Have any of you GMs out there allowed PCs to become IEs as an award for something they did. Perhaps at the end of some personel quest or the like. I have seen GMs give PCs a vampire status award, though this is easily done.

How would one attain the height of becoming an Immortal Elf, what kind of ritual would one have to undergo. Tir Tairngire, in the Open Conference, says that immortality can be attained for an elf by extreme mana levels (paraphrasing.)

Any ideas, any thoughts, maybe even questions.

Uh... For one, developing a name that other IEs would either come to fear or respect. Most likely respect, because if they fear you, they pool their resources and have you offed.

And another point, being an Elf by birth (Obviously...) and most likely be Magically Active.

However, I wouldn't let my PCs become IEs unless they were 200+ karma (At least...), had an incredible reputation, had quite a few resources (Money, gear, contacts, etc...), and could handle just about any conflict that aroused through means other than combat. And even then I'd probably say no.

Don't the IEs have dragon blood going on? (ie, they're born to it?)

I know the book may mention differently, but the IEs are pretty good at disinformation.

In any case, a newly minted IE is essentially just an elf. I don't believe they get an instant boost of any kind...

IE's are created by Great Dragons (mostly Alamais, if my mem. chips are in order)
Hence the joke.

Q: "What do you get if you mate an Elf with a Dragon"
A: "A split ELf"

Look here for more on IE's.

Then give thanks to the 5i11ion monkeys with typewriters aka Ancient History.

So the ritual should probably be stolen from one (or someone nearly as powerfull as they are, Harlequin comes to mind).
IE's only *manifest* when the mana level is high enough, and there are probably not going to be created more than there allready is, exept for the odd child ofcourse.

Okay well, does he ever go into the making of an immortal elf. Because I believe I have read his entire website. Though I may be wrong.

Thank you for the help, perhaps I will have to learn more about Alamais, besides that he likes to die and come back to life. Does the unpublished Dragons Earth Dawn book contain more info. Is there any other places, that I should be looking at?

As far as I could tell, only Great Dragons can make IEs, and even then I don't know if they'd have a reason to. After all, there are enough power-hungry megalomaniacs running around without them being immortal.

He says that Alamais(e) sired most of the IE's.

Yes the Dragon pdf does indeed contain info on the IE's.

Some SR novels, though I can't remember which.
Maybe SoTF could be a run were the payment would be insane enough to greate more? (The payment is somewhere in the 1 billion range).

Yes, I have seen awarded, and have awarded, IE-ness. The character doesn't know it, but the player does. In practical terms the character becomes immune to age, disease, and stun gas. In game terms, we "discover" that the character was an IE all along, but the character hasn't yet discovered it.

Often the player stops taking risks with the character and therefore it stops being fun to run. I rarely ruin characters this way.

Immune to Stun gas???
Wha???

There's enough IEs. Hell, the IEs (Harlequin excepted) have big enough egos as it is without me making more of them. I'd sooner award immortality to a dwarf, if I really had to make something immune to age.

There is a magical artifact in Earthdawn that is largely attributed to the immortality of many elves. It's the Undying Rose if I remember correctly, which I probably don't. In any case, it's an artifact that only works on elves and gives them immortality.

Immortality doesn't make you immune to a beheading.

Sure, let players be immortal, it won't change shit. The fact of the matter is, they're still runners (for the most part) and they live very violent lives (for the most part). Age is the least of their worries, as most of them are just going to have their heads popped off by a troll, or get gunned down by an ork gang, or the humanis policlub will lynch mob them in the middle of the night, nail them to a cross and burn it, or they'll get stepped on by a behemoth, or whatever. Fact of the matter is, immortality give you no real game edge at all.

Those traits are in all immortal elves that have been given anything resembling stats. Either they are part of the process, or quickly taught skills.

The rose in question is one of the two that Dunkie gave back in his will, you can find the exact reference yourselves.

Frosty, one of the newest IEs on the block who's easily of an age appropriate for a runner, has those same characteristics, too.

according to TT, all metatypes have a 'stopwatch' gene which, when activated, freezes the aging process. it activates 'in the presence of high levels of mana'. the gene is only fully developed in certain elves, but it does exist in one form or another in all metahumans. assuming, of course, that the shadowtalk was accurate.

it seems to me that there may be two 'types' of immortal elves, in the sixth world (i couldn't begin to guess how things worked in the fourth): those who are born that way, like Frosty, and those who are turned immortal by some magical process. theoretically, this process could be applied to any metahuman, though i doubt this has ever occured.

