Dark Elves

"Long before the birth of light there was darkness, and from that darkness came the Dark Elves. Millennia ago the most ruthless of their kind, Malekith, sought to transform our universe back into one of eternal night. Such evil was possible through the power of the Aether, an ancient force of infinite destruction."

- Odin

The Dark Elves, or Svartalfar, are one of the oldest known species in the universe, hailing from the obscure realm of Svartalfheim. They are mortal enemies to the Asgardians. Members of their race have been shown to have the fortitude to wield the power of an Infinity Stone.

History
The Dark Elves are a proud, ancient race, their history extending centuries before the "Great Beginning" (Big Bang). However, this can be explained by their connection to dark energy and the possibility that their race grew old in a different universe before coming to the Nine Realms, where they reigned absolute. When the other civilizations of the Nine Realms arose, the Dark Elves sought to return the universe to its former state of darkness. It was then that their leader, the sorcerer Malekith, engineered the Aether, a superweapon forged from the substance permeating and surrounding the universe before it came into being. The Asgardians, led by their then-king Bor, fought a fierce war with the Dark Elves, eventually driving them back to Svartalfheim as Malekith attempted to use the Aether. In that final battle, with the Convergence approaching, the Dark Elves fought with all of their might, utilizing their advanced technology as well as their elite troops, the Kursed, to attempt to halt the Asgardian advance.

The Asgardians were able to triumph, however, launching an attack on Malekith and his bodyguards. During the struggle the Aether was lost to Malekith, taken by the Asgardians via the Bifrost. His plans ruined, Malekith launched a final, suicidal attack on the Asgardians, dropping the Dark Elf ships out of the sky in an effort to crush all beneath them. Malekith himself escaped the battle, along with dozens of his kin and his lieutenant, Algrim, who would later become one of the Kursed himself. The battle caused the utter destruction of the rest of the Dark Elves, leaving those that escaped aboard Malekith's ship as the only survivors.

Five thousand years later, as the Convergence neared again, Malekith attempted to use the Aether again. By this point, however, it had planted itself within the body of the human woman Jane Foster. Malekith led his kin in an attack on Asgard, where Thor had taken Jane. Using cloaking devices, Malekith's ship, along with a number of smaller ships, were able to launch a surprise attack on Asgard, using their nimbleness and durability to smash through the Asgardian defences, though two of the ships were destroyed by the Asgardians in the process. The final ship, with assistance from Algrim, now the last of the Kursed, managed to break through the Asgardian defenses and disgorge its complement of Dark Elf soldiers, along with Malekith himself. The Dark Elves engaged the Asgardian soldiers, both sides suffering heavy casualties as Malekith made for the chambers of Frigga. The Dark Elves were eventually driven away, bereft of their prize, losing three ships and dozens of soldiers in the process.

When Thor, Jane, and Loki came to Svartalfheim in order to trick Malekith into removing the Aether from Jane where it would be destroyed, a number of Dark Elves accompanied Malekith and Algrim out onto the field. In the ensuing fight, Loki and Thor killed all of the present Dark Elves, including Algrim, though seemingly at the cost of Loki's life. The rest went to Earth, where they could disperse the Aether to all nine realms and destroy the universe. The rest of the Dark Elves were killed in the ensuing battle, along with Malekith.

At least one of the Dark Elves didn't die in the presumed extinction of his species, a specimen held in Taneleer Tivan's museum before its explosion.

Technology
Dark Elf technology was very advanced, either matching or slightly surpassing the Asgardians. They possessed massive, black, T-shaped spaceships with red lights that could travel between the Nine Realms. Each ship could carry several smaller, nimbler "Harrow" craft that could function as troop transports or fighters, using their blade-shaped hulls and superior durability to ram enemy ships and fortifications. Their cloaking devices could render them invisible to any means of locating them, and could even conceal them from the all-seeing eyes of Asgard's guardian, Heimdall. They were also extremely durable, able to withstand projectiles from Asgardian weaponry to a point, and also able to smash through objects without any noticeable signs of damage. The Dark Elf Harrow craft's engines each contain a small black hole used as a propulsion source; the red glowing aperture at the ship's front allows it to "fall" along the direction of travel at very high speeds.

The Dark Elves also possessed energy weapons in a similar vein to the Chitauri, along with swords, shields, and grenades that generate miniature black holes that would absorb and crush anything caught in the blast radius before disappearing a few seconds later.

The Kursed
"You'll be the last of the Kursed." "Let my life be sacrificed. The same as our people." "You will become darkness, doomed to this existence until it consumes you. Until then, no power our enemies possess can stop you."

- Malekith and Algrim

The Dark Elves also possessed their own form of enhanced "super soldiers" known as the Kursed. These, tall, extremely muscular soldiers gained their abilities through the breaking of Kursed Stones, gaining immense strength and durability at the cost of being eventually consumed by darkness as the "curse" killed them. All of the previous Kursed soldiers died during the Dark Elves' final battle with the Asgardians five thousand years ago, until Algrim became the last Kursed soldier in order to forward Malekith's plans to gain the Aether.

Characteristic Traits
Like many other races in the Nine Realms, the Dark Elves are humanoid with a more advanced body structure than that of humans. Like the Asgardians, the Dark Elves possess natural forms of superhuman strength, durability, speed, reflexes, and coordination. It is presumable that they have prolonged lifespans of countless eons, far surpassing the other races in the Nine Realms, as Malekith alludes to barely remembering a time "before the light (universe)", which would have been more than 13.82 billion years ago.

The Dark Elves also seem to be immune to certain physical laws, as Svartalfheim is very different from that of the other Nine Realms, located in a star system that is almost completely corroded with dark matter, and following slightly different physical laws, with a slightly different table of elements; their presence is concealed from even the all-seeing Heimdall, and, once "Kursed", the Dark Elves are some of the most formidable beings in existence. The Kursed themselves proved nigh-indestructible when battling the Asgardians, and proved so strong as to punch right through force fields, destroy Asgard's shield mechanisms, and knock Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, right out of the air in mid-flight into a rock face, a feat no other being in the universe could have accomplished.

Shiväisith


Shiväisith was the Dark Elves' native language. Although the Dark Elves were fluent in other languages, their native tongue was a preferable choice when speaking among each other.

Notable Dark Elves

 * Malekith
 * Algrim

Trivia

 * In the non-canon comic Captain America & Thor: Avengers!, Alflyse is the Queen of the Dark Elves. However, she is not mentioned in Thor: The Dark World.