D&D General what are the setting functions of elves?

[GMforPowergamers]

anyone got ideas as I am lost?

my current game world is weird (well weirder then normal) and even though there are 5 kingdoms only 3 of them have rulers... at least since the war. BUT all 5 are tightly allied and allow free trade travel and mutual defense (many in world see this as being 1 kingdom at this point)... the 2 that don't have rulers was the elves and the halflings... so the elves in my world fall into rebels and evil soldiers.

 

[Yaarel]

what traits of elf are the role and what is only the traits of the elf?

The reallife archetype of an elf (alfar, faerie, etc) is:

Fate, magic, beauty, and mythical human.

Their role in a D&D setting can vary.

Because the elf is immortal, and can be world alteringly powerful, I tend to remove the epic level ones away from the daily life of a setting, farther away in the sky, deeper in the feywild, wherever. Indeed, the D&D age of 100 for adulthood is when elf culture expects an elf to relocate to alfheimr, or wherever. They still care about and interfere with the fates of humans, but do so from a more big-picture perspective.

The elven communities that humans are more likely to encounter, are opportunities to explore what magical utopias, even magi-tech, might look like. TV shows like Start Trek, Orville, Moonhaven, and so on can inspire ideas.

Elves are generally Good, but because of prescience can do horrible things for reasons that others are unaware of. So they can feel Neutral, Unaligned, or inscrutable.

Notably, while they can meddle in the fates of human individuals (rarely groups), the elves also meddle in each others fates. Be sensitive in roleplay, but a trope is, one elf causes an other elf to fall in love or suddenly become wizened with age, or some other fate, in a way that will significantly impact the future of many people, including human individuals.

As fates, humans often seek prescient advice and aid from elves. The assistance usually leads to life altering events, perhaps especially when the assistance initially appeared trivial or unrelated.

The British faeries personify fertile soil whence vibrant plantlife, especially forests, that are magical realms.

The Norse alfar personify sunlight, especially in the sky above the clouds, counting the skydome as their roof, and the sun as their radiance.

At the same time, they have humanlike cultures and can reside in magical buildings.

 

[Scribe]

like the endless big tough strong peoples what is that role?
what traits of elf are the role and what is only the traits of the elf?

To be long lived, and better than everyone else, or believe themselves to be.

 

[niklinna]

I'm just in it for the pointy ears. But then I prefer playing half-elves, which drop most of the snooty elf baggage but retain the pointy ears.

True story: One time I was in a 4e game, and me and another guy were playing obnoxious frat-bro wood elves. Half-elves came up in conversation at some point, and I turned to my frat-bro and asked, "Hey buddy, do you know where half-elves come from?"

"Uh—"

"YOUR MOM!"

He made a feeble protest about his mom being a saint as the other folks at the table groaned in unison.

 

[Mind of tempest]

To be long lived, and better than everyone else, or believe themselves to be.

I'm just in it for the pointy ears. But then I prefer playing half-elves, which drop most of the snooty elf baggage but retain the pointy ears.

True story: One time I was in a 4e game, and me and another guy were playing obnoxious frat-bro wood elves. Half-elves came up in conversation at some point, and I turned to my frat-bro and asked, "Hey buddy, do you know where half-elves come from?"

"Uh—"

"YOUR MOM!"

He made a feeble protest about his mom being a saint as the other folks at the table groaned in unison.

that is the traits of an elf, not the role occupied in a balanced setting I want the role, not the thing occupying it.
am I just failing to explain what I want?

