How do you like your elfs Veeky Forums? Human or Alien like? Or something between?

A bit fey, but still fairly human. They just have something unexplained about them that keeps them from getting fucked up by more grounded powers.

My fellow woodsman.

My wood elves also have sharkteeth ala Rance and are buff.

I make the dark eleves disturbingly colourful (unnatural colours) and with TES elven faces.
Average human in built when it comes to males with sexual dimorphism making women stronger and males more agile.

High elves are the Aryan übermensch stereotype but with pointy ears and skinny bodies.

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I actually like elves that are less advanced than humans in terms of technology. It always seems that elves who live in the woods have better crafted goods and such. Wouldnt it be cool to have a setting where a "manforged" blade is renowned? But yeah tall lanky elves with sharp teeth, animal like eyes bounding through the woods and plain. Strictly carnivorous and obsessed with the thrill of the hunt. Thems cool elves.

FAIR

FOLK

I unintentionally did the opposite in a campaign setting that I still use.

The elves are just really frail, secluded humans who almost never see the light of day unless they go out adventuring. Basically half vault-dweller, half longterm hospital patient. Their settlements are super defensively oriented because of how easily conquered they are.

requesting that screencap about the crazy elf who wanted to dim out the sun to look at stars

lewd

In most D&D versions and some other systems, elves are usually more intelligent than humans and more skilled in magic. I like to include that. I also like to have them longlived, but not so longlived that their perception of time is horribly fucked up (so let's say they live 200 years max, 150 years on average). So while they're physically more fragile, mentally they're objectively superior to humans and all other races.

They're übermenschen. That's why, in my settings, I make them either Romans (when they're at the top of their game) or Byzantines (when they're in decline). Yes, I know they're technically the same.

Pic related, in case HFY faggots start complaining about how "sissy elves" could never beat them.

A GM for a game I participated in made elves all kinds of fucked up.

One, they were predators for sure. The description was vague, and pretty horrifying. Elves were, in their way, beautiful. Like you would call a fast car, or an animal, or a piece of architecture beautiful. You'd have to be fucking nuts to try to get with one, because they have a tendency to murder mates in fits of impassioned fury. That, and a one-night stand tends to turn into more like a "one-life stand" when it comes to these long-lived bastards. Also they claw your shit up like a cat with a post.

See, Elves are raw nerves. Those in the civilized and not 'lapsed' groups, try to never show any kind of emotion. The most placid "love-thy-neighbor" barely repressed individuals in fantasy. But when something boiled their blood just the right way, be it a fighting or fucking cause, they developed some serious bloodlust, and often eschewed weapons because, "the sensation of gore beneath our talons is the epitome of bliss."

Physically, they were gaunt kind of things, mostly bald like humans, often times they tended to stand a head or so taller. They had the typical "human" range of skin tones, hair, and tended to have blue, brown, or yellow eyes. Those eyes would be round, as my GM described it, but that's about where the similarities ended. Elves had a projected sort of snout and large pointed ears. They were built to run on fours, but could stand with relative ease and had digitigrade legs. They had sharp claws, and a smile that could make an alligator happy. Their culture, as my GM worked it, was nothing like humans. The one elf we did have as a party member was a half-feral druid, who spoke in two or three word sentences. We couldn't even tell when he was half dead from exhaustion because of the culture shock.

Never did meet an orc in that setting, though our GM assured us that they were "much, much worse."

Short, magical, and fragile.
Cookie elves also work.

Shit, forgot to mention that they literally could not digest vegetable matter, so they ate what they /could/ process. Including sentient individuals. This caused their numbers to be kept small, however, considering that they stayed close to what they hunted. Sometimes, unfortunately, that would be a city.

100% alien tall fuckers

The only elf subspecies I've put significant thought into is drow. So to partly answer your question, I like my drow like North Korea.

in our setting?
basicly, elf twinks took the place of humanity as a race.
aside from magic ability and pointy ears, they come pretty close to human.

from the 3 main branches of humanity , those come the closest stat-and biology-wise

as far as TES is concerned i think the falmer are closer to what dark elves look like, just with hair and better posture.

We're talking about elves.

ded

Impaled on a big green fuck stick.

Naked.

