Hello Elf Friends,
I am doing some ELF STUFF™©® and wanted to know...
When you think of X Elf Clan, do you associate it with anything like a RL culture or other fantasy type race culture? If so, why? What aspect?
I will lurk on your responses.
~Evike
DR-EVIKE
THAYET
Re: Elf Musings
06/12/2016 02:36 PM CDT
Sand Elves seem pretty clearly based on the Bedouin in a lot of ways, with a heavy dash of generic_arabic that they share with S'Kra Mur.
Wind Clan, or at least the splinter Horse Clan, seems heavily based on Mongolians.
Forest Elves are your typical Tolkien/Mirkwood-esque Generic Fantasy Elves.
River Elves are fairly Japanese in clothing and structure if nothing else and fill in for many aspects of Japanese culture that Elotheans don't directly ape.
Snow Elves could be thought of as vaguely Inuit based on the fact that they make and presumably insulate structures with snow and ice and seem to emphasize using furs in clothing but there's really not enough there to say either way. The rest about them doesn't fit too well.
Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com
"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
Wind Clan, or at least the splinter Horse Clan, seems heavily based on Mongolians.
Forest Elves are your typical Tolkien/Mirkwood-esque Generic Fantasy Elves.
River Elves are fairly Japanese in clothing and structure if nothing else and fill in for many aspects of Japanese culture that Elotheans don't directly ape.
Snow Elves could be thought of as vaguely Inuit based on the fact that they make and presumably insulate structures with snow and ice and seem to emphasize using furs in clothing but there's really not enough there to say either way. The rest about them doesn't fit too well.
Thayet
@thayelf // http://thayette.tumblr.com
"But you must know that if corruption is powerful enough, it's not corruption at all — it's law. Unspoken, unwritten, but law." — Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
SHADOW7988
Re: Elf Musings
06/13/2016 11:59 PM CDT
Because there was a musical deal asked with just about every other group, but not here, do elves have an official instrument?
Because culture is definitely partly shown through the music of it, I'm going to push home some of my concepts of the different elven cultures with some concepts of what I'd feel are important cultural items:
Celestial Elves: Celestial Elves are what they make of themselves. They are the modern elf, who typically burrows from whichever group that he or she feels most affinity for. They do not have much depth or connectivity within their own group. And thus have little tradition that are being followed down the generations. It perhaps is what quite a few adventuring elves become, whether they refer to themselves as Celestial Elves or not. Some high brow 'Celestial Elves' may have other notions of what being a Celestial Elf is, however there isn't much of a general consensus on these thoughts.
Forest elves: An elf is only as good as their bow, and a Forest Elf typically will at their 'coming of age' will want to show case they have by a perfectly working bow, it might now be a master piece it might not even be the bow they continue on their life journey with. However the bow is important to them. Because of their identity being wrapped within the concept of a bow, things with bow like nature are important and the musical instrument they typically use is the harp. I mix the Forest elves with a mixture of the wood elves (like Mirkwood of Tolkien) as well as some of the concepts of the Five nations of the Iroquois.
Mountain Elves to me aren't the drow of D&D nor the dark elves of Tolkein. They are an off shoot of the Wind elves who have the most Dwarf Hate of all the clans. Really this tradition doesn't seem to have much of the other groups. Like the Celestials they haven't been around for all that long and probably have a bit of their identity wrapped or perhaps warped from their ancestry of being Wind elves. The Mountain Elves are jaded, and paranoid. Out of all the groups this seems like one of the cultures of Elves that wouldn't take much time to find fun, or merriment. Instead they pick at things, and fester. Find annoyance and ways to be petty.
Other then being politically motivated, I do not think they have much for music or dance. I'm sure they have something, but it's probably burrowed or heavily influenced though in jaded or darker tones of what the Wind Elves have.
River Elves to me make something similar to the Aberdeen floating village (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_floating_village). This is to some ratio what I believe should exist outside of Ilaya Taipa. I'd also guess there would probably be something of this nature in probably ever province of Elanthia. The river elves have a good luck saying to themselves of sorts, 'may your feet be flat, free and fleet.' Flat not to the extent of no arch, but long, and lengthy to help swim and propel the river elf at speed. Free, for the feet to not be caught up in things like ropes, or netting, or other nastiness, including to some of them shoes or boots. Fleet, for their feet to give them speedy travel, to keep them on the move.
The river elves like drums or other percussion style instruments. Things that remind them of the rowing of their boat, or keeping time for such activities, sometimes simple songs for those occasions are important to them. For many river elf their boat or ship is the only place that will ever be home to them.
