Flavors of Elf

[Glade Riven]

Current write-up of elves and elf-related races for my current campaign setting (recently gone systemless). Depth into their cultures has more to do with individual regions of the world, and I want to leave a decent amount of fuzzyness. Plus I don't want it to read like a bad sociological paper .

Quick note: the world of Phaetos is tidally locked.

The Mortal Fey


Elves are creatures of two worlds – both mortal and immortal. Both and neither animal or plant, they see themselves as seeds of the World Tree to be planted when they die their natural deaths. An untimely end prevents the sprouting, with their souls judged as any other mortal by he who is known as the Arbiter. With a lifespan tenfold longer than a human, only an elf can truly learn the intricacies of the meaning of “elf.” The dragons find this arrogance rather amusing, and describe the flavor of elf as somewhere between parsley and celery. The best way to prepare the species for supper by slow roasting over apple wood with lots of butter. Culinary preferences of flying toothy mammal-like reptiles aside, elves vary dramatically based upon region and whatever breeding or magical nonsense their ancestors were up to.

Introduction to elves. More on the Arbiter and Dragons in later chapters; essentually, the Arbiter is not so much a god as a book keeper of souls. Gods have to put a claim to the Arbiter to recieve a soul they have a claim on, and a deal must be struck with the Arbiter in order to raise a person from the dead. Dragons are historians and observers from time before time, and possibly reincarnate after being killed (their race predates the Arbiter and other entities that enforce rules and restrictions on the gods).

The Alfari
One of three cultures of true elf on the continent of Zantier, the alfari are quite possibly the most arrogant. Their whole society and way of thinking is built around the longer time span of an elf's life, leading to unnecessary complexity in the pursuit of perfection. While most elves strive to achieve perfection in what they are doing, the alfari have a tendency to seek perfection in convolution. This has a tendency to backfire when dealing with other ethnicities of elf or other races entirely, who would solve the issue by proverbially (and occasionally literally) punching it in the face. Away from their self-named Alfari Imperium in the far west of Zantier, this ethnicity of elf has a tendency to cluster in urban centers. Their habit of taking over entire neighborhoods while creating their own little governments annoys the local authorities, but it is rarely anything that can't be smoothed over with a sufficient bribe.

The alfari differ physically from their telfari counterparts in only one major way – the alfari have hair of a warm color pallet, such as reds, yellows, browns, and golds. Culturally, the alfari are far more orderly (although they have a tendency to prefer their laws over other people's) than their cousins.

Lawful jerk elves.

The Telfari
If ever there was a polar opposite to the alfari, it is the telfari. Telfari have hair of blue, green, black, and even violet, aging into a paler version as centuries wear on. They are seen by other races as a bit more practical (and certainly more adaptable) than their cousins, but the telfari have a tendency to rely on instinct over planning. The results are rather mixed. The telfari have no empire of their own, yet they do have more than a few small, scattered kingdoms. Despite the massive differences in culture and hair color, most folk of other races can't tell the difference between the two. Such leads to rather awkward situations. Since the alfari have a tendency to congregate in urban enviroments, telfari elves stick to the countryside or wilderness.

Wild elves, wood elves, whatever.

Shaifari
The third major ethnicity of true elf, the shaifari (or drow) had lived for centuries beyond the edge of twilight on the dark side of Phaetos. They are survivors of a long dead empire, living a nomadic lifestyle in the cold and dark. Since the Irkuskan Empire fell apart and then had a little civil war with what was left, more and more shaifari have been coming south into the Dusklands and Sunlit Lands of Eastern Zantier. Shaifari are treated much like any other race by both Alfari and Telfari, who consider their dark-skinned cousins not to be a proper sort of elf.

Shaifari often seek out the simplest and most practical solution, making them terrible at politics. This is intentional, as the oral history of the shaifari paint a negative picture of such things. So far, their recent exposure to more civilized areas only confirms their beliefs. Due to their pragmatism born from the need to survive in harsh, dark, wintery environments, most shaifari lack many of the social normals of civilized society. A shaifari does not wear clothes out of modesty, but because the elements are brutal and they live where it is usually really, really cold.

Inuit/mongolian/barbarian/ninjas

Dunfari
Long ago, the dunfari were a third race of elf that once was prominent across south eastern Zantier. The dunfari made a bit of a mistake and largely bred themselves out of existence by having a bit too much fun with their human neighbors. Those that are still around now breed true as a type of half elf, with about half the lifespan as their kin.
What really makes dunfari special is that some have an ability that allows them to supernaturally burrow through the ground for limited distances. This ability is why the dunfari are commonly known as “groundlings,” even though not every dunfari has this capacity.

