Elves

sub 89 IQ

>Orangutan comes from Malay for "people of the forest."
>Orangutans are the real life elves

This. You could probably adapt a lot of elf history from China's historical trends:

>Successfully unified country, for better and worse
>Borders are too large to police properly, elves can only rely on small patrols, dense forests, and enchanted wildlife for so long
>Traders come far and wide to clamor for elf-made goods/tech/magic, life is good
>Believe that everything beyond the borders is horseshit, and that elf way is best way so nothing ever needs to change
>Tech and magic advancement stagnates, widespread corruption and/or long-lived nobles and government make things worse
>Refuse to adopt any advancements from beyond their borders, and/or import addictive or destructive substances that fuck them up
>By the time the elves realize the rest of the world can stand toe to toe with them (maybe due in part to rampant trading), it's far too late

>Elves are leftists

How about no.
They are all about perfect martial arts and shit while hunting out in the woods.
Shi't they are kung-fu-rednecks.

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What if you usually like elves?

Two possibilities: You either go as far as the usual elf-hater, but in reverse, and make them an insufferable idealistic image of what you deem right and good. Or you just take a liking in them, in a healthy manner, because there is something that appeals to you. Not because of what you project into them.

All the cool Elves left, you dingus. They are living with the gods now, doing awesome shit and living it up.

The Elves that are left are, essentially, elven hillbillies too stubnorn or attached to their land to leave, living in what the smarter and cooler elves left behind.

Like, imagine if you went to New York City and there were only like 50 people living there, most of them from West Virginia. Thats 'modern' Elvish society.

Typically, if the elves are failing as you suggest, their days as a "great nation" are in the past. Oh, they may have had an empire grander than any known to the modern world once upon a time, but the Elves that are around now are living in the shadow of that past glory.

How did it happen? Why did a race that allegedly had all the advantages fall so hard? Depends on the setting. Seriously, it does. Some settings their empire suffered some great calamity, broken by the act of some higher power. Elven civilization may be great, but it still can be beneath the tier of gods, demons, or dragons. Other times, it's not just one thing, but a long and bitter decay by fighting the barbarians at the gates, possibly for generations (Elven generations). Typically they lose, as says, on their birth rate, their society crumbling as the persistent losses of an ongoing conflict kill them by inches until, surprise surprise, something finally knocks them over in their weakened state.

Less often, but still possibly, similar factors could screw them without outside help. A once-great Elven empire could languish itself out of "world power" status with a contracting population and lack of impetus to innovate and better themselves. If Necessity is the mother of invention, the greatest of Elven Civs is barren while their lesser neighbors are extremely fruitful. If this goes on long enough, their relevance to the global scene enters a death spiral from which it won't be pulling out.

At least, that seems to be the hat that Elves often wear: Lesser sons of greater sires, descendants of the great and glorious Precursors that created all the fine ancient ruins we'll be seeing. if the "Present" is Enlightenment-era Europe, Elves are an Italy that loudly proclaims its Roman heritage but does little to actually live up to it.

Of course, you can play elves other ways. I actually kind of like their more fey incarnations.

I like them because I want to do lewd things to them.

>implying NYC is cool
Use a better example.

You are more cancerous than the elf-haters

It's not my fault, elves are basically made for lewd.

I want to kiss and hug an elf.

In Tolkien-verse I think the overall decline of magic and elves fucking off to heaven is what is causing their decline.

In D&D-verse I always imagined that they simply didn't have the numbers to compete with humans and orcs. A human is ready to fight at age 15. An Elf has to wait until its 100ish. Its a similar problem that Lizardmen face except Elves have a better infrastructure so they can take the losses slightly better. Elves are skirmishers at heart who should avoid pitched battles at all costs

>An Elf has to wait until its 100ish
He hasn't. They are physically mature around 20 I thing.

Your part of the "wat do" pool.

Elves are the ubermensch of FRP. Longer lived, more attractive, better at everything than humans. And the "difficulty" of carrying a child is a boon for PCs so they have an in system mechanic as to why they can't get their character knocked up after being a cum dump at the tavern for a week solid.

MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Can elves do anything right? It seems no matter what setting they're in, they always cause some big calamity.

Cite your sources, faggot.

Please don't bump the thread if you don't have anything to contribute.

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Nice.

Veeky Forums you should know better. It depends on the flavor of elf. TES elves run their setting.

I hate these ideas of elves. I hate them as these stoic Tolkien types. I hate the excuses of low fertility or stagnant culture.

They're elves, they have chaotic hearts. They don't stagnate, they suffer ennui easily and so they're always changing. Practises, location, relationships. After a time they move on and go do something or someone else. Life is too long to to be tied down to any one thing. This is why elves rarely master more than one thing, but know a little bit of many things. That's why there are half-elves about, because travelling elves mate with people they meet on their travels and then leave. Elven families are full of half-siblings for this reason.

I read an interesting idea the other day where elves aren't dying out, rather they're just arriving. It's elves that largely survive the apocalypse and inherit the world after men. I think that comes from how Elfheim is one of the realms that survives Ragnarok, and the last two living humans, a man and a woman, go there to survive.

Do you know what is the most dangerous thing in the universe? Horny, Sexually unpleased human.
Elves are destined to be extinct, because Elves are beautiful and Humans are Autistic interbreeders. Do the math

Depends on what elf it is.

So what kind of Elf was Cao Cao? Wild Elf? Dark Elf?