Reprisal
First Post
Economic Determination!
Elves tend to be the most long-lived common race in most D&D worlds. Being that long-lived, their economic advantage lies not in the size of their labour force, but rather the quality of their labour. Being so long-lived, I figure that the non-adventuring elves -- or rather those of the Commoner, Expert, and Aristocratic class -- have quite a long time to "level up" the mundane way. While one might be loathe to admit it just on basic principle, I think medium to high level NPC classes do, indeed, exist in great quantity in the longer-lived populations. At its very essence, the elven economy would not be based so much on labour intensive enterprises such as agriculture or primary resource extraction, but rather more skilled labour such as providing vital services and intricate manufacturing.
Of course, there are certain tropes embedded in the elven identity that hamper their economic dominance. So rather than embracing a culture of economic specialization as seen in shorter-lived societies, an elven individual could pursue a degree of self-sufficiency that would include not only subsistence, but also a pursuit of the arts and knowledge. This self-sufficiency would be tinted by the cultural and/or racial belief in harmony with nature, and as such, they would pursue a policy of sustainability in their economic production. So, in this instance, I agree with Jakathi in that the elves probably practice a policy of selective harvesting of trees.
In order to do this, they would have to be guided by clerics of the nature deity for some measure of compatability with their link to nature. I suppose the motto would be, "Everyone and everything has to make sacrifices to defend the greater realm of nature, even the forest itself." Of course, then there's the possibility for a fundamentalist faction of elves who abstain from any conscious destruction of nature and I figure these elves would be led by druids and would lean heavily toward the wild elf race... though I'd only change their culture and favoured weapons as noted above unless this schizm was old enough to foster the creation of an entirely new race.
Still, in the end, elves would still have to pursue a policy of trading with the outside world. I would assume it would be primarily with the dwarves that they trade, if humans only developed into a civilization recently in elven and dwarven history. So, at that point, the elves have three things that they can trade with the dwarves: lumber products, high quality services, and cultural goods (art, stories, musical instruments, etc.).
Of course, dwarves are also long-lived, but not nearly as much as the elves, so I believe that the dwarven economy would be based more on the extraction and refinement of mineral resources. It seems that dwarves evolved (or were created) to be the finest miners and they found a very powerful niche in the foreign trade -- their ore was the best and the cheapest. So, in exchange for elven lumber, selected services and cultural items, dwarves would trade the elves raw materials needed to sustain elven economies: silver and gold for jewellry and currency, iron for a myriad of uses as well as other, rarer materials for use in magical processes.
Neither of these races seem to be keen on agriculture, which, in my campaign, would be where the humans come into play but if humans are to be the less-ugly whipping dogs and/or evil bastards of your world then gnomes or halflings should suffice... In a lot of ways, I find that there's a good potential for conflict (and therefore story) if elves, dwarves and halflings formed some sort of symbiotic alliance to combat the forces of evil.
Dwarves: Lawful-Good, Mineral Extraction and Refinement.
Elves: Chaotic-Good, Lumber and Services.
Halflings: Neutral-Good, Agriculture.
Who would they combat as primary enemies? Orcs and goblinoids, mostly.
Orcs, I figure, would not develop into complex societies, but would remain a nomadic hunter/gatherer culture that would sustain their fertility by plundering other races. This would explain the orcish trope of the horde of barbarian raiders -- the only difference would be that they have a reason for doing so other than "just for kicks" or "it's just their nature."
Goblinoids, on the other hand, I believe would be something akin to the twisted reflection of the aforementioned Dwarf-Elf-Hafling Alliance. Based on a system of racial castes: hobgoblins would rule through violence, bugbears would serve as an obedient "shocktroop" warrior and beast of burden caste, and goblins would form the multitude of serf labour for inefficient agriculture and provide low quality services and manufacturing. The goblinoid empires would be barely attaining subsistence and would supplement their lives through wars to gain more productive territory, and more importantly, vassal states as sources of income and more slave labour.
It's at this point that I would throw humans into the mix... in my imagined world, humans would be a "purer" evolution of whatever species it was that all bipedal humanoid races came from -- which would explain why you can have half-elves, half-hobgoblins, half-orcs, and what-not. They're short-lived and they've not evolved in any direct root. As a species, they're the "jack of all trades." As a result, they'll never be as productive at somethings in comparison to the dwarves, elves or gnomes, but they'll be better at many other things.
