[Boards: 3 / a / aco / adv / an / asp / b / bant / biz / c / can / cgl / ck / cm / co / cock / d / diy / e / fa / fap / fit / fitlit / g / gd / gif / h / hc / his / hm / hr / i / ic / int / jp / k / lgbt / lit / m / mlp / mlpol / mo / mtv / mu / n / news / o / out / outsoc / p / po / pol / qa / qst / r / r9k / s / s4s / sci / soc / sp / spa / t / tg / toy / trash / trv / tv / u / v / vg / vint / vip / vp / vr / w / wg / wsg / wsr / x / y ] [Search | Free Show | Home]

Why do Elves Always Need to be Superior?

This is a blue board which means that it's for everybody (Safe For Work content only). If you see any adult content, please report it.

Thread replies: 111
Thread images: 11

File: 1497320837031.png (300KB, 600x568px) Image search: [Google]
1497320837031.png
300KB, 600x568px
Why do people get mad when elves aren't the most superior/beautiful/artsy race in the setting?
>>
Because the whole point of elves is to be this superior being we fap to. That's like asking why would someone be mad that a paladin is killing every NPC he meets.
>>
because people hate being original
>>
Being superior to humans is really the only way they're different from humans. What's the point of just having humans with pointy ears?
>>
I always have my elves be the extreme of a scale, annoyingly arrogant, ridiculously loving and cuddly, whatever, but in every case its to the point of annoying.
>>
File: IMG_0339.jpg (39KB, 183x300px) Image search: [Google]
IMG_0339.jpg
39KB, 183x300px
>>54061891
Pointy ears, different diet, different social organization, different but still sensible behavior. Might have some neat tricks but have some magical taboos
>>
>>54061808
They don't?

I've never seen someone get mad when elves weren't superior.

I've seen many people get mad when elves are superior.
>>
>>54061808
In my setting me and my group fluffed it that elves immortality is partially fueled by pride. An elf who isn't proud of what they do ages faster than a regular elf, and the great schism between the regular elves and drow came when a big loss happened. The elves decided that "fuck this, it didn't happen, we're still the best" was the option while the drow went with "you fuckers ran away, we stayed and we're proud as shit about it".

This also makes them all, without fail, gigantic douchebags to everyone.
>>
Lol, In my own setting I went with the Witcher approach to elves.
> Hilariously arrogant to a point where they will refuse any help from humans with no exception.
> Actually going extinct. There's basically two places you can find elves: In brothels working for chump change, or larping in a redwood forest and pretending that they're even slightly relevant.
> All of their neighbors understandably hate them:
> The british empire expy hunts them for sport.
> The local germanic barbarians hunt them for sport, and also fuck them for sport. Which contributes massively to the regional population of half-elves.
> Even the local Anarcho Syndicalist commune of Half-elves, Merfolk, and Lizardmen hates them for being egalitarians.

And with this in mind:
> Half-elves are 100 times as common as actual elves.
> They have very similar gestation times and fertility of regular humans.
> While full-blooded elves have gestation times of several years.

Even more fun
> Most "Pureblooded" elves have traits like straight hair and blue eyes. Their actual race is supposed to have brown skin, black hair, and red eyes. Take a wild guess as to where they get this.
>>
>>54061808
Congratulations!
You've made what is most likely your first unoriginal and unimaginative thread on /tg/, retreading a topic so old that in all likelyhood you hadn't even managed to hit high school when it was outdated and dull!
You've nowhere to go but upwards now as literally anything else you could post other then what you've posted would be more interesting and less talked about!
You have much to look forward to a long future of near-constant meteoric improval of posting quality as you skyrocket from the near-unattainable nadir that is this astounding creative low you started your journey at!
>>
>>54061808
Because Tolkien did it.

Elves in Norse Myth weren't terribly well described, aside from being somewhat superhuman. But literally everything in Norse Myth is superhuman, including some of the humans.

But it's all based on Tolkien and the lack of change or development in traditional fantasy we've experienced since then.
>>
>>54061808
Part of the definition is that they are mystic/fairy in the blood, and long lived. Everything else is variable, but it assumes some manner of strangeness and closeness to nature. A short lived fey is just a large fairy.

