The List: Five Non-Traditional Fantasy Elves
MMORPG.com contributor Shannon Drake writes this week's list, providing some examples of non-traditional versions of everyone's favorite Fantasy humanoid race, the elves that could be used in future MMOs.
Column By Shannon Drake on December 01, 2009
Making a fantasy MMO without elves is absurdism at its highest.
Okay, maybe those are some strong words, exaggerating for the sake of it, but people do love their elves. They are the perfect fantasy race for roleplaying games, because Elves are just different enough to be interesting, pointy-eared and maybe immortal, while still being recognizably or almost human. And, most importantly, they are an exotic race without being too odd or weird for players to identify with. While EverQuest II's Frogloks are hilarious; giant, playable frogs don't seem to have quite the cultural impact of the other traditional fantasy races, possibly because it's easier to figure out how to inherit a quasi-humanoid's skin than to figure out what motivates a frog. Besides flies and sitting around on lily pads and avoiding lusty pigs, of course.
Even genre Golden Child World of Warcraft was bedeviled for years with the lack of a "pretty" race on the Horde side. While some of the undead women could seem quite fetching, apparently comparatively few players found the Living Dead Girl aesthetic comparable with the loved/loathed Night Elves, to say nothing of playing a giant cow, green thing, or vaguely Jamaican overgrown smurf. Fortunately, the Blood Elves arrived in Burning Crusade and quickly became the most popular race for the Horde, proving that even if you make them magical crackheads craving that sweet, sweet magic, jonesing for their next fix, people still want to be pretty, pretty elves with pretty hair and the Paladin class.
So if we must have elves (and the first question for any fantasy game going humans-only is "So what about other races?"), maybe we could consider a twist on the old favorite. Instead of being treehugging hippies that live in forests or sexy dancers that bump and grind on mailboxes, maybe we could give elves a different backstory or something resembling flavor.
In other words, if our pointy-eared friends must exist, why not make them a little more interesting? (And let's not talk about Dark Elves, which tend to wind up being "pretty much regular elves that listen to Linkin Park and are almost comic book villain-level ludicrous evil," the goth chick that's pretty much the same as the regular chick, but with more wrist-cutting, drama, and clove cigarettes).
Herein, we present five nontraditional elf or "they're pretty much elves" from various fantasy genres, just begging to be "borrowed" for the sake of MMO diversity. They range from Tolkien elves with a few twists to intergalactic psychic space travelers. No, really. It's possible to have elves in the world without them being nausea-inducing goody-goody stereotypes, allowing an interesting narrative, while providing a race for people to have cybersex with, combining two essential elements of any online game.
#5 Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
So there's this cryptic, immortal elder race that is tall, slender, skilled with bows, and may or may not have pointed ears. They work a certain wood like other races work metal. They're courteous, but very aloof. They've been persecuted by humans, but now live in the forests, and some yearn for revenge.
By now, your eyes have rolled so far into your head that they may never come down, but the Sithi from Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn share some similarities with Tolkien's elves, but they also have some interesting qualities of their own. They are the obligatory vaguely Asian race, but they're also almost feral, and there are hints throughout the book that their race is fading away, dwindling into nothingness rather than, Tolkien-style, taking their ball on the White Ships and going home.
They're also a lot less black and white than the traditional Tolkien elves, since there are hints throughout the books that they've done some persecuting of their own sometime in the past. And some racial cousins seem to exist only to torment mankind for their previous wrongs, rather than being vaguely benevolent overseers just waiting to help the world along before they head back to the Grey Havens.
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#4 Glorantha
Home of RuneQuest and HeroQuest, as well as King of Dragon Pass (the greatest game you've probably never played), Glorantha is a cool place where you can hang out with friends, an immense world with multiple planes of existence (just look at this), strange races like duck men (and not the hilarious cult-hit cartoon) and dragon newts, as well as unique twists on classic fantasy races. The dwarves, for example, are a religious cult that view themselves as cogs in the Great Machine and subsist on various kinds of food, though the very best food for a dwarf is processed, canned dwarf, though they'll also eat canned elf and canned human, but it's not the best stuff.
