Tell me about different elves

[Lonely Tylenol]

In my campaign, those elves that weren't driven into slavery ages ago have settled in some of the most inhospitable territory on the planet: the desert of spires. Most creatures would have perished, but since elves are naturally in tune with the rhythm of the land, they were able to adapt and almost prosper in this environment.

Elves are friendly, as long as you don't seem like you want to stay. Fiercely territorial, they live on a knife's edge between starvation and merely surviving. Not surprisingly, their holy men and women are usually druids. Elves are careful about reproducing. Their resources being so thin, they know how many mouths they can feed before things will start to fall apart. It is considered proper for elves to volunteer to leave the group and strike out on their own if there is a deficit of resources. This rite, called the Follow, involves walking a sacred route through the desert, past hard terrain and creature-infested tracks. They inevitably stumble across other groups of elves, and at each new group ask for permission to stay. If it is not granted, they must continue, and continue indefinitely until they find a new camp that will have them, or perish in the desert. Many elves find themselves wandering off the Follow and exploring other lands, perhaps to find some other way of coping. Elven adventurers have usually come into the trade this way.

They enjoy songs and stories, and shows of riding skill. They ride six-legged lizards and also giant birds, both of which are native to the region and can handle the severe lack of water and high temperatures. Elves tend to be active at night, since it's cooler then, and with their low-light vision they can see as well on the desert at night as a human in the day. During the day they stay in tents, or under their animals in the desert if travelling. The desert of spires is mercifully shady anyway, thanks to the huge vertical mineral formations that give it its name. Elves are adept at climbing these to gain high vantage points, and to access potentially cooler air at the top.

Game stats:
As PHB elf, except:

-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity: Tougher than your run-of-the-mill PHB high elf, these elves tend to be physically weaker since they spend long periods of time conserving energy by resting.

Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the scimitar, throwing axe, and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats. Elves prefer weapons that can be used while mounted.

+2 racial bonus on Climb and Ride checks. +2 bonus on Survival checks made in desert terrain. No racial bonus on Listen checks.

Favoured Class: Ranger

 

[Ibram]

Elves IMC are a varried race spread across the globe. There are not an endless variety of sub races however, mostly just different cultures.

True Elves (also known as Colonal Elves): This is the largest group of elves, and can be found in small habitats across the world. They are the last few outpost of the now dead elven empires from the Age of Song and Stone. Almost identical to D&D Elves they have their lifespans cut in half, and sleep (plus not immune to sleep or paralisis effects). In cities they control they usualy live in small walled communities while their half-elf decendents run the outer city and interact with the wider world. Those who have lost access to cities often live in small semi-nomadic tribes, hidding in distant wildernesses from the barbarians who overthrew them (Orcs and Humans for the most part). True Elves who live in cities have a favored class of Wizard, while those in the wilderness have Ranger/Scout.

High Elves: Durring the Age of Song and Stone the Empire of the Silver Moon was supreme, nearly every nation gave heed to its dictates. This was due to their sorcerous skill, not their might in arms. So powerful were they that the last emperess was able to grant them Immortality, and even manipulated the worlds weather patterns... which led to their downfall. In the present age only a handful are left, and their numbers are rapidly dwindling (they lost their immortality with their empires fall). They are a quickly dying race with only a few places still under their control.

Dark Elves: The Empire of the Silver Moon was not brought down by enemies without, rather it was brought down by enemies within. The Emperesses older sister, angry at being passed up for the throne, and worried about her sisters ultimate plans rebeled. The war that followed brought about the collapse of the climate controling spells, causing the worlds sea level to rise by over 100ft in 5 years. Surviving rebles were hated by the other elven nations and were forced to seek refuge under the protection of a daemonic dragon. Living in the northern sections of the world they are a warrior people, powerful and cruel. Many still serve their protector, while others live semi-independently. They are similar rules wise to the High Elves, their racial skills are shifted slightly and their favored class is fighter not wizard

I've cranked up the arrogance factor on all my elven races. The High Elves dominated the world for nearly 2000 years, and were largely hated by the time their reign ended. This carrys on the the present day, they just see themselves as inherently superior (with their long lives and sorcerous ability its an easy assumption to make).

 

[Afrodyte]

For whatever other flaws of the series, Mercedes Lackey's Halfblood chronicles (Elvenbane, Elvenblood, and Elvenborn) are frighteningly human in a lot of ways but still retain their elvishness (magic, long life, pointy ears). Their society combines the worst elements of imperial Rome and the antebellum South, with magic added in to boost the atrocity level a few notches.

