Scribe
Legend
the problem is more for non-original options we can argue what an elf is till cows master space flight but a Dragonborn is free to be defined by a setting.
An Elf is no more free or constrained than a Dragonborn.
the problem is more for non-original options we can argue what an elf is till cows master space flight but a Dragonborn is free to be defined by a setting.
more people have interpretations as it has a wider fantasy presence given it being older, Dragonborn has less baggage or prior ideas attached and lacks an icon version.An Elf is no more free or constrained than a Dragonborn.
Well, this has been a D&Dism since day 1. Humans get a pantheon, everyone else gets one main god and a couple of hangers on.Tangent: How exactly is Corellon chaotic good? He's cursed an entire species of his own creation multiple times just because he's having a fight with his ex; he hangs out with a demigod whose entire portfolio is genocide; and he's demolished a populated continent in the Forgotten Realms just to create some primo real estate for his buddies. I'm starting to think Gruumsh was the good guy in the mythical Corellon v. Gruumsh showdown.
To bring it back on topic: Why are the drow the only default elf lineage not under Corellon's thumb? I mean, is Corellon the only deity who can create elves? Multiple deities have created humans, after all. Why can't there be more lineages of elves who have no connection at all to Corellon and hiscrimes against natureshenanigans?
I'd be thrilled if WotC released a setting where some classes and species in the PHB were outright replaced by new options. (I hear rumors Dark Sun was supposed to be that way, but the design decision got overruled.) But I suspect WotC is too worried about alienating people by restricting their character options to ever do something like that.If they'd actually allow each setting to be unique, it would help an awful lot.
Because this, like the Duergar lore of Moradin blaming them for being mind-controlled by Illithids and Dragonlance’s Cataclysm, is a product of the old method of absolute alignment and terrible misunderstandings of polytheism. Corellon, Moradin, and Dragonlance’s good pantheon are objectively “good” gods of the “good” races. So no matter what lore is written for their terrible actions, according to alignment, they have to be good and the monstrous races’ gods have to be evil. This is especially bad for lore that is obviously based on/similar to real world religious stories, such as the Tower of Babel/Flood (Dragonlance), or Mark of Cain/Ham (Drow). Pointy Hat’s recent video on Orcs does a great job of giving a spin on this bit of Orc lore.Tangent: How exactly is Corellon chaotic good? He's cursed an entire species of his own creation multiple times just because he's having a fight with his ex; he hangs out with a demigod whose entire portfolio is genocide; and he's demolished a populated continent in the Forgotten Realms just to create some primo real estate for his buddies. I'm starting to think Gruumsh was the good guy in the mythical Corellon v. Gruumsh showdown.
The blurb on elves in the Multiverse from Mordenkainen basically says this. Elves were shapechangers once, but Corellon locked them into their forms as punishment for Lolth's rebellion. They adapt to their surroundings, but it takes generations to do that. A dark elf doesn't become a high elf for leaving the underdark maybe a dozen generations later his descendants might.
ELVES OF MANY REALMS
Created by ... CorelIon, the first elves were Fey beings who cavorted on various planes of existence, changing their physical forms at will.
Outside the glory of Avandor, their favorite place was the Feywild. ... It was to that place of splendors that elves fled after they were exiled. ... And it was there that they transformed from Fey ... into Humanoids, and lost their ability to shapeshift at will. ...
But in the Feywild, they also discovered the potential joys of being people of fixed forms, and they rediscovered hope. ...
Most elves eventually spread from the Feywild to other worlds, as wanderlust and curiosity drove them to the far reaches of the multiverse.
In those other worlds, elves developed the physical forms now associated with them. Because of their original mutable nature, each group of elves mystically took on characteristics of the environment with which they bonded, whether forests (wood elves), fey crossings in the Material Plane (high elves), the Underdark (drow), the Shadowfell (shadar-kai), the Feywild (eladrin), or oceans (sea elves).
In some places , Corellon ... blood flows within them still, even if they know nothing of its source.
That blood is what causes them to evolve after spending centuries connected to a particular environment, so it is only a matter of time before other kinds of elves emerge.
"ToF"?Also, there is a reason ToF was replaced. That definitive lore? That was part of the reason.