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In the Curse of Strahd adventure, there are a unique subrace of elf called dusk elves, and the adventure has this to say about them:

Dusk Elves. The dusk elf race is all but forgotten, and the few survivors live in secret places such as this. They have dark skin and hair, but otherwise they are similar to wood elves (as described in the Player's Handbook). -- p. 119

As punishment for depriving him of his bride, Strahd butchered all the women in the dusk elf tribe [...] -- p. 232

Patrina's own people stoned her to death to keep Strahd from claiming her as his wife. Strahd was upset that the dusk elves had taken Patrina from him. After securing her body and entombing it in the catacombs of Ravenloft, Strahd sent Rahadin to punish the dusk elves. Rahadin slew the female elves so that the males couldn't breed. -- p. 237

So it seems that, during the time that the adventure takes place, there are no female dusk elves left alive

(with the exception of Patrina if resurrected, see p. 90 and p. 196 for more info of Kasimir bringing Patrina back from the dead)

but then, in DDAL04-06 The Ghost, there are female elven characters such as Derali (p. 11) and the "very young female [elf]" (p. 13); however, their subrace is not specified. There are other examples of elves (without a specified subrace) in Barovia presented in other AL adventures, but this is the first one I've encountered with female elves included and even named (even included on the "Appendix: NPC Summary" page):

Derali (DAY‐rah‐LEE). Female elven druid from the Quivering Forest. Searching for missing elves abducted by ettercaps. -- p. 23

As an additional piece of information from the AL adventure, the Adventure Overview on p. 8 includes the following:

Part 1: The Hungry Forest. The adventurers encounter a party of nervous elves from Greenhall.

However, I don't know what "Greenhall" is, or whether that invalidates some of my logic leading me to believe that these elves are dusk elves. The AL adventure itself (and therefore, meeting the elves) does take place in Barovia, however.


As far as I'm aware, there are no other elves in Barovia besides the dusk elves (certainly no other elves besides dusk elves appear in the Curse of Strahd adventure), which implies that these female elves (and for that matter, the other elves-without-a-subrace included in these AL adventures) are dusk elves, although it contradicts the quotes above from p. 232 and p. 237 that says they were all killed.

On other other hand, the quote from p. 232 also says "the dusk elf tribe" and p. 119 says "live in secret places such as this", so this could be read to mean that there are other tribes of dusk elves in Barovia that had nothing to do with the events of Patrina (presumably not known about by the now-male-only dusk elf tribe), and therefore could still have females. However, this isn't expanded on in Curse of Strahd, and is only hinted at in these AL adventures.


So I can only see the following possibilities to resolve the apparent contradiction in the above information:

  1. The female elves in the AL adventures are dusk elves, and they were just a separate tribe that had nothing to do with the Patrina incident;
  2. The female elves in the AL adventures were some other kind of elves (say, wood elves or something) and there are, indeed, no female dusk elves after all;
  3. Whoever wrote these AL adventures made a mistake...

Am I missing something? Which of the above is true (or is there an "option 4")?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you to those who answered; I had a feeling that "Greenhall" detail I missed the first time around would trip me up. Good to confirm it, though... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Nov 12, 2019 at 16:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ So, here's the part where I have to decide between two equally correct answers, which I believe are both equally as good, and yet only one can be accepted. They both appeared at the same time (within a minute of each other) so I can't even use my arbitrary method of "go with the one who answered first". So, since (at time of writing) Ryan's has +10 (+100 rep) and T.J.L.'s has +6 (+60 rep), if I accept Ryan's, he gets +15 rep (total +115), and I'll bounty T.J.L.'s for +50 (total +110), which means they'll gain roughly the same rep from their answers, and is about as fair and even as I can be... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Nov 14, 2019 at 13:33

2 Answers 2

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Curse of Strahd (page 26) seems to say that the only nonhuman "natives" of Barovia are the dusk elves:

"Barovians are human. Although they know that dwarves, elves, halflings and other civilized races exist, few living Barovians have seen such "creatures," let alone interacted with them.

"Aside from the secretive dusk elves of Vallaki, the only nonhumans most Barovians are familiar with are the adventurers that Strahd has lured to his dark realm."

The elves of Greenhall are not native to Barovia. Their origin, and the exact nature of Greenhall, are laid out in DDAL04-02 The Beast:

"...the elves actually hail from Greenhall—an elven settlement in the Quivering Forest. They inform the characters that they had been investigating the perimeter of their domain, but entered a thick fogbank near the Crossing Inn. When they emerged from the mist, the forest had dramatically changed."

To be more specific:

The Quivering Forest is in the Moonsea area of Faerûn, north of Phlan and west of Thar.

So your option 2 is correct: The female elves are not dusk elves. (As far as I can tell, their subrace goes unstated.)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Not only are the only nonhuman "natives" of Barovia the dusk elves, but the first quote also says "Aside from the secretive dusk elves of Vallaki", proving that there are only dusk elves at Vallaki, not some other tribe of dusk elves elsewhere in Barovia (as per my option 1), so that further proves that it was option 2 after all... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Nov 12, 2019 at 16:26
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Those elves are Faerunian elves, not Barovian.

The elves of Greenhall are not native to Barovia; per DDAL04-02 The Beast on page 17:

With the exception of Ava, the elves actually hail from Greenhall—an elven settlement in the Quivering Forest.

More generally for the season, DDAL04-06 The Ghost on page 7, in the Adventure Background section says:

Recently, the Mists have pulled a large section of the lands surrounding Phlan into Barovia.

The DDAL Season 4 adventures, collectively known as Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts, include entire sections of the terrain around Phlan (and thier residents) being transported into Barovia. Greenhall, the Quivering Forest, the Glumpen Swamp, and so on are Faerunian locations that have been shifted from one plane to the other.

There are other creatures that have been pulled over, beyond the aforementioned elves and the player characters:

Jeny Greenteeth is a recurring NPC in DDAL content; she appeared three seasons earlier, in DDEX01-08 Tales Trees Tell and others.

Aya Glenmiir, an elven wizard from Phlan, has appearances in Season 1, 2, and 4.

There's a tribe of orcs ("caliban" to the Barovians) that was brought over, too.

Further Reading

The Mist and the Wood (available for free on DM's Guild) goes into greater detail on what came over, what left in its place, and what impact the transition has had on both sides of the transition.

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