I’ve got a whole new series of Eladrin drawings. Having exhausted canon Eladrin, I tried to find some canon Grey Elves. As you may know, Grey Elves fill a certain role in old D&D – similar to that role in 4e that Eladrin filled: elves who are just a little too high and mighty.
Sithas, like Kith-Kanan, is from the Elven Nations trilogy from Dragonlance. In Dragonlance, Grey elves were the Silvanesti. Sithas was the “good brother” and opposed Kith-Kanan in the ancient days. Kith-Kanan would eventually found Qualinost (Dragonlance’s “high elves”).
Sithas and Kith-Kanan
Lorac also appeared in the Dragonlance series, but had a role in the Chronicles series. A descendant of Sithas, he was the ruler of Silvanost and the Silvanesti. He had, of course, fallen prey to the Dragon Orb and let his realm fall into magical chaos.
I had an urge to draw Eladrin recently, and I just ended up drawing some (High) Elves at the same time.
The Knight on the left is inspired by an armour design I saw on the internet. I liked the idea of elves combining leafy material, ancient armour, and earthy colours. Including an elven pole arm was a delight.
Farriel is an Elven Fighter/Rogue that is the PC of a friend of mine.
Kith-Kanan is my attempt to replicate the really amazing art from the Elven Nations trilogy from Dragonlance. Old nerds and Grognards will remember Kith Kanan, the founder of the Qualinesti, first appearing in the books as a skeleton who gives Tanis his sword. I’ve always liked elves, so the Elven Nations trilogy was a thrill.
With the release of Wild Beyond the Witchlight and a friend’s feywild themed game, I got interested in Eladrin again and decided to draw a whole bunch. This was before I even realized that 5e had introduced a Fey Eladrin race that had a neat seasonal mechanic.
My first three Eladrin are all from the 4e era of D&D. Juliana and her dad (below) are from the amazing D&D comic Fell’s Five. I really can’t say enough good things about this comic. It has a very Firefly feel with the wit and balancing high stakes, humour, and heart. Maybe the only bad thing I will say is that “Juliana” is a very boring name for an eladrin! Especially considering her dad’s name! Julianna is a wizard and the love interest of the main character (Adric Fell). Maybe you can headcanon in that she adopted a new name when she left the Feywild?
Before I get to her Dad, I’ll touch on Wil Wheaton’s Acquisitions Incorporated intern, the avenger Aeofel. Acq Inc is one of my distinct pleasures and, I think, helped popularize D&D and liveplay podcasts and vodcasts both in the 4e and 5e games. Wil crystallized Eladrin for a lot of people when he heard Aeofel (“Al”) being called an elf and exclaimed “Elves are our hillbilly cousins!”.
I drew Toveliss E’teall (Lord of Cydaria, Guardian of the Silver Mountains) from the Fell’s Five comic in a pose he struck in the comics, although I altered his armour and raiment a little bit. I also drew him at quite a large scale, as an experiment. That’s why I couldn’t really scale him down to fit into a tryptych with Julianna and Aeofel.
Toveliss E’teall
Toveliss is much more like the Eladrin you would imagine. Haughty and full of pride, dismissive of other races (even elves), but not evil either. Lots of story they didn’t get a chance to tell here too.
4e established that Eladrin didn’t have pupils, by the way, and so had the weird monocoloured eyes that gnomes also had at that point.
(l-r) Meggan (Elf/Druid/Circle of the Moon), Cat o’the Shadows (Human/Rogue/Phantom), Rayche Summerisle (Human/Warlock/Fiend Patron, Pact of the Talisman), Captain Braddock (Half-elf/Paladin/Oath of the Watchers), Vagner (Tiefling/Bard/College of Swords)
In an age long past, the eladrin wizard Necrom tried to seize power by projecting an ancient tower across all the many planes and spheres, anchoring and drawing upon the magical powers of the Weave. At the last moment, his apprentices rebelled when they saw their master’s evil purpose and defeated him. But the apprentices suspected that Necrom had become a lich and would return again one day.
One of the apprentices, the eladrin Marlyn waited for long years, manipulating events in the Realms from the feywild to anticipate his old master’s return. The key to his gambit was an adventuring party known as Caledfwlch, which he caused to be formed upon the Moonshaes.
