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The Glass Elves
Eyeless horrors stalk the world below, skulking out of caves on moonless nights to kidnap and drink the blood of the innocent. Terrible to behold, with translucent flesh thinly stretched over their veins and organs, it is no wonder that these creatures are feared and hated by the denizens of the surface. Seemingly some kind of demonic, horrific form of elf, they are known as "glass lurkers", "drow", or "blood elves". While they are oft told in tales of terrors in the night, there is much more to these creatures than might seem. Indeed, they are not monsters at all, but instead just as intelligent and even as caring as the races of the surface! These "cave demons" are no such thing, they are, in fact, the Glass Elves.
Driven Underground
Long ago, the glass elves lived on the surface. They were like any other elf back then, though most likely of a subrace long lost to time. They had eyes and skin as you and I do, and were able to enjoy the sun's warmth. But, a great cataclysm came to these elves. The sun was blotted out, the surface became inhospitable, and they were driven to shelters underground. There they discovered the vast network of caverns that would become their new home. However, life was hard, and they faced difficulty in living in the perpetual darkness.
Reduced to a small population and facing what they thought to be extinction, the elves became desperate. A blind monk among them rose to prominence, and proclaimed that she had the key to their people's survival. Through her blindness, she was able to hone her innate magical sense, and even navigate the caves better than those with eyes! The oral history tells little of how exactly it occurred, perhaps there was fighting and arguments, or it was not entirely by choice, but in the end, all of the elves were blind. Now a race of the blind, the monk taught them to hone their ability to detect magical auras, as well as to navigate and sense the world as she did. Through this great sacrifice, the elves survived, and came to settle and build a new city in the dark caves.
Eyeless Horrors
With each new birth of an elf, its sight was removed, so that it too could survive. Through the generations of blindness and underground life, the elves had begun to change. They had become the Glass Elves, losing their eyes entirely, their flesh losing the pigment it no longer needed. Their sense of magic heightened far beyond that of other elves, as well as other senses. The Glass Elves came to rely on touch, hearing, smell, and even taste, to understand the world.
Tragic Survivors
The cataclysm that drove them underground has since subsided, and the surface world is lush and inhabited once again, but the Glass Elves cannot return. Deprived of the influence of the sun for so long, its rays have become poison to them, even deadly. Blind for so long, they no longer understand sight, or even think of themselves as blind. Isolated for so long, that they no longer understand the surface-dwellers, even other elves. Tragic victims of a bygone age, the Glass Elves do not deserve our fear, instead, they deserve our pity.
Playing a Glass Elf
Glass Elves are weird, and not suited to living and adventuring on the overworld. Do not expect to be able to play a glass elf in the same way you play a regular elf, or another race, or even a regular Drow.
Glass elves are blind, and this locks them out of many interactions in the regular game that are sight-based. Being blind also presents a significant disadvantage in combat. In exchange, they have exceptional hearing and other senses, with Expertise in Perception and the ability to Search as a bonus action. It is ironically very hard to hide from a Glass Elf, even if they can't see you at all. The intention of the Search bonus action is to allow a glass elf to use ranged weapons outside of their blindsight radius, though needing to use their Search to pick out a target each turn beforehand. Their detect magic at will also lets them detect magical creatures or enemies using magic items, beyond their normal senses.
Glass elves cannot be out in the day, for the sun is a deadly laser to them. Their flesh and organs rapidly begin to burn and melt when exposed to it. Protective clothing can block out the influence of sunlight, but no specific mechanics are provided for that here. My suggestion to DMs is to allow a glass elf to wear something like a burka or other full-body fully light-blocking clothing, but respond to that clothing in-world with suspicion. Additionally, the protective clothing of glass elves should be considered more able-to-be-damaged than regular clothes and equipment, which tend to be immune to ambient damage in D&D. Glass elf players who employ protective clothing should expect and be willing to deal with said protection coming under threat.
Glass elves do not speak Common, this is a significant roleplay barrier. You will probably want a fellow party member who can speak Elvish to interpret for you, when interacting with most NPCs.
Glass elves are hated, even worse than the regular Drow. The surface dwellers see Drow as evil elves, but they see glass elves as twisted monsters, and most do not even understand them as sapient, intelligent people. Commonfolk should respond to the discovery of a glass elf in their midst with fire and sword.
Glass Elf Traits
The Glass Elves share roots with the surface elves, but have been twisted and changed by their generations underground.
For the purposes of allowing races in your game, you should treat Glass Elves as a monstrous race. This subrace is made to go along with the Elf base race in the Player's Handbook.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2.
Eyeless Horror. You have no eyes. You can't see, and you automatically fail any ability check that requires sight. You are immune to the blinded condition.
Lightless Senses. Your honed senses allow you a limited awareness of your immediate vicinity, granting you blindsight with a radius of 10 feet (blind beyond this radius). You can even detect invisible creatures with this blindsight. Invisible creatures gain no benefits from their invisiblity against you, and you suffer no penalties from attacking an invisible creature. You lose your blindsight while you are deafened.
Keener Perception. You gain expertise with Perception, which means your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make with it. You can take the Search action as a bonus action. When you detect a creature with the Search action, you ignore the disadvantage imposed by attacking a creature you can't see when attacking that creature, until the start of your next turn.
Sunlight Toxicity. If you end your turn in direct sunlight, you lose a number of hitpoints equal to your level, as the sunlight burns and melts your flesh.
Magic-Sense. You can cast the detect magic spell at will with this trait. You can sense magic out to the spell's regular range, regardless of your actual ability to see. You can always "see" the faint aura of magic detected by the spell, without needing to use your action.
Languages. You do not know Common or Elvish, instead you know Glass Elvish and Skinspeak. Glass Elvish is an archaic, quieter form of elvish, mutually intelligible but noticeably different. You can understand Elvish, and those who speak elvish can understand you, but you both have disadvantage on charisma checks when communicating across the language barrier.
Skinspeak is a touch-based language unique to the glass elves. Each part of the body is assigned to different categories of meaning, and the 'speaker' touches the 'listener' in different patterns, including taps with different fingers, lines in different directions, and holds at different strengths, in those areas to communicate.
Keratia Elf Variant
The Glass Elves were originally conceived with my own version of the Elves from my setting in mind, who all can naturally cast detect magic, with the glass elves merely extending that capability. My setting also lacks a proper Underdark, which is why the Glass Elves live in caverns without any kind of glowing fungus or crystals or other sources of light that exist in the Forgotten Realms' Underdark.
I have made the subrace compatible with both the PHB elves and my own, and it should be compatible with other tweaks to the Elf base race. My version of the Elf base race is presented here if you're interested:
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age. Elves reach physical maturity around 15, and tend to live to about 100.
Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Innate Magic. In the same way that you can sense temperature or balance, you have a sense for magical energy. You can cast the detect magic spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest.
Low-Light Vision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dim conditions. Dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the javelin, longbow, scimitar, and shortbow.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write a Human dialect of your choice, and an Elvish dialect of your choice.