I like my elves varied. It is a blanket term with more particular variants having more particular names. And none of them have very human culture.

I have a few setting I personally play with them in. Some where they are all sapient plants. "Dark" ones being carnivorous. Rustmouths if you prefer the slur.

In the other, they are varied breeds of animal-like humanoids. A combination of avian/cervine/canid in kind. But the breeds of elves are where the variety comes in. And they are culturally far removed from each other at times, such as some which better resemble stories of the wendigo.

I tend to make my Elves Humans. All other races were created by them for various purposes but have now gone out of control. As far as they are concerned, the only reason they still exist is their monopoly on advanced magics/technology (depending on setting) and they enforce those monopolies to the hilt

Crisped

Can't do naked (faggy blue board) but have a sexy one on me.

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>How do you like your elfs Veeky Forums? Human or Alien like? Or something between?
Now that is the question, isn't it?

Myself, I like my elves to be masters of illusions and misdirection, so they tend to seem quite human when they want something from humans, dazzling and beautiful and androgynous - but if you were to catch an elf without their glamours, or manage to dispel them, you'd probably see tall, emaciatedly thin things with bulbous, staring eyes and leathery skin.

Predator like

Usually like New Gods or Asgardians from the comic books. A superior breed of superpeople.

>the elf greets you: "may there be a thousand years of peace between us!"
>the interpreter warns you he means to murder your descendants

Brachiating
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20005554/#p20005811

I like them kinda like the hyperboreans as depicted in the Dark Horse run of Conan. Immortal, bored people that are so detached from morals and "normal" stuff they commit slavery etc.

For me the most common stereotypical elf is a completely dried-up cliche. I can't take a setting seriously if it has them.

I could get on board with elves that draw from the original Germanic, Gaelic and Romance elf/sidhe/fae myths but take a different direction. Maybe some kind of shadowy otherworld creatures who are inscrutable and unpredictable. Another idea would be to tie them much more closely to nature such that they have similarities to animistic nature spirits.

And naturally, no pointy ears, no shitty "Tyrithir Silversong" type names, no 'fading glory' history, and no subtypes grouped into high, wood and dark. All these things are limp cancer.

Medium rare.

I'm making a magical girl campaign, where the PCs turn into elves and other similar (read, very humanlike) fey creatures to fight a fatalistic evil. They can transform because they're actually changelings, though they lived their lives so far as completely normal human beings of course. Also their mascots are a fat mini-unicorn and an asshole cat with a hat.

Still trying to find ideas for when they'll dip a toe in the parallel world of the fey to have a chat with Titania, so I'm monitoring this thread for cool ideas.

Depends entirely on the Elf sub-species.

Although I greatly prefer my Elves being more like Saxons and Celts than anything, with the Wood Elves been more like the Woad than the rest.

Here's how I like my elves
>Immortal, elves can live for millennia if not slain by violence or disease. Remain in peak condition indefinitely.
>Look like a cross between fey abomination and human
>Far too pale, anorexic-tier thin but look gorgeous, rumored to have hollow bones because of how light they are
>Short pointed ears, long faces
>Huge eyes that see better than human eyes
>Much faster, smarter, and more patient than humans
>Elven warriors are basically god-tier compared to humans. When encountered, they're usually somewhere around level 5, as opposed to level 1 human soldiers.
>Whatever they do, they end up doing it better than humans because of both extensive experience and decades if not centuries of practice. Folded over a million times, etc etc
>Rarely leave their enormous nightmare forests full of grimm-tier faerie horrors. The horrible fey monsters serve like a kind of barrier to help keep intruders from getting in.
>Invading elf territory is suicide; armies of men rarely take more than a foothold before being slaughtered to a man by elven rangers, who are all guerilla badasses
>Extreme racism against "sub-elven" races. They see humans like how humans see orcs; ugly, fat, stupid monsters that don't learn, breed too fast, and can't maintain a stable government.

Also, I think elves should not be a playable race. You don't even see level 1 elves because those guys are still training or apprenticed to bigger, badder elves. Also an elf's life is too precious, valuable, and rare to be put in danger before they've been turned into hero-tier warriors.

