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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3549208" data-attributes="member: 13966">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.As for Tolkien's elves (since I'm less familiar with the other authors you mentioned): I don't think they're very much like you think they were.  Tolkien's elves were not pacifists, and they were not so ill-prepared to live in Middle-Earth.  They were tougher and more skillful than humans in battle, and they had no problem fighting the monsters, humans, and corrupted elves (orcs) that the Enemy mustered against them, to the bitter end.The elves only retreated to the West because they had fought the Enemy for so many hundreds or thousands of years that their numbers were depleted, whereas Morgoth (IIRC the name) just kept corrupting humans, elves, and Maiar into his servants, and kept his vile orcish breeding program maintained deep beneath his fortress (I forget the name), to continue churning out more orcish warriors.  The elves were too depleted and tired of fighting both men and orcs for so long, and realized that they were becoming too scattered and small a minority in the lands of Middle-Earth, so more of them began heading into the West to join their kin.Even so, the elves never really died though, they were immortal.  The lands of the Valar (again I forget the name) were part of Middle-Earth and were the destination of elven souls, though the dead elves who re-formed in the Halls of Manwe (I think that was the location) had to stay separate from the other elves until Eru/Iluvatar determined the time when they would be reunited (or maybe it was Manwe who had to decide?  I forget).  Although the lands of the West were partially removed from Middle-Earth to be unreachable to Man and the forces of Sauron, they were still part of the world.  I don't recall right now, but I think there was a mandate that elves who went to the West could not return to Middle-Earth (or vice versa?), because of some problems earlier.  I really should read the Silmarillion again to refresh my memory.......Tolkien's elves, in any case, were suited just fine to adventuring in the D&D sense, and lived for thousands of years alongside Dwarves and, to a lesser extent, Men (since they appeared quite some time later than the Elves and Dwarves).  They had both peaceful and conflicting relations with both races.  Although not that many elves went adventuring, they had little need or reason to, but some did travel and adventure, certainly.  They don't really compare to your purely-non-adventuring-and-super-pacifist style of elf.</blockquote>

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