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"While most of our folk live in the security of our fortified cities one of the clans, the Shades of the Blackspine Mountains, is a notable exception. The Shades are a silent and deadly brotherhood of warriors who guard the mountain passes to the west. They live apart from the rest of Dark Elf society, waging an endless war against the enemies of Malekith."

Furion of Clar Karond[1a]
Shades Dark Elves Colour Illustration

Shades are the skilled wilderness warriors who serve as the eyes and ears of the Dark Elven hosts of Naggarond.

Shades, called Autarii in the Dark Elven dialect of Druhir, and also known as the Hill-Druchii,[5a] are those Dark Elves who eschew life in the cities of Naggaroth and instead lead a savage existence in the grim Blackspine Mountains of that dread continent. Their lifestyle has transformed them into scouts without compare, and Shades carry out reconaissance and skirmisher roles in Dark Elven armies.

History

Shades Portrait

A Shade as depicted in Total War: Warhammer II.

The Shades were once city-dwellers like other Dark Elves and formed the ruling elite of the city of Clar Karond. It was nobles and warriors from the Shade family that were keenest to explore the Underworld Sea, seeking a passage to the western coast.[2a]

As their explorations took them further and further into the dark, unknown chambers, their enemies in Clar Karond gathered against them. Eventually, they were ousted from power, and rather than serve as slaves to their usurpers, they chose voluntary exile in the harsh mountains.[2a]

Shades With Dual Weapons Portrait

A Shade armed with dual weapons as depicted in Total War: Warhammer II.

For a score of centuries, the Shades have lived in the mountains, learning the secrets of survival in one of the fiercest climates in the Known World. The current rulers of Clar Karond fear that one day the Shades will return to stake their claim to the city, but this is unlikely, for the tribes of the Shades now seem more at home on wind-swept mountain ridges and in shadowy canyons.[2a]

Role

Shades With Great Weapons Portrait

A Shade with a greatsword on his back as depicted in Total War: Warhammer II.

While wild and strange to the inhabitants of the great cities, the Shade tribes nonetheless acknowledge Malekith as their king and in times of war, entire tribes march at the vanguard of the Witch King's armies.[5a] Shades are scouts without compare, able to move as swiftly and silently as ghosts through thick forest, across razor-sharp rocks and along the twisting caverns of the Underworld Sea.[2a]

The Shades' hardiness makes them valued additions to any Druchii raiding fleet, and many Dreadlords expend much wealth in enticing them to their cause.[3a] Companies of Shades disembark from the fleet under cover of darkness, before moving inland to locate targets for the Dark Elves' raids. From hidden positions, they spy on the opposing forces, determining their location and strength, and ambush enemy pickets and outriders to conceal the presence of the Dark Elf army. When the warriors of the fleet attack, the Shades use their skins to infiltrate behind the enemy battle line, from which position they can harass the foe as they advance, or strike out and slay the crew of war machines.[2a]

Hardened to the harsh climate of the Blackspine Mountains and locked in an eternal battle with the ferocious creatures of Naggaroth, the Shades are well-armed and canny fighters. All carry repeater crossbows that they use for hunting, while many carry extra swords and daggers, or even heavier blades.[2a]

Culture

Even amongst the vicious Dark Elves, the Shades are considered feral, for they practice all manner of strange, unforgiving rites. Their children are abandoned outside the camps on midwinter's eve and are expected to survive and find their way home. Animal sacrifices made to the beating of drums liven the cold nights whilst the Shades drink fermented blood, and the tents of the Shades are made from the skins of their prey -- whether Elf, Man, Orc or other beast.[2a]

Shades are believed by the city-dwelling Dark Elves to be cannibals, who regard their city-living kin as mere meat. Especially treasured among the hill tribes is the flesh of Dark Elven highborn.[5a]

Many Shades wear spiralled tattoos that show their allegiance to a specific tribe.[5a] The leader of a tribe is referred to by the title Urhan.[5b]

Like their city-born cousins, the Shade tribes practice slavery, although most of their slaves are other Druchii.[5b]

Reaver Shades of Nagarythe

The Reaver Shades, also called the Sundered Clans, are those clans of Shades that now dwell within the kingdom of Nagarythe on Ulthuan in an attempt to weaken the High Elves' control over the Dark Elves' former homeland.

The war over possession of the ancient realm of Nagarythe, now a shattered series of isles, rages as strong now as it did five thousand years ago during the great civil war of the Sundering. In an attempt to wrest control of these lands from the High Elven Shadow Warriors of Ulthuan, the Witch King Malekith has moved several Shade clans to the Shadowlands to fight against the interlopers defiling the ground of Nagarythe.[2a]

Malekith has promised these Shade clans possession of any of the lands of Nagarythe that they can wrest from the High Elves, and rewards them for every head of a Shadow Warrior sent to him in Naggarond. There is now sporadic but vicious guerrilla fighting between the Shadow Warriors of Ulthuan and these émigré Shades -- sometimes called the "Sundered Clans" or "Reaver Shades."[2a]

Malekith hopes that this fighting will sap the strength and morale of the Shadow Warriors, so that they will be swept away when the time for a full invasion of Ulthuan by the Dark Elves comes again.[2a]

Shade Tribes

  • Knives of Khaine - The Knives of Khaine were a tribe of Shades who fought at the Battle of Reaver's Mark at the command of Malus Darkblade during the End Times. After the battle, they flayed the skin off dead High Elves to sell for a profit. They committed gruesome atrocities against the Elves of Tor Emyrath.[4a]

Miniatures

Videos

Canon Conflict

In earlier Warhammer lore, the Shade tribes descended from two thousand Elves that turned their back on the burgeoning great cities of Naggaroth and instead travelled into the wilderness to live according to their own laws.[5a]

Sources

  • 1: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (6th Edition)
  • 2: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (7th Edition)
    • 2a: pg. 48
  • 3: Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves (8th Edition)
    • 3a: pg. 40
  • 4: The End Times III: Khaine (Book 1) (8th Edition)
    • 4a: pg. 38
  • 5: The Daemon's Curse (Novel) by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee
    • 5a: Ch. 9
    • 5b: Ch. 10
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