If you want to get away from the ideas of elves being a dying race, innately good, or incomprehensible, you can look at the traits you associate with elves and then bring them down to earth (or rather, the gutter). I know you said that you wanted to avoid Tolkien, but if you look at the writings beyond LotR (and, to a lesser extent, The Silmarillion), some interesting ideas emerge that could be fertile playground for revising the elves of your world. For instance, Tolkien mentions in the preface of The Silmarillion that elves are innate "embalmers" in the sense that they like to preserve things rather than let nature and time take their course. Taken in another direction, you could have this craving for stability translate into a rigid social structure something along the lines of the Hindu caste system. Here's something off the top of my head:

1. The highest caste belongs to spellcasters. They are the emissaries of the divine. Their duty is to discern the will of the gods and to preserve the moral order of the places over which they preside. The most powerful amongst them are often thought to be descended from the gods or to have particular favor with them. They wear white and are forbidden to cut their hair (split ends excepted).

2. The next highest caste belongs to rulers and warriors. They preserve social by making and enforcing laws. As long as their rules do not contradict the divine will, their rule is absolute. When in public they must wear their symbol of office (usually a sword for a warrior, scepter for a non-royal ruler, and a crown for a royal ruler). They wear violet (rulers) or red (warriors).

3. Artists, agriculturalists, and tradesmen are the middle caste. They feed, entertain, and provide goods and services for the community. This is the most diverse of the casts, ranging from farmers to musicians to courtesans. While they cannot change their caste, those within this class have great potential for economic mobility, for better or worse. They wear yellow or blue.

4. Slaves form the lowest caste. They perform duties which no decent human being would. These are the common prostitutes, the gutter-cleaners, the street sweepers, the morticians, and pest control. Those of the upper two castes may have slaves put to death for any reason whatsoever without so much as a reprimand. Killing them for sport is not unheard of and it is a favorite pasttime to use them as pieces in a live-action chess game between rulers. They wear black, and their heads are always shaved.

 

[Turanil]

Question: Do you want mechanics with it or not?

Well, not really. My original concern was to allow all the races from the PHB (C&C has the same as D&D), but give them a different cultural flavor and description to go away from the Tolkienish thing. For example I hate gnomes (even though they are not Tolkienish), but after having read the gnome thread, I finally found a way to make them tolerable, with an interesting place in the setting. I would have been prone to also get rid of elves and halflings, but prefer find ways to portray them different. (BTW: dwarves were also changed culturally, loosing the Norse stereotype to become Swiss medieval mercenaries jealous of their independance and freedom -no kings and horned helmets for dwarves!). Finally, only half-orcs remain unmodified!

 

[Turanil]

By the way, thanks for your responses everybody! I see good ideas, many fine ingredients I will be able to pick and use. I much like the Hindu caste system in a rigid society that will never change (will add that to the Styrics + Spirit Folk + Aborigines thing). Then, I also much like the evil pretentious High elves, who will be renegades (from the Spirit-folk elves) who cut their link with the spirit/nature and decided to change things and society to their idea. Other ideas will be sprinkled all over this as well.

Thanks to all!

 

[Ice man]

I thought of elves for a grey campaign (no absolutes in any races of the prime planes, no black and white just shades of grey) as highly evolved and very arrogant because of it. They lived longer than any other populous race and so created great works (art, magic, etc). as such they considered themselves to be so far above any other race that they could justify any action just because they were elves. This showed itself as little interest in day to day minutiae (thus slaves from lesser races for day to day tasks) as the great elven lords were always after their next great work (empire building, political intrigue, destroying lesser races, creating a fascinating new drug, etc). Individuals were always snotty, superior and self absorbed and usually somewhat bored (thus thrill seeking) and manipulative of their inferiors although not necessarily evil. This made for some very interesting game play with egalitarian PCs.

 

[Yair]

Well, there were interesting threads on gnomes and halflings lately, that gave me plenty of ideas for my next campaign setting.

But now I am bored to death with Tolkien and Faerie elves, and was wondering how to portray them differently. I would like to come up with elves that are still elves mechanically, but who would fit in a Sword & Sorcery setting devoid of fey creatures. (There was a good thread about elves last year, but of course I am unable to locate it.)

SO: what about different elves, what about elves in your setting, well any ideas??

Thanks

The setting I'm running right now has elves but no faerie creatures, but I'm not sure how far away from normal D&D elves are they.