If you see an elf ranger, you should be asking yourself two questions: "why is this elf allowing me to see him instead of being flawlessly hidden?", and "why have I not yet been transformed into a pincushion by this guy's two dozen hidden buddies?".

Both vaguely humanoid forest spirits for non-playable races and the same spirits given more humanlike physical bodies to interact and keep humanity in check so they don't sink another continent as playable races

Why would you see that?

Aye, aye like your elves, user

Humans with pointy ears, otherwise it's not conductive to roleplaying and it's just mechanical bonuses.

If they are not human, then you are just as bad as the player who plays a Dragonborn or other edgy race like Teiflings. Choosing mechanical bonuses over actually having fun.

Can't even be bothered to post the low quality b8 jpg.

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They're better than you, they know it, and they refuse to apologize for it. They come off like a race of frat bros and sorority chicks.

Short, creepy alien features, fae as fuck.

The Goblin King was obviously a human who had been kidnapped by goblins just like he was planning to do with the other kid.

Same thing happens in Dwarf Fortress.

I prefer to think of my elves as generally just similar enough to humans in superficial and psychological ways that when anything happens to point out the differences it gives the humans they are with an extreme case of Uncanny Valley.

Just imagine the sex. We've all heard of "Why Boner" but has anyone ever seen a case of "Why Orgasm"?

In my completely magical realm, nobody will ever play this, it's entirely wank material setting, Elves, and all other non-human races are all female and require human males to produce babies. Human women take exception to this, so they take up the sword to defend their men from the Ravishing Hordes of Lithe Asian Elves, Amazonian Orcs, and Shortstack Dwarves and Goblins.

>nobody will ever play this
I would, user.

Elves are inhuman, cold, fae, and the mass cannon fodder of the Fair Folk. Its why you see so many of them on battlefields, their masters have hordes of them back in their little realms.

I feel like that setting would be interesting if all the other races were peaceful abominations that humans found hideous/horrifying. All the other races are cursed and have to mate with humans to have children, but the curse makes it so they can't rape the humans.

You could probably come up with a better idea than that, but it's just an example.

And people in your games are okay with having a race of racist Mary Sue mcguffins that are amazing at everything and are basically immortal? I would get pretty pissed if my DM dropped that into a game.

>muh nature
>muh goddess
>muh clan
>muh honor
>fug humans
>fug technology

pic related basically, 3 meter tall and all. Lives in a extremely dangerous environment for anyone that isn't elf. Not playable unless everyone is a elf because size difference and racism. Kills humans and other non-elves on principle

>race of racists
>amazing at everything and are basically immortal

DnD already has a lot of races like this, but you don't see people complaining about storm giants, supergenius dragons, angels, most fiends, mind-flayers, or genies being better than humans in every meaningful way.

Players might not even encounter elves in a campaign unless they wanted to travel through their lands. Elves would mostly stay inside their forests and consider sub-elven quarrels to be beneath their concern (although whether or not this is true is another matter entirely). Like they probably wouldn't even attack unless the players fucked up really badly.

Symbaroum does it pretty good, with proper Elves being as alien as they get, and Changelings, who are not-quite-Elves switched for real human babies, being the playable race.

I will shill Symbaroum to hell and back

I like them as magical Transhumanism. In other words, humans genetically modified by magic and turned into what their ancestors thought would be superior beings. Then I run the downsides as in a sci Fi game.

Not all elf races are alike OP.

Some elves, like the Snow Elves/Frost Elves/Ice Elves are super Veeky Forums, six-foot tall, pale-skinned and fair featured uber elves that plow the seas in glacial fortresses of solid ice, kept from melting and afloat by magic.

Other elves, like the Dark Elves/Fire Elves/Brown Elves are just semi-savage primitives, living in tribes as hunter-gatherers in the tropical regions and volcanic south-sea islands, wearing nothing but skinpaint and loincloths.

Then the Storm Elves/High Elves/Nazi Elves are ubernationalistic, technologically advanced warmongering pricks with a taste for eugenics, ethnic cleansing, sushi and firepowder weapons, treating magic as haram and butchering other non-nazi elves as a way of showing how much more progressive and pure they are compared to them.

Secluded people of the wood with weird customs and concepts - not more powerful though, except when on their home turf. Bit like we'd think of cannibals in the jungle. Part why I like the Bosmer so much in TES.

