Elves have been a common character in novels and games. We’ve seen them in action in epic movies such as The Lord of the Rings and one of the top RPG open-world games, the Elder Scrolls. The two mentioned titles are just a few of the many games, novels, and movies involving elves. There are many kinds of elves depicted in literature and game plots, one of them being the Dark Elves.
To understand more about the Dark Elves, let’s consider a few famous sources that describe them. In The Silmarillion, relating to the history of Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien, Dark Elves are the elves who fail to journey across the sea to Valinor. They are called “dark” not because of their skins but because of their absence in seeing the great light of the Two Trees of Valinor. In Elder Scrolls Saga, Dark Elves are grey-skinned elves that reside on the continent of Morrowind. They are called dark because of their ashen skin color compared with their other elven cousins. Dark Elves exist in tabletop game lore such as Dungeons & Dragons. They are considered a subrace of the beautiful elves but are in general evil in nature.
Below are the different terms about the Dark Elves per sources:
| Other Dark Elf Terms | Description | Source |
Moriquendi, Kaliondi, Hisildi, or Lembi | “Elves of Darkness” who were not able to see the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. | The Silmarillion |
| Dunmer | An accursed race of the Mer race (Elven race). They are the grey-skinned elves that populated most of post-cataclysm Morrowind. | The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |
| Drow | The dark-skinned, white-haired subrace of the elves in Dungeons & Dragons. | Dungeons & Dragons |
Dark elf names are very similar to common elf names regardless of the source. Common elves and dark elves came from the same race, making them related to one another. They are just different in terms of a few things such as skin color, culture, or experience. Dark elves are often evil and are known for enslaving lesser races.
Dark elf names and elf names in general are known to have meanings behind them. Their names can be derived from the surroundings, the nature of the tribe, the personality of the elf, or the skills and abilities they possess. Aside from meaning, elven names should sound soft but strong when pronounced. They do not have specific rules on how the names are made, but the soft but wavy tone makes their name unique compared with other races.
The dark elves or Dunmers in Skyrim have their last names. These last names indicate their origin tribe or the house where the dark elf belongs. Unlike common elf names, dark elf names in Skyrim do not necessarily have meanings. Their names sound rough and elvish yet maintain their wavy tone and pronunciation. Both the Skyrim dark elf name and last name are elvish, although few use common tongue words such as Eveningstar, and Darkpath as their last names. A few more examples are shown below.
Did you know that in Dungeons & Dragos, the Drows have a matriarchal society in contrast with humans? Unlike human kingdoms, Drow society is led by a queen, followed by powerful positions that are also led by females. Because of this, Drow elves who surfaces and interact with other races are often female. Similar to Skyrim dark elves, Drow elves also use their House names as surnames. Below are some of the best examples of dark elf names for females.
Users can save time in creating names by simply using a tool like dark elf name generator. Name generators, in general, are free tool that helps users suggest names per category. The names provided by these name generators are unique. Dark elf name generators are AI-powered and can study the algorithm of the search engine to know if the names it is producing are unique or not.
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