The beginnings of a great concept...by accident [Archive] - Wizards Community

The beginnings of a great concept...by accident [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
AtheneNoctua
03-02-06, 11:14 AM I needed an NPC, Fast. I had the stats for a Wizard or a Rogue. I picked Elf as the race, rolled his age, height, and weight at random, and then rolled a trait out of the DMG:

"Distinctive Scar." I decided immediately that it would be a wicked-looking curved thick red scar that twisted one half of his face up in a permanent smile.

I Called him Wee Abel, making a note that this was what people called him, and that he had another, more elfy name thyat he didn't use. Then I gave him a tendency to binge-drink, and decided that he was on hard times.

Because I took a high local knowledge to make him a good guide to the city for the PC, I decided that he'd lived in this city all his life, and was scrounging just to get by. He really needed someone to help him investigate a legendary underground network of secret dwellings used to hide elves and arcane spellcasters during a religious struggle of centuries past, because he couldn't manage it on his own, but he just knew there was riches to be had. (This was the original plot hook into the adventure.)

I rolled an arbitrary random for parentage and got Orphan. I decided that meant that he was "raised by humans." and then the complexities started coming. Wee abel is 127. His adoptive parents are long dead. his first girlfriend? dead. all of his childhood friends? dead. but he's barely an adult by elven standards, with very little knowledge of elven culture and an undignified accent when he speaks the language. He lives with humans. he's lived with humans all his life. He doesn't really know anything about his parents or his family.

but they age and die. his current girlfriend is starting to show her years, and she wants him to find a way to get some wealth together so she can quit her job and have a family... children who will be dead before he's even really into middle age.

This is the heartbreak of befriending humans, but elves make him uncomfortable. they seem foreign to him, and their culture and manners and unconscious way of doing things serves to make him feel grubby and unkempt, at best. The nobility of this city is very much in awe of elves, and certain branches of it are ostentatiously proud of their half-elven heritage, and they're no good for learning about all the elaborate social codes he couldn't learn, because they've got them all backwards and jumbled up.

but idiots who come slumming in the lower taverns insist on babbling to him in the elven tongue, and asking him outrageously personal questions, and assuming that since everyone knows all elves are like this, then he must be, too.

I ended up multi-classing the character to cleric when the time came to go to second level. that was for a purely out of game reason (to make sure there was someone who could heal.) I joked that with his ability to spend money like it was going out of style and his tendency to get legless, he didn't seem very wise for a cleric. But it was okay, it was an NPC and would toddle off to do something else once the balance of players improved.

but it's not going to improve any time soon, and now we're trading off. I get to be a player, and the original PC is now going to be an NPC.

I solved the Wisdom=Cleric problem. Wee Abel is not a prudent planner who thinks ahead (and he's oldimarran, so phooey on that stodginess!) but Wee Abel is insightful when it comes to observing human nature. he's wise in the ways of love won and lost, of fortunes gained and squandered, sometimes you're the greatshield, sometimes you're the fly.

what I'd like to hear from people is more about these things:

How could an elf end up raised by urban-dwelling humans? who would he have been if he wasn't a foundling? does it matter? what should I do about the elfy sounding name? I don't actually know what it is.

Can he continue to shun the company of the elves? does it bother him that he's not properly elven? (I think it does. he's got to feel like an outsider among all those short-lived humans. and he can't blend with the pointy ears. it's obvious that he was the equivalent of raised by wolves.)

How would you take a Chaotic Neutral kid who was raised on the streets and develop the character into an alignment of Chaotic Good? (this can and should be a gradual development.)

this background is sketchy - is there somewhere else i should look at filling it out?

should I prestige class to Ninja? (kidding.)
WhrenKehrsyn
03-02-06, 02:42 PM I really like this.

Anyway, addressing your questions.