Captain Braddock is Marlyn’s half-elven paladin, drawing power from the Tower-That Crosses-Planes to fuel his might. His elvish lover Meggan Puceanu gains her druidic power from the earth itself. They are joined by outlanders: Vagner, a tiefling bard; Cat o’the Shadows, a Phantom Rogue; and Rayche Summerisle, a Warlock who is bound to the mystical Phoenix. This party have many adventures across the planes, against many foes, all in preparation for their coming battle.
As the lich Necrom draws near, other adventurers join the crusade that Marlyn had not anticipated. Sherise Shiar, a Cleric of Mystra from far-off Halruua, foresaw the threat to the Weave that the lich represented. Ferron, a young and arrogant wizard, is a descendant of one of Necrom’s elvish apprentices and has sworn to seize the Pact of the Phoenix and destroy Necrom with it. Ro Maks is a Goliath Rune Knight with a Giant’s Might to bend towards protecting his home islands. The shifter ranger Kylun and his mystical swords might stand the best chance of hurting his hated foe, the lich who slew his wife.
Now this growing party must adventure across the Moonshaes and the Sword Coast to counter Necrom’s efforts, gather up magical artifacts, and face down the lich’s minions, including his own Phoenixpact Warlock. In the climax of their adventure the heroes of Caledfwlch must ultimately destroy the Tower-That-Crosses-Planes itself to lay this ancient evil to rest, and save both the Weave and the Realms entire. But to do so, they’ll have to shake off the manipulations of the archfey Marlyn…and chart their own destiny.
SOURCE MATERIAL
You guys, have you read Excalibur #42-50? It’s off the freaking hook.
And while written and drawn by Alan Davis, it draws upon and completes stories from the first forty-one issues by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis (and some filler issues by others that leave a lot to be desired). I’ve heard it called “Fanfic”, but that belies the fact that Alan Davis had a lot to do with the early issues and was just carrying on where he and Chris had left off. You should check out Jay and Miles Xplain the Xmen’s podcast about it here.
Alan Davis’ art is amazing – especially when drawing hair
Get to Class
Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) is probably the most changed from Davis’ version, but he has had his share of amazing costumes to draw from. Paladin, Oath of the Watchers was a natural fit.
Meggan is a shapeshifter and draws her power from the earth. I’ve rarely seen a better fit for Druid.
Rachel Summers, here Rache Summerisle, is a Warlock with a homebrew patron, but given the Phoenix it probably works similarly to a Fiend with some of the fiery effects. Rachel originally bonded with the Phoenix by touching a Shiar orb, so that will work for the talisman. Her more recent costumes are pretty easy to turn into fantasy armour.
I was originally going to do just the core cast, but then I realized how perfectly Kylun and Ferron translated to D&D. Cerise was a bit of a stretch – I considered making her a Gith (since she’s an alien) – but the gems on her forehead reminded me of Dwalimor Omen in the Forgotten Realms comic from the 80s – one of my favourites. In the end it was nice to draw someone in full armour again – and to draw armour with very little connection to real world historical plate. A cleric of light is a good fit for her powers of solid light.
Micromax is one of the few goliaths I have drawn, and the Rune Knight path for Fighters (along with the Unarmed Fighting Style) includes powers that allow growth. (Later edit: Barbarian Path of the Giant works better but hadn’t yet been introduced.)
Campaign Notes
I think this campaign must start off pretty tight, with just the core players and their patron, the archfey Marlyn. Only once they are higher level can the DM start to introduce guest players and their PCs, perhaps each with their own revelation about how the master narrative fits together, the threat of Necrom, and the naked manipulations of Marlyn.
You could run the adventure with multiple groups and different sessions, bringing them together only for the climactic battles, but perhaps also mixing and matching the PCs for each session.
Core groupAlan Davis Additions
The Pop Culture Party Series follows a similar line to my Motley Crew series. Only while that nerdly rotogravure imagined sci-fi motley crews in Firefly’s ‘Verse, this will imagine various casts of adventure media as D&D characters.
HyperboreanComics 