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Hi all,

I am going to use the wood elf spell weaver and the glade riders in my high elves army. As archmage and reavers because I just think the models are awesome.

Now the thing is, fluff wise can I say wood elves are fighting along side the high elves? I can't seem to find any stories against it nor can I find anything supporting their alliance.

Thanks in advance! Btw if they are NOT friends please, think of a creative story for the giggles that's what I'm gonna do

I thought that High Elves don't really care about the environment etc unlike the Wood Elves (I might be wrong though but I thought I read that somewhere).

I don't think you need to say why they are in your army since you are using the rules for Archmage and Reavers

I'm going to use demigryphs for my high elf hero/nobel mounts and dark elves cold ones for my reaver mounts. I'll probably think up some story but in general fluff is often thin enough that most armies can use other things within the rules of conversions. Heck I'm also using chariot lions for my silver helms mounts (yes I think an elf army does not go to war on an army of horses 0 unless they are decked out in utterly great dragon styled armour)

Friends? Probably too strong a term. They tend not to trust anyone from outside their borders though that's not to say that they wouldn't ally with their High cousins.
One aspect that binds them is the Everqueen, the High priestess (or whatever) of Isha, who of course manifests as Ariel in Athel Loren.

So yeah, definitely not outside the realms of possibility, though they're never going to be BFFs for life.

Hmmm that's fine, I guess if I can play in tournaments with the models it'll be ok. Thanks everyone.

Fluff wise that's good enough

Well, allies is already too much, in Warhammer even HE aren't friends with HE!

KeyserSoze wrote:
Well, allies is already too much, in Warhammer even HE aren't friends with HE!

Uh, What?

High Elves view Wood Elves with a certain degree of contempt considering they abandoned the Phoenix Throne and chose to remain in the Old World when their fleets were recalled prior to the war against Chaos. They certainly aren't sworn enemies or anything and what you're doing certainly shouldn't ring any alarm bells considering you plan on using actual High Elf rules anyway. The most important thing here is that base sizes are consistent, so I don't see how anyone can take any exceptions to you doing this.

I do this myself quite a bit. I have Glade Guard as Shadow Warriors in my High Elves, Gors as Marauders in my WoC for example.

The high elves of ulthuan and the wood elves of Athel Loren do not get along very well. This is because the Asrai were basically abandoned. HOWEVER! Their are other forests with similar peoples around the warhammer world. One of these forests odds actually on ulthuan.

danny1995 wrote:
This is because the Asrai were basically abandoned.

If by abandoned you mean chose not to go back to Ulthuan then yeh, they were abandoned.

danny1995 wrote:
Their are other forests with similar peoples around the warhammer world. One of these forests odds actually on ulthuan.

The Elves of Averlorn are not Wood Elves, but certainly they may adopt similar appearances to wood elves, that's another's possible way to explain why your using the models.

No, they are not enemies, but they are not friends either. Yes, the Asrai did feel abandoned, the high Elves basically said ''look, the lives you built here are unimportant. Either you ditch this little project of yours and come home or when we leave we will take our armies with us, leaving you defenseless.'' To which the wood Elves responded with ''Fine, we will do fine without you''. And so they did.

Many Old World Elves were born there and knew nothing of Ulthuan, why would they leave? And so they stayed and made their home in Althel Loren while the High Elves assumed them dead. It wasn't until much later that the High Elves found the Wood Elves and sent emissaries to go and try bring them into the fold. To which Ariel said ''Thanks, but no thanks'' and preceded to send them on their way, but they got lost in the forest for a few hundred years and got butchered by peasants as evil spirits, dem's the breaks.

After that, nothing. So we can assume that the High Elves never heard back from the Wood Elves, but we do know the Wood Elves have no intention of coming back into the High Elf fold.

So in essence. Friends, no. Allies of convenience? Very possible.

If ariel and the ever queen would be in the same place , which one has the higher authority over the Isha cult in the fluff. The queen being the high priestess or ariel being her avatar ?

Ariel probably, being the living incarnation of your Godess probably holds more weight than being its favourite mortal.

alex87 wrote:
High Elves view Wood Elves with a certain degree of contempt considering they abandoned the Phoenix Throne and chose to remain in the Old World when their fleets were recalled prior to the war against Chaos. .

Don't you mean after the War of the Beard? Other than that, High Elves have no special animosity towards the Wood Elves, and would probably view them relatively favorably,. Although the reverse is not necessarily true (as mentioned, the Woodies feel abandoned by their High Elf brethren), I still think the Wood Elves would be more likely to accept High Elf aid than anyone else's, save perhaps Bretonnians, who for the most part leave them in peace...

My first thought was that maybe the Wood Elves of the Laurelorn Forest (Northwest of the Empire) might be an alternative, but seems they are also hostile to High Elves, according to a more than 10 year old text written for Warhammer RPG but never used. Here the interesting 61 pages of Wood Elf background:
http://www.madalfred.darcore.net/articles/Laurelorn_Elves.rtf

BTW here a huge map showing the location of Laurelorn Forest:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100820043040/warhammerfb/images/6/6a/TheEmpire.jpg

Bran Dawri wrote:

Don't you mean after the War of the Beard? Other than that, High Elves have no special animosity towards the Wood Elves, and would probably view them relatively favorably.

Ahh yeh, War of the Beard was it actually!
There isn't necessarily animosity, but most High Elves would view Wood Elves as 'lesser Elves" than their High brethren considering they chose to remain behind instead of returning to Ulthuan to help the war effort. The Wood Elves would be fairly indifferent towards High Elves. Most Wood Elves were born in the Old world, which is why they didn't feel the same sense of patriotism when their fleets were recalled, but certainly the two would fight together willingly for a common cause. At the end of the day they would still consider each other kin.

