This week I'm posting another extract from Sorrel in Silver. Two thousand years ago, the elves almost destroyed Sorrel's world in a genocidal war with the serpent-folk. Now Sorrel and Wrack have agreed to meet with a small group of surviving elves.
'I've had confirmation that the elves
are ready for you to meet with them' Griffyn said importantly as soon
as he had settled into the chair. I could feel the atmosphere around
us chilling at his words. Elves were monsters. Everyone knew that
they were the most evil creatures the world had ever known. And
Griffyn wanted us to talk to them.
Wrack's fingers had tightened on my
shoulder. I was going to have a bruise there in the morning. I
flicked a glance up at my dragon, and saw his face tight and drawn. I
knew that Wrack did not like the idea of meeting the elves. Seeing
his expression, unguarded for a moment, I realised just how terrified
he was at the idea. The thought that this scared Wrack that much
filled my stomach with frozen lead. I had thought nothing truly
frightened Wrack.
But this did.
I'm not going to say if Wrack is right to be worried...
As always, comments appreciated!
Obviously these aren't Tolkien's elves.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not - in Sorrel's world, the elves were vicious, decadent, twisted and cruel. And supposedly extinct, much to everyone's relief. Unfortunately, they were wrong.
DeleteI think it's great you give them an evil twist. That alone kept me reading. The fact that Wrack's dragon is afraid? Well, I can't wait to meet them.
ReplyDeleteAre you really sure you want to meet them? All the stories say they are not nice people...
DeleteThe elves you describe here remind me a lot of the way I played the elves in my Spelljammer RPG campaign about fifteen years ago. They weren't evil, but they were so high-and-mighty that they came across as evil to some people (including my players).
ReplyDeleteI've never played Spelljammer - I've done most flavours of D&D, but never managed to find anyone who wanted to GM D&D in space. As to whether my elves just seem evil or are actually evil, I'm not saying...
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