Lumineth Realm-Lords

Bit of a goofy name, but certainly beats the hell out of 'Pointy Aelves"

"The phoenix must burn to emerge."

– Janet Fitch

"Have you heard of the High Elves?"

– Oblivion youtube video

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

– Avalenor, the Stoneheart King

The High Elves are back, baby! And they're even pointier and hornier than before! The new faction in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar residing in the Realm of Hysh and lead by Teclis. Forced onto the defensive by Chaos, they harness the magic of their realm and refuse to go down with a fight... just like the High Elves of old, but without the "dying race" element (and the accompanying lore inconsistencies) and a surprising amount of Dorfiness, given their love of stone magic and elementals.

With a heavy Greek aesthetic, new model and the return of Eltharion, good times are abound if you were a fan of the High Elves back in the world that was.

Origins

Once upon a time, Teclis, Tyrion, and Malerion found a previously assumed dead Morathi who was very much alive, who then led the odd trio to the morbidly obese Slaanesh in a cave where they beat the shit out of him until he coughed up all of the Elven souls he had consumed after The End Times. A good chunk of these souls were given to Teclis, in order to recreate the High Elves of old and bring their race back to their former glory. The initial race that came from Teclis's attempts were the Idoneth Deepkin and, well... He tried.

This new batch of Aelves seem to have come out of the oven much better, and he was even able to bring Eltharion's spirit back as a hollow piece of armor powered by light. No word yet on what the Idoneth think of them, or vice versa.

Lumineth society was built on self-improvement and the accumulation of wisdom, fueled by using the power of Aetherquartz to amplify their intelligence. However, in the typical elven arrogance, they assumed that because Slaanesh was imprisoned they no longer had to worry about Chaos. The subtle whispers of the Dark Gods entered their minds, causing envy and bitter rivalry. This culminated in a massive civil war called the Ocari Dara, or Spirefall. The entire realm of Hysh was devastated, as the Lumineth had a habit of inventing uber-spells and doomsday devices just to see if they could, justifying it by claiming they were too enlightened to ever use such weapons for evil (which they obviously weren't).

Teclis searched for some way to save his race from themselves, and found it when he managed to commune with Celennar, the spirit of Hysh's moon. He taught the Lumineth a new way of self-discipline, where they would bond with the elemental spirits to gain their power and wisdom. This rearrangement of Lumineth society was called the Reinvention, and is widely credited with preventing them from becoming extinct altogether.

Society

The first thing to know about these aleves is that they dedicate themselves to one of the two gods, being split into the martial Tyrionic warriors and the sagely Teclian mages. These aelves also learned to bond with the environment of Hysh itself, from its skies to its rivers and mountains. This led to the Lumineth to devise a second caste system, though its particulars aren't well known yet beyond the use of representative runes. These Lumineth have also come to treasure Aetherquartz, a crystal mineral native to their realm. These crystals gave their wearers great knowledge and power, but it also involves sucking out their emotions and personalities - a sacrifice they consider worthwhile since unfettered emotions are the Dark Prince's favorite snack. In this way, they're similar to Sigmar's golden bois in that they're constantly approaching that point where they become effectively logic-driven and unfeeling automatons except these guys see it as an acceptable ending compared to the Stormcast's mad search to end the flaw.

In terms of combat strategies and tactics, their design and combat is heavily reminiscent of Ancient Greek warfare combined with a bit of Roman. The traditional Spearmen, called The Vanari Auralan Wardens, are essentially hoplites, who form phalanxes to hold the enemy in place while the archers, mages and cavalry get set up to do their stuff. Each of these phalanxes are lead by a High Warden, essentially a Centurion, who stands at the rear to make sure shit isn't going wrong. Most of these hoplites also adorn their shields with runes. These runes represent learning and enlightenment for the Realm Lords, but seem to be more for decoration than serving an actual battlefield purpose.

Also, they have strange new armored minotaur-like monsters as part of their army, which apparently are manifest Earth spirits. Avalenor is the eldest and wisest of them, and a special character that (according to Geedubs) can go toe-to-toe (or hoof-to-hoof, in this case) with a Bloodthirster.

They also sport spellcasters, often with an elemental theme, such as the Alarith Stonemages. An exception are the Scinari; think of these women like Sigmarine Knight Incantors, but they weaponize vials of emotions stored from aetherquartz instead of souls.

More lore will come out as they approach their official release, but up until the World that Was comes back, this appears to be the closest thing to the High Elves old fans will be getting for this setting.

Gallery

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  AELVES, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!?

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  Gee, I wonder what ancient civilization these guys where based on.

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  Heavy armor, hammers and a stone motif... where have I seen this before?

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  YOU COULDN'T GIVE ME A PROPER BODY, TECLIS?!

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  Asserting dominance

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  No one tell the Dwarfs that the Elgi figured out how runes work....

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  An Alarith Stonemage. I wonder how Dwarfs would react to an elf controlling stone with magic.

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  Alarith, Spirit of the Mountain. And you thought Settra had a lot of titles/aliases.

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  A Scinari Cathallar. That's pronounced SIN-ar-ee CATH-ull-arr, according Geedubs themselves.

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  A pretty sad job, from the looks of it.