Being pretty is easy, being pretty-but-unsettling-and-bizarre is also good (or better), being normal is pointless and boring and being plain ugly makes it something else.

Nothing else really has being pretty as a gimmick, but I don't think one would complain about beautiful angel beings?
>>
>>54061808
Autism.

I ban elves and dwarves from my games for similar reasons. Zelda does it right.
>>
>>54062348
>Zelda does it right.
>I ban elves
>all the main characters/people in Zelda are Elves, Dwarves, Kenku or Merpeople
>>
>>54062218
>> Most "Pureblooded" elves have traits like straight hair and blue eyes. Their actual race is supposed to have brown skin, black hair, and red eyes. Take a wild guess as to where they get this.

Maybe I'm being exceptionally daft rn, but where do they get it?
>>
>>54062419
From germanic barbarians.
>>
>>54062419
He's implying they get it from humans fucking their genes into them
>>
>>54062218
>borders both a British like empire and Germanic barbarians

do they have French accents?
>>
>>54062540
> Anon passes his Knowledge: Geography check
Hilariously yes. They even used to be relevant, just like the french.
>>
File: 217.png (26KB, 300x100px) Image search: [Google]
217.png
26KB, 300x100px
>>54061808
>>
>>54062473
>>54062505

Didn't he say "pureblooded," though? Wouldn't that inherently make them non-pureblooded/half-elves, or is the idea that they're pureblooded just a delusion the elves have?

Also, does genetics work differently in this universe, because I'm pretty sure blonde (?) hair and blue eyes are both recessive traits I don't know if they'd linger around unless the fucking was relatively recent.
>>
>>54062557
I love it.
>>54062596
"pureblooded" with air quotes I believe. so delusion
>>
>>54062596
Mixture of blond and brown hair. But emphasis would be on having straight hair of either colour instead of curly-black. And yes, it would mean the elves are just delusional larpers who arrogantly still wish they're better, when they spend their all time shitting in forests and not building societies.

Meanwhile most cities all over have fairly decent demographics of half-elves. While only .01% of the world population is pure elves. Most cities have a fairly sizable half-elf population. The main city that my campaign takes place in and around; Syr, has roughly 17% half-elves. If anything half-elves would just become known as their own race, and overtake humans as the dominant species in the world given sufficient time, just like how homo-sapiens overtook neanderthals by out-fucking them.
>>
>>54061808
I don't think people get upset over them not being superior, but there certainly is an expectation for elves to generally be of fair appearance and enjoy the arts in some fashion.

If you try to go against this and make Elves into inferior short humans that are hideous and don't care for anything beautiful or creative, you've just made goblins but are calling them something different, which is certainly something to get upset over, since it's stupid to do.

You can do a lot of things with Elves, but at the end of the day people will generally expect the surface-level traits to be what they're used to seeing.
>>
>>54062699
Seems pretty interesting. Are there any actually positively portrayed "pure" elves in the setting, because it sort of gives off the vibe that they were purposefully put in the setting to be a punching bag for players to laugh at based on what you've told us.
>>
>>54062699
How would they out-breed humans? Are they poor and bored? Are many of them prostitutes? Do they fuck a lot because they're all sluts that make everyone happy?
>>
>>54061808
>Why do people get mad when elves aren't the most superior/beautiful/artsy race in the setting?

Why do they get mad when they ARE the most superior/beautiful/artsy race in the setting?
>>
>>54062381
Hylans are not elves, they are humans that only stole their ears.
>>
>>54062922
Any excuse to be angry
>>
>>54061837
G8 b8 m8.
>>
>>54062889
Aside from a very brief visit to the elf-lands(while traveling to a different area), the only other encounters the party has had with elves is a few particularly old university professors in Syr. Those ones make for some pretty good professors due to how long they live. I intentionally keep them very rare, so the party goes, "oh hey that's an elf." whenever they end up seeing one. In fact, when they received ingame news that the elvenlands had war declared on them by both the germanic barbarians AND the brits, their first reaction was, "Oh shit, we need to go rescue a few elf waifus." Now they've expressed an interest in making a journey to that area of the setting for that express purpose.

