DMs and worldbuilders: tell me about the elves and dwarves in your campaign.
Do they fit the cliche or do they have some unique characteristics?
I have no problem writing about human kingdoms and empires but I really struggle with elves and dwarves in particular. I find both to be boring and uninspired due to the number of Tolkien clones out there.
If you don't want to use them, why do they need to be a part of your game? You're not bound to making sure every available fantasy race is even present in your world, I personally never include Dragonborn and Tieflings in D&D.
My setting has a race of golems that started out as Dwarves when I first started snowballing ideas for the setting but they're pretty far removed from those origins now.
The first Dwarf was made by a great Earth elemental. He moulded it from clay and plucked a handful of hair from his own head to make its beard. That divine spark from even just the elemental's hair follicles was enough to give the Dwarf mortal life, ambition, heart and soul.
Dwarves inherited from their creator the drive to shape and mould the Earth, and the mortal need to procreate. The first Dwarf's beard grew, and from its trimmings he created more clay progeny.
This goes on for a couple of hundered years with the clay Dwarves carving out their city into the mountain and getting their metallurgy on. Tougher Dwarves are hewn from stone and eventually bronze and iron and even more exotic metals and minerals.
Now there's clay Dwarf zealots that believe any other kind of Dwarf is blasphemy, and caste tensions between the different constructions of Dwarf.
I'm a player in this game, not the DM, but in the game I'm in right now the Dwarves have decided that since all the other races were susceptible to the temptations of evil, that they should genocide them all and cleanse the universe and make it good and pure. So the dwarves are fighting everybody else and the dwarven gods are fighting all the other gods, so this has led to an uneasy alliance among the other gods and races. So we are good pcs fighting against the genocidal dwarves with orcs, devils and all sorts of other evil guys as or allies.
If you're willing to ally with devils, the dwarves are probably right.
Elves: they're insane fey, obsessed with revelling and beauty and The Hunt. PC elves are those who, through exposure to human culture, gained some measure of sanity. The crazyness of elves explains why they do not rule the world or achieve all that much with their 1000+ year lifespans.
Dwarves (called dvegr) are pretty bog-standard, except they do not have any particular resistance to magic or disinclination to use it. All dwarves can see the spirits of the dead (and other ethereal beings), and they are an underdark race, experiencing light blindness. Most dwarves have grey skin.
Humans are descendants of elf-dwarf crossbreeds, though neither race will admit it and most humans do not know.
I've given up on writing elves in my setting because they usually either come out to be forest elf clones or as humans 2.0. So for now they make up the racial background of the five clans in a wild forest region to the south east. I have fleshed out the dwarves more though. They inhabit kingdoms carved high into the mountain peaks, feuding amongst themselves. Some dwarves have moved away from the summit-kings and settled onto the plains to the south, integrating into society but carrying some of their old hatred with them, leading to clan-wars that the various nations there have trouble dealing with. To the north a ruined dwarven empire struggles against the last kingdom in the north while the region has a blockade stopping any travelers from coming in.
What do you guys think?
Depends if my players want to be them and honestly I just base them off of what my players want to do and 9/10 they follow the book setting desu
There is a limited number of elvish Havens and they exist in very specific locations at the crossroads of great ley lines. As long as elves don't exit the borders of these magical spots, they're immortal and have greater control over the environment. The perception of time is different even for mortals who enter the elvish lands, although no great effect is bestowed.
Outside their lands, elves can die from old age. Time weighs heavily upon them and they rarely live as long as an average human should they be exiled from their homes, their supernatural abilities are lessened. Exile is one of the worst punishments in elvish society.
Yet some elves leave their settlements voluntary, seeking to find excitement and new meaning in life. The elders, some surpassing hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years, do not mind too much. Even at slow rate of reproduction, there is this many people you can cram into a limited area comfortably, and chaotically minded youths are better discarded less their imperfection tarnishes century-long plans laid out by the leaders of elvish society.
>elves
Byzantine remants of successively collapsing empires, incredibly reactionary and stratified, rank is everything, population is dropping like a rock because of the stupid custom of singletons only to merge families and titles. Full of intrigue and backstabbing, societal status trumps competence but they still think themselves as the hottest shit ever. They were recently baited into a devastating war by the not-german empire by a not-ems distpatch and got completely crippled as a civilization. Currently in the process of fragmenting into a gorillion fiefdoms and independent states as the more adaptable lowborn wood elves are carving them up.
