By not having them be the horribly exaggerated stereotype all of /tg/ sees them as?

>>15697468

Sounds reasonable. Could you elaborate?

Make them dwarves.

Seriously, though, don't make them abnormally-advantaged cockbags. Make them people, with limitations, personalities, and potential.

Manly macho indians who kill everyone who tresspasses into their forests.

They all have long, braided beards.

>>15697473
Yes. See how the entirety of this board only talks about how they prance around in meadows and are all holier than thou and better in everything and feel that everyone else is below them? Realize that this is nothing but simplifying and cherry-picking the qualities they like to gripe about, then gripe about them and gradually forget everything else about elves, further exaggerating the bad things and thinking they're all elves are about.

It's really not like that.

More interested in making things than actually caring for them. Very little attachment to objects, villages, anything not another elf. They have a general "We can just make another" attitude about everything, due to that ever so wonderful long life span.

Have elf woods/forests, but actually have the forests merely being a barrier to a meadow or plain of some sort. In this flatland area lays the majority of the elven population, living in some sort of housing that, while it may take years to fully build into an elven penthouse due to the complexity of the design, is still incredibly simple to make in terms of material.

Very "the journey is more important than the destination" kind of people.

Why do you feel that you have to have elves? Have some other cool race of something original.

>>15697457
Give them no mouths
Joking, but possibly not joking
>
In my setting the goddess of nature created some humans with bestial boosts as weapons of war, the human volunteers weren't happy so with some negotiation they were sculpted to the current elven form.
Being only 3 generations departed from humans means they are not inhuman and they exist within and are part of a human empire.

Make them get high on magic. They can't cast too much or they go on a trip.

Make them have short hair.

Make them all have personalities and shit.

Make them have an ability to turn into a bear.

That's how you do it.

>>15697483

Got you. Thanks!

Elven racial supremacists.

Hunt inferior "young" species for fun. Roast Human is considered a delicacy.

>>15697502

You mean like night elf druids?

My current GM has them as sort of wandering Gypsies, complete with racism from humans.
Lots of carvings, beautiful caravans, stories around the fire (The group I'm currently with agreed to help me cross the Moors in return for the tales I knew and me helping with hunting.)
They're pretty bro-tier, and while still alien and odd, he manages to make them friendly enough that even while uncomfortable and out of place in their caravan, you still feel welcome, despite their oddness.

>>15697457
Just make them the generic elves. There's absolutely nothing wrong with generic elves.

The only people bitching about elves are pathetic loser virgin nerd neckbeards who view them as those cool kids that used to bully them in high school before they dropped out because of WoW. You're not one of those people, are you?

Make them fucking scary

Not in the wierd, fetishy way of the drow, but scary, almost incomprehensible fucks ruled by passion. A race of hair-trigger psychopaths who have hunted and killed and maybe even eaten man before the dawn of history.

Gradually they've been forced to cooperate with other races and nations as the eons have marched on and rivals have risen up and challenged them.

But they remember being on top, they have instincts more ingrained then you can imagine, and most of them struggle with not simply going crazy and killing the lot of you.

They dont look down their noses at you and snort, they stare you down creepily with their unreadable eyes, wordlessly assessing you, trying to determine if you're an ally, an enemy, or just prey.

In addition to all of this, they have some flaw that gimps them in some regard, forcing them to reluctantly rely on the strengths of others to make up for their own weaknesses.

Maybe they're somewhat like the nids, and grow more sentient in the presence of others, only in their case they grow more sentient in the presence of Any other sentient beings, passively invigorating themselves with the presence of your enlightened soul and allowing them you think and act more clearly, with the constant threat of turning into mindless berserker looming over their minds.

That whole idea probably just sucked... I just wrote down crap as it came to my mind

>>15697553

Brainstorming is always welcome and useful. Even if OP doesn't use that idea, it might be a good idea for something else.

>>15697553
Yeah, because scary fair folk isn't as overused as prancy holier-than-thou. Both are annoying.

My advice: make them diversive. Nothing's more stupid than when an entire race is made from an exact same mold into the same stereotype. So you could have holier-than-thou prancers, evil scary fair folks, and then some bunch from between who're pretty normal and okay.

Remove them if you don't like them, why use elves if it's not elves you want? Make up your own race.

Oh wait >making your own race is so fucking overdone I hate it bla bla whine whine

Make their civilization centered around the idea of beauty and ambition. Make their caste system based upon the physical beauty and fitness of each individual. Give them the rituals of older forest deities from mythology, and then the tradition of the wild hunt.

