Thanas' Treatise on Elven Roleplay

Back to the Elvish Roleplaying Index Back to the Roleplaying Index Back to the Armageddon Homepage

This article is taken from a post on the GDB archive by Thanas.

I suppose I'll try to give this post some credibility to why you should accept this as the way elven culture truly should be played, by giving you a brief background of my involvement with elves.

I started playing a Blackwing as a mort when all elves rode, even Blackwing. Gradually, I learned the elven culture as I played my pc Tamonier, having had a great role model in the village to learn from. An OL, Turgon, recruited me to write a history document for BW, and we had many long talks about what elven culture was, and should be. Turgon was the imm who created the BW tribe, and that part of the TL. I soon became an imm, and have worked with Blackwing for around the last 3 or so years.

I think right now, that there are very few elves who really RP the race correctly outside of Blackwing.

I've seen a lot of people try, but I don't think that they really understand elven culture, and this is why elven RP is lacking. Things are better than they used to be though.

Probably the key thing to focus on when playing an elf, is that the elven mind is always looking for a scam, either directed at him or one he can direct at someone else. Elves will be suspicious of anyone that they do not know well enough to trust their lives to. The reasoning is simple. When you spend your entire life looking for ways to screw everyone else over, you expect everyone else to be doing the same to you.

The only people that an elf should trust are those of his tribe, or otherwise childhood friends that he has tested, and those who you have ICly tested their trust.

The elven tests start out fairly mild, and get gradually more dangerous for both tester and testee as they progress. A beginning test might be overpaying the person, and seeing if they return the rest of the money. (Mind you, the elf would never return extra money himself to someone, -unless- he was truly loyal to them, or was becoming so.) The elf might let himself run out of water and see if the other person shared theirs. The elf might get himself in trouble such that the other person had the ability to bail them out, perhaps at a loss to themselves, and see if they do so. The final elven test is normally a life threatening one.

To give an example, here is the final test from the last time I saw an elf test a human. The elf snuck to the far side of the mantis valley, and called to the human for help. Obviously, this would be seen by the human as pretty much a suicidal rescue attempt. I won't say what happened, but, if the human "saved" the elf, then the elf would probably trust the human like he would a tribemate (not that the elf would assume the rest of his tribe would necessarily have to feel that way too, although some might). Another point is, the person you are testing shouldn't know that you are testing them, or they may go along with it just to earn your trust and screw you over later. So think up your own tests when you do this in the game.

Lately, the big fad amongst city elves it to call each other "brother" and "kin", and have this big elven solidarity. This isn't really how elves would react to each other unless they are of the same tribe. Indeed, the Blackwing who have experienced it, used to their advantage the foolish elves who trusted them, and then ran back to their village to laugh about it over a mug of mead with those who truly are their kin. It's bad enough you suspect that anyone else is trying to screw you over, but you KNOW another elf from a different tribe is going to do so. That doesn't mean you can't eventually become friends, after having tested each other. But you would not assume he can be trusted merely because he's an elf. The exact opposite should be true, you know you can't trust him initially, because he's an elf. And note that sometimes, a person's actions will finally show that you can trust them, without you having to directly test them. Although I'd probably still do a final test just to make sure, because they might be doing what they are for their own agenda.

If I were to play a city elf, I would probably do something like one of the following that explains away why my tribe isn't with me:

1. Set up my background so I was from a tribe now dead.
2. Be out on some mission for my tribe (scout, whatever).
3. Have grown up an orphan on the streets, meaning I have no friends whatsoever to start with.
4. When I start out, get together with 1 or 2 other city elves, and have us all be from the same tribe.

On a further note, elves don't have to have "steal" to be elves. You can just as easily con someone into buying something that isn't what you claimed. I'd be, as an imm, more than willing to make leaves with painted on red spots for an elf to sell, if I had seen him playing a true elven culture in the past, but you'd have to prove to me with your actions before I'd go to the trouble. I also think that a little anti-human and other racial sentiment is fine, but I think expressing it so openly is probably only good RP if you are a fool, because you are trying to con this human who is sitting in the elf market, not make him go away (until he's given up as much as you can trick out of him).

The rubbish posted earlier about anyone but an elf being killed if they walk in the elf market is total crap. The elves would rather take the guy for all he's worth. The elf market should be a place where illegal dealings go on, mostly overlooked by the templarate. Poisons change hands, stolen goods, illegal items. It is too bad more elves do not chose to play this kind of nearly-ferengi quality (for those who watch star-trek), of searching out how you can make money, both honestly and not, and seizing the opportunity. But the idea of a human walking into the elf market and 50 elves descending on him with knives is ridiculous, who is going to come buy the things elves have to sell, if not the humans? The other elves will just steal it from you, or pay you with a bag with 10 coins on top, and rocks underneath!