Thanks.
Ok I have a question that I hope you guys can help me with. The returned dark elves are classified as just elves as far as stats go. Though before the descent where all the dark elves classified as elves then or where there any of their number that were Dark Eladrin so to speak. If there were would any of the returned Dark Elves be Dark Eladrin?
Thanks.
Pre-Descent Dark Elves were still all elves, and no, I don't think any would have been Dark Eladrin. To my knowledge, at least.
You could always change that, if you so desired.-In 4e, Green Elves would utilize 'Elf' stats. Being that Dark Elves are Green Elves, they, too, would use the 4e stats for 'Elves'. After 1,379 DR, when Eilistraee died, and Q'arlynd Melarn and other Drow magicians cast an Epic Magic spell that reversed the Descent of the Drow curse that was weaved in -10,000, ending the fourth Crown War, certain Drow (those belonging to the Church of Eilistraee and those containing "pure" Miyeritari blood running through their veins) reverted back into Dark Elves, where their stats would have changed from 4e 'Drow' to 4e 'Elves'.
-The Moon Elves and Sun Elves came to Realmspace a few thousand years later, refugees from some kind of cataclysmic disaster that destroyed their homeland, Tintageer. We don't know anything about the racial relations between this group, and the more wild, nature-loving Green/Wood ("Wild") Elves, but given that when the survivors of Tintageer and these Elves first met on Abeir-Toril, they aided each other, racial relations on the Plane of Faerie could not have been that bad. If they were, it is likely that the "first contact" on Faerûn would have gone a lot worse, and there would have been bad blood on both sides.
The only difference between Eladrin and Dark elves is that Eladrin hide themselves behind a facade of virtue.;)
This too. At least the Dark Elves are honest with themselves:P
I'm not sure that I really like the differentiation between "elves" and "eladrin" in 4E, at least not the way that it was done. It's almost like eladrin are presented as super-elves, and regular old elves are sort of ghetto: not as connected to the feywild certainly, and just seeming "lesser" in many ways.
Sentiments similar to my own.
I didn't mind the old 2E-3E eladrin, as they didn't include gold/sun elves but were just a collection of celestials.
Sentiments exactly the same as my own. Hells, in my 4E, 1479 DR Realms, Elves are still the elves of old and Eladrin are still the eladrin of old. Why fix what isn't broken?;)
I'm not sure that I really like the differentiation between "elves" and "eladrin" in 4E, at least not the way that it was done. It's almost like eladrin are presented as super-elves, and regular old elves are sort of ghetto: not as connected to the feywild certainly, and just seeming "lesser" in many ways.
In game/rules terms, I think the bonuses each race receives pretty much sums up their old uses pretty well and balances them to boot. While Eladrin have the ability to Fey Step and gain bonuses to Int/Dex, Elves can re-roll an attack and thus show off their accuracy for combat.
I honestly think people are just ****** that they (WotC) retconned the term "Eladrin". To some, this still represents the celestial/otherworldly version or "pure" version of elf than just being another sub-race.
I didn't mind the old 2E-3E eladrin, as they didn't include gold/sun elves but were just a collection of celestials.
I didn't mind the sub-races either, but the fact that they changed game stats with each one (and not to mention the gross unbalance of them) really got on my nerves. It got to the point that I'd basically use what-ever sub-race helped out my class stats/abilities/etc.. So no, sorry, no Gold elven fighters, Moon elven paladins, or Wood elf wizards. Their racial stats are too much of a deterrent to making adequate characters.
I honestly think people are just ****** that they (WotC) retconned the term "Eladrin". To some, this still represents the celestial/otherworldly version or "pure" version of elf than just being another sub-race.
-And Sun Elves, Moon Elves, and Star Elves.
I'm not sure that I really like the differentiation between "elves" and "eladrin" in 4E, at least not the way that it was done. It's almost like eladrin are presented as super-elves, and regular old elves are sort of ghetto: not as connected to the feywild certainly, and just seeming "lesser" in many ways.
