re: Elves

[RMoraza@aol.co]

I have a much looser interpretation of this idea than you do. First of all,
in the basic BR rulebook, there is no mention of any elven desire to "travel
to distant land when they grow weary of this one". I think that this is an
idea that we have commonly come to associate with elves, but Cerilian elves
are not your average D&D elf. In fact, I'm not so sure that Cerilian elves
have any place TO go, even if they wanted to.

In my campaign, elves are immortal; they do not die from old age, sickness,
etc. They are also a warlike race. They battled goblins, orogs, and god knows
what for centuries before the humans showed up, and since then they have been
fighting for their very existence. War kills most elves. IMC, if you tried
really hard, and searched the entire continent, you MIGHT find an elf who had
fought at the battle of Mount Deismar, but not bloody likely. And as to this
great fountain of information available to elves because of their long lives,
think instead on all the elven cities destroyed, all the towers razed, all
the libraries burned - and not just by humans. The elves themselves may have
destroyed some knowledge just to keep it out of human hands. The elves are a
dying breed. If they don't find a way to survive in this changing world, they
will be wiped out. Some hide, some fight, some negotiate - but only time
will tell which way is successful.

There are no "Power Elves" in my campaign. The oldest elf my PCs know is
Gylvain, and he has his own agendas and his own itinerary, and is very rarely
available for comment. But this is in my world - do what you want in yours.

[Brenda L Santer]

RMoraza@aol.com wrote:

>I have a much looser interpretation of this idea than you do. First of all,
>in the basic BR rulebook, there is no mention of any elven desire to "travel
>to distant land when they grow weary of this one". I think that this is an
>idea that we have commonly come to associate with elves, but Cerilian elves
>are not your average D&D elf. In fact, I'm not so sure that Cerilian elves
>have any place TO go, even if they wanted to.
>
>In my campaign, elves are immortal; they do not die from old age, sickness,
>etc. They are also a warlike race. They battled goblins, orogs, and god knows
>what for centuries before the humans showed up, and since then they have been
>fighting for their very existence. War kills most elves. IMC, if you tried
>really hard, and searched the entire continent, you MIGHT find an elf who had
>fought at the battle of Mount Deismar, but not bloody likely. And as to this
>great fountain of information available to elves because of their long lives,
>think instead on all the elven cities destroyed, all the towers razed, all
>the libraries burned - and not just by humans. The elves themselves may have
>destroyed some knowledge just to keep it out of human hands. The elves are a
>dying breed. If they don't find a way to survive in this changing world, they
>will be wiped out. Some hide, some fight, some negotiate - but only time
>will tell which way is successful.
>
>There are no "Power Elves" in my campaign. The oldest elf my PCs know is
>Gylvain, and he has his own agendas and his own itinerary, and is very rarely
>available for comment. But this is in my world - do what you want in yours.
>************************************************** *************************


This sounds much like what I am doing in the two Birthright campaigns I
run. The rulers of some of the elven kingdoms have been around for a long
time. For example Fhileraene was ruling Tuarhievel when the empire fell
(as in the book The Iron Throne). For the most part, the PCs know of these
elves, but have not met them.The elves in my camapign are not pointy eared
humans. Their goals are shaped by their long years and their experiences
with the humans. Since one player is running Dhoesone, that is the
exception to not knowing any elves. The ruler of Roesone was written up in
the Ruins of Empire to be Fhileraene's half-sister and therefore Rhuobhe's
great-granddaughter. In my campaigns, everyone chose to roll up new
characters to play, rather than taking the ones from the books. In this
case, the PC has a half-elven friend and lieutenent who is the character
the Ruins of Empire has ruling Dhoesone. This means that this PC has
accesss to some information about elves, but not to Fhileraene. The
various Birthright books, expansions, and modules are all sprinkled with
elven ruins. The number of elven ruins, plus the way that their lands have
shrunk make me think that their numbers may have gone down as well, and
many of their libraries and other repositories of history and learning may
have been lost along the way, as RMoraza pointed out.

****************************************
Brenda Santer:

mailto:bsanter@sk.sympatico.ca
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