I dont know what setting your playing in or what the world backround is like so some of these may not fit well. I dont think an elf would just abandon a child even under extreme circumstances so I think theres going to have to be something that forcefully removes him from his birth parents. Maybe they died in cambat, a war or adventuring, and one of thier human friends took in the now orphaned child. Maybe the birth parents were nobility or some other high station in the city, along with all that hero worship is bound to come some jealousy. Maybe an assasination or other crime of passion killed the parent or even drove them from the city before they could go collect up the child.

How he would have turned out in other circumstances is really anything, people rely alot on experience and upbringing when confronted with decisions and problems. Work out who his parents were and why he abandoned him first then use them as a base for how he may have turned out. In any case I think in terms of game development this is a moot point and irrelevant. He may brood over what may have been but truthfully only his own fantasy of what he idealises himself as will be what he thinks. I wouldnt even bother with this.

One game I play that has been going for years now just ended and I was thinking of changing the circumstances of my characters birth and rasing for a new game as sort of alternate version of the character and for that sort of thing this can be very useful information, but aside from that I dont think it even matters much.

For the name take a look at the suggested names in the PHB, thats a good place to start. Im sure someone here will link you to a name generator sooner or later as well. When I create names I tend to take names I like in the real world and fantasize them.

As an example Ill use that same character I referanced earlier. I like the name Kirsten, I have a friend named that and I think its very pretty. So to make it more fantasy I look at alternate spellings that produce the same sound, Kerstin, Kirstyn, Kerstyn. Ok, that last one looks good. Now I need a surname, this is the hard part. I want an animal type name because shes going to have an animalistic tendency. But shes also graceful and pretty so some animal that enbodies those things. Maybe a bird, birds are graceful and beautiful animals and they can be quite dangerous to the animals they hunt. So what birds are called something interesting? Well the Wren. Ren is also a real world name. Doesnt quite look fantasy enough though. As a general rule adding hs and changing vowels to ys tends to give names and words that mor fantastical feel without changing pronuciations, hs just make the vowel sound more breathy. So Whren looks good. So we have Kerstyn Whren. Doesnt flow as well as I wanted, but changing it around makes the flow of it better. Whren Kerstyn. It doesnt have any hard sounds other than the t and that throws the flow off, so remove it. I dont mind that, Kirsen is a real world name also and its close enough to the base name I used to keep me happy. Whren Kersyn. Flows very nicely and sounds good. I went with that. Later I read a book with a character name Kehrsyn. Same name, different spelling. I likes the aesthetic of the name with the h so I added that and now it is Whren Kehrsyn.

For me the naming is almost as much fun as the backround creation. You can put almost as much about the character into the name as you can the backround.

For those last two I say combine them. He could shun elves because hes bothered that hes not properly elven. Give him some abandonment issues too, directed at the elven species as a whole, not just his parents. Coming to terms with the People can serve as his vessel for the alignment shift I think. As you play learn about elven culture. You may be angry at the elves and at yourself but that doesnt mean you cant have an interest in thier culture, in finding out who and what you are and where you come from. In fact it could even be a driving force. As you learn more you come to see the beauty of it all and come to accept, respect, and eventually enjoy other elves. Use that as a metaphor and/or vessel of the same thing occuring to him for the whole world in general (theres your alignment shift.)

Well, hope this can help out a bit =0)
AtheneNoctua
03-02-06, 03:33 PM I really like this.

I'm really digging it too. I've never had an elf concept like this. it's really interesting to play.

I dont know what setting your playing in or what the world backround is like so some of these may not fit well. I dont think an elf would just abandon a child even under extreme circumstances so I think theres going to have to be something that forcefully removes him from his birth parents. Maybe they died in cambat, a war or adventuring, and one of thier human friends took in the now orphaned child. Maybe the birth parents were nobility or some other high station in the city, along with all that hero worship is bound to come some jealousy. Maybe an assasination or other crime of passion killed the parent or even drove them from the city before they could go collect up the child.

I think that it would have to be something really drastic as well. I don't believe that elf parents would willingly abandon a child, so it would have to be something quite major for the child to be raised by humans from babyhood and most importantly, not be adopted into another elven house for raising.

