What scares an Elf?

[RobShanti]

How about cold iron? The loss of their magic? The corruption of their forest?

 

[delericho]

Speaking IMC, of course...

So now they are high-tailing it back to the Elven stronghold to warn them. Which begs the question, "What scares an Elf?"

Industry. Elves normally live for centuries, so they have a different perspective to humans. A human comes into the world and sees it as it is. He then makes his mark on the world, but no matter how great his influence, he really won't see much change over his lifetime - at worst, he'll pass a worse planet on to his children who will then see it as-is.

But an elf lives for many human lifetimes, so he sees the damage that can be done across generations. So when humans cut down forests en masse to burn them up to fuel industry, the elves see the horror of it - not only have they seen the death of trees that might have stood for generations, but they also know that the forest won't just spring back - it needs careful cultivation and tending or the likely result is deforestation.

Of course, the problem with that is that it's not terribly useful for a cosmic horror game - the threats probably need to be much more immediate.

Do elves have daddy issues? Do they have scandal and jealously?

IMC no, no, and no. Elves are similar to bees, in that there's a Queen who is actually the mother of the entire colony, the father is her chosen consort of the moment, and so the elves don't even know (or care) who their father is.

Likewise, elves don't have any concept of marriage, or monogamy, or even family - young elves (of the 'noble' castes - 'workers' are near-mindless) typically travel from their colonies into the world and eventually return to some other colony. While there, they may take whatever lovers they wish for a time, and then they may part from those lovers as they wish.

Oh, and elves (except the Queen) are infertile with their own kind, so that's not an issue either. (Though they are fertile with humans, a detail that causes them some trouble because it's something they simply don't consider before taking a human lover.)

Do they have human realities, like food and waste and sweat and sex?

Yes to all. Well, maybe not sweat.

How have you guys dealt with the humanity/inhumanity of fictional races?

I generally pick one or two iconic differences and then emphasise those. With elves, it's the fixed castes (worker, noble, queen), the lack of family bonds, and the sexual freedom that results. With dwarves, it's a schism based on food: the most traditional dwarves insist that they should eat only manna (a legacy of their wanderings in the Underdark in their ancient history) while more modern dwarves delight in a wide variety of foodstuffs.

That way, the players have some sort of hook that they can grab on to with their characters, without being overwhelmed with a huge amount of lore to try to get their heads around. And it means also that they have plenty of scope for their own detailing, both of their character and also of the specific settlement that the character came from.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Phrases like:

"...'till death do you part..."
"...for the rest of your life..."
"...we'll be BFFs!"
"...once in a lifetime..."

 

[Hand of Evil]

other things: family trees, to see blood lines fade and disappear or become mixed. This could be used to explain the divides in type of elves, those that have remained pure to their blood (high/grey), those that feel they have to look to add to the blood (wood) and those that have corrupted their blood (drow).

 

[Gaea Games]

I am running a game with a blend of faction-based warfare and cosmic horror.

Presently, the party is split along a civilized / sylvan axis. I run the groups independently, on different days. This wasn't the case at first, and the composition will likely change again.

So right now I am having a hard time deciding how to handle the magical-forest-dwelling half of the party. So far, they had an encounter with the faerie Lord of Fall, and spent the night in his court. I started with a "Midsummer Night's Dream" feel, with magic and wonder, and then slowly transitioned it into a Black Sabbath. As the night wore on, they realized the Lord of Fall was more malevolent then he seemed, and had fallen into forbidden ways. This played out very well. In retrospect, I think they will realize that he let them see what happened there because he wanted them to know, and he wanted them to be afraid. In the end the court abandoned them alone in the woods at night.

So now they are high-tailing it back to the Elven stronghold to warn them. Which begs the question, "What scares an Elf?" I have an elf and a fae player, and I need them to be invested, partially so that I can creep them out. But elves and fairies have always been the mysterious "other". Right now a lot about elven culture is still undefined in my world. It is hard because I need build a background for them that will allow me to scare my players in a way that also builds their inhuman characters. Right now they are going "home" for the first time in the campaign, and I have no idea what that will look like. Do elves have daddy issues? Do they have scandal and jealously? Do they have human realities, like food and waste and sweat and sex? And if not, what would they be like instead, and how can I use that to frighten my players?

How have you guys dealt with the humanity/inhumanity of fictional races?

Well, if you assume that Elves and fae are immortal or nearly so, it is not time that scares them. It is not action, since they have so much time in which to act. It is not even death, for the realms beyond have touched them and they have touched those realms in turn. Elves weather the world in ways less magical races cannot—but it is that world that frightens them. More specifically, it's the loss of the world they know. When you have lived for a thousand years, especially among less enduring races, what have you seen change? What lives, what songs and tales have you known that have passed into legend, or perhaps into the dust of the forgotten? What has happened to all that you knew and loved when you were young? For that matter, do you still love those things that once gave you such joy and wonder? Or have you grown jaded, embittered by a world that slips ever more through your fingers while you watch the mortal folk burn like candles, bright but brief in their flame?

That sort of thing is probably where I would start.