Elvish Campaign

[Stormborn]

Developed a campaign where the elves were the servants of the Ice at the begining of a new Ice Age. Beautiful, yes, but deadly nihlists. Dwarves, OTOH, were friendly craftsmen trying to teach the young human race, all barbaric pseudo mongols or vikings, about civilization, but really most interested in making a buck.

Another take I have used is that while humans adapt and basically stay human, elves change with their enviorment. So that you have forest elves, high elves, water elves, snow elves, dark elves, etc. Basically each enclave is practically a race unto itself, but capable of interbreeding. Half-elves are just elves who have given up on their race and gone to live with humans.

In last campaing where I was a player my PC was a half-elf (mechanically human) whose mother was an exile from an LE race of Forest Lord Elves - elves with a green dragon heritage who practiced ancestor worship. They were all schemers and manipulators. They were beautiful, but more in the way a deadly snake is than the way a tree in full flower is.

 

[dangerous jack]

For a 4E campaign, I was considering an alliance of Eladrin, Elves, and Drow (to a lesser extent). The setup:
--
Poison mists frequently seep out of the earth and kill living things. A century ago, the Eladrin invited their elvish cousins, humans, and halflings into their tower cities to avoid the mists. Dwarves & Tieflings were not allowed in the tower cities, and Dragonborn chose to refuse the invitation and retreat to the highlands.

The Eladrin are the absolute rulers, with Elves given full access to the towers and certain positions of authority. The Eladrin value ceremony and hierarchy, and have allied with the Elves to politely and diplomatically, but firmly, deny Humans & Halflings any true power.

Many Eladrin welcome Drow into their cities as well, and consider them at the same level as Elves, but the Drow typically continue to live in the underdark, fighting with the much weakened Dwarves. Elves publicly tolerate the Drow out of gratitude for the Eladrin's generosity.
--

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I ran a campaign where a subset of elves were xenophobic Nazi elves.