As for the elves, they are walking vegetables, tied to a wider species called the Aldyrami, all claiming decent from the goddess Aldrya. Each species within the Aldryami seem to come from a particular kind of plant, and the elves in particular are related to the world's trees. It's important to denote here that they are not just tree-hugging hippies, because when you cut down a tree, you've cut down Cousin Hubert. As a result, elves in Glorantha aren't a benevolent tree-dwelling race, they're angry hippies-that-are-trees that torment loggers, farmers, and anyone else trying to clear land or mess with the forest. Even within the various species of elves are various subspecies, with different elves for conifers, temperate forests, and ferns and other primitive plants.
And they're vegetables. Living vegetables.
)
Who ever heard of living vegetables?
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I would also add the Minbari from Babylon 5 to a list like this. The similarities between B5 and Lord of the Rings are remarkable, and when you draw parallels there is no doubt that Minbari are the elves of space. :)
If you want to talk about interesting Non Traditional Elves then I suggest people read The First Two Books of the Elven Ways series by Jenna Rhodes "The Four Forges" and "The Dark Ferryman".
In this series The Elves are on the world because of a Catyclismic worldwind that took them from there Original World and sent them to where they are. But what makes them interesting was that as soon as they got this world they realized they were more powerful the the world's gods and immediately enslaved the world.
The story takes place a couple of thousands years later and the Elves caled Vaeilnor are the ruling class of the world but live in a world where they try to appease the the other races and rule them fairly. Slavery of the other races has been outlawed and the Vaelinor are not allowed to have any acts of war on other Vaelinor houses or other races.
To me these elves were the coolest re iteration of the classic fantasy elves I have ever read.
I tell you that's probably one of the main reasons I'm fairly burnt out on Fantasy MMOs and most Fantasy RPGs. I am playing Dragon Age, though, and enjoying it. If a company wants my MMO subscription fee for a fantasy MMO they have to get away from the stereotypes of elves, dwarves, orcs and a few other fantasy races.
How about a game where elves were the master crafters and shapers of metal through magic. And Dwarves were a collection of barbaric tribes. And orcs were educated and civilized warrior poets.
Yeah, this ties into my other post about being a Game Designer. Creativity and imagination are frozen in the MMO industry. Any RP minded table-top GM or DM could create a more "fantastic" and unique world that what's being pushed out today.
Personally I always like Dark Elves more, because they are less ethereal and more hands on than the classic Wood Elves. I just don't like the Drow, the D&D depiction of Dark Elves, because esentially an evil society is absurd. It could not exist. I like the version of the Tamriel Dark Elves from Elder Scrolls. I still wait for the ideal Dark Elves in some story, a race which is a mix of Romulans and Klingons in Elvish, if you like. Warriors and moody beings, but not evil. (I am just a bit pissed about the racism in the idea all good Elves are blond and white skinned and dark skinned Elves are evil. Thats just rubbish.)
I like the Silmarillion age Tolkien Elves. They still had fire and power and will, they were great warriors and not whimsish Woodelves who pick flowers and hug treees, but deadly and dangerous foes.
What most authors and games fail to depict is that an Elf is something much different than merely a human with odd habits and pointy ears. An Elf is essentially an alien, a very powerful being who lives very long, and the only reason they are not perceived as dangerous is because they acquired some wisdom through the length of their lives. An Elf should always be something potentially very very dangerous and very good to have on your side, and not some mockey of tree-huggers and flower pickers.
Well in EQ2 my Warlock is a Dark Elf the reason is they were set to be the casting type great for wis, lock and healing.
My SK however is Keran my favorite big cat, but I still love my Dark Elf Warlock and play it every day.
I would add, however, that novelty != creativity. One shouldn't be different for the sake of being different, but for the sake of enhancing the existing archetype, keeping its conceptual evolution in motion. I think that Dragon Age is a great modern example of the latter.
In my opinion, elves, dwarves and orcs have settled into their respective stereotypes with very good reason: they form an equilateral triangle of the fundamental facets of humanity. It has been a design philosophy for many fantasy worlds, regardless of the races they contain: if you were to hypothetically merge one average member of each race, the result should approximate an average human.
Tolkien elves get a bad rap.
If you've read the Silmarillion, then you know that there were all sorts of elves and the splintered and fractured into different groups over time. They weren't perfect etc.
Also, Tolkien took the name elf and totally changed what they were. Pretolkien, elves were little magic sprites and such. Think gnomes and leprachauns and such.
He borrowed from lots of legends and myths and made his own. Nothing wrong with doing it again...but for it to stick, its gotta be meaningful etc. Tolkien was so thorough in his work that he included millenia of history for every race, and even creation stories, languages, etc.