Burrowing half elves

Kinfari
Half elves of any sort are called kinfari, even dunfari. Most kinfari are born from a telfari and human pairing or even a shaifari and human pairing, since rarely do the alfari mate with anything other than another alfari – let alone another species entirely. The alfari's stigma against mating outside their species comes from the reduction of the Dunfari to being mere half elves instead of a true elf races. To the alfari, it would result in the loss of racial identity.
It also doesn't help that most Kinfari are considered at best to be meddlers, and at worst to be outright insane. Misguided-yet-well-intended phylanthropy is common, and many half elves delve into creating magical constructs to create solutions to problems nobody asked them to solve. A common saying across eastern Zantier is “it would have turned out just fine if it wasn't for those meddling half elves.” With their reputation preceding them, often times the mere presence of a half elf will lead to that individual being blamed for anything and everything that has gone wrong.

Normal half elves

Vanifari
Folk of Zantier mistakenly call the Vanifari “halflings.” This proud and noble race were once elves, halfed in stature and lifespan several milenia ago when storms of wild magic sundered the southern continent of Ghanthis. A proud and stoic people of the desert, they have tamed a harsh land through intelligence, luck, and magic. Enslavers of lizardfolk and other, larger scaled creatures, the Vanifari have their own mark of brutality.

Persian halflings, and the elf connection could be ignored if desired.

Kelfari
These elves were altered in ways different than the Vanifari when the wild magic passed by. Fairy cats they are sometimes called, as the deer-like eyes and ears of their northern kin have been replaced with more feline features. While most are not warriors, they are considered part of a warrior caste that serves the Vanifari as foot soldiers. Discontent has been growing amongst their kind towards their Vanifari masters, questioning what the Vanifari claim is a divine right to rule over the “lesser” races.

Some kelfari have the ability to tap into a primal, inborn power. The lycanthropic rage these individuals experience changes them into a more bestial form, boosting strength at the brief expense of intelligence. In the thick of armed combat, that little bit of extra brawn has turned the tide of battles.

Thundercats/Shifters. Oh, yeah - forgot the base physical description of elves. I'll have to slide that in. I have art! Body types (NSFW, Deviant Mature Filter ON) and a Drow (she's clothed). Basically gave them deer ears, skin takes on a texture of gnarled wood as they age (and turns brown unless they are already brown), and instead of tanning brown, they tan green.

So, two ethnicities of true elf, drow, and several elf-related (if distantly at times) races.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Dark elves have a rich earthy flavor that pairs nicely with a glass of Celene Ruby.

Wood elves can be a bit gamey unless properly marinated. Good wood elf kabobs go down smoothly with a Furyondian spiced ale.

Wild elf is a rare delicacy to be savored rather than devoured. Pan fried to a crisp golden brown and served with a glass of Sunndish Lilac the taste can't be beat!

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, snap...I though these descriptions would spawn more replies of interest or people wanting to read more.

Hrm. Methinks I need to try and find a better venue for constructive critisism.

 

[Gold Roger]

Well, snap...I though these descriptions would spawn more replies of interest or people wanting to read more.

Hrm. Methinks I need to try and find a better venue for constructive critisism.

It's a hard thing to do, writing a setting article that entices others to participate and produces a respond.

Even more so now, with most of the D&D communities attention focused on the upcoming edition (that we know really very little about).

It's a pitty really, reading what others create and how they aproach worldbuilding is my favorite part of RPG-forums, but often there's little to be said except "hmm, that's neat"

I feel your pain, try being tenacious. When people see there's a creative threat that keeps cropping up, they're more likely to invest. Or at least that's how the theory goes.

 

[Vincent Blackwater]

When you say your game is systemless how is it run?

I like your various descriptions of elves, the first three especially. Telfari and Alfari have different skin color as well?

 

[mkill]

Well, snap...I though these descriptions would spawn more replies of interest or people wanting to read more.

Hrm. Methinks I need to try and find a better venue for constructive critisism.

That's the cruel Internet for you... I tried to think of something constructive, or at least thought-provoking to say, but couldn't think of anything.

I think your writeup would be more interesting if you could come up with some reason how the different elves came to be as they currently are. Culture? History? Climate? Great wars?

Maybe you just have to make the writeups more evocative. I'm hesitant to criticize people's writing online, though, because most likely the person isn't an English native speaker.

 

[MGibster]

Well, snap...I though these descriptions would spawn more replies of interest or people wanting to read more.

Hrm. Methinks I need to try and find a better venue for constructive critisism.

Ask yourself this: Is it really necessary to have seven different flavors of elves? As a player, I don't want to have to deal with a whole lot of new fancy names for elf. I'm still bitter that D&D 4E has that stupid Eladrin race. Of course I always found it kind of silly that D&D had so many elf races to begin with but maybe that's just a personal peeve of mine. Unless your players are as steeped in the background of your campaign world I don't think the plethora of elves is going to make it easy for them to become invested in the setting.