Every other person who is not an elf is but a blight on this earth. And ugly walking sack of horsheshit too stupid to know that they are unsightly and are good for nothing but prey.

>>15697589

Because I like the concept of tolkienesque Elves, but wish to avoid the negative connotations often associated with them.

I've also decided that they have a lifespan of about 200 years or so.

>>15697612
Ask yourself this: What is it about Tolkienesque elves that you like? Be as precise as you can when answering.

>>15697553
i ran a game where elves were scary, I made it so that elves physical appearance was based off of their surroundings. As long as elves lived among other races their looks would kinda mimic the other races. Elves living among orcs, would be taller, paler, and more muscular, Elves living in the woods would have darker skin, natural dreadlocks, and be able to grow beards.

Take the elves out of civilization and they would turn into Shrikes. If a wood elf wondered off as a child they would usually return as a tall fast wolf like beast. Elves that lived alone underground their skin would get thicker, darker there eyes would adapt to the darkness and their teeth would become fangs. The best one was an elf child that got lost in an ancient arcane library and become a floating magic torrent. Always casting different random spells, gliding above the floor surrounded by high speed orbiting books and tomes.

I personally accentuated the wild part of their nature. They live in tents and easily-relocated camps. They generally stick to leather armor, bows, and spears, and their aesthetic is tribal rather than the typical elven craft. They're capricious and loyal... If they like you. To quote a couple of NPCs from my setting:

"You think elves are pretty, eh? With their delicate language and their folksy woodland crafts? You think they're a bunch of skinny princesses prancing about in the woods? Fuck no. Beneath that veneer of well-mannered mischief is a wild animal with an innate sense of guerrilla warfare and a temper that'd give most gnolls a run for their money."

"Elves are beautiful and intelligent in the same way that wolves are beautiful and intelligent."

>>15697622

The contrast between human 'brute force' and elven 'precision' primarily. Both are equally valid, just different.

>>15697641

I like that second quote. So stolen!

I'd suggest playing up the "ancient culture" aspect.

But the elves don't live in harmony with nature. They don't live in a virgin forest, they've been living on this same land for tens of thousands of years, and have changed it to their needs. Not a single tree or flower grows without it being meticulously planned out in advance. In forests, trees don't grow randomly but in hexagonal patterns with each tree being an optimal distance away from every other to ensure maximum tree density while maintaining enough space so that one tree does not overshadow another.

In elven lands, every blade of grass is the precise same height, and every stone and every pebble has been shaped and carved to a pleasing curve. Not an inch of ground exists that is wasted or not put to some use as either road, plantation, flower garden or whatever else.

There's this from a previous thread.

>Speaking of that, a nomadic desert elf with fennec fox-like ears would be adorable and would make sense due to Allen's rule. Instead of venerating the forest, they'd think the desert is the best thing since sliced bread and try to spread it wherever possible, so you have a crazy race of fox-eared elves who want to turn the whole world into a desert because they honestly believe the desert ecosystem is beneficial to everyone. They also ride giant scorpions.

>They'd probably have high-pitched annoying voices just to increase the fennec fox parallels (and not in a good way - fennec foxes are pests and I don't think those desert elves will be regarded well by any non-desert native.) and the inherent elf belief that they're superior would prevent them from seeing how their whole idea is fucking retarded (Silly humans, of course you'll benefit from dust storms, overwhelming heat and the near-complete lack of water in the long run, can't you see that desert-adapted creatures have no predators to worry about and can survive in a vast number of other environments? So just allow us to turn your town into a desert.) Their magic would probably focus on golem construction (sand golems would be particularly terrifying, since physical attacks obviously don't work well on them) as well as manipulation of the desert and its local fauna.

>>15697663
Wait... So elves are the Homeowner's Association?

Jesus, it all makes sense now.

I think people need to stop maintaining stereotypes. Any of these ideas is almost as bad as the usual "pansy bastards, it's not rape if it's an elf" thing going on here, if it is applied to the entire race in general. It's like making all humans mexicans: it's retarded.

No, why not take ALL the ideas here and apply them to different nations of elves?

>>15697674

I might well take that idea on a smaller scale actually: such as the grounds of their temples etc.

Thanks anon!

Make them have some reasons to be around. Also don't make them one dimensional.
Noldor are a good prototype

>>15697674
Yes, except they're the sort of Homeowner's Association that demands a perfect lawn even if you live in the middle of the Gobi desert.

And they WILL run irrigation ditches from the Yangtze all the way into said desert to get that perfect lawn.

And every hill is converted into terraces so that again, no wasted space.