>dwarves
Jews. 100% jews. Managed to collapse their own civilization by giving too much weight to a prophecy that led them to destroying their own Third Temple which let most the mountain dwarves to live among humans as a diaspora, even translating their clan names like Gold Mountain to german. The hill dwarves(who they hate as apostates) are stolen completely from warcraft wildhammers because I loved the concept so much. They mostly entertain themselves with the endless clan wars scots and irish liked to do so much.
From the all-human PCs PoV they are unmoving, unchanging relics of the past who refuse to adapt or atleast recognize which way the wind is blowing so they must be forcibly brought to compliance.
Bonus round for basic fantasy trifecta:
>orcs
Slave race for the ancient elven empire along with humans(who were norse-elven rape babies) used to control all of the borderlands of the waning empire before the humans managed to displace and genocide them to a few surviving tribes hiding in secluded mountain forests. Despite this they are on the best terms with the humans out of all the non-human races because they greatly respect tenacity and strenght and most of their ancestral hatred is still reserved for the elves.
Dwarves: They control a vast underground civilization, on the level of ours if we decided to go down instead of up. They have trading posts on the surface, where they buy surface world food and cloth in exchange for metal. They're probably strong enough to conquer the surface, but they're too busy engaging in a massive subterranean war with the drow.
Elves: Originally the most powerful and advanced species in the world, until they decided to pick a fight with the Gods. One cataclysmic War later, surface elves are nearly extinct, and tend to either become part of other societies or spend their lives as nomads. Drow, on the other hand, developed into a massive underground civilization, roughly comparable to that of the dwarves but using magical technology instead of scientific technology.
Dwarves: super-entrenched theocratic empire which keeps reality from turning into boiling chaos. Service to the god is paramount, his will is absolute and final. So most of the things they do is for their god's glory, most notably the complex system of reality-stabilising rituals throughout their lands which requires procuring materials for them, training priests and sorcerors, researching new ways of keeping chaos at bay, etc.
They have trouble getting out of their corner of the world - if the land isn't consecrated enough, they become slowly overtaken by feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and guilt, to the point of deep melancholy.
All of them have their ancestors literally dwelling at the back of their minds; those tend to be amalgamations which preserve little of individual personalities due to a tradition of inheriting the family business or craft.
These gestalts grant a lot of insight into techniques and methods in their specialities, along with paternal advice on what's proper and what's not. Ancestors of the longest dynasties are closer to a set of timeless absolute truths which nag at their descendants' minds than anything resembling an actual person.
Some dwarven families deliberately avoid that by parents having the children choose any other calling but theirs. This results in something like ancestor spirits from Mulan - everyone has their personalities intact, but not everyone get "preserved", and with each new generation someone is bound to "dissapear".
Elves: used to be dwarves client race, who did all the exploring and colonization for them. Now they are more or less independent and are the most powerful naval force in the world, trading exotic wonders from all of it's corners and even beyond. There's a lot of cultures and subcultures of elves, but they are mostly governed by the council of 12 noble houses, presided by an elected queen; each of those derive their power from a valuable product or ware that they trade across the world.
All of this is unnaground.
There are no elves or dwarves in my campaign, just humans who live in the woods and humans who live in the mountains. Both tend to grow to shorter height than traditional humans due to nutritional deficiencies.
Elves are attuned to moderate climate nature: they prefer fresh to highly processed food: they will more happily eat a locust sandwich than a cheese one, especially if it's blue cheese (what's the point of eating food that's spoiled?); they build their towns in forests, often more around bigger trees; they are natural climbers and they hibernate in winter (aside from appointed guards, who must act against their instinct). They keep deer as mounts and livestock and wolf-dogs as companions and combat animals.
Dwarves are background. They wear hoods and like snuff and can be mostly seen doing physical labour. Because no matter how hard you try, dwarves will always be dull.
Elves have an ability to see the emotions of others around them. This makes them incredibly empathic, but also great at manipulating other people so their sociopaths are all the more frightening. They're also not!Canadians who are constantly apologizing. They aren't really important and are basically just a reoccuring joke.