Keebler Elves: Basically dwarves that live in trees and bake cookies. Loved by all players craving chef-like crafting professions.
Santa's Elves: Basically dwarves that live in cold climates and make toys. Another loved race by the crafting wannabes. A rare profession for these guys is Dentistry. Always helpful to have a good dentist along in your party for when your humie gets his teeth punched out by the nasty minotaur.
Here's a quote from China Mieville, the British fantasy and sci-fi writer (as well as activist and politician!). Not to be taken too seriously or get aggravated on, but he does have a point:
"If you have a world in which Orcs are evil, and you depict them as evil, I don't know how that maps onto the question of "political correctness." However, the point is not that you're misrepresenting Orcs (if you invented this world, that's how Orcs are), but that you have replicated the logic of racism, which is that large groups of people are "defined" by an abstract supposedly essential element called "race," whatever else you were doing or intended. And that's not an innocent thing to do."
EDIT: Oh, and, by the way, on topic: Terry Pratchett's Discworld elves take the cake as far as how different they are from your run-of-the-mill MMO elves. Heck, they're practically anti-MMO-elves! :)
That's not entirely accurate. Tolkien didn't change what they were -- rather he returned them to their roots in Norse mythology. Tolkien disliked how the Elven myth had been warped into what you called magic sprites. He wanted to return them to the stature they once had: human-like, noble, magical, perhaps one could even describe them as lesser deities.
Now having said that, another elf made popular are the house elves of Harry Potter.
Probably going to get flamed for this, but... Would the Vulcans and Romulans be considered the elves and dark elves, respectively, of Star Trek? Am I the only person that has ever thought about this?
My soul brother! YES!! I thought so for years and years myself!
Alas we WILL get flamed, teh.
Yes and the Klingons can be considered to be the orcs.
So you basically have elves and orcs in Star Trek.
I always thought that Tolkien took his Elves from the Tuatha de Danaan among others.
Personally I always (and for the most part, solely) play elves though in my mind I always play elves along the lines of the Elves in the Simarillion.
No wood elf hanging in trees for me. Advanced haughty powerful god like race with exceptionally beautiful and fine features. Masters of Magic and Battle.
edit: now that I've read the article some of it resonates with me as I also think of Elven Characters along the lines of the sith and in the Tad William's books but also the Elf Quest elves.
However..... ; )
What the article does not mention is that there is another group of Elves in Elfquest. These are the Elves who have the power of the old ways and who live more like demented sorcerors than Native Americans. Whenver I think of Elves, the character of Winnowill comes into mind.
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1/10135/247549-64349-winnowill_large.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iy-QvX1qv0E/SNJnMX_yAvI/AAAAAAAAC98/a-dC0_e8Rf8/s320/Winnowill.jpg
YES! ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%.
Local Hobby GMs / DMs are FAR MORE SKILLED in creating immersive scenarios and campaigns than the so-called professionals today.
With the exception of Bioware and a cuople indies, the phony commercial rpg "designers" today are not worth a DAMN.
The so-called professional game designers today aren't fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the hobby designers.
YES! ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%.
Local Hobby GMs / DMs are FAR MORE SKILLED in creating immersive scenarios and campaigns than the so-called professionals today.
With the exception of Bioware and a cuople indies, the phony commercial rpg "designers" today are not worth a DAMN.
The so-called professional game designers today aren't fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the hobby designers.
That can be true...but because I'm anonymous here I can tell you that my GM has become real lazy with the introduction of 4e D&D. It's as though he's on autopilot.
But yeah...maybe someday Game developers will hire actual writers and game theorists, and not simply programmers who happened to have gotten a few good grades in English, or who taught themselves game design through MUDS (Nothing wrong with MUDS, mind you).
I would LOVE an Elfquest MMO. Or any sort of Elfquest game. Aside from the old board game.
I was up to number 2 when I though "They should put in Elfquest" and then BAM! Number 1 baby!!!! Read those as a teen in their original release. Good stuff.
Vulcans and Romulans too....
One of these days i should post my notes form my game elves the "leute"
YES! ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%.
Local Hobby GMs / DMs are FAR MORE SKILLED in creating immersive scenarios and campaigns than the so-called professionals today.
With the exception of Bioware and a cuople indies, the phony commercial rpg "designers" today are not worth a DAMN.