I can think of hiding the child as a reason, but that almost inevitably leads to Lost Heir of Such and So, and I don't think I want that. Is there another alternative i'm missing?

i believe that the parents have to be dead. I'm leaning towards the idea of them being adventurers of somekind, and if so, the pregnancy with Wee Abel was a bit of an "oops" but also quite happy.

alternatively, Abel's mother is dead but his father is alive and unaware of Abel's exsistence for some reason.

The human adoptive parents could be many things. good friends of the parents and trusted to keep the child. strangers to the parents and kept the child out of duty (which fits better with Abel's mother dying with abel's father unaware of his existence. complications in childbirth is an obvious choice for strangers taking the baby in.)

insanity could be another choice, particularly if I go with the article in dragon magazine about elves having one true love and the tragedy of that love being unrequited. that could drive an elf mad. it could be that Abel didn't realize that the madwoman who threw herself off the tower when he was walking and sort of talking was actually his mother, or at least not until it was too late to do anything about it. if she'd been taken in by someone who didn't understand the "elves mate for life" thing...

For those last two I say combine them. He could shun elves because hes bothered that hes not properly elven. Give him some abandonment issues too, directed at the elven species as a whole, not just his parents.

oh, I think abandonment is him all over. not just the elves abandoned me, but the humans who took me in abandon me by dying, dammit.

Coming to terms with the People can serve as his vessel for the alignment shift I think. As you play learn about elven culture. You may be angry at the elves and at yourself but that doesnt mean you cant have an interest in thier culture, in finding out who and what you are and where you come from. In fact it could even be a driving force.

I think at first too it could be that he's looking for acceptance from outside (other elves) and his desire for that is constantly frustrated because he needs to accept himself. he can't be the elven paragon, the chance is lost, but he can always be him...
WhrenKehrsyn
03-02-06, 03:48 PM The hiding the child option is an neat and interesting one but not something I would put on an NPC unless you intended the game to revovle around said NPC. To restore so and so to his position is going to move the spotlight off the PCs and in my opinion thats bad.

The one parent died and one lived but unaware of him idea is a great one. Not only does it get him to where you want him but it leaves room for introducing at least one other NPC later on in the game and can add to the play of this particular character. He may find out about the living parent and goes to look for them, he would have questions for them. Or alternately the parent may have heard of the character and the circustances of his raising, lost an elf parent, may recognized the names of the human parent or even the characters dead parent and comes looking for him. Plenty of potential here.

As for insantiy... Well, I wont comment on that very much. My idea of elves is less attached than humans. I imagine them being more interested in experiencing all there is to experience. I see humans as much mopre passionate and more intense when it comes to relationships in order to pack as much as they can into thier short lives, while elves take things slowly. I think elves would be more community oriented, more promiscuous and more pron to what we call 'friends with benefits' rather than intense monogomous relationships. Thats just my own opinion of things though lol
AtheneNoctua
03-02-06, 07:08 PM The hiding the child option is an neat and interesting one but not something I would put on an NPC unless you intended the game to revovle around said NPC. To restore so and so to his position is going to move the spotlight off the PCs and in my opinion thats bad.

and in mine. it's only an npc part time, though, because of the rotating DMs thing... but even so, I don't want the lost heir of so and so, and that seems to be the reason that comes from "hiding the child."

As for insantiy... Well, I wont comment on that very much. My idea of elves is less attached than humans. I imagine them being more interested in experiencing all there is to experience. I see humans as much mopre passionate and more intense when it comes to relationships in order to pack as much as they can into thier short lives, while elves take things slowly. I think elves would be more community oriented, more promiscuous and more pron to what we call 'friends with benefits' rather than intense monogomous relationships. Thats just my own opinion of things though lol

well, in the article I read the idea is that elves are like that - as young adults they go through a period of try anything, it's all fun, etc. and so on. and that will continue unless and until they meet the person that they will Love...and then that's it. they're in love. ideally and usually the feeling is mutual and they marry and are goofystupid about each other forevermore.

