Arkhandus said:
Edena:
I'm confused.
Your description clearly describes the elves as pacifists of just about the most extreme sort. They can hardly fathom the possibility of hurting another living thing.
So how come they haven't all been eradicated in your campaign setting? Surely, any random monster, let alone humanoid bandits or armies seeking elven treasures or elven lands, would exterminate a significant chunk of the elven race all by itself. An orcish horde would easily wipe out these cowering pacifists, who stare aghast at their killers, stunned by the bloody rampage of orcishkind, lacking any natural inclination for self-defense.
Clearly your elves are less capable of violence than a timid rabbit, for at least Nature has seen fit to give such a small, herbivorous creature with some amount of fighting instincts to preserve itself. Yet your elves sound like they would be so horrified after mustering the will to strike down a single marauding enemy, that they would freeze up and withdraw into their minds from the shock and despair of what they just did. And then be promptly overrun by the remaining horde of enemies.
The Tarrasque, a mind flayer, a demon, a beholder, or a red dragon would just have a field day slaughtering elves like a giant stepping on helpless ants.
That is the major problem I saw when I read your description. Your elves are completely unrealistic, lacking even the most basic of natural instincts for self-defense. They cannot go adventuring. They would be so horrified by the act of hurting another living creature, that they would retreat and hide for a long time after just one act of very hesitant violence, and likely never want to go through that again, even if their life were threatened once more. They are unnatural.
(considers this ...)
In my version of the Flanaess, the elves had their own civilizations at Highfolk, Celene, the Duchy of Ulek, and the Lendores as per the standard campaign. Elves were found in significant concentrations elsewhere.
A particularly large nation of elves, known as Delrune, existed roughly where the Vesve Forest is on the map, but the Clatspurs were to the east, separating that realm from the Vesve and the threat from Iuz.
The Greyhawk Wars saw serious losses of elven life in Celene (from Turrosh Mak), Highfolk and Veluna (from Ket), the Vesve Forest (from Iuz), and across the east (from the disintegration of Aerdi.) Delrune was defended by the dwarves of Chautosbergen on the east, and the centaurs and humans of Calrune on the west, and was untouched. The gentle, peaceful elves of Delrune remained as they were.
The second war, in which Greater Ahlissa came into being, and Geoff was recovered from the giants, had little effect on the elves.
Then the Solistarim struck. This confederation of lawful evil beings, armed with great military power - physical, magical, and psionic - swept down from beyond the Black Ice and overran the entire western half of the Flanaess. Their goal was primarily extermination, and they swept entire lands free of sentient life.
Highfolk and Celene were destroyed. Most of the Lortmil and Velunish elves were killed. The Vesve elves were swept aside as Iuz's forces fled southward from holdings taken by the Solistarim. And half of Delrune was obliterated. The other half was untouched (the Solistarim simply passed it by, saving it for later, then had to retreat before they could exterminate the remaining elves.)
It sorta happened exactly as you describe it in your post, Arkhandus. Almost word for word. Rabbits before the slaughter. Yes, they put up a desultory defense, these elves of Delrune. And their pitiful defense was swept away, and then they were swept away.
Or, as the Solistarim would have said: We have no use for weak elves, so we removed the pests.
The remaining elves of Delrune and elsewhere in the Flanaess attempted to 'play human.' Some turned to the darkness for power. Others turned even to Lolth, and she answered them.
Delrune became an armed camp, a nation of fortress cities. Most of the other elves of the Flanaess fled to the Lendores for safety.
Then Vecna came forward with his Army. Kas and Iuz were slain trying to stop him.
Vecna decided to exterminate a number of races. Drow and elves were priority targets. With his might and the size of his army, nobody could stop him - and a weakened, divided, and shattered Flanaess could never have done so.
Vecna killed practically every last drow and elf in the Flanaess, down to Nippon, deep into Hempmonaland, through all the Baklunish lands, and through the Celestial Imperium. He conquered all the other nations. He then set himself up as God Emperor at Greyhawk City.
The Lendores were swept clean of elves in that war. Vecna shattered the gates to Arvandor there, and broke the elven magic.
In Delrune, all elves were killed. Except in one place, a city known as Haldendrea. Vecna overlooked it, like one might overlook one ant when stepping on thousands, feet covered in ant-goo.
So it went exactly as you said it would have to go.
It would have happened that way eventually anyways, considering the warring powers of the Flanaess. The Solistarim (they surrendered to Vecna) and Vecna simply speeded up the process.
From Haldendrea arose a nation of elves, that became unlike typical elves, that became quite atypical. But they alone survived - out of all the elves of the Flanaess, they were the last - and then they thrived, and eventually they became a military superpower that rivalled Vecna himself. Vecna and Haldendreeva (as it was later called) had many wars, but Haldendreeva lasted for the entirety of Vecna's many hundred years of power.
How did they do that?
They changed all the rules. They remade reality over to their suiting. Magic made it possible. The game mechanics made it possible.
Did they remain elves, as in Elven elves? That's a good question. I thought they partially did so. But others might disagree.
