High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)

In Warhammer Fantasy, the High Elves are the original elves and lived on their home circle island/continent/atoll Ulthuan. Then it all went to shit. This is mostly because of hawt magic secks and the Old Ones not closing their goddamned warp gate thingy-majigers. They ripped open a hole in space/time and Chaos flooded out like a pierced beer can. The first Phoenix King, Aenarion, got his shit together and closed the gate. Then a bunch of shit happened and Aenarion disappeared. Eventually Malekith got butthurt over not being picked the next king over his bro Bel Shanaar and started the Dark Elves. Because the Dark Elves actually knew how to fucking fight they pushed really far into Ulthuan and killed Bel Shanaar. Then Caledor I came up, Cosgrove'd Malekith back to the northern reaches of the New World. Then Malekith came back and fucked his shit up good. Then a bunch of other shit happened, the Wood Elves said 'Fuck It' and retreated into the woods. At this point the High Elves are a dying race where every citizen is a soldier because there's so few left they can't support a standing army.

Fluff

The Golden Time

Golden Time was before the Phoenix Kings. There isn't much fluff that this editor has read that deals with it. Only that Ulthuan's kingdoms were run by the Everqueen who lead out a positive if hippy-driven jive. Then the chaos came and fucked their shit up. The Everqueen's magic was mostly for peaceful shit and her soldiers were crap. The High Elves prayed to their head god, Asuryan, to help them.

Aenarion, the Defender

Aenarion was a world traveller. He heard some crazy shit was happening at home, so he went back. And shit was way more crazy than he heard. So he went to the Shrine of Asuryan to pray. But, as typical of gods, they didn't do a god damned thing. Aenarion said fuck it and jumped into Asuryan's sacrificing fire. He thought that if he jumped in, his god has to do fucking SOMETHING. And it did. He was imbued with the power of Asuryan. He went outside the shrine, saw some Daemons, and fucked their shit up good. He then ran around messing up Chaos like Kobe did to that chick in Colorado. But unlike Kobe, he didn't get away with it. Chaos attacked Averlorn, where the Everqueen lived, and killed the bitch. Her children were lost. Aenarion was pissed. So he went to a far off island and drew a sword from a rock. Except this sword was the Sword of Khaine. And Khaine is kind of like a cross dressing Khorne. So he goes apeshit, kills tons of Chaos, and rescues a witch named Morathi from some Slaaneshi fighters. He marries the chick, and make their home in Nagarythe, one of the kingdoms in Ulthuan. About this time they realized that the only way to stop the Chaos invasion is to shut off their huge vortex in the big lake in the middle of the continent. After a big fight, they shut it down, but can't quite get rid of it. It would have been an epic win. However, Aenerion got a mortal wound. So he ran back to where he got The Sword of Khaine and puts it back in the rock. From there, his body is never found. He's presumed dead.

Bel Shanaar, the Explorer

A picture of Malekith after Bel Shanaar was named Phoenix King

Crazy thing is, Aenerion had two kids. Malekith, his first, and Bel Shanaar, his second. So you could imagine how pissed Malekith was when his little bro was picked to be the Phoenix King, which pretty fucking pathetic. That is probably why he didn't become king. He was a whiny little fuck head who had the emotional stabilitity of a sack of rats in a burning meth lab. During this time, Malekith takes all his whining over to the New World and sets up a bunch of colonies and kills off some orcs. He finds the Dwarfs. Bel Shanaar visited the Dwarfs, too, and signed a peace treaty. Yeah, we know how well that went. It's about this time that the Cult of Pleasure begins to spring up. A Slaaneshi cult that was into crazy Slaaneshi things. Malekith found out his mother, Morathi, was a member. Which overall wasn't much of a surprise. Then a few hundred years later Bel Shanaar decides to hold a meeting at the Shrine of Asuryan. Malekith shows up, kills his brother, and jumps through the fire of Asuryan. Asuryan was disappoint. That's when Malekith becomes the Witch King. He proceeded to kill all the princes of Ulthuan that were at the shrine. So was born the first serial killer. What a douche.

