Elves

[CourtFool]

Do you have Elves in your fantasy world? If you do, what are they like?

[Markdoc]

Re: Elves

 

Do you have Elves in your fantasy world? If you do' date=' what are they like?[/quote']

 

Elves are just what humans call the pretty versions of the faerie folk. They call the big ones giants and the short ones dwarves and the really ugly ones goblins, or nighthaunts or boggarts, while they call the ones that look mostly like animals beastmen or magical beasts.

 

But they are all basically just faeries.

 

cheers, Mark

[mvoncannon]

Re: Elves

 

Do you have Elves in your fantasy world? If you do' date=' what are they like?[/quote']

 

When I am running a fantasy game, I have them. I usually limit them, or I end up with 50% of the PCs as elves.

 

They are aloof and are rarely seen outide of their homelands. The main reason is that they are hard to find, unless they want to be. Yes, they have abilities that make them better than humans, but not over humans.

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Elves

 

Yeah, Via has elves. They're long-lived and aloof, but pretty nonviolent. They're descended from a cross between giants and Fae, so they're taller than humans. They really like government, though, to the point where any interaction with them gets mired in paperwork and tangled up in their laws.

 

There's a contingent of them that's experimenting with a vegetarian diet, and most of them have a CvK.

 

There's some more detail in the Via information thread, if you wanna read it.

[Old Man]

Re: Elves

 

I have Elf-like people in mine.

 

I love Elves.

 

 

Mine are dying out.

[Heroman]

Re: Elves

 

I have elves, but they are short, made of cookie dough and live in hollowed out trees. The inhabitants in the game LOVE elves, especially during the hot season when they get a nice and baked....

[Cantriped]

Re: Elves

 

My world has the Fae, which are generally very "Elven"

[Cancer]

Re: Elves

 

Elves in my world(s) are physically slight, extremely long-lived. They have low fertility (about 2.1 children per woman, but that's over a lifetime of tens of thousands of years) and extremely high skills. They aren't intrinsically more magical than other humanoids, but the skills they have through millenia of practice make it seem that way to the young and easily impressionable.

 

They also play very deep political games, manipulating the Ephemeral races (as they call the others) toward their own ends. The exploits of the Bavarian Illuminati sound like the games played by the Elves' mentally defective youth.

 

It's not that they are evil; it's just that when your population takes 50,000 years to rebuild from any serious loss, you have to take an extremely long perspective (and be ruthless with th equick-breeding competitors) to avoid extinction.

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Elves

 

Nope, no elves. I hate elves. If elves existed in my world, they all died doing something stupid well before the other races were around.

[War Cry]

Re: Elves

 

Mmmmmmm..........elves, the other white meat. I use elves to feed the good guys - my orcs.

 

Um, no that's not right. Lessee, elves I've used in the past,

 

High Elves

Standard arrogant, aloof, fair skinned,"Tolkien" elves (Elrond and Galadriel wannabes) with a twist. My high elves are evil. Not the outright worship dark gods and offer human sacrifice kind of evil, the "We don't give a rat's patootie about anyone but ourselves" kind of evil. I use them as the major slave traders in my worlds. I figure if they are so arrogant to look down on the lesser races, they should treat them just like the animals they see the others to be.

 

Dark elves

Not the evil dark elves so commonly thought of. Called dark elves because of their skin tone, which ranges from rich caramel to copper tones. As far as culture and society, I triy to give them a Ottoman Empire/ancient Arabic kind of feel, complete with harems and concubines, djinn and efreets, scimitars, and all the other kewl trappings commonly associated with "Tales from the Arabian Nights".

 

Wood Elves

Celtic, complete with the head trophies, chariots, and limed hair. And they live in the tree tops off course.

 

Blood ELves

Same as wood elves, but with all the bloody practices that have been attributed to the Celts, whether they are true or not. Bonfires where they cook captives in giant wicker baskets, trick or treating (give us a present or we'll take your eldest child and eat 'em), and other twisted practices to make people fear them.

 

Those are the ones I have the most fun with anyway, which is weird, cause I really don't care for elves. Unless of course, It's Whats For Dinner.

[Curufea]

Re: Elves

 

Basically Tolkeinesque:

 

Tall, thin, not fast but graceful (they do have time on their hands after all). They usually appear to non-Elves to be thinking about at least 2 things at any given time. Skin colour varies with sub-race and weather conditions. Sub-race is a matter of belief and which particular branch of the Elven religion they are following. Magic is a result of mind and will. Elves, as a race that is inherently magical, are also inherently changed by mind and will.

 

All Elves are tall, thin, and not as strong as Humans. High Elves have gold tinged skin, Wood Elves tan, Sea Elves olive and Dark Elves are pale. The Elven Council is made of a mixture of Elven races.

 

These are just stereotypes however. There can be a fair degree of variation.

 

The are "otherworldly" with an inherent connection to the magical dimension and behave in an often alien manner incomprehensible to humans.

 

http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/WS:Elves

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: Elves

 

Elves are just what humans call the pretty versions of the faerie folk.

 

But they are all basically just faeries.

 

 

Ain't that the truth.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Elves

 

The Haelfinan are the "elves" of my world:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/SanDora/SanDoraInhabitants_Haelfinan_Characters.shtml

 

They are more fey oriented, with a severe allergy to Iron based items. They are the progenitors of the other warm blooded races of my world, though many races no longer recall it, but they are not benevolent.

 

The Var, the "dwarves" of my world, were one of their first creations and eventually rose up to over throw them. Humans were but one of many later servitor races created by the Haelfinan to fight the Var, and proved to be the most succesful. But eventually the Var discerned the greedy nature of Man and bribed many tribes to side with them instead. Finally the combined forces of Var and bribed humans routed the Haelfinan, those humans that remained loyal to them, and their other sundry servitor races from the main land.