>>15697711
And all the elven roads look like this, except the trees on the left are all mirror images of the trees on the right. Down to the last leaf.

There are families that have the upkeep of these trees entrusted to them and have for thousands of years. You can sometimes see an elderly elf staring at these trees for days on end, and then he finally goes and snips off a single branch.

>>15697736
forgot my image.

>>15697707

Noldor?

And yes, I do plan for the race to equally as varied as ones average human race in a given setting.

>>15697785
it's a thing from the Silmarillion. You know, the ridiculously vast backstory Tolkien wrote just so that he could justify inventing elvish languages.

>>15697802

Oh right! I'd not heard of that. I'm only familiar with lord of the rings and the hobbit (the only 2 stories that I've really read completely)

Make the elves a harmonious society where three different subspecies work together in tandem to create a wonderful paradise.

there are nature elves, which dwell in trees and elaborate cave systems who see to the agricultural needs of the society, using their affinity to the earth to help the plants grow and prosper.

There are also winged elves who use their ingrained magic to manipulate the course of weather in order to assist their earthbound brethren by literally controlling the changing of seasons as they see fit. They live high up in the sky in mountain homes and sometimes in vast castles made entirely out of clouds, which the sky elves can stand on.

And finally, there are the loremasters, the magic elves, who use their abilities to protect their fellow elves and produce myriad high quality materials for them, such as tools and clothing.

There is no large conflict in this society, as young elves quickly learn at an early age what their destined course through life is to be, and this event is marked by a magical brand that appears on the flesh of each and every elf when they realise their special talent.

Ruling over all of the elven kingdoms is the Elf Queen, a unique and immortal hybrid of all three elfen strains, who rules with a gentle hand and a loving heart over her loyal subjects

>>15697896

I'm not ripping off the society of Equestria.

>>15697940
Heh, my suggestion of the completely controlled nature where nothing is allowed to grow free is ALSO basically Equestria, because in Equestria all plant and animal life is actively manipulated into doing what the ponies want them to do.

The Everfree Forest is a place which works basically the way all normal nature works everywhere else, and it's considered UTTERLY FUCKED UP by the denizens of Equestria, because there PLANTS GROW ALL BY THEMSELVES.

>>15697457

The elves are descended from Demons from Hell that raped and pillaged human females. This makes them outcasts in society, and they are shunned.

There are many reports of hate rape started by human males on Elven females. Elven males are usually sent to labor camps by human slavers.

The few elves that run free of human rule banded together to create the Order of the Free, a group of Magi and Druids who wish to free their people.

Elves gain +2 Int, but -3 End and Strength.

>>15698000

this is a bad idea and you should feel bad for thinking it

>>15698041

Not as bad as >>15697896

>>15698049

I think >>15697896 was probably a joke (probably)

>>15698000

is just pants-on-head retarded. demon elves who get raped all the time? fuck no

>>15698067

So having oppressed elves under a cruel human rule is less preferable than say...Sin'dorei?

>>15698069
has it

>>15698076
Anything is better than an excuse to justify someone's rape fetish.

Well I usually play elves as either of these two:

A: Just like anyone else, just with longer lifespan and pointy ears, and rich culture. Not as egoistic bastards.Unless I play an egoistic bastard who happens to be an elf.

B: Celtish fae style, Seelie fae obsessed with the positive parts of culture and nature, justice, honor, life, happiness, joy, magic but also highly alien and amoral. I'd play Drow as Unseelie fae.

Also how many of these goddamn threads are? Did no-one report them or what?

>>15698112
Isn't B how you should play elves ANYWAY?

>>15698156
Originally yes, but no-one does.

>>15698112

As luck would have it actually, I'm also basing the elves in this setting on Celts to a degree. They speak Gaeilge or Gàidhlig depending on where they're from, some wear kilts and often war with one another with big swords.

>>15697973

That's more OCD gardening in my opinion, but I can see the parallels yes.

They don't suck to begin with. The concepts of elves are varied while still remaining good, just don't let your elves be caricatures of the race as a whole.

>>15698112
>brown skin
>white hair
>nazi outfit
>dem boobehs

>>15698191

Indeed. Like I say, I'm wishing to avoid the usual "hurr durr" that often seems to follow them.

>>15698233
Make there be a Elven Office of the Exterior. They police interactions between elves and other races to make sure that elves do not come off as haughty and egotistical or other stereotypes.
Violations can result in imprisonment or death.

>>15698244

Another good idea, I think I'll steal that too. Although toned appropriately ofc.

Wait - your elves are scottish clansmen?

I'm very okay with this.