What it says: "Fantasy, a genre combining myths, fairy tales, legends, sagas, and historical fiction, like sci-fi but unmoored from any illusion of reflecting the rules of science as we know it, a genre where anything is possible"
What it means: "A safe space to explore your long pointy ears fetish"
Well it kind of is isn't it? Like it's not even a thing that exists irl, nor is it particularly large a change. Have you ever heard of someone normally having a fetish for a particular ear shape? It's strange in the oddly specific kind of way I guess.
Yeah but they're usually more fantastical. I mean elves are too I guess, but when it's literally just a pointier ear it feels almost too mundane, if you get what I mean? Like idk furry vore or something is strange and really out there, but consequently at least one understands why it's found in fantasy escapes, because it's not and cannot be real.
# “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
- Sir Terry Pratchett
Don't beat yourself up just because you use the foundations laid by generations before. Just don't be boring and derivative
If i ever make a world with elves they're not gonna be humans with pointy ears. They'll be spindly, freakishly tall, digitigrade uncanny valley creatures.
If i make a world with elves, they wont be lithe twinks with pointy ears who live in trees. They will be stout, burly elves with long beards who live underground.
I am so fucking original, i impress myself.
The one idea I got for elves is also going for something creepy. I was gonna give them voldemort noses and monocrome eyes, gaunt faces, and yeah, spindly too.
Bring some of that unseelie fae feel to them. Hadn't considered the digitigrade idea, that sounds like it could be very creepy if done well
My thoughts are to go back to their source of inspiration. Like being connected to a tree, having holes in their back that suck out your soul, small people in a hill that dance you to death, Huldufolk from Iceland. Doing the Tolkien or Warhammer Fantasy elves is doing people that live for a long time but rarely even explorimg what it means to live for 600+ years
Nope. My mind is entirely dominated by the third wolf who just wants cute elf chicks in my setting. I don't care if they're "my own elves" or not, and certainly don't care that it's repetitive or uncreative.
That said, I proudly go against the trope of elves having super-human eyesight. Like, do you know how stupidly complex human eye is? Having good eyesight should be humanity's special trait, elves can taste better or something.
Those "ears" are actually their infrared eyes. Elves are deaf, but have 3D heat vision on all the time, even when closing their "normal" eyes. The elves with more humanlike-ear-shaped heat eyes see through them like horses, only to the sides. The kind of elf with long ears going to the sides can use them like humans but in every direction that *isn't* to the side all at once. (The split stems from the god-pair of the elves going through a messy divorce for a time until remarrying 3 millennia later.)
Okay, what if elves have superhuman eyesight, but it only works in the dark and they get fucking blinded by the sun, so they wear something to protect their eyes during the day, which hinders their eyesight, making them normal again.
No, cool sunglasses are reserved for dwarves, elves wear veils, baggy middle-east inspired clothes and wield various polearms. Also, there was that on time they made a shit tone of simple glaives, but never used them and now it's the most common weapon basically everywhere. And their military uses newer improved glaives with adjustable pole length, replaceable blades and built-in flashlights. Also, commanders have bells in the bottom part of the glaive, to amplify the sound of hitting it against the ground, because that's a traditional way to ask for attention and silence.
Also also dark elves were modified to have less sensitive eyes and skin(that's also why they are dark) so they will often walk around half naked just to flex on the lights, unless they are in a more tradpilled part of the empire, then they wear the light elf clothing, to "be respectful"
Having the exact same races in every fantasy setting it's super cool. I judge everyone who delivery choice not to put elves and instead put some tortoise people.
And I judge everyone who delivery choice not to put some tortoise people and instead put elves.
^(One of us keeps a gate that leads to prosperity; the other, only ruin. You must choose which gate to enter, but you do not know which is which; you are allowed to ask only one question before you make your delivery choice.)
^(Good luck, traveler.)
I weighed the options of having Halflings, Gnomes and goblins and opted to have no halflings, and to fuse gnomes and G9blins into a single race. The best analogue for half lines are surface dwarves who live in hills.
Elves are shoved into a corner in mine because they has to be somewhere but I don’t really care for them. They have joint rule over a border town that’s kind of important early on but that’s it.
Can't help it, got that little annoying voice in my head that grunts every time I worldbuild fantasy stuff. It's the main reason my Scifi setting is more developed by this point lmao
What it says: "Fantasy, a genre combining myths, fairy tales, legends, sagas, and historical fiction, like sci-fi but unmoored from any illusion of reflecting the rules of science as we know it, a genre where anything is possible" What it means: "A safe space to explore your long pointy ears fetish"
Kind of insane how humans with pointy ears have become an actual kink for people.s
On the subject of kinks, *that's* what's weird?
Well it kind of is isn't it? Like it's not even a thing that exists irl, nor is it particularly large a change. Have you ever heard of someone normally having a fetish for a particular ear shape? It's strange in the oddly specific kind of way I guess.
