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| Glade Guard make up the bulk of most Wood Elf armies.
Like all Elves, they are swift and deadly, and possess incredible
dexterity and skill. Archers almost beyond compare, Glade
Guard fight in highly mobile formations. Each unit is expected
to follow the broad dictates of the general but, at the same
time, encouraged to take the initiative when opportunity presents
itself. Such a principle often leads to an overlapping line
of battle, with individual Glade Guard Kinbands advancing
and retreating like leaves in a storm, all the while pouring
a hail of deadly arrows into the foe. |
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Dryads are able to shape-shift into different forms and
often mimic the appearance of Elves, often unearthly, lithe,
and beautiful maidens with a greenish hue to their skin and twigs
in their long, cascading hair. With beguiling beauty and haunting
melodies of otherworldly song, a Dryad entices her victim into
the shadowy depths of the forest. Sloughing off her beauteous
form, she transforms into her war aspect. The hatred and spite
within her soul remake her outer appearance into a thing of horror.
Before the victim has even registered his predicament, his body
is ripped limb from limb with implacable savagery. |
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| When Athel Loren takes to the field of battle,
the Dryads assume their war aspect and hunt on the flanks of
the army. The Dryads answer to the call of the Branchwraiths,
the oldest and most powerful of their number. Their lithe and
swift nature allows them to cover great distances at speed
and to fall with ease upon foes who, until moments before,
thought themselves safe from harm. |
The Wild Riders of Kurnous are Orion’s personal
guard and are as aggressive and impulsive as he. They are fey and
dangerous creatures who are no longer truly the Elves that they
once were but part of the Wild Hunt. Throughout the winter months,
while their king’s spirit is dormant, the Wild Riders watch
over King’s Glade with eyes aglow with faerie fire. They
neither speak nor move save to challenge those who have come to
the most sacred of groves without purpose.
When winter rolls into
spring and the ritual of Orion’s rebirth
begins, his Wild Riders lead the ceremony and bind themselves anew
to the ever-king with each stage of the ritual. In a night of magic
and terror, when ghostly shapes and eerie cries haunt the glades,
the lord of Athel Loren is roused once again from his death-sleep.
In Orion’s wake come the Wild Riders, made stronger and more
ferocious by the awakening of their lord and mounted upon the swiftest
of steeds. Anyone foolish enough to be seen by them is ridden down
without mercy, their death a sacrifice to the purity of the hunt
and glory of the King in the Woods.
Wardancers are exceptionally agile and athletic. Their almost preternatural
reflexes and speed have been honed
by their frantic and demanding dances in celebration of their
deity, the trickster god Loec. In battle, the Wardancers
are ferocious and deadly warriors, leaping over the enemy
and twisting mid air to strike them from behind, darting
out of the way of blows, and even dodging incoming arrows.
Such is their sublime skill and grace that they dance rings
around their enemies, dart in to strike fatal blows, and
pirouette elegantly out of harm’s way before their
foes can react.
The heralds of Loec are made even more formidable
through their war dances, the favoured rituals of the trickster
god. No rhythm is necessary for these dances, nor are instructions
issued. Instead, each dancer instinctively settles upon the
correct pattern to strengthen and complement the dance of
the rest of the troupe, an effect that creates a web of movement
as graceful and beautiful as it is deadly. Each dance functions
not only as a different discipline of battle but also an
affirmation of faith and a reenactment of a past victory.
In this way, the Wardancers celebrate their great triumphs
of the past, even as they carve the shape of a new one on
the bones of their enemies. |
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