I didn't mind the old 2E-3E eladrin, as they didn't include gold/sun elves but were just a collection of celestials.
Your thoughts on this are echoed by many. As with many elements of 4E FR, this new eladrin retcon is an assassination of creativity.
It would have been oh so easy to rewrite the elven history and make them some sort of fey creatures, who's fey bloodlines had dwindled in strength (much like the tieflings) and thus you had the various elven subraces. As there were also Dark Fey, you would have a nigh perfect explanation for the dark elves (and even the drow) too. Can't anyone explain why they took this rather scenic route?
I'm not sure that I really like the differentiation between "elves" and "eladrin" in 4E, at least not the way that it was done. It's almost like eladrin are presented as super-elves, and regular old elves are sort of ghetto: not as connected to the feywild certainly, and just seeming "lesser" in many ways. I didn't mind the old 2E-3E eladrin, as they didn't include gold/sun elves but were just a collection of celestials.
Your thoughts on this are echoed by many. As with many elements of 4E FR, this new eladrin retcon is an assassination of creativity.
No joke. Before I saw what they'd done with 4E FR, I had this whole storyline brewing in my head of how, after millennia of seperation from the Feywild following the fall of Tintageer and thinking they were the purest examples of Elfdom out there, the Gold Elves were about to get a rude shock when the Eladrin showed back up in the Realms. Retconning things to the point where Gold and Moon Elves were "always" Eladrin just feels wrong - but then I simply add this to the ever-growing list of the things that "just feel wrong" about the "new" Forgotten Realms in general.
Aye. A reintroduction of the LeShay who'd be really aloof elves who managed to survive the cataclysms of Tintageer (or some new unclaimed part of Fearie) would make an interesting plot element to introduce to the realms.
Elfblade, you might be interested in Brian R James' (i.e. Iakhovas' ) and Matt James' new adventure path which has some aspects of this culture class you envisioned. I hope. Because I refuse to become DDi for awhile and haven't seen the article itself.
Aye. A reintroduction of the LeShay who'd be really aloof elves who managed to survive the cataclysms of Tintageer (or some new unclaimed part of Fearie) would make an interesting plot element to introduce to the realms.
Elfblade, you might be interested in Brian R James' (i.e. Iakhovas' ) and Matt James' new adventure path which has some aspects of this culture class you envisioned. I hope. Because I refuse to become DDi for awhile and haven't seen the article itself.
I'm not DDi either, likely for some of the same reasons that those of us who have not made the investment still refuse to make the investment.
Anyway, I would have LOVED to have seen the culture clash played out that way. The Gold Elves, after centuries of seperation from the Feywild suddenly being confronted with the fact that they are not the Utter Paragons of Elven Purity and Awesomeness when the Feywild opens back up. In fact, I'd been wondering if the Spellplague was what was going to open the Realms back up to the Feywild. Especially given the fact that the storyline with Kymil Nimesin/The Eldreth Veluuthra was never satisfactorily tied up - I'd wondered what would happen if Kymil were to open the Feywild back up expecting to find the "true" Gold Elves in order to try and lead another invasion on Evermeet or other Elven lands in the name of ethnic cleansing against the Moon Elves, only to be taken by surprise when they consider him to be just as "fallen," (especially since he's serving Lolth now.)
That could go one or two ways...either the Eladrin just take him out and find themselves stranded on Faerun as the Gate snaps shut, or the gate stays open, and they invade (as the Gold and Moon Elves, once Eladrin from the Feywild, came to Faerun as invaders) staging Raids from the Feywild, and becoming the terrible "Good Folk" and "Gentry" of legend, more frightening than the Drow, so much so that people are even superstitious about mentioning them in fear that they'll magically appear and start kicking ass.
...You know, I ought to run this anyway. Just have the Gold and Moon Elves be Elves as in 3.5E, but then bring in the Eladrin.