Today I got an email from someone in Panama that goes by the name Çär£ø§ Pêrë§. Yeah, I can't read it either... what's that supposed to be?
Anyway, they sent me the following email. I thought this might be interesting for the rest of you. Here's what he (she?) wrote, word for word.
Email Begins:
Hi! I just wanted to tell you taht I think you have some mistakes about the Elves:
-They are NOT a diminutive race, they are tall as a human.
-They are NOT related to the faeries, a faery is a different race.
-The language is no so complicated, according to the cultures that have elves. It is a Melodious, beautyfull language, with only, ONLY, between 20 and 55 letters. It is no so complicated to learn, nor to write.
-They have not long ears: they have normal sized, but pointy ears.
The eyes are not large, they are as human eyes, but always with cute colours: jade green, sea blue, sky blue, dark green, light blue, grey, silver, yellow. They have long and beautyfull dark or bright hair.
-They have not wings, WINGS! Please!... Faeries have them, not elves.
-The clothes:
In war times, they wear armors.
In their homelands, they wear silk clothes, with cute designes.
-They only use Magic for hide the Realm from the enemies.
-250-300 years old????? Please! They are inmortal, they only died if they are killed.
-The Elves were the FIRST RACE in the world, they are the ancient people, they can see an entyre forest living, which is a long time...
-I think that there must be at least 4 or 5 Elven Realms. They are such a Beautyfull race to have only 2 realms.
-The storys can't be recorded only is vocal tales, they also must have BOOKS, NOVELS... because they are clever.
-They don't use magic for transport, nor comunication.
-The names: an elven name is the name of something the mother loves: Ardafambrye, "Willow Tree"; the last name is the name of the father, or the husband: Dassnarta, "Moon in the Sky". A full name would be: Ardafambrye Dassnarta.
-Weapons: They usually use swords and Bows.
I also wanted to send you this song, is in the elvish language of THASSENDHAR (I invented this song):
Rithandra galerda dairetarcha
kinsta 'uerda lómmello.
Na Vennsa i 'úrda
kinsta yénni lómello.
Lómello kwestanna Rithandre,
Lómello kwestanna Rithandreta näi.
Finmírille kwesta-mello,
saldana hestia Yúldara.
This is Love,
Always leaving me.
This is Hatred,
always with me
I want to love,
I want to be loved.
Now I have found my love,
the bright yellow Moon.
I'm from Panamá, and I like stuff about elves, and your page is wrong.
this could be a perfect location for an elven city.[picture]
and this could be an Elven Queen.[picture]
Here's my response:
Oh my! Where do I begin? Please read this entire email and don't be offended by it.
First of all, you are very mistaken about elves. Allow me to explain. I think the elves that you are describing sound very much like the elves in Dungeons and Dragons game. Yes, I am VERY familiar with elves in the D&D game. However, these are NOT D&D elves. Let me EMPHASIZE that. I have grown sick and tired of Wizards of the Coast and all of the mistakes they have made and their inability to fix what's wrong with that game. And I have also grown tired of the magic heavy worlds put out by WotC.
Therefore, I have created my own world and changed things to my liking. The elves described on Khoras are native to THAT world. They have NOTHING to do with D&D elves. To put it simply, these elves are MY creation and therefore, they can NOT be "wrong". I created them how I want. I prefer my version of the elves to standard D&D elves. Khorasian elves fit better with Khoras anyway. Khoras has a certain style and history that demands that the elves NOT be immortal and that they NOT be the first race.
Just because Wizards of the Coast publishes something does not make it gospel. You have to look at their stuff with a critical eye. Keep what you like, throw out what you don't and, above all, don't be afraid to change things.
I am making my own world in my own way. I hope you will read Khoras and all other fantasy literature, whether it's a book, a game or a web site, with an open mind and not be so quick to try to make everything fit into the same shape. This is all fiction anyway. So let us have wondrous variety!
