Slovan

Physical Description: The word 'Slova' in elvish means tarnished bronze. To most outsiders, Slovans are ghastly in appearance, their skin ranging in shades from black to grey, lacking any color. They have angular features that give their faces a grim forbearance. They posses the long ears that all alvor but the High Elves have. Their eyes are dreadfully dark, ranging from colors of blacks to silvers and browns. However, their hair retains a wide array of pigments, unlike the other elven races. Their brows and cheeks are often protruding and sharp, and some Slova are born with ridge like structures under their skin that give them even more frightening and alienating features. Slova are not born dark skinned. Most slova are born dark tans, several shades deeper than that of the high elves, but their features are often remarkably similar. The dark shades of black are a result of the baptisms they give to their new borns. A mixture of scalding tar, and beldir blood is poured over the bodies of babies. The ritual removes much of the pigments from their skin, so that they grow up with the telltale slate-grey pallet of a dark elf. However, the mixture protects the Slovan from dangerous poisons common to the wildlife of their native homelands. They also believe that the beldir bath protects them from the corruption of black magic. Much like the Geron, the Wood Elves, and the fellgar, the slovan also have traditions for body painting and markings. Slovans are often also given a ritual tattoo at birth which stays with them for life. The tattoos are a charm against evil, and said to confer useful abilities that will manifest when they are needed.

Society: Dark elf society is comparable to high elf society in that they are civilized, well cultured, educated, and generally live in relative comfort. However, this was not always the case. The Slovans are ancient descendants of the high elves, who left their society in self imposed exile. The slovans in self exile were descendants of the High Elf Beladir who had strayed from high elf lineage. When the arch mage was plunged into an experimental potion brew the high elf Beladir dove in after him without regard for his personal safety. In his act of heroism, he pulled the archmage from the pit, who was completely unharmed, but Beladir had become warped by the pool of corruption. His golden skin tarnished, and his body warped and changed. Strangely, his descendants who were already alive also began to change and twist, their newborns would inherit the strange ancestry of those affected by the gene blight.

The harsh environments that the slovan migrated too caused a change in dogma. Their societies are stricter, harsher, and personal achievement have more merit than nobility than in High Elf society. The seer Wikiped predicted a dark prophecy, which predicted the extinction of elves. High elves paid no mind to the prophecy, but the slovan exiles did, and seek to find an answer to the prophecy. This leads them to be at odds with high elf societies.

Necromancy and dark magic is not seen as a crime in Slovan culture. It is a means to speak with the dead, and dark magic is merely the opposite of conventional magic. However, they recognize the existence of corrupting power that stems from all magic, and understand that all power, conventional or not, has a corrupting allure. Therefore, the use of magic deamed evil by the rest of the world has no more significant ethical concern than any other form of magic. Because of their attachment to the dead, the spirits of those long gone tend to linger around Slovans, in what they call, spirit convergence. Spirit convergence is the belief that the living and the dead share the same metaphysical existence, in that the minds of the living encompass the same space as the dead, the only difference is the tether that binds the entities to their realms.

Dark elves are outcasts in nearly all societies but their own. They are deeply misunderstood and their intentions often misread. What others see as evil, dark, or scary, Slovans accept as a natural phenomenon.

Adventurers:  Slovans, like most Alvor races are naturally adept at magic, and make excellent casters. However, their magic is more grounded in the natural world, and make skilled craftsmen. They are suited as diplomats, and can make cunning rogues and scoundrels. However, their alienation from most other societies will make it hard for them to find parties to work with.

Standard Racial Traits:
Traits
 * Ability Score Racial Traits: +2 Dexterity, +2 intelligence, -2 con.
 * Size Medium
 * Base Speed 30ft
 * Languages Common, Elven
 * Dark Vision
 * Elven Immunities: Immune poisons, +2 reflex saves against fire.
 * There is Magic in the Mundane: Choose one of the following skills: Craft Alchemy, Profession, or spell-craft, Knowledge Nature, Heal, or Knowledge Arcana. This skill becomes a class trained skill, and the character adds 1/2, rounded down, of their level to related checks.

Alternate Traits
 * Alternate Racial Score Traits: Prophecy Speaker: +2 Dex, +2 cha, -2 con.
 * Alternate Elven Immunity: Outsider Born: This slovan was born to an outsider family that could not make the beldir] bath to baptize the child, or the parents are separatists who do not believe in such rituals. They lose all benefits of elven immunities, but gain a +2 to caster level, and to overcome spell resistance when casting spells of the conjuration school, or spells with the evil descriptor. These slovan are not protected from the dark as their ancestors were, and more likely to be swayed by it's influence.
 * Alternate Elven Immunity: Outsider: This slovan was born to an outsider family or raised by adoptive parents, and never underwent a beldir baptism. Although rare, it does happen.  Those with this trait lose elven immunities but gains skill focus instead.
 * Slovan Guide: The treacherous homelands of the Slovan are dangerous and such guides are skilled in moving through the terrain safely. Gain +2 to survival, and nimble moves as a bonus feat.
 * Small Companion: Gain a familiar with a wizard level equal to 1/2 character level. The familiar must be an insect of some kind.  If the character has a familar, they instead gain the improved familiar feat for free at the level in which it is appropriate.
 * Bone Spines: A slovan born with strange skeletal growths beneath their skin are a beauty in slovan clulture, but a terrifying appearance to outsiders.  Slovans with extra facial structures gain a +2 to diplomacy and bluff and intimidate.
 * Keeper of Secrets: Some elves seek to protect younger races from dangerous lore. The save DCs of enchantment spells they cast against humanoids increase by 1 and they receive a +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Linguistics checks to omit or cover up facts.
 * Fire Seeker: A character with this trait is profoundly adept at fire magic. Whenever a character with this trait deals damage, they may choose to add a d4 of fire damage to their damage result.  They may do this a number of times per day equal to their intelligence modifier, minimum 1.
 * Wight Speaker: Some slovan are born near the brink of death. They can hear the voices of the dead, and the whispers of the long gone prophet speakers.  Elves with this trait have a -2 to will saves against compulsions and enchantments, but gain the ability to cast message 3 times per day, and\ whispering lore once per day.
 * Dark Prophecy: A Slovan with bone ridges all over their body are described in the dark prophecy that led their people to exile. Although, incredibly painful if harmed, they do offer the body extra protection, making limbs harder to break.  Those born with this trait are born warriors, and gain DR 1/bludgeoning.  As a drawback, armor does not fit properly and any armor made by a non Slovan will cost 10% more to construct.

Racial Power:
Dark Flame: A number of times per day equal to intelligence or charisma modifier, a Slovan may conjure a black fire from the pit of their soul. Starting at level 1, this animated flame can be hurled at an enemy to deal 1d10 points of damage per 4 character levels, dealing 2d10 at level 4, 3d10 at level eight and so on.

Alternate Racial Power: Prophetic tattoos: At first level the character gains access to a single cantraip that can be cast at will. At 4th level, and every 4 levels beyond they gain a first level spell that can be cast once per day. At 8 they get a second level spell, at 12th a third, at 16th a fourth and at 20th a fifth level spell. These spells can be cast once per day. The spell tattoos must have a utility or function designed to support the slovan in their profession, or their way of life, and mist be relevant to their lifestyle. A jeweler, for example will not likely start play with tattoos for fire breath or mage armor, but will likely get spells like unseen servant, mend, or fabricate as spells.