Eladrin


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Wanderer20 said:
As a Planescape fan, I hate seeing the word "Eladrin" used for something different from a CG celestial (hell, fantasy is filled with exotic/arcane names, just find one yourself).

The Warriors of Heaven supplement did make allowances for non-CG Eladrin (of some varieties) even as far back as 2E, though.
 

Zurai said:
Eladrin remind you of elves that became literally addicted to magic, to such a point that the large majority of their remaining population wanders around in a state of perpetual intense withdrawal because their source of magic was destroyed by the most powerful being to ever set foot on the world?

Sorry, don't see it. This is just another "Waaa D&D is becoming WoW" baseless whine.


No they remind me of intensly powerful intelligent race of magic wielders that were the epitome of civilization with advanced levels of magic and art that goes back thousands of years.

The magic addiction is a recent addendum to a really old race with lots of history. But if i sat around referencing blizzard lore dating back to the original warcraft game, your eyes would glaze over, so I figured i'd mention WoW since it seems everyone on earth is familiar with that game.
 

gothmaugCC said:
No they remind me of intensly powerful intelligent race of magic wielders that were the epitome of civilization with advanced levels of magic and art that goes back thousands of years.

The magic addiction is a recent addendum to a really old race with lots of history. But if i sat around referencing blizzard lore dating back to the original warcraft game, your eyes would glaze over, so I figured i'd mention WoW since it seems everyone on earth is familiar with that game.

Actually, the Blood Elves are a recent race - when the Sunwell was destroyed, ~90% of the High Elves went apeshit and became Blood Elves. And, for the record, the High Elves have always been addicted to magic; they just had the Sunwell to draw all their magic from, so didn't go into withdrawal.

As for "intensely powerful race of magic wielders that were the epitome of civilization with advanced levels of magic and art that goes back thousands of years".... ever read the Silmarillian? You just described Tolkien's elves to a T. Which makes sense, since Metzen stole the High Elves from Tolkein. Like 90% of the rest of the Warcraft setting.
 

gothmaugCC said:
No they remind me of intensly powerful intelligent race of magic wielders that were the epitome of civilization with advanced levels of magic and art that goes back thousands of years.

You mean they remind you every High Elf-type culture ever, virtually all of which pre-date even the first Warcraft game by several years, and in some cases, such as Tolkien's, by several decades? LOOK OUT WOTC! GothmaugCC is on to your evil scheme to use mythic archetypes with a popular MMO has stolen and slightly mangled too! Yeah sure, WotC, whatever you say about "always having had High Elves", we believe you... not!

/rolleyes
 

Zurai said:
Like 90% of the rest of the Warcraft setting.

Actually around 80% of Warcraft's setting, pre-WoW, was stolen from WarHAMMER, rather predictably, as Warhammer foolishly refused to make computer adaptions of their boardgames (indeed, legend has it that Warcraft 1 was designed as a licensed adaption of Warhammer, but when they were refused, they went on anyway). The other 20% was "generic fantasy".

Now, WarHAMMER stole about 40% of their setting from Tolkien (Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits), 40% from Moorcock (Grim Renaissence Northern Europe with magic, Chaos as a warping supernatural force, Dark Elves (Melniboneans), general styling), and 20% from "various sources", so yeah, there is a lot of Tolkien in the pot, and the Elves in question were particularly Tolkien-ish.
 

I think it's a valid option to having a dozen different subraces.

Eladrin -> the original "elven race", outsiders and immortals
Elves -> descendants of the early Eladrins who came down to earth and chose a mortal life
Drow -> renegade spin-off which separated at certain point from Elves or even earlier

Wood elf, wild elf etc. become just different names for Elves, but no subraces (different tribes may have some minor differences). Gray or high elves now are alternative names for Eladrins. Water elves thankfully disappear completely.

I don't have any problems with this setup. Maybe Eladrins won't fit in the PHB, but with the new mechanics for race even a race of immortals can be playable, so I wouldn't dislike to see them in the first PHB.

Aasimar are a completely different thing IMHO. They're not a race but rather a bloodline.


edit: as far as I know about WoW, Eladrin make me think more of the Draenei, and Elves focused on nature are akin to the Night Elves, although AFAIK there is no connection between the 2 in WoW.
 

Ruin Explorer said:
Actually around 80% of Warcraft's setting, pre-WoW, was stolen from WarHAMMER, rather predictably, as Warhammer foolishly refused to make computer adaptions of their boardgames (indeed, legend has it that Warcraft 1 was designed as a licensed adaption of Warhammer, but when they were refused, they went on anyway). The other 20% was "generic fantasy".

Now, WarHAMMER stole about 40% of their setting from Tolkien (Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits), 40% from Moorcock (Grim Renaissence Northern Europe with magic, Chaos as a warping supernatural force, Dark Elves (Melniboneans), general styling), and 20% from "various sources", so yeah, there is a lot of Tolkien in the pot, and the Elves in question were particularly Tolkien-ish.
Both Warcraft and Warhammer owe their primary debt to . . . drumroll . . . Dungeons & Dragons, not so much the inspirations you name.
 

Li Shenron said:
I think it's a valid option to having a dozen different subraces.

Eladrin -> the original "elven race", outsiders and immortals
Elves -> descendants of the early Eladrins who came down to earth and chose a mortal life
Drow -> renegade spin-off which separated at certain point from Elves or even earlier

Wood elf, wild elf etc. become just different names for Elves, but no subraces (different tribes may have some minor differences). Gray or high elves now are alternative names for Eladrins. Water elves thankfully disappear completely.

I don't have any problems with this setup. Maybe Eladrins won't fit in the PHB, but with the new mechanics for race even a race of immortals can be playable, so I wouldn't dislike to see them in the first PHB.

Aasimar are a completely different thing IMHO. They're not a race but rather a bloodline.


edit: as far as I know about WoW, Eladrin make me think more of the Draenei, and Elves focused on nature are akin to the Night Elves, although AFAIK there is no connection between the 2 in WoW.

About the only aspect of having Eladrin replace high elves and grey elves that I like is the idea of an immortal race of elves....it's not a major deal, mechanics wise, but it is a cool "flavour" aspect. The Sidhelien from BR have always been one of my favourite types of elves as a result.....aside from being the originator of low-light vision, in place of infravision.

Banshee
 

All for it...and I have writtne many elven subraces for our CS.

Elves as they are in the PHB are a 'bit each way'. I like the idea of them being the woodland elves, return to the wild and the eladrin fill the arcane magic role.

I really don't see the big deal. Having eladrin as a player race does NOT mean the end of the aasimar OR the eladrin as we know them. These are distant relatives or those that have lived on the material world for long enough to be more worldly.

Aasimar are just those with some sort of outsider influence. They may not be in the PHB1, but they are not necessarily gone either.

Funny. I usually like the crunch and adapt the fluff (geez I hate those terms). So many people call for decent fluff. Wizards now write some interesting ideas and they get hammered. As has been mentioned many times. If the fluff don't suit DON'T USE IT. They cannot write fluff that will suit everyone's campaigns.

Anyway, I like this idea.
C
 
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