D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[EzekielRaiden]

Is this only in the Silmarillion? If so, it's a great example of having lore but not really using it.

IIRC, it's referenced somewhere in the trilogy (possibly at the council in Rivendell?), but only fully explained in The Silmarillion, because the full story is too tied up in the creation of the world.

 

[Gammadoodler]

IIRC, it's referenced somewhere in the trilogy (possibly at the council in Rivendell?), but only fully explained in The Silmarillion, because the full story is too tied up in the creation of the world.

Perhaps it's time for a reread of the trilogy. It's been a while, and none of that rang any bells at all.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Perhaps it's time for a reread of the trilogy. It's been a while, and none of that rang any bells at all.

Read the Silmarillion instead.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Read the Silmarillion instead.

Is there a part that serves as an actual story? The parts I'd read before abandoning it were a cross between narrated genealogy and textbook.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Is there a part that serves as an actual story? The parts I'd read before abandoning it were a cross between narrated genealogy and textbook.

A lot of stories. They're just written more in a style of old legends than in a style of a modern novel. It's a great book.

 

[Gammadoodler]

A lot of stories. They're just written more in a style of old legends than in a style of a modern novel. It's a great book.

I'll have to give it another shot. Younger me just wasn't having it. Perhaps older me has a taste for it now.

 

[Scribe]

Consider The Belgariad or the Inheritance Cycle.

To be fair, while I dont know if this was the intent, originally, Eddings did say that he wrote the Belgariad to just show that he could, while heavily leaning on the Myth Cycle and Tropes. Its kind of the point of it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

One of my favourite "elf" cultures was the Obun from Fading Suns (okay, it's sci-fi but they are pretty much elves) and their native culture being a quite benign and chilled form of semi-anarchism. One of my favourite bits of lore concerned how they used to have a ruling caste of those who claimed descent from the gods, but over time their commands became corrupt and capricious, more concerned with their own glory than the welfare of their subjects. So the Obun collectively just stopped listening to them.

That is amazing.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Hmm. Not much else other than perhaps the dwarves murdering the elven king, wife to Melian the Maia and father of Luthien, in his own home and trying to steal a Silmaril. After Thingol hurled grave insults at the dwarves. Then the dwarves roused a great army and stole all of the elves' treasure, only to be waylaid on the way back by an elven army and killed to a dwarf. Nah. That's not important or anything.

A Silmaril?

That would make this in the Simarillion most likely? Never read it. In fact, this is literally the first time I've ever heard that story. I was going off of everything I remember hearing from the Hobbit and the LoTR trilogy, which never once mentions a battle so far back in the past.

Also, Tolkien dwarves are a very close knit people with very long memories. It doesn't matter if they were one clan. All the other clans remember and harbor the grudge. Elves on the other hand are immortal, so their memories are inherently long and also are harboring that grudge.

You missed my point.

Other than general grumbling, there was only one act that was presented in the four books I read that seemed to account for bad blood.

One clan of dwarves, betrayed by one elven king. And every dwarf that is ever a major character, comes from that betrayed clan that was set adrift by Smaug.

Your battle in the ancient past is new to me, though it does raise the question of why the dwarves would have expected aid from the elves when facing down the dragon.

 

[Chaosmancer]

To be fair, while I dont know if this was the intent, originally, Eddings did say that he wrote the Belgariad to just show that he could, while heavily leaning on the Myth Cycle and Tropes. Its kind of the point of it.

I did not know that.... explains quite a bit actually.