My justification for it is just that of a realist approach. If elves are essentially just 'slightly better humans' but they don't fuck as much and they are much less fertile. Then they'll end up no different than Neanderthals over time, for the same reasons. It's inevitable.

>>54062910
It's just due to a helpful combination of the following:
> Similar gestation time to humans, generally one or two weeks longer.
> Longer lifespan, similar fertility. They therefore can have kids for longer.
> Tend to have good attributes of both parent races.

These three things are why the half-elves would end up more common over time, while pure blooded elves die out.
>>
>>54062977
>My justification for it is just that of a realist approach. If elves are essentially just 'slightly better humans' but they don't fuck as much and they are much less fertile. Then they'll end up no different than Neanderthals over time, for the same reasons. It's inevitable.

That's a pretty interesting approach to it, really. Not gonna lie, I got slightly /pol/ vibes from the "inferior savage brown elves fucking around in forests instead of building proper civilizations and getting fucked by germanic humans" premise you set up, but the whole "neanderthal" explanation is a pretty interesting idea. I never thought about the consequences of evolution in a setting with extremely infertile races like elves.
>>
File: Jareth_the_Goblin_King.jpg (56KB, 440x690px) Image search: [Google]
Jareth_the_Goblin_King.jpg
56KB, 440x690px
>>54062779
Implying elves are in any way more beautiful than goblins.
>>
>>54063008
We do make some pretty terrible jokes at the tabletop though. My entire party posts on /pol/, so a lot of fairly ranchy jokes are made. From an Ancient-race's Sentient AI calling itself Covfefe, to the party leader claiming his motto is "Abech Macht Frei". We don't take the jokes too far, but we also aren't very merciful with them. It really helps to weed out the fags that don't have a good sense of humour, and thus would drag down the party.

I try and take more realistic stances to philosophy and cultures in this setting. I will say that Cultural Relativism is a complete load of bullshit, and 'inferior' cultures really do exist. If you have a culture that fails to grow or change over the span of thousands of years(like elves who would live longer than their own culture), it'll naturally seem quite inferior to that of others. And that's probably true, especially compared to cultures that evolve over time, and develop new ethics and ideas that improve upon the previous ones. You would walk into an elvish village and see them crafting elegant longbows and playing melodies, but if you walk into that same village a thousand years later, it won't have grown even a single inch, and the melodies won't have changed a bit.

Meanwhile on the opposite end of the world, there's a city formed and run by Tengus. Their entire culture revolves around spinning these glorious huge pennants, that detail pictures of epic battles that their people have fought and died in. They train their children to ride griffins and hunt dragons with lances, and then send them out into the world to collect glories.

Yet a one hundred year old tengu pennant is markedly different from a modern one. Because the weavers who crafted the modern pennant have the knowledge of past ancestors to build and improve upon. Each new pennant is more beautiful than the last. That is a sign of a healthy culture that will likely stand the test of time, and be looked over by philosophers as an inspiration.
>>
File: Untitled.jpg (128KB, 825x464px) Image search: [Google]
Untitled.jpg
128KB, 825x464px
>>54061808
>why would the blond "superior race" get assblasted when their aryan genes don't prevent russian cock from entering their women
Who knows.
>>
>>54062218
>>54062699

That's not the Witcher approach. That's the classic /tg/ "elves make me feel inferior approach", except you also added /pol/ to the mixture, a bit of no-fucking-idea-about-genetics, and your sexual deviance, sadism, and psychopathy.

>waaaah not everyone wants to live in an imperialistic society and there are people around the world who live differently, also they're brown but also strangely attractive to me
>better make it into a race in my setting, nobody will notice I'm working out my own issues through it.
>>
Elves should be vulnerable to cold iron. Discuss.
>>
>>54063106
Ehh, to each their own. Quite frankly, I don't agree with anything that you just posted, but if you're keeping it contained to your own group then I'm happy to let you have your own fun. I at least appreciate that you're going for some interesting worldbuilding ideas (the Tengu city thing is pretty fucking rad) even if they come packaged with some political and philosophical stances I don't like.