but in some rare and tragic cases, one elf feels that love and the other one... doesn't. when that happens the elf who falls in love that's unreturned wastes away into melancholy and is at risk for suicide.

now me, I figure elves would probably be much more gradual and deliberate about these things... but that article gave me an interesting variation that I could use, here.
Harrow Blade
03-03-06, 12:16 AM An interesting method of developing a character concept, I too like it alot. Concerning how your character (to be here after refered to as 'You') came to be abandoned in an entirely human city is something I have an idea about.
Perhaps your parents were adventurers who fell in love and conceived a child. They were ready to retire from adventuring to raise thier child but the BBEG had different ideas. (substitute BBEG for any villain your parents may have encountered) This nemisis captured thier child, you, and hid him away with some of his minions. Your parents attacked the nemesis and killed him but when they could not find you they thought you dead, or perhaps they were also killed.
The human who had you did not hear from his boss for several days and so left you with his sister and her husband (who could not have children) who eventually began to love you and raised you as thier own in thier as best they could when her brother did not return. Having no idea of where her brother got the child they decided it was best to devise a story that they would tell you when you got older.
They told you that they found a young elven adventurer dying by the side of the road, she handed them a baby (you) and asked that they raise her son as she was nearly dead. They tried to help but could not save her. (This may be a motivation for you to take a level or two in cleric so that you will be able to help any one in your suposed mothers position.) Thus you end up in a human city with no idea of elven life or who your real parents were.

I hope this helps.
WhrenKehrsyn
03-07-06, 02:50 PM Thinking about it a bit more the hiding of the child can work out, its possible a settlement of elves, or at least where some elves (you parents) live, comes under attack. Could be by anyone, orcs, drow, anything really. The place is overwhelmed and theres little chance of anyone escaping with thier lives. In a desperate attempt to save her child your mother bundles you up in a basket and hid it or sent it down the river hoping that someone would find and rescue him before the elements took him. There, hes not a lost heir of anything.