David
So, does anyone have anything to add? ;)
Actually, what that person "_____ Peres/ perez" is refering to sounds much more like Norse, Celtic, Teutonic, and Breton mythological concepts of Elves. Almost everything within that context fits everything she says as a whole.
To tell you the truth, I'm not a fan of your version of elves either. Or dragons for that matter. However, you are right in that this is your world, and you made it your way. I plan on using Khoras for my True20 game soon, and I will change a few things. And rightfully so, because I have my own vision of the world. I will make Khoras my own, and I thank you for that :).
I think the person who emailed you got the impression that Khoras was a D&D world or whatever. I and many people know that it is not system-specific, and that's the beauty of Khoras to me. D&D, GURPS, True20, d6 Fantasy, or whatever system, doesn't matter ;).
Hip, hip, hurray, DMR, the Kwizatch Haderach, the one called Muad'Dib, he in his infinite wisdom created the perfect campaign setting! ;D Sorry, but I'm reading Dune for summer reading. :D
I agree with you Animus. There are parts of Khoras that some people don't like. I have always said and will always say "Use what you like, ignore the rest". And, for the purposes of a personal campaign, I firmly believe a Game Master should be free to alter the world to make his campaign work. It doesn't bother me at all.
I have tried to build Khoras so that it's easy to plug and play pieces. For instance, if you don't like Khoras elves, you can just swap in regular D&D elves and things should work. Other than a few minor cosmetic differences, Khoras elves and D&D elves are very similar and pretty much interchangeable.
As a side note, the guy who wrote the original email said that he "has NEVER heard of the D&D game". (And that's a direct quote). He insists he is telling me "the characteristics of the elves world-wide". I'm not sure if he means elves in the real world, but that's what I think he was getting at.
In any case, he and I have agreed to disagree. He has his version (the way elves "really" are) and I have mine.
I've also agreed to post his elvish song to the Khoras Fanwork section.
Yep, he's nuttier than a fruitcake. ;D But, yeah, it still fits, Norse and Celtic elves especially, elves of certain mythologies.
Reading what he/she wrote, i do believe he/she is referring to J.R.R Tolkien's(sp?) Elves from Middle Earth. That being said...the only thing i dont like about the Khoras elves is that they have wings, and only due to the controversy that surrounds them when trying to assign racial abilities to them.
Dragons...i love the Dragons of Khoras, especially since they have plenty of smaller "cousins" to make adventurers happy enough when it comes to Dragonslaying.
Still...that person must not have read the part where YOU created the world, lol.
This is a side conversation, but did you know that Tolkien's full name with title was Doctor Jonathan Ronald Rule Tolkien? ;D
Actually, I believe it's John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
The second middle name has a funny spelling to it. :)
Ah. Thanks. 8)
Khorasian Elves are fair, older than humans, magically-gifted, self-superior, and have pointy ears. Sounds close enough to the classic fantasy archetype to me. Nothing to worry about.
Pointy ears are the best part! ;D No seriously they kick @$$. Don't believe me? Go check out Link and the rest of the Hyrulians.
Quote from: MysticWind on July 04, 2006, 03:40:50 PM
Khorasian Elves are fair, older than humans, magically-gifted, self-superior, and have pointy ears. Sounds close enough to the classic fantasy archetype to me. Nothing to worry about.
They are longer lived yes, but according to the setting they are evolved from humans, ergo Humans are the oldest race :P
Çär£ø§ Pêrë§.
looks like "carlos peres"
as to your elves you make them the way YOU want them! who cares
what anyone else thinks...elves on my world are SUPER tall...only black
and white in color/race, thick skinned, and tend to be war like if not
downright evil, they are also clawed... one color uses the bow the other
color use a weapon i designed called a kootar, kinda a spear/sword/ax
khoras is a perfect world by my measure i can't see anyone having trouble with it
cause thats the way YOU Made it.....take it or leave it... :)
Hello!