The so-called professional game designers today aren't fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the hobby designers.
My friend actually made a DnD Campaign that was nearly Identical to Dragon Age's Storyline about a month before it was announced. :P
YES! ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%.
Local Hobby GMs / DMs are FAR MORE SKILLED in creating immersive scenarios and campaigns than the so-called professionals today.
With the exception of Bioware and a cuople indies, the phony commercial rpg "designers" today are not worth a DAMN.
The so-called professional game designers today aren't fit to stoop down and untie the sandals of the hobby designers.
I'm sorry, but you're absolutely, 100% wrong.
Most professional storytellers are not lacking in imagination or creativity whatsoever. This is only argued by people who have no insight into how the professional creative industries work. First of all, what's being put out there is not determined by the writers' degree of creativity, but by demand. You can come up with some wild stuff nobody's even dreamt of before, and if the money decides there's not enough audience for it, tough luck... It's not going to reach the masses.
Even more importantly, concepts being "fantastic" or "unique" does not mean much in and of themselves. The secret to good storytelling is implementation, not innovation. Originality is volatile, not to mention for the most part insubstantial - if you've read enough and seen enough, almost anything seems like a re-run anyway. Look at the greatest works of film and literature and you'll see most aren't at all original in concept - they're just deep and strong in implementation. Actually, coming up with catchy concepts is the Hollywood way of doing things.
I've been exposed to a lot of amateur stuff, and I've read a lot of pro stuff... and while there's some crossover where a few amateur stories are well implemented and compelling and some of the pros are amateurish, trust me, on the whole, there's absolutely no competition. Most amateurs come up with ideas they think are original (again, most aren't), but cannot make a story get under your skin. So even when interesting, their stuff is usually quite forgettable (Hey, but then this is true for the majority of pro stories, too).
As a last pointer, fantasy literature as a rule is made of familiars... It's how the genre works. If you try to detach it from its archetypes and thousands of years of structure, it's just going to end up as a sorry attempt at literature (See some of the clueless D&D books). There are tons of books on the structure of fairy tales and epics, anyone going "OMG, it's always the same stuff!!!" would do well to read up on the subject.
I admit that I have an extremely soft spot for Tolkien's Mirkwood elves. I love the fact that they were strong fighters and extremely protective of their own territory, as well as the fact that they too had a weakness; they too loved gold. And, Thranduil was a perfect example of that.
That being said, this article has made me all the more eager to try Dragon Age. I recently bought Torchlight and resubbed to EVE, so I'm a little short of money at the moment. However, after hearing about how the traditional proud, wise elves being enslaved by humans has made me very keen to see what it's like. I'm definitely rolling an Elf when I get that game.
YES! ABSOLUTELY. I agree 100%.
Yeah, thats what killed DDO and CO for me. They couldn't hold a candle to the table-top ver we played. The rules and books were a launching point for our GM.
That can be true...but because I'm anonymous here I can tell you that my GM has become real lazy with the introduction of 4e D&D. It's as though he's on autopilot.
But yeah...maybe someday Game developers will hire actual writers and game theorists, and not simply programmers who happened to have gotten a few good grades in English, or who taught themselves game design through MUDS (Nothing wrong with MUDS, mind you).
Which is why none of the 3 GM/DM in our group, me being one, will touch 4th ed D&D. A big part of the reason anyway. A nicely complicated system helps foster the imagination. I got my first bad feeling when to-hit-armour-class-0 (THAC0) went the way of the dodo.
Personally my favorite elves are the elves from The Dark Sun campaign setting of D&D. Haughty xenophobes who hate all outsiders even other elves. Also had my favorite Halflings: primitive canabls (real ankle biters)
Ah, Dark Sun halflings. Primitiva cannibals, yes. But primitive cannibals riding dinosaurs.
As for elves, I always was fond of the elves of the homegrown world of a friend of mine. A demon needed a warrior race as his servants, and brought them into the world. Their culture was much like the feudal Japanese one - warriors wielding swords of extreme sharpness and great bows of immense power with skills that were beyond the incredible, strict feudal structures and power struggles, and a lot of Zen going on. Of course, they didn 't want to serve the demon, rebelled, gave him a drubbing. Then the demon went and got a hold of that world's orcs instead, who were much more amenable to being ruled.
Non-traditional Elves?
