Dragon

Races

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Best of Dragon, Vol. III

Dragon 60

Elves are much like humans in physical appearance. They are
thinner and somewhat smaller, averaging about 5 feet tall, but
not small enough for the size difference to affect the way elves
see humans and vice versa. Elves have a tendency, as do all
demi-humans, to be generally suspicious of human motives at
the same time they admire (perhaps reluctantly) and look up to
humans for their capabilities. But elves are the least affected by
this feeling, and bear little jealousy to humans for their ability to
advance an unlimited number of levels in their professions.

Elves have their own set of special abilities and problems.
The greatest difference between the viewpoint of an elf and
that of a human concerns concepts of time. The wispy, lightly
built elves have a life span more
than ten times as long as humans, averaging 1,200 years with
a maximum of 1,600 years or so.

Such a timespan is barely comprehensible to humankind; its
effects on the elven personality
are profound and far-reaching.
Elven player characters are already 100 years old or older
when they start play in the game,
perhaps close to 200 years, and
can look forward to many years
more, barring accident or death
in battle. In a typical elven lifespan it is possible for as many
as sixty generations of humans
to appear and vanish. Whole cities and nations could be founded, expand, reach a pinnacle,
and fade away into degeneration and ruin in that time. Seemingly changeless, the elf would
witness it all.

Time means nothing to an elf;
there is little need for hurry in
any project the elf is engaged
in. Humans and other demihumans rush about and vainly
set out on adventures and projects that they want to complete
before the Grim Reaper turns
their bodies and works to dust. Few things are that important to
elves. Aging seems to have little effect physically on an elf’s
outward appearance; unscathed by the passage of centuries
and millennia, elven longevity is intensely envied by most other
races who travel in the shadow of mortality.
Seeing others’ lives pass away around them, and having no
such pressure from the presence of death, elves have attained a
deep understanding and acceptance of death as a part of life by
nature. They don’t look forward to it necessarily, but they have
no fear of it. This feeling is so deeply ingrained that elves (and
half-elves) are immune to the effects of the magic-user spell
Scare, which enhances any basic fears of death and doom in
the victim’s mind.

Elves are also immune to the paralyzing touch of ghouls,
from which it may be deduced that ghouls are somehow able to
cause their victims to be overtaken and immobilized by their
fears of death. The more powerful undead creatures can paralyze or cause fear in elves as well as in other beings because
those undead have a stronger innate magical power and use
different ways to bring their attacks into effect. An elf might not
fear death, but one would certainly fear an enraged vampire or
lich for the harm or damage it could cause.
Elves are a brave people, but are not given to foolhardiness
and the sort of “damn the torpedoes” approach that shorterlived beings use so often. Caution is appropriate since there is
so much to live for and so long
to do it in. It may well be that
elves are aware that since they
do not possess souls but have
spirits (see the DEITIES &
DEMIGODS™ book for clarification of these terms) instead,
they will be “reborn” after some
time, and likely as elves again.
Why fear death when you know
you are coming back to life
anyway?

Their longer lifespans also
imbue elves with a tendency to
see things in a long-range way.
The short-term results of a particular action concern elves little;
things are done for what will
come about in the long run.
Singing and dancing all day are
not actions done for the sake of
the moment (as most other creatures believe). This behavior
helps make life more enjoyable
and easily lived, enhancing elves’
love of the world and of life in
general. Longevity can mean intolerable boredom unless one
can manage to keep occupied
for over a thousand years and
enjoy it as well. Elves know how to do this with little trouble. The
naturally chaotic bent that elves have comes to their assistance
here, guaranteeing a life filled with variety and unpredictability.
Life is an endless series of surprises to fire elves’ imaginations;
there are poems to be written, songs to be sung, and tales to be
told about those surprises.

To members of other races, elves appear heedless of the
harsh realities of the world; they have no attention span, they
waste time; they are “flighty or frivolous” and carefree. They
have no understanding of the value of time, we believe. How
wrong we are. Elves know only too well the value of time. They
cannot comprehend fully our haste to do things, our concern

over things that will not last.
Longevity has also granted elvenkind
a keen empathy for life and living things.
The sense of oneness that elves feel with
the forests is a thing beyond our ken. We
perhaps also cannot appreciate the richness elves feel in life, and the fellowfeeling they have for other living creatures, Elves cannot be said to truly hate
almost any creatures; even orcs are merely regarded with antipathy, for they will
soon pass from life —even more quickly
than humans do. The all-consuming hate
orcs feel for elves is, to the elves, but an
annoying problem that can be circumvented with a little patience and a few
good arrow shots.