Humans would be the ultimate monkey-wrench in this eternal and balanced struggle between the Good and Evil races. This would also help to explain the degree of importance that humans are given in most game worlds. Humans, as a neutral and fertile race, would become the focal point upon which the world revolves. I suppose, this would breed both a sense of contempt and threat in both the Good and Evil races. More conflict, hence, more story.
As humans flourished and grew in number, they would start to become competitive with all other races, despite their racial advantages -- mostly due to economies of scale. Dwarves could now get their lumber and food from humans at a lower cost, and likewise for every other species. The Older Races would soon become accustomed to this relationship and their age-old economic interdependence would be broken. Now, they could pursue their own agendas which would form the basis of the standard racial relationships we see in the PHB -- that distrust between elves and dwarves and the generally amicable, yet underscored, relationship halflings have with anyone. (Just read the write-up for halflings: they tend to get along well with either dwarves or elves, but are never the center of that relationship.)
On a side note, I've always had difficulty approaching the halflings and the gnomes. Often I get rid of one of them, or amalgamate certain aspects of both into one race with that gnomish trope for tinkering losing out.
In any event, I'm a long way from where we started, but sometimes it's fun to get all tangential.
In the end, the initial relationship between dwarves and elves would bring in certain questions, especially for agriculture. In this instance, I brought in halflings for that. Then I threw in their purpose, to exist to battle the evil races. Once established, humans are introduced and unbalances everything. Soon, humans are the central race to history and the elder races work through them for their ongoing battle of Good against Evil -- as a kind of proxy war of the ages with humans taking both sides and fighting most of the battles with each other.
Now that I look at it, it seems as if this is closely linked to the entire TV series Babylon 5 -- although, instead of order and chaos, we're talking Good and Evil. And rather than just two elder races, we have multiples. Still, humans would consist of the "younger race" and I suppose any campaign of this nature would culminate in humans telling the meddling elder races to "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" Well, actually... it'd probably only be world, but you probably get it...
Far too late for so much thinking and typing, though not necessarily in that order of importance,
- Rep.
Elves tend to be the most long-lived common race in most D&D worlds. Being that long-lived, their economic advantage lies not in the size of their labour force, but rather the quality of their labour. Being so long-lived, I figure that the non-adventuring elves -- or rather those of the Commoner, Expert, and Aristocratic class -- have quite a long time to "level up" the mundane way. While one might be loathe to admit it just on basic principle, I think medium to high level NPC classes do, indeed, exist in great quantity in the longer-lived populations. At its very essence, the elven economy would not be based so much on labour intensive enterprises such as agriculture or primary resource extraction, but rather more skilled labour such as providing vital services and intricate manufacturing.
Of course, there are certain tropes embedded in the elven identity that hamper their economic dominance. So rather than embracing a culture of economic specialization as seen in shorter-lived societies, an elven individual could pursue a degree of self-sufficiency that would include not only subsistence, but also a pursuit of the arts and knowledge. This self-sufficiency would be tinted by the cultural and/or racial belief in harmony with nature, and as such, they would pursue a policy of sustainability in their economic production. So, in this instance, I agree with Jakathi in that the elves probably practice a policy of selective harvesting of trees.
In order to do this, they would have to be guided by clerics of the nature deity for some measure of compatability with their link to nature. I suppose the motto would be, "Everyone and everything has to make sacrifices to defend the greater realm of nature, even the forest itself." Of course, then there's the possibility for a fundamentalist faction of elves who abstain from any conscious destruction of nature and I figure these elves would be led by druids and would lean heavily toward the wild elf race... though I'd only change their culture and favoured weapons as noted above unless this schizm was old enough to foster the creation of an entirely new race.
Still, in the end, elves would still have to pursue a policy of trading with the outside world. I would assume it would be primarily with the dwarves that they trade, if humans only developed into a civilization recently in elven and dwarven history. So, at that point, the elves have three things that they can trade with the dwarves: lumber products, high quality services, and cultural goods (art, stories, musical instruments, etc.).
