D&D 5E Elves As the Ancient Evil?

[Zardnaar]

Back in the 90's I ran my elves more like Melinboneans crossed with the East India Company.

Atm I'm brainstorming a new campaign for 2022. Ancient Egypt based with an ancient race of Dragonlords known as the Asu.

Anyway I'm thinking of making them high elves. They're not around anymore except for undead ones and maybe some in stasis or imprisoned.

Drow might exist but instead of being evil they're the good ones who fled underground to avoid their more voracious cousins.

So the Asu are the predynastic slave lord's who looked into the void and lost it. The void is from Midgard/Tome of Beasts.

Scattered through the land are remnants of their power.

The spotlighted races are Humans/Dwarves and anthromorphic ones. Dragonborn count as anthromorphic.

I don't want half elves and the various other may as well be humans (aasimar, Tieflings etc). Yuan Ti might sneak in though being snake people/desert.

Thoughts? Basic idea is the elves eliminated themselves and the PCs have to rediscover the Drow assuming I use them.

Inspiration Melinboneans/Valheru/Isu.

 

[Unwise]

...they're the good ones who fked underground to avoid their more voracious cousins.

Guessing that is a typo, but it fits with my suggestion anyway

I would consider borrowing from Warhammer lore and have the High Elven empire become so successful and rich that they did nothing but leisure. Possibly while the lesser races slave away for them.

They found themselves wanting more and more pleasure. Eventually attracting the eye of an ancient evil. A Slaanesh equivalent god hypes them up into ever greater acts of hedonism that cross into true evil. Such evil hedonism leads to the fall of the empire and the damnation of the elves. Upon dying, many of them became devils, or undead ever-craving the sensations of life, but unable to attain them.

For some inspiration, ignoring the Nurgle/Plague stuff:
A glimpse at what the devils look like, they are pretty elven:

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

My random takes on elves in my Winter Eternal world were basically down to two types:

• The eladrin, knowing the calamity was coming (IE Ymir's corpse came crashing to the planet, causing an impact winter, when he died in Ragnarok elsewhere) gathered as many races and people as they could into their warded cities.
• the wood elves turned to dark magic and the worship of Yeegnoghu to fight back against the post-apocalyptic orc hordes. Their leader is the Lady in White, who's blessing lets them ignore snow for movement purposes... and they are insanely fast humanoid-eating creatures.

Another elf take I enjoy is John Wick's elves in Orkworld. He took the stereotype of elves being 'perfect' and ran with it. Elves are magical spirits that possess a form and mutate it to how they want to appear. The only thing that can kill them is pretty much another elf. Their entire society is based on culture... and backstabbing. In fact, here's the Terry Pratchett quote that starts the elf chapter:

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”​

 

[Zardnaar]

Guessing that is a typo, but it fits with my suggestion anyway

I would consider borrowing from Warhammer lore and have the High Elven empire become so successful and rich that they did nothing but leisure. Possibly while the lesser races slave away for them.

They found themselves wanting more and more pleasure. Eventually attracting the eye of an ancient evil. A Slaanesh equivalent god hypes them up into ever greater acts of hedonism that cross into true evil. Such evil hedonism leads to the fall of the empire and the damnation of the elves. Upon dying, many of them became devils, or undead ever-craving the sensations of life, but unable to attain them.

For some inspiration, ignoring the Nurgle/Plague stuff:
A glimpse at what the devils look like, they are pretty elven:

I'm familiar with Slaneesh. Not a WH40K player but read the wiki

 

[Charlaquin]

As a Dragon Age fan, I heartily approve of ancient evil elves.

 

[Zardnaar]

As a Dragon Age fan, I heartily approve of ancient evil elves.

Never got into it. Wife loved it.

 

[SkidAce]

Back in the 90's I ran my elves more like Melinboneans crossed with the East India Company.

Atm I'm brainstorming a new campaign for 2022. Ancient Egypt based with an ancient race of Dragonlords known as the Asu.

Anyway I'm thinking of making them high elves. They're not around anymore except for undead ones and maybe some in stasis or imprisoned.

Drow might exist but instead of being evil they're the good ones who fled underground to avoid their more voracious cousins.

So the Asu are the predynastic slave lord's who looked into the void and lost it. The void is from Midgard/Tome of Beasts.

Scattered through the land are remnants of their power.

The spotlighted races are Humans/Dwarves and anthromorphic ones. Dragonborn count as anthromorphic.

I don't want half elves and the various other may as well be humans (aasimar, Tieflings etc). Yuan Ti might sneak in though being snake people/desert.

Thoughts? Basic idea is the elves eliminated themselves and the PCs have to rediscover the Drow assuming I use them.

Inspiration Melinboneans/Valheru/Isu.

Love it. Anyone using concepts Valheru is already winning in my book. Melniboneans are icing on the cake.

 

[Blackrat]

Hah! I have similar consept with the Gnomes. They used to be the magical overlords who had enslaved all the other races. Then their hubris led to a magical apocalypse and the downfall of their species.

 

[Ancalagon]

In my pseudo-earth game, elves were evil in 3 ways

1: they were very racist - your position in society was determined in great part by how pure your elven blood is
2: They had created a great flood that destroyed their land (basically atlantis) and had released an ancient evil (Balor, the lord of Death).
(they had sought to use a great store of "Ice Magic" (Omptoze Phelac) to gain immortality. They did but this changed the climate and caused great floods. The retreating ice partially freed Balor).
3: They had imprisoned one of their own, Set, for killing their ruler, Orisis. After 2000 years (and over 600 years after Set was due to be released), the PCs made a discovery that allowed one of the followers of Set, Imotepth, to determine how to free Set. Imotep then recruited/tricked the PCs into finding the macguffins needed to free Set (and then freed Set).

This was arc 1. In Arc 2, the PCs get to fix things.

 

[John R Davis]

Just finished running a BECMI campaign called pyramid and pharaoh.
The big bads behind the scenes were elves ( Atlantians in fact)

Good luck with your ideas