Elan vs. Illumians, which ones better?

[Plane Sailing]

and have this ill-defined charisma penalty.

I've always considered the Charisma penalty to reflect innate self-doubt that comes with their knowledge that they have abandoned their humanity...

 

[pawsplay]

A vote against Illumians is a vote for everything that's not an Illumian. Elans it is, for all that they're ripped off Rice-pires/wraetththtththu.

 

[Miar]

A vote against Illumians is a vote for everything that's not an Illumian. Elans it is, for all that they're ripped off Rice-pires/wraetththtththu.

Rice-pires? How did that come out of Storm Constantine. I just reread all (well almost all) the wraeththu books. When I saw Elans for the first time I thought of not as quite well done wraeththu.

edit.. http://www.amazon.com/Wraeththu-Sto...3033432?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193922720&sr=8-1

 

[pawsplay]

rice-pire = Ann Rice + vampire

 

[Psion]

A vote against Illumians is a vote for everything that's not an Illumian. Elans it is, for all that they're ripped off Rice-pires/wraetththtththu.

You can't be serious.

Somehow I doubt Cordell has ever ever heard of Wreaththu and don't remember any... um, of the offensive subtext I'm not going to talk about on ENWorld alluded to anywhere in the Elan description.

Let's just call that one parallel evolution with Cordell being the fun take and constantine being the disgusting take, mkay?

 

[pawsplay]

You can't be serious.

Somehow I doubt Cordell has ever ever heard of Wreaththu and don't remember any... um, of the offensive subtext I'm not going to talk about on ENWorld alluded to anywhere in the Elan description.

Let's just call that one parallel evolution with Cordell being the fun take and constantine being the disgusting take, mkay?

And the psion powers? And the fact that they are made from humans and only humans? And the whole red hair thing?

To me, they read like wraeththu with the whole tentacle flower CENSORED FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR SANITY thing edited for television.

 

[amethal]

To me, they read like wraeththu with the whole tentacle flower CENSORED FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR SANITY thing edited for television.

Too late.

Why did you have to remind me of that? Why ?!?

 

[Psion]

And the psion powers?

Gee, there's a stretch for content in the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

And the fact that they are made from humans and only humans? And the whole red hair thing?

Good one. You had me going there. I had no idea that red hair was a defining characteristic given my willful desire to not know anything about this disgusting little wart on the butt of fantasy literature than I already do.

But a quick check on the wiki page makes reference to a tribe with black or silver hair and no other mention. I'm going to assume that means the red hair thing isn't as significant as you make it sound.

To me, they read like wraeththu with the whole tentacle flower CENSORED FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR SANITY thing edited for television.

Oh, except for their defining characteristic. Gotcha.

 

[Quartz]

I'm not fond of either. Elans as a concept were developed in ICE's Shadow World, Thalan, IIRC, weren't they?

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Because Elan got refluffed in Eberron (Secrets of Sarlona) as being quori spirits forcefully anchored to a mortal body, as punishment for crimes against their kind.

I did not know that about SoS- that is a pretty cool addition to their origin.

Illumians are pretty dumb, to me. I really don't see the need to create an entire race just to have what are, basically, humans with runes floating around their heads. If they ever revisit the Illumian concept, they should simply create some kind of mechanic (prestige class? racial paragon?) to allow the existing race of humans to adopt it, and say they're a secret society among their kind (mankind); which is basically how they stand now, just with some arbitrary and pointless "different race" demarcation.