How do you like your elves best?
- Thread starter Andor
- Start date
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Culturally the opposite of the PHB elf.
They don't live in the forest, they have mighty arcane prowess and secrets, with the cooperation of dwarves they have built fantsy versions of the skyscraper.
They don't live in the forest, they have mighty arcane prowess and secrets, with the cooperation of dwarves they have built fantsy versions of the skyscraper.
Kae'Yoss
First Post
I voted for magical and so on, but no option really captures it all. Some elves are warrior-poets with magical ability, others are elusive, feylike creatures, still others are a lot like humans and like to mingle with as much with other races as possible. Some are underground-dwelling, night-loving reavers.
And that's only the general outlook, individuals vary greatly from the norm (versatility is not just for humans, but for all humanoid races).
And that's only the general outlook, individuals vary greatly from the norm (versatility is not just for humans, but for all humanoid races).
Fey and dangerous. I'm a huge not-fan of the D&D uber-organized frightfully-lawful city-dwelling elves that you find in Evermeet, for instance, or scattered around the Dragonlance setting.
I prefer them to live 'under the hill' and be masters of illusion and deception, being otherworldly in nature and temperament. Totally chaotic, and beset with unnaturally strong emotional swings, an elf could be your best friend, when he's drinking with you, and then be swinging his sword at your head after an ill-considered joke.
This sort of elf is the definition of 'fey,' in the sense of all-but unknowable to the mortal races, with no guilt, no shame, and never dwelling on what they did yesterday. They're like two-legged sharks, creatures of sometimes violent jaded passion. This entire mortal world *is not their home* and none of the creatures in it, ultimately, seem more substantial than mist and sunbeams to them. Killing a man in a flash of temper, or setting fire to a town just to watch the little mortals run around screaming, is a meaningless act to a creature from another world who is probably going to outlive that man's great-great-grandchildren, and live long enough to see that town abandoned anyway.
None of this 'one with nature' crap. They are creatures of glamor, and, to them, this entire world is just another 'illusion,' like a canvas that they can paint on, or not, as their whims take them. They aren't from this world, and they could give a rat's butt about living in harmony with nature. It's all going to die anyway, what does it matter if it dies a few days, decades or centuries ahead of schedule?
Elven heroes accomplish amazing feats, often times against seemingly impossible odds, *because they don't care.* They'll take any risk. Life is meaningless to them, and the longer they trudge around the 'mortal mud world' the less they fear death, and the more they begin to obsess about 'the next world.' Unfortunately, for any inspired to accompany an elf on such a 'daring' mission, he cares even less if *they* survive the campaign either...
For all that, elven villains are extremely rare. They simply don't have the attention span necessary to commit to a campaign of evil, spending the majority of their lives wandering from place to place, doing whatever strikes their fancy, in an attempt to stave off the ennui inspired by their centuries of life. A suprising number of this rare people loathe nothing so much as the company of their own kind. They don't appreciate the irony of how terribly annoying their own jaded sensualistic nihilistic worldview looks when they end up in the same place together, and quickly end up holding each other (and themselves) in contempt.
I prefer them to live 'under the hill' and be masters of illusion and deception, being otherworldly in nature and temperament. Totally chaotic, and beset with unnaturally strong emotional swings, an elf could be your best friend, when he's drinking with you, and then be swinging his sword at your head after an ill-considered joke.
This sort of elf is the definition of 'fey,' in the sense of all-but unknowable to the mortal races, with no guilt, no shame, and never dwelling on what they did yesterday. They're like two-legged sharks, creatures of sometimes violent jaded passion. This entire mortal world *is not their home* and none of the creatures in it, ultimately, seem more substantial than mist and sunbeams to them. Killing a man in a flash of temper, or setting fire to a town just to watch the little mortals run around screaming, is a meaningless act to a creature from another world who is probably going to outlive that man's great-great-grandchildren, and live long enough to see that town abandoned anyway.
None of this 'one with nature' crap. They are creatures of glamor, and, to them, this entire world is just another 'illusion,' like a canvas that they can paint on, or not, as their whims take them. They aren't from this world, and they could give a rat's butt about living in harmony with nature. It's all going to die anyway, what does it matter if it dies a few days, decades or centuries ahead of schedule?
