TGG2 Update #70 – Dark Elves and Void Elves: Stories and a Video

As promised, we are proud to share with you several new TGG2 Heroine backgrounds together with a special video we created for their public release:

If you like this video, you can download a high-rez version from this page.
Watch this space for more videos coming up for the Sisters and the Lust Elves.

After the Heroine's background stories, you'll find a recap of the Dark Elves / Void Elves background.

Sephea

Sephea is an Executrix or a Long Sword Champion. She wanted to be a Blood Vestal, but her parents had other plans. They said that she was to follow the family tradition of serving as an Executrix / Long Sword Champion, one of the elite royal troops. “You won't be one of these hysteric sluts!”, always said her mother. “There is a proper way to spill blood and it has nothing to do with these vulgar bitches!”.

Sephea was never able to escape her parents' will, but her dream of becoming a Vestal never went away. Her fighting skills quickly made her achieve the title of Champion. That what when she ditched her amour and developed a fighting style very close to the Vestals' own, mixing their swift moves and fury with the heavy hitting power of her massive sword.

Onyx, Master Assassin

As a Master Assassin, you need to move like a Lust Elf, sneak around like a Shadow, and strike like a Scorpion.

Yet Onyx is so much more than that. She does not move, she glides. She is gone before she was ever there. She strikes without leaving a trace. When her target hits the ground, she is already far away. Could there be some magic behind her insane skill?

Sinzirith, Blood Vestal High Priestess

Despite what the whirling chaos of their fighting moves might suggest, the Blood Vestals operate within a very strict hierarchy, and Sinzirith ranks among the highest.

Becoming the High Priestess has not been an easy path, one littered with the blood and the flesh of her many rivals, lovers and friends, who have all been sacrificed on the altar of her burning ambition.

But in the end, what are a few pounds of flesh compared to the exhilaration she gets riding to war atop the Grand War Altar of the Succubi (coming soon), bathing in the blood of her enemies, enthralled in the wisps of incense smoke and vapors of frenzy drugs. No doubt, she stands on the top of the world.

Violet, a.k.a. The Duchess

The mascots have been a huge success in our TGG1 Kickstarter. In fact, to this day, they are among our bestsellers. Since the beginning, we've wanted to add a little fun to some otherwise very dark universes and stories, and this is how characters like the mascots, the Lulus, the Minions were born. We definitely plan to have a board game starring all these little characters.

Violet is the magical vulture of Lady Kashala. She is an old lady vulture with precious mannerisms and a very high view of herself. She looks down on everybody else. Think of the Countess Dowager of Grantham from Downton Abbey and you'll have a pretty good idea of Violet's character...

No one knows through what kind of twisted magic she was given the gift of speech, but the sorcerer who did this should burn in hell to have set loose on the world such a dreadful curse! Never engage into conversation with this damn bird !!

Xarsiss, the Succubus Queen

Meet Xarsiss, the Succubus Queen. If the Harpies are ferocious and vicious creatures, you can probably guess what their queen is like. On top of being an agile fighter and a ferocious killer, Xarsiss is a manipulative and seductive creature who is also able to hypnotise and control the most experienced warriors. Stand too close and she'll rip your heart out.

It may seem like Harpies are just half-intelligent creatures, nasty scavengers who follow the Dark Elves' wake of blood and destruction to feast on an ongoing gore banquet and to gather vast troves of shiny and precious trinkets.

But the Harpies are far more cunning than one might think. And no one exactly knows what happens in their nest-realm, which hides so high in mountain spires that no one is known to have ever reached it and returned.

Zailith, Blood Vestal Secultrix

The Blood Vestals are a wild cruel bunch. Fighting like a pack of furious cats, they are always ready to turn on each other. Worshipped and adored by a large part of the Dark Elves society, covered in lavish gifts that are supposed to bring good fortune to the givers, representing the ultimate fantasy of most male and many female Elves, they live flamboyant lives that are usually short and brutal.

However, there are those who manage to outlive the pack in an impressive way. Every year, the previous year's greatest Blood Vestal fighter, called the Secultrix, has to fight three challengers to prove that she is still the best, or else, die under the blade of the new Secultrix.

Despite new ferocious and hungry Vestals rising to the challenge every year, many decades have passed and the current Secultrix remains undefeated. Her name is Zailith...

Dark Elves and Void Elves background

Most of what follows was covered in early updates during the campaign, so we thought it was time for a slightly updated refresher. It also serves as an introduction to the background of our upcoming game.

Sci-Fi Elves: The denizens of the Void

We thought it would make sense to share with you how the Void Elves and the Lust Elves came to be.

First, we could say that, in a sense, the Lust Elves were a happy accident.

Well, from another point of view, there is no doubt that it could be said that they are a tragic accident that keeps on happening.

At first, we wanted some sort of Void Elf army, as they perfectly fit a specific place in the TGG universe.

But, we will not yet tell you the exact truth about where they come from or what they really are.

Deep and dark secrets lie in the TGG background.

