On the origin of Species, i.e. Rise of the Eladrin

[SkidAce]

I have modified (or interpreted) the "Origin of Species" over the years for my homebrew since the 80s.

It helps design lore and know why certain races act the way they do. BUT!

Its usually cosmic origin stuff, and the players don't even know. And if they don't know how does it help them play? (I already know how it helps me).

One example, Rise of the Eladrin....how much of that would players use to shape their character, they may know their "mood" changes with the seasons, do they know why?

Example two, Homebrew cosmos has elves and humans descending from the same ancient race. So a half-elf, despised by either culture, is actually a throwback to a more powerful race. (thus explaining 1st and 2nd edition multiclassing versatility).

Players would not know that about half elves, so it essentially does nothing for anyone but me. But its like O'neill in stargate able to use ancient tech, "look a half elf can open the magical barrier".

So the ultimate point of this thread is the Question:

Should players know cosmic origins so they can guide the playing of their character, and thus everyone can use said articles, or leave things vague and used by the DM for world shaping, and discovered via play?

...a little of both I suspect...

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah, it depends on the campaign setting that the players and the DM decide on.

Sometimes, the DM is inspired to create a new setting, and the players are interested to explore and discover it.

Sometimes, everyone uses one of the official campaign settings and knows moreorless what is going on.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I tend to go with "As a DM, I reserve the right to change any of this as necessary for the story, but the odds are pretty low that it will happen before anyone is casting 8th level spells, because the universe works on a 'you have to be X tall to ride this ride or else your brain will melt out of your ears' principle." I do ask players if they have goals for their PC's, and if any goal seems "cosmic", then I will talk to them about any "cosmic truths" that I keep in the background just in case the party gets high enough (there are usually a couple of possibly conflicting truths) and we see if there is one that works best with the goal.

 

[SkidAce]

In most cases we have not told any cosmic truths to the players until a character encounters/explores the issue.

So in a way, its the same story of discovery that an actual person in the world would encounter. That has great potential.

Stories like what is in the books, and these articles make me wonder if in some cases there is benefit to partnering with the player. And avoid taking the character in an unwanted direction.


So, it really seems to be a case by case thing, with potential benefits either way.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think players with certain skills, or certain combinations of skills might know "Cosmic History". Also, I think sometimes players might have stumbled upon this knowledge by accident. It's why at the start of the game I give them each "Five Things They Know". It can be local information, "cosmic" information, random trivia, but it's a nice way to give them knowledge without them having to go "I roll 15 on to recall what I know about the King, what do I know?" instead they've already got a little flash-card telling them the King is a tall, portly man with a big beard and a constantly grim expression who is known to sometimes execute people who try to make him laugh.

I also think that if the knowledge once existed, it should still exist somewhere in some form. Maybe only in the Last Scroll of the Elders, which is lost in some deep dungeon depths in the hoard of some mighty dragon, but still, the information should be discoverable for the players. The relevance, distance and availability of the information should determine exactly how difficult it is for the players to uncover that information.

In short: if I know it, there should be some what for the players to know it too.

In your case, perhaps there are ancient ruins with tomes covering long-forgotten ancestries, with the most recent of which matching up to a legendary Elven King, who, if the players delve into Elven history books, is recorded as some kind of founder of the distinctly Elven-and-not-human Kingdoms. Perhaps another tome covers another family that lines up with some ancient human history, and the players are left to piece together that these ancient descendants are actually from the same race and that humans and elves are derivatives of that.

In my campaigns, I run that the material plane has similar effects on planar beings as the planes have on material creatures: Over generations the immortal planar beings become more solid and "material" just as the "material" creatures take on increasing planar traits over time. This also happens to a planar creature that remains on the material plane for thousands of years, or a material creature that does the same on the planes, or encounters strong planar effects.

For me, the elves we know know are all long-long-long descendants of the "fey elves" the magical immortal elf-kind of the FeyWild, Eladrin are something of a "bigfoot" middle-step, not immortal magical fey, not mortal fleshy elves. It's not terribly far off from what was described, I just don't care for their specific explanation.