As MysticWind said, Khorasian elves are quite close to the classical "archetype" and as a consequence to the Tolkien's elves. But they are different.
It's true that everybody do what they want with elves, tall, black, with three arms... but I understand that some people may be surprised if such stranges creatures are called elves. In fact, Tolkien has change the classical definition of elves (and dwarves and others) found in nordic legends. And now, everybody wait for certain classical characteristics for elves. For exmaple, they should be long-lived, self-superior and shouldn't have wings.
But it's a question of point of view.
Either you prefer to keep quite the same characteristic for a race from one universe to another in order to be coherent (a dwarf is always small, a giant is always tall, a fish always lives in water, and so on), either you prefer to change standard characteristics to obtain "something new and different".
That's another question to David. Why have you called them elves, and not another new named race?
Good question. I have gone through several phases. When I first started creating Khoras, it was specifically as a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. I created Khoras with very typical dwarves, elves, etc. But I did make some minor changes. For instance, I created the grum which is basically a combination of gnomes, halflings, kender and all the other little races.
As Khoras started to come into focus, I thought about creating more variation in the races. For instance, I toyed with wings on elves and making dwarves more like humanoids made of living rock. For awhile, I changed the names. I changed the elves to "jevani" and the dwarves became "tellurians". Also, the saurians were called "argrox". So, now I had this world with many strange races - jevani, tellurians, argrox and others. I also had very strange versions of goblins and trolls and such. After about a year of that, I decided I didn't like it. People don't know what a jevani is or an argrox. But people can instantly formulate a picture in their head if you say "elf" or "dwarf". Even "saurian" is easily recognized as a lizard man. Trolls, goblins and such also are pretty well entrenched into the general social mind. I debated this for awhile and then finally decided to use archetypal names and traits, but put my own unique spin on it. So, all the races came back to traditional names, but I made each my own. I have elves and dwarves now, but there are MY version of elves and dwarves. Not to say they are better or worse... just a slightly different version. Generally, the changes are made to make them fit into Khoras a little better. And sometime the changes are just to give the race a little more flavor.
There were still a lot of neat ideas that I wanted to keep. So, several of the more unique ideas were kept but were made into entirely new races. Also, I kept the avarians, the phellysians and so on cause I like them. The grum are still grum only because I didn't want to have to mess around with gnomes and halflings and kender and all other variations. I just wanted to keep things simple and have ONE race of little folk. Of course, with the grum, it's easy enough to swap in gnomes and such if you really want them.
But again, feel free to alter things for your own games and campaigns if it helps. Grum can be replaced by halflings and gnomes. Elves can be stripped of their wings. And so on... do whatever you need to make it work.
Just reviving this old thread because it somehow reminds me of the "Harry Potter effect".
Could it be that ther person who wrote the original email also took this site for a real kind of wikipedia on elves (or on fantasy/magic/supernatural/... )?
Yeah, I love it when an old thread gets resurrected. :)
Yes, it's entirely possible that the person was suffering from the Harry Potter effect or something similar. And now that I've reread this thread, I agree with the others. His initial description did sound a lot like Tolkien's elves.
The whole "wings on elves" thing hasn't really come up either because I can not REMEMBER the last time someone played an elf in one of my campaigns. It's been a LONG time. So, yeah, the whole wing thing never really comes up.
Honestly, I love the Elven nations, but out of two 'elves' in my personal stuff, only one's an elf, the other is my own personal modification of a faerie. But then, I really prefer the Ankari, Borrellians, and the northern humans over most of the other races. I like the depth that they add, especially the Magrakians and the Phellysians, I just don't find them as intriguing to play as the others. Of course, that's really just my bias, but whatever. Then again, if I could play as a dragon, then I'd be all over THAT. XDDD
I think what some people dislike is the fact that Khorasian elves have wings.
I like it a lot, so, my solution : if a player want an elf without wings, it's simple, it's a half-elf :D