That being said though

>It really helps to weed out the fags that don't have a good sense of humour

should be more like

>it helps weed out people who aren't /pol/posters.

I get that you play tabletop with a like-minded group of people, and that's just fine, but I'm pretty sure nobody who isn't a /pol/fag themselves would enjoy playing in a group composed entirely of /pol/fags, regardless of their sense of humor.
>>
>>54063371
I had a vague idea for a setting where Elves would be permanently stuck in the Bronze-Age because of their Fey traits making it impossible for them to wield/wear iron and its derivatives without suffering penalties. I never really got far enough for me to figure out how it would work, but I thought it was an interesting concept.

If you wanted elves to be a playable race, I could see several versions.

The most obvious one would be to keep the D&D thing going where "Cold Iron" is a special kind of iron and giving them some extra bonuses to make up for it. That's easy from a balance/mechanics standpoint, but I think it's a lot less interesting from a worldbuilding perspective.

Elves could also essentially be an extreme version of "squishy wizard"; they're weak to virtually every human weapon in existence, but to make up for it they could be naturally gifted casters (or perhaps super-archers or something) who would survive conflicts with humans by never coming close enough to get hit by them.

Maybe you could also give elves resistance to non-iron weapons instead of making them weak to iron specifically to balance them out. That'd have some interesting consequences for elven culture; all wars between elves would be very non-lethal compared to wars between elves and non-elves, so I could see elves becoming a culture that settles all its issues with violence since war is basically sport for them. For "serious business" assassinations, elves might use carefully handled iron/steel weapons, or hire non-elven mercenaries to do their dirty work.
>>
>>54063371

Elven supremacy was brought to an end when humans and the other races discovered Cold Iron.
>>
>>54063439
I do like the idea of Elves using Bronze extensively. While it might be too heavy for them to really want to make use of for full sets of armor, it is a very long-lasting material. A bronze sword is much less likely to break than an iron one, nor will it rust away if you leave it hidden for a century or two.

I do feel like if one were to apply it in a game though, it would need to be a fairly minor benefit/penalty. Taking a couple extra points of damage from iron weapons while taking a couple less from anything made of another metal or wood. Not sure how I would count fists, fangs, or other natural weapons, though it could help explain their love of forests if they're adept at not getting mauled by bears through supernatural resistance.
>>
>>54061808
I thought it was the other way?

Like, /tg/ pretty much hates any portrayal of elves that aren't author taking a huge shit on them.

Now, you want to make /tg/ mad, insinuate that dwarves or kobolds aren't the bestest race ever.
>>
>>54063519
>I do like the idea of Elves using Bronze extensively. While it might be too heavy for them to really want to make use of for full sets of armor, it is a very long-lasting material. A bronze sword is much less likely to break than an iron one, nor will it rust away if you leave it hidden for a century or two.

Yeah, we're not talking about fullplate here, since elves are traditionally seen as the "dexterous/agile" race I could see them mostly using light/medium (by D&D terms) suits of armor, a la real world Bronze Age cultures.

>I do feel like if one were to apply it in a game though, it would need to be a fairly minor benefit/penalty. Taking a couple extra points of damage from iron weapons while taking a couple less from anything made of another metal or wood. Not sure how I would count fists, fangs, or other natural weapons, though it could help explain their love of forests if they're adept at not getting mauled by bears through supernatural resistance.

Yeah, unfortunately what's interesting for worldbuilding isn't always good for balance. You could make elves be a non-playable race, or you could make the benefits minor enough that "high-level" (again, from a D&D perspective) adventurers could more or less ignore them but they'd be a major factor in the lives of everyday normal elves (going off D&D damage scaling, taking 3 more or less damage would be not that big of a deal for a 20th level character but a huge deal for a 1st-level one).

Actually, a blanket damage resistance to all non-iron materials could make elves adept at adapting to a lot of nasty environments. Forests with deadly critters are a good one, but I could also see Desert Nomad Elves (notorious for using sandstorms to their advantage, exploiting them to conduct raids or lose pursuers without fear because the scouring sands have no effect on them.)
>>
I usually go with low fertility rates, long lives and long pregnancies. There's few elves left because although they make fine knives and bows, orc, human and ward weapons will still cut as well even if they break easier. Plus humans and orcs breed like rabbits and our societies tend to war. The elves would rather hide in the Forrest.