Caledor I, the Conqueror

Caledor never liked Malekith. And he was one of the only princes not at the Shrine when Malekith killed everybody. Despite how much he and a bunch of other High Elves didn't like Malekith, lots of elves loved him. So a super fantastical fun Civil War started. It went back and forth, but lots of important folks turn to Malekith's side. Hotek, a priest to the elf god Vaul, steals a the super awesome Hammer of Vaul and runs off to join Malekith. This is probably around the time the Ring of Hotek is made, which took a lot of Douchebaggery to form. Caledor fought really hard, and chased a lot of Dark Elves back to Nagarythe. That's when Malekith pulled a 'Just as Planned' and started to mess with the Vortex in the middle of Ulthuan. What Malekith's wizards do is sink most of Nagarythe, and lots of the kingdom to the south, Tiranoc. Laughing, the majority of the Dark Elves load up in their ships and head north. Some Dark Elves remain, and continue to mess up the High Elves. Due to this, the High Elves stopped talking with their colonies in the new world due to having more important shit to do. That's when the finish the first of a bunch of defensive citadels to help keep the Dark Elves at bay. It worked pretty well. But the Dark Elves started to come back. Caledor fights back, pushes the last of the Dark Elves off Ulthuan. Thing is, on the way back, they chase him. His boat gets attacked, and surrounded. But instead of being captured, the magnificent bastard decides to jump into the ocean. He dies, of course. But the Emo Elves didn't get him.

Caledor II, the Warrior

Caledor II was the kid of Caledor I. However, as all kids are, he was a jackass. The Dark Elves shut themselves up in their home land. Mostly because he plotted a scheme for epic lols. About this time, contact with the Old World and the Dwarfs was reestablished. They heard there was some crazy civil war going on, but they didn't really understand why something like that would happen. What Malekith decided to do was fuck with the Dwarfs. But not only did they attack the dwarfs, they dressed up like High Elves and fought the dwarfs. This left the Dwarf King, Gotrek Starbreaker, sending envoys back to the High Elves asking, "What the fuck, dude?" Caledor II, though, ignored them. Completely. Finally the Dwarfs got mad enough that they started to launch attacks on the Elven Colonies. This starts what is called "The War of the Beard." Its about this time that the item "Cloak of Beards" is created. After awhile Caledor II crosses the sea and launches an attack on the Dwarfs. He kills Gotrek's son, then goes back in time to get ready for Hunting Season. At this point it's all downhill for the High Elves. Caledor II's bro gets kill. The colony of Athel Maraya is wiped off the map. Few hundred years later Caledor II comes back and launches an attack that's supposed to kill off the dwarfs. That didn't really go according to plan. In a battle with King Gotrek himself, Caledor II is obliterated. They take the Phoenix Crown, and heads back to their mountains. The Elves try to draw them out of the mountains but the Dwarfs refuse. Just as they're lining up to kamakaze Karaz-a-karak, a major Dorf Fortress, they hear Malekith is launching an attack on Ulthuan again.

Caradryel, The Peacemaker

Caradryel, wondering why the fuck he was so screwed

See, while the High Elves were fighting the Dwarfs, Malekith took a bunch of his ships and made a fortress in northern Ulthuan. After a long time without a king, the High Elves decided to name Caradryel their leader. While he wasn't the jackass Caledor II was, he could barely defend his lands because of the drain the War of the Beard took. The only real thing he could do was pull out of the Old World. However, some of the colonists refused to go. During the years, some of them got awfully fond of the place. They told Caradryel to shove it, and retreaded into the woods. These guys become the Wood Elves.These guys are pretty fuckin' hardcore. After a long defensive war of trying not to get his ass kicked, Caradryel dies peacefully like the motherfucking pussie that he is.

Other Kings

Lots of other kings come in here. Tethlis the Slayer, who came after Caradryel, managed to obliterate the Dark Elves from Ulthuan. He also started a system of formal military training for all High Elf Citizens. Other kings start the Swordmasters, build fortresses across the world, and even send guys to help the Empire. Overall its a very slow collapse that's still happening to this day.

Crunch

Alright, this is the fun part.

Special Rules

First and foremost, High Elves have two of their own special rules. Speed of Asuryan gives them the Always Strikes First rule. What's even better, is that this isn't modified by the weapon speed. So a High Elf with a Great Weapon STILL Always Strikes First. Then, they alsso have Valour of Ages. Whenever they go against Dark Elves, they may reroll any failed psychology test. Which is awesome. Also, it used to be the case that you needed less core units and could take more rare and special units. This is no longer the case since the arrival of 8th edition, but errata from GWs website says you can have as many multiple units as you like (other armies are now limitted to two identical special or rare units in games of less than 3000 points)

References

• Warhammer Armies: High Elves; Adam Troke, Rick Priestly, Bill King; Games Workshop; 2007; ISBN - 978-1-84154-846-3