Elven alignment restriction

[irdeggman]

For those interested try following the following linked (and pinned) thread to find the Philosophy of the BRCS.

http://www.birthright.net/showthread.php?t=2189

Now as to why there is no penalty specified for lawful elves, that was also intentional. We had thought this would best be covered in the discussion of elven society which should be included in the Atlas project. It deserved more ink than a mere 2 sentence "rule" to adequately cover, IMO.

Now if you really want some sort of penalty specified then use the same one as for using shunned schools of magic.

Mages practicing the magic of shunned schools are often themselves shunned by other mages and ostracized by their people.

As for explaining why elves aren't lawful, you could use the same concept as for the 5 oaths. Elves are older than the oaths as a race and some existing ones literally are. Hence their tie to the land is far greater.

An ancient and awesome power binds any mage taking the Five Oaths irrevocably. Once bound, mages find it impossible to violate the oaths, even if they want to do so.

Oh and the main reason elves don't have deities is because they are immortal (not just very long lived, they are truely immortal) - hence they have been around since the beginning and have no reason to "worship" deities. They may (and some do) respect them or at least some of their teachings but they don't "worship" them.

Much of this is covered in Bloodspawn (a free pdf from WotC - it should be read, really it should be).

Great Heart talked some about elven society issues including (IIRC) how some of them "just give up" and fade from existance. Remember they are immortal and don't just die.

[Retillin]

As the rule books stats all elves must be chaotic. This does not mean they cant be Lawful, just they veiw it with distain. There is one "elf" that is Lawful in the BR books. Rove Manslayer, but it is also said that do to his behavior that most elves do not believe that he should be fighting for the way of the elves do to the fact that he is so lawful. So it comes down to flavour. If you dont mind making a CE version of a Paladin, then there should be no problem with a Lawful elf. But it is mostly a racial tabbo more than anything. They believe in free and independt thought above all.

ps. Sorry for the spelling errors and i dont mean to sound preachy

[Fizz]

As the rule books stats all elves must be chaotic. This does not mean they cant be Lawful, just they veiw it with distain.

Well, no. The rule book says elves must follow a non-lawful alignment. The rule book specifically says they can't have a lawful alignment.

There is one "elf" that is Lawful in the BR books. Rove Manslayer, but it is also said that do to his behavior that most elves do not believe that he should be fighting for the way of the elves do to the fact that he is so lawful.

Actually, Rhuobhe Manslayer is neutral evil.

But it is mostly a racial tabbo more than anything. They believe in free and independt thought above all.

Well, that's a matter of interpretation. Those of us who are staunch in the alignment restriction say it's inherent in their nature- the same way that creatures from the Abyss are evil or those from Mechanus are lawful.


-Fizz