Protector, House Cleric, and House Mystic have vied with each other for dominance and, with it, the ear of the Speaker.
The great Houses of Silvanesti are as follows:
House Royal—This house consists of the direct descendants of Silvanos, founder of the Silvanesti nation. The Speaker had always been a member of this House, until the recognition of Gilthas as Speaker of the Stars. Some have argued he should be granted membership in the House as a descendant of Silvanos (albeit through the traitor Kith-Kanan); others believe the Speakership should pass to one of the minor members of the House, such as Kiryn, Silvanoshei’s cousin. For now, Gilthas holds power, but the longer he goes without demonstrating that he can resolve the elves’ refugee status, the less patient the remaining power brokers among the Silvanesti will be.
House Cleric—Once the most powerful House next to House Royal, House Cleric lost significant prestige during the absence of the gods, both following the Cataclysm and the Chaos War. They responded by turning to lorekeeping and temple administration; even during the times of the gods’ absence, the temple buildings were lovingly maintained. Even though the gods were gone, the Silvanesti still found solace in the temples, and House Cleric maintained them through the years. Prior to the Chaos War, House Cleric had members in every Holy Order of the gods of light; E’li was held in the highest esteem, but Quenesti Pah (Mishakal) and Astarin (Branchala) were revered by most Silvanesti. The Blue Phoenix, Matheri (Majere), and Kiri-Jolith also had beautiful temples—see the Religion section for more details about Silvanesti religious practices. While House Cleric revered Solinari, they left his worship to the wizards of House Mystic. House Cleric does not forbid the marriage of its priests and preistesses; the hereditary nature of the House requires children.
Ironically, it was neither the Cataclysm nor the Chaos War which put an end to this House’s power; that was accomplished by the minotaur invasion and the resulting destruction of the temples of Silvanost and slaughter of most of the members of the House. Few members of House Cleric survived the War of Souls. Most stayed behind to defend their beloved temples from the minotaurs rather than flee. The lucky ones died in the fighting. Rumors have circulated that Lady Telisina, head of House Cleric prior to the war, was among the surviving refugees, but her whereabouts are unknown; most doubt the truth of the rumors.
House Protector—House Protector is the Silvanesti nation’s sword and shield. The Wildrunners, the Windriders, and the Speaker’s personal guard detail must be members of House Protector. See the Racial Relations section for details about the Wildrunners and Windriders. As such, it is the only House a Silvanesti can voluntarily join without marrying a current member. A Silvanesti wishing to serve his people in a martial role may apply for membership in one of these units; those demonstrating the basic ability to serve are inducted into the House and trained as a warrior.
Not all Silvanesti under arms are members of House Protector; the kirath, a highly skilled force of irregulars called to duty when necessary, remain members of whichever House they were born into.
House Mystic—The Silvanesti are widely thought of as masters of the arcane arts. While human wizards like Par-Salian, Justarius, and the great Raistlin Majere often find more fame, no race has produced as great an arcane tradition as that of House Mystic. The Silvanesti have had great success in educating their children in the ways of wizardry, and for thousands of years prior to the Chaos War, House Mystic had the support of the Orders of High Sorcery (the White Robes, at least) as responsible teachers of magic.
Even so, all members of House Mystic have traditionally taken the Test of High Sorcery at the Tower of Wayreth; Silvanesti aspirants enjoyed greater success than any other race, leading many wizards to try to discover the Silvanesti methods of training. House Mystic managed to keep their methods to themselves, and Ansalonian wizards, shrugging their shoulders at the Silvanesti’s amazing success, credit it to longstanding tradition or the favor of the gods. Despite their successes, wizards of House Mystic generally have not participated in the activities of the Conclave or Orders of High Sorcery to any great degree; thus, despite their amazing natural aptitude, few Silvanesti mages are ever known beyond the borders of their forest. One notable exception is Dalamar the Dark, who was actually a member of House Servitor. He was banished as a dark elf for two reasons: the crime of practicing magic as a wizard of the Black Robes and the equally unforgivable crime of overstepping his station in the social order. While House Mystic does not have a monopoly on the use of arcane magic in Silvanesti, its use by anyone in House Servitor is strictly limited to cantrips and very minor magic. House Mystic has not had much of a chance to recover from the absence of magic following the Chaos War. A few had turned to sorcery, but most had not. Much of its vast and priceless library of spellbooks and research material was lost in the minotaur invasion. The house is still in disarray, and its future remains undetermined.