Elven heroes accomplish amazing feats, often times against seemingly impossible odds, *because they don't care.* They'll take any risk. Life is meaningless to them, and the longer they trudge around the 'mortal mud world' the less they fear death, and the more they begin to obsess about 'the next world.' Unfortunately, for any inspired to accompany an elf on such a 'daring' mission, he cares even less if *they* survive the campaign either...
For all that, elven villains are extremely rare. They simply don't have the attention span necessary to commit to a campaign of evil, spending the majority of their lives wandering from place to place, doing whatever strikes their fancy, in an attempt to stave off the ennui inspired by their centuries of life. A suprising number of this rare people loathe nothing so much as the company of their own kind. They don't appreciate the irony of how terribly annoying their own jaded sensualistic nihilistic worldview looks when they end up in the same place together, and quickly end up holding each other (and themselves) in contempt.
WarlockLord
First Post
The annoying little #@$%&! make good necromancer fodder. Drow excluded, as the drow might kill off all the suface-dwelling hippies. Someday...
HeavenShallBurn
First Post
Narfell Fried Elves, deep fried and battered with the White King's 11 Secret Herbs and Spices
I don't really like the default fluff in the PHB on elves, Tolkeinien elves don't tend to work that well in a game as opposed to a book. Really they just seem too watered down.
Now the fey I like for all that I don't get to use them nearly enough and it's hard to get right when I do have the opportunity. Instead of slaadi I use Fey as the exemplars of Chaos, and the powerful ones that form the nobility are the "sidhe" from whom I freely mix all sorts of varied myths and also the fluff from the Shadow Moon series of books. They're the mound lords of illusion and trickery in the old style.
I don't really like the default fluff in the PHB on elves, Tolkeinien elves don't tend to work that well in a game as opposed to a book. Really they just seem too watered down.
Now the fey I like for all that I don't get to use them nearly enough and it's hard to get right when I do have the opportunity. Instead of slaadi I use Fey as the exemplars of Chaos, and the powerful ones that form the nobility are the "sidhe" from whom I freely mix all sorts of varied myths and also the fluff from the Shadow Moon series of books. They're the mound lords of illusion and trickery in the old style.
Tonguez said:
Thanks! I try to play up their otherworldly nature. PHB Elves have a -2 Constitution, and live nearly forever, are deeply connected to the natural world, never sleep, can subsist on moonbeams and butterfly farts, etc. It makes no sense to have these two things together, *unless* Elves have a very real reason to have a penalty to their Constitution, because they *aren't* part of this world, all in tune with nature. If anything, nature kinda hates them, and recognizes that they are alien invaders, unwelcome at best. Suddenly, the Elven 'frailty' makes some sense. They aren't 'weak,' the world itself is constantly attacking them on a fundamental level, their otherworldly flesh not being ideally suited to live in our mortal world.
They cheerily use powerful magic to warp great trees into dwellings, and does anyone really think that trees *like* this sort of thing, or that it is healthy or 'natural' to warp and twist and pervert natural creatures and forces to serve in this manner?
Why is elven craft so magical? Because it can't function any other way. An elven-built house is a flimsy construct of illusion and magecraft, glorious in appearance, but rotten underneath, as much faerie glamour as substance. Why would they learn mortal crafts? Nothing that can be built will endure an elven lifetime anyway, why spend months and years learning to build perfect houses that will rot and collapse within a few short decades or centuries? Who would want to live in a single place that long anyway?
The world has a thousand cups, only a brief mortal would be content to drink from only one.
questing gm
First Post
The choices didn't have what i had in mind, so i think i'll go with fey and dangerous since that is the closest.
I like to see my elves being feral, primitive yet noble forest dwellers/survivors that have learned to respect the forest. Oh, and being subjegated by those arrogant, advanced and resource grubbing humans.
Other than their powerful bows and exotic song/druidic magic, they are no match against the human arsenal of wizardry.
I like to see my elves being feral, primitive yet noble forest dwellers/survivors that have learned to respect the forest. Oh, and being subjegated by those arrogant, advanced and resource grubbing humans.
Other than their powerful bows and exotic song/druidic magic, they are no match against the human arsenal of wizardry.