Alternately take the same concept and apply it instead to a group of adventurers in a certain death situation. If the choices are abandoning the child and maybe he lives verses keeping him close and assuring his death I think even the elf would go for the first.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
AtheneNoctua 03-02-06, 11:14 AM	I needed an NPC, Fast. I had the stats for a Wizard or a Rogue. I picked Elf as the race, rolled his age, height, and weight at random, and then rolled a trait out of the DMG: "Distinctive Scar." I decided immediately that it would be a wicked-looking curved thick red scar that twisted one half of his face up in a permanent smile. I Called him Wee Abel, making a note that this was what people called him, and that he had another, more elfy name thyat he didn't use. Then I gave him a tendency to binge-drink, and decided that he was on hard times. Because I took a high local knowledge to make him a good guide to the city for the PC, I decided that he'd lived in this city all his life, and was scrounging just to get by. He really needed someone to help him investigate a legendary underground network of secret dwellings used to hide elves and arcane spellcasters during a religious struggle of centuries past, because he couldn't manage it on his own, but he just knew there was riches to be had. (This was the original plot hook into the adventure.) I rolled an arbitrary random for parentage and got Orphan. I decided that meant that he was "raised by humans." and then the complexities started coming. Wee abel is 127. His adoptive parents are long dead. his first girlfriend? dead. all of his childhood friends? dead. but he's barely an adult by elven standards, with very little knowledge of elven culture and an undignified accent when he speaks the language. He lives with humans. he's lived with humans all his life. He doesn't really know anything about his parents or his family. but they age and die. his current girlfriend is starting to show her years, and she wants him to find a way to get some wealth together so she can quit her job and have a family... children who will be dead before he's even really into middle age. This is the heartbreak of befriending humans, but elves make him uncomfortable. they seem foreign to him, and their culture and manners and unconscious way of doing things serves to make him feel grubby and unkempt, at best. The nobility of this city is very much in awe of elves, and certain branches of it are ostentatiously proud of their half-elven heritage, and they're no good for learning about all the elaborate social codes he couldn't learn, because they've got them all backwards and jumbled up. but idiots who come slumming in the lower taverns insist on babbling to him in the elven tongue, and asking him outrageously personal questions, and assuming that since everyone knows all elves are like this, then he must be, too. I ended up multi-classing the character to cleric when the time came to go to second level. that was for a purely out of game reason (to make sure there was someone who could heal.) I joked that with his ability to spend money like it was going out of style and his tendency to get legless, he didn't seem very wise for a cleric. But it was okay, it was an NPC and would toddle off to do something else once the balance of players improved. but it's not going to improve any time soon, and now we're trading off. I get to be a player, and the original PC is now going to be an NPC. I solved the Wisdom=Cleric problem. Wee Abel is not a prudent planner who thinks ahead (and he's oldimarran, so phooey on that stodginess!) but Wee Abel is insightful when it comes to observing human nature. he's wise in the ways of love won and lost, of fortunes gained and squandered, sometimes you're the greatshield, sometimes you're the fly. what I'd like to hear from people is more about these things: How could an elf end up raised by urban-dwelling humans? who would he have been if he wasn't a foundling? does it matter? what should I do about the elfy sounding name? I don't actually know what it is. Can he continue to shun the company of the elves? does it bother him that he's not properly elven? (I think it does. he's got to feel like an outsider among all those short-lived humans. and he can't blend with the pointy ears. it's obvious that he was the equivalent of raised by wolves.) How would you take a Chaotic Neutral kid who was raised on the streets and develop the character into an alignment of Chaotic Good? (this can and should be a gradual development.) this background is sketchy - is there somewhere else i should look at filling it out? should I prestige class to Ninja? (kidding.)
WhrenKehrsyn 03-02-06, 02:42 PM	I really like this. Anyway, addressing your questions. I dont know what setting your playing in or what the world backround is like so some of these may not fit well. I dont think an elf would just abandon a child even under extreme circumstances so I think theres going to have to be something that forcefully removes him from his birth parents. Maybe they died in cambat, a war or adventuring, and one of thier human friends took in the now orphaned child. Maybe the birth parents were nobility or some other high station in the city, along with all that hero worship is bound to come some jealousy. Maybe an assasination or other crime of passion killed the parent or even drove them from the city before they could go collect up the child. How he would have turned out in other circumstances is really anything, people rely alot on experience and upbringing when confronted with decisions and problems. Work out who his parents were and why he abandoned him first then use them as a base for how he may have turned out. In any case I think in terms of game development this is a moot point and irrelevant. He may brood over what may have been but truthfully only his own fantasy of what he idealises himself as will be what he thinks. I wouldnt even bother with this. One game I play that has been going for years now just ended and I