New article - Elves, Eladrin and Drow. Oh, my!

[Bishmon]

Which is if you ask me a lot different than "Never harming a tree".

Ok.

 

[Wulfram]

I quite like it, surprisingly considering my general feelings on the 4E refluffing. It's interesting, and makes me want to make a few "eladrin" characters.

Still find rebranding hald the elves as eladrin annoying and pointless, and one thing that did annoy me was that they closed off the possibility of an eladrin referring to itself as an elf.

Gruumsh being worshipped is a bit strange. It may make sense in the terms of this world, but it's still problematic. Particularly since hopefully the elfs won't suddenly be getting pally with him on Faerun. Perhaps if they worshipped him under a different name, that would help - even for a god of Rage and War, I'd have thought elves would prefer something a bit more poetic.

My other potential quibble would be that cities in the, presumably very wild, feywild sould like they need a good explanation. They can probably manage it, with magic, some planeshifting and general elvishness - and of course, this is a fantasy world, not an economic study - but I hope they address it.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I dissagree. What better way does one god have to "annoy" another god then to corrupt his race? The corrupted elf. If you're gonna go corrupt might as well go REALLY corrupt.

Like this as well - I'm seeing it that way:

Sorry, no real-world theology thanks ~ Plane Sailing

Yet we have satanists - I think Gruumsh cultists are the perfect elven counterpart to'em. Lolth is, especially under this conception, far too involved with the elvish development to be the ultimate antagonist - after all, we already have Drow.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Klaus]

The art...

it's so... so beautiful...

Love the helm/hood comparison.




I want in, dammit!

 

[HeinorNY]

I want in, dammit!

Then just draw it, dammit!

 

[Scribble]

The art...

it's so... so beautiful...

I agree... except for the Drow... It just looks weird. I think it's the pose she's in.

 

[Zamkaizer]

I agree... except for the Drow... It just looks weird. I think it's the pose she's in.

Welcome to Ron Spencer. His Magic: The Gathering art is by and large very nice, but I've always disliked his Dungeons & Dragons work.

William O'Connor, on the other hand, is an exceedingly awesome artist, and the fact that he, and others, like Steve Prescott, are defining the look of 4E is something to celebrate.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Alright. Please tell me why you think that Gruumsh makes a better god of fury than, say, Talos the Destroyer, a well-known FR god of storms, fury, and destruction.

It's all about the story team. That's how most of these changes came about. In the past it would be the game designers who would come up with the story behind the gods, races, and classes.

In 4e, there is a story team for this exact purpose. From what I've read, the story team went through all of the established history for D&D and picked out what they thought were interesting storylines and removed everything else.

I can't remember where I was it posted before, but I remember someone saying that the story people thought the rivalry between Gruumish and Corellion was a good story...Corellion taking out Gruumish's eyes in battle provided a solid tie between the two gods. It also inspired interesting character choices (like the Eye of Gruumish). So they knew they had to keep that part of the story around.

However, one of the design goals was to remove "racial deities". So, it was told to them that Corellion wasn't going to be "God of the Elves" anymore and Gruumish wasn't going to be "God of the Orcs". Although the rivalry between them could stay, the racial ties could not.

And given those guidelines the new storyline rather writes itself.

 

[fuindordm]

I read that article, then sat back and thought "Mmmmm......."

I think the writers and story team are doing a great job, and I'm ecstatic to see that Fey are finally sliding into the D&D spotlight.

Re: Lolth's transformation from New Moon goddess to Spider goddess... I see it as clever PR. The Drow did a lot of damage, but clearly got their butts kicked! They had to go hide in the darkness, so Lolth needed to give them a symbol that made hiding seem like a good thing, a noble thing.

"No, no...you didn't get your butts kicked. This is all part of our nefarious, long-term plan. Hidden from their eyes, we will weave webs of conspiracy so vast that when the eladrin finally fall, they will never see it coming. And then the New Moon will rise over the Feywild, and we will return to a land cleansed."

Re: Gruumsh. Gruumsh is a better god of rage because his name is so much more fun to say. Gruumsh Gruumsh Gruumsh....

I just can't get enough!

And finally, I acclaim the writers for axing the concept of racial deities. Hoody hoo!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Like this as well - I'm seeing it that way:

Sorry, no real-world theology thanks ~ Plane Sailing

Yet we have satanists - I think Gruumsh cultists are the perfect elven counterpart to'em. Lolth is, especially under this conception, far too involved with the elvish development to be the ultimate antagonist - after all, we already have Drow.

Cheers, LT.

I like that comparison. I like it a lot. Especially given the bits about how Corellon isn't particularly focused with Good or Evil, but rather is more into the success of his chosen people.