Look no further than Andrzej Sapkowski's "The Witcher" books and a PC game. BioWare bluntly took that idea and incorporated it into Dragon Age. No wonder, 3 years ago Witcher the game was created with BioWare's participation.
Elves from Sapkowski's novels are much more hardcore than the Dalish from DAO. Their conflict with humans is similar to the Israel/Palestinian conflict with Jews settling on Palestinian land (West Bank) and pushing the indigenous population further out.
And these elves use the same terrorist tactics as PLO used to (now Hamas is filling the role). That means, sabotage, raids, banditry, kidnapping, assassinations, you name it. All in the name of freedom and freeing their lands.
(humans are not indigenous to that world, they've appeared after destroying their own world millennia earlier coming in through a transdimensional portal).
Elven terrorist cells are called "The Squirrels" (Scoia'tael) and very often include dwarfs and hobbits - other discriminated groups, hated by racist humans (no Political Correctness there, it's set in quasi-renaissance/medieval fantasy).
Elves know they'll lose. Humans breed faster, are more adaptable and their society is progressing with unbelievable speed. Through the progress of the books you can see the world changing (new inventions, society changes, new theories, spreading pollution through magic experiments, etc) and Elves can't keep up. Their longevity based culture is much more passive, less progressive and a relic of the older days.
Through millennia of humans' arrival Elven culture was in decline, shrinking, elves losing their identity and history. Elves from The Witcher books are very... Human. Hateful, bitter, often cruel and yes... racist as well.
Tolkien elves were smart. They knew human would rule the world eventually so they decided to leg it before shit hit the fan. The Witcher elves are Tolkien elves that stayed...
The elves of Final Fantasy XI also deviates from the typical norm of elves. Granted, they're very similar to Tolkien's proud race, but in the context of tree-hugging, goody-goody elves of many fantasy MMOs, they're quite unique in their own regards. The race is imperialistic ("hometown" is dubbed the Kingdom of San d'Oria) and are more into militaristic ambitions than being Mother Nature's designated protectors. They're not interested in crafting unless it has something to do with weaponry and armory. And unlike popular renditions of elves, they're not magic-hungry or dependent on it to make a living.
“Dark Elves…the goth chick that's pretty much the same as the regular chick, but with more wrist-cutting, drama, and clove cigarettes”
So true and you find so many of them online that is no wonder we need Dark/Night/Blood Elves for them to play. :)
I should point out that Tolkeins Elves of the first age were very different form those that followed. Their hubris and passion was awesome, they fought wars all the time, were incredibly eltitist and pigheaded. With time their passion waned and they became wise, in a sense the race ‘grew up’. So bassing a MMO’s Elves on those in the first age would be a very different story.
Poison Elves von Drew Hayes.
Probably dating myself but anybody remember the cartoon Gargoyles? Anyway, in this concept there is a elf named "Puc" drawn from a Midsummernights dream and he is NOT a goody 2 shoes. He hates humans or any other race for that matter and thinks of them as playthings or something to play tricks on. There was a couple that he answered to but can't remember who they were. Sorry it has been so long I cant remember too many of the details but I remember Puc and he was nasty. Not to be confused with the Movie Midsummernights dream with Stanley Tucci. He was ok but not as dark. Again old fart with lack of memory ;)
Yes Vulcans and Romulans are elves. Klingons are orcs. For some reason I am blanking out on the races in DS9 but hobbit/halflings and ogres maybe?
I rather see elves based on the original norse myths that Tolkien himself borrowed them from. Or for that matter based on irish Sidhes.
Elves in the norse mythology are kinda half gods, there are 2 kinds: Dusk elves/Morning elves (hard to translate) and Dawn elves/Evning elves/Black elves/Dark elves. The last ones are not necessarily evil and the first ones are not always good.You can still feel some of the original lore in Tolkiens elves but it is all gone in the D&D elves we see in the MMOs.
The elves in the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning are different. The series is a little perverted, but it is an interesting slant on the Fae.
I believe the first book in the series is free to download on Amazon right now.
To say it is absurd to have an evil society is just not true. In real life there are evil societies that are real. For whatever reason their beliefs, ideals and way of life is considered evil. Yet they are there. Many may not ever know them nor even know of them but they are real.
I personally like the Dark Elves. They add an special element. At the same time some can choose pull away from their evil ways and if they work hard they can be accepted in other societies. This was the way in EQ and I played a Dark Elf Enchanter and did so. It is a challenge and for the Enchanter a bit easier to accomplish but was fun in the doing.