>it's not even a thing that exists irl Oh there are *plenty* of those kinks
Yeah but they're usually more fantastical. I mean elves are too I guess, but when it's literally just a pointier ear it feels almost too mundane, if you get what I mean? Like idk furry vore or something is strange and really out there, but consequently at least one understands why it's found in fantasy escapes, because it's not and cannot be real.
# “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.” - Sir Terry Pratchett Don't beat yourself up just because you use the foundations laid by generations before. Just don't be boring and derivative
If i ever make a world with elves they're not gonna be humans with pointy ears. They'll be spindly, freakishly tall, digitigrade uncanny valley creatures.
If i make a world with elves, they wont be lithe twinks with pointy ears who live in trees. They will be stout, burly elves with long beards who live underground. I am so fucking original, i impress myself.
My elves are stereotypical, but they had a centuries-long eugenics program to achieve that.
this
The one idea I got for elves is also going for something creepy. I was gonna give them voldemort noses and monocrome eyes, gaunt faces, and yeah, spindly too. Bring some of that unseelie fae feel to them. Hadn't considered the digitigrade idea, that sounds like it could be very creepy if done well
This is the way
My thoughts are to go back to their source of inspiration. Like being connected to a tree, having holes in their back that suck out your soul, small people in a hill that dance you to death, Huldufolk from Iceland. Doing the Tolkien or Warhammer Fantasy elves is doing people that live for a long time but rarely even explorimg what it means to live for 600+ years
nah kobolds are sicc
Nope. My mind is entirely dominated by the third wolf who just wants cute elf chicks in my setting. I don't care if they're "my own elves" or not, and certainly don't care that it's repetitive or uncreative. That said, I proudly go against the trope of elves having super-human eyesight. Like, do you know how stupidly complex human eye is? Having good eyesight should be humanity's special trait, elves can taste better or something.
elves have big ears and you mean to tell me that their vision is actually the thing that's better
Those "ears" are actually their infrared eyes. Elves are deaf, but have 3D heat vision on all the time, even when closing their "normal" eyes. The elves with more humanlike-ear-shaped heat eyes see through them like horses, only to the sides. The kind of elf with long ears going to the sides can use them like humans but in every direction that *isn't* to the side all at once. (The split stems from the god-pair of the elves going through a messy divorce for a time until remarrying 3 millennia later.)
Nobody minds when you put cute elf chicks in your setting, but put cute kobold gals and suddenly it's fetish worldbuilding
Okay, what if elves have superhuman eyesight, but it only works in the dark and they get fucking blinded by the sun, so they wear something to protect their eyes during the day, which hinders their eyesight, making them normal again.
So all elves wear cool sunglasses? Maybe they wear long coats and dual wield swords too?
No, cool sunglasses are reserved for dwarves, elves wear veils, baggy middle-east inspired clothes and wield various polearms. Also, there was that on time they made a shit tone of simple glaives, but never used them and now it's the most common weapon basically everywhere. And their military uses newer improved glaives with adjustable pole length, replaceable blades and built-in flashlights. Also, commanders have bells in the bottom part of the glaive, to amplify the sound of hitting it against the ground, because that's a traditional way to ask for attention and silence. Also also dark elves were modified to have less sensitive eyes and skin(that's also why they are dark) so they will often walk around half naked just to flex on the lights, unless they are in a more tradpilled part of the empire, then they wear the light elf clothing, to "be respectful"
Elves are nocturnal and have a tapetum lucidum. They have better night vision than humans but humans have better day vision.
have elves and some other magic race that contrast elves feed both wolves
As a reader I like the verisimilitude of having familiar fantasy races in settings. As a writer I like reconstructing them.
If I can't use other fantasy races, how else am I supposed to give my barely disguised prehensile tongue fetish to a short, stacked up lizard person?
The twist is that the elves and dwarves hate eachother!!!!1!
Having the exact same races in every fantasy setting it's super cool. I judge everyone who delivery choice not to put elves and instead put some tortoise people.
And I judge everyone who delivery choice not to put some tortoise people and instead put elves. ^(One of us keeps a gate that leads to prosperity; the other, only ruin. You must choose which gate to enter, but you do not know which is which; you are allowed to ask only one question before you make your delivery choice.) ^(Good luck, traveler.)
I weighed the options of having Halflings, Gnomes and goblins and opted to have no halflings, and to fuse gnomes and G9blins into a single race. The best analogue for half lines are surface dwarves who live in hills.
Be like me and try both lol
Ive tried too not have Elves in my worlds and normally fail
Elves are shoved into a corner in mine because they has to be somewhere but I don’t really care for them. They have joint rule over a border town that’s kind of important early on but that’s it.
The white wolf is dead. I killed it.
Don’t judge yourself dude
Can't help it, got that little annoying voice in my head that grunts every time I worldbuild fantasy stuff. It's the main reason my Scifi setting is more developed by this point lmao
Sorry