 

[Jer]

Depends on the setting, but in general in my settings:

• Elves make great villains. They're like vampires - if some non-elf is in their way that they can't beat they can usually wait them out. They can also have dozens or even hundreds of plots in the fire at the same time - some that potentially won't come to fruition for a century or more. They make great mastermind villains in that respect.
• Likewise elves make great plot motivators. The elves have been around forever so they know where all of the secrets are buried. If there's an ancient creature or artifact or whatzit in the world it's very likely that the elves have at least heard of it, if not know exactly where it is and why because they're the ones that put it there in the first place.
• Elven conflicts make for great adventuring space. Since the elves are so long lived they don't fight wars the same way short lived races do. They tend to fight their wars over centuries with long periods of what look like peace to shorter lived peoples. Because you don't need to fight a war with the shorter lived races - you just hold them off while you wait for their leaders to die and manipulate things so their future leaders aren't so stupidly aggressive. Elves only fight wars against long lived foes who aren't as easy to manipulate - dragons, gods, demons, other elves. But during those decades or centuries of "peace" their leaders are always plotting and sending younger elves or easily manipulated non-elves out to accomplish missions that are actually strikes against their enemies. How is manipulating a motley group of treasure hunters into exploring and ransacking an ancient sunken temple that has been missing for a few millennia going to help them? Only the elven lords know for sure.
• I also play that we don't understand how older elves think. Or at least not the older ones. The younger ones think the most like the shorter-lived peoples and tend to associate with them. The older an elf gets, the harder it becomes to understand what they do or why they do it. The truly ancient ones can feel like agents of pure chaos to any of the shorter-lived folks who encounter them because their way of thinking just makes zero sense. And that's where archfey come from

Basically I view the elven leadership as very long-lived manipulators of others. Younger elves and shorter lived peoples alike. They'll use subtle charismatic techniques to bend short lived leaders to their will where they can, more brute force magic where that doesn't work, and engage in long term feats of social engineering to shape the peoples around them to their own ends. They especially like to shape the aesthetics of the shorter lived peoples around them to view elves as the most beautiful people around, because that generally makes it easier to influence them.

If I were to remove elves from my setting I'd replace them with a similar long-lived group. Vampires are an obvious substitute.

 

[niklinna]

that is the traits of an elf, not the role occupied in a balanced setting I want the role, not the thing occupying it.
am I just failing to explain what I want?

Part of your question was why players might play them. I play them for pointy ears.

Others have already covered pretty well the role elves play in myth, in fiction, and in game settings, and hinted at how those roles are not compatible with the roles elven PCs play, because balance, and because adventure. This problem also informs the silly joke I posted: The frat-bro elves my friend & I played were deliberately designed to push against what is typically expected of elves. We joked about family members dying "wicked awesome" deaths in battles, as if they were football games, and high-fived "Mayhem!!" whenever we rolled initiative.

In much fiction & myth, elves are about being above it all, except when absolutely necessary in order to preserve the natural order of things, which they otherwise just kick back and enjoy because they are perfect and magical, and never age and never die (unless the particular myth demands it). Elves are angels who live on earth.

Alternatively, elves are the utterly alien, with aims and desires—and powers—that humans cannot comprehend. This is the more fae/faerie type. They enchant wanderers to feast with them (or more) in their mystic halls, and return those poor souls to their worlds, if ever, with dozens or hundreds of years having gone by. But they are still beings living perfect immortal lives that mortals cannot have, cannot even withstand exposure to.

Elven PCs, they have keen senses, can resist some minor enchantments, maybe get a cantrip, and have pointy ears. Oh and folks playing them get to claim association with people who breathe magic and are beautiful and never age and everybody lives in harmony all the time (except for those pesky orcs & drow (except for those orcs & drow who aren't pesky, as is more and more the case)).

 

[Yora]

Like all humanoids in fantasy, elves are simply an aesthetic. Their role is to look and feel like elves.

 

[Yaarel]

engage in long term feats of social engineering

In brief, elves are about "social engineering". That is a good way to put it.

The elves are playing the long game. Stuff like: they make contingency plans for when they know a god is going die.

It is definitely the "adults", those one century or older, who are thinking this way.

The young elves start off like humans, vulnerable at birth and exploring life. The main difference is the elven capacity of magic and and the elven culture that encourages it. But in other ways, humans and elven youth can relate to each other.

 

[Scribe]

that is the traits of an elf, not the role occupied in a balanced setting I want the role, not the thing occupying it.
am I just failing to explain what I want?

What do you mean role?