 

[Glade Riven]

W00t! Responses..

1. By "Systemless" I mean it was tied to Pathfinder, but I'm freeing it up so that it could easily be adapted to other systems - like 4e or upcoming 5e. Since I've made that decision, it's been rather liberating. Before, I felt like I had to try and shoehorn everything Pathfinder (or at least account for everything that's "core," whether it was in or out). Now things are adapted on a case-by-case basis if it crops up. This will be web-published with suggestions on how certain systems can be used with this setting (I'm going to have to be really careful with anything not OGL, though).

2. Alfari and Telfari hate each other due to a cultural rift (aka they're racist jerks, but towards each other - different flavors of elf or even other races they are much more tolerant of). Skin color is the same, although telfari are more likely to be outside and therefore tan a little green. Culture and Geography do play a huge role in the variances: Drow are from the Dark Side of the planet (tidally locked!), Alfari and Telfari are originally from a region of the world called the Feylands on Western Zantier (the continant that spans the light/dark) in kind of a china/celtic blend. Eventually the Feylands will have their own volume of detail. Kelfari and Vanifari (shifters & halflings) are from another continent altogether to the south (Solar South, Lunar North) called Ghanthis. Wild magic had changed them into their current form thousands of years ago. Everybody else is more or less from Eastern Zantier (the focus of my first installment), which is just starting to enter into a Dark Age after the collapse of a dwarf empire that spanned half the continent.

3. This block of text is designed to serve as a brief introduction to each race of elf, near elf, or elf-kin. Initially, I am planning on having this web published (and, if it becomes popular, book published), with links towards more detail. Since on Phaetos culture is more defined by region than by species, I would rather put the information into the individual regions than all in one block. This is the third or fourth writing I've made of the elves, so it's been edited down quite a bit.

4. Religion will cover some hefty aspects in it's own chapter. First, there are the Draconic histories which cover previous eras/world cycles, which covers the creation of the world, that which would become the first gods, the induction of those who now regulate the gods, the unknown fourth era (dragons refuse to speak of it), and the current era is the fifth. Then there's the Elfin Monomyth, which is important as it's the oldest after dragons (and more or less consistant). The dragon thing early on points to the importance of dragons to scholarship/religion.

5. High Elfin is the language of Magic & Science (really the same thing in a fantasy world) worldwide. Comparable to how Latin used to be the primary language of science and learning in Europe. This is another reason why the Elfin Monomyth is important (but covered later).

6. I speak Bad English and Martian...although I've written enough collegiate level papers that when I sit down to write something serious in a word processer, I can usually pull off something halfway decent. I'm aiming for copywriting (as in, writing copy) with this segment, which I know I need more practice on. Collegiate writing got me in the habit of writing egregiously verbous paragraphs with copious amounts of fluff and Big Words (still can't spell worth a crap outside of a spellcheck, though ).

7. The albino empathic Xhofari (Ghost Elves) have been cut for right now. Creepy buggers, but they need some more work and could easily contribute towards elf-bloat.

8. Gnomes are distantly related, being half-halfling and half-goblin. Still a work-in-progress, but they do exist because quite literally a wizard did do it (bred by wizards to be wizard's assistants). Probably will be separate as there is very, very little of elf left by that point.

9. Orcs are not related, although they were created by (and subsiquintly collapsed) an ancient evil drow empire that has been gone so long nobody remembers when exactly it existed. Also, don't call them orcs. That's racist and will get you punched. Call them Jotun .

10. More or less, I'm trying to keep elf-bloat in line by tying elves to what became other non-human but humanoid races. Also trying to deal with the elephant in the room known as Tolkien while keeping elves feeling elfy.

 

[Glade Riven]

Ask yourself this: Is it really necessary to have seven different flavors of elves? As a player, I don't want to have to deal with a whole lot of new fancy names for elf. I'm still bitter that D&D 4E has that stupid Eladrin race. Of course I always found it kind of silly that D&D had so many elf races to begin with but maybe that's just a personal peeve of mine. Unless your players are as steeped in the background of your campaign world I don't think the plethora of elves is going to make it easy for them to become invested in the setting.

I know what you mean - mechanically, Alfari and Telfari aren't any different unless someone needs one to be Eladrin. Drow are drow, but I'd even make them mechanically a lot similar to Alfari/Telfari than they usually are. Dunfari and Kinfari don't need a mechanical difference unless one wants "burrow." The final two were once elves but no longer are (the connection is culturally relevant, but not mechanically relevent). Of course, being non-system specific, mechanics are not really a thing at this point of the writing.

3e's Forgotten Realm's twenty flavors of elf was something that bugged me. It's a tightrope, as there are people who like having varieties of elf - which is why for several races above they are technically former elves.