Of course, dwarves are also long-lived, but not nearly as much as the elves, so I believe that the dwarven economy would be based more on the extraction and refinement of mineral resources. It seems that dwarves evolved (or were created) to be the finest miners and they found a very powerful niche in the foreign trade -- their ore was the best and the cheapest. So, in exchange for elven lumber, selected services and cultural items, dwarves would trade the elves raw materials needed to sustain elven economies: silver and gold for jewellry and currency, iron for a myriad of uses as well as other, rarer materials for use in magical processes.
Neither of these races seem to be keen on agriculture, which, in my campaign, would be where the humans come into play but if humans are to be the less-ugly whipping dogs and/or evil bastards of your world then gnomes or halflings should suffice... In a lot of ways, I find that there's a good potential for conflict (and therefore story) if elves, dwarves and halflings formed some sort of symbiotic alliance to combat the forces of evil.
Dwarves: Lawful-Good, Mineral Extraction and Refinement.
Elves: Chaotic-Good, Lumber and Services.
Halflings: Neutral-Good, Agriculture.
Who would they combat as primary enemies? Orcs and goblinoids, mostly.
Orcs, I figure, would not develop into complex societies, but would remain a nomadic hunter/gatherer culture that would sustain their fertility by plundering other races. This would explain the orcish trope of the horde of barbarian raiders -- the only difference would be that they have a reason for doing so other than "just for kicks" or "it's just their nature."
Goblinoids, on the other hand, I believe would be something akin to the twisted reflection of the aforementioned Dwarf-Elf-Hafling Alliance. Based on a system of racial castes: hobgoblins would rule through violence, bugbears would serve as an obedient "shocktroop" warrior and beast of burden caste, and goblins would form the multitude of serf labour for inefficient agriculture and provide low quality services and manufacturing. The goblinoid empires would be barely attaining subsistence and would supplement their lives through wars to gain more productive territory, and more importantly, vassal states as sources of income and more slave labour.
It's at this point that I would throw humans into the mix... in my imagined world, humans would be a "purer" evolution of whatever species it was that all bipedal humanoid races came from -- which would explain why you can have half-elves, half-hobgoblins, half-orcs, and what-not. They're short-lived and they've not evolved in any direct root. As a species, they're the "jack of all trades." As a result, they'll never be as productive at somethings in comparison to the dwarves, elves or gnomes, but they'll be better at many other things.
Humans would be the ultimate monkey-wrench in this eternal and balanced struggle between the Good and Evil races. This would also help to explain the degree of importance that humans are given in most game worlds. Humans, as a neutral and fertile race, would become the focal point upon which the world revolves. I suppose, this would breed both a sense of contempt and threat in both the Good and Evil races. More conflict, hence, more story.
As humans flourished and grew in number, they would start to become competitive with all other races, despite their racial advantages -- mostly due to economies of scale. Dwarves could now get their lumber and food from humans at a lower cost, and likewise for every other species. The Older Races would soon become accustomed to this relationship and their age-old economic interdependence would be broken. Now, they could pursue their own agendas which would form the basis of the standard racial relationships we see in the PHB -- that distrust between elves and dwarves and the generally amicable, yet underscored, relationship halflings have with anyone. (Just read the write-up for halflings: they tend to get along well with either dwarves or elves, but are never the center of that relationship.)
On a side note, I've always had difficulty approaching the halflings and the gnomes. Often I get rid of one of them, or amalgamate certain aspects of both into one race with that gnomish trope for tinkering losing out.
In any event, I'm a long way from where we started, but sometimes it's fun to get all tangential.
In the end, the initial relationship between dwarves and elves would bring in certain questions, especially for agriculture. In this instance, I brought in halflings for that. Then I threw in their purpose, to exist to battle the evil races. Once established, humans are introduced and unbalances everything. Soon, humans are the central race to history and the elder races work through them for their ongoing battle of Good against Evil -- as a kind of proxy war of the ages with humans taking both sides and fighting most of the battles with each other.
Now that I look at it, it seems as if this is closely linked to the entire TV series Babylon 5 -- although, instead of order and chaos, we're talking Good and Evil. And rather than just two elder races, we have multiples. Still, humans would consist of the "younger race" and I suppose any campaign of this nature would culminate in humans telling the meddling elder races to "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" Well, actually... it'd probably only be world, but you probably get it...
Far too late for so much thinking and typing, though not necessarily in that order of importance,
- Rep.
