Immortal Elves, Another angle Options

[Fuchs]

In my campaign, there are no immortal elves. There might be some things, that claim to be elves, look like elves, and act like immortal elves of times past, but they are not really metahuman in any sense of the word.

If they - should they exist - are spirits, horrors, horror constructs, demons, or mages who sold their soul to those aforementioned is another question. As is the question if some or all of them are even aware of this.

But it offers a lot of opportunities for those who like twisted links to some dark past world, yet don't want to have elves be special in the 6th world. At least I think the idea that the elves "rediscovering their culture" are actually being manipulated by some inhuman things posing as elven leaders for whatever dark goals they have offers a lot of possibilities.

[Critias]

[ Spoiler ]

You know this idea isn't THAT far fetched from canon, right? Unless I'm mistaken -- it's happened once or twice before -- the Immortal Elves right there in the source material had to make various and sundry horrible pacts with Horrors, etc, in order to become immortal. So it's not like it's all that big a stretch to just hop from there to "sold their soul to Horrors" or "is a Horror construct," really. I don't think very many people genuinely think of Alachia as Just Another Elf Chick or something.

[Mercer]

Immortal Elves in my game are the SR conspiracy theorist's MIB. "The power went out in Snohomish? Immortal Elves did it!"

[Grinder]

Critias, I think your theory is not 100% correct.

[Critias]

[Kagetenshi]

[ Spoiler ]

I thought it was cross-breeding with Dragons, but it's been a while since I reviewed the appropriate parts of ED

~J

[Ophis]

Aina is covered by Critias' theory. Kage seems to be right about the others.

[Pabloj]

Spoiler below!
(dont know how to make the pop up window.



If Immortal elves are a product of Dragon genes (is this canon?), maybe dragons mated with other races and therefore have other immortal non elves around.

[Ophis]

[Critias]

So, either way, the point stands -- what IE's there already are in the system aren't necessarily all that "Elven" any more, the way other living, breathing, sane, rational, metahumans are. And it's pure canon.

[Ancient History]

There is the strong intimation that IEs aren't just your average dragonkin elves, but may possibly have been affected by a dragon ritual.

But sure, there are certainly cases of Faustian bargains with Horrors (or, possibly, other entities) in ED and SR.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

Harlequin spoilers (not really, but enough I figure there should be a tag).

[ Spoiler ]

In the last campaign I was in, I wanted to run a "sequel" to the Harlequin modules, where it turned out Harlequin was just an insane elf who was subconsciously controlling other people's lives and events in the world to coincide with his schizophrenic fantasies about living in some past world. Never got to pull it off before the group hit retirement, though.

[Zhan Shi]

Near the end of the Second Age, the Great Dragons "gifted" certain elves with the immortality gene, presumably via some form of unknown metamagic. The idea was that the IEs would rule in the GDs stead. Along comes the Fourth Age. The dragons wake up, and receive a big middle finger from the IEs. A war ensues, and eventually a truce is declared. At least some of the first IEs were magically bound to their dragon masters, in a manner similar to created drakes. Various info on the subject is scattered across Prelude to War, Blood Wood, Barsaive at War, The Book of Dragons, Mists of Betrayal, and the Dragonheart trilogy.

[Ravor]

Personally the way I run IEs is that during the downcycle they either had to go dorment or turn to some really nasty Blood Magic in order to keep enough Mana infused in their being to remain active.

Of course, several thousand years of being force to be ritual serial killers tends to leave them as twisted husks of what they once were.

[Fortune]

[Kyoto Kid]

[Ancient History]

[Fortune]

[Kyoto Kid]

...actually I think that IEs would make the ultimate couch potatoes. You know you're going to live forever, why plot & connive or even have any sense of urgency? So, grab the remote & plop yourself down in front of the Trivd with a sixer or two of Spud Lite & a party size bag of Orc Rinds. The world will still be there next century... :grinbig: :evil:

[Stahlseele]

yeah, one of my actual pet peeves with the immoral elves . . why do they do anything? just .. place some money into some funds and watch them grow or something like that . . if you're carefull and good, half the world will belong to you in no time(for you) . . why KILL someone? just wait and watch them die on their own . .

[Kagetenshi]

Because "inhumanly long-lived" and "inhumanly patient" do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.

~J

[hyzmarca]

But "Inhumanly long-lived" and "Inhumanly bored" do go hand in hand.

"Gee, Alachia, what do you want to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky, try to take over the world."


The bored as fuck world domination cycle is pretty self-perpetuating. Conquer the world, rule the world, figure out that ruling the world is boring as fuck, stop ruling the world, twiddle thumbs while your former subjects destroy themselves in your absence, and conquer the world again.

[Kyoto Kid]

..."*narf*"

--Harlequin :grinbig:

[Ravor]

Also never forget that they have a huge ticking clock looming over their heads counting down the seconds until the next Scourge, the only problem is that in this cycle someone has been fraqing around with the Mana Levels and no-one really knows for sure when the gates will open again.

Imagine waking up each morning knowing that you'll never age but wondering if today is the day the world ends once more.

[Stahlseele]