Also it's hard to hide in the Forrest if the human king has logged to build his new navy and now his peasents farm the land.
>>
>>54063629
that's boring.
>>
>>54063647
The magic in the world is dying deal with.

Now shut up and forge some steel elves aren't the real threat the Danes are.
>>
>>54063585
Yeah, them making use of bronze in smaller amounts for breastplates and gauntlets and the like is quite fitting. Plus, it has the bonus of their armor being a nice golden color if new and polished, or a bluish green if worn and ancient. Both quite thematic for Elves.

I'll agree that it wouldn't be an easy thing to balance for play. I feel like keeping the benefits minor would be the best route, but you'd have to start the players at a slightly higher level or else risk any Elf in the party being an unstoppable juggernaut who shrugs off an entire pack of wolves, before dying in one hit from a goblin with a rusty dagger.

I think 2 damage would be a good amount to aim for, and wouldn't be too overbearing at higher levels. There are quite a lot of possibilities you could have with them being resistant to those more minor damaging effects that such wild places bring.
>>
>>54063688
yeah, but that's still making too much assumptions based on stereotypical forest-dwelling elves.

Like assumption that outside of magic and crafting elves are literally retarded and can't adapt AT ALL.

They're out-of-context, stereotypical, in stereotypical setting. Not saying that's bad, just... disappointing.
>>
>>54063694
I think you could maybe scale it?

The elves gain their blessing (and curse) from a connection or descent from the old and capricious spirits of the wild, the Fey. While this power has become diluted and weak in many, there are still mighty elf-lords who feel the elder magic burning deep within them.

In practice, "normal" elves would get some really minor 1 or 2 damage adjustment, something trifling to adventurers but still enough to substantially change their daily lives (going off 5e rules, they'd for instance become completely immune to unarmed attacks from individuals who aren't exceptionally strong, iirc. Furthermore, a lot of minor sources of damage you wouldn't normallly track, like being scratched by a cat you picked up, stubbing your toe, cutting yourself on accident on a sharp tool, etc... would be removed). That'd also have a pretty big effect when averaged out across a huge army of weak individuals.

Adventurers would also be able to obtain increased benefits, maybe damage reduction that scales with a stat, plus some kind of other "minor fey magic" type abilities or bonuses. You could have that as a different subrace suitable for higher-level adventurers (with LA for 3.5 or what have you), or you could have it be a feat or some other form of special ability, etc...
>>
>>54063629
>>54063688

Yeah that's basically most basic elf that you could possibly imagine. If your players like generic-ass fantasy go for it, but you could at least make some effort to like think through the consequences of the traits you assigned to them instead of just going with lazy fantasy cliches.
>>
Elves are aristocratic blueblooded incestuous clans of families with no rites of marriage. Families mostly comprise half-siblings, as lovers come together and drift apart, begatting children from unions. Their traits like long life and magical prowess come from their ancestors, who got them from the gods, or some believe were gods. They breed to keep these traits pure, but incest also makes your children fucking nuts. There are some parties who recognize this trend, and so support the breeding between elves and other species, so long as the child is a half-elf. They see it as making the other species offspring better because they're now part elf, obviously.
>>
>>54063809
Hmm...thinking further, I think it sort of scales up on its own, at least as far as 5e is concerned. If it's only a 2 damage adjustment, then at low levels, most things will be making a single attack, which gets 2 damage knocked off/added. At higher levels though, a lot of things deal damage through the use of multiple attacks. While you might be taking 50 damage a round, it'll more often be broken up into 3 or 4 attacks. Against those, you're effectively reducing/increasing the damage taken by 6 or 8 instead. Not the most major difference, but over the course of a few rounds I think it would still be significant and noticeable.
>>
>>54063568
desu senpai kobolds are way better race than elves.