There is only one mortal race that warrants a feeling of true hatred among elvenkind, and, interestingly enough, the
hatred is for a variant elven race: the
drow. Drow also have long lifespans, and
to some extent their mentalities mirror
that of normal (high, grey, and sylvan)
elves. Yet the drow nature is wholly evil
and based upon darkness, things very
different from the philosophy of the upperworld elves. Against the drow, other
elves show no mercy or quarter. To have
any dealings with the evil dark elves is to
betray tens of thousands of years of
elven unity with life; even evil non-drow
elves will more than likely refuse to have
anything to do with the drow. If orcs
were regarded with this same feeling by
elves, they would be much less plentiful
than they are today, perhaps extinct.
The empathy elves feel for living things
gives them the desire to communicate
more with life, and elves have a wide
repertoire of languages as a result. Sylvan elves, more closely tied to their
forests than high or grey elves, learn different tongues, but the language range
is just as wide. All elves tend to be much
more expressive than humans or other
beings, and are more sensitive to changes in emotions in other creatures. This
does not necessarily mean that elves are
always good listeners or make friends
easily, however; they associate primarily
with their own race, who appreciate the
elven view of life best. Making friends
with shorter-lived mortals is difficult,
since they know that soon (by elven
standards) that friend will die, <>

Their sensitivity to emotions can be
used by elves to draw people out and
learn from them; elves enjoy secrets and
are always seeking them for the joy of
learning new knowledge. Perhaps this
psychological tendency is related to their
ability to detect secret and concealed
doors, or perhaps this ability is just a
function of living in a society that uses
secret doors a lot. This might indicate
that while elves seem to know a lot about
everyone else, they sometimes don’t
know much about each other. Chaotics
value their privacy highly.

Regardless of racial preferences, elves
can make friends from many races. ln all
likelihood, elves, make few generalizations racially and make judgements on
beings on a person-by-person basis.
Were there such a thing as a chaotic
good orc, he or she might find some
friends among elvenfolk once the elves
got past their initial distrust.
Most elves are basically peaceful and
have little or no desire to own things,
beyond the desire to have them in order
to appreciate their beauty. It is enough
for elves to have their long lives; material
things are generally of little worth. This
might seem contradictory in light of the
fact that elves make excellent thieves,
but elven thieves are very rarely in the
business for the profit to be made. They
seek the variety and excitement the
thieving life offers, and care more about
how interesting an adventure was rather
than what material was gained from it.
Well wrought jewelry is much liked and
appreciated for the level of skill required
to fashion it; elven thieves prefer jewelry
over any treasure but magical items. The
amusing insistence of the shorter-lived
races on ownership of personal property
makes them particularly vulnerable to
the average elven thief, who may feel he
or she is doing the victims a favor by
pointing out, in a blunt way, that nothing
lasts forever.

A very self-willed race, elves tend to do
very much as they please, paying little
attention to social convention. They do
not see other beings as superiors or inferiors, even their own leaders. Instead,
they feel all beings should have dealings
in a direct fashion without a complicated
rank structure or hierarchy. This point of
view is often appreciated by the less
powerful members of an adventuring
party that elves are traveling with, but
bothersome to the more powerful members who are supposedly in charge of the
expedition.

Leaders, to elves, are to be obeyed in
matters only where the leader is knowledgeable, and they may be freely disobeyed if their rulings seem unreasonable. Individual elves follow their own
leaders because they want to, not because “society” says they have to. This
makes, of course, for a pretty chaotic
state of political affairs, but this is greatly
moderated in elven society by the elves’
strong sense of identity as a race and
their separateness from the rest of the
social world. Thus, elven government, as
disordered and confusing as it seems to
an outsider, is quite stable.

