SO: sick of drow? Let's create a new nation of evil elves.
- Thread starter Turanil
- Start date
Ranger REG
Explorer
What? No evil halfling nation? ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
monkofmirth
First Post
IK has interesting Elves
The Iron Kingdom Elves could be used as 'evil'. Basically they tried to bring their gods to the prime through a bridge linking the prime and the god's realm. After the gods got across somethign went wrong and the bridge exploded, taking most of the elven civilization with it. Over time the elven gods begin to lose power due to being unable to return to their home plane, so they leave the elves to try and find a way back to their home plane. Sometime later all of the gods' clerics go nuts, destroying large parts of cities before they're put down. About a week later a goddess walks into the elven capital, looking old and tired, goes to her temple (hers were the only clerics not to go nuts), and goes into a coma. The elves only have one god left, and over time she is losing power too.
Some sects of elves believe that humans learning magic/wizardry/sorcery are responsible for the draining that is afflicting their remaining god, so they train mage-killers to stalk and kill human magic users. Other groups take this farther, thinking that ALL humans should be destroyed, and are trying to provoke the human kingdoms into destorying eachother.
There is also the Nyss, 'winter elves' who still have their god, but he's frozen himself to try and recover his dwindling power. Anywho, just adding some more ideas to the pot.
The Iron Kingdom Elves could be used as 'evil'. Basically they tried to bring their gods to the prime through a bridge linking the prime and the god's realm. After the gods got across somethign went wrong and the bridge exploded, taking most of the elven civilization with it. Over time the elven gods begin to lose power due to being unable to return to their home plane, so they leave the elves to try and find a way back to their home plane. Sometime later all of the gods' clerics go nuts, destroying large parts of cities before they're put down. About a week later a goddess walks into the elven capital, looking old and tired, goes to her temple (hers were the only clerics not to go nuts), and goes into a coma. The elves only have one god left, and over time she is losing power too.
Some sects of elves believe that humans learning magic/wizardry/sorcery are responsible for the draining that is afflicting their remaining god, so they train mage-killers to stalk and kill human magic users. Other groups take this farther, thinking that ALL humans should be destroyed, and are trying to provoke the human kingdoms into destorying eachother.
There is also the Nyss, 'winter elves' who still have their god, but he's frozen himself to try and recover his dwindling power. Anywho, just adding some more ideas to the pot.
Cithindril
First Post
I'll put in a quick shameless plug for the Scarred Lands also...
The Forsaken Elves from the continent of Termana were a very advanced race before the outbreak of war between the gods and titans. The god of the forsaken elves was destroyed and the race was altered and contaminated as a result. As their society crumbles and healthy children no longer survive, the race turns to kidnapping humans to use as breeding stock to preserve the society. It has a compelling, dark, fallen from grace kind of tone going on and makes for very interesting PC's and NPC's
Just my two cents...
PEACE!
The Forsaken Elves from the continent of Termana were a very advanced race before the outbreak of war between the gods and titans. The god of the forsaken elves was destroyed and the race was altered and contaminated as a result. As their society crumbles and healthy children no longer survive, the race turns to kidnapping humans to use as breeding stock to preserve the society. It has a compelling, dark, fallen from grace kind of tone going on and makes for very interesting PC's and NPC's
Just my two cents...
PEACE!
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
In any game I run, elves are, on the whole, Neutral Slimy.
Specifically, there are two main elven groups. There's the Elven Court, a "civilized" branch that tries, really they do, to be good.
Then there're the other elves, who figure that the best way to keep the Ancient Evil from the Outer Dark out of the world is to rip out the hearts of humans on their altars, and channel Dark Side powers and such.
Brad
Specifically, there are two main elven groups. There's the Elven Court, a "civilized" branch that tries, really they do, to be good.
Then there're the other elves, who figure that the best way to keep the Ancient Evil from the Outer Dark out of the world is to rip out the hearts of humans on their altars, and channel Dark Side powers and such.
Brad
MDSnowman
First Post
Once long ago, Elves ruled a vast empire that streached across the continent. They ruled by the strength of their magic and gave birth to a rennisance, achieving a level of culture that has had no equal, before or since. Eventually however the Elves became arrogant and decided to expand too far. They pushed into the legendary Yugo woods, ancestral home of the Trolls. At first the primative trolls proved outwatched before the Elves. In an act of desperation their greatest witch doctors summoned up demons and bound the collective souls of their race in exchange for the power to shatter the society of the invaders.
