04-04-2018, 06:44 PM | #51 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
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Tolkien's elves do have Irish counterparts. Russian ones too. There were a few other's. If I remember reading Gurps Faerie "White Ladies" have some characteristics like that. The "Fair Folk" is subverted in Tolkien, as men of Gondor and Rohan think elves are like that. Actually the predominant element of elves before the Victorian ones was not so much evil(that's as may be)but wildness and mystery. It is not so much that they are hostile as you cannot tell what they will be because they are to strange to you.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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04-05-2018, 11:57 AM | #52 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
In the Traveller settings I’ve always thought of the Darrians as Space Elves... and Sword Worlds as Space Orks... both are human cultures but they fill those niches.
In any setting Elves appear unpredictable to outsiders not because they actually are capricious but because they make their decisions on a different, unknown, set of premises and values. |
04-05-2018, 01:39 PM | #53 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
I'm probably repeating myself from another thread, but when I make racial templates, I try to list a bunch of "Common Traits" that are not automatically part of the template itself, and hence don't count toward the template cost, but are likely to be encountered among a sampling of average members of the race.
For a Dwarf, the Common Traits would include Greedy, Loner, the Pickaxe Penchant, Business Acumen, and Artificer Talents, the Axe/Mace and Two-Handed Axe/Mace skills, and the Sure-Footed perk, among others.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
04-05-2018, 02:00 PM | #54 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
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04-05-2018, 02:09 PM | #55 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
That is a weird trope. At least England and Wales have loads of Elvish myths. Scotland isn't known for many Dwarven myths that I know of.
Mostly, I thought Germany and Scandinavia were chock full of them.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
04-05-2018, 02:34 PM | #56 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
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It’s less about what Scotsmen think of dwarves and more about what we think of Scotsmen. |
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04-05-2018, 02:46 PM | #57 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
My Dwarves are more German and Norwegian than Scots. No haggis for them.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
04-05-2018, 02:48 PM | #58 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
The origin of the stereotypical Scottish dwarf has been much debated online. Poul Anderson used one in his book Three Hearts and Three Lions. That is, so far as I can tell, the earliest attested version, though whether he spawned the whole thing or it was reinvented again later I don't know.
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04-05-2018, 03:05 PM | #59 |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
I think I may incorporate some Glaswegian stereotype into my dwarves going forward. Incredibly friendly, but they tend to measure their friendships by how many teeth they've knocked out of one another.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
04-05-2018, 03:07 PM | #60 | |
Join Date: May 2009
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Re: Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?
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