SO: sick of drow? Let's create a new nation of evil elves.

Thanee said:
Hmm... let's see. How about this?

There once was a kingdom of elves, but some of them turned their back to the true way and started to follow the dark gods. Over time, the kingdom of elves split into two and open war evolved. The true elves, which had not went off the path, prayed to their gods and someday the elven pantheon decided it was enough and transformed the wrongdoers forever for their sins, they and every generation following them would be of the darkest of dark colors in skin with white hair, opposite to the usually dark hair of the elves, a twisted image of the true elves. Also, they would squirm in the sight of sunlight and had to cower in dark caverns beneath the earth. There, deep below the surface, they continued to pray to their dark gods and over the centuries their hatred was nurtured and grew further and further. One of the greatest evils of all times was born.

:D

Bye
Thanee
Click to expand...

I didn't know it was the stuff associated with drow. Oh my pantheon what blandness, I cannot believe it. Will ever be a TSR/WotC designer with a creative mind? :\
 

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I can't top Akrasia's already insidious idea, but I'll add to it. I know this isn't exactly what Turanil is asking for, but...

What if the Light Elves are so contemptuous of humans (and other "mortal" races) because they created those races? Millenia ago elves were the only speaking race. Blinded by their own glory and success, they decided they needed servants. Something smarter than an animal, easier to control than a demon and easier on the china than an elemental. What they really needed was an elf-shaped creature that knew how to polish silver. So they created Halflings. The idea became popular, and soon specialty servants emerged. Some wanted their servants bigger and stronger (humans, orcs, ogres, etc.) some wanted hardy and talented (dwarves, gnomes), etc. Some were simply created for reasons of fashion. For a while it was "in" to create races that were "so ugly, they're cute!"

But some elves balked at the whole idea, feeling that the creation of a sentient race to live in servitude was wrong. Eventually the issue came to a head in a great slave uprising, led by rebel elves. The ensuing civil war destroyed the elvish civilization and spread their servants across the world.

The remnants of the rebel elves were hunted down, but elvish culture never recovered. Meanwhile the servitor races bred like wildfire and now the remaining light elves are embarked on a long-range plan to either wipe the servants from the earth, or bring them back to heel. As part of that they are engaged in a massive PR effort to convince the slaves that they are friendly and helpful, while those remaining rebel elves are dangerous and evil.
 

Elves are Neutral in OD&D and in my campaign

they are like Goblins. there are all sorts of goblins. short ones, fat ones, red ones, yellow ones, tall ones, hairy ones, bald ones... They are all Goblins. Goblins tho are Chaotic.

if you want to pick an Elf worth hating... go Avariel. nothing more annoying than a truly flighty elf.
 

It kinda seems that replacing the drow with yet another race of evil elves defeats the purpose somewhat. Why not replace them with something else entirely?

Then again, in an older campaign world of mine, I've had a nation of necromantic elves who were paranoid of death so they 1) took an aggressive stance against the other humanoids so they wouldn't be a threat, and 2) captured the souls of any of their race who died and grafted them onto constructs, where they could continue to live on as super-soldiers for their nation. The constructs themselves were made of "wraithbone" (yes, I stole the name from Warhammer 40k) which was formed from the distilled souls of their human, dwarf and orc victims.

In the face of this aggression, the human, dwarf and orc tribes were relatively friendly with each other, but had also developed a death cult of sorts; they would kill themselves and their families rather than allowing themselves to fall into the hands of the elves.
 

Joshua Dyal said:
It kinda seems that replacing the drow with yet another race of evil elves defeats the purpose somewhat. Why not replace them with something else entirely? ...
Click to expand...

Well, there's the whole fun "messing-with-the-players'" expectations angle.

Most players assume that standard elves are goody-two-shoes, and that the drow are the "black sheep" (ugh!) of the species.

It is most pleasant to mess with their heads and make the "goody-two-shoes" elves the bad-asses!
 

JimAde said:
I can't top Akrasia's already insidious idea, but I'll add to it. I know this isn't exactly what Turanil is asking for, but...

What if the Light Elves are so contemptuous of humans (and other "mortal" races) because they created those races? Millenia ago elves were the only speaking race. Blinded by their own glory and success, they decided they needed servants. Something smarter than an animal, easier to control than a demon and easier on the china than an elemental. What they really needed was an elf-shaped creature that knew how to polish silver. So they created Halflings. The idea became popular, and soon specialty servants emerged. Some wanted their servants bigger and stronger (humans, orcs, ogres, etc.) some wanted hardy and talented (dwarves, gnomes), etc. Some were simply created for reasons of fashion. For a while it was "in" to create races that were "so ugly, they're cute!"

But some elves balked at the whole idea, feeling that the creation of a sentient race to live in servitude was wrong. Eventually the issue came to a head in a great slave uprising, led by rebel elves. The ensuing civil war destroyed the elvish civilization and spread their servants across the world.

The remnants of the rebel elves were hunted down, but elvish culture never recovered. Meanwhile the servitor races bred like wildfire and now the remaining light elves are embarked on a long-range plan to either wipe the servants from the earth, or bring them back to heel. As part of that they are engaged in a massive PR effort to convince the slaves that they are friendly and helpful, while those remaining rebel elves are dangerous and evil.
Click to expand...

Wow -- this is actually very close to my campaign! :lol:

In my world, the elves arrived from Faerie some 8000 years ago (after some other gawd-awful "ancient race" disappeared).

Some of them wanted to enslave the barbaric humans and orcs in this new world, whereas others wanted to leave them alone.

Long war, many dead, yada yada yada.

Short story: the slaver elves won. And humans were enslaved for centuries. But the good elves fought on.

More long wars of "ancient lore". The slaver elves still won, but were crippled. So they retreated to their enclaves, but started a brilliant PR scheme with the humans, who were only beginning to learn how to read, etc.

The "good elves" hid far away from other races, deep in dark forests, and were feared ... because they were unknown.

Well, you know the rest. ;)
 



Monstruously slow. Arms race factor (need the latest version of Acrobat to read, previous versions don't work.) Need an expensive software to do edition and copy/paste from documents. Often, books are scanned rather than OCRed, making them even more slow, and impossible to edit, or copy/paste.
 

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