Tolkien / Humanist Elves?

[Azure Trance]

As DM or PC, if you have the ability to create your own history and culture, do you use Elves more as a Forgotten Realms Elf (quite human like in nature, they are good, bad, can be drunks, gamblers, bullies, etc) who can have faults...

or

More as a Tolkien elf which are more ... Superior and refined? Would your Tolkien-esque Elves be capable of being found guilty of purse-snatching in the land of Rodnog?

Currently I'm deciding myself on how to interpret 'The Elf Problem.' Cause I keep seeing Col H Middle Earth Conversion Site and wonder if that's how should try using them, since I never (before the LOTR movies and awareness came out) thought of them in that way. Also, curiously is there in Tolkiens world an Elf that acts human (ie, lazy, cheats, lies, scams, etc ...)? Or are they always perfect?

Interesting WOTC thread on Elves:
http://boards.wizards.com/rpg/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=111;t=002959

 

[Eternalknight]

I always use them as superior beings. They are the snobby "Higher Class" of my world.

 

[Azure Trance]

I always use them as superior beings. They are the snobby "Higher Class" of my world.

Do you play them as snobby, or it's just a known fact since they are natually more superior? Playing them as snobby and other Elven problems are actually discussed in the WOTC thread link I provided above.

 

[Eternalknight]

I didn't check the link, but yes I play them as snobby. My players are free to play them however they wish, as long as they tell me why they are different. So, about 90-95% of the elven population are the snobby kind, but as in any culture there are variances.

I didn't check the link out, will do so now.

 

[Eternalknight]

After reading the thread, I'll pipe up and say that all though the elves are snobby and think they are better than everyone else, they aren't; they are slightly better in some things, worse in others.

 

[Drawmack]

I always viewed Tolkien's elves as thinking they were above petty things like revenge but they really aren't.

They do tend to comply with the law a bit more, but that's because elves have strict punishments and a life sentence to an elf if a really long time. However those that break the laws usually do not do it in such a way as to get their hands dirty.

Think about it though. In LotR Elrond is torn between helping the humans and leaving Middle Earth. He wants to pack up his people on the boats and leave. This is because he feels that men are not worthy because of something that happened 3,000 years ago. It takes the intervention of a diety to set him straight. That's far from perfect.

 

[Berandor]

I always base my elves on Tolkien, but with a twist:
When elves have a joyous party, it's the best and most joyous occasion of all, and the elves are totally overjoyed. Known fact.
When elves are on the decline, they tend to suffer and spent their whole day in misery, thinking about the good old times, melancholically. Known.

So basically, I say that elves are unable to control their emotions very well. When they love, their whole life is love, when they're drunk, they're the worst drunk you ever seen, and when they hate - it gets ugly.

Berandor

 

[Sammael99]

In my world, the elves originate from an island east of the main continent. The elves still living there are indeed superior and allof, but also extremely isolationist.

The elven races on the main continent are not considered true elves by these 'original elves'. They have a behaviour much closer to human behaviour, even though they may have their own culture, of course.

 

[Sulimo]

Also, curiously is there in Tolkiens world an Elf that acts human (ie, lazy, cheats, lies, scams, etc ...)? Or are they always perfect?

Yeah. Although they exist only in the First Age. Most of these are the sons of Feanor, especially Celegorm and Curufin. And then there's Eol and Maeglin...

 

[GravyFingerz]

I always think I sound cheesy when I say the following line:

In my homebrew setting ...

Elves are not snobby or arrogant. They do not place themselves higher than the humans or the dwarves. They do not have the best goods: one of the human countries has firearms, and another has superior metallurgic skills and materials.

The culture of the elves is even sometimes less then the men: one country, known for their scholarship and love of the arts, has a more refined culture than the elves.

Elves in this world are spirits of the woods, designed to protect the forests from unnecessary destruction and to keep them growing healthily. They do their job and live on. They understand that men sometimes take more then is necessary from the forests, so they work harder to replace what is taken. They dont view men with contempt; they understand thats the way things are.

They do not view men with pity either. While the elves are more powerful, being a divine race (Divine Rank 0), and the race of men no longer possessing any divinity left, the race of man possesses the gift of innovation, a gift which the spirits lack. While the elves will remain with their knowledge and technology, man will keep going upward and pushing the limits.

In short, the elves of this world are different.

Men are another story though; they are sort of a cosmic joke, used unwittingly to exact revenge by a greater power.

But that doesn't affect the role of elves.