Elves are magical creatures and although they can be powerful they are very aloof with others. Their hatred for some races runs deep while they will tolerate others. Many see themselves as superior to others. I love the elf race but I think WoW over did it on the ears. Elves should be beautiful to the eye and the ears should not look like a freak overgrowth. WoW fails on that account with the Night Elf . The Blood Elf if beautiful but the ears look like freakish overgrowth as well. How beautiful can a creature of such long standing history be beautiful with ears that look as though they are mutated.
Elves are not human they are something more magical and beautiful than a human could ever hope to be. Being close to nature and being able to live with and understand the world around them. The forests are their home and where they are one with nature and all that dwells within.
Elves are very important in a fantasy world but I do not think they should be playable races.
Reason is that elves are something rare and because they are immortal their skills and knowledge has accumulated during thousands of years rather than tens of years of a regular human. So "leveling" an elf seems just weird since they do not follow the same cycle as other mortals.
Also they are considered a somewhat mythical creature and allowing regular people to play mythical creatures, in the houndreds, takes away their mythical status.
So I am hoping for a fantasy games with elves but not playable ones, like other mythical creatures like dragons.
Yeah, thats what killed DDO and CO for me. They couldn't hold a candle to the table-top ver we played. The rules and books were a launching point for our GM.
NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT AT NO POINT WOULD YOU FINISH AN ADVENTURE ONLY TO GO RIGHT BACK IN AND RUN IT ALL OVER AGAIN WITH THE SAME CHARACTERS!! THE FIRST HUGE AND I MEAN HUGE MISTAKE ON THE PART OF THE DEVELOPERS.
I was very young when I played EQ, around 12 or 13, but I liked the lore around the elves in EQ, it adds a bit more than your Tolkien elves, but I think it set the stage for a LOT of "elf cliches"
Neverwinter nights had the "Born of evil god" and "born of good god" races also. NWN2 had the Born-of-the-elements races.
Any other game or story capitilze on that, I'm sure they did I just wanna know what.
The couple he answered to were probably Titania and Oberon, Queen and King of the Faeries.
I actually played Puck in a Concord Player's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
We had one of the actors from Shakespeare and company come out and polish our performances. We ended up adopting a more earthy and savage type of performance over the regular "cute" puck/Elves that you might have seen in the Movie version of the play.
My high school girlfriend got me into the elf quest books. I have to say I was hooked. I still need to finish them though I undersant that the creators no longer illustrate them but just write them. I think that is correct.
To say it is absurd to have an evil society is just not true. In real life there are evil societies that are real. For whatever reason their beliefs, ideals and way of life is considered evil. Yet they are there. Many may not ever know them nor even know of them but they are real.
I personally like the Dark Elves. They add an special element. At the same time some can choose pull away from their evil ways and if they work hard they can be accepted in other societies. This was the way in EQ and I played a Dark Elf Enchanter and did so. It is a challenge and for the Enchanter a bit easier to accomplish but was fun in the doing.
Elves are magical creatures and although they can be powerful they are very aloof with others. Their hatred for some races runs deep while they will tolerate others. Many see themselves as superior to others. I love the elf race but I think WoW over did it on the ears. Elves should be beautiful to the eye and the ears should not look like a freak overgrowth. WoW fails on that account with the Night Elf . The Blood Elf if beautiful but the ears look like freakish overgrowth as well. How beautiful can a creature of such long standing history be beautiful with ears that look as though they are mutated.
Elves are not human they are something more magical and beautiful than a human could ever hope to be. Being close to nature and being able to live with and understand the world around them. The forests are their home and where they are one with nature and all that dwells within.
Well, I imagine the Drow as being a very cut throat feudalistic society, each faction having it's own agenda and willing to do what it takes to get that agenda through.
If one were to look at some European history, one would find many such examples of royalty doing underhanded things in order to secure their positions.
heck, people should read "The Princes in the Tower" if one wants to get a true life version of how the feuding factions would seal their rule. One of the best books I've ever read.
www.amazon.com/Princes-Tower-Alison-Weir/dp/0345391780/ref=sr_1_1
Here's a quote from China Mieville, the British fantasy and sci-fi writer (as well as activist and politician!). Not to be taken too seriously or get aggravated on, but he does have a point:
"If you have a world in which Orcs are evil, and you depict them as evil, I don't know how that maps onto the question of "political correctness." However, the point is not that you're misrepresenting Orcs (if you invented this world, that's how Orcs are), but that you have replicated the logic of racism, which is that large groups of people are "defined" by an abstract supposedly essential element called "race," whatever else you were doing or intended. And that's not an innocent thing to do."