The Everliving Flower is the artifact that is said to be able to grant immortality... if you can figure out how to open the box it's in.

I thought the thing was more of a dragon detector (and bloomed in the presence of those of the blood). Of course, seeing as how I get most of my info from AH's site, I don't have anything direct to back that up with

My money is still on the IEs using a story about some immortality ritual as a cover for what they really are.

That, or, if any metahuman could manage it, everyone is distantly descended from dragons... which is an interesting thought.

FYI, to agree with Senchae and Crazy Elf... Ancient History's website includes details on Dunk's will. Among the items mentioned is a magical box (I forget the name.. Dropped Rose?) Apparently it's a pickle to open, but if you figure it out, it grants you eternal life. So hypothetically, anyone can become immortal if they get the box (haha!) and are tricky enough to open it (hahaha!) Go to Ancient History's site to follow up.

Personally, I'd only let a character become immortal after at least a year of good roleplaying, and immediately afterward I'd either retire the character, or have the character suffer a horrible, accidental, horrible shaving accident in which he or she horribly, accidentally, horribly, cut his or her own head off. Funny how becoming immortal draws such attention to yourself...

I think it's unofficial at this point (because it hasn't been published to my knowledge) but supposedly IE's were created by Dragons. However, they do not "make" them. They were created originally, IIRC, to take care of Dragons during the low-mana periods while they slept. However it was learned that elves couldn't be trusted and thus began the elf-dragon debacle (for lack of a better word).
IE's since then, I believe, are pretty much made the old fashioned way. If you want canon then I give you Jane Foster, a young elf with the "immortal" gene is the daughter of Ehran the Scribe.

As for having them as PC's- I don't see why not. They can take it as an edge/flaw if you want or the GM can do it on a random die roll. The edges are of course immunity to age, pathogens, and poisons (yet Harlequin can still get drunk?). The flaw being that you are on the radar of ever IE and dragon on the planet. Maybe it can be a "wanted" type flaw in which a dragon or IE wants to bring you in for training (and maybe that can be a campaign in and of itself or that simply means the characters out of play) or they want you dead- like the hunted flaw. The character, of course, wouldn't be the thousands of years old that some of IE elite are, and since they are still very very young they aren't a high enough priority to be hunted *all* the time.
Of course, since Narcojet wouldn't work on such a character then most of the opposition would naturally resort to lethal force. I wouldn't give this to a character who's a numbers-bunny. I would give it a character who has a track record of making and roleplaying well written, thought characters with a good- not unique, good- background and plays them solidly. IOW, someone who wouldn't abuse it.

Based on the presented definition of Immortality, there are still a lot of things that can kill an IE, including the traditional solution to most problems: high velocity weapons fire. That kinda balances the abuse factor for most games.

I don't know if I'd encourage it as a casual player option, but it could be interesting as a character plot device or hook of some sort.

-Siege

I know that it doesn't actually affect things for the runner because most don't die of natural causes, but I don't care.

Call me a stick in the mud.

Call me old school and hard core.

The knee-jerk instant reaction, and the reaction after furthur consideration are both a resounding NO!

No, no, no, no, no.

I've allowed it. The Elf has to be Awakened as a Full Mage (effectively putting them on the Path of the Righ whether they like it or not...), and reach Grade 10. At which point their essence pops up to 8 (with a corresponding +2 in magic) and their characters retire unless I run a High Threat mission in which case they, and any other players with hideous amounts of power and karma, can come out to play again.

The thing is they have to be G10 anyway in our interpretation so they're already humongously powerful. Making them not age and given them another 2 magic points at that stage makes little difference. The fact that they have to retire their character stops people going for it who want it for munchkin status and instead they only go for it if its a character goal or something because they know they'll have to start again from scratch with another character as soon as they do...

I had an IE PC in my last campaign. The players knew one of the two elves in the group was an IE, but they didn't learn which one it was until much later in the game. Wasn't anything special about him... in fact that particular player had horrible luck and the character ended up near death about halfway through almost every adventure he was in on.

Technically both of the elves were "immortal". The elf who was not an IE was actually the reincarnation of a lightbearer; returned to the flesh to battle the minions of the Horrors. ...The campaign was based on the concept of the horrors and the 2nd age, but the players were not familiar with Earthdawn so the link didn't get much more specific than that.

I like to think it's something ridiculously simple. A special series of knocks, perhaps, or a secret password. "Open Sesame," maybe. How frustrated would that make you feel, using every means known to man to try opening it, and then Joe Blow walks up and knocks on it just right and POOF! It opens.

It's made of glass isn't it? I'm feeling all Alexanderian again....