EPT
The Elves of Xa were born on the first day of the Age Eternal, the First Children of the Radiant Zenith. They rejoiced in the splendor of the sky and the daylight and the brilliant sun, and praised their father, Xa, for providing them with the gift of life and the beauty of Iris. Yet the joy of the Elves was tragically short-lived for it ended when the Tieflings brought their hatred and violence to the sun-kissed Elven lands. Forced to defend themselves against the horned ones, the Elves took up arms in Xa’s name, plunging themselves into a war older than death itself: the Archwyrre. The War Older Than Death only concluded when Rogash ended the first lives and plunged their Anima into a deeper darkness than even the Tieflings could conjure. The Elves never forgave their horned cousins for the atrocities they committed during the Age Eternal, and, in spite of the Elven dedication to peace and justice, many an Elf would gladly spill Tiefling blood without question.
Elves, as a people, are devoted to beauty, nature, and order. As one of the first sentient mortal races to live upon Iris, the Elven race has the strongest connection to the land itself. The territories they occupy contain those wonders of Iris they find most beautiful and most wish to keep safe from the ravages of Iris’ “less-civilized” peoples. The arcane and inveterate Elves live by codes and laws that date back to the founding of their civilization thousands of years ago. While these codes espouse tenets of virtue and peace, they are often complex to the point of inscrutability to the other mortal races, especially those who aren’t accustomed to Elven longevity. As such, some find elves to be staunch and condescending, and these accusations are not always inaccurate.
The Elven lands are filled with some of Iris’ greatest marvels. Those select few who are privileged enough to visit the innermost sanctums of Elven civilizations are often unable to speak of their experiences, for they lack the vocabulary to describe the incredible sights within. Most travelers, even those of the most grizzled and cynical mortal races, often feel wonder stirring within their hearts at the sight of the great Elven metropolises. All Elves on Iris are citizens of the Helyen Confederacy and answer to the dictates of its Senate, but they are scattered among seven mighty city-states. The Senate itself lies in Selet, the capital of the Confederacy, a living city which blossoms within the forest of Shednaln, the furthest Elven territory from Tiefling lands. Selet is secluded and chiefly concerned with the political goals of the Confederacy, so far more travelers find their way to Dohemel, the City of Coral. Built upon the Herontra Archipelago, the merchant metropolis is a monument to Elven mastery over nature: a massive trade city built from living reefs coaxed to grow above the sea.
I never understood why Elves were considered Chaotic Good in the traditional D&D setting. Nearly every piece of fantasy media featuring Elves that I’ve consumed depicts them as members of highly-structured societies that are obsessed with rules, decorum, and, in general, themselves. From Lord of the Rings to Dragonlance, I’ve always seen Elves as lawful creatures, especially when that law that is centuries old (and incredibly outdated). Chaotic alignments don’t suit their societies, which tend to be stubborn at best and xenophobic at worst. On Iris, Elves explicitly tend towards Lawful Good. As children of Xa, the Radiant Dawn, Elves are born with order in their hearts, an order that was necessary to survive the Archwyrre and continues to be so to regulate the Elves’ centuries-long lifespans. They are also the children of a High God of creation, so it’s hardly surprising that they wish to impose their own ideas and images upon Iris as well. As such, a tendency towards order (as a society, see Part 2) makes far more sense to me.
Similarly, if traditional Elves are so in love with nature, I’m not sure why they spend most of their time in forests alone. Much like Druids (of which there are many Elven ones, though they are far more inclined towards chaos than most of their kind), Elves do not create their societies exclusively within forests and groves, but do so wherever they encounter Iris’ most captivating landmarks. Such is the inspiration of an Elven Confederacy consisting of seven city-states: each one is a bastion of Elven civilization located upon a miracle of nature cultivated and enhanced by its Elvish citizenry*. Selet may be within a forest, but Dohemel stands in the middle of the ocean, Nehkentir guards the Great Oasis in the Tehemet Desert, and Alo-el floats amidst the Poloen Glacier on Iris’ peak. Elves find the beauty in all of Iris’ features, even those that many consider to be dangerous or desolate.
Since this is my first explanation of a PC race, I’ll also mention how I use names and language in tabletops. For the most part, when I’m creating a fantasy culture, I just choose a real language/culture/civilization upon which to base the fantasy, then create things that look or sound like they belong within that language. These selections are often arbitrary and are only ever bounded by “does this sound cool?” and “have I used this yet?” Point being, I’m not attempting to make a statement about a real culture or people with these associations; I just want to use their words. However, in the case of Iris’ Elves, I feel that using ancient Egypt as a base is a particularly apt choice. In many ways, this Elven civilization is like the Egypt of the Pharaohs if it survived to be contemporary**. The Elves’ history and traditions are older than those of their peers and they create incredible monuments all over the world. A loose connection, sure, but one I like. On the other hand, their political structure is more Roman, since that strikes me as the kind of semi-representational governing that Elves would love (with their Councils and their Speakers and all that…)
* This is another thing about the traditional Elven alignment. I don’t see how their shaping of nature is anything other than imposing law and their own standards on nature’s wildness.
** Though notably without the slaves. Unless you want to address that in your campaign.
The Tieflings of Dys were born on the first night of the Age Eternal, the First Children of the Will of Darkness. They reveled in the glory of the darkness and the shadow and the pale moon, and praised their mother, Dys, for blessing them with strength, beauty, and the right to rule Iris. When they discovered the presence of their Elven siblings, they knew the daywalkers defied the Will of Darkness, and would be punished for it. Thus did the most ancient mortal conflict, the Archwyrre, begin, for the First Children were (and are) as diametrically opposed as their divine parents. Only the arrival of Rogash and the advent of death brought the first war to an end, for the First Children were united in their fear of oblivion. To this day, Tieflings and Elves remain enemies, and their civilizations, though they are far separated now, continually revisit the wars of their ancestors. Though, truth be told, there are few on Iris that Tieflings do not view as their enemies.