EDIT: Oh, and, by the way, on topic: Terry Pratchett's Discworld elves take the cake as far as how different they are from your run-of-the-mill MMO elves. Heck, they're practically anti-MMO-elves! :)
There is a nice ltttle book out currently called ORCS.
It puts them in a very different light, one that would almost make sense.
As for my favorite non-traditional elves, I would have to go with Warhammer 40K's Elddar.
Evil is defined by the culture you live in, it is not an absolute.
According to quite a few cultures, America and its immoral ways is the very definition fo evil. In return, American culture views those societies as being evil.
Which is right? Neither one, they simply have differing cultural and moral values that happen to be at odds with each other.
Yeah, I agree with the guy with a devil’s head for his avatar that evil does not exist.
…hmm on second thoughts, maybe I don't. :)
Guild Wars doesnt have elves. Saga of Ryzom and Chronicles of Spellborn dont have elves either. 3 Games with rich lore. Fantasy MMO's really dont need elves, just different writers for their lore. Or base their lore on something different then Tolkien (and his copycats).
I really cant stand elves in MMO's anymore. Not to mention player toons with names like Gwynetth Frrynyywetth or something like that. The irony of an ancient, immortal and wise race being played by ppl who think 'they are so pwetty..weee! Im an elf! '. Meh.
Why did you not include Vulcans and Romulans in your list? I would think they would have fit very nicely into the non-traditional catagory.
One of the best non-traditional fantasy RPGs ever written:
www.amazon.com/Orkworld-Rpg-John-Wick/dp/0970301308
Orkworld, by John Wick.
It features a fantastic depiction of Orks as the noble savages of their world. Their not perfect paragons of "goodness", but they're a fascinating culture that is threatened by the other races. Oh, and they ride reindeer.
The Elves of Orkworld are actually other-dimensional beings that inhabit the bodies of mortals and twist them into beautiful but creepily alien forms (as in, too perfect). They're eeviiiil.
The Dwarves are maniacally obsessive; they're so passionate about utter perfection (whether it be in warfare, crafting, etc) that they are rather insane.
The actual game system mechanics are fun and work fairly well. The main draw, though, is the wonderful mythology Wick created for the Orks.
Yup Oberon and Titania thank you for clarification. hehe try this one not really about elves but non-traditional. Ogres are not evil there were actually good and good looking but have been warped and disfigured by their corruption. Not sure wher eI got that from either ;) Anyway Good Looking ogres sounds fun ;)
That sounds very much like the ogres of Dragonlance, actually.
Roll on Global Agenda :P
That sounds very much like the ogres of Dragonlance, actually.
Yea, they were called the Irda.
From this book:
Dragonlance is a fantastic setting. It's my favorite with the Forgotten Realms (the old version not this new stuff) as my second.
But do we have to have another setting were the girls can play babes no matter what race they pick? Hottie Ogres is going to far. ;D
I'd LOVE to work on a EQ MMO. Anyone hiring?
On another note, EqlQuest for the fucking WIN!
Evil is defined by the culture you live in, it is not an absolute.
According to quite a few cultures, America and its immoral ways is the very definition fo evil. In return, American culture views those societies as being evil.
Which is right? Neither one, they simply have differing cultural and moral values that happen to be at odds with each other.
But I think there are very few cultures where tortuing another human being for the sheer pleasure would be considered as "ok" or good.
So I think there are shared values among cultures where certain behaviors can be seen as concretely evil.
The Eldar from Warhammer 40K are my favorite They seem to be dark and gritty, at least, from my limited experience with them. Anyone know any good books where the Eldar are the focal point?
Here.
http://www.amazon.com/Eldar-Prophecy-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/1844164519
Enjoy.
Try the elves in the Arthur Machen stories like The White People-little demons from hell with their changelings and dark celtic practices.In LOTRO my character 'Morellen' is a 1st age Feanorian elf-a RK natch-great fun amongst all the tree huggers.
A couple more...
Michael Moorcock's Melniboneans
Marion Z Bradley's Chieri
Julian mays Tanu