Eladrin

[IanArgent]

I have no dog in this fight, but I have to ask: spellcasting priests? That's always struck me as a D&Dism that's managed to leak into all sorts of later fantasy. Is there another solid origin for it?

Does there have to be one at this point? I mean, while Blue Rose would probably be better suited for it, I can see people wanting to run a campaign set in Valdemar/Velgarth with D&D, and there's a setting with "spellcasting priests". As is the Riftwar setting, etc. Even if it was created whole-cloth for D&D, we're 30 years on and it's been absorbed into the tropes of high-fantasy settings.

It's about 20 years too late for that question.

 

[Keldryn]

Does anybody know whether the word 'Eladrin' had any pre-D&D origins?

It seems awfully similar to "Eldarin" to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Eldarin

 

[Roman]

Hmm, so the origin of the word could be taken from Tolkien or could be a random word made up artificially for a D&D creature without any pre-D&D etymology. Hmm...

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Does anybody know whether the word 'Eladrin' had any pre-D&D origins?

Yes, they first appeared in the collectible card game Blood Wars which was based off of Planescape, in there along with the Guardinals and Rilmani.

They're first D&D appearance was in Planescape Monstrous Compendium 2.

 

[Exen Trik]

From the Wikipedia entry on Eladrins there's a list of subraces of the Eladrin, some are fey like or have a strong elemental aspect. I expect these subraces will still exist as outsiders of similar power as before, so its not as if they're going away or anything. Although it makes me wonder if the Eladrin race in the phb may sport some of these subraces influences...

 

[glass]

Elves? Like Tolkien's, NOT like D&D's.
Halfling? Like Tolkien's, NOTHING from D&D.
Dwarves? Like Tolkien's NO D&D influence measurable.

I pretty much agree with the stuff I've smipped, but this bit?

WFRP's elves are very much like D&D's elves, and almost nothing like Tolkien's elves. Dwarves and halflings are pretty tolkienesque, but they were in (pre-3e) D&D too. But look at the bigger picture:

Why did WFRP have Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings as playable races? Because that was what fantasy RPGs did.

Why is that what fantasy RPGs did? Because D&D did it that way.


IOW, IMO D&D had a serious influence on WFRP; not because the designers deliberately emulated D&D, but because of the tacit assumptions which went unquestioned at the time.


glass.

 

[Dinkeldog]

The second makes me wonder "What was wrong with the 'Aasimar' word"?

I never thought that grandma would approve of how we pronounced it.

 

[Roman]

Yes, they first appeared in the collectible card game Blood Wars which was based off of Planescape, in there along with the Guardinals and Rilmani.

They're first D&D appearance was in Planescape Monstrous Compendium 2.

Ok, so technically speaking they did appear elsewhere before appearing in D&D. I am not sure that kind of appearance counts, though, as it was based on D&D anyway. The word apparently does not have a presence in fantasy or mythology or general language prior to the existence of D&D.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Ok, so technically speaking they did appear elsewhere before appearing in D&D. I am not sure that kind of appearance counts, though, as it was based on D&D anyway. The word apparently does not have a presence in fantasy or mythology or general language prior to the existence of D&D.

But it is an obscure fact to keep in mind...

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Why did WFRP have Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings as playable races? Because that was what fantasy RPGs did.

Why is that what fantasy RPGs did? Because D&D did it that way.

IOW, IMO D&D had a serious influence on WFRP; not because the designers deliberately emulated D&D, but because of the tacit assumptions which went unquestioned at the time.

Also, come on, consider the chronology of things.

Games Workshop imported Dungeons & Dragon to the United Kingdom. Games Workshop and TSR had a good working relationship for a while; articles from White Dwarf became fodder for TSR's Fiend Folio, which was originally supposed to be published by Games Workshop. It was, frankly, in Games Workshop's interest to capture the D&D fanbase to their fantasy games, starting of course with the wargame only a few years after their relationship with TSR collapsed.

I think it would be shortsighted indeed to claim that Games Workshop's D&D-like fantasy world owes nothing to D&D - and it is very D&D-like when you compare it to the broader fantasy genre. The differences which loomed so large back in the 1970s and 1980s are a lot less meaningful nowadays - hell, I remember when Dragonlance was considered something very different from the normal Tolkienesque fantasy settings of D&D, but today I think most people would consider them all very similar.