Elves

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Elves

 

I just had the frightening vision of several barefoot dwarves hollerin' "Squeal like a pig, boy!" while "Duelling Banjos" plays in the background...

 

~shudder~

 

Better dwarves than treemen

 

(For you d20 types, here's the write-up)

[Dale A. Ward]

Re: Elves

 

Better dwarves than treemen

 

(For you d20 types, here's the write-up)

:rofl:

 

OMG!! That is just too damn funny!!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Elves

 

Could you all quit being douchebags for fifteen bloody minutes?

I haven't been a douchebag for about ten hours. Can I pick up again?

[Pentoth]

Re: Elves

 

In my setting they are immortal in that they won't die of old age disease etc. Also because of their immortality their are no afterlife myths to cover those who die of in battle etc. (The Gods are very hands on in my setting and when they are asked about elvish afterlife they never answer) Therefore when it comes to battle my elves are somewhat cowardly and really must have their backs against the walls before they are willing to risk their lives. When pressed to war it isn't an unusual sight for the elves to stand in line weaping openly for fear of oblivion.

[Old Man]

Re: Elves

 

When pressed to war it isn't an unusual sight for the elves to stand in line weaping openly for fear of oblivion.

 

*chuckle*

[Kristopher]

Re: Elves

 

Where you find that a funny image, I find it very sad.

[Hermit]

Re: Elves

 

I just had the frightening vision of several barefoot dwarves hollerin' "Squeal like a pig, boy!" while "Duelling Banjos" plays in the background...

 

~shudder~

 

No. more Antebellum, not Deliverence BS

 

EDIT: Though, in all fairness, I DID once make a group of Dwarven Clerics sound like cheesy SouthernTelevanglists. One player couldn't stop laughing.

 

Very bad of me, I know.

[Pentoth]

Re: Elves

 

The idea of my elves weaping openly for fear of oblivion isn't meant as a humourous jab at them. To me I use this elevates them. In a game when elves joined the battle the PC's (No elves) laughed at them. The commander in turn beat the snot out of one of them. A comment along the lines of "We are risking eternity to fight for what's right. We have no promise of a glorious afterlife awaiting us should we fall like your gods have promised you. We do this because it is right." The next campaign I ran most of the players wanted to play elves. They have never looked at them the same.

[War Cry]

Re: Elves

 

In my setting they are immortal in that they won't die of old age disease etc. Also because of their immortality their are no afterlife myths to cover those who die of in battle etc. (The Gods are very hands on in my setting and when they are asked about elvish afterlife they never answer) Therefore when it comes to battle my elves are somewhat cowardly and really must have their backs against the walls before they are willing to risk their lives. When pressed to war it isn't an unusual sight for the elves to stand in line weaping openly for fear of oblivion.

 

Now this is kewl. I will admit I chuckled at the "crybaby" impression. I take it the lack of an afterlife helps explain their fondness of singing, dancing, and the hedonistic lifestyle generally associated with elves?

 

Mad props to you. Your description here invokes some really neat mental imagery when you wrap your mind around the implications.

[Lemurion]

Re: Elves

 

Now this is kewl. I will admit I chuckled at the "crybaby" impression. I take it the lack of an afterlife helps explain their fondness of singing, dancing, and the hedonistic lifestyle generally associated with elves?

 

Mad props to you. Your description here invokes some really neat mental imagery when you wrap your mind around the implications.

 

Read Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword if you can find a copy. It's a brilliant non-Tolkien take on Elves including the weakness to iron and the idea that they have immortality of the body precisely because they lack immortality of the soul.

 

Very good book-- and one I would think Pentoth has read.

[War Cry]

Re: Elves

 

Read Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword if you can find a copy. It's a brilliant non-Tolkien take on Elves including the weakness to iron and the idea that they have immortality of the body precisely because they lack immortality of the soul.

 

Very good book-- and one I would think Pentoth has read.

 

Kewl beans! Thanx.

 

I have a buddy with so many books that he now has two libraries in his home. If he doesn't have it - no one will. The bad news is he lives 2 hours away and I hosed my car a couple weeks ago.