House Metalline—Like their Qualinesti kin, the Silvanesti are known as artists in metalworking. The Silvanesti are especially noted for their skill with mithral. From jewelry to weapons, the smiths of House Metalline coax beauty from metal of which most others on Ansalon can only dream. House Metalline supports not only smiths, but also miners and merchants specializing in metal trade. Members of House Metalline are often able to continue their trade in exile, and many members are among the most successful of those Silvanesti in the Diaspora.
House Advocate—The teachers, scholars, lawyers, judges, diplomats, and civil servants who kept the Silvanesti’s highly regimented society running smoothly belong to House Advocate. Now that the nation is in exile, House Advocate is taking upon itself the responsibility of preserving as much of the social fabric as possible. Most members take pride in remaining staunchly neutral in Silvanesti politics, preferring the role of disinterested adjudicator and apolitical bureaucrat.
House Mason—Members of House Mason are one part artist and one part engineer, with a bit of mage on top of both. They were the architects and builders who constructed the stunningly beautiful city of Silvanost, the skilled workers who maintained its glory, and perhaps among those who wept most bitterly at its loss. Some members of House Mason exiled with the Speaker have offered to sell their services to the Khurs in order to earn some much needed currency for the nation, but others have opposed building any elven-designed structures in human lands. Despite this internal debate, their unity as a House remains strong, and they hope to recover the glory of Silvanost for their nation—or, at worst, recreate it in a new homeland.
House Gardener—Made up of Silvanesti’s farmers, horticulturalists, and produce merchants, House Gardener provided most of the nation’s food supplies for thousands of years. Hundreds of small farms and thousands of tiny gardens dotted the forest, each carefully tended by botanists of House Gardener. In addition to the grain and vegetables that made up the staple of the typical Silvanesti diet, florists of House Gardener have developed stunningly beautiful varieties of flowers and ornamental plants. Gardens designed by House Gardener are widely considered works of art.
With most surviving Silvanesti currently in exile in the unforgiving desert of Khur, House Gardener is struggling to find its purpose. They hope a new homeland can be found—or their old one recovered—before too long, or many believe it might spell the end of the House. House Woodshaper—The Silvanesti nation’s foresters, hunters, and many other nature-minded citizens belong to House Woodshaper. Many members wield a sort of magic that will guide the growth of the forest, allowing them to perform feats of landscape and structural architecture using living trees as their medium. They also act as the protectors and nurses of the forest; this often put them at odds with House Mason in the classic conflict between preservation and progress.
Much like House Gardener, while in exile, House Woodshaper is a guild without a purpose. More so than House Gardener, however, they have recognized the extent of their dilemma and are engaged in active preservation of knowledge of their art, in hopes that it may someday be put to use again.
House Servitor—The lowest of all the great Houses of Silvanesti, House Servitor encompasses all the unskilled and much of the skilled, manual labor that maintained the lavish lifestyle of the nation. Its highest-ranking members may serve in roles requiring great responsibility, such as chief steward of a large estate or the personal valet of the Speaker of the Stars. Its lowest members are slaves, performing whatever dangerous or backbreaking labor needs to be done. Exile has become a great equalizer in Silvanesti society; many members of House Servitor have found new purpose in House Protector, and many slaves have been able to demand release from their bondage.
Relations with other races:The Silvanesti are often said to be the only Ansalonian race that does not even get along with itself. This isn’t entirely true—the humans certainly don’t seem to be without internal conflict—but it reveals a sad truth: Silvanesti, generally, are difficult to get along with.
The Silvanesti are well assured of their superiority. Kagonesti are considered uncouth barbarians in terrible need of someone to thrust civilization upon them. Of course, the Silvanesti are the perfect ones to do it. The Qualinesti are lost, heretical cousins who have no appreciation of the civilization they chose to leave behind. Humans are the cause of most of the world’s grief and misery, from the first Cataclysm and resulting departure of the gods to the fall of E’li, the death of Speaker Silvanoshei, and the fall of Silvanesti itself, brought about by that accursed human woman Mina. The dwarves are dirty little creatures who reek of charcoal and hot iron and should just stay underground where they belong. The kender are thieves; afflicted kender are depressing thieves. Gnomes are simply mad. Half-humans, called half-elves by humans, are affronts to Silvanesti purity and are to be cast out of the community, lest they sully the blood with their human heritage. Ogres and minotaurs, of course, are to be killed on sight. The only race that the Silvanesti respect is the metallic dragons, with whom they’ve allied frequently. It’s not surprising that this sort of attitude has led the Silvanesti to come into conflict with many other races on a fairly regular basis. They’re not a nation easily defeated in war, however. They have highly competent and magnificently equipped armies, even after the defeats they suffered in Silvanost. House Protector does its job well— they would likely have held off the minotaur invasion but for the terrible strategic mistake made by Alhana Starbreeze in the War of Souls to move the army north, out of the forest, toward Sanction.