Dark elves are a group of elves from the other side of the world who made a pact with a powerful creature of Shadow to avoid extinction, and as a result are completely different. They're basically not!Japanese and a massive death cult who seek to war eternally with themselves in order to have a never ending parade of death. They're fairly isolated and generally don't care about the rest of the world, but occasionally they get dragged out for one reason or another and make very good mercenaries, since they have absolutely zero fear of death or conception that dying is bad (just that other people seem not to care for it because there is something wrong with them).
Dwarves are oil princes, think Saudi Arabia except its in the cold mountainous north. Beards are a sign of status, so poor commoners aren't allowed to have them, while the higher rank you go the larger, more intricately braided, and more heavily adorned the beards become.
In my setting, Dwarves are locked in a bitter, stubborn civil war spanning an entire continent. Smaller clans and wanderers exist on the surface, but since relations between the dwarven kingdoms and the surface kingdoms have become less and less frequent they mostly remain undetected underground.
Elves are scattered and divided. Some havens and lands exist across the planet, but they've been an endangered race since a cataclysmic clash of Gods and demigods that tore the planet up and reshaped the surface. Most of the elves didn't survive that. Their relations with other kingdoms and races are the same as the dwarves. Most other races know they exist, but they're so secluded, xenophobic or few that you could go your whole life without even seeing an elf.
I always hated how visually similar to humans most of the classic fantasy races are
>Elves - Humans but with long ears and longer lifespans!
>Dwarves - Humans but short and beardy with an alcohol addiction!
>Halflings - Humans but short!
In my setting most of the fantasy races are a lot more distinct( Treants/dryads, lamias, kobolds, minotaurs, mothmen etc.) and elves and dwarves are just a special group of humans
>Dwarves
Humans born in deep, underground cities. Due to the fact that most people are laborers and miners, children are considered grown up very early. Everything from lifestyle, to family values and diet are focused to active lives of hardwork. They gain muscle, end up shorter, and develop an ability to see in the dark. Drinking is also considered a beloved pastime.
>Elves
Humans born in the vicinity of immense, natural, magical energy(i.e in the middle of a vast spiritual forest, or on the back of a colossal, dormant elemental. The magic changes their physiology, and as long as one meditates, they can lengthen their lifespan by several centuries with only pointed ears indicating that the 20-something looking elf is actually several hundred years old.
Because of their more "superior" circumstances, elven "youth" tend to be portrayed as spoiled, pompous rich kids and often end up with peaceful jobs or end up being killed early on believing that they're far more powerful than they thought.
Even though the majority of elves are shit, they tend to be the biggest legends because it only takes the occasional elf to exercise diligence and take advantage of their lifespans to spend centuries perfecting their art.
>elves and dwarves are just a special group of humans
So literally the same as the thing you're complaining about?
>state that I don't like elves because they're too visually similar to humans to warrent being a distinct race
>Make them humans so as to fix that issue without taking away two staple races from my setting
>This is somehow the same thing.
Yes, it is.
If you're retarded enough to think that then you're too retarded to be explained to.
Elfs - bunch of orc hunters that eat them and close allies with gnolls
Dwarfs - Exticts save for some outcasts that grew up amongst goblins and are now trying to save the remains of the dwarven civilistion
yeah, its local and not global but elf settlements are racist to the core and i mean fanatically racist and dwarf societies have rampart economic and societal problems because rampart alcoholism
did it only for the lulz, kind of buffing up two biggest cliches about them, drinking for dorfs and being a snob for elfs but this kind of took life on its own
Let's see...
Classic fantasy:
>Elves - Humans, but!
>Dwarves - Humans, but!
Your fantasy:
>Elves - Humans, but!
>Dwarves - Humans, but!
And those changes to physiology are enough to warrant calling them another species of homo.
Dunno, your dislike seems to be very specific and focus on a minor detail in actuality.
It is very specific and the detail is only minor depending on your perspective. If your focus is only on what elves do and their role in the universe then yea, it's minor
but if you're thinking about the origin and history of an entire people, then it's not. So it's more like
Classic fantasy:
>Elves and Dwarves - A different and completely separate species that happens to and has no reason to look like humans when every other species look far more distinct
My fantasy
>Elves and Dwarves - Human variants that are more akin to different races than a different species like they should have been in the first place(when magic is involved)
Well, humans, elves and dwarves had a good reason to look alike in Tolkien's works (not to mention that folklore elves and dwarfs look like humans), so it's really a thing of taste.