So, for now, let us say that the Void Elves are a race of truly immense powers (heck, they don't even need to diet to stay slim or exercise to stay fit...). And contrary to what you might think when you see them, Void Elves never go to war. Warring is beneath them. Void Elves just wanna have fun. Ok, twisted fun, but hey...

In fact, from all the intelligence gathered so far about them, it looks like the Void Elves could well be just a small group from a much larger civilization, a small band of demented individuals who gather together for sick perverted games...

The only thing that's known for sure is that the Void Elves do not have a physical body per se. At least, not on the battlefield. Instead, it appears that they are able to project themselves as solid-light holograms of sort.

At this time, there appears to be two kinds of Void Elves: the Hunters and the Sculptors, but there might be more.

The Hunters target convoys, settlements, or even planets, and raid them for sport and trophies.

The Sculptors are worse: it is hard to truly understand their motives, but they seem fascinated by flesh, as it is something that they do not have. Their thing is to create insane constructs of flesh and technology that they use as vessels to incarnate and harvest even more flesh. They appear to see this as some kind of performance art, although their spirit and intelligence is so much beyond human standards that who they are and what they do is unfathomable.

Working from this premise gave us much room for crazy visual ideas, and we went completely overboard with the number of concepts and characters we designed for the Void Elves. And while in our mind, it was always one single army, we ended up with enough material for two. And it was obvious that fluff-wise, some armies would be made only of Hunters, some only of Sculptors, and that some armies would mix both. Even in the characters themselves, you can probably feel the mix between these two tribes. And since the Void Elves have no physical limitations in the way they will create their “bodies”, it is only logical that even Hunters don't necessarily limit themselves to two arms and two legs.

In our future game, please know that we consider the Lust Elves as part of the Void Elves army, as they are basically the same people and so, you will be able to play, say, only Void Elves, or only Lust Elves, or a combination of both. This is also why we put the Stingrays with the Void Elves in the Sci-Fi section, and with the Lust Elves in the Fantasy version, as their roles and the army they fit in will be a bit different depending on the Fantasy or Sci-Fi stetting,

FANTASY: The Story of the Elves

The Elves are one of the oldest sentient life form ever. But when the world was young, they were quite different from now... Each Elf integrated two different parts: a vegetal one and an animal one. In a simple way, one could say that there was a living breathing body merged with a tree. The tree stayed rooted in one place forever, but the animal body was free to roam the world. The tree provided shelter, a strong base, a place to regenerate and replenish one's strength. The animal body brought the experience of the outside world, the elation of moving freely, the joy of exploration.

Living in perfect symbiosis, these two parts complemented each other perfectly, and Elves lived in harmony and happiness. There were several kinds of Elves, several tribes, each with its own makeup such as different animal and vegetal forms.

But this wouldn't last. Rivalries arose between the tribes. At first, they were tempered by the trees' wisdom. But the animal forms were impatient and excitable. One day, one tribe committed the irreparable: going into a grove where elven trees had been left alone without their animal counterparts, they burned them to the ground. The connexion between the trees and their animal forms was so strong that, even miles away, their animals were instantly covered in burns, their naked flesh transforming into black coal. They who had been so supple and handsome were suddenly burnt, black and brittle. But most of all, when they returned to the grove, their trees were gone. They had lost the most precious thing in their life, their halves gone forever.

Despite other tribes begging for a peaceful solution to this unspeakable aggression, the Fire War spread. For months, nights turned red with raging fires. Elves by the thousands lost their tree forms and turned coal black. Vengeance became their only solace.

When the Fire War finally ended, the Elf population had dwindled to almost nothing. The few tribes that did not give into war managed to force the Burnt Elves to leave, so that they would no longer be a menace to the remaining forests.

The Burnt Elves disappeared to lick their wounds. They found sanctuary in a faraway land and sought magic to rid themselves of “The Burn”. Most of their bodies were now of cracked and brittle coal, stiff and creaky and fragile like burnt branches. For centuries, they tried all the remedies they could find. A potent of black magic eventually somehow removed the burns. But their souls could never be appeased.

On the dark journey to healing, several Burnt Elves Sorceresses stumbled into even darker ways. They bound their bodies to twisted demonic forces, going very much beyond what any Elves had gone before. Their new bodies appeared to have no more limitations. They could grow new limbs at will. They could make graceful amazing moves at speeds no other Elves could match. They were reborn into something that surpassed their previous vegetal-animal symbiosis.

And this came with a heavy price... Possessed by entities that had transformed them into wicked killing machines, the Lust Elves were something that even the Burnt Elves recoiled from...

Elves Terminology

Our Fantasy Dark Elves will often be called Burnt Elves or the Burnt Ones.

Our Sci-Fi Elves will be called Void Elves, although, when our game comes out this might change as we may leave out the reference to Elves.

During the Kickstarter Campaign, the Fantasy version of the Lust Elves were be called the Flesh Elves. We have now settled on using 'Lust Elves – Fantasy' and 'Lust Elves – Sci-Fi.'

As for our Sci-fi Lust Elves, we may leave out the reference to Elves when our game comes out.

Do tell!

And here's a quick question for you: Do the stories change your perception of these model? Don't hesitate to leave your thoughts in the Comments below.