Why do the dark elves hate the high elves? why are the wood elves seprate as well?

[God of the Cosmos]

Can a loremaster explain like im 5 where the dark elves came from and why they hate the high elves? i assume it was somewhat like the BoS outcast as in a differance of opinion? or are they chaos corrupted or a sect or some such? the wiki page for them is very long. Is there a place where i can read just that part of the story? Also why are the wood elves so obsessed with nature when the others are not? Thanks.

[Sins]

Dark Elves split because a very, very long time ago the king of the elves died and his son Malekith thought he should have the throne. Instead he walked into real fire- as opposed to fake fire like everyone else- and he walked out with all of his supporters, who became the Dark Elves. Its basically one big political disagreement where one side gets really, really into S&M.

Meanwhile at some point more elves went to Athel Loren, the home of the wood elves. These elves became one with the forest and made a deal with the spirits of the forest to support each other. They pretty much want everyone else to ♥♥♥♥ off forever while they chill in the forest until they feel like running out and killing some people.

[ϺEƳEƦ]

The high elvs use to live in the old world. When they left to go to Ulthuan, some stayed behind and now live in Ethel Lorin; they are now known as wood elvs. The dark elvs are just high elvs that fallow a different king. They hate the high elvs because they belive their king was cheated out of his rightfull title of Phoenix King by the current high elf king. So now they just sit in Nagarond, collect Slavs, and have torture parties. ( this is highly condensed)

[Wyvern]

1)Dark Elves are the followers of Malekith and his mother Morathi. Malekith murdered the competition and wanted to be phoenix king, but got burned by the fire of asuryan which was something he needed to pass through to become king. He got burned so bad he basically became elf darth vader, and the result of the scheming/attempted powergrab was a civil war between his followers and those of the other Elves of Ulthuan. Dark Elves are a lot like High Elves in the sense that they're arrogant, manipulative and engage in all sorts of internal powerplays, but unlike High Elves they often resort to extreme means to achieve their ambitions and they constantly raid and enslave members of all other races rather than just not engaging with them or trading/negotiating.

2)Some Dark Elves are corrupted by Chaos to an extent, especially Morathi has some connections in that direction, and they sometimes make alliances with Chaos marauders/warriors, but by and large they still venerate elf gods, though the more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up ones like Khaine.

3)Wood Elves are High Elf colonists who got abandoned to their fate/chose to stay behind after the War of the Beard between the High Elves and Dwarfs(a war instigated by Dark Elves but largely boiling down to both races, especially high elfs, arrogance and unwillingness to negotiate). High Elves basically got booted off the continent/moved out, but those colonists who stayed behind largely retreated to the safety of the woods of Athel Loren, Laurelorne(in Middenland/Nordland) etc.

4)I think saying Wood Elves are obsessed with nature is honestly not accurate. Both High and Wood Elves have a reasonable respect for nature, but they live in very different circumstances which results in a different approach to life. Wood Elves live in a living, breathing forest that often resents and hates them and their presence(not all, mind you, Durthu for example has been pretty damn protective of the Wood Elves, but some, like Drycha, hate them). Because of this they have to try and compromise, negotiate with and appease various spirits/forest entities, such as dryads and treemen. Those they can't deal with in this manner, they corral and lock behind waystones, and the wildwood rangers are tasked with keeping them contained. The heavy woods are in and of themselves a protective barrier against enemy incursions and there's sort of a symbiosis between the Wood Elves protecting the woods and the woods protecting them. Boiling it down to "they're obsessed with nature" is just oversimplification.

5)Ultimately Wood Elves are basically feral elves. They're neutral, generally more good than bad/evil and don't suffer the same levels of hubris or cruelty that their other kin experience. That said, they are still arrogant and unpredictable/capricious. At their worst, theyre actually pretty close to orcs, and degenerate to killing one another or raiding and pillaging nearby lands during the wild hunt.

[PaPa_BLa]

nice,...
bunch of good guys
top!

[ArchaicReaper]

Wyvern hit all the important pieces. Only thing I can add is that the Druchii, Dark Elves, worship Khaine the God of Murder very openly, and as a result of that and their stoic warrior culture, they've become very bloodthirsty, cruel, and treacherous. So much so that Lokhir Fellheart being loyal to his father, and his becoming Admiral after his father's death without orchestrating it himself, is considered highly unusual as patricide tends to be one of the most common forms of progression. This means Druchii are very skilled warriors, as war is their primary and only expertise, so they take slaves from the "lesser races" to be their workers and servants.

In response to their relentless foe, the High Elves instituted a militia program where all citizens are required to serve time in the army to ensure they can always call up an army to defend their shores against the Druchii. Mind you this also happened long ago as during the civil war, known as the Sundering, the Druchii had a remarkable edge in military due to everyone having become complacent in the peace they lived in while Nagarythe maintained their warrior culture until the majority of them became the Druchii under Malektih. The other Elves of Nagarythe who refused to follow him would eventually follow Alith Anar the Shadow King and hold a very deep and personal hatred of the Druchii.

If you have any more question, feel free to ask for details or anything else you may need to know. It might also interest you that a number of loremasters frequent a lore thread in the forum of the first game. It's almost always at or near the top of the list there so you should find it easily. It's titled "Ask me lore questions" and was posted before the first game even launched.

[gachi is manly]

The divide of the Dark and High Elves was largely a disagreement over who would succeed Malekith's father Aenarion, as king.

Naturally Aenarion's followers in Nagarythe felt it only right the heir should be his son, while other elven princes felt Nagarythe was too corrupted by the madness of Aenarion after picking up the sword of Khaine, as well as possibly morally corrupted from many, many years of being the frontline fighters against Chaos.

Malekith initially accepted not being pronounced king. It was his mother Morathi that took the news the hardest and began scheming to get her son on the throne. This culminated with the events Wyvern posted above.