At 12:06 PM 1/10/2003 +0100, irdeggman wrote:

>I generally find the at the Player`s Secrets are totally inconsistent
>with the "core rules", by "core rules" I mean the BRRB, Atlas of
>Cerialia (also inconsistancies between these two), the Tribes of the
>Heartless Wastes, Ruins of Empire, Havens of the Great Bay, Cities in the
>Sun, Rjurik Highlands, BoP, and BoM - one could even include the BoR.

The PS texts often have some glaring inconsistencies with the rest of the
published materials, but they aren`t totally inconsistent. If you can get
past the contradictions they do contain some good stuff. Many of the
extrapolations on elven culture in PSoTuarhieval, for instance, is just
fine. One has to overlook the weirdness of a human invested with the
domain, but that`s pretty easily discounted since it follows along with the
alternate scenarios used to put PCs in place of the NPCs regents originally
presented--none of which strike me as being particularly well
done. Similarly, the Baruk Azhik book has some cool descriptions of
dwarven life, good maps and adventure ideas. Lots of people hate the fact
that dwarves can eat rock and dirt as presented in that book (I kind of
like it myself) or that Grimm Graybeard turns into some sort of Obi Wan
Kenobi of the caverns, but again either of those things can be discounted
pretty easily.

>The underlying theme in these is that humans and elves, with very few
>exceptions, "hate" each other.

There`s animosity, but I don`t think it rises necessarily to the fever
pitch of outright hatred in the same way that humans feel about other
rivals. One of the things I prefer about BR over other settings is that
the differences between the races are more clearly described (depending on
how seriously one takes the biology of dwarves and such as presented in the
materials) but the "morality" of the various cultures is much more
gray. Elves are "protectors of the forests" but some of them kill
indiscriminately in doing so. Goblins are "evil" but still function pretty
well on the national level with their human neighbors. Things along those
lines.

The hatred that elves have for humans isn`t unjustified given their
ideology and more than likely certain biological factors that provided the
basis for that ideology. That hatred, however, is not necessarily more
serious than their generalized sense of racial superiority over other
species, and when it gets right down to it, they are superior. Immortal,
capable of wielding more powerful magics, Cerilian elves have racial
advantages that probably aren`t very well reflected by characters presented
with ability score numbers and character levels. Sure, elves don`t much
care for humans, but are humans much more than goblins or orogs to such
creatures? They aren`t even dwarves, which at least have the good sense to
keep their grotesque faces underground where they won`t offend the
sensibilities of elves.

>It is written that humans see half elves as changelings and they are
>shunned and only fully accepted in elven societies.

I don`t know if that`s necessarily because they are elven, though. It`s
more of an expression of human bias and xenophobia than a connection to
elven heritage. It`s not necessarily an unjustified bias either for a
couple of reasons.

One should first take into consideration the circumstances of a half-elf`s
birth. There ARE changelings in Cerilia (from Bloodspawn--possibly the
best supplemental text IMO) who do actually steal babies and replace them
with horrific simulacra (not in the sense of the D&D spell.) The idea of
giving birth to something not-human is pretty upsetting, even if it`s
something as innocuous as a half-elf. The sidhe are in many ways
associated with the horrors of the Shadow World and that`s largely because
they really are more closely linked with that land of shadow and mystery.

Second, a human female who overcame any racial issues to mate with an elf
male would be more likely to accept such a child, but I`m afraid most
half-elven children would probably not be so enunciated.... As indelicate
as this is, humans are remarkably vulnerable to being charmed from the
elvish POV and, well, if they happen to be sexy humans then all the
better. The elvish take on magic is a factor here as well. Charming a
human for reasons of seduction would likely be considered a heinous act in
human society, but to an elf, whose use of magic is part of his very
character, there isn`t much difference between being charming and charming
someone. What`s for the human to get upset about anyway? They live such
short lives. Even any possible off-spring will only be around for a
century or two. No big deal. Many half-elven children would likely be the
product of this kind of liaison. The sidhe are mystical creatures who are
not above a little of the kind of mischief that makes for maternity. The
attitude of humans for half-elves is likely the product of that rather than
a hatred towards elves.

It`s also important to note that half-elves are accepted in elven culture,
despite their human heritage. Is it strange that "children of nature" as
it is sometimes euphonized would be more accepted amongst elves who are
themselves more directly children of nature? Probably not. But a blind
hatred for humanity would certainly rub off on creatures who are themselves
half-human if it were as strong as all that.

Gary

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