Tiefling society is as obsessed with strength and perfection as it was when they first saw their faces reflected in the moonlit pools of their homeland. Though their culture maintains many rigid laws and dogmatic practices, the singular priority of power remains their greatest guiding principle. The Tiefling with the greatest might will always be the one who rules her people’s expansive Empire. Rare indeed is the Imperial line that endures within Tiefling’s kingdom, for the moment an ambitious general or advisor senses weakness behind the throne is the moment their hidden knives plunge. Second only to the significance of strength is the Tieflings’ conviction of their superiority. Tieflings see many of the race of Iris as cattle at best, worthy only of servitude to the Chosen Children of Dys. The Tiefling Empire believes that Iris will only be as their Goddess intended when the other races acknowledge Tiefling supremacy, either by prostrating at their feet or with the silent assent of the grave.
The historical conquests of the Tieflings have left scars across all of Iris, but an uneasy peace with the surrounding human and dwarven settlements currently keeps the majority of the horned ones contained within the borders of Jiguo, their ancestral home. The birthplace of the Tieflings is a mountainous one, kept dark and dreary by the shadows of the peaks, the gray and black boulders, and the oft-conjured storms that prevent daylight from marring their cities. It is said that in the heart of Jiguo, in the capital of Shorenshao, the Blood Empress bides her time, eagerly anticipating her next strike against the sun-kissed interlopers on Iris. Few who venture into the Empire’s clutches return unscathed, if they return at all. Oddly enough, those who have returned from the Tieflings’ land claim that their shadowed, imposing cities possess an austere and spartan majesty unlike anywhere else on Iris.
When I began to create Iris, one of my first thoughts was that I never liked that Elves and Orcs were mortal enemies. Orcs never seemed to be a real threat to Elves, save perhaps numerically (at least, from my Tolkien-influenced perspective). Orcish evil, which is chaotic, violent, and lacking in subtlety, never matched the powerful magics and strategic intelligence that their narratively-imposed Elven enemies possessed. Furthermore, I was frustrated that the standard evil of D&D was chaotic evil (at least in my experience). CE as an alignment is dangerous in its unpredictability, but I’ve always found Lawful Evil to be a far more interesting flavor of villainy (such as Raj Ahten of The Runelords). What Elves needed were a true opposite number, a player character race that was as intelligent, powerful, and captivating as they were, but evil. I called this race the Zan.
The Zan were as beautiful, powerful, and intelligent as the Elves, but darkness grew in their hearts and horns upon their heads. I’d thought their race would get a bonus to Charisma and would be inclined towards the Sorcerer class, since wild magical might ran unhindered in their blood. If this is beginning to sound familiar to you, you can imagine how I felt while reading the 5E Player’s Handbook and discovering that I’d basically re-imagined Tieflings. I don’t flatter myself so far as to believe I actually came up with Tieflings on my own. At this point, I assume that I read about it somewhere, forgot about it, and subconsciously repurposed the concept when I started creating Iris. Either way, the Zan were too similar to Tieflings to make them different species. Instead, the Tieflings took the place I’d intended for the Zan and, so far, appear to be a suitable “replacement.”
The largest difference between the Tieflings of vanilla 5E and those of Iris is their origin. The Tieflings of Iris are not demonspawn outcasts; they are the dark twins of the Elves, an ancient and mighty race born of Dys, the Will of Darkness. The horned humanoids possess a long and noble heritage of tyranny and bloodshed, as well as a far-reaching and powerful Empire. Tieflings in vanilla 5E are feared, despised, and seen as omens of strife. On Iris, they are viewed in the same way, but, unlike their 5E counterparts, they are rarely alone. Instead, most Tieflings on Iris are members of a mighty legion, of a nation which all others fear, and of a culture that considers themselves to be above all others. Each ambitious Tiefling overlord dreams of an Iris held under sway of night, an Iris where all the Empire’s enemies occupy their proper places under the rule of Dys’ Chosen Children.
Tiefling adventurers are scarce because it is rare indeed for a Tiefling to associate herself with creatures that most of her kind believe to be worms. As such, many Tiefling adventurers do not share the xenophobic tendencies of their people. At some point in their lifetimes these rare individuals discover the worth of their fellow mortals, in spite of all their society’s assertions that they are nothing.* Unfortunately for Tiefling adventurers, they must still bear the stigma of the Empire and its people. A Tiefling adventurer will be maligned and loathed by many on her journey, but perhaps the efforts of their heroism can overcome the impressions of those who’ve suffered at the horns of Dys’ Chosen. Either way, there is no stigma that can prevent a Tiefling hero from becoming an experienced adventurer or a deadly warrior.
* Or the Tiefling adventurer could be holding back her rage and hating that she must spend her time with lesser creatures. This Tiefling may be on orders from the Empire to travel the world in search of a dark power. Perhaps she was suddenly exiled for defying the precepts of the Chosen. It’s up to you to decide why your Tiefling hero chose the adventuring life, but remember that the other players might grow weary of a backstabbing, insulting, and angry companion.
On the next installment of Building Iris, we will discuss dwarves, halflings, and gnomes.
You can read this world-building installment as well as game reviews, comic thoughts, and many random perspectives on the N3rd Dimension.
