The Winterheart Massacre is an event that occurred in Year 700, as part of the Drums of War Campaign. The Dark Elves underwent a religious schism when Kallix Erendwain and Jard Stonebrook, chosen champions of Selune, brought evidence to the Dark Elves that Selune and Vandun were not allies. Clan Uri'pe and Clan Toroth rallied against Clans Erendwain, Svalbren, and Vosk. The intricacies of the clans can be found on the Dark Elf clans page.
- Tristela, Ravka, Zekhan meet privately to discuss moving forward
- **Join the Confederacy — Yes** - Ravka greedily accepts the offer, Zekhan begrudgingly decides it’s for the best, and Tristela agrees given that divine influence seems to be pushing them towards it.
- **Retake Winterheart Part 1: The Decision — Yes, with conditions** - Ravka disagrees with retaking Winterheart, as her people are defenseless in Winterheart right now, and they’re going to take massive casualties if there’s a military inquisition. Tristela thinks they must purge Winterheart of Vandun worshippers. Zekhan proposes that they ask the Confederacy what plan can be made to evacuate Ravka’s people and not totally destroy Winterheart’s infrastructure in the process.
- **Where do the dark elves go — Islands east of Winterheart, and a few small colonies of dark elves will go to live with Sun Elves, Humans, and Wood Elves** Tristela thinks that, even if Winterheart is retaken, they shouldn’t return there because it’s been defiled. Ravka offers to appoint her son as Winterheart’s caretaker if it gets cleared out. Zekhan suggests they let heads-of-household decide if they want to volunteer to live in their new allies’ lands, as they’re being offered aid by the Confederacy at this point, and that he will take the bulk of his people to the islands off the coast. Ravka and Tristela decide to follow suit. The islands are large enough to sustain the dark elf population, cold enough that their winter-animals can still live, and isolated enough to be satisfactory.
- Zekhan will appoint a special group of dark elves — infiltrators, spies, military personnel, and a handful of brave civilians — to take up Vestia’s offer for aid. Tristela thinks they need Kallix to be successful in Vestia and Zekhan agrees; Kallix will go with the dark elves headed to Vestia. Some people will volunteer to live with humans and a few will go live with wood elves.
- Zekhan presents the star elves’ decisions to Markus Thrain and Asgarion.
- **Retake Winterheart Part 2: Plans — Strike hard with Thrain and Vestia’s armies** Zekhan lays out a giant, detailed map of Winterheart and its tunnels. Ravka’s Shadow Hunters will try to aid Vestia and Thrain’s armies as best they can from the inside.
- **Retake Winterheart Part 3: Outcomes — Lots of Casualties** Vestia and Thrain’s armies retake the city successfully. Toroth, Uri’pe, and dark dwarf military forces are cut by 95%, and the final 20k escape through dark dwarf tunnels deep into the earth, collapsing the tunnels behind them.
- About half the civilians of clan Toroth and clan Uri’pe remain in Winterheart and fight to the death. The other half surrender to the armies now occupying the city. Ravka instates her son as Winterheart’s new overseer. Some of her people want to stay in Winterheart and some want to leave. Zekhan sends military support and civilians to live in Winterheart and help support Vosk’s rule.