Monday 30 June 2008

The Problem With Elves

Introduction

These articles primarily concern things about my game, Elements Eight; but mostly the things that I think are different or unusual. The idea is that you, the reader, get a different take on something conventional, and hopefully that interests you. If it inspires you to do something similar, then great, but if you do not, it's no great shakes.

There's a few unusual things about the background that I'd like to write about. To be honest, the background I use is too deep to tackle more than one thing in a single article. But a bit at a time, a bit at a time...

First, some disclaimers:

1) The background in Elements Eight is optional. I designed it to meet a very specific feel I was after, a world that was on the surface fairly mundane, but had many underlying terrors, many looming threats, many forgotten secrets and a sense of impending doom.

2) The background in Elements Eight really is optional! There are a couple of aspects which are going to be controversial, which some people really will not like. I am certainly not decreeing how things should be. I just want to explain in this article why I've made a certain unusual choice.

The Problem With Elves

I'll be lucky to escape hate mail for this one.

I think there's too many elves. I recall the anecdote about Tolkien, and he was reading the Lord of the Rings to his fellow writers, and someone (rumoured to be C.S. Lewis, but actually was some other fellow) uttered the words "Not another fucking elf!"

Elves should, to my mind, be exceptional. I don't particularly like it when three out of four characters is an elf. Don't get me wrong, I like elves. I just think they should be rare. Otherwise their wonder is diminished.

At the same time, there's not enough humans. Because, after all, humans aren't that interesting...

So what I did was I tried to take some of the qualities that elves had and shift them over to humans.

What I came up with was the High Kindred and the Grey Kindred. Essentially, these are High Elves and Dark Elves. But without the pointy ears. I also made them a little more mundane and a little less monolithic in alignment. Elves still exist, but are restricted to the wood elf variety.

If all this appals you, you should probably stop reading. It is quite acceptable to ignore this. It is also quite possible to use the Elements Eight background, but house rule High and Grey Kindred as High and Dark Elves. They aren't that different.

But if this idea isn't sacrilege to you, you may be interested to know something of their histories.

The High Kindred and the Grey

It all goes back to when the world was young. The Lord of the Pale (who heads up the Spirit element) send the Pale Kindred (spirits, or ghosts, from which all the Kindreds spring) to invade the realm of his arch rival (Elsivere, Lady of the Wood, who heads up the Nature element).

The first invasion was a disaster. Elsivere got trapped all the spirits in physical form, and they became the beasts of the world; wolves and bears and such.

The second invasion was more successful at first, but in the end it too faltered. This time, Elsivere had some pity. As before, she trapped the spirits in physical form, but this time left them with their senses. The physical form protected them from forests (the touch of living wood being fatal to a ghost) and they lived freely and peacefully in her realm.

These were the High Kindred, and their element was Life. They hoped never to return to the Lord of the Pale, for they feared he would punish them for making peace.

But after a time, trouble brewed. Some of the High Kindred felt they had betrayed the Lord of the Pale in making this peace. And they saw the beasts and felt it was a torturous cruelty, and they took to slaying as many beasts as they could, to try and free the spirits inside, which would eventually find their way back to the Lord of the Pale. And, in time, they came to view their own bodies as a prison.

These were the Grey Kindred, and their element was Death. They wanted to honour their oaths to the Lord of the Pale, they wanted all the spirits to return to the Lord of the Pale, and that meant slaying their brothers. The Grey Kindred were also the first necromancers. They sought ways of slaying themselves, yet retaining physical form, so that in death they could still freely pursue the living.

The conflict has never been resolved. The Silver Gate only opens one way, so no tidings reach the living as to what the Lord of the Pale truly commands. And, with the rise and fall of empires, the death worship has been pushed underground. But still, it's a brave person who wanders in certain places at night. Isengoth, Tirigoth and Morghred are all known for their death cults, and though they fall within the boundaries of the Anoril Empire, the Imperial grip is tenuous. The Legions are vastly outnumbered by the rebellious locals. Peace balances upon the edge of a sacrificial dagger. In darkened cloisters, whispers are heard about a new bloodhunt that will free all the people of the world from their fleshy prisons...

A Less Random Brutality

If you've ever played Morrowind, you'll know the atmosphere I've been aiming for. The Grey Kindred are menacing, suspicious - but have a noble streak. They are highly principled, but these principles (that all people must die) are in direct conflict with the principles of most other people. They are not comic book evil. There are evil Grey Kindred, to be sure. And there are Grey Kindred who, seduced by the new Empires, have abandoned their heritage. There may even be Grey Kindred who believe in the principles of Death, but who take a pragmatic view, and manage to blend in with society.

These Dark Elf equivalents are still the ultimate emo characters, full of conflicting emotions, swanning about in long shirts and asking questions of the stars; passionately pursuing revenge for deeds thousands of years in the past; having strong associations with vampires and doomsday cults. But now they have a little more depth, and are a little less randomly brutal, and (partly because of the need for secrecy) are much less over the top.

And Finally

Apotheon has a nice little article about ethics in RPGs. I wonder what the censors would make of elements 8 with it's theological justifications of death...

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