[Pentoth]

Re: Elves

 

Read Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword if you can find a copy. It's a brilliant non-Tolkien take on Elves including the weakness to iron and the idea that they have immortality of the body precisely because they lack immortality of the soul.

 

Very good book-- and one I would think Pentoth has read.

 

I have never read it. I will check it out if I can find it. The idea of elves being immortal and no soul just made sense as a tradeoff for the setting.

[Markdoc]

Re: Elves

 

I have never read it. I will check it out if I can find it. The idea of elves being immortal and no soul just made sense as a tradeoff for the setting.

 

I'd add a recommend for this book. IMO it's head and shoulders above everything else Poul Anderson wrote - and amusingly enough, he said in an interview that if he could, it would the only book of his he'd heavily rewrite

 

I've filched heavily from it for my game.

 

Having said that, though, the idea that elves have bodily immortality but not souls, is an old one, going back at least a couple of centuries in English folklore. There was a tradition that if an elf (specifically, a færie bride, but presumably applying to other elves as well) was baptised, she gained a soul, but also became mortal.

 

cheers, Mark

[Lucius]

Re: Elves

 

I'd add a recommend for this book. IMO it's head and shoulders above everything else Poul Anderson wrote - and amusingly enough, he said in an interview that if he could, it would the only book of his he'd heavily rewrite

 

I've filched heavily from it for my game.

 

Having said that, though, the idea that elves have bodily immortality but not souls, is an old one, going back at least a couple of centuries in English folklore. There was a tradition that if an elf (specifically, a færie bride, but presumably applying to other elves as well) was baptised, she gained a soul, but also became mortal.

 

cheers, Mark

 

Isn't there also an old ballad about a mermaid loving a man - or was it a silkie and a woman? and when the mortal died, the faerie not only mourned as any lover would, but faced having to live without the beloved until the end of the world -

 

At which point all their kind, the soulless but unaging faeries, would be wiped away with the rest of the physical world, and the beloved mortal would be resurrected - but only after the bereaved faerie who had grieved away the centuries was destroyed.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And a chimerical palindromedary

[Lemurion]

Re: Elves

 

I'd add a recommend for this book. IMO it's head and shoulders above everything else Poul Anderson wrote - and amusingly enough, he said in an interview that if he could, it would the only book of his he'd heavily rewrite

 

I've filched heavily from it for my game.

 

Having said that, though, the idea that elves have bodily immortality but not souls, is an old one, going back at least a couple of centuries in English folklore. There was a tradition that if an elf (specifically, a færie bride, but presumably applying to other elves as well) was baptised, she gained a soul, but also became mortal.

 

cheers, Mark

 

I still rate his Tau Zero higher, but that's my SF side speaking.

 

Having said that, I had never thought the idea original to him, just that he did one of the best takes on it in 20th Century fantasy. It's just another way to make Elves, and other races, much different than humans.

[assault]

Re: Elves

 

Three Hearts and Three Lions rocks too. And its elves owe very little to Tolkien.

[Curufea]

Re: Elves

 

There's no reason why Elves should be Tolkein. There's many sources for them.

I quite like the Elves in the Dragonbone Chair books, for example. Almost leonine.

[Springald Jack]

Re: Elves

 

There's no reason why Elves should be Tolkein.

 

There's no reason they HAVE to be but given his influence it isn't surprising that they ususally are in practice.

[Old Man]

Re: Elves

 

It's because Tolkien elves are pretty.

[Susano]

Re: Elves

 

It's because Tolkien elves are pretty.

 

Only until you've seen Lineage II night elves. :love:

[Old Man]

Re: Elves

 

Don't give him ideas.

[Cosmosemeritus]

Re: Elves

 

Those elves need more back. Now Orc chicks in Wow... there's some bootay.

 

*pause*

 

I am so off topic aren't I?

[Lethosos]

Re: Elves

 

Topicwise, you're on Alpha Centauri, buddy.

[Spence]

Re: Elves

 

Topicwise' date=' you're on Alpha Centauri, buddy.[/quote']

 

But I thought the green chicks were from Orion?

 

No wait.....wrong green chicks

[DEFCON Clown]

Re: Elves

 

Well at least Cosmos Emertius has company on Alpha Centauri.