Druchii.net

What I mean is, is there anything in the fluff about wood elves/high elves (or anyone else for that matter) switching sides, as it were? Or vice versa

According to official fluff.
Nope.

According to my wife's HE army fluff.
Yep!

DE and HE are defined by their hatred of each other. Switching sides in a conflict like that isn't an option.

If anyone is converting its usualy as a pawn. Dark Elves use seduction of the dark side f the force to get things done, but I doubt many would go for it.

HE and WE wouldn't trust eachother, and DE would probably give the convert a lot of flack for being of a "weak blooded" kinsman.

Granted I did a pretty big fan fic on one such youth that managed to win Har Ganeth over, but it's probablt not a common thing.

Hotek left later in the war, but since the initial sundering there probably have been a few HE that have left, seduced by Khaine, cults of pleasure or dark magics. Conversely some DE might have been disgusted by their behavior over time and left to be a freebooter or somesuch, but any of that type of weakness would require Drizzt Do'urden luck and mental fortitude.

There have certainly been Druchii who were able to successfully blend with Asur society as spies, it is not out of the question that a few might have 'gone native'. Likewise there might be a few going the other way. It has been a long long war and a great many unlikely and unreported things have doubtless gone on but the default stance is for an Asur or Asrai in Naggaroth to be enslaved or killed and a Druchii in Ulthaun just killed (since they are the good guys). It is not beyond thought that a wood elf taking up trading (far from common) might just make their way to Ulthaun and might just persuade them, after many years, to let him become a subject of the crown.

On the whole it would be incredibly rare, incredibly difficult and by necessity incredibly quiet; for cultural and logistical reasons. The Asur Druchii hatred is so deeply ingrained it is near instinct by this point, language and cultural differences would make it hard to blend into society even once the small matter of the ocean is dealt with. Still it is not impossible.

I agree to a certain point, but Asur arrogance and politics being what they are could easily "disenchant" a HE and they could switch sides. I can see a HE noble doing something nasty to a HE garrison of a keep or somesuch to show an advancing DE army that he is on their side as he was pissed off that he didn't get what he wanted.

Said noble would be off to a good start, but to prevent himself from getting killed by the advancing druchii army himself he'd have to show them his strength. Preferably by doing a lot of killing of all those who tried to kill him.

I'd say cutting a hand off of the first druchii to try and touch him would be a good start.

Underway wrote:I agree to a certain point, but Asur arrogance and politics being what they are could easily "disenchant" a HE and they could switch sides. I can see a HE noble doing something nasty to a HE garrison of a keep or somesuch to show an advancing DE army that he is on their side as he was pissed off that he didn't get what he wanted.

For similar reasons, any spies or infiltrators into Ulthuan or Naggaroth could easily "go native". In the Dark Elves' case, it could be because they realise that the Asur are not as they were led to believe, or because they have come to enjoy not looking over their shoulder for the knife approaching their backs (i.e. they've gone soft). In the High Elves' case, defections could arise because of the (relatively) meritocratic and hedonistic nature of Druchii society and because the Druchii feel no need to pretend not to be who they truly are.

I would say that an Asur living in Naggaroth would certainly need to pretend to be other than he was in order to avoid a most painful death (at best). While it is possible that you might sneak by as either race I doubt very much whether either would ever accept a member of the ancient enemy as one of their own, not at this stage. Millennia of war, mistrust and propaganda lie between them; a combination of myth, fact, fiction and fear that would be incredibly potent. The extended life spans of elves leave you in a situation where in terms of generations the age old conflicts are not abstract historical curiosities as in human culture but a living, breathing thing. If an Asur betrayed a garrison to ingratiate himself with Druchii forces the best he could expect is humiliation on the way to a relatively swift death.

Think about it this way. Dwarves hate Orks, Dwarves hate Chaos Dwarves, Dwarves hate elves. Dwarves do not have hatred as a rule. We are talking about a level of ingrained malevolence and mutual detestation that goes beyond the range of human emotion. Logistically it would be difficult to defect but the greater issue is that barely anyone from either side would want to.

In the Tears of Isha campaign, an Asur prince who is the second son goes over to the Druchii cause and then leads an invasion on Nagarythe. I forget his name but I loved that campaign. Also any of you that followed JackDaw's high house of chains plog on Warseer had an Ellyrian Prince converted up really nicely in his army; cannot recommend that plog enough, big part of the reason I got back into the hobby.