sexier too.
>>
File: Elezen_CG.png (606KB, 662x680px) Image search: [Google]
Elezen_CG.png
606KB, 662x680px
Elezen from Final Fantasy XIV. They're elves but certainly not in decline. They're populous as fuck.
>>
>all these edgelords whose super great unique lore is that the elves are actually shit and stupid and everyone hates them

lmao, /tg/'s pettiness towards the fantasy jocks will never not amuse me.
>>
>>54063984
I was with you until you said

>fantasy jocks

Since when have elves remotely resembled "jocks"? None of the jocks I know or have ever known resemble elf stereotypes in the slightest.
>>
>>54061808
Superior doesn't need to be true, but beautiful and artsy kinda do.
>>
>>54063973
Shit, when did Elvaan go bishie?
>>
>>54064370
Since XIV? They're Elezen now. Still can grow beards and are still fucking tall as hell.
>>
>>54061808
>why do people get mad when the jocks and cheerleaders are superior?
>>
>>54063351
Underrated post. Kissless, scientifically illiterate fa/tg/uys hate him! Find out why!
>>
>>54064028
They're popular and get attention from the opposite sex.
>>
>>54064653
This makes me think that people on /tg/ have never interacted with popular people who get attention from the opposite sex outside of high school.

There are actually multiple types of popular, sexually attractive people, many of whom are not "jocks" in any appreciable way.
>>
Its hard to have reasonable reason in your setting for elves not to be superior to humans in just about every way given that they have 10 times the lifespan.

a repetitively young elf say 200, has had so many more decades to practice his craft compared to a 20-30 year old human.
>>
>>54063439
maybe this could be of interest for you: http://tattered-realms.wikia.com/wiki/Ohanedin
Elves that take pain from cloting in or directly touching metal. And are bound to their oaths. All in all organizing in feudal systems.
They get, among other things, bonuses to dodging and have even the possibillity to dodge attacks from firearms.
>>
>>54064653
That isn't at all what a jock is.
>>
>>54064744
That's why elves tend to be in the upper echelons of societies.
>>
>>54061808
Because then you might as well make another race instead of ripping off shit and give it "your" "twist".
I guess that would be too much work though so IN MY SETTING DWARVES DON'T HAVE BEARDS AND CATCH BUTTERFLIES ALL DAYXD
>>
>>54062235
ok
>>
>>54062587
top kek
>>
>>54062910
I think the idea is that, because elves live longer, they have longer gestation periods, so humans can have 2 kids in the time it would take elves to make one
>>
>>54061808
>Why do people get mad when elves aren't the most superior/beautiful/artsy race in the setting?
They do?
>>
>>54062218
I really don't get why someone would think that this is a good idea. I would just leave the table because of the overload of edge.
>>
>>54061808
Elves are all based on Tolkein's elves, who were, for actual specific lore reasons, different and in several ways "better" than other races, although also significantly more limited in their abilities in other ways, which have mostly been forgotten.

Most writers and game designers have been copying Tolkein for decades, many of them not even knowing why elves are supposed to be so cool in his books, and not bothering to find out or come up with their own reasons.

As for players, regardless of any lore justifications or lack thereof, people are attracted to elves specifically because they are the standard power trip fantasy archetype: stronger, faster, smarter, sexier than humans, but still looking so similar to humans that people can use them to vicariously live out their fantasies of being perfect and amazing without having to stretch their imagination to anything really alien, which would made it harder to identify with the fictional character as being your own self insert. Same reason vampires have become so popular. You will never stop people doing this. Even if you run a game with no elves, a lot of players will still make that type of character.
>>
>>54063064
He's not a goblin, guy. He's just the king of the goblins.
>>
>>54065772
Pretty much this.

The best way I've come up to deal with it is to base them to the even older archetypes, the myths - and those make them all sorts of weird and usually base them outside the world as humans know it entirely. They basically turn them into outright fey.

That sort of a thing is harder to get through your players, harder to get them to play along and play them as the weird aliens they are, but if you can't manage it you might as well just ditch elves entirely.

Maybe make them half-elves fluffwise. That'd allow you to keep them around and justify a lot of the shit people throw at them.
>>
>>54061808
desu senpai, I don't give a fuck.