 

Generally speaking the Haelfinan are selfish, mercurial, dangerous, subtle, and hidden. They are essentially like dangerous amoral aristocrats taken to the greatest extreme. Fortunately they are rarely encountered in the lands of Men or Var.

[Shike019]

Re: Elves

 

I have elves in my campaign world, which are tolkienesque, but I'm thinking of doing' a little bit of a shift on them.

[Hierax]

Re: Elves

 

IMC, Anti-Iron is an essential balancing factor to Elves and other suck fae folk.

[Old Man]

Re: Elves

 

Elves are beautiful, willowy, graceful, dexterous, effeminate, and--most of all--arrogant. Until you hit them with a weapon. Then their graceful, willowy bones shatter like kindling, their watery blood splashes lightly upon the ground, and they die.

 

Well, sometimes they last long enough to plead for mercy, and hear the mocking laughter in response...

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Elves

 

Since my fantasy world of choice is Eberron ...

 

The elves engage in ancestor worship in two different ways ... one sect does fairly peaceful ancestor worship, calling on their counsel, heeding their wisdom, and occassionally keeping them around as Deathless (like undead, but sustained by positive energy) if they warrant it, and the other sect that gives worship to their ancestors through valiant combat and conquest (honoring their martial history and the breaking of the bonds of giant slavery so long ago) by being horse-riding, scimitar-swinging kickers of great @$$.

[Alibear]

Re: Elves

 

Elves on my world were Genetically/Magickally created pleasure beings for a race of Dragon riding Über-beings/ demi gods called Valhrü (Thanks Mr. Feist)

 

They are coded (physical lim) to follow commands of the Valhrü and to fear them (psych lim). Of course as the Valhrü died out millenia ago the disads aren't worth any points....

 

The players didn't know any of this of course until one (now ex player) became possesed by his spirit and is slowly turning into it

 

 

Two are playing Elves btw. Mwuhahahahaha

 

Dwarves were create at the same time but are designed to do the work, digging & scurrying under the ground, carrying & lifting & building Valhrü buildings.

[prodigyduck]

Re: Elves

 

Elves in Embria are rather standard Tolkien/DnD-style elves. They tend to be tall (model-height for the ladies), attractive, graceful, and long-lived to the point of immortality. Pointed ears, as well. Most people are afraid of elves, and don't want to start any crap with them, becuase you never know who is going to be the 1000-year-old archmage and master blade-fighter (yet only looks like a teenage human girl).

 

These elves tend to be a magical folk. They respect nature and build their cities in and around natural suroundings. In DnD terms, elves tend to be Sorcerers (natural spellcasters, as opposed to Wizards, who are learned spellcasters). Elves can learn magic at any time, with little to no training, in my campaign.

 

 

 

Dark elves are another matter. The dark elves were created many thousands of years ago by a race of intelligent arachnids (I usually call them Dark Spiders, but I'm thinking of using the Harry Potter name of Acromantulas). The Dark Spiders captured normal elves and subjected them to magical and selective breeding (the spiders got involved with this; yes, they are sick and evil). The end result were the dark elves. Dark elves share their creator-race's blood-thirst and have a culture similar to the Aztecs; with their near-constant blood-sacrificing of sentients.

 

Some dark elves can be pretty scary. Because of their un-natural creation, they are subject to random mutation. The most frequent of these is the ability to have a poisoned bite. There is even the dark elf "vampire" who has some slight enhanced agility and strength, and a true taste for blood. Even more creepy, their face can un-hinge into mantables (think about the monster-vampires in Blade 2 for this effect). The world occasionally might get one with enough traits similar to thier creator-race that it could be considered a low-powered "Spiderman" (including built-in web-spinners).

[steph]

Re: Elves

 

In my world i try to make elf like tolkien did .............it a perfect and angelic race better and more powerfull then human but rare in number..........in certains lands is more a myth and legend...........he dont practice magic but humans and dwarves believes what they do is magic.........but i use elf in npc because think like a immortel is really really difficult and when a player try it is cheap...............

stef

hope i am clear

english not my first language

[Curufea]

Re: Elves

 

There is even the dark elf "vampire" who has some slight enhanced agility and strength' date=' and a true taste for blood. Even more creepy, their face can un-hinge into mantables (think about the monster-vampires in Blade 2 for this effect). The world occasionally might get one with enough traits similar to thier creator-race that it could be considered a low-powered "Spiderman" (including built-in web-spinners).[/quote']

 

What would also be scarey is if they ate food in the same way as spiders - digestion happening inside the body of their food, which they then drink/suck.

[Spence]

Re: Elves

 

When I run a fantasy game, my world has all of the "elder" races. But they are NPC's only. And few and far between. The Elder races are feared with good reason by the kingdoms of man. Their motives and thought are beyond the ken of mere mortals. All in all, Elves, Dwarves and such are simply not concerned with the petty squabbles of a race that dies of old age before an elf gets a pimple. They may breed slower but a warrior that has had a few thousand years to practice generally wipes the floor with a human. Plus magi with that level of practice and study are very very powerful. And since most Elder races are both, they can really mess up any humans that try to get uppity. For general play, the Elder fills the mysterious and powerful benefactor slot. Or oracle. Or whatever is needed.

 

Elder races = absent minded professor working on a new idea for a memory chip.

 

Humans = mice squabbling over a piece of cheese droped on the floor.

[Sir Ofeelya]

Re: Elves

 

In my world i try to make elf like tolkien did .............it a perfect and angelic race better and more powerfull then human but rare in number..........

 

This sounds like you have modelled your Elves on me.

[Kristopher]

Re: Elves

 

Wow, some major hate against elves. Perplexing.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Elves

 

Aelves. I have them. They have problems! Keeps things interesting.