Snow Elf

Snow Elves are an obscure elf subrace native to the frostfell regions of Dungeons & Dragons, having originated in the icy Crystalmist Mountains of Greyhawk. They first debuted in the article "In the Frost and the Snow" in Dragon Magazine #155 for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and after that fell into obscurity; they made a reappearance in a cut-down format in the splatbook Frostburn for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, but have not appeared since then.

In fact, Frostburn's description of snow elves is so minimalistic that, unless specified otherwise, all information presented here refers specifically to the Oerthian snow elves, and was featured in their debut article.

At A Glance

Snow elves are a branch of the Wild Elf rootstock adapted to life in arctic climates, They are notable for being the tallest of the elf races, and usually tower over humans as well; females reach as high as 6'4" tall, whilst males can attain a height of 7' neat. In build, they are very thin, but also wiry and tough. Oerthian snow elves have light brown or tan skin, white or pale blond hair, and silver eyes, whilst the generic "Frostfell Snow Elves" from Frostburn are described as pale-colored in terms of skin, eyes and hair. They strongly favor white clothing and bone jewelry, trading for silver from metal-using races of the Frostfell - mostly valley elves, at least on Oerth.

Despite their stature, snow elves are very short-lived; most die around the age of 750 years old, and the most ancient have never reached greater than 900 years of age.

In terms of attitude/alignment, snow elves could best be described as neutral with insufferably arrogant tendencies. With the exception of the valley elves - whom they tolerate and occasionally befriend - snow elves actively dislike all races other than their own, and they go out of their way to make that fact known if given the opportunity. Drow in particular incite a kind of madness in snow elves, and only overwhelming odds will prevent a snow elf from attacking any drow or drow ally.

History

The rift between the snow elves and their cousins stems from the same wars that drove the drow underground. The snow elves were deceived into allowing passage (for a large profit) of the drow through a mountain pass they controlled, not knowing - so they claimed - that the drow were serving Lolth and had recently declared war on their cousin elves. While never formally condemned by their relatives, the snow elves have been universally shunned by them ever since. Valley elves, themselves largely disliked by others, tolerate snow elves perhaps because each views the other as sharing a similar plight - neither race is considered "true elves" by their cousins.

Mankind's quarrels with the snow elves also stem from twilit history. The snow elves were ever taller and more haughty than other elves - or even men - and they sought once to dominate or destroy the men who entered their mountain valleys and homes, earning forever the hatred of the more numerous race.

Relationships with other races, such as uldra or the arctic branches of gnomes, dwarves and halflings, are unclear, but presumably they share a mutual enmity with each other. Snow elves are kind of jerks, if you haven't been paying attention.

Society

Oerthian snow elves are close relatives of the valley elves, another wild elf branch, and have settled into the frozen and remote regions partially due to natural aloofness, and partially due to bad relations with both humans and other elves. They are most known to inhabit the Crystalmist Mountains, but smaller enclaves may be found in other arctic regions or frozen mountains elsewhere in the Flanaess.

During their ages of seclusion, snow elves have focused their studies on fields that would aid their survival in the harsh environment in which they are fated to dwell. Thus magic, particularly the magic of cold, has waxed while clerical studies have waned. Druids and rangers have become prominent. All the while, snow elves have become more reclusive and secretive as lowland societies have grown unaware and indifferent. Indeed, the snow elves might be a dying race, even by the standards of other elves.

Snow elf society revolves around tightly knit, extremely isolationist extended family units, or clans, typically consisting of 3d10 snow elves per clan. A snow elf clan is extremely territorial, reacting to the presence of trespassers with great hostility; they riddle their territories with traps to punish intruders, and will not hesitate to use violence to expel perceived invaders. Traps are always based on weaponizing their environment; snares, deadfalls, and triggered avalanches or rockslides. These clans live in small villages consisting of 2-10 dome-shaped huts of woven trees, covered with furs and skins and packed on the outside with snow. Such villages house members of one clan only and lie generally near the center of that clan's territory. Territories average two square miles in size for each member of a clan's village. Communities numbering more than 30 undergo a branching off, wherein two or more family groups pack their belongings in early spring and set out in search of new territory. This prevents overpopulation and starvation in a rugged environment that offers no bountiful harvests for large communities. Such branching off is now a rare event.

Snow elves are most likely to be Fighters, Rangers, Druids, Wizards or Rogues, and most clans are gender segregated, with males being warriors or rogues and females being spellcasters. Indeed, a truly large clan is typically ruled over by a trinity consisting of "The Father" (male ranger, minimum 5th level), "The Mother" (female wizard, minimum 5th level) and "The Priest" (a druid of either sex, minimum 4th level).