I play an elf that is socially awkward and does not like interacting with others too much. He's a good wizard, but sucks at the usual fight-y stuff such as swinging swords and using shields and armor. He just wants to study his books.
>>
>>54061808
They don't really HAVE to be, but the archtype has been very firmly established of Elves as a sort of higher quasi-angelic race. Hell this has been a thing since long before Tolkien, albeit with different flavors.
>>
File: sad orc.jpg (134KB, 623x511px) Image search: [Google]
sad orc.jpg
134KB, 623x511px
>>54061808
What really sucks is when you take this assumption and combine it with the modern RPG expectation that everything has to be balanced. Then you've got elves that're supposed to be better, everyone pretends they're better, only... they're not.

And then sometimes, the setting actually drops those pretenses and you get shit like >>54062218

What you need to do is to get rid of the balance. Make elves as powerful and superior, as angelic and fae and inhuman, as they should be. And then what? The balance is broken. You'll either need everyone to be an elf, or no one to be one: no party can handle a mix-up.

However you look at it it's a fucking mess.
>>
>>54061854
Why call it elf if it's not elf?
The whole reason for using known fantasy races, is because they are fast to get shorthand.
>>
>>54061808
>superior
Please. It's a much more common cliche that elves are dying/enslaved/lost war/whatever nowadays, rather than being superior.

People just aren't original, anyway. You can easily just do the opposite thing:
>Humans are tall, beautiful, gracious humanoids who have powerful magic, while elves are creatures with features that pale in comparison to humans.
>>
File: YAMERO.jpg (27KB, 549x534px) Image search: [Google]
YAMERO.jpg
27KB, 549x534px
EVERY.

DAY.
>>
File: 1465834134294.jpg (13KB, 164x276px) Image search: [Google]
1465834134294.jpg
13KB, 164x276px
>>54066912
And when people realize this and get tired of it they will go back to the other extreme and make them nazi super human that are better than everyone. I just hate how people seem to be unable to think of elves as their own people, in their own niches and realms, with their own flaws and strengths, having good and bad times like everyone else. People seem to be unable to conceplualize this fictional race apart from humanity, they are either better but get narrated into having shit times, get completely stomped by the story like the author needs to prove something or they have to embody every ideal of the author and be smug about.
>>
>>54062699
What kind of taxes do they pay in Syr?
>>
>>54066726
>What you need to do is to get rid of the balance. Make elves as powerful and superior, as angelic and fae and inhuman, as they should be. And then what? The balance is broken. You'll either need everyone to be an elf, or no one to be one: no party can handle a mix-up.

Seems easy to balance to me. Elves can be extra dexterous with strong perception, but incredibly frail with low stamina. They'll make for good archers and rogues, but poor frontline fighters. As far as magic goes, possibly incorporate something akin to The Death Gate Cycle.

>A human of sufficient magical talent can perform a variety of feats, including the manipulation of the elements, creating illusions, healing, compelling other life-forms, transforming shape and size, translocation and overcoming physical limitations such as gravity. While some magicians can mentally construct their magic rather than speaking it, most need to use physical gestures and in some instances physical objects or incantations to perform their magic. The spiritual nature of human magic also ties in with the theme of balance present throughout the series. Humans, especially when compared to elves, are "lacking" in their connection to the natural world and spirituality and their magical skills serve to balance this deficit.

> Elven magic is considered part of the Physical Masteries, which "tend to use and make use of physical objects in the world about the wizard."[6] For instance, this allows for the creation of "smart" self-targeting arrows, flying dragonships, magical submarines, protective charms against human magics, fabric as hard as steel and other mechanical devices with enhanced capabilities. As with human magic, elven magic is used to balance the elven deficiencies in mechanical, physical, and technical fields.
>>
>>54062031
>Elves
>Sensible
The hell kind of elves have you been associating with
>>
>>54063373
>>54063106
Holy shit a reasonable conversation that hasn't devolved into a shitflinging competition?
Well done!
>>
Ok so you know how old people always feel entitled and tend to be assholes?

