[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Can I get a passage reference for said code. If it is in Unfinished Tales I am about to start a reread of it. Lots of cultures don't use poison in warfare, but that does not mean they have a code against it. It just means it is impractical.

I'm sorry... I don't know where it is. I was thinking it may be the War of the Jewels but I've looked through it where I thought it should be, and didn't find it. I know the passage I'm thinking of, though. I just for the life of me can't recall where it was.

What I meant about Curufin (in War of the Jewels) is that Curufin didn't kill Eol, because the Eldar had laws against killing in revenge for any reason, no matter what the other person had done - even abducting and raping your cousin! And Tolkien goes on "Curufin could have slain Eol (as he greatly wished!) ... But this would have been in Eldarin law and sentiment murder..." although later after Eol murders Aredhel, Turgon does have him killed.

Did the Avari consider themsleves to be the True Elves?

Well, there is this in War of the Jewels:
"They were, it seems, filled with an inherited bitterness against the Eldar, who they regarded as deserters of their kin, and in Beleriand this feeling was increased by envy... and by resentment of their lordliness."
In this passage the Nandor and Avari are both being described. "Inherited" I take to mean culturally taught, not inherited in the blood.
Also "They were actually unfriendly to the Noldor, and jealous of their more exalted kin, whom they accused of arrogance." Most of them called themselves "Elves" and the Eldar "Deserters", in their various languages.

How big do you want big to big? DX 12? DX 14? DX 16? I think you will find a tremendous amount of disagreement on the board about just what a big bonus to DX would be. To some, even a +1 in GURPS goes a long way.

I really don't know. I'm first of all, not familiar enough with GURPS. I can't even figure out my own attributes in this system! Anyway, it is vague how much, but going from 4E Lite, DX 14 might be an appropriate racial average. That is considered Very Good by human standards, almost Amazing. The thing is, because of having immortality and all that goes with it, their spirits have a much greater mastery and control over their physical form. Not only a resistance to pain, hunger, addiction, and so on, but sheer gracefulness and bodily control. Your choice to give them Perfect Balance reflects the same thing. They are lithe, graceful creatures in nearly full control of their bodies.
In terms of HT, this may be harder. They can survive and recover from serious wounds, but they can still be killed in battle, even by orcs. On the other hand Calaquendi, at least, seem to be quite tough and difficult to take down. More than sheer hit points in the face of injury, they seem to be enduring and tireless, able to exert themselves a great deal, or go for a long time without food or water, before weakening. I'd keep their average Strength at 10, but give them a lot of extra FP.

Can you provide the quote please? I cannot recall.

I believe the old Alliterative Lay of the Children of Hurin. Which admittedly is from the late 1920s. But the texts up to the most recent (just published) text say that he was weakened and all bent over from being long enslaved in the mines of Angband. I guess that is a different thing, though.

Keeps elves from having bad breath, body odor and other things like that.

Oh, that makes sense! I can't imagine elves having bad breath. On the other hand, is there a Disadvantage that does the opposite that you can give to Orcs? Probably an Odious Personal Habit.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Doesn't Sleep doesn't mean you don't sleep, it means you don't need to sleep, maybe they do it for fun.

No, I'm pretty sure they go to sleep because they need it. They rest when tired, just like anybody else, except they need less. I can't imagine why they would sleep for fun. What's the point? It isn't as if they have dreams as mortals do, all they have are recurring vivid memories, which they experience when awake just as easily. Having no physical need to rest the body is like not needing food. Elves are tough and unaging, but they have physical bodies. Anyway, for an example, Finrod and Turgon when traveling together in Beleriand, slept on the banks of the Sirion. "...and they slept upon his banks beneath the summer stars." And when Miriel laid down in Lorien she seemed as though asleep, even though actually she died. Again, when Feanor and his sons sailed to Middle-Earth, the first thing they did was hit the sack on the shore. Or after escaping from Angband, Gwindor fell asleep in the Forest of Deadly Nightshade, because he was "exhausted."

Elves can become "besotted with wine" as well, if we believe the words of Angrod in the Silmarillion.

The Ambidextrous thing is something for which I do not own the text. It is in a document which was published in the periodical Parma Eldalamberon, which somebody on the Tolkien mailing list mentioned. I tend to agree with you that they would not be ambidextrous in every way, but they can write with both hands. This is something which is in the linguistic research of people who study the elvish languages, and although I read some of what the linguists have to say in their writings, I don't have copies of most of the linguistic texts that they study. It is a text concerning the different alphabets they had, which were designed to be legible either left to right or right to left, or even written boustrophically which means alternating lines start at the right or the left. This was Feanor's invention, after the first elf to invent writing made it in vertical columns, like Chinese.