The idea is that the elves are really interlopers - they came "from the stars", i.e. from another plane (I never decided which), escaping some horrid doom. I take their favored class very seriously - they were powerful wizards, borne on the backs of chromatic dragons.
Once they arrived in this world, they eventually fell in love with it and embraced druidism, rebelling against the Spider Queen (the Weaver of Fate) and adopting nature worship. (Their original plane was not "natural" in the least.) The drow remained loyal to their goddess (and became drow due to a magical accident - only drow and high elves in my campaign), but the High Elves became your normal tree-hugging snobs... well, perhaps a little less snobby.
Of course, the elves still have lots of wizards. And their faith in druidism is actually much less common than humans tend to believe, and far less fanatic. But the Spider Queen is abhorred, as are the necromantic (as if "new slave races! cool!"), evocation ("fire is bad for trees, dude!"), and conjuration ("ooow! unnatural! ugly!") arts of wizardry. Only the drow stay pure and loyal to the Spider Queen, and breed armies of abominations to lead them to their fate to dominate this world, as promised and foretold by the Spider Queen herself upon their exodus...

So, not very different, but hopefully a bit useful to ya.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Hernan Elves

In my home brew I've taken the elves back into being tru woodland creatures not the high elves that just don't make sense to me in the PHB. Woodland based and tribal, the elves have never developed arcvane magic and don't really trust it. They aren't xenophobic as a race, though they're are factions that are. They live in small and fairly loose gatherings and individual elves will wander from group to group throughout their lives, meeting new people and new ideas. There are no big cities, not even towns, and the largest of groups will number only about 100 elves. There is no real government and very few laws, decisions are made by pure democracy in which every elf that is present takes part. The concept of marriage is one that elves don't understand. They are not a war-like race but are very capable hunters and have tried (and almost succeded) to eradicate the green dragons. They fight in guerrilla warfare style if they need to - most often when faced by island orc raiders attacking the coast. They have never learned to work metal very well - due to limited iron ore in their area and not wanting to cut down the trees for fuel. Instead they shape alar wood which becomes as hard as metal when it is cropped from the tree - thus they grow weapons and armour.


A bit of crunch: Druid or ranger would be their favoured class if I used that rule, and they lose the longsword bonus proficiency. Stats are changed to -2 str instead of -2 con - they simply lack the muscle mass that other races have. Also they don't live significantly longer than humans - 120 is probably the average lifespan.

 

[Runesong42]

IIRC, there was an article in Dragon magazine that detailled "Ghost Elves" -- elves that were trapped on the Ethereal Plane to be used as a slave race and, over the generations, racially adapted to life on said plane. They are probably the best variant on Elves I have seen.

If you want your Elves to be less Tolkeinish, reduce their life expectancy to that of a human. Then, upon their natural death, they Reincarnate into a new body -- whether it's another Elf, or a random roll on the Reincarnation charts, that's up to you. Or, go the Star Trek DS9 route with the Kryll (sp?) -- Elves are merely a shell for a small, parasitic race of psionicists that need a new body every (human) generation to stay alive. Elves consider it a high honour to be chosen, and it could have lots of cultural significance etc.

My race of Wild Elves are pretty much copied from the Hengeyokai and Spirit Folk of Oriental Adventures, with an Amerindien feel.

Or, you could even have the Elves as an alien race with any kind of resulting craziness. I wouldn't necessarily suggest Vulcans (*LOL*), but maybe have the Elves see the regular Tolkeinish races as backward and asinine, like children who need to be mothered.

 

[billd91]

I'll preface this by saying that I tend to like the elves in Middle Earth and run mine mainly like that, but then, I've read throught he Silmarilion a few times and the Noldor in there are ass-kicking, empire builders until the remaining kingdoms are forced to hide. So even in Tolkien, there's some diverisity.