The majority of the army is made up of the Wildrunners, the ground forces of Silvanesti. Few nations can field an army of finer swordsmen, pikes, and archers. Add their magnificent cavalry, and a force of Silvanesti Wildrunners is extremely difficult to overcome short of overwhelming numbers or outright treachery. Footmen are typically armed with a longsword, heavy wooden shield, and elven chain or finely crafted scale mail. Dedicated pikes will carry a polearm and short sword instead of the longsword. Archers carry longbows and short swords. Wildrunner archers often serve as woodland scouts and reconnaissance troops as well. Silvanesti horse cavalry is extremely versatile and can serve as light, mobile mounted swordsmen and archers as easily as they can be heavy lancers.
In addition to the Wildrunners, House Protector has a wing of Windriders, who are griffon-mounted flying cavalry. Excellent as troops to conduct reconnaissance, rapidly attack targets of opportunity, or provide a light but highly mobile reserve force, the Windriders have a long and proud tradition dating back to the founding of Silvanesti. When their metallic dragon allies join them, Windriders will sometimes ride and fight from dragonback, as they did in the War of the Lance and the second Battle of Sanction in the War of Souls. The kirath represent the third major Silvanesti armed force.
Alignments:With a society built upon a strict hierarchy, Silvanesti tend to be more lawfully inclined than other elves. Silvanesti are aligned with good, but they believe so highly in their own purity that goodness can be taken to extremes.
Religion:For millennia, Silvanesti religious practices were dominated by reverence for E’li. They looked to the king of the gods for inspiration, protection, and guidance. His sacrifice in the War of Souls, his acceptance of mortality in order to protect his people from Queen Takhisis once and for all, did not dim the love of the Silvanesti for him. Many exiled Silvanesti still light incense before their small shrines to the great god, revering even his memory.
Quenesti Pah, E’li’s wife and companion, has now taken primacy among the gods of light from the Silvanesti point of view. Many despairing Silvanesti widows and widowers, their husbands or wives slain in the slaughter of the War of Souls, now see Quenesti Pah as a kindred spirit. While most of the universe may be cold and uncaring, surely the Grieving Lady will hear, understand, and answer, many Silvanesti believe, for surely she weeps as they do. Other Silvanesti take refuge in Astarin, the Song of Life, who inspires joy and determination among his followers.
The peace and serenity offered by the Blue Phoenix, Lord of the Land, Sea, and Sky, and Matheri, friend of E’li, comfort many. Silvanesti devotees of these gods believe the way forward is to accept what has happened and work tirelessly to set things right. The more militaristic Silvanesti turn to Kiri-Jolith, son of E’li and the bringer of righteous fury from the heavens. Silvanesti steel and Kiri-Jolith’s might, his followers believe, will someday drive the foul bull men from their beloved homeland. While many Silvanesti favor one or another of the gods of light, almost all Silvanesti publicly show reverence for the entire pantheon. Even Solinari, usually only acknowledged by wizards, is given a place of honor by the Silvanesti people.
Silvanesti ritual tradition is in disarray. Most of House Cleric perished during the War of Souls, defending their temples from minotaurs, so traditional leaders of divine services are gone. Lay Silvanesti have tried to put things together as best they can; most Silvanesti households in exile, whether in Khurinost or scattered in the Diaspora, have a simple shrine to one or more of the gods in their home. Communal services have just recently resumed, presided over by devoted laypeople rather than priests.
A small but growing minority of Silvanesti have declared themselves secular. The high ritual of the realm’s glory days masked more religious indifference than most outsiders would have believed. Now, with their forest homes lost, their people decimated, and the society’s priestly class nearly wiped out, more Silvanesti are publicly turning away from the gods, believing they would be foolish to trust in them only to be abandoned yet again.
A small number of Silvanesti find patronage in one of the gods of neutrality. The Winged One is sometimes invoked by bureaucrats, lawyers, and merchants. Chislev is revered by some of the members of House Woodshaper.