I'll admit I don't know what Tolkien's reason were and if they had a good reason to look similar in his universe than I'd accept that.
But my problem then comes from how many fantasy universes copy/pasted tolkien's elves and dwarves without his good reason(or any at all) to explain why they look similar
>has no reason to look like humans
Why shouldn't they?
>Elves
Elves in my setting descend from an ancient kind of fey who fleed their homeworld for the mortal plane after a terrible cataclysm devastated it. There are:
>Wild elves: also known as "red elves" because of their blood red skin (in fact,a thin layer of fur that covers them). Savage, xenophobic and bigger and stronger than even orcs, they reject civilization and are content with being left in peace in their primordial forests to their rituals and hunting, thank you very much. Their culture revolves around the worship of their three great deities, the natural cycles and such, but they also perform blood sacrifices. PC of this race are the weakest links of their race, and their exiled rather than choosing to be adventurers; they can't return home until they have toughen up.
Of all elves, they're the closest to their fey origins; the only reason these fuckers haven't taken over the world is their grave allergy to iron, which is abundant everywhere else.
>Elves
The regular breed. They have the looks of Tolkien elves, but without all their mystical aura; these guys used to have an inmense, evil empire that threatened to take over the world, but ultimately fell due to war and internal slave uprisings. Those elves who either surrendered or helped their enemies win the war were forgiven, but since then they have had to live in reservations and ghettos within the human kingdoms so they could be watched over. The war ended roughly 800 years ago, and even if they've been completely forgiven by everybody else by now, most regular elves still feel guilty over their forefathers crimes.
>dwarves
mutated humans
>elves
the only empire to oppose the rule of God. Invaded heaven and managed to capture the Him (who went insane before that). Currently in war with what's left of God's Legion of Light.
Continuing
>Grey elves
These are the elves who didn't surrender during the war; afterwards they literally went undergrouns, conquering and occupying some dwarven colonies and turning their inhabitants into thralls or slaves, while at the same time unleashing magic plagues and shit on the surface nations to keep them busy while the grey elves rebuild their forces.
Evil, amoral magic masters that use all kinds of sorcery to create slaves, enslave monsters and demons, and craft biomantically engineered weapons and armour. They hope to reconquer the world someday.
>Dwarves
They're divided in different subcultures
>Iron dwarves
Pretty much stereotypical dwarves, fond of industry and booze etc. They have an gerontocratic society, with a council of elders ruling each city, fortress and colony, with meritocracy as a parallel form of government in the economical spheres of their culture. They're quite religious, and venerate a variety of great and lesser gods, to whom they dedicate their most valuable crafts and metals. They value gold not for greed but for their spiritual importance and crafting possibilities, because it's one of the best materials for forging magical things.
Although adapted to subterranean conditions, they can manage pretty well in open air, but they get kind of cranky and agoraphobic if they spend too much time without a cave ceiling on their heads.
>Silver dwarves
Skinnier, bald and with less facial hair, they live on the mountains rather than within them. They have adapted to outside life, and don't fare good in mines and caves, though they still have some darkvision. These guys invented monks in my setting, and all of them have a basic education in martial arts. Usually living close to the bronze dwarves, serving as army scouts and couriers between fortresses, but some of the most fanatic iron dwarves see them as inferior. They get their name for their pale skins and silvery eyes, although all of them have coal black hair.
Last part
>Lead dwarves
They calle themselves "duergar". These are the descendants of the dwarves who were conquered by the grey elves in the past, some of whom have managed to scape to the outside world and reunite with their kin.
These are bitter, angry souls, with an internal struggle between the feeling of gratefulness for being free from their elven masters and hate agaisnt the other dwarves for leaving all of them to rot as slaves and guinea pigs of the grey elves. Although rare, some of them are become adventurers, but they're almost blind at sunlight and need to wear goggles and other protection gear to stand the sun, including thick, black hoods and cloaks.
You lost bronze dwarves somewhere along the way.
Silver ones look cool.
Depends where on the planet they are located.
Hell right now my group is participating (fueling since they decided to play lawful evil weapon merchants) a skirmish-soon-to-be-war between two elvish kingdoms. Gray & High tech loving elves vs Wild & Wood traditional hippie elves.