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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 2623006" data-attributes="member: 2020">The elves will tell you, if you ask them, that the word Haldendreevish refers to a legendary elven city of long ago known as Haldendreeva.  The elves will also tell you that Haldendreevish refers to the quintessential nature of what and who they are:  Haldendreevish means Everything Elvish, the Heart of Elvishness, the Soul of Elvendom, as it were.  Indeed, elves will lament that the drow are not Haldendreevish, but instead follow the Spider Queen (see my thread on the drow and their emulation of the black widow spider.)  Finally, elves will tell you that humans, dwarves, and halflings cannot be Haldendreevish.  Some half-elves can, but otherwise no non-elf can ever possess the innate Haldendreevishness that makes an elf, an elf.  This is a thing strictly elven, a part of their core history, a fundamental thing passed down through the millennia to all elves today.  Haldendreevish can be summarized as follows:  EFFECTS:  1.  It is the reason elves are light hearted people, when war should have made them into grim old men and women at a young age.  2.  It is the reason elves live in the forest without crops or any apparent food source.  3.  It is the reason elves dance, sing, and make merry, when everyone else works from dawn to dusk to simply survive to see another day.  4.  It is the reason elves are flighty and frivolous, when they live amidst an incredibly dangerous environment.  5.  It is the reason elves are so renown in combat, so deadly in battle, and so feared by their enemies (and, it is the reason elves love swordplay, so much so that they can become bladesingers where other peoples cannot.)  6.  It is the reason why elves never fight amongst themselves, and are able to live together in ways that would drive humans nutty.  7.  It is the reason elves can walk around unprotected in dangerous woodlands, and not suffer from common pests, parasites, and other annoyances.  8.  It is the reason elves love magic.  9.  It is the reason elves are innately magical.  10.  It is the reason elves stick around in the world, when Arvandor beckons them to the Afterlife, and the griefs and losses in life (especially the loss of loved ones) do not prompt them to prematurely go thence.  SYMPTOMS:  1.  Anyone Haldendreevish in nature eats leaves, bugs, and worms as her staple foods.  2.  Anyone Haldendreevish eats her opponents, preferably while they still live (most who are Haldendreevish never eat cooked meat, and none eat meat that has cooled.)  3.  Anyone Haldendreevish is utterly unable to become cannabalistic:  they simply cannot eat someone of their own race.  It is magically impossible.  And they always magically recognize those of their own race, including half breeds and anyone with even a tinge of their own racial blood.  4.  Most of those who are Haldendreevish like to chew on wood or bones (always the bones of defeated enemies) in order to clean their teeth and for magical sustenance.  5.  Anyone Haldendreevish views war as a fun activity that must be engaged in, much in the way a child views toys as a joyful must.  6.  Anyone Haldendreevish enjoys torturing, killing, burning, plundering, and otherwise destroying the enemy.  7.  Anyone Haldendreevish accepts that being tortured, starved, poisoned, and killed and resurrected is inevitable, and although they don't generally like pain, they love the general process of war, suffering, being killed, and coming back, then doing it all over again.  8.  Anyone Haldendreevish would never stay in the afterlife in Arvandor.  They would gleefully and ardently accept Resurrection, to return to the real world.  9.  Anyone Haldendreevish is a maniac about learning, exploring, testing the limits.  It is forbidden necromancy?  Great stuff!  This applies to magic, to science, to fighting, to all branches of learning.  10.  Anyone Haldendreevish is a maniac about protecting her own people (her people, are a strictly defined group.)  How she goes about this, varies from elf to elf as each takes a different road, but the goal is the same.  11.  Anyone Haldendreevish is magically incapable of killing, harming, or plotting to kill or harm one of her own people (again, her people is a strict definition.)  It is impossible to force her to do so even with a Wish spell, as a general rule, although exceptions exist.  12.  Anyone Haldendreevish is in telepathic communication with her people, and communal mental gatherings are common.  