The way I always think of wood elves is they are they kept to there roots (literally) and didn't go to the high elves or to the dark elves, they are pretty much both since it was before the sundering.

In the new rules they even have high magic and dark magic.

Also, I thought Finubar was the first high elf noble to go to the Athel Loren and work out some diplomacy agreements with the wood elves?

Well, Ariel did lead some of her warriors through the World Roots (now there's an ancient piece of fluff reinvented) to Avelorn once, to battle N'kari. Other than that, the Wood Elves generally think of the High Elves as arrogant idiots.

In the sixth ed rulebook there is a bit of fluff reciting the Wood elf enemies. High and Dark elves are on there.

"Elves of Naggaroth and far-off Ulthuan are our enemies, for they have turned their backs on Isha and Kurnous, and betrayed their elf heritage."

And there you have it.

In our old gaming group we used to have massive multiplayer battles and a very loose alliance system. A wood elf player used to deliberately 'miscast' template spells onto the HE army or place units in the way to block him from marching (despite being on the same side) was justified as the high elf general was a self-righteous jerk who used to run the cheesiest lists possible.

Of course, watching my cannonballs 'accidently' bounce into the HE general under the pretense of 'friendly fire' was deeply satisfying...ahh for the days of artillery range guessing

And we wonder why the forces of Order aren't winning...

I wonder if, with the new book making it clear just what the Wood Elves' attitudes are, they will still be counted as Order...

 Furyou Miko wrote:
And we wonder why the forces of Order aren't winning...

Even when we were losing, we were still winning totally worth losing the game for the look on the HE player's face - the chaos was what made it fun...and our orc player knew that best of all (like when his own doom divers landed on his general, killed it and routed his army!)

 Furyou Miko wrote:
I wonder if, with the new book making it clear just what the Wood Elves' attitudes are, they will still be counted as Order...

Yeah I thought the same, prehaps they will be considered neutral now?

... Doom divers. THanks, I just snorted coffee.

 thedarkavenger wrote:
In the sixth ed rulebook there is a bit of fluff reciting the Wood elf enemies. High and Dark elves are on there.

"Elves of Naggaroth and far-off Ulthuan are our enemies, for they have turned their backs on Isha and Kurnous, and betrayed their elf heritage."

And there you have it.

Yes I was about to mention this! It was a Wood Elf mother talking to her child, she literally told him to hate all races and listed various reasons why they are all worthy only of contempt. The high elves were listed with as much scorn as the Dwarfs and Beastmen, so it is safe to assume that they despise their "High" Kin as much as any other faction. I always got the impression that anything not of the forest was considered anethma to the Wood Elves. I think the only race they did not mention hating was the Lizardmen and that is most likely purely because they have had no contact with them, neither race having anything that the other wants.

On the flip side I think the High Elves look down on the Wood elves but don't quite share the same hatred as the do for the Druchii. If the Ulthuan/Naggaroth civil war ever ended and united the Elves (not likely to ever happen) then they would then turn their eye into aggressively bringing the Wood Elves back into the fold, but that is purely my own conjecture. I think the 3 have all evolved into such separate entities it would be impossible for any of them to ever reconcile.

Wings of Purity wrote:
Hi all,

I am going to use the wood elf spell weaver and the glade riders in my high elves army. As archmage and reavers because I just think the models are awesome.

Now the thing is, fluff wise can I say wood elves are fighting along side the high elves? I can't seem to find any stories against it nor can I find anything supporting their alliance.

Thanks in advance! Btw if they are NOT friends please, think of a creative story for the giggles that's what I'm gonna do

I think to answer OPs question, individual wood elves might occasionally find themselves sharing a common goal with high elves .

In your case, I would suggest as a possible fluff motive that the spell weaver has come to commune/study with the forests on Ulthuan or the shrines of the elven pantheon to return back to Athel Loren with new knowledge and wisdom. The wild riders are an armed escort for the spell weaver, fellow kinsmen tasked with ensuring the spell weaver's saftey. Of course, the right to train/worship/study under the high elves would come at a price - returned service to the high elves to prove their loyalty (don't want to be harbouring rebels in their midst stirring up dangerous ideas in the minds of the the common citizens). Depending on the rest of your army, you could be protecting the sacred grounds of Ulthuan, or maybe investigating some Chaos corruption abroad on a tour-of-duty.



On a similar note I was thinking if there would there ever be a time where high/wood elves actively sought out the other for the purpose of fighting/conquest?

Prehaps a high elf seeking to bring the subordinate 'rebels' under the heel of the Pheonix Throne? Would the reverse also be true - wood elves attacking high elves to destabilise their empire?

Lastly, as we can see the push towards making wood elves a more neutral army, would there ever be a time where wood elves would *side* with an army of destruction against order? (Aside from their well-known hatred of beastmen and chaos more widely)

You could just say they are High elves, with a more rustic look, like they are from Averlorn or Charace? The spellweavers look like they could be lore of life mages, and the Glade riders could be light horsemen(elves).


If you wanted them to be wood elves I'm sure they could be lots of reasons to be working together, like someone else said I'm sure in the High Elf book there's something about King Finubar trying to get in touch with the Wood Elves for some reason, but Im not sure what stance the wood Elves have towards the High Elves because I don't have the new book. They both Believe that their representation Isha is true, so I can see some problems arising for both factions if it ever came into question.

Enemy X invaded / Threatens forest Y. The High elves have decided to strike preemptively before they threaten ulthuan, the woodelves like this "kill the despoilers" attitude & decide to aid their cousins in eliminating the threat to the forest.