Youre favorite style of Elf

[Pants]

Old school fighter mage elves ala Erol Otus-magical haughty creatures.

Yuck

I like my Elves Aerenal flavored, or Iosan-spiced (ala the Iron Kingdoms), or Samwise Didier or Chris Metzen Warcraft stylized. Any will do, all are cool.

 

[Banshee16]

of course the Elf - Alien link was established by Disney in Darby OGill and the Little People

Dr Dale Russell of the Canadian Museum of Nature imagined what an evolved dinosaur might look like and came up with this (just add feathery hair and pointy ears)

A possible result of neoteny in the Stenonychosaurus

Heh...I remember those models....

They are very cool.....he did those back in like '82 or '83, I believe.

Banshee

 

[Testament]

I love Aerenal and Valenar Elves of Eberron, especially the Valenar (pauses to stare at the pic in RoE of the Valenar horseman coming home).

I'm suprised no-one's mentioned the Warlord Elves, short lived hateful hateful HATEFUL Necromancers.

Visually, I like a lot of the Eberron art for Elves, but also have a liking for some of the Anime depictions, like Record of the Lodoss War (OAV, not series) or my personal choice, Crest/Banner/Crown of the Stars (aside from the blue hair). Yeah, so it's sci-fi, but try to deny the elvishness of the Abh, I dare you!

 

[Banshee16]

I prefer elves relatively tall, slender, like idealized humans....but not human at the same time. Probably my favorite take on them would be the Sithi of Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn".

Eternal, immortal, but completely alien from human context. Tall, slender, slitted pupils, and somehow looking "wrong".....joints not behaving like in normal humans, yet graceful at the same time.

Banshee

 

[CrusaderX]

My elves are insanely beautiful. Alot like the elves from the game Lineage II, shown here and here.

Or, as mentioned multiple times above, see Faith Hill.

 

[Gez]

Old school fighter mage elves ala Erol Otus-magical haughty creatures.

Like the squid motif on the shirt, but the chin is plain out wrong for an elf. And even for a half-elf.

 

[reanjr]

Heck, almost everyone in my gaming group thought Legolas was prettier than most women you pass by on a daily basis.

I certainly did.

 

[sniffles]

Anybody watch Lost ? Who's the actress who plays Kate? Yes I'm even too lazy to google. What have you done to me, internet?

Anyway, slap some sizeable pointy ears on her and you have my perfect idea of a female elf.

Evangeline Lilly. That'd be a great name for an elf, too.

This thread got me thinking of other types of elves one could have that are inspired by Tolkien but going in a different direction. Tolkien's elves are ageless, immortal, wise, virtuous (mostly), and kind. But they could have gone other ways. Suppose that when Men came along and the elves knew they were going to be supplanted as the premiere race of Middle-Earth, they decided they weren't having any of that and set out to either enslave or wipe out all those upstart humans?

Or: When humans first meet elves, instead of a friendly and peaceful meeting, the humans kill the elves and take their stuff. Now all the remaining elves are either slaves or fugitives.

Or: The BBE wins. The elves have all gone over to the dark side except for a tiny resistance pocket.

Or: Elves are equivalent to the Japanese before Admiral Perry came along. They don't want to have anything to do with the rest of the world.

Or: Elves have decided they're best suited to being in charge so they've conquered everyone else and now rule as benevolent (or not) dictators.

Or: Elves are virtually immortal, but the trade-off is that they don't reproduce, so they're gradually dwindling away.

I could do this forever but I'll stop now before I bore everyone to death.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Or, as mentioned multiple times above, see Faith Hill.

So the nomines for Elf of the year are:

Faith Hill for her performance of "This Kiss"

Salma Hayek for "From Dusk til Dawn",

Jennifer Garner for ummm, "Elektra?",

The Chick form lost for: Ummm "Lost"

That SNL guy for: "Elf"

Orlando Bloom for "Lord of the Rings"

Orlando Bloom for "Pirates of The Caribbean"

and finally,

Michael Jackson for well, "Himself, or possibly Herself"

And the Winner is MICHAEL JACKSON!!

Yes, in this contest no one even came close. No one better represnted etheral, gracefull, frail beings with an alien persona & completely incomprehensibilty to motral man than Michael Jackson! Congrats Mike.

 

[Torm]

Yes, in this contest no one even came close. No one better represnted etheral, gracefull, frail beings with an alien persona & completely incomprehensibilty to motral man than Michael Jackson! Congrats Mike.

Yeah, but he's a Drow.

I love the method used to convey the "alien persona & complete incomprehensibility to mortal man" aspect of the Elves in LoTR - any time they were alone, with no other races around, they act like they're in a Calvin Kline's Obsession ad. And that WORKS! I still have no idea what the heck those ads were on about!