Female Elf PC

[SirCharles]

Hello Everyone,

One of my female gamer friends who is planning to play in my Zeitgeist game expressed interest in making a Female Elven Inquistor.

Reading over the Player's Guide and the GM's guide (while going crazy waiting for the first adventure), I'm trying to think how this might work in game.

Could she, for example, have some kind of extra protection for being part of the Royal Homeland Constabulary? Would the RHC bother with the liability of having a female elf work for them?

Another thought I had was that she could "belong" to King Aodhan. That is, due to some connection in her backstory, the King grants her the position so that she can earn money and some social standing. Given that she is under King Aodhan's, people are less likely to cause her trouble.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[benfromidaho]

I was also wondering how to address this issue, and I thought the easiest way was to at least begin the campaign with the character attempting to pass herself off as a male Elf. As she gained more power, it would be easier for her to reveal herself without threat. I do like the idea of her being under the protection of the King, however, I didn't get much of a feeling that King Aodhan would "own" a female Elf. Perhaps he's taken her in?

 

[RangerWickett]

I assume you're playing Pathfinder?

If her interest is just in being an elf, she can do that by being one of the native wood elves of Risur. Only the high elves from Elfaivar suffered the Great Malice, and so while female high elves are viewed as precious, wood elves are a dime a dozen.

And if she wants to be a high elf, it's not hard for her to pass as a wood elf. With our artists I'm asking for Elfaivarans to look sort of Indian or Persian, and Risuri elves to be more Arab. With the right clothes and hairstyle, people would assume she's a local, and not one of the exceedingly rare descendants of Elfaivar.

And while it's common in other countries to have high elf women as property, Risur's closer ties to the Dreaming and the fey means that any such women are treated more as honored guests, and occasionally encouraged to use their skills to bring prestige to the family that sponsors them.

 

[benfromidaho]

[MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION] Is this info. about Wood Elves in the Player's Guide? I seem to have missed it, as I assumed all female Elves shared the fate of the Elfavarians.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, first of all, I check this forum like 3 times a day. There's no need to use the mention tags all the time (it gets teensy annoying to get all these alerts to threads I was going to read anyway).

And this is one of those instances of the conversion going awry. In the 4e version, high elves are called 'eladrin' and wood elves are 'elves.' Apparently, in one of the critical elements of the campaign, we forgot to change eladrin to 'high elf,' and just did 'elf.'

It is wholly the intention that only the Elfaivaran-descended high elves were struck by the Great Malice.

 

[Morrus]

Well, first of all, I check this forum like 3 times a day. There's no need to use the mention tags all the time (it gets teensy annoying to get all these alerts to threads I was going to read anyway).

Sorry, Ryan. I've asked people to do that to help direct questions to the relevant staff members.

 

[Shisumo]

It's probably worth mentioning that the PF Player's Guide contains zero mentions of "wood elves." I didn't realize there was an intention to keep the Elfaivaran elves separate from Risuri elves until I saw a mention of it on the boards here. (Doing a PDF search on the word "elf" did turn up a mention of elf women being transmuted into high elf women after the Malice, which clearly implies a distinction, but I had overlooked it on my first reading.) It's definitely an unclear element in the writeup so far.

 

[benfromidaho]

Hey RangerWickett, sorry about the tagging y'all so much. I'm just so stoked about finding this campaign. I think I mentioned in a previous post somewhere that I was planning on running The Shackled City AP, and this was a breath of fresh air in terms of a break from traditional fantasy.

On this note, it seems clear it was unclear in the Player's Guide, but I'm just glad it was cleared up here. Another question, though, I've got a player wanting to run a male Elf, would it matter if he is the normal Elfavarian or should I assume he's a Wood Elf?

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, it would matter for character background and such. Most folks, if they know you're from Elfaivar, won't trust you. Now, if you're like 3rd generation, and your parents grew up in Risur, you won't have an accent and most folks won't be any the wiser. But someone who took a boat from Elfaivar and tried to get a job with the RHC would have to face a lot of distrust, even if he did pass magical tests of loyalty.