Anyway, players with elven PCs get a short document that explains, briefly, what the elven clans are. I'll paste it in here:

Elves, a Greyhawk Guide
Elves are one of the oldest folk living in the Flanaess. They have existed there throughout known time, ever since their creation by Corellon Larethian, patron of the Elves and Father of the Elven pantheon.
In the days before the great migrations of Suel, Oerid, and Baklunish peoples from the west, the elves lived throughout the Flanaess, on plain as well as in forest. The human people, the Flan, lived in peace with the elves, existing at the periphery of the elven communities and nations. But even then, the semi-nomadic Flan were a rising people, growing in culture as well as in number.
In those days, there were several clans or groupings of elves. There were the Gold elves, mighty in fighting prowess and vigor, the Silver elves, strong in knowledge and intellect, the Sylvan elves, strong in limb and dwellers of the forests, the Drow elves, masters of the arcane arts and insatiable in curiosity, the High elves, fleet of foot and open of heart, the Sea Elves, living under the waves, and finally, the Grugach elves, friends of beasts and the wild country. The clans existed in harmony and mutual cooperation.
While elves may have gotten along with the Flan as well as the halflings and gnomes, there were other races with whom they fought tenaciously. These were the goblins and gnolls and other humanoids, but most particularly the orcs. The orcs of the Flanaess were almost polar opposites of the elves, cruel, rapacious, and violent. Orcs hated elves passionately, supposedly because of some conflict between the chief elven god and the chief god of the orcs, the one-eyed Gruumsh. They tried to war constantly on the mighty elves, caring little for their own losses and tragedies.
In the midst of these wars with the humanoids, evil slipped into the elven realms. The arcane studies of the Drow had gotten them in contact with the Queen of Spiders, a mistress powerful in the magical arts, who seduced them with offers of power and knowledge, capturing them within her webs of deceit. By the time the other elven clans took notice, the Drow were already making their bid for dominance over the other elves. This is known as the Sundering, or alternatively as the Kin-Slaying. In a great struggle, the clans fought to first expunge the evil that had seduced the Drow, then to control them, and finally, to destroy them in a final effort to save all of elvenkind. The clan of the Drow was obliterated, but so were the Gold elves who had formed the nucleus and front line of the opposition against the Drow. The Grugach were severely reduced to a few families and all of the rest of the clans were scarred. Acrimony rose between the remaining clans over the conduct of the war and its consequences, damaging relations between them. The Silver elves, tarnished by the events of the war, were to become known as the Grey elves. The Sea elves retreated to their watery depths. The Sylvan elves insulated themselves within the deep forests. The Grugach barely clung to existence, hiding in the most remote of wildlands. Even the High elves turned inward.
The damage wrought by the Sundering caused the elven domains to retreat to the forests where their strength remained, leaving the plains to the Flan. Not long after that, the great migrations pushed whatever elves remained beyond the forest reaches into the woodlands.
The elves today have recovered a great deal from the Sundering. Although those events happened many generations ago, their legacy lives on. The Sylvan elves still cling to relative isolation, even among other elves. The High elves have again become the most open of the elven folk. The Sea elves have again emerged from the ocean depths. The Greys are also insular like the Sylvans, but they isolate themselves within their ivory towers of knowledge rather than deep forest homes. The Grugach are encountered only on rare occasion. The harmony and cooperation between the clans is not as strong as it once was.
There are some social characteristics most elves share, despite clan differences. Most elves are individualists, relishing their freedoms. They are also generally charitable, helpful, compassionate, and merciful. Many are also reclusive, proud, and patient (they live long enough to take a very long view). Elves love good entertainment and enjoy taking part in dancing, singing, telling stories, and drinking and eating find foods and wines.
Most elves also despise spiders of all sorts, keeping their homes clear of spiders and their webs. It is an old sentiment from the Kin-Slaying that spiders are the spies of the seductress. Giant varieties of spiders are always exterminated when found within elven domains. Elves have no love of orcs, though they are less grudge-holding than dwarves.
Across the Flanaess, elves are known as powerful magicians, fine craftsmen, and canny woodsmen. They are also considered by many to be haughty, majestic, and mysterious.


So, basically the Drow and Gold elves are, as far as anyone knows, gone. Of course that's not really true. But my players haven't uncovered the truth yet. In my GH, the gold elves became the valley elves, hiding out, for some reason, in the vale of the mage. I have tweaked the mechanics on Drow as well. Favored classes are cleric for females, sorcerer for males (after all, they were especially adept at arcane magic in centuries past). They get different stat bonuses depending on whether they are male or female (males get bonus to Int and Dex, Females to Wis, Dex, and Cha, both get penalties to Con). Males are always rejected by Lolth as clerics, females do not have the sorcerous powers males have.
Oh, yes, and they don't have dark skin. Silvery hair yes, fine dexterous hands, yes. But no easily markable dark skin.

While my elves aren't all that different from the core rules, they at least have a legacy of ruling the plains and hills as well as the forests (and in some places, still rule some non-forested lands like in Celene). They build great halls of stone as well as live in tree dwellings and platforms.