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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8852637" data-attributes="member: 58172">Terms like People, Folk, Nation, and similar refer to a learned culture rather than an innate phenotype. I am comparing how Norse traditions describe nature beings with how D&D describes the Nonhuman player character options.I am looking closely at how Snorris Edda describes the "elves of the light" (ljósalfar) and the "elves of the dark" (døkkalfar). It appears Snorri himself invented these two nicknames for the elves (alfar) and the dwarves (dvergar), respectively. The elves dwell "in the sky", and the dwarves dwell "in the earth". The elves are the beings of the patterns of sunlight, including solar corona, sunbeams, and silver linings of clouds, and the dwarves beings of the patterns of earth, including remarkable mineral patterns in rocks and shapes of mud.Snorri describes the elves by the Norse word folk (or fólk in some dialects). I am translating folk as "citizenry". The elves form a "citizenry". Inferably, the dwarves form a different "citizenry".In the narrowest sense, the Norse word folk means "warriors". In Viking Period Norse cultures, each family has its own able-bodied members, the folk, who defend the family. When families feud, the folk of one family avenge a wronged family member against the folk of an other family. And visaversa. The males have an obligatory duty to fight for the family, but the folk can include females.At the local parliament (þing), the families come together in a direct democracy to vote to form the local government. The jarl is like local major, but functions much like a president, especially in the sense of being the commander in chief of the military. One of the jobs of the jarl is to unite warriors of the folk of each family, to lead a collective army in times of war. Hence, the territory of a parliament is called a fylki.Thus, the Norse term folk can mean the family warriors, the family as a whole who supplies the warriors, the army of a parliament, or all of the citizenry who form the parliament.In sum, in the widest sense, the Norse term folk means a "citizenry", especially a group that has its own government and its own army.The Norse elves comprise a folk. They are citizens of their own government and have their own army. Judging by elf names such as Vǫlundr, literally "the wounder by the shaman-rod", the elf army fights by means of magic. Their fylki, namely the territory of their parliament, is the sky above the clouds. Their "headplace" (hǫfuðstaða) where the elven parliament gathers and where the jarl resides, is called Alfheimr. The jarl of the elven parliament is known by the title ljóði, literally the "songster", referring to the Norse warrior magic that the masculines sing. The feminines command the shamanic magic. Elves of either gender wield any and every form of magic. The elven army of mages are formidable."Then Gangleri spoke:You know (much) to say great news of the sky.What headplace is there, other than (the one) at the Urðar Wellspring (where the æsir have their parliament)?Hárr said:Many noble places are there (in the sky).There is that one place, which is called Alfheimr.There dwells that citizenry, who go-by-the-name elves of the light (ljósalfar).But elves of the dark (døkkalfar) dwell below in the earth.And they are unlike them (in) appearance,and greatly unlike them (in things) experienced.The elves of the light are brighter than sun,but the elves of the dark are blacker than pitch."Þá mælti Gangleri:Mikil tíðendi kannt þú at segja af himninum.Hvat er þar fleira hǫfuðstaða en at Urðarbrunni?Hárr segir:Margir staðir eru þar gǫfugligir.Sá er einn staðr þar, er kallaðr er Alfheimr.Þar byggvir fólk þat, er Ljósalfar heita.En Døkkalfar búa niðri í jǫrðu.Ok eru þeir ólíkir þeim sýnumok miklu ólíkari reyndum.Ljósalfar eru fegri en sól sýnum,en Døkkálfar eru svartari en bik.These terms "light" (ljós) and "bright" (fagr) refer to elves radiating an aura of light. The term "bright" connotes both luminous and beautiful. The terms "light" (ljós) and "bright" (fagr) likewise describe other nature beings who radiate light. Dagr the "day" and Dellingr of "dawn" are luminous son and father. "He (the day) was light and bright after (the manner of) his father (the dawn)." (Var hann ljóss ok fagr eptir faðerni sínu.) Likewise, Baldr. "He is so bright (in) view, and brilliant, so (that) it shines-light from him." (Hann er svá fagr álitum ok bjartr, svá at lýsir af honum.) All of these nature beings, the light of day, the light of dawn, and the elven light of the sun, are luminous beings who radiate an aura of light across the sky. The elven light relates to the solar corona and sunbeams. The many beams of light piercing down thru clouds resemble a military array, whence an elven army of sunlight. Notice, the Norse perceive daylight, sunlight, and dawnlight as different beings.Contrasting the elves of light, the dwarves dwell in pitch darkness in the earth. Even when manifesting beyond the earth, the direct sunlight is lethal to dwarves. The woman shamans among elves and among dwarves are nornir who decide the fates of humans, successful and unsuccessful respectively. The dwarves can be an ironic source of success, whence gaining the nickname "elf", by inflicting unsuccess against a persons enemies.The Norse elves are the beings of sunlight with their own government and army: the "citizenry" (folk) of a parliament. Likewise, the Norse dwarves comprise their own self-governing citizenry.Heh, I find the Norse description problematic, because it fuses both the concept of a separate species (namely "kind" kyn) and the concept of a culture (namely "citizenry" folk).But this problem is easily remedied. If a species has many different governments, each with its own unique culture, then there is a clear distinction between the aspect of a species and the aspect of its cultures.This idea of a species of nature being comprising a diversity of cultures, is more like how Shakespeare describes the English fairies. Fairies are fateful beings of fertile soil. The fairies divide up into self-governing courts. Each court can represent a separate territory with a separate culture. One fairy court has Titania ruling it, and an other fairy court has Oberon ruling it. Elsewhere, the renaissance literature mentions other fairy courts, including the Scottish Queen of Elphame, the Greek god Pluto understood instead as a fairy, and so on. The modern folklore distinctions between "trooping fairies" and "solitary fairies" relates to whether the fairies organize their own government and army, or not. The fairy have many different cultures, each with its own government.Notably, a fairy court can include nonfairy citizens. Individual humans can immigrate to become citizens of a fairy court. Sometimes undead humans become members of unseelie fairy courts. Likewise, individual fairies can immigrate to become members of a human community, sometimes marrying a human, sometimes adopted by a human, and so on.Relating to the Norse elves. The Norse texts speak about the parliament at Alfheimr, but there can be cultural diversity, with other elven cultures elsewhere. Especially note the Scottish Elphame. Here Elp-hame is a cognate of Alf-heimr. There are two separate elf cultures. A male Songster presides over the Norse parliament of Alfheimr, but a Queen presides over the Scottish kingdom of Elphame.This cultural diversity likewise resembles how 5e describes the Eladrin courts (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) and Drow nations (Uda, Loren, and Aeven). And so on. Each species comprises a diversity of cultures. Many cultures include members of other species as well.Ideally, the Drow and the Eladrin are different cultures within the species of Elf. D&D should probably avoid thinking in terms of "subspecies".In 1e there is the Valley of the Mage, where Humans, Elves, and Gnomes are members of the same magical culture and its magocracy.Culture and backgrounds should do most of the heavy lifting when representing diversity within a Nonhuman species.The One D&D Elf has its diversity by means of different innate spells. I would rather the capacity of innate magic be the feature of the species, while the player chooses which spells to manifest, and the distinction between High and Drow be cultural influences rather than subspecies.</blockquote>

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