The Dark Elves, or Druchii to give their name in Tar-Eltharin, were expelled from the Elven Kingdoms several millennia ago in a series of bloody civil wars. The ancestors of today's Druchii inhabited the northwestern part of the island of Ulthuan called Nagarythe (Shadowlands) and they were also known as the Malteeras (People of the Northern Reaches) and the Naggarothi (Folk of Nagarythe.)

Nagarythe had for long been known as a place of great learning and where great works of art were produced. A new order sprung from this renaissance called the Cult of Pleasure and the High Priestess was Lady Morathi. In fact the Nagarythe cult was dedicated to the worship of Slaanesh, the Lord of Pleasure. The cult proved very popular and it wasn't long before many High Elven nobles pursued their vices in the cover of this cult not knowing that they were sliding towards Chaos. Indeed, many of the Elves did not see the connection.

It wasn't long before the Phoenix King, Bel-Shanaar, worried by the increasing excesses of the Cult of Pleasure, which degenerated to the sacrifice of living beings, declared war on one of his own realms to rid its influences and this was the heart of the cult: Nagarythe.

It was Malekith, the son of Lady Morathi and the late Phoenix King Aenarion, who first sowed the seeds of doubt in the Ulthuan nobility by claiming that the agents of the Cult of Pleasure were everywhere, threatening the very moral standing of the entire Elven race. It was Malekith's agents, working at the behest of Bel-Shanaar, who took away anyone suspected of involvement with the Cult of Pleasure for interrogation.

But Malekith had long coveted the Phoenix Throne, because it was denied to him when the Eldar Council decreed that he was unworthy of the crown, and at the last he denounced Bel-Shanaar, the Phoenix King himself, as an exponent of the Cult of Pleasure. Rather than go through the indignity of interrogation Bel-Shanaar took poison and killed himself. Malekith seized his moment and declared himself the rightful heir to the Phoenix Throne, despite the protestations of the Eldar Council, who were themselves denounced as enemies of the Elven race and placed under arrest.

Malekith was revealed for what he was: an ally of the Cult of Pleasure and a usurper. The Phoenix Flame, the trial by fire ordeal as set down by the priesthood of Asuryan to choose a pure soul for the crown of Ulthuan, horribly burned Malekith's body and rejected his spirit, giving evidence to those assembled that he was totally unfit to rule. With his followers, Malekith escaped to Nagarythe and the Eldar Council was freed.

A period of war ensued: the Naggarothi, and their supporters, against the other realms of Ulthuan. With the support of the Eldar Council and the High Elf nobles, Caledor the First was hailed as Phoenix King and carried the war to Nagarythe. After Malekith's defeat at the Battle of Maldour the Naggarothi became ever more desperate and resorted to the black sorceries that previously they were forbidden to learn. At the dawn of the Battle of Maldour, Malekith was hailed as the Witch King by his supporters, largely because of his twisted and fell appearance after his form was ravaged by the Fire of Asuryan.

So it was that the Witch King caused the cataclysm that was to send much of Nagarythe under the Great Ocean, the southern realm of Tiranoc was to also suffer a similar fate although much of it still stands today. Malekith sort to unbind the vortex of the Isle of the Dead, which kept the Realm of Chaos out of the world, so that the daemonic forces of Chaos could aid the Naggarothi against the forces of Caledor. But the mages of the Isle, who are to chant their protective spells for eternity, countered the Witch King's magic causing a huge wave to rise from the ocean, sending the Shadowlands beneath the sea, drowning many of the Naggarothi in turn.

However, Malekith had known the possibility of failure and ordered that many ships be built, the largest of these were the huge floating fortresses called Black Arks. When the cataclysm came some of the Naggarothi managed to escape on these ships. It is written in some ancient chronicles that the Black Arks were in fact the palaces of the Naggarothi, torn away from the ruined land and kept afloat by powerful sorcery.

The naval battle of Deloth's Shoals completed the expulsion of the Naggarothi from Ulthuan. The High Elves allowed the survivors to escape to the frozen lands of the northwest, content that the Naggarothi would perish there. But they did not. Thus the Naggarothi were named the Druchii, the Dark Elves.