If there is something elves desire
strongly, it would be a knowledge of
magical power. Magic fascinates elves,
who see it as a source of infinite variety
for their benefit and enjoyment over the
long years. They are the best magic-users of all creatures except humans,
and they understand the nature of magic
well. Some elves understand magic so
well as to be able to cast spells while
wearing metallic armor, though this is
not particularly common. Because of differences in the structure of the elven
brain and the elven personality, they cannot advance as far as humans in magical ability.
These differences in the brain’s physiological structure also prevent elves from having psionic powers.

One interesting difference between
elves and other beings in mental capabilities is also related to their long lives.
Elves do not sleep as humans, dwarves,
and other races do. During the time an
elf is resting, he or she is vividly reliving
past memories and experiences. For all
intents and purposes, memory is a separate reality, and dreams serve as a reflection upon the world of the past. This is a
valuable asset to elves because of the
enormous amount of information and
life experiences an elf can accumulate in
a few hundred to a thousand years. EIves
rarely close their eyes when they “sleep”
unless there is a bright light present;
thus, some have a “faraway” look in the
evenings, and their companions are misled into thinking elves don’t sleep or rest
at all. While resting in this fashion, an elf
is still alert to some extent but not overly
so, and may have mild difficulty coming
out of the memory-dreaming trance. This
explains the elven resistance to sleep
spells. Their resistance to charm spells
may be due to their strong sense of selfwill and individuality.

Elves’ ability to move invisibly and with
great silence in natural terrain is another
interesting comment on the elven desire
for secrecy on an individual basis. Elven
speech is soft, lilting, and melodious to
the ear; it contains many subtle variations in tone to indicate the speaker’s
emotional state, though most races miss
them or misinterpret what is being expressed. Most of these delicate tonal
changes are meant to be secret from
other races — again, another comment
on elves’ love of secrets.

The elven feeling of equality and kinship with all beings is well expressed in
their religion. Elves were born of the
blood of Corellon Larethian, and thus in
some sense are equals to that deity
(brothers and sisters, perhaps). Elven
deities work closely together, with no
one designated as an absolute or even
partial leader. All the various cults and
sects of elven religious life coexist in
similar fellowship.
 
 

Tirra the Elf

The long-range psychological view
elves have of life is mirrored in their
physical ability with missile weapons,
which requires foresight and accurate
depth perception on the part of the
archer. Note that Corellon Larethian’s
longbow never misses its mark. It may be
that the elven skill with swords and bows
is partially due to their kinship with a
deity using these weapons and no others. Also note that this deity’s sword
points out the most dangerous opponents in battle; this is another manifestation of the elven talents of sensitivity and
awareness.

Few children are born to elves, a logical result of having such extended lifetimes. This provides a check on their
numbers and makes elves somewhat
less than common. Their population
tends to remain fairly constant.
Evil elves strive for the destruction of
life, rather than the accumulation of
treasure at any cost. Banshees (also
called groaning spirits), the undead form
of evil female elves, are particularly well
associated with the bringing of death
with their keening. Assassin-class elves
commit murder and destruction of life as
a matter of routine, and are rather fearsome as a result. Fortunately, such beings are quite rare. Elven assassins and
half-elven assassins only rarely associate
with their own kind, preferring human
company. The other elves tend to pick
up on too many subtle clues the assassin
gives off, thus spoiling the “secret.”
Elven males and females, though they
are aware of their differences in physical
strength, see each other as equals. Elven
queens are as common as elven kings.
Corellon Larethian is regarded by some
elves as male, by some as female, by
some as neither or both. Though female
elves do not serve in the armies in any

great number (except as unicorn cavalry
riders) because of their lower strengths,
other areas of elven life are about equally
divided between male and female participants. Only actual combat occupations
show a definite pro-male ratio, and even
then the difference is not as extreme as
in (for example) human or dwarven
armies.

As a final comment, no other symbol
could represent as well the changeless
and ever-changing state of elven life as
the holy symbol used in the worship of
Corellon Larethian: the crescent moon.
Always present and always different,
looking upon the world year after year,
century after century, with the same serene face.
Though humans and other people come and go, the elves and the moon remain.

Valuable information for this article
was gleaned from Paul H. Kocher’s book,
Master of Middle-Earth (paperback, Ballantine Books). Though this book is
concerned with the Tolkien novels and
their representation of elves and the other races, there are nevertheless strong
similarities in several areas between the
elves of Tolkien and the elves of the
AD&D™ game. Otherwise, the information here is taken directly from or derived
from the AD&D rule books.