Elves

[Burgo]

The question about the drow. I have my two cents for that also In my book, the drow are viewed much like demons, or devils. Their goddess is a demon(Majority of them, of course exceptions are here also), thus making the drow the children of a fiend. Thus they are viewed as blood thirsty, chaotic, murderous, treacherous, plain ol bad to the bone, kind of beings. They are born of evil, the evil runs in their veins dark as the night.

Of course, if the nation which inhabit surfacer drows, is used to them, perhaps certain drows have complated acts of valour, heroism, defended the nation against outside threaths, the common view might have changed and become slightly more tolerant of them. But still. They wouldn't be your friend. They wouldn't be your drinking buddy. Especially you wouldn't invite them over, to play with your kids. The horrible, evil, acts drow have commmited are also things, that most of the common people would know about. From tales, stories, they would have heard about the acts of horror, this dark race had committed.

Example:
If you heard that a killer of children was in town, would you pat him on the back, and introduce your children to him? No? You would rip him apart, and let the vultures have a feast?

But these are just my thoughts, and of course, this is RP and I hope nobody take this rant as an insult if they are playing drow, it is not ment as such. I am not saying you should play your own chatacter any differently, or you should start treating drow like they had just stolen your lunch money, and sank your head to the toilet. Rp is individual, every character is different, every city is different. I am just saying how drows are viewed in FR, by the majority of surface races, and underdark races as well.

EDIT: This was ment for the perspective of a common man (alignment neutral/good)... Criminals, and other evil aligned people would be complatelly different story. They might consider thge drow as powerful allies, due to their rebutation. Still, even criminals and whatnot evil aligned people, they would not trust the drow, but they might work with them for their own benefits.

[Wired]

That seems reasonable. Dark Elves are by archetype evil, and are mistrusted by intelligent persons, hated by other Elves.

However recognize that while the archetype is similar, they're not identical to the Drow of Forgotten Realms, don't have the same backstory, do not live in caves, a worship demon goddess, etc. They would worship the evil gods of the Pantheon. Also Varana is an EVIL Empire where of course, evil creatures are more tolerated / put to useful task than they might in your typical fantasy environment.

You can find more information concerning the origin of Dark Elves in Dasaria here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=5999

[Kell]

Ah, what you disregard here though, is that Drow, in effect, are just severely misguided and indoctrinated by their society and the ones that upkeep it. So yes, we kill their twins in the whomb and no, we aren't the types for having a nice, cozy dinner with the family but really; that just goes to show how far the indoctrination goes.

If anything, you should -help- us get over it. Really.

-We- think that everything on the surface is evil. Just imagine that you stumble upon a hole in the wall that you've always thought of it was closed. And there's something icky coming through called "wind" which you have no clue about, there is no wind in caves. And the Sun, oh gods, the Sun. It burns our eyes. Evil! And then those dratted elves up there who made us live underneath them. As if we're nothing but lowly, horrible, weird creatures that just don't deserve to see the light of day.

I mean, everybody makes mistakes. So, we made a mistake. We, I'll admit it, dark Elves, made a mistake. We were at war with you, surfacedwellers, and you expelled us to live below the surface -until the end of times-. Don't you think that's just a bit harsh, perhaps? And you see -us- as evil?...

[Toman Ironarm]

To touch on the question of which race of elves are the Rian elves and such, I was under the impression at character creation that wood elves correlate to Rian Elves. As such, I've played my Ranger from the perspective of being a RIan elf, but not actively.

The reason why is that I am very unclear on just what the situation with Rian is fifty years after Dasaria 1. Additionally, I'm not entirely certain precisely what lore and knowledge is known/understood about them. I've perused the Wiki to some degree, but I can't seem to get my head wrapped around enough information to have a solid foundation on which to build a background more in depth then "He is a Rian Elf."

[Evelond Formos]

I've always regarded elves like intelligent alien lifeforms--nobody is 100% certain they actually exist and aren't just pansy humans with glued-on long ears, and those that do believe in their existence know absolutely no concrete facts about them. (Also, a ton of science-fiction novels about them...)

Seriously though, I for one am glad for Dasaria's vagueness regarding the nature and lore of elves. They are a mystical race (especially the Rian variant), they shouldn't be greatly defined. Don't rely on officially sanctioned lore; if you've a good idea for your own character, go with it!

[Toman Ironarm]

True enough I suppose. What I'm more interested in is general guidelines for them. Not necessarily concrete details, but more then "We live in Rian. Rian has a big tree. We were called back fifty years ago. Those who didn't were cursed with being mortal, rather then nigh-immortal."

[Rob]

What did you want to know?

[Toman Ironarm]

Well, in general, I'd like to see more details. What was done during that 50-year period? Is there more to coming out of their self-imposed retreat back to Rian other then "Let's go see what happened." What happened to the council of the Setting Sun after they called everyone back? Is there a leader back in Rian who is being kept abreast of the situation here in Caer?

More or less, I'd like to get more details on them so that perhaps some sort of background/storyline/plan for them could be conceived. As it is, I'm not sure what to make of this.

[Rob]

The elves withdrew for one human generation, not fifty years. A human generation is an insignificant amount of time to an immortal elf. So, nothing significant happened during that time. The council returned to watching their trees. The Rian queen is kept abreast of pertinent situations, very little that happens in Cear would qualify. Rian elves are not concerned with the affairs of men.

Rian elves are traditional elves (+2 dexterity -2 constitution). So statistically they would be similar to moon elves. But their appearance would be dissimilar, thus Tin's original objection.