Sand Elves are tough and hardy folks. Similar to the Mountain Elves they have little time for things like song and dance. However they do have it, and when they do it is celebrated. Sand Elves are ever particle. For this reason their instruments are created from that which they have, many times this is bone of the creatures they kill for food. These pieces sometimes are one of their few prized possessions, passed down generation upon generation. Sometimes being added upon by each generation. Sometimes because the change was to remind the next generation and those after that of those that came before. Other times it was a change that happened because simply without such a change it couldn't continue on as an instrument.
Snow Elves are another tough and hardy folk, similar to the Sand Elves. To me Sand Elves have some similarities to the vikings. I'd see one of their large area of inhabitation around the mountains of the South East of Ilithi. They exist in a two season life style. The summer they travel out from their mountain top homes. They raid, harness, capture, re-stock for the winter. For the winter they have deep cold caches in their upper mountain homes. Before the full winter when the passages up the mountain is filled with snow and ice and become far to hazardous to travel. The fish is fished and the food is stocked. When the rivers start to freeze the Snow Elves return to their homes. Their caches fully filled. They live in the natural springs, kept warm from geo-thermal and volcanic activities. They take their pick of their caches as they need it throughout these months.
Snow Elves have similar taste in instruments to their Sand Elves cousins. However metal is more often used for their instruments. Wood is a rarity that is often saved for fuel, rather then musical instruments. It is just as important for a Snow Elf to keep these pieces, passing them down generation to generation. For metal is important and often times is more useful for a weapon then a piece of amusement.
Wind Elves for me an important distinction of the Wind Elves and the Horse Clan is all Horse Clan elves are Wind Elves but not all Wind Elves are Horse Clan elves. To me the Horse Clan in game, the non moving place seems most like the Vays Dothrak (http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Vaes_Dothrak) of the Game of Thrones series. While various tribes may come to visit there seems to be certain people that stay and keep governance/council/guidance for those that are currenting inhabiting Zaldi Taipa. To me this may lead to some confusion, because the location Zaldi Taipa (Horse Clan) and those tribes of Horse Clan elves who consider themselves to be Zaldi Taipa aren't the same thing. Horse Clan to me, besides having some similarities with the Dothraki (who probably literarily [rather then literal] existed only after the Horse Clan was released in game for some years), also have some concepts that are similar to the Mongols as well as the planes Indians of the American West.
Wind Elves do have a horse culture and to me I really wish the horse would get more play and push, there have been some neat pets releashes in game, but I really wish the horse had a Horse 3.0 release. Perhaps not their official instrument Silver Sticks are a very complicated hand instrument, made of several different metal sticks (the finest supposedly made of elven silver). These are made to to rub, rattle, and play off of each stick, each having different surfaces and shapes. Talented performers can use the silver sticks to mimic many creatures, and some of those fluent with them are called wind whisperers, able to mimic the natural sounds of wind whistling through caverns old, or the howling of the white wolf in winter, the rustling of rivers after a heavy thaw.
I just suggested that some Wind Elves AREN'T Horse Clan, so who are they? This is something I do not know.
_
I would also like to suggest for some type of way to JOIN these various clans for PCs. I know I'd very much like to have this be part of my character. To me it should be more about being suddenly recognized as such, not joining them suddenly as if they weren't what they've been all along.
_
---
"I think anything that forces you to do something no sane adventurer would do just in order to train is ridiculous."
DR-SOCHARIS
---
"Phelim, what have I wrought?"
GM NaOHHI
---
Victory Over Lyras, on the 397th year and 156 days since the Vic
Because culture is definitely partly shown through the music of it, I'm going to push home some of my concepts of the different elven cultures with some concepts of what I'd feel are important cultural items:
Celestial Elves: Celestial Elves are what they make of themselves. They are the modern elf, who typically burrows from whichever group that he or she feels most affinity for. They do not have much depth or connectivity within their own group. And thus have little tradition that are being followed down the generations. It perhaps is what quite a few adventuring elves become, whether they refer to themselves as Celestial Elves or not. Some high brow 'Celestial Elves' may have other notions of what being a Celestial Elf is, however there isn't much of a general consensus on these thoughts.
Forest elves: An elf is only as good as their bow, and a Forest Elf typically will at their 'coming of age' will want to show case they have by a perfectly working bow, it might now be a master piece it might not even be the bow they continue on their life journey with. However the bow is important to them. Because of their identity being wrapped within the concept of a bow, things with bow like nature are important and the musical instrument they typically use is the harp. I mix the Forest elves with a mixture of the wood elves (like Mirkwood of Tolkien) as well as some of the concepts of the Five nations of the Iroquois.
Mountain Elves to me aren't the drow of D&D nor the dark elves of Tolkein. They are an off shoot of the Wind elves who have the most Dwarf Hate of all the clans. Really this tradition doesn't seem to have much of the other groups. Like the Celestials they haven't been around for all that long and probably have a bit of their identity wrapped or perhaps warped from their ancestry of being Wind elves. The Mountain Elves are jaded, and paranoid. Out of all the groups this seems like one of the cultures of Elves that wouldn't take much time to find fun, or merriment. Instead they pick at things, and fester. Find annoyance and ways to be petty.