Just because of the weeaboo fag elf culture i prefer mine dead. but if its the very rare respectable elf culture of elves then i prefer them a little less human but not "alien" i like them slim tallish but not giants fucktards with more sharp features not the cute girl face but a thinner build "can still be attractive/not retarded levels of thing or pointed" and i like them with bigger but not over sized ears. and they are better kept from being lewd so to avoid making them useless sex slaves and more intellectual but not snob cunts.

I tend to do high elves as a mixture of Hellenistic and Hindu culture. Old civilizations with refined arts and natural philosophies, as well as a very pronounced reverence for heroic endeavour and folklore. Usually have a republic model or a high council rather than kings or emperors.

Individual elf nations would vary but these are the traits of the race that is the default.

>Lithe Asian Elves
You have entered my magical realm

Dead.

I like my Elves dead.

They called themselves the same things, but Byzantines weren't technically the same, especially near the end of the empire.

I want to hit Gary Busey Elf in the face with a shovel.

If they are like men but nebulously more superlative and from a greater, ancient culture why not just make them something like Numenoreans?

Although Numenoreans aren't really more fragile than normal people. Tolkien elves aren't either for that matter. (Although even the most backwards, "never seen the Light of the Valar" hick of an Elf will only die of unnatural causes, whereas even the greatest of men will get old and die, albeit they will be tough as old shoe leather well into their old age, and look like, 30 when they are 80.)

I was also musing that in many settings, if you suddenly had Humans appear on the scene from another dimension or by act of divine creation, they might actually seriously be regarded as demons by the pre-existing races. Destructive, rapacious, imperialistic demons that represent the negation of all of their values and hate all that is good and holy, and instead variously venerate barbaric, bloody sacrifice, and obedience to terrifying demons, and a horrifying, cruel hierarchy in which some beings are superior, and some lesser, with the lessers being destined to slavery, and the greater, mastery over them because they are better.

And they wouldn't necessarily regard the divinity that was responsible as a co-equal god at all. If they did it would be as a demon god or dark god, but they might relegate it to the status of "Devil".

I mean, what would you call the evil force that brought a conquering force of darkness that befouled the earth, deforesting everything in it's path, driving many species to extinction, and enslaving anything they didn't kill?

Elves are obviously Chinese. An exotic culture that was advanced before the rise of western (human) nations, had many things the westerners wanted, but were doomed to decline as humanity rose - even if modern China is doing mostly okay.

As glorious and fabulous superhuman beings, who smugly sneer at filthy humans and dwarves.

Are you triggered by elves being superior and refusing to apologize for it?
Also
>racism
>bad
Top kek

Picture related, is how I picture the Eldar.

I like everything but humans with pointy ears. We already got humans, we don't need a superficial variant.

Definitely alien. Human like elves are cancerous, as are human like dwarves. Best case scenario they're a handful of cultural cues and stereotypes that have no real relationship to their non-humanity, and worst case become a characters entire personality when played by idiots who just want to turn their brains off and just channel legolas or gimli for a bit

Same. Elves should be fey and tricky

In my world they are pretty much North Korea. They have a nation of their own where they close off borders to any other race. They tell their citizens that they have many decisive victories over human countries. In reality they are just laughable.

High elves are just typical snobs while dark elves are cursed with tainted blood. There are no wood elves because they are faggots.

Why even bother including a fictional race if you're just going to drag your setting down with them?

So his humans, which means he and his players, if he has any, can feel better about themselves.

Miner elves and lumberjack dwarves and humans. The elves cannot stand harming trees because of their natural connection to them, and are physically weaker than dwarves/humans, while dwarves/humans need wood to fuel their growing industry a la isengard. So the elves give ore to the dwarves/humans and in exchange the dwarves and humans don't wreck their shit and provide them with crafted goods. Some elves leave this abusive symbiotic environment and join passing caravans that head for the cities, that are multirracial.
Unfortunately there's a huge wall blocking the access to the northern civilization from the southern wilderness.

I like these together, but it's hard not to make it a dances with Wolves thing

It doesn't really bring the setting down.

Every campaign I've played the elves were always in some prosperous state. I just decided that for my campaign they have hit hard times