was thinking of changing the circumstances of my characters birth and rasing for a new game as sort of alternate version of the character and for that sort of thing this can be very useful information, but aside from that I dont think it even matters much. For the name take a look at the suggested names in the PHB, thats a good place to start. Im sure someone here will link you to a name generator sooner or later as well. When I create names I tend to take names I like in the real world and fantasize them. As an example Ill use that same character I referanced earlier. I like the name Kirsten, I have a friend named that and I think its very pretty. So to make it more fantasy I look at alternate spellings that produce the same sound, Kerstin, Kirstyn, Kerstyn. Ok, that last one looks good. Now I need a surname, this is the hard part. I want an animal type name because shes going to have an animalistic tendency. But shes also graceful and pretty so some animal that enbodies those things. Maybe a bird, birds are graceful and beautiful animals and they can be quite dangerous to the animals they hunt. So what birds are called something interesting? Well the Wren. Ren is also a real world name. Doesnt quite look fantasy enough though. As a general rule adding hs and changing vowels to ys tends to give names and words that mor fantastical feel without changing pronuciations, hs just make the vowel sound more breathy. So Whren looks good. So we have Kerstyn Whren. Doesnt flow as well as I wanted, but changing it around makes the flow of it better. Whren Kerstyn. It doesnt have any hard sounds other than the t and that throws the flow off, so remove it. I dont mind that, Kirsen is a real world name also and its close enough to the base name I used to keep me happy. Whren Kersyn. Flows very nicely and sounds good. I went with that. Later I read a book with a character name Kehrsyn. Same name, different spelling. I likes the aesthetic of the name with the h so I added that and now it is Whren Kehrsyn. For me the naming is almost as much fun as the backround creation. You can put almost as much about the character into the name as you can the backround. For those last two I say combine them. He could shun elves because hes bothered that hes not properly elven. Give him some abandonment issues too, directed at the elven species as a whole, not just his parents. Coming to terms with the People can serve as his vessel for the alignment shift I think. As you play learn about elven culture. You may be angry at the elves and at yourself but that doesnt mean you cant have an interest in thier culture, in finding out who and what you are and where you come from. In fact it could even be a driving force. As you learn more you come to see the beauty of it all and come to accept, respect, and eventually enjoy other elves. Use that as a metaphor and/or vessel of the same thing occuring to him for the whole world in general (theres your alignment shift.) Well, hope this can help out a bit =0)
AtheneNoctua 03-02-06, 03:33 PM	I really like this. I'm really digging it too. I've never had an elf concept like this. it's really interesting to play. I dont know what setting your playing in or what the world backround is like so some of these may not fit well. I dont think an elf would just abandon a child even under extreme circumstances so I think theres going to have to be something that forcefully removes him from his birth parents. Maybe they died in cambat, a war or adventuring, and one of thier human friends took in the now orphaned child. Maybe the birth parents were nobility or some other high station in the city, along with all that hero worship is bound to come some jealousy. Maybe an assasination or other crime of passion killed the parent or even drove them from the city before they could go collect up the child. I think that it would have to be something really drastic as well. I don't believe that elf parents would willingly abandon a child, so it would have to be something quite major for the child to be raised by humans from babyhood and most importantly, not be adopted into another elven house for raising. I can think of hiding the child as a reason, but that almost inevitably leads to Lost Heir of Such and So, and I don't think I want that. Is there another alternative i'm missing? i believe that the parents have to be dead. I'm leaning towards the idea of them being adventurers of somekind, and if so, the pregnancy with Wee Abel was a bit of an "oops" but also quite happy. alternatively, Abel's mother is dead but his father is alive and unaware of Abel's exsistence for some reason. The human adoptive parents could be many things. good friends of the parents and trusted to keep the child. strangers to the parents and kept the child out of duty (which fits better with Abel's mother dying with abel's father unaware of his existence. complications in childbirth is an obvious choice for strangers taking the baby in.) insanity could be another choice, particularly if I go with the article in dragon magazine about elves having one true love and the tragedy of that love being unrequited. that could drive an elf mad. it could be that Abel didn't realize that the madwoman who threw herself off the tower when he was walking and sort of talking was actually his mother, or at least not until it was too late to do anything about it. if she'd been taken in by someone who didn't understand the "elves mate for life" thing... For those last two I say combine them. He could shun elves because hes bothered that hes not properly elven. Give him some abandonment issues too, directed at the elven species as a whole, not just his parents. oh, I think abandonment is him all over. not just the elves abandoned me, but the humans who took me in abandon me by dying, dammit. Coming to terms with the People can serve as his vessel for the alignment shift I think. As you play learn about elven culture. You may be angry at the elves and at yourself but that doesnt mean you cant have an interest in thier culture, in finding out who and what you are and where you come from. In fact it could even be a driving force. I think at first too it could be that he's looking for acceptance from outside (other elves) and his desire for that is constantly frustrated because he needs to accept himself. he can't be the elven paragon, the chance is lost, but he can always be him...