Imagine if they still had young bodies.
>>
>>54065022
I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate it when people come up with va'xelii which are elves but different. Just do elves but different. I don't care about the duties of the mo'mo'ney or the xwghltrpoxy in the mountains. Just call them kobolds and dwarves, damnit.
>>
>>54067070
Low fantasy elves that could conceivably survive in the wild
>>
>>54062218
>The British empire expy hunts them for sport

That's horrible.
>>
>>54062277
This is the only guy in the thread who gets it.
>>
>>54065781
That just opens more questions; is he just a powerful wizard who took over the kingdom, then? In that case, were did he come from? He certainly isn't a puppet like the rest of the gobbos.
>>
>>54063371
One of my elf flavors have that, so they use bronze armor because fuck complete metallophobia, that fucks up someone's life a lot harder than you'd imagine
>>
>>54066726
Just play a system where being a non-human costs more points, depending on how OP they are. Song of Swords is a good example.
>>
>>54062093
I really like this, and if you ever come back to the thread, I hope you'll elaborate more on it in any way you can.
So I can steal it.
>>
File: 15092855064412.png (287KB, 514x421px) Image search: [Google]
15092855064412.png
287KB, 514x421px
>>54062218
>>
>>54061808

Outside of the Complete Book of Elves have elves ever actually had the mechanics to bear out their supposed superiority that so many people on /tg/ like to wring their hands about?
>>
>>54071398
No, because balance.
>>
>>54071439

Then why do people cry about elves so much?
>>
>>54071472
Because according to the fluff they are still superior.
>>
>>54071496

What fluff are you specifically referring to?
>>
>>54071510
Just about all of it.
>>
>>54061808
Tolkien set the standard for how to elf.
It's up to the GM in the end though. I try and make elves more grounded in my settings.
>>
>>54071472
>different anon here
Fluff and books
In fact, not being actually 'better' than humans despite being described as such (for years and years) has caused an even greater reaction.
>>
>>54071496
We are here on /tg/, you should be able to cite fluff. I can think of some.
>>
>>54071526

In almost every published setting I can think of the elves, dwarves, and halflings all get their own little tiny areas on the map while every country that matters and every person who historically did anything that matters in the setting will be human.
>>
>>54071398
One would think that /tg/, the board that is supposedly well-read, that should play traditional games and because of that should be able to pick up some source book and cite text, would know better. But it's the same with all elves are gay and all elves are sluts: a big meme that is based on some lore you can find here and there, but mostly on headcanon of people that hate them
>>
>>54071558
>matters
oh here we go again
>>
>>54061808
My setting is a Norse derived setting that's already rebuilt after one ragnarok cycle. The elves WERE the immortal servant race of the gods that got left behind after the first time that the Giants tried to murderfuck the world. Being confined to earth infected them with mortality and now they know what it is to grow old and die.

And they hate us for it.
>>
>>54061949
>ridiculously loving and cuddly elved
This is kawaii as fuck, nigga.
Thread posts: 111
Thread images: 11


[Boards: 3 / a / aco / adv / an / asp / b / bant / biz / c / can / cgl / ck / cm / co / cock / d / diy / e / fa / fap / fit / fitlit / g / gd / gif / h / hc / his / hm / hr / i / ic / int / jp / k / lgbt / lit / m / mlp / mlpol / mo / mtv / mu / n / news / o / out / outsoc / p / po / pol / qa / qst / r / r9k / s / s4s / sci / soc / sp / spa / t / tg / toy / trash / trv / tv / u / v / vg / vint / vip / vp / vr / w / wg / wsg / wsr / x / y] [Search | Top | Home]

I'm aware that Imgur.com will stop allowing adult images since 15th of May. I'm taking actions to backup as much data as possible.
Read more on this topic here - https://archived.moe/talk/thread/1694/


If you need a post removed click on it's [Report] button and follow the instruction.
DMCA Content Takedown via dmca.com
All images are hosted on imgur.com.
If you like this website please support us by donating with Bitcoins at 16mKtbZiwW52BLkibtCr8jUg2KVUMTxVQ5
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties.
Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.
This is a 4chan archive - all of the content originated from that site.
This means that RandomArchive shows their content, archived.
If you need information for a Poster - contact them.