Apologies for my speech-to-text wall of verbage again.

I am with  VisionStorm in this, Elves are also one of my favourites.

The only problem that I have with SHARKs Elven Kingdom is that it seems more suited for era before campaign current time.  This seems to be the period where all the dungeons are dug, the gold coins are minted and the magic items and magiced.

Elves being basically better than humans, a la Tolkien, can be countered by having them unable or unwilling to organize. Thus, they get pushed to the margins by lesser beings. In one of my current campaign settings, Idlewhile Uswego, King of the Greenwood, is a vassal of a human king. His long history of defeats at the hands of the dwarfs of Glon,' (see Idlewhile snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, Idlewhile's route and Idlewhile's humiliation) mean that his kingdom is much smaller than it was.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Glon,' the dwarfs get little joy from their ancient conquests. Almost all elves in Glon' are residents, not citizens, not taking part in the money economy and ignoring the fact that they are in a nation. They are not rebels or outlaws, they just hang in the boonies and ignore the authorities. The elf citizens are few but they do bring a lot to society.
There is an elf kingdom west of the mountains and another on islands in the Wraparound Ocean.

Two words: redneck elves.

Quote from: RandyB;1142030Two words: redneck elves.

I see somebody else read Monster Hunter International.

Considering elves have long lives in the MHIverse, I've been tempted to ask Larry Correia if they're playing a long con against the MCB. It'd make for an interesting novel, at least.

I would also like to note that Tolkien's elves were only wise circa LOTR because all the stupid, arrogant, and brash ones had died off. Feanor by himself was just a walking disaster.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee;1142032I see somebody else read Monster Hunter International.

Yep. One of my favorite bits. I'm still disappointed that MHI didn't give us hillbilly dwarves.

In my own stuff?  Poul Anderson elves; they are not paragons of good, but of pagan neutrality.  

Elves and druids
clerics and paladins
half-orcs, anti-clerics, and assassins

None of these 3 categories will adventure with the other two.  Players must choose which one of the 3 groups are present in the party (or none of them, I suppose).  This will set the overall tone of the campaign and its place in the cosmic conflict.

When running Greyhawk, however, I go with vanilla elves; a bone to the elf-loving players who are happiest playing a human with pointy ears.

Quote from: RandyB;1142063Yep. One of my favorite bits. I'm still disappointed that MHI didn't give us hillbilly dwarves.

Eh I feel thats what makes it great is he balances out the goofy and the more serious. I feel hillbilly Dwarves may have been much.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee;1142096Eh I feel thats what makes it great is he balances out the goofy and the more serious. I feel hillbilly Dwarves may have been much.

Urban gnomes, redneck elves, and noble savage orcs? Yeah, he hits a good balance, but the dwarves are an obvious omission.

I want the PCs to aspire to making the world a better place, so militarily powerful empires with a well-developed economy and no room for improvement doesn't appeal to me, much, unless the players decide to create this Utopia themselves.  

I like elves that are powerful - living for thousands of years they are high level characters, but they are seen as unresponsive to other nations.  When the human kingdom complains that a vast orc horde will overrun their lands, elves tend to see that as a problem for a day - they can just wait a decade and the orcs will have degraded the land and moved on, and a new human kingdom will arise again.  

Effectively, my elves are 'great' but they aren't interested in exporting their culture.  From an outsider's perspective, there are a lot of things you can claim as flaws so PCs won't have a problem having conflicts with Elven nations if they decide to build their own kingdom.

Quote from: SHARK;1141925Greetings!

I know that many people dislike Elves, with often a special animus towards Tolkien-like Elves. I don't care. I like Elves, especially Tolkien-like Elves. However, in my own campaigns, I decided to go against the popular narrative often presented in game worlds and fantasy fiction alike--of the Elves being a dwindling people, overwhelmed by their own diminishing numbers, and faded glory.

I decided to MAKE ELVES GREAT AGAIN!:D

At least, in one region of the world. I created a vast Elven Empire, ruled from a central government, and having a majestic and glittering capital city. The Elven Empire holds numerous imperial elven provinces, as well as several semi-autonomous elven Kingdoms. The Elven Empire is enormous in scope, with over a dozen huge cities, dozens of smaller cities and towns, and many great fortresses. The Elven Royal Army is huge, and has a fierce history of sweeping, glorious victories. The Elven economy is highly advanced and robust, with extensive trade networks stretching thousands of miles, reaching dozens of nations and kingdoms. In a similar manner, the culture of the Elven Empire is bright and robust, with a rich heritage of fine foods, beautiful clothing, perfumes and jewelry, wondrous arts of music, dancing, singing, amongst others.

Having such a dynamic element in the campaign region presents some different kinds of backgrounds and stories for Player Characters as well as NPC's. There's a whole lot of things that can be done with that--as opposed to an always-waning, diminishing Elven culture. I've found that such dynamics can be very fun and rewarding!

However, having such a great power bestowed upon an Elven Empire does make or enforce other, deeper changes in several areas in the campaign, especially within the immediate campaign region. The humans are still dominant, or growing so--but humans must deal collectively with an enormously powerful Elven Empire. While usually friendly, through the centuries, they do not necessarily have to always be allies, or even friendly. There's definitely scope for conflict between the two races--though obviously, there are also many powerful dynamics which push for friendly alliances and positive relationships.

In my own campaign, I have some of the local Human kingdoms have long-standing alliances with the Elven Empire, while other Human kingdoms, principalities, and tribal confederations, have actually engaged in wars with the Elven Empire.

For some added twist--because the Elves of the Elven Empire are Good Aligned, and their realm is highly magical, with many wild areas, and full of faerie creatures and such, the Elves are dead-set against having Humans or others travel within their empire, let alone settle in lands within the imperial borders. The Elves do not want their lands tainted and corrupted by Humans--while also, influenced by these philosophies, the Elves have little interest in occupying or conquering any human-dominated lands, at least beyond a temporary duration.

Have you done something very different with Elves in your campaigns? If you do have any very powerful Elven Kingdoms, how have such an Elven Kingdom or Empire influenced the campaign world around it?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Elves are a real hot button issue, aren't they. People love'em or hate'em, and even those who love'em often seem to hate other people's take on them.

I've never quite gone the way you are describing, but could be cool. I do tend to go with the decadent faded glory angle, but if I did try a still-vibrant elven empire, I would probably go all Melnibonean with them. Imperial elves would also have to be more numerous than I usually like, but even still, I would make them a minority in their own empire, a ruling elite lording it over other subject peoples.

Quote from: Zirunel;1142156Elves are a real hot button issue, aren't they. People love'em or hate'em, and even those who love'em often seem to hate other people's take on them.

I've never quite gone the way you are describing, but could be cool. I do tend to go with the decadent faded glory angle, but if I did try a still-vibrant elven empire, I would probably go all Melnibonean with them. Imperial elves would also have to be more numerous than I usually like, but even still, I would make them a minority in their own empire, a ruling elite lording it over other subject peoples.

Just wait until you find out about how unbelievably racist they are!

I prefer pre-Tolkien influences and deliberate avoidance of Tolkien tropes.

I like the elves as The Fair Folk, mysterious, capricious, and dangerous. The evil Christmas elves in Krampus are awesome.

I like Glorantha's elves because they aren't just funny-looking humans but intelligent plants.

I like Raging Heroes' take on elves as consisting of one soul shared between an animal and a plant. I especially like the dark elves being victims of their plant halves being burned to death, rather than just arbitrarily evil or whatever.

You might like Lion & Dragon's take on Elves, then.