Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?

[tanksoldier]

How has everyone else stretched the limits of fantasy races?

In his Monster Hunter International books Larry Correia has trailer-park living elves. They're still connected to the supernatural but lithe, cultured and so on... not so much.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Anyone know where the size discrepancy between Santa and his elves has its origins? Or the elf workshop at all? I'd always assumed it was a made-for-TV detail that got loose in the public psyche (not that this invalidates this mode of elves).

I would guess it was because it's a confluence of two separate myths. The Elves and the Shoemaker has little helpful elves in 1806, while Santa's elves date from after that in 1873.

My idea- instead of stretching the bounds of elfdom, combine the two streams. What would a Legolas Christmas elf be like?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

What would a Legolas Christmas elf be like?

Tweetyjerkjerk from Sluggy Freelance.

[tanksoldier]

How has everyone else stretched the limits of fantasy races?

There's also John Ringo's Council Wars series.

Elves there are implied to have been genetically engineered, or combined with, plants and possibly animals at some point in the distant probably to avoid human rights abuse charges... since they aren't human or derived from human stock... and originally intended as soldiers.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I would guess it was because it's a confluence of two separate myths. The Elves and the Shoemaker has little helpful elves in 1806, while Santa's elves date from after that in 1873.

My idea- instead of stretching the bounds of elfdom, combine the two streams. What would a Legolas Christmas elf be like?

He wouldn't be like a House Elf but some kind of Elven prince working for Santa. Suppose Santa had Huscarls from one of the other elf Kings, perhaps with the assignment of keeping evil spirits away?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

He wouldn't be like a House Elf but some kind of Elven prince working for Santa. Suppose Santa had Huscarls from one of the other elf Kings, perhaps with the assignment of keeping evil spirits away?

So... more Jim Butcher, less Pete Abrams?

Okay, I can see that too.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by Cowrie

How has everyone else stretched the limits of fantasy races?

Way back in my '90s D&D-converted-to-GURPS campaign, our dwarves and elves weren't radically different. But Halflings, called Tsarsha Moot, lived in a desert badlands region where they formed tribes of warriors who issued fearsome ululating battle cries and rode giant cliff-clinging lizard steeds into battle. They became a beloved feature of the game world.

[The Colonel]

Don't think I've seen elves done as proper, old school fae in an RPG yet ... although I see we've got a new GURPS Discworld out, in which elves were precisely that.
Tolkien has a lot to answer for in turning elves into humans with pointy ears ... and, to some extent the "like you but better" meme that has also stuck to them. I'm usually happier with the "we may look like you - but we are not like you" (and do not?). I'm even quite happy to eliminate them as a playable species if necessary to avoid them being devalued by over familiarity.

My own contribution would be "elves", heavily cribbed from Tad Williams' Sithi and Norns, who were actually the descendants of ancient astronauts, and pseudo-Buddhist sequential hermaphrodites. Just to mix things up, I also removed the archery fetish that usually attaches to them. They were also the creators of most of the playable species.

I would also like to try the fae elves - my general theme being to establish with players that an elf is something to be avoided at all costs.

Oh, and whilst we're cliché busting - how about a riff on RuneQuest's mechanical dwarves? Maybe with some Elder Scrolls thrown in? I fancy a setting in which the dwarves went trans-dwarfish centuries ago to avoid a great plague, uploading themselves to crystal soul jars. Unfortunately, very few - if any - other people know about the soul jars and humans tend to break into "abandoned dwarven ruins", (and assuming they can) trash the automated security and steal the "magic dwarvern power stones" to power their magic. The few active dwarf-holds remaining deal with outsiders using a few, heavily robed and masked, life sized chassis pretending to be live dwarves who themselves work through intermediaries. No, you don't get to play a dwarf either. Or meet one until late in the campaign. Campaign's resident "little people" are combination of Halfling and gnome stereotypes - being both yeoman farmers, colourful gypsies and skilled craftsman/capitalists (oh yes, I did play Arcanum as well...). These, you can play. They are actually the descendants of those dwarves that were left out of the great uplift, but even they don't know that.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

So... more Jim Butcher, less Pete Abrams?

Okay, I can see that too.

Truth to tell I'm not familiar with either.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Tolkien has a lot to answer for in turning elves into humans with pointy ears ... and, to some extent the "like you but better" meme that has also stuck to them.

Tolkien was only going back to the ideas of elves in older English sources, before the Victorian Age shrunk them into Tinkerbell-pixies. He did not invent this. He also did not invent the "like you but better" idea, which also comes from old English sources.

He was basically just rejecting Victorian fairies. All the other stuff was already there; he just gave them background context.