39,327
edits
Our Elves Are Better: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 13:
* '''High Elves:''' These guys are better than you, and they won't hesitate to remind you at every opportunity. They're usually physically superior in "every way that counts" (which is to say, they don't count others' strengths as worthwhile) and are usually highly proficient in magic. They'll frequently be part of an ancient civilization/kingdom that has been in [[Medieval Stasis]] since before human speech. These guys usually favor whites, reds, blues, and imperial purples and wear super-sumptuous clothes along with delicate jewelry that make fangirls [[Squee]] with envy. [[Implausible Fencing Powers|Rapiers]], bows, and spears are favored weapons for their ground forces, with the option of sleek scimitars in settings where rapiers are too modern. Unlike their more down-to-earth compatriots, they'll usually live in a [[Shining City]] that will [[Superior Species|invariably be cleaner than human cities]].
* '''Wood Elves:''' [[Friend to All Living Things|In tune with nature]] and prone to spiritual contemplation. All the same, they [[The Archer|kick bow-y butt]] in combat. Generally they're magical in a [[Religion Is Magic|druidic]] rather than wizardly way. Can be [[The Empath]], often found in a [[Hidden Elf Village]] in a forest, which can overlap with a [[Tree-Top Town]]. These guys are among the least stuck up elves, but that might not be saying much, since they usually replace [[Cultural Posturing]] with [[Green Aesop|lectures on respecting nature]]. Taken to their darkest level, they will kill anything non elf that wanders into their forest. Obviously, they favor greens, browns, and flowy billowy clothes when they aren't wearing leaves. They generally use bows, knives, and (if they have metal) short swords. Sometimes an [[Expy]] of the [[Magical Native American]]. Frequently they will be less smugly superior than the other types of elves, and responsible for most half elves.
* '''Dark Elves:''' Take the above two, sprinkle in some [[Fantastic Racism|xenophobia]] and a dash of [[
* '''[[Half-Human Hybrid|Half-Elves]]:''' Since elves can't help being so awesome, it's no surprise they get to "[[Get Thee to a Nunnery|know]]" a lot of people. Biblically. The result of all this canoodling are Half-Elves. These guys have half the coolness of their elf parent, but half the suck of their human side (including mortality and -- worse by far -- facial hair). They are usually outcasts, or if not outcasts, then have utterly embraced one of their parentages completely (not surprisingly, usually the Elf part because [[Puny Humans|humans suck]]).
** Pure-blooded Elves will usually treat Half-Elves far worse than they treat normal Humans. Expect High Elves to sneer at them, or at best pity them, dark elves to damn them as mongrels and try to kill them, whilst humans tend to stand, point, gawp slack jawed and go "Oooo!" at them. Only rarely will Half-Elves be treated as equals, which gives them a [[Angst]] rating on par with the [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]]. Elves may even disavow the existence of Half-Elves altogether, because [[No True Scotsman|no Elf would ever]] associate with such an inferior species. It's not unlikely for the parent to be ridiculed or exiled, as well.
** Disturbingly close to 19th Century "[[Tragic Mulatto]]" stories (see the entry in [[Pass Fail]]).
* '''[[The Fair Folk]]:''' Elves may be portrayed as dangerous and inscrutable creatures of magic -- in which case they may overlap and share traits with [[Precursors]], [[Our Fairies Are Different|Fairies]], [[Physical God|minor gods]], or [[Our Gnomes Are Weirder|other]] [[Our Goblins Are
* '''[[Space Elves]]:''' A newer variation, Space Elves can be a [[Serial Numbers Filed Off|straight up copy]] or [[Archetypal Character|analogue]] of any aforementioned variants, but '''<small>[[Recycled in Space|In SPACE!]]</small>''' They will usually be a [[Proud Scholar Race Guy]] to distinguish them from the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|stout, bearded]] aliens in the setting. Usually, they are also notable because their technology is either [[Organic Technology|organic]], [[Crystal Spires and Togas|crystalline]], or otherwise very pretty and completely renewable/in tune with nature (and can probably blow ''your'' ships right out of space [[Lensman Arms Race|before you can even see them]]). And of course, replace a bow with a laser gun (or better yet, ''[[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser bows]]!)'' and you're in business.
* '''[[Elvish Presley|Rock Elves]]:''' They play guitars.
Line 62:
* The Wood Elf variant appears in ''[[Slayers]]''; in general Elves live longer and have better magical skills, but they usually hide away and scorn humans. This is emphasized in certain cases because Elves generally align themselves with [[God|Ciefeed]] and his servants, the Dragons - the Dragons can have as much scorn towards humans, if not more.
