Dinarii Clan
by Joaquin MenchacaDescription
As the Callarii works towards their goal of mutual peace with the conquering Thyatians, many of the more scholarly elves were becoming dissatisfied with the clan's directions. They felt that by negotiating with the Thyatians, that the Callarii were recognising the sovereignty of Karameikos over that of elves. Before they were already disgusted by the Vyalia whom actually teaches the humans in the secret ways of their clan. Through cooperation with the humans these scholars feel that the elves are becoming weak and meek and have been softened over time by the humans. Eventually they fear that the humans will use this weakness and kindness against the elves some day, and eradicate the elves from Mystara, as they have so often done to each other. They feel that the Callarii have become polluted with way of humans, and so they have left the Callarii clan with others to form their own society called the Dinarii.
These Callarii scholars with others have left the clan to form their own society called Dinarii. It is hope that the Dinarii clan can find a new found strength and eliminate the human pollution within their spirits and hearts. The Dinarii feel that it is their responsibility to restore the balance and expel the humans from trespassing on elven lands.
The Dinarii will use whatever tools are at their disposal to accomplish this including the use of forbidden magic that have once existed long ago in centuries past. They Vyalia feel that these magics are dangerous and can only server to corrupt the soul of Elves. The Dinarii in response feel that the Vyalia are weak and subservient to the humans, and that these secrets should be used in the name of elven kind.
Through the years, the Dinarii have formed different philosophy and culture than the Callarii. The Dinarii are still strict warriors like the Callarii and they also honour their word much like the Callarii. The have formed a more duellist direction toward their combat techniques and culture. They often seek out and hunt notable warriors of prominence and destroy them. The Dinarii will never attack or destroy a defenceless opponent. As long as the opponent refuses to draw a weapon, the Dinarii will not attack them. Once the opponent draws the weapon, the opponent will be slain where he stands even if the opponent is under matched. The Dinarii sometimes like to keep weapons from the opponent, especially villains or heroes of notable fame. This philosophy also applies to spell casters, whom Dinarii feel are lethal weapons in their own right.
Like the Callarii in combating opponents they disdain to use indirect forms of combat like poison or non-direct magic. See the Callarii description for more details. The Dinarii though may elect to use summoned creatures though, as they consider these weapons or tools to be used in combat.
The Dinarii have a sense of life for only other elves. They feel that most elves are mislead and polluted by other elves. They seek not to destroy other elves, as there is always hope that these elves can be saved. However, once an elf draws a weapon against the Dinarii, all game is fair. The Dinarii though will not hesitate to kill prominent elves whom ally themselves with humans or other races, provided that these elves wield weapons against them or use spells against them.
The Dinarii disdain from having emotions that will negatively affect them during combat. They prefer to be emotionless and they will almost never attack out of revenge as this would weaken their position. Many consider the Dinarii cold and calculating.
The Dinarii worship a god named Akilia which has revealed herself to be the one true patron of the elves. The other gods of the elves are considered the false patrons as that they do not share the best interest for the elven race.
The Dinarii are mostly Lawful neutral and sometimes Lawful evil. The Dinarii warriors and avengers are mostly Fighter and Fighter/Mage. Though with the newly found true patron of the elves, combinations of Fighter/Cleric are becoming more popular. For wizardry practices, many Dinarii are summoners. As with other Elven mages, the Dinarii write their spells in Elven Glyphs, so a proficiency in Read/Write Elven Glyph is needed to learn the arcane knowledge of the Dinarii.
Notes for roles and OD&D...
The Dinarii are commonly warriors or the standard Elf class. An inventive GM can use the Avenger class found in the Companion set to describe a Dinarii's role. Other roles for the Dinarii are Predator (similar to bounty hunter, but honour is the only reward), and Dark Summoners.
Analogies for Dinarii...
The most obvious reference for the Dinarii is the race found in the movie Predator or the popular video game Predator vs Aliens. Other analogies can be drawn from Star Trek's Voyager series where a nomadic race constantly hunted other races for sport. However, the Dinarii would never hunt for sport, but rather as a sign of duty to save the elves from themselves.
For the mystical side of the
Dinarii, the Sith of Star Wars as well as the dark Jedi are a good
analogy. There are books written about the Sith from Dark Horse
Comics which describe some of their magic.