Best version of Eladrin?

[Imaro]

In my Broken Lands campaign world The Eladrin, Elves and Drow were originally human slaves, altered through a painful ritual using an ancient and forgotten form of magic called Flesh crafting. This ritual was performed upon them by a fey proto-race known as the Eldren who were at war with the human empire of Meni. They were created to serve the Eldren as soldiers (elves/warriors), (drow/assasins) and (eladrin/magi) in their war against the Human empire of Meni. Through the magical combination of a miniscule portion of the Eldren's fey nature with the souls of men, these three "races" were created.

After the cataclysm The Eldren homeland was engulfed in a miasma of magical energy that has thus far thwarted all attempts to cross their borders, and a true Eldren has not been seen since the days before the cataclysm. The drow,elves and eladrin believe it is a test, that if they pass will lead them to their true home, since as the centuries passed they came to actually believe they were cousins instead of servants to the Eldren as well as true creatures of the Feywild. Little do they know the Feywild will not welcome them as anything but abominations and interlopers if they ever do succeed in crossing it's borders.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The transition wasn't hard for me since the 2e and 3e versions of the eladrin already seemed pretty fey to me (plus, its kind of hard to have chaotic good exemplars without the chaotic alignment or alignment themed planes).

KM, I'm not sure what you mean by the last part of this quoted statement. Do you think that "eladrin" should have been used as a general term for fey?

For the Seelie/Midsummer Night's Dream/Court of Stars/Oberon and Titania and Puk/Inscrutable/Capricious/Renaissance-art-style Fey, yeah.

For the dryads and the nymphs and satyrs and "nature spirits" and such, not so much.

I certainly didn't expect the 'eladrin' name to be co-opted by half of elf-dom.

 

[aurance]

The 4e eladrin are essentially the same as 2e / 3e eladrin, except now the least powerful of them can be PCs.

First thing I thought when I saw eladrin way back in 2e Planescape days was that these things were just super-powered elves, doing elfy things, that were just called something else. And FWIW all the more powerful ones still exist in 4e - bralani, ghaele, firre, etc.

 

[Shroomy]

For the Seelie/Midsummer Night's Dream/Court of Stars/Oberon and Titania and Puk/Inscrutable/Capricious/Renaissance-art-style Fey, yeah.

For the dryads and the nymphs and satyrs and "nature spirits" and such, not so much.

I certainly didn't expect the 'eladrin' name to be co-opted by half of elf-dom.

I don't have a strong attachment to the eladrin name, so I didn't mind WoTC using it in a different, though related, context. I do like that the dominant race of the Feywild runs the gamut from the extremely ancient and powerful archfey of the Court of the Stars (which sounds like what you were looking for), to the classical noble castes of the ghaele, bralani, tulani, and firre, to the lesser, but no less magical, commoners that can be used as PC races.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don't have a strong attachment to the eladrin name, so I didn't mind WoTC using it in a different, though related, context. I do like that the dominant race of the Feywild runs the gamut from the extremely ancient and powerful archfey of the Court of the Stars (which sounds like what you were looking for), to the classical noble castes of the ghaele, bralani, tulani, and firre, to the lesser, but no less magical, commoners that can be used as PC races.

Well, earlier-edition eladrin also ran a pretty large gamut of power, like most "planar native" beings (like fiends or archons). Things like pixies and sprites made up the lowest echelons (and they were kind of redundant with ACTUAL pixies and sprites, so I can see why 3e dodged them).

I actually think I might prefer them to NOT be PC races. Or PC races in the same way gnomes and minotaurs are: possible, but not assumed. To varying degrees, I have the same issue with the 4e conception of tieflings, too (and a little bit with dragonborn). They're supposed to be exotic and alien and inscrutable, but because 4e assumes that they're adventurers tromping through dungeons, they become mundane and expected and accommodated. You don't share a pint of ale and your night's treasure haul with an otherworldly being of alien psychology (and especially not in a points-of-light style setting).

But the core of the naming issue for me, is that high elves or grey elves are not the same thing as eladrin. There are worse offenders, but this is certainly one of them.

 

[Nai_Calus]

They're fine as-is, though I'd prefer something a little less fey and a little more 'I am the smart magical elf, that's the woodsy warrior elf over there'.

Personally 2e/3e Eladrin make absolutely no sense whatsoever to me as exemplars of Chaotic Good. Seriously, they way they're written up makes them sound as lawful as the Archons and less good to boot. They're too bizzare rules-y court-y social structure-y fey to ever be believeable to me as CG. NG maybe, even True Neutral, but CG? Wha? Actually, someone who actually likes them and thinks they actually work as what they're supposed to be want to explain it to me? Because I personally think they're the worst of the exemplars for representing their alignment and they just don't work for me. <_>

Maybe I'm just coloured by my current character's take on Chaotic Good, which basically boils down to the Wiccan Rede, 'An it harm none, do what ye will'. Very very much personal rights and freedom and not caring what anyone thinks or tells him to do. He'd tell his own god to shove it if his god tried to tell him to do something he didn't think was the right, good thing to do. He's a benevolent anarchist. Incite rebellion where needed, break the stupid rules to prove their stupidity where needed and remain merciful and compassionate and make sure that the rulebreaking and rebellion inciting serves the purpose of good. (Of course this is also pretty much my own take on it as well, so Eladrin really clash against that for me. Yeah, mine's a more humanist 'this is what a person of this alignment might think like' take on it rather than some grand philisophical take on it, but I don't get where Eladrin would be matching some grand philisophical take on it either)

 

[Knightfall]

i like eladrin as cg, elven court inspired celestials. I like 4e's eladrin mechanically and flavorfully, but i wish they had called them something else.

qft.