* In ''[[Magical X Miracle]]'', elves are [[Inconsistent Dub|alternately called]] Hahaze and Onburu. They have an unusually high resistance to magical spells {{spoiler|, resulting in them being used as bodyguards for important people in the Kingdom of Viegald}}. They have long, pointy ears and [[Cute Little Fangs]], and have super speed when they need it. Fern, the resident Hahaze, takes to his Elvish smugness in the form of being the [[Snarky Non-Human Sidekick]]. They live in a [[Hidden Elf Village]] in the woods where they hunt. They seem to have some Celtic influences.
* The Drule from the ''[[Voltron]]'' universe are [[Dungeons and Dragons|Drow]] [[Recycled in Space|in space]]. Dark skin (purple in ''Voltron'', grey in ''[[Voltron Force]]''), white hair, militaristic, [[
Line 220:
*** Interestingly, half-elves have become an established minority who are more often born to two half-elf parents than a mixed-race couple. There are even half-elf noble families. This is partly due to an early attempt by shifty elves to capitalize on the short human lifespan by marrying aristocratic humans and outliving them to inherit their estates. At this point the two races were new to each other and the elves had no idea they could actually cross-breed with the humans. Embarrassed by the their children, the elves mostly ran for it. But as these first generation half-elves were usually born as heirs to noble houses, they did not end up being socially-ostracized by humans (just the opposite). Then when the Dragonmark of Storm appeared among the half-elves it was taken as a sign that they were destined to be a "race" unto themselves. An interesting aversion in Eberron is that ''orcs'' are [[Closer to Earth]] than elves, having a strong tradition of druids who saved the world from an extraplanar invasion.
** ''[[Spelljammer]]'' has [[Space Elves]] -- the motley collection of elves hailing from just about every world with elven population. Most of which became so obnoxiously haughty that next to ''these'' groundling elves began to look nice.
** Elves in ''[[Mystara]]'' mostly fall under the Wood Elf variant, although they make a lot more use of magic, owing to the Basic/Expert/etc system having given ''all'' elves spellcasting ability. The dark elf trope is partially averted, in that the subterranean shadow elves aren't black-skinned or [[
*** At least under the Basic/Expert/etc system, half-elves don't exist on Mystara. Human/elf pairs aren't very fertile, and their descendents are either humans or elves, depending on which parent is male and which is female. Oddly, Mystaran elves and ''ogres'' have proven genetically compatible, giving rise to a hybrid race of Giant Ugly Half-Elves.
*** Under the original ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' rules, "Elf" was a class, as was "Dwarf" and "Hobbit". Elves could choose once a day whether to be a fighter or a magic user, and were subject to the weapon and armor restrictions of whatever class they chose -- elves who were in fighter mode could use any weapon, wear any armor and use any shield, but if they were in magic-user mode, they couldn't use any armor (unless it was magical armor, which human magic-users could not use) and were limited to the weapons of a magic user.
Line 230:
* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'', elves are pretty much the default humanoid creature type for green. Most of them qualify as High Elves or Wood Elves.
** Elves of the plane ''Lorwyn'' [[Deconstructed Trope]] this. They have ram-like horns, though they can't really be compared to humanity, as Lorwyn has no humans. However, they do [[Incredibly Lame Pun|look down on]] the kithkin (i.e., [[hobbits]]). In addition, their entire society is [[The Beautiful Elite|based on physical beauty]], with the [[Bishonen|most beautiful]] among them being worshiped as gods. In contrast to the typical nature-loving elf, they take it upon themselves to "improve" upon nature to make it more beautiful. [[Master Race|Beings that are not beautiful -- mostly other races and disfigured elves -- are labeled "Eyeblights" and routinely exterminated.]]
** But in Lorwyn's [[Evil Twin]] plane, Shadowmoor, the elves are pretty much the only race that isn't [[
* The Eldar of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' are <s>akin to Space Elves</s> [[Elves in Space]]! to the 'T', as the term Eldar was used by [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] to describe a subset of elves. Much like other denizens of the Warhammer 40K universe ([[Our Orcs Are Different|Orks]], the now-defunct Squats, Necron), they are based on counterparts from the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Heirs to one of the oldest civilizations in existence, their hedonism and magical power created a Chaos God that [[Apocalypse How|almost destroyed their civilization]] and has terrorized the galaxy since. They even have two cousin factions: the Dark Eldar (who are dark elves [[Recycled in Space]] with the dark aspect turned [[Up to Eleven]]) and the Exodites (who are more or less planetary wood elves who prefer [[Hidden Elf Village|isolation]] and [[Medieval Stasis|pastoral environments]]).