The trolls got their wish, their souless warriors poured out from the Yugo woods destorying all Elves set before them. Within ten years the Elven kingdom was nothing but a memory its people forced to hide in what were remote outposts.
One such outpost was the city of Khaliiz Enial. Perched a top the mountains of Gaia's spine it became the perfered retreat of the Elven elite. Master mages, aristocrats, and the like flocked to Khaliiz Enial. Today Khaliiz Enial has degenerated into a refuge for a bitter folk. Convinced of their own innate superiority over not only other races, but other Elves as well, they seek to regain their ancestor's lost glory. They will use any means to attain such items and few things have proven below them in their quest for power. To that end they search the darkest corners of the world in search of the lost treasures of their people. They also see "menial labor" beneath their people and as such enslave humans and the like whenever they get a chance. However they never enslave trolls, though freed from their self imposed curse The Elves of Khaliiz Enial torture Trolls trusting their unnautral healing to make for slow agonizing deaths.
The trolls got their wish, their souless warriors poured out from the Yugo woods destorying all Elves set before them. Within ten years the Elven kingdom was nothing but a memory its people forced to hide in what were remote outposts.
One such outpost was the city of Khaliiz Enial. Perched a top the mountains of Gaia's spine it became the perfered retreat of the Elven elite. Master mages, aristocrats, and the like flocked to Khaliiz Enial. Today Khaliiz Enial has degenerated into a refuge for a bitter folk. Convinced of their own innate superiority over not only other races, but other Elves as well, they seek to regain their ancestor's lost glory. They will use any means to attain such items and few things have proven below them in their quest for power. To that end they search the darkest corners of the world in search of the lost treasures of their people. They also see "menial labor" beneath their people and as such enslave humans and the like whenever they get a chance. However they never enslave trolls, though freed from their self imposed curse The Elves of Khaliiz Enial torture Trolls trusting their unnautral healing to make for slow agonizing deaths.
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Sejs
First Post
Part of what doesn't sit right with me, and this goes not only for the existing drow setup as printed, but with alot of elven 'reworks' is for a species of creatures that A) have thousand-year plus lifespans and B) have reproductive rates that reflect that (eg amazingly bloody slow), to have them being violent and warlike just doesn't work. They'd friggin' die out - kill themselves off, or lose their numbers from conflicts with other groups and just be unable to recover their losses thanks to their long LONG reproductive cycle.
As printed, the drow would have been a flash in the pan. Their whole incredibly violent, chaotic, survival of the fittest house society would demolish itself and oh look, all of a sudden there's no new drow to fill in the gaps because hey.. they take a good century to mature, and in that time there's been so many conflicts and intrigues that there's nothing really to inherrit once the next generation is ready. Then any of the other underdark races just rolls in and bammo... drow become a historical footnote.
The slower a race breeds, the less violent they have to be in order to survive. Things like Orcs can get away with a hyper-competitive and violent culture because they mature quickly and are produced in litters. Elves just can't keep up with that.
As printed, the drow would have been a flash in the pan. Their whole incredibly violent, chaotic, survival of the fittest house society would demolish itself and oh look, all of a sudden there's no new drow to fill in the gaps because hey.. they take a good century to mature, and in that time there's been so many conflicts and intrigues that there's nothing really to inherrit once the next generation is ready. Then any of the other underdark races just rolls in and bammo... drow become a historical footnote.
The slower a race breeds, the less violent they have to be in order to survive. Things like Orcs can get away with a hyper-competitive and violent culture because they mature quickly and are produced in litters. Elves just can't keep up with that.
s/LaSH
First Post
I've got a few ideas for antagonistic elves...
One Bad Penny
In my Dungeon Damage world, the elves took the place of northern Europeans. And there are no shortage of evil folks from that region - just think like humans. An NPC I never really got to use was Bloody Johan, an elven mercenary from Bavaria. He wasn't old enough for the Sack of Rome, but he served in two Crusades, he never gave up the old gods (the bloody sort), and he likes to hear people scream. He leads a small, elite band of rangers who have similar motives. As a human, he'd be pretty nasty. As an elf, he's got the predatory instincts of a cat and has much more experience.
Not a Big Bad, but definitely a source of elves to fight.
