more world stuff

Here're some random thoughts I've had about my campaign world. Since thus far, the players have done a damn good job sepearting player knowledge from character knowledge, I don't mind talking about any of it here. None of it's common knowledge, which is why it hasn't come up in game, but some of it might come up later. *shrug*

We'll start with the elves. I recently read a thread at ENworld.org dealing with what everyone's favorite style of elves were. I don't really have a favorite style, cause I've lived with D&D elves all my life, so that's the base everyone else is judged from. Aside from the D&D elves, though, I like Pratchett's elves as seen in "Lords & Ladies" and a few other story realms that make elves less human and more fey/exotic. So I started thinking, "How can I work that into my campaign?"

Here's the trouble. There's a half-elf in the party, the characters know there's an "Elven Isle" somewhere that all the elves live on at least part of their life, and they actually had help from an elf scout when it came to rescuing a friend. She presumably gave them a little background info on the state of the Elven Isle, because there were some questions concerning how this elven scout can be the 'cousin' of the orphan human child the party was rescuing. (Turns out her grandparents cousin married a human, and their half-elf offspring continued on with the human relationships. These things are possible for a race that lives an estimated 1000 years. Think of the Social Security difficulties that would cause for our current government and administration...)

So, the elves the PCs know are very strongly founded in "traditional" D&D elven lore. And it just dawned on me that I should compare/contrast the two for the readers not familiar with each. D&D elves are a little more strongly based on Tolkein's elves. They live in the woods, look like androgynous humans with pointy ears, are very dextrous, but not quite so adaptable and healthy as humans, tend to be good with magic, and all have training in sword and bow use. Pratchett's elves are a bit closer to the traditional real world elvish lore. They live in the realm of faerie, tend toward being tall and slim, are extremely beautiful but absolutely alien in that beauty, are very conceited, and delight in causing pain and anguish of a psychological bend in humanity.

Now, how to blend them. In D&D, the cosmos is made up of 'planes'. The real world is the Prime Material Plane, deities tend to abide on the Outer Planes, the elements have their own Inner Planes, and there a few transitive planes such as the Ethereal, Astral, and Shadow Planes that span the breadth of the cosmology. Some Alternate Prime Materials exist as well, and some campaigns add in a "Far Realm" which is where all of the Cthulu influenced monstrosities exist, as well as any "All God" figure there may be, and some go so far as to place the homes of various abberations in the Far Realm as well. Planar theory is a whole other blog entry, though, and this ones about blending influences into a gameable race.

Back to the original question of "How do I fit fey elves into a world/campaign that already has a traditional elven setting?" Simple. Superman. What? Superman? Yep, Superman. No, I'm not crazy.

Dig. On Krypton, Supes and his people were essentially us. Humans. Supesy's powers stem from the influence of our sun.

So, in my campaign, elves are originally from another plane. I actually haven't decided whether it's a new plane or just an alternate Prime Material. I'm thinking it's an alternate Prime known simply as Fey. All the faerie influenced critters originate from there. On Fey, the natives are one way, but because of the magical influences of the character's Prime Material, they're the way the PCs know them as. Really though, is there much difference between an alternate Prime Material and a new/different Outer, Inner or Transitive Plane? Not really.

Elves are elves as the PCs know them on this Prime, but on Fey, they're more Pratchett-esque. Tall, possessing great but alien beuaty and mindset. Very smart, very dextrous, very thin. VERY VERY conceited. In their minds, they rule Fey and are quite content with that, not really attempting to conquer other planes. However, like all of the faerie land, they're very curious as well. Outside of Fey, they unwillingly take on the baser characteristics of the lands and tend toward the better known D&D style of elves.

While all elves know of Fey, not all want to go back there. Some make regular pilgrimages, but make the sacrifice and return to other planes to further some elvish plot or what have you. Others avoid Fey altogether. These tend to be the elves not born on Fey, for they tend to hate the conceitedness and self absorption that takes them when they return there. Fey Elves tend to think of these "dirt skins" as lower than they think of their slaves. The elves that bounce in and out of Fey tend to be the lower class citizens in Fey with the purely Fey Elves being the superior members of the race in their minds. Because of the magics involved in planar travel, it's rare to find a Fey Elf in 'fey form' outside of that plane, but when one is encountered, beware, as it requires considerable power to avoid the transformation that takes place when plane walking.

The land of Fey itself is pretty close to all of the faerie legends of the place. Strangely beautiful and surprisingly dangerous. Warnings abound about traveling there. Eating any fey food is prolly a bad idea, as is sleeping much. Fey Elves tend to view tourists as nothing more than entertainment, and their sensibilities about right and wrong are far different from denizens of other planes. Worse is the maleability of the reality of Fey. The denizens of the land, and most especially the Fey Elves can warp the land itself to match their whims. It's not unknown for Fey to closely resemble the Prime Material to dupe unwary travelers into mistakenly doing something to get them stuck their permanently.

For the brave, and possibly dumb, how does one reach Fey? They easiest way is to find a faerie guide. Elves can take travelers there, but most non-Fey won't. Any of the other faerie (such as pixies and the like) can do the same, but again, most don't. Portals to Fey tend to be found at borders. Where ocean meets shore, nation meets nation, old doorways to decrepit houses, cave entrances, forest becoming plain, mountains leveling off...these are all places to accidentally find fey portals. It's not recommended that travelers enter.

Another warning. In Fey, time is different. Hours in Fey could be days on the Prime Material. Days could be hours. The portals actually relegate time, and it takes great power indeed to relegate the portals.

Are there any known stable portals on the Prime? Obviously the elves have at least one. Probably on the Elven Isle. Who knows about the rest.

As for game knowledge, not all of the elves know a lot about Fey. In fact, PC elves prolly know jack or at least not much more than non-elves. Half elves that haven't been to the Elven Isle are treated as non-elves. Knowledge(planes) can come up with some info on Fey, but the PC has to have a reason to go looking.

As for our campaign specifically....Zeke could probably convince Crenius to look for info on the Elven Isle if he was worried about Jethek. Since the elven scout chic was pretty competant, Jethek confirmed her story, and he went with her sort of willingly (ignoring the angst that any 12 year old uses to deal with such a major change), Zeke's prolly not too worried though.

Tune in next time for Holy Crap, The World Really Is Flat!