WhrenKehrsyn 03-02-06, 03:48 PM	The hiding the child option is an neat and interesting one but not something I would put on an NPC unless you intended the game to revovle around said NPC. To restore so and so to his position is going to move the spotlight off the PCs and in my opinion thats bad. The one parent died and one lived but unaware of him idea is a great one. Not only does it get him to where you want him but it leaves room for introducing at least one other NPC later on in the game and can add to the play of this particular character. He may find out about the living parent and goes to look for them, he would have questions for them. Or alternately the parent may have heard of the character and the circustances of his raising, lost an elf parent, may recognized the names of the human parent or even the characters dead parent and comes looking for him. Plenty of potential here. As for insantiy... Well, I wont comment on that very much. My idea of elves is less attached than humans. I imagine them being more interested in experiencing all there is to experience. I see humans as much mopre passionate and more intense when it comes to relationships in order to pack as much as they can into thier short lives, while elves take things slowly. I think elves would be more community oriented, more promiscuous and more pron to what we call 'friends with benefits' rather than intense monogomous relationships. Thats just my own opinion of things though lol
AtheneNoctua 03-02-06, 07:08 PM	The hiding the child option is an neat and interesting one but not something I would put on an NPC unless you intended the game to revovle around said NPC. To restore so and so to his position is going to move the spotlight off the PCs and in my opinion thats bad. and in mine. it's only an npc part time, though, because of the rotating DMs thing... but even so, I don't want the lost heir of so and so, and that seems to be the reason that comes from "hiding the child." As for insantiy... Well, I wont comment on that very much. My idea of elves is less attached than humans. I imagine them being more interested in experiencing all there is to experience. I see humans as much mopre passionate and more intense when it comes to relationships in order to pack as much as they can into thier short lives, while elves take things slowly. I think elves would be more community oriented, more promiscuous and more pron to what we call 'friends with benefits' rather than intense monogomous relationships. Thats just my own opinion of things though lol well, in the article I read the idea is that elves are like that - as young adults they go through a period of try anything, it's all fun, etc. and so on. and that will continue unless and until they meet the person that they will Love...and then that's it. they're in love. ideally and usually the feeling is mutual and they marry and are goofystupid about each other forevermore. but in some rare and tragic cases, one elf feels that love and the other one... doesn't. when that happens the elf who falls in love that's unreturned wastes away into melancholy and is at risk for suicide. now me, I figure elves would probably be much more gradual and deliberate about these things... but that article gave me an interesting variation that I could use, here.
Harrow Blade 03-03-06, 12:16 AM	An interesting method of developing a character concept, I too like it alot. Concerning how your character (to be here after refered to as 'You') came to be abandoned in an entirely human city is something I have an idea about. Perhaps your parents were adventurers who fell in love and conceived a child. They were ready to retire from adventuring to raise thier child but the BBEG had different ideas. (substitute BBEG for any villain your parents may have encountered) This nemisis captured thier child, you, and hid him away with some of his minions. Your parents attacked the nemesis and killed him but when they could not find you they thought you dead, or perhaps they were also killed. The human who had you did not hear from his boss for several days and so left you with his sister and her husband (who could not have children) who eventually began to love you and raised you as thier own in thier as best they could when her brother did not return. Having no idea of where her brother got the child they decided it was best to devise a story that they would tell you when you got older. They told you that they found a young elven adventurer dying by the side of the road, she handed them a baby (you) and asked that they raise her son as she was nearly dead. They tried to help but could not save her. (This may be a motivation for you to take a level or two in cleric so that you will be able to help any one in your suposed mothers position.) Thus you end up in a human city with no idea of elven life or who your real parents were. I hope this helps.
WhrenKehrsyn 03-07-06, 02:50 PM	Thinking about it a bit more the hiding of the child can work out, its possible a settlement of elves, or at least where some elves (you parents) live, comes under attack. Could be by anyone, orcs, drow, anything really. The place is overwhelmed and theres little chance of anyone escaping with thier lives. In a desperate attempt to save her child your mother bundles you up in a basket and hid it or sent it down the river hoping that someone would find and rescue him before the elements took him. There, hes not a lost heir of anything. Alternately take the same concept and apply it instead to a group of adventurers in a certain death situation. If the choices are abandoning the child and maybe he lives verses keeping him close and assuring his death I think even the elf would go for the first.