Today’s post is dedicated to Random, but also for myself and hundreds of others who find elves…. irritating (to put it mildly). I know that 4E is giving them even more boosts without even having to read any of the articles about races or even looking in the ridiculously over-priced 4E preview book Classes and Races.

Elves As Villains: Elves in all traditional campaigns are goodie-goodies with bad-assed attitudes. But what if the surface elves were just as evil as the drow? What if that disdain was carried to the inevitable conclusion that humanity breeds too fast and is a threat to elven survival? That the dwarves are best exterminated before they are able to raze any more forests for furnace-fuel? What if gnomes and halflings are seen as simple annoyances? Don’t you think that the overwhelming majority of the races would team up against the elves? What I’m proposing is, what if the elves were the main ANTAGONISTS of a campaign, instead of a cool race to play? What if the evil wizards and necromancers were all elven? What if the PCs ultimate goal was the extermination of the elven race?

Think about it. In earlier editions, the only limiting factor to an elf was a level limit that prohibited them from reaching the ultimate power spells of 6th level and up. They were otherwise unlimited in how they could fight AND cast spells, while wearing armor no less. Recent versions limited their multi-classing ability with fighting classes, but allowed them limitless advancement. If all the 4E rules are going to do is make them even more “enticing,” then I say make them the ultimate evil in the world. It makes sense. With all their advantages and magical powers, mental superiority and near god-like longevity, they should have long ago taken over the world. Perhaps a few of the elves are renegades from their race and have remained good, but the overwhelming majority have turned to evil and the worship of dark powers (like demons). Half-elves then become a more viable “racial” choice in such a campaign, more along the lines of what a half-orc would be in a traditional campaign. I see Moorcock’s Melniboneans as elves gone bad.

Elves have Gone: Another choice is to remove elves altogether. Sure, there could be ruins and remains in the world proving that they once existed, but perhaps a terrible wasting disease eliminated their race from the world. Worse still, perhaps the disease was magical and transformed them all to trees that resemble humanoid beings. This would be an interesting campaign in which druids and wizards study together - one to speak with the “trees” and gain their knowledge, the other to write down the ancient elven knowledge lost to the rest of the races. A fitting campaign goal could be to locate a lost or hidden tribe of elves that was so isolated as to be completely unknown. Or perhaps survivors of the disease went underground to become “drow-like” but not necessarily evil. A return to the surface world may change their coloration over time.

Elves are to Blame: A great evil plague or demon war has raged on the world for a long time and elves are to blame for releasing it. Their curiosity of magic was the key to the calamity, and their high intelligence was not enough to counteract their average wisdom. As a result, elves are the pariahs of the world, blamed for all the evils that plague the other races. This is akin to making them an enemy as they were in the first scenario, but in this case they aren’t necessarily evil and players could attempt to play an elf or half-elf as a role-playing challenge.

Any of the above scenarios could easily be used in any rules system, but it seems that 4E would be most fitting - given the “points of light” nature of the campaigns. Roaming an elven wood would be a more dangerous proposition for humans or other demi-humans. Finding elven magic may be bad too, especially if that magic is twisted by chaos or cursed in some manner. Interacting with elves might make the players social outcasts or traitors to their own races. I assume that role-playing in Middle-Earth during the 4th Age would be similar to such a campaign without elves, where the other races have to learn to deal with each other without those meddling, pointy-eared elitists mucking everything up (just who do you think taught Sauron how to make those rings anyway…?).