Elan vs. Illumians, which ones better?

[Thurbane]

I'm going against the flow: Illumians, just because I loathe psionics.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'm thinking we'll likely see the Elan in 4e before we'll see the Illumians in 4e.

As they'll probably be in whatever book reintroduces psionics.

 

[Klaus]

I sure wish someone would run a Sarlona game for Sarlona natives set entirely in Sarlona for me.

Maybe as a play by post. On Circvs Maximvs. **ahem**

Nice try, Hobotika, but if I ever find the time to do one of those (which would be my first PbP), it'd be in the setting I'm cooking.

 

[Hairfoot]

I'm voting "not-Illumian," which leaves the Elan.

Me too. Illumians are more of a last-minute creation to fill a book and continue a revenue stream than a considered race.

 

[pawsplay]

The problem with Ilumians is that you could have replaced them with a hypothetical "Sigil Feat" chain and they would have worked basically the same.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

Illumians don't make sense.

A secretive, infomation loving, superspecialized people with glowing runes around their heads that nobody knows about? In a world with divination spells and guilds of wizards that specialize in them? In a game system with a telepath psion path? Bardic knowledge? loredelvers? crystal balls? Heck, a gm can barely keep the lich's pin number a secret from a high level party.

Also, as a gm, you can't retroactively include them in a setting with out rewriting everything. They just aren't "add on" friendly.

The elans, on the other hand, are a small group of highly selective, slowly recruiting, normal looking...people. You can add them in with only as much trouble as adding any other obscure "cult".

 

[Desdichado]

Nice try, Hobotika, but if I ever find the time to do one of those (which would be my first PbP), it'd be in the setting I'm cooking.

:w00t: I'd do that too!

 

[Garnfellow]

I know Illumians suck, but the only things I know about elans are what's in the SRD -- and it's almost completely fluffless. There's a brief mention of their past lives, but nothing else.

What WotC book would be the best fluff primer on this race? And has any industrious third party developed their own, open version of the elan backstory?

 

[Voadam]

I know Illumians suck, but the only things I know about elans are what's in the SRD -- and it's almost completely fluffless. There's a brief mention of their past lives, but nothing else.

What WotC book would be the best fluff primer on this race? And has any industrious third party developed their own, open version of the elan backstory?

Dreamscarred Press has a short pdf book called Races of the Mind: Elans. They develop the elan a little more in their other psionic books as well.

 

[Klaus]

I know Illumians suck, but the only things I know about elans are what's in the SRD -- and it's almost completely fluffless. There's a brief mention of their past lives, but nothing else.

What WotC book would be the best fluff primer on this race? And has any industrious third party developed their own, open version of the elan backstory?

Secrets of Sarlona.

Sarlona is ruled by the Inspired, specially bred humans (called Empty Vessels) who are possessed by the quori, the spirits of Dal Quor, the Plane of Dreams. When the quori takes over the vessel, it completely submerges the vessel's original personality.

But rarely, when one of the Inspired performs an act of treason against their own kind, the quori spirit is forcefully trapped inside a human body, unable to do anything but provide a portion of its own power to the body trapping it. These walking prisons are called the elans.