Dark Elves

The Dark Elves, known also as the Dokkalfar, were one of the two factions of Elves who inhabited Alfheim. Insectoid beings who made their homes in the dark caves of that realm, they were locked in an ancient war with the Light Elves over dominion of the Light, a conflict that drew Kratos and Atreus into its midst.

A people of darkness#

The Dark Elves were rustic, insectoid beings who preferred the dark places of Alfheim, dwelling in its caves. They bore dark, wrinkled skin, sharp claws, gray or white eyes that shone without pupils, and uncovered horns, with some among them showing skin of red and white. From their backs grew insect wings that carried them in flight over long distances and let them walk upon any surface as an arthropod would. The common Dark Elves wore little armor and simple skirts, while the elite among them bore golden shoulder and leg plates. Unlike most creatures of the Norse realms, they were intelligent fighters who coordinated their attacks and used their numbers to their advantage. In the eternal war they sought to conceal the Light and drown their whole realm in darkness.

The war for the Light#

It was never known which race of Elves had come first, and that very uncertainty kindled the conflict between the Dark Elves and the Light Elves for dominion of the Light of Alfheim. The Dark Elves were not confined to their own realm; one of the lands of the dwarf king Motsognir, Veithurgard, suffered constant raids from them, and they built an outpost near it. The tide of the war turned against the Dark Elves when the Vanir Freyr became Lord of the Light Elves and gave his people their longest mastery of the Light. When Freyr mysteriously vanished, however, the Light Elves were left without his aid and fell to losing. Led by their king Svartaljofurr, the Dark Elves overran Freyr's Temple, encased it in a great sentient plant, and slaughtered the remaining Light Elves.

Kratos and Atreus in Alfheim#

When Kratos and Atreus arrived in Alfheim, the Dark Elves met them with hostility, sending wave after wave of soldiers against the father and son. The two prevailed and restored the Light of Alfheim to the Light Elves, killing the Dark Elf King in battle. Before he fell, the king warned them that they had made a grave mistake. When Atreus asked whether the war was over, Kratos answered that surviving Dark Elves had fled into hiding to await a better chance to strike, a judgment with which Mimir agreed.

The end of the war#

In the years that followed, the Dark Elves continued their war as the Light Elves took up a more combative path. The origin of the conflict was at last made plain: as the Light Elves grew obsessed with wielding the Light's power, the Dark Elves came to believe they had gone too far and sought to return the Light to its natural source. The fighting raged on until Freyr returned to Alfheim and persuaded both peoples to set aside their hatred, uniting the elven races as one, ending their centuries-long war, and joining the army Kratos had gathered for the invasion of Asgard.

Ragnarok and the aftermath#

When Kratos sounded the Gjallarhorn, the Dark Elves poured into Asgard alongside the Light Elves. They launched their assault from the air but were swiftly halted by Thor, and afterward fought on against the Einherjar. When the tower linking Alfheim to the battle was destroyed by accident, no more Dark Elves could enter, and those already in Asgard eventually fell on the field. In the aftermath of Ragnarok, with the sole exception of one named Beyla who lived in Vanaheim, no Dark Elf was seen again; the war had taken so terrible a toll that the survivors retreated to parts unknown to mourn their dead and seek a future for their people.