A tiny but growing cult of Kinthalas (Sargonnas) exists among the Silvanesti. Some of those whose hearts were twisted by the terrible events of the War of Souls have turned to the Lord of Vengeance for strength, forming the Cult of the Bloody Condor. These dangerous elves have no patience with the Speaker or the rest of the community; they lash out violently and with terrible skill when someone stands in the way of their schemes.
Language:The Silvanesti dialect of Elven is a descendant of a dead protolanguage called Nestari, which was spoken by elves in the days before Silvanos. Currently, Nestari is known only by a handful of elven linguists and Gileanite scholars and is of use only to academics.
Upon the founding of Silvanesti, scholars set about formalizing the language; they recorded definitive forms of letters and spelling (Silvanesti and its close relative Qualinesti use an alphabetic written script), formalized rules of grammar, and discouraged colloquialisms and regional variation. The language they developed is surprisingly easy to learn. Its rules made sense, and irregularities were corrected. It remained a beautiful and poetic language, however.
Much of the artistry in Silvanesti Elven is in its written form. Calligraphy is a serious artistic pursuit among many Silvanesti. The first members of House Advocate engaged in meticulous record-keeping, and they sought a way to make their records pleasant to the eye while standardized enough that variation between recorders wouldn’t affect legibility. Their early calligraphic techniques were admired by some members of House Royal, who imitated it. From there, it grew quickly; members of House Royal were, and still are, the makers of fashion. Extravagantly handwritten books are among some of the few material treasures rescued from Silvanost as the minotaurs advanced. Like any language, Silvanesti Elven has common sayings and catch phrases. “May your life be green and golden,” was once an ancient salutation said by a commoner taking leave of her lord, but it has evolved into a general farewell. Dozens more nature-inspired metaphors have become cliché; far too many to list here. “By E’li!” is a common, if vaguely vulgar, expression of astonishment. A Silvanesti might declare scorn by saying someone or something is “unfit for an ogre.” Some words in Elven have even made it into more common usage among other races. Dalamar Argent’s use of the word shalafi (or “master”) has been adopted by many young wizards in the last half-century, for instance.
Names:Silvanesti are unusual among elven cultures in that many, especially among the nobility, have surnames. Men and women usually follow different traditions in the selection of a surname. The determination of men’s surnames is straightforward and follows a simple patronymic system; the son of Maradoc Caladon was Lorac Caladon, as the father of Jahran Kaldeist was Yilan Kaldeist. Women’s surnames are a bit more complex. One method is a matronymic system, where the daughter takes her mother’s surname. Another fashion is for the mother and father to each choose a one-word descriptor of the environment as it is during the child’s birth. Names like Oakleaf, Starbreeze, and Moonborn are chosen this way. Further confusing matters is that these systems occasionally cross gender lines, and a boy may acquire a name like Swiftcloud or Brightwind; a daughter may take her father’s less poetic name. Examples of given names for Silvanesti include: Lorac, Silvanoshei, Avonathalonus, Pellarin, Silvanas, and Terevalis for men and Aleaha, Ladine, Lisindrela, Maleesa, Roselenna, and Telisina for women.
Adventurers:It takes serious motive for a Silvanesti to take up the life of an adventurer, given the culture they have built over the millennia. Many Silvanesti are unused to the indignities of the austere lives adventurers lead. As such, while some Silvanesti in the Diaspora take up adventuring for many of the same reasons their Kagonesti and Qualinesti cousins do, they attempt to maintain their nobility and pride as they struggle in strange lands. In contrast, many Silvanesti refugees in Khur now see that willingness to take up the difficult life of the warrior, the scout, and the spy is the key to both their immediate survival and the eventual recovery of their homeland.
Settings:Silvanesti elves originate from the Dragonlance setting. On Ravenloft, the
Sithican grey elves are a twisted reflection of Silvanesti culture, tainted by cultural decline and apathy.
Game Stats:+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, -2 Cha *
Darkvision
Hardiness vs. Enchantment
Keen Senses
Lore +1
Skill Affinity (Listen)
Skill Affinity (Search)
Skill Affinity (Spot)
Sleeplessness
Spellcraft +1
Weapon Proficiencies (Longsword, Rapier, Shortbow, Longbow)
* The game engine automatically applies the default +2 Dex, -2 Con adjustment for standard elves at character creation. An extra +2 Int, -2 Cha will be applied once the subrace template is acquired in-game.