13.  Anyone Haldendreevish is a paradox in that she is fiercely independent, yet utterly devoted to the welfare of her people (as strictly defined.)  WHERE HALDENDREEVISH DID NOT OCCUR  Haldendreevish did not occur with the elves of Krynn, since they were created by Paladine.  There is no Alternate Krynn where Haldendreevish exists.  As a result of this, the elves of Krynn (that is, the Qualinesti, Silvanesti, and others) do very little laughing and singing and dancing, are most certainly not flighty or frivolous, are not friendly to strangers or even to races of good alignment, and they have had a very hard time surviving in a world under constant threat from Takhisis, Queen of Darkness.  Haldendreevish did not occur in the official Reality of Oerth.  As a result, the olvenkind of the Flanaess are limited to small kingdoms as a beaten, minority race, they eek out a frugal existence behind forest barriers, and they are generally aloft and unfriendly towards the unfriendly peoples around them.  Haldendreevish did not occur in the official Reality of Toril.  As a result, the Crown Wars destroyed elven supremacy, then all the elven nations were destroyed (in time) except Evereska, and most of the surviving elves are in seclusion on a single island known as Evermeet.  Even here, they are in decline due to treason amongst their own kind (one Kymil Nemesin.)  Evereska survives in battered shape after the assault of the phaerimm.  SPECIAL CASES  Haldendreevish does not occur among the elves of Ravenloft.  If it did, they might make merry and become happy, contented people.  The Dark Powers do not tolerate such things.  An elf afflicted with Haldendreevish will be booted out of Ravenloft as quickly as the appalled Dark Powers can will it to be (and, what's most appalling to the Dark Powers is, those who are Haldendreevish are immune to their Gifts, never make Dark Powers Checks, and cannot become Darklords.  This is unacceptable to the Dark Powers!)  Haldendreevish does not occur among the elves of Athas.  They have their own form of insanity as an adaptation to their extreme environment.  Despite the deprivations of Rajak, no alternate Athas exists where the elves adapted Haldendreevish as an answer to him.  If Haldendreevish exists on Aebrinis, Yours Truly is not aware of it.  The elves there have encountered serious adversary too recently for Haldendreevish to manifest among them.  Haldendreevish never evolved in the IR Settings.  Instead, after being extinguished by Forrester, King of the Humanoids of Realmspace, the spirits of the Elves returned to the living and became the permanent friends of the humanoids.  Eventually, elves and humanoids became welded into one group of peoples under the rule of the United Commonwealth of Realmspace.  In the 3rd IR, the elves never manifested Haldendreevish tendencies, and before they could the Demiplane of Hope emerged.  Haldendreevish does not exist among any of the Quendi (elves) in any private game involving Tolkien's Middle Earth.  It does not exist among the Vanyar, Noldor, Sindar, Avari, or any other elves, or among any half-elves.    This is for the good reason that the ghost of J.R.R Tolkien would rise up from the grave and smite any DM so disrespectful as to introduce such traits into his Quendi conception.  And his ghost would have the aid of millions of infuriated spirits of Tolkien Fans to inflict said smiting.  THE CAUSE  The cause of Haldendreevish, and thus the nature of current day elves on (many Alternate Realities Of) Oerth and Toril is a story in itself.  It is the story of Haldendrea, how it became Haldendreeva, and how Haldendreeva passed on it's heritage to all the elves after, creating the modern day elf.  I doubt anyone will wish to hear this story.  But if anyone does, I will relate it.  Remember this, though.  Haldendreevish IS the Heart of Elvendom, and all elves who are afflicted with this nature are proud of their nature, readily proclaim their nature (except on Toril, where the Evermeet Bureau of Propaganda spins off fairy tales about elves to those silly enough to believe them), and most certainly will manifest Haldendreevish traits on all occasions.  If you have not seen an elf do this, it is because she is not Haldendreevish.  One must wonder what curse befell her, that she could have lost her birthright, her greatest strength, the spirit of her very Elvendom?!  And one would have to pity her, and maybe use a Wish spell to give her back what was lost!</blockquote>

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