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<blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 8084702" data-attributes="member: 6803643"><p>One way to do this would be to allow Dark Elves and other classically dark-skinned demi-humans to be a full-range of skin tones as well.</p><p></p><p><em>Record of Lodoss War </em>OVA has pale-skinned, silver-haired Dark Elves (such as the one that gets his behind handed to him by Ashram at the Marmo camp) and brown-skinned, blond-haired Dark Elves (such as the most iconic Lodoss dark elf, Pirotess).</p><p></p><p>In that sense, Dark Elf doesn't literally mean darker-of-skinned (and might even mean pale-skinned, like the moon or like an underground creature with no need for melanin, a la Gollum or many cave-adapted animals!). Instead, it means Elf of Darkness - an Elf of the Underdark, or of the dark closed-canopy jungles of Xen'drik, or perhaps nocturnal Night Elves like in Warcraft. Even an elf borne in the Shadowfell like the Shadar-kai might be considered Dark Elves, as would elves of the Gloaming Court in the Feywild.</p><p></p><p>So Wildemount's Pallid Elves might be considered Dark Elves in that case, just as much as the Drow might be. Talking visuals, but doing this would require throwing out some of the elf ancestry statistics and reconciling them around this unified concept.</p><p></p><p>I could imagine that Sun elves (elves of light, high elves, etc) might be darker-skined than Moon elves (night elves, dark elves) due to their need for more melanin. Or they might both run the gamut depending on circumstances.</p><p></p><p>The important thing is pulling apart the threads of obvious-bad-guy-person from skin tone.</p><p></p><p>Ancestry features (genotypic inheritence) shouldn't necessarily correspond with phenotype, and these fantastical demi-humans should be divided in their ancestral inheritances on grounds other than what their skin looks like, imho.</p><p></p><p>Even <em>The Elder Scrolls </em>series has been moving in this direction: while in Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind they really stuck with gold-skinned High Elves, white-skinned Wood Elves, brown>teal-skinned Dark Elves, plus pale Nords, Bretons, Imperials and darkskinned Redguards, this just isn't the case since <em>Skyrim</em>, and even as far back as <em>Oblivion </em>allowed playing with the skin-tone shaders through a whole host of options for both human and elf groups. In <em>Skyrim</em>, there's actually not that much difference between the peoples of an individual grouping - you can have very darkskinned Bretons or High Elves, or light skinned Dark Elves or Redguards. Your High Elves can be gold skinned or they could be pale skinned like a wood elf. Your Wood elves could be brown skinned like bark or paler too. Redguard and Dark Elf do cover darker tones than the other human and elf peoples, and Orcs cover the whole gamut from Warcraft green to D&D grey & pink, but the idea is that skin tone and shading doesn't reflect your origin, and most Humans are mixed ancestry, just as many Elves are, too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marandahir, post: 8084702, member: 6803643"] One way to do this would be to allow Dark Elves and other classically dark-skinned demi-humans to be a full-range of skin tones as well. [I]Record of Lodoss War [/I]OVA has pale-skinned, silver-haired Dark Elves (such as the one that gets his behind handed to him by Ashram at the Marmo camp) and brown-skinned, blond-haired Dark Elves (such as the most iconic Lodoss dark elf, Pirotess). In that sense, Dark Elf doesn't literally mean darker-of-skinned (and might even mean pale-skinned, like the moon or like an underground creature with no need for melanin, a la Gollum or many cave-adapted animals!). Instead, it means Elf of Darkness - an Elf of the Underdark, or of the dark closed-canopy jungles of Xen'drik, or perhaps nocturnal Night Elves like in Warcraft. Even an elf borne in the Shadowfell like the Shadar-kai might be considered Dark Elves, as would elves of the Gloaming Court in the Feywild. So Wildemount's Pallid Elves might be considered Dark Elves in that case, just as much as the Drow might be. Talking visuals, but doing this would require throwing out some of the elf ancestry statistics and reconciling them around this unified concept. I could imagine that Sun elves (elves of light, high elves, etc) might be darker-skined than Moon elves (night elves, dark elves) due to their need for more melanin. Or they might both run the gamut depending on circumstances. The important thing is pulling apart the threads of obvious-bad-guy-person from skin tone. Ancestry features (genotypic inheritence) shouldn't necessarily correspond with phenotype, and these fantastical demi-humans should be divided in their ancestral inheritances on grounds other than what their skin looks like, imho. Even [I]The Elder Scrolls [/I]series has been moving in this direction: while in Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind they really stuck with gold-skinned High Elves, white-skinned Wood Elves, brown>teal-skinned Dark Elves, plus pale Nords, Bretons, Imperials and darkskinned Redguards, this just isn't the case since [I]Skyrim[/I], and even as far back as [I]Oblivion [/I]allowed playing with the skin-tone shaders through a whole host of options for both human and elf groups. In [I]Skyrim[/I], there's actually not that much difference between the peoples of an individual grouping - you can have very darkskinned Bretons or High Elves, or light skinned Dark Elves or Redguards. Your High Elves can be gold skinned or they could be pale skinned like a wood elf. Your Wood elves could be brown skinned like bark or paler too. Redguard and Dark Elf do cover darker tones than the other human and elf peoples, and Orcs cover the whole gamut from Warcraft green to D&D grey & pink, but the idea is that skin tone and shading doesn't reflect your origin, and most Humans are mixed ancestry, just as many Elves are, too. [/QUOTE]
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