Other then being politically motivated, I do not think they have much for music or dance. I'm sure they have something, but it's probably burrowed or heavily influenced though in jaded or darker tones of what the Wind Elves have.
River Elves to me make something similar to the Aberdeen floating village (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_floating_village). This is to some ratio what I believe should exist outside of Ilaya Taipa. I'd also guess there would probably be something of this nature in probably ever province of Elanthia. The river elves have a good luck saying to themselves of sorts, 'may your feet be flat, free and fleet.' Flat not to the extent of no arch, but long, and lengthy to help swim and propel the river elf at speed. Free, for the feet to not be caught up in things like ropes, or netting, or other nastiness, including to some of them shoes or boots. Fleet, for their feet to give them speedy travel, to keep them on the move.
The river elves like drums or other percussion style instruments. Things that remind them of the rowing of their boat, or keeping time for such activities, sometimes simple songs for those occasions are important to them. For many river elf their boat or ship is the only place that will ever be home to them.
Sand Elves are tough and hardy folks. Similar to the Mountain Elves they have little time for things like song and dance. However they do have it, and when they do it is celebrated. Sand Elves are ever particle. For this reason their instruments are created from that which they have, many times this is bone of the creatures they kill for food. These pieces sometimes are one of their few prized possessions, passed down generation upon generation. Sometimes being added upon by each generation. Sometimes because the change was to remind the next generation and those after that of those that came before. Other times it was a change that happened because simply without such a change it couldn't continue on as an instrument.
Snow Elves are another tough and hardy folk, similar to the Sand Elves. To me Sand Elves have some similarities to the vikings. I'd see one of their large area of inhabitation around the mountains of the South East of Ilithi. They exist in a two season life style. The summer they travel out from their mountain top homes. They raid, harness, capture, re-stock for the winter. For the winter they have deep cold caches in their upper mountain homes. Before the full winter when the passages up the mountain is filled with snow and ice and become far to hazardous to travel. The fish is fished and the food is stocked. When the rivers start to freeze the Snow Elves return to their homes. Their caches fully filled. They live in the natural springs, kept warm from geo-thermal and volcanic activities. They take their pick of their caches as they need it throughout these months.
Snow Elves have similar taste in instruments to their Sand Elves cousins. However metal is more often used for their instruments. Wood is a rarity that is often saved for fuel, rather then musical instruments. It is just as important for a Snow Elf to keep these pieces, passing them down generation to generation. For metal is important and often times is more useful for a weapon then a piece of amusement.
Wind Elves for me an important distinction of the Wind Elves and the Horse Clan is all Horse Clan elves are Wind Elves but not all Wind Elves are Horse Clan elves. To me the Horse Clan in game, the non moving place seems most like the Vays Dothrak (http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Vaes_Dothrak) of the Game of Thrones series. While various tribes may come to visit there seems to be certain people that stay and keep governance/council/guidance for those that are currenting inhabiting Zaldi Taipa. To me this may lead to some confusion, because the location Zaldi Taipa (Horse Clan) and those tribes of Horse Clan elves who consider themselves to be Zaldi Taipa aren't the same thing. Horse Clan to me, besides having some similarities with the Dothraki (who probably literarily [rather then literal] existed only after the Horse Clan was released in game for some years), also have some concepts that are similar to the Mongols as well as the planes Indians of the American West.
Wind Elves do have a horse culture and to me I really wish the horse would get more play and push, there have been some neat pets releashes in game, but I really wish the horse had a Horse 3.0 release. Perhaps not their official instrument Silver Sticks are a very complicated hand instrument, made of several different metal sticks (the finest supposedly made of elven silver). These are made to to rub, rattle, and play off of each stick, each having different surfaces and shapes. Talented performers can use the silver sticks to mimic many creatures, and some of those fluent with them are called wind whisperers, able to mimic the natural sounds of wind whistling through caverns old, or the howling of the white wolf in winter, the rustling of rivers after a heavy thaw.
I just suggested that some Wind Elves AREN'T Horse Clan, so who are they? This is something I do not know.
_
I would also like to suggest for some type of way to JOIN these various clans for PCs. I know I'd very much like to have this be part of my character. To me it should be more about being suddenly recognized as such, not joining them suddenly as if they weren't what they've been all along.
_
---
"I think anything that forces you to do something no sane adventurer would do just in order to train is ridiculous."
DR-SOCHARIS
---
"Phelim, what have I wrought?"
GM NaOHHI
---
Victory Over Lyras, on the 397th year and 156 days since the Vic
