What happened to elves?

[Samnell]

Celeborn's history is confused. At one point he is termed a kinsman of Thingol (which would make him one of the Sindar), and at another time he is described as one of the Teleri (the Elves who inhabited the Lonely Isle near Valinor). I think Tolkien decided on the former -- it makes more sense that way since he didn't leave Middle-earth with Galadriel. One would think that if he had been across the Sea he wouldn't have any compunctions about going back!

The Teleri were the Unwilling, those elves led by Olwe (who went to Valinor with the last load on the island ferry service) and Elwe, who did not. Elwe instead wandered the woods and came upon Melian the Maia. He was later called Thingol. He and his group of Teleri never went to Valinor. None of the Teleri who went returned except to ferry the host that brought down Morgoth, remembering how the Noldor stole their ships and killed a bunch of them back in Valinor. The Teleri who stayed were renamed by the Noldor Sindar when they returned in pursuit of the Silmarils (excepting Finarfin's group who realized what a bad idea that was and how psycho Faenor had gotten).

So Celeborn could be both a Teleri and not go across the sea nor have returned. After the downfall of Morgoth, the Valar reiterated their call for all elves to go West. Most of the Noldor went packing and a fair number of Teleri went with them. Following that one had increasing spurts of migration in small groups like one sees in LOTR.

Wandering well off topic, Tolkien's little eulogy for Thingol was great stuff for capturing the extent of elven lifespan.

 

[Gez]

What happened to elves? They were all stuffed with apples and eaten by a troll.

See also Edena's latest elf-thread.

 

[mistergone]

Seems to me that in 3E they've gone even more out of the way to make elves seems more alien. No sleep? That's just odd. They go into some Vulcan ninja trance instead. What comes ot my mind the most when thinking about elves in 3E is the one picture of I believe the iconic elf wizard where she just looks like a cross-eyed Grey. Ridiculous.

In my game world (ah you knew it was coming) there's really only two kinds of elf left, wood elves and high elves, both which have pretty different cultures. High elves are very tall, usually taller than humans, while wood elves are about as tall as "standard" D&D elves. I also have drow, which are sometimes called dark elves, but they're not an evil race, not any moreso than any other common race, and they don't live underground, but rather in the desert.

 

[Tiefling]

In my world, one cannot accurately classify the elven race by any behavioral adjective. Elves, like humans, have dozens of vastly different cultures.

 

[Felix]

Elves entering a Vulcan ninja trance?

IIRC, it was from Gimli's point of view while pursuing the Uruk-hai accross Rohan that Legolas didn't seem to sleep that much; his eyes were always open. Other places in LotR refer to Elf dreams more as "walking through the woods wide awake and recalling their past life". At one point Legolas points out to Aragorn that they don't have the same kind of dreams (not meaning aspirations).

So, yeah, at least Tolkien's elves had a vulcan-ninja trance.

 

[Spatula]

Seems to me that in 3E they've gone even more out of the way to make elves seems more alien. No sleep? That's just odd. They go into some Vulcan ninja trance instead.

*sigh* This, too, predates 3E by quite a bit.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Elves are elves.
Elves are not solemn, somber humans.

If elven thought processes were even remotely like that of humans, elves could not remain sane.
Could you remain sane, if you knew you were doomed to a wretched hunter-gatherer life (or worse yet, an even more wretched peasant/slave medieval life) for the next 1,000 years?

These life-styles can be wretched, but if you belong to a race that naturally tends towards altruistic behavior and is highly resistant to disease I think you're probably better off in these life styles than in most others.

Particularly hunter gatherer, most leisure time of any human social order. Also very very stable, not nearly as much internal discord and problems.

Peasants are worse off than hunter-gatherers but in a non-wretched society they still do better for holidays and personal rights than most industrialized and developing societies. Though their obligations are also generally more stringent.

 

[mistergone]

*sigh* This, too, predates 3E by quite a bit.

From where? Tolkien? I'm talking about in D&D. I don't recall elves in D&D ever before 3E not sleeping. Immune to sleep spells, sure. Besides, my main point was, in 3E they have made elves more alien-looking. By contrast, despite their look, they've made virtually all the races very similar in social niches. They all seem to live together in big communities. Look at the town generation tables. A percentage of every race in every town?

 

[Drakron]

"Mein Alf" (also know as "The Complete book of elves") actually made references to "reverie" with is similar to trance,.

Its a AD&D 2nd ed product.

 

[Spatula]

From where? Tolkien? I'm talking about in D&D. I don't recall elves in D&D ever before 3E not sleeping. Immune to sleep spells, sure.

From 2E, at the least. I can't recall off the top of my head whether the no sleep thing was ever in earlier editions or not.

Besides, my main point was, in 3E they have made elves more alien-looking.

I never liked elves as humans with pointy ears and without beards - THAT would be vulcans. There's a particularly bad picture of such in the last version of the 2E PHB (the one with the black cover), in the races chapter.