Editing Snow Elf (section)

==Mystaran Snow Elves?==
Whilst not technically snow elves, a very similar [[elf]] subrace can be found in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting of [[Mystara]]. The Elves of Icevale were introduced in the core boxed set, and are notable as being the most normal elfin race in the Hollow World... which is less of a hurdle to clear than you'd think considering that their counterparts are the Blacklore Elves (ennui-consumed layabouts), the Gentle Ones (so passive they literally have no survival instincts), and the [[Shadow Elf|Schattenalfen]].

Inhabiting the Elflands of Icevale, which is a region of icy mountains and arctic hill-country south of the Beastmen Wastes and northwest of the Antalian Wastes, the Icevale Elves descend from elves who fled underground to escape the "rotting sickness" caused by a [[Blackmoor]] artifact that elven settlers in what is now called Glantri dug up and accidentally detonated. Whilst a portion of those elves ultimately returned to the surface, another portion managed to find their way through the network of caves that leads into the Hollow World. Emerging amongst the lands of the Neathar, they headed north and resettled in a climate more suiteds to their liking.

Icevale Elves are characterized by extremely pale complexions - some can actually look as if they're made of living eyes - contrasted by blonde hair and green eyes. They have an Iron Age level culture, wearing furs for warmth and traveling by skis, snowshoes, and wolf-drawn sleds. A vibrant, vigorous people, Icevale Elves are invariably tall, robust, and physically fit. Unlike their neighbors, they don't consider fighting to be inherently glorious; they are certainly skilled enough to defend themselves, but they prefer to trade their furs, meat and steel goods with their neighbors, although who they're trading with largely depends on how well the Antalians and Beastmen are doing and thusly which, if either, of them has decided to declare war on the Icevale Elves. Men are expected to be the best warriors, and females the best hunters. A fun-loving race, these elves can be highly mischievous, but they mostly prefer to throw feasts, dances, and competitions; their aggressive instincts are mostly channeled into inter-clan and intra-clan contests of ski, sled and wolfsled races, ski-borne archery competitions, and contests to determine the best leatherworkers, furriers, cooks and brewers.

One dark element of the Icevale Elves is that they shun physical imperfection amongst themselves; those elves who made it to the Hollow World did so by abandoning their deformed and sickly children to die along the way, ensuring that only the heartiest and most vital made it to breed. Whilst there are ''some'' physically impaired or homely elves in Icevale, they are shunned and lonely outcasts, for whom it might have been kinder to be left to die. Mystara fans have suggested that one way to "[[grimdark]] them up" would be to give them a similar propensity to stillbirths and deformed offspring as their distant [[Shadow Elf]] cousins.

Mechanically, an Icevale Elf works the same as a normal [[elf]] generated under the BECMI rules; they can be both regular elves and warrior-elves. They are particularly prone to taking the Nature Lore (Mountains), Survival (Mountains), Tracking, Ledge Hopping, Mountaineering and Storytelling skills, but not required to. Culturally, they are restricted to the following gear:
* Melee Weapons: Axe (battle, hand), Sword (short, broad, two-handed, bastard), Mace, Club, Staff, Spear, Javelin, Net
* Missile Weapons: Crossbow (light, heavy), Bow (long, short), sling
* Armor: Leather, scale mail, chain mail, banded mail, shield (horned shield, knife shield, sword shield, tusked shield allowed)

Their patron [[Mystaran Immortal]]s are [[Frey|Fredar]], [[Freyja|Fredara]], [[Odin|Wotan]], and [[Thor|Donar]].

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons Races]]