** The "better" part of the trope is, however, up for debate as the Eldar are pretty much genocidal pricks willing to instigate wars (from behind the scenes, of course) in which billions of humans can die to save a few thousand Eldar. The Second and Third Armageddon Wars are a perfect example of this, an Eldar farseer engineered the rise of an Ork Warboss who went on to start the two wars which claimed billions of human and ork lives because he had foreseen that if he did not then ten thousand Eldar would die. He later looked back on the act and stated that it was completely worth it. The "up for debate" part, however, is because this isn't particularly out of the ordinary for ''any'' of the factions in 40k. Doubtless the Imperium of Man would do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed, to say nothing for the unquestionably more evil sides.
Line 238:
** While all the Craftworld Eldar are more or less analogous to high elves, each of the main Craftworlds embody different parts of the stereotype and often blow them out of proportion in the process. Biel-Tan for example, is the most [[Warrior Poet|heavily militarized]] and [[Fantastic Racism|xenophobic]] while Ulthwe is full of [[Witch Species|psykers]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]] [[Smug Snake|snakes]]. Other major Craftworlds include Iyanden (once considered [[Shining City|the greatest of all surviving Craftworlds]], but [[Vestigial Empire|is now in decline]]), Alaitoc (which produces a lot of the societal outcasts known as [[The Archer|Rangers]] due to its [[Hidden Elf Village|insular tendencies]]) and finally, Saim-Hann (whose warriors [[Fragile Speedster|ride around on jetbikes]] and settle matters of honour among themselves through [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|non-lethal duels]]).
*** While Exodites are in some respects similar to both Alaitoc and Saim-Hann, they are generally more analogous to stereotypical wood elves in that they choose to [[Medieval Stasis|reject most forms of technology]] and [[Friend to All Living Things|live in harmony with the planet they settle on]].
*** As for the Dark Eldar, they're a race of [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] that make Drow look like saints --their home city of [[Meaningful Name|Comorragh]] is less Valinor and more ''[[Hellraiser]]''. Practically everything they have is decorated in [[Spikes of Villainy]] and their only goal aside from survival is to basically [[
** The [[Fan Nickname]] for them is "elfdar." Just putting that out there. Apparently they haven't read their ''[[Silmarillion]]''.
* The [[High Fantasy]] counterpart ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]],'' has fairly standard High, Dark, and Wood Elves (and Sea Elves, but [[Canon Discontinuity|no one talks about them anymore]]). The High Elf army book goes on and on about how the High Elves are the greatest wizards, warriors, etc. etc. etc. in the world.
Line 313:
**** More or less- exactly how long back that heritage is, and how much of it there is, varies between Breton and Breton. It is suggested that a few families still have so much they basically are round-eared Mer. Most of them are the above-stated men with a little Mer heritage, though.
** There are about twenty unique kinds of Khajiit according to the Imperial Library, swinging from bestial and Bosmer characteristics, but they all like illegal narcotics. Khajiit are treated like slaves to the Dunmer, like sneaks to most everyone else, but they're not really that bad.
** The Falmer appear in ''Skyrim'' definitely looking worse for the wear after centuries of enslavement at the hands of the Dwemer. They are monstrous blind Morlock-like beings that raid the surface alongside their pet Chauri, killing and eating just about anything and anyone they meet. They are the ''only'' [[
* ''[[Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' features typically haughty Tolkienian Elves that are long-lived, good with magic, live in trees and consider all other races "lesser". However, facing the vast expansion in the power of the humans following their industrial revolution, they have either retreated into their treetop towns or integrated into Human urban society. Since they consider themselves the oldest race in the world, some are rather annoyed at fossil finds that suggest Humans evolved first and that the Elves branched off from them later due to the influence of magic.
* The Asari in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' are a combination of [[Space Elves]], [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned space babes]], and a [[One-Gender Race|monogender species]]. Their space elven traits come through in their immense, millennium-long lifespans, their [[Psychic Powers|powerful mental]] and [[Mind Over Matter|biotic abilities]], and their military doctrine of using [[Amazon Brigade|small highly trained commando units]] that utilize their natural physical agility and the aforementioned powers to overcome their lack of brute strength. Of course, it also helps that they're [[Fan Service|incredibly hot]]. They avert the [[Can't Argue with Elves|arrogance associated with elves]] since their [[Planet of Hats|Hat]] is "Diplomatic".
| |||