Invaders
In another of my worlds, the elves hail from a distant island, but every so often a faction decides to leave and set up home elsewhere. Three thousand years ago, such a faction showed up elsewhere. It was actually a large group of factions; some of them had stopped on the plains behind them, and became known as the Copper Elves as their skins tanned under the sun. All but one of the rest of the factions stopped in a forest and named it Ithicaes. The last faction decided to keep going into settled lands; they were numerous and expert metalworkers, and possessed the secrets of vampire sorcery (which for them was simply a sorcery-induced battle frenzy, not a permanent affliction), and so were capable of surviving in new lands by force and by night. This brought them infamy; they became known as the Tasidhe or Dark Elves, and everyone dreaded their marauding approach.
The tasidhe aren't technically evil, but they're about as welcome as a longship with a dragon prow pulling up on the beach. If our Romans could fight the Germans for a thousand years or so, and neither side was convicted of being evil, you can fight the tasidhe. After all, they don't really care about your feelings...
Survivors
The world, for all intents and purposes, was destroyed. Clouds became so thick, and so omnipresent, that the sun became a myth. Horrible creatures lurked beneath the clouds, building their own civilisations based on slavery and foul magic. The elves couldn't fight that, so they left, heading for the highest mountaintops above the clouds. There on the snow and in their caves, they fought a bitter battle for existance; their skin was magecrafted to a deep black to fend off the sun's bitter rays, and they became warlike raiders, attacking the deep civilisations for necessities such as food and fuel. They could trust none but themselves, so they didn't. The black elves of the bright mountaintops will not be your friend.
These mountain elves can be adapted for any campaign with mountains; the core of their culture is an insular raiding mentality, where they have nothing so they must take it by force.
Variant: Light Mountain Elves
Sparkling with an inner light, these guys are native to high mountains, and use ensorcelled ice as their smithy material of choice. They're remarkably pretty, and when they come off their mountains looking for slaves and loot, they're operating in enriched atmosphere, becoming virtually unstoppable. I originally designed these as a replacement stock humanoid foe, albeit one slightly more powerful than orcs.
So there's some ideas. Hope some are useful.
One Bad Penny
In my Dungeon Damage world, the elves took the place of northern Europeans. And there are no shortage of evil folks from that region - just think like humans. An NPC I never really got to use was Bloody Johan, an elven mercenary from Bavaria. He wasn't old enough for the Sack of Rome, but he served in two Crusades, he never gave up the old gods (the bloody sort), and he likes to hear people scream. He leads a small, elite band of rangers who have similar motives. As a human, he'd be pretty nasty. As an elf, he's got the predatory instincts of a cat and has much more experience.
Not a Big Bad, but definitely a source of elves to fight.
Invaders
In another of my worlds, the elves hail from a distant island, but every so often a faction decides to leave and set up home elsewhere. Three thousand years ago, such a faction showed up elsewhere. It was actually a large group of factions; some of them had stopped on the plains behind them, and became known as the Copper Elves as their skins tanned under the sun. All but one of the rest of the factions stopped in a forest and named it Ithicaes. The last faction decided to keep going into settled lands; they were numerous and expert metalworkers, and possessed the secrets of vampire sorcery (which for them was simply a sorcery-induced battle frenzy, not a permanent affliction), and so were capable of surviving in new lands by force and by night. This brought them infamy; they became known as the Tasidhe or Dark Elves, and everyone dreaded their marauding approach.
The tasidhe aren't technically evil, but they're about as welcome as a longship with a dragon prow pulling up on the beach. If our Romans could fight the Germans for a thousand years or so, and neither side was convicted of being evil, you can fight the tasidhe. After all, they don't really care about your feelings...
Survivors
The world, for all intents and purposes, was destroyed. Clouds became so thick, and so omnipresent, that the sun became a myth. Horrible creatures lurked beneath the clouds, building their own civilisations based on slavery and foul magic. The elves couldn't fight that, so they left, heading for the highest mountaintops above the clouds. There on the snow and in their caves, they fought a bitter battle for existance; their skin was magecrafted to a deep black to fend off the sun's bitter rays, and they became warlike raiders, attacking the deep civilisations for necessities such as food and fuel. They could trust none but themselves, so they didn't. The black elves of the bright mountaintops will not be your friend.
These mountain elves can be adapted for any campaign with mountains; the core of their culture is an insular raiding mentality, where they have nothing so they must take it by force.
Variant: Light Mountain Elves
Sparkling with an inner light, these guys are native to high mountains, and use ensorcelled ice as their smithy material of choice. They're remarkably pretty, and when they come off their mountains looking for slaves and loot, they're operating in enriched atmosphere, becoming virtually unstoppable. I originally designed these as a replacement stock humanoid foe, albeit one slightly more powerful than orcs.
So there's some ideas. Hope some are useful.
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