Reimagining: High & Dark Elves in Warhammer

Neither High Elves nor Dark Elves have ever received a proper in depth sociological look in the Warhammer setting, mostly due to the fact neither have received their own sourcebooks in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which has always been the driving force behind Warhammer's cultures. Therefore, I'm going to have a look at the architypes underpinning both cultures, and attempt to form a mood for them that goes beyond what we see in the tabletop game, and what we've seen shreds of before.

Talking Architypes

To figure out who these two peoples are — or rather, who they're supposed to be — it's worth going back to roots and looking at what architypes they evoke. All sorts of real-world peoples have been used as 'inspiration' in Warhammer for the Human nations, so why not do the same to the Elves?

The Elves represent a significant architype in the Warhammer setting: a progenitor species of faded glory that is entirely self-serving. They represent the height of culture and sophistication... so long as your definitions of those terms fit in with outdated ideals by a few millennia. They are, in many respects, an Ancient Greece / Ancient Rome analogue for the rest of the Old World nations: their ruins pop up here and there, and their wisdom underpins many tenants of higher learning still. 

That's the Elves as a whole, in general (the Wood Elves are a different matter, but a subject for another day). Individually, the two cultures represent quite different ideals, however.

High Elves in Brief

In foreign affairs, the High Elves are a naval juggernaut who dominate seaborne trade from their island kingdom, with a strangehold over negotiating power, specifically in the (Warhammer) global south. Trade with Araby and the Southlands, and by extension, Cathay and the eastern nations, is largely at the whim of Ulthuan-born High Elves. This strangehold is controlled by colonial-esque satellite colonies which dot the coastlines of the Southlands (an analogue of Africa), and Ind (an analogue of India). Which is all sounding rather English around the era of their maritime supremacy.

High Elven internal politics and outlook are more 'civilised', focused around idealistic and pragmatic social control, with great oligarchic houses forming the foundations of society. In essence, we see a mixture of Imperial Rome and the Athenian city-state post the Persian Wars. Whilst holding to ideals of justice and fairness, what actually eventuates is a highly structured society based around saving face and reputation, with a thin veneer of personal freedom enforced by exploitation of subject nations and naval supremacy.

High Elves, put very loosely, could be considered Athens/Rome + Age of Sail England.

Dark Elves in Brief

Dark Elves, on the other hand, treat the outside world — when they do venture beyond their borders — as a field of wheat to be harvested. They scour the coastlines of Norsca and Nordland for folk to enslave, whilst reaving ships and causing suffering for their own resource gain. But even though these acts of aggression are the mainstay of the Dark Elves' foreign policy, it should be noted that the vast majority of their time seems to be spent on internal wars and the suppression of their vast enslaved populations.

To account for this, much of Dark Elf society revolves around militarism, with Dark Elf armies made up of primarily wealthy individuals who maintain their wealth via their estates run by enslaved peoples. They in turn keep their enslaved population in line by being highly militarised. It's a chicken and egg situation.

When not making war on and enslaving Indigenous Naggarothi, and the Human tribes from the colder climates to their north and east, the Dark Elves occupy themselves with overindulgences of essentially every kind. Their society is based around a terrible individualism that priorities one's own "freedoms" whilst simultaneously making social mobility almost impossible, and any freedom that can be had by those who aren't exceedingly wealthy is only possible by oppressing others. 

This play at individualism is all whilst near worshipping Malekith their eternal god-king.

What does this all sound like, especially when compared to the High Elf reflections and roots? To me, at least, they sound like a combination of Spartans (highly militarised to enforce order over a massive population of helots, and mostly insular focused because of that) with the worst excesses of Imperialism undertaken by the United States of America (subjugation of an Indigenous population, mixed with constant resource wars to fuel an economy of mass over consumption and greed, over a thin veneer of individualism which keeps the majority of people struggling to survive in a cult of propaganda dedicated to a nearly deified ruler (or series of dead rulers)).

Dark Elves, put just as loosely as before, could be considered Sparta + Imperialist USA.

Scratching the Surface

This is merely scratching the surface, and doesn't go deep into either culture. But this Reimagining should serve as a way of thinking about High and Dark Elves, rather than a full in depth look. Maybe one of those will come from Liber Etcetera, another day. But for now, I'm going to use these combinations as inspiration when thinking about High and Dark Elves, and how they might manifest in the Warhammer World.