Snow elves have no ability to work metal - no small surprise as they use but dislike fire - and disdain all metal armor, including studded leather and even elven chain. They prefer to wear leather, skins, or their own special garb. Snow elves are renowned for their ability to manufacture a strong and beautiful type of armor from the hide of the white dragon. Due to their carefully guarded secrets for curing and treating, this armor grants AC 4 while hindering movement no more than elven chain. Only the 7th-level druids are taught the secrets of its crafting, and all armor is manufactured at the shrines. Other snow elves (including any PC) will have no knowledge of the construction process. Access to this armor is a rare privilege; only the druid caretakers of the snow elf shrines (see below) will always be found wearing it. Lower-level snow elf rangers and druids may also be found wearing it, with the chance depending on their level; outside of shrine-keepers, only the "Fathers" are especially likely (75% chance) to be found wearing snow elf hide armor. On rare occasions, a valley elf may also be seen wearing this armor, due to the strong ties between the two races and their status as the snow elves' primary trading partners. Magical versions of this special armor exist, but are very rare.

Snow elf clans are avid beast-tamers. 90% of the clans will be attended to by packs of hoar foxes - a vulpine analogue to the Winter Wolf - whilst the remaining 10% will instead train bears.

Snow elven music centers around a single special instrument: the keras (Keh-rahz), a large instrument very similar to the alpenhorn used by Swiss shepherds. Keras range in size from 4' to just under 20' and are usually made of wood (although the best are said to be constructed from the tusk of the woolly mammoth) with bone mouthpieces. In their native environment, snow-elven clans often use keras to communicate across vast distances, having developed a complex code for signaling. Some of the largest of these instruments may be found at the shrines and are sounded only in times of great need or grand celebration. The bards use the smaller versions of the keras to play mournful and powerful ballads as majestic and sad as the mountains themselves.

Snow-elven clans, while not at all interdependent, will not hesitate to aid one another in repelling invaders or raiding high-altitude settlements. Clans often come together in spring and fall for various festivals and religious holidays. A snow elf will never turn another of his kind away empty-handed, although the proud snow elf only rarely admits the need of another's assistance.

Though a snow-elf PC will, of course, travel as he likes, a snow-elf NPC will seldom be encountered below the snow line. Occasionally, their clans will dwell for brief periods just below the tree line in the dead of winter. Snow elves will never be encountered in a city, and they go into the foothills or lowlands only on urgent clan business or to raid for food.

Religion

Snow-elven religion centers around their secluded druidic shrines. These holy places, tucked in the wildest and most remote nooks and crannies of the mountains, house elven druids of the highest levels. The shrines are reportedly places of great power, and each is headed by a druid of no less than 11th level, assisted by one 8th-level "assistant," three 7th-level "attendants," four 5th-level "caretakers," and a host of 2-20 lesser druids and servants.

Druidic spells cast from these areas are reported to be of double strength and duration. It is also rumored that the shrines gain this special power by being located in areas of "elemental weakness" - a misgiven name, for these houses of worship are centered on fissures between the Prime Material plane and one or more of the various elemental and paraelemental planes, particularly those of Earth, Air, and Ice. The elven druids of the shrines, dwelling as they have in such close proximity to the elements over the ages, have developed heightened powers in summoning and controlling elementals and para-elementals while near their shrines or homes. This talent applies only to NPC snow elves, because it is a skill gained individually and requires decades (at least) of study and association. Despite the elves' familiarity with fire, this element remains distasteful to even the most powerful snow-elven druids.

The shrines are considered by all snow elves to be extremely holy areas and will be aggressively defended. Most often, these shrines are dedicated to Tarsellis Meunniduin, though a few are said to honor other gods. Tarsellis Meunniduin is the chief deity of the snow elves. They, in fact, explain away some of their differences to their elven kin as due to their being direct descendants of his (such is the haughtiness of the snow elf). While most scholars of elven lore remain rather skeptical on this point, Tarsellis does not seem displeased with his "children's" dedicated worship.

AD&D PC Stats

Snow elf PCs in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons use the Elf race, with the following changes:

Ability score modifiers are +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, -2 Charisma

Class & Level Limits are Druid (Unlimited), Thief (Unlimited), Fighter 5 (up to 13 at Prime Requisite 22), Ranger 5 (up to 14 at Prime Requisite 22), Wizard 11 (up to 18 at Prime Requisite 22)

Weapon to-hit bonus applies to Spears and Javelins, not Swords & Bows.

+1 to all saves against any form of Cold attack or condition.

In snowy, mountainous regions, a snow elf can set a trap with a 90% chance of success that does 2d6 damage per setter's level if it hits.

3e Lore & Stats

The "watered down" snow elf presented in 3e's Frostburn is basically a simplified version of the above, stating that they are a reclusive and arrogant branch of the elfin subrace. Seriously, this is their entry in its entirety:

Explorers into the farthest reaches of the ice sometimes return with stories of magnificent ice cities built atop remote mountaintops that are inhabited by snow elves, folk with eyes as white as snow and hair that coils like fragile wisps of cloud. They have no physical resistance to the cold, but their cities are built to shield their citizens from the surrounding environment. As a result, snow elves tend to leave their cities only rarely, and have not had much contact with the outside world.

Yeah, not exactly much to go on, is it? Mechanically, a snow elf uses the 3.5 Elf stats, except its ability score modifiers are +2 Dexterity and -2 Charisma. This is because they're hardier than normal elves, but also much bigger jerks.

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 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 Immortals are Fredar, Fredara, Wotan, and Donar.