How do i make my elves more unique?

>>52196275
start with the basics, what is the single trait of elves you find the most interesting?

Then think of interesting takes on that traits you've seen in other stories. That should help you assign a bunch of other relevant traits to them.

>>52196467
Thats the problem i have never found elves to be that interesting to me...theyre just....there.

>>52196493
then why include them?

>>52196713
Well...you kinda need elves. player like elves and theyre pretty well known.

>>52196723
if it adds nothing interesting to the setting it's not worth adding, if your elves are boring because you just had them because they need to be there then no-one will want to play them anyway

>>52196771
Well its regular D&D anyway. its not that theyre boring theyre just generic. I mean, you can look inside the PDF yourself to see what i mean. Its right up there ready to be downloaded by anyone.

>>52196794
So in your pdf there are two parts of the elves' description where it says 'no-one knows why'
>how the high elves have their wealth
>why the wood elves wear the masks
are you determined to keep these unanswered because these both feel like they could be interesting

Well, races being interesting and unique generally comes from inverting or playing with their core identifying tropes. The most common elf details is that they are a dying, low population race, struggling to recapture the glory days. So, avert that, mess with it.

Make elves extremely numerous, more so than humans maybe. Make them a young race, with great promise but nothing much to their name yet. Or, riff on another one of the key elf themes: their nobility, their holier than thou grace and poise. Make them slaves, treated as the lowest of the low, beaten and abused. Or make them aggressive, brutish and warlike, prone to violence.

Then you make them recognizable as elves through their other, just as common but less important traits; increased magical power, affinity for nature, incredible archers, etc.

If you want to read about an interesting non-traditional take on elves, Dragon Age does it really well, much as the everyone here and on /v/ loves to shit on it. [spoilers]I love Dragon Age fuck you[/spoilers]

>>52196275
High eleven society has a formalized education system with some (very minor) magic courses, those who excel at the magic courses go on to higher level magic courses. Those who pass these higher level magic courses go on to learn to become proper wizards at a college of sorts. Additionally high eleven society revolves around magic with a Mage typically being the leader of a town. Also most elven political buildings are in the sky (usually just above the treeline).

>Take any Tolkien race
>Randomly pick some ancient society that was a military power
>Hyphenate
Spartan-Elves, Mongol-Elves, Grecian-Elves

>>52196849
Yea I guess i could just explain those parts. fyi high elves are rich because they alchemicly make bank from turning wood into expensive shit and wood elves wear masks because they are so beautiful they all look almost exactly the same.

>>52197181
...1800's american elves? Would fit with the setting.

>>52197191
you could easily expand on those.

>how did the high elves learn this alchemy? what's the cost of it? who's tried to steal/expose the secret? what impact has their limitless wealth had on the world?

>why are wood elves so much more beautiful than high elves? how do they deal with their identical appearances (besides the masks)? how does it colour the way they see other, non-homogenous races? why do they feel the need to keep it a secret?

File: 1489441828796.jpg (63KB, 1048x753px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 1048x753px

>>52197230
>Elf ladies dressed like Shania Twain
I found a new fetish, anon.

>>52197297
Well lets see...High elves dont share wealth, they dont trade shit with anyone and keept it even more to themselves than dwarves. They learnt this alchemy from hundreds of years of magical research as well as help and tips from their gods. As such it takes a powerful elven wizard and priest to create these riches. They often make a building or trinket or whatever out of a cheap material like dirt and wood and then transmute it on the spot into the expensive and more durable material. However they are so afraid of being stolen they hide deep inside the forest and use magical means to hide their cities.

Wood elves are much more beautiful in part because they are much more numerous because they are surviving instead of living meaning they need much more children to keep their lines. Because of this there is little to no inbreeding unlike the high-elves and their focus on pure bloodlines. Because they are so homogenously perfect-like even they can have trouble differientating each other and the way they found a way to fix this is by wearing "Flawed" masks. The truly important members dont wear them because they are seen as much more "perfect" than the other wood elves. Also they dont keep it secret, its just that nobody ever asks them because they look pretty creepy and their explanation is so long winded and spanning generations its too hard to follow for common men.

Phew that was nice. Thanks anon!