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

[Cowrie]

With most of the more common fantasy races like elves, dwarves, or goblins, people tend to have a fairly solid preconceived notion of what that species is like. A few like trolls are to some degree 'wildcards' due to having being shown so many different ways, but if you say 'elf', most people are going to have a similar mental image: Slender, beautiful humanoid, probably fair-skinned and forest-dwelling with a penchant for archery, that is naturally agile, has an innate gift for magic, and is overall more skilled than humans.

However, what I want to know is, how far can you deviate from those typical norms for an entire race in a given setting, while still making it recognizable as an elf or dwarf or what-have-you and keeping the same name? Sure, you can have a purely original race that fits the same niche as a traditional race -- to take an example from TVTropes, the Na'vi from avatar are nature-loving, forest-dwelling archers, so they have a lot in common with elves despite being a sci-fi alien -- but that's not the same thing. What's the furthest you've stretched a race, either anatomically or mentally/culturally?

I'm currently working on a setting where the four different fantasy races in it are all descended from different branches of the primate family tree. Because of this, all of the races deviate somewhat from the typical standard. Slender-limbed, tree-dwelling elves are descended from New-World monkeys, with a particularly close relation with wooly spider monkeys. Because of this, they have a prehensile tail! They're also herbivores, with an ability to gain much more nutritional value from leaves than humans. However, they're still good-looking, long-lived and innately magical.

The goblins, as I mentioned in another thread, are related to tarsiers, with the same big eyes and ability to turn their head 180° degrees in either direction. What I didn't mention is that they have the oddly long legs combined with a relatively stocky body and large head of tarsiers as well, and are skilled jumpers because of those legs. Their ears, while fairly large, are more rounded than what people typically picture when they imaging goblins.

Harpies in this setting are an odd one. While there aren't any real life primates naturally capable of flight, there are a few species that are able to "parachute", and possibly even glide a bit. One of those, the needle-clawed galago, is what I ended up basing my harpies on. They are capable of powered flight, with their arms having evolved into bat-like wings, the membrane of which extends as far down as their knees, but does not stretch between their legs. Those legs end prehensile-toed feet that are just as dexterous as human hands. They also have a long, bushy tail they use to help steer themselves in flight. I'm currently undecided as to whether they have fur on the rest of their body as well, but their faces at least will probably remain hairless, and they have long, human-like hair atop their head. On the ground, they usually stand fully upright like a human, and are only about 3' tall. Unlike most versions of harpies, they're omnivores, with a particular fondness for tree gum, and the sharp teeth (to make wounds in tree bark) and long tongue necessary to acquire it.

Finally, trolls are close cousins of baboons. Though perhaps the most 'typical' of the non-human races in this setting, they're still unusual in that they're diurnal, with no better night vision than humans. While in many settings, trolls are either brutal savages or a somewhat magical species, these are very much a Proud Warrior Race. Like baboons, they have strong jaws set in dog-like snouts and exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. Males are bigger and stronger than females, but not as smart, so in trollish armies, males tend to form the bulk of rank-and-file infantry, but most officers are female.

How has everyone else stretched the limits of fantasy races?

[smurf]

For me the elf can be +1dx and Ht, increased basic speed, skinny and maybe some imbue powers from PU1.

[Culture20]

Before Tolkien, elves were quite varied in height, personality, and culture. The Norse even had two different types of elves in their stories. The most recent popular non-tolkien elves are “Santa’s elves”: diminuative magic workmen.

[RyanW]

The furthest I've ever seen elves stretched is, ironically, back to where they started: as supernatural beings that you generally don't want to be noticed by.

[mlangsdorf]

The elves in my current game are still somewhat shrouded in mystery, but the PCs have figured out that elves are the evil overlords of the cruel and despotic empire that the PCs are rebelling against. The orc armies that the PCs have been fighting are the elves' despised, disposable foot soldiers.

I'm not sure if "tall, thin, beautiful people with pointed ears who really like forests and are also the most evil of evil overlords" is a great departure from some of the more traditional depictions of elves, but it is a great departure from the Tolkien tradition of most RPGs.

[Taneli]

Compare Tolkien's elves to ElfQuest and Gloranthan elves: ElfQuest elves are shipwrecked alien explorers (it's been 40 years), while Gloranthan elves are basically plants.

[Flyndaran]

My elf-like people are the qlippothic remnants of demigods, tall, slender, magical and wise, but full of fatalistic ennui and sterile... with each other.
The single member that still wanders the world living life has left some "special" offspring in his wake.
Anyone of the "modern" world of iron capable of magic can trace their ancestry to him.

[Skarg]

It really depends on your players, how flexible they are and what their pre-conceived ideas are. I've seen and done rather radical departures without complaints at least from the players I've played with. More often than not, the fantasy races in my settings are at least somewhat different from any published description.

I find most of the published descriptions not interesting enough to just copy exactly, and also I like that players won't know exactly what all the racial templates are exactly, as it's generally more OOC knowledge than any PC would have, so not being sure of the details adds a bit of wonder and an appropriate in-character level of incomplete knowledge.

[starslayer]

You can get a lot of milage out of 'elf' but at some point it just starts getting weird if there is nothing 'familiar' to it and your players start questioning why you bothered to call them 'elves'.

However: long lived, forest dwelling, graceful, and attractive creatures that happen to have tails. Probably pretty safely within 'elf' territory.

[whswhs]

When I started my current GURPS campaign, I made up seven humanlike races, which I decided were marginally interfertile: any two of them had reduced odds of interest, reduced odds of impregnation, and reduced odds of the offspring being fertile. I named them dwarves, elves, ghouls, men, nixies, selkies, and trolls. But none of them was exactly the same as the standard version—not even men, who were a slightly exaggerated version of "man the mortal, master of horses." I had in mind an animal prototype or two for each race: naked mole rats for dwarves, gibbons for elves, hyenas for ghouls, horses or deer for men, otters or beavers for nixies, sea lions for selkies, and bears for trolls. I went through the alien race creation rules in GURPS Space and picked behavior traits that I thought suitable; in some cases I picked slightly different traits for males and females.

So dwarves, for example, lived in communal family groups with one fertile female, two or three fertile males, and a substantial number of sterile workers. The dwarf women kept the hearth, cooked the meals, fired the pots, and smelted metal; the dwarf men fought, traded, negotiated, and did advanced crafts work; the workers did general labor and mining and helped their elders. My players don't know much about dwarves, though, as they chose to play ghouls, nixies, selkies, and trolls. They've done a pretty good job of adapting to the strange racial behavior I described, on the whole.