LOL! Not at the Leprechauns thing, but at your posh public school rendering of 'jobs a good'un' - I can't get let you get away with that I'm afraid!
I think you’ve misunderstood what I put Jhunter; the world will be the usual scenario, so it’s NOT a world filled with just elves, though that is an idea and sounds like it would be interesting. With my current idea with the Kingdom’s High King being racist against the whole of the Elven race, I don’t know how well it would work if the whole world was of elven birth. Maybe I could plan the storyline out for both and see which sounds/fits better I guess... The fact that the book will have Elves won’t be the selling point of the book. There are elves in the story, who are in depression (is that the right term?) due to the Kingdom’s high king, so a group sets out to dethrone him; this will be just be one small part of a larger story and I could easily replace elves with whatever race I wished (at least at this point). I will tell as much as is need about a race and as much as I feel is needed. I’m mostly writing it for myself, writing for me first, but I WANT to try and get it published, maybe through an online publisher. The elves in the story won’t be as commonly seen, nature loves that dwell in the forest, though they may have settled their once, which would be in the earlier days. I have been thinking about having a race of Elves, much bulkier and taller than normal, whom are born fighters and thrive as warriors, as well as another born to be hunters. I don’t plan to have them long lived – longer lifespan or older as a race, maybe came about the same time. I haven’t worked out for the different races yet, so I need to work on it and confirm what races will be on the planet (in human-line terms). I don’t want to have the ‘typical thought’ for all the different races, though I don’t think I could change the height of a dwarf. Thanks for the comments and advice!
The thing I never liked about fantasy is how they label elves. As someone mentioned by another poster, in Warhammer you have High Elves, Wood Elves, etc. I never liked the naming convention. Think about it. In our world do you call different races African humans or Asian humans or English humans? If you want to use different names for each subrace, drop the elf or elves part in the name. It does sound silly. They may live in a different area and/or have a slightly different culture, but they are still elves. Here is another suggestion. It was originally given to me by someone else, but it makes good sense. Instead of calling them elves, create your own name for them. YOu can still describe them as physically resembling elves.
Incidentally, in Scandavian folklore, dwarves were normal height with dark hair and very pale skin. Actually looked more like the stereotype of a vampire, although they did have big thick beards (there's one tale where a guy mocks an dwarf for the way his pale nose looks against his black beard). You could call them made-up names from their own elven languages, and have non-elves refer to them as high elves, wood elves, etc. For example the blood elves in World of Warcraft call themselves Sindorei. Plus reverse that and have the elves call humans 'dark humans' or 'sea humans' (naval-faring race?) or whatever. One thing that bugs me is when the non-humans don't treat humans as 'other' the way humans do to them.
Maybe you just put your finger onto something. 'Hybrids' are popular in cars. Cyborbs--part human, part machine--have always been popular. And that could be your hook. Laugh if you want, but 'undead dwarves,' or something like 'cherub vampires' that serve as familiars to a witch. Yoda was a half-pint. Maybe we should give it some thought.
I like elves in fantasy novels. I think they're pretty cool. But the Tolkein-style elves have been--I don't want to say "overused"--let's say we're quite familiar with the type: the tall, wise, beautiful beings with flawless skin, polysyllabic names and no split ends. If you're sure your elf character is one of these, then why not make some pretty big distinctions between these elves and your other races. Look to actual faerie mythology--why not a race of leprechauns, or satyrs, or ifrits? A surprisingly good reference on the different faerie/elf types are the World of Darkness roleplaying games from White Wolf, specifically Changeling: the Dreaming and Changeling: the Lost. Dreaming draws pretty directly from faerie myth, having characters select from races like the Sluagh, the Pooka, and the Sidhe (which are the closest to the Middle-Earth elves, btw). Lost uses faerie "types" instead: the Swimmerskins, the Darklings, the Fairest, etc. If you're a mythology dork like me, you could have fun looking into these different myths and alchemizing them into something of your own. Good luck!
I saw a book (actually a few by the same author) all centred around elves. I'm not sure if they were the only race in the story, or even if it was any good (I've got enough books on the backburner to last me years), but yeah, it's out there. To answer the question, I think it would be better if they were different cultures rather than different "races" of elves. Especially if they're the only race on the planet. I mean, they'll adapt to their surrounding like any other evolutionary creature, but they would have come from some kind of base. To be honest, I haven't seen many "races" of elves in the books I've read. I've seen Warhammer and others like it do High, Dark and Wood elves, but it seems that most of the good books in today's genre tend to do away with that, or at least put a different spin on it. Erikson, for example, has the Tiste races, which are basically elf knock-offs (though he splits them as light, dark and shadow). So yeah, by all means do it, but try to be original about it. Put a spin on it that makes it YOURS. Oh, and for the people telling him not to do it...seriously? It doesn't matter if it's cliched, it's his damn story, he can do what he likes.
I don't really like using elves but I do think they have their place as people can have individual takes on them as a race I don't use them but its good that they are still used.
I've been reading this one series the Iron Elves that almost seems to deliberately use elves, and then goes on using the opposite of their stereotypes. The main character is actually an elf, but he's more Captain Kirk than Elrond, and in the first book he actually wages war against a sub elf race that rebelled against the empire. There's also a dwarf but he's the one that's humble, wise, and he leads a small portion of the unit during their travels. I've enjoyed the implementation of these often used archetypes.
Elves still sell. So do dragons. More likely these days, enough with the wolves and vamps already! Word of advice. If you do use elves, there is a template in people's heads. Slim, oriental, demi-angels, ethereal. If you are going to break the mold there needs to be a plausible back story.
Ahh Twilight the blight on werewolves and vampires....they are still cool but they need remaking really badly.
Um, I suppose you could do something to the elves that makes them unique. Like maybe they have glow in the dark skin, or perhaps completely reverse some popular views of elves, like making them not so stiff as they were in LOTR, or not as goofy and silly as they are in the Santa Claus story. Maybe give them a history of having done different stuff throughout history that helped time turn out as it has in your universe. The thing I like about elves is that there's multiple ways to portray them, as opposed to vampires, who have a set characterization. Really, you can let your imagination run wild. Edit: or you can rip off Cogi's idea and make them cattle.
"the current High King of the kingdom it's set on hate elves, for some unknown reason and so recked choas and isolating them to their birth lands." I dislike the fact he hates them for no reason. He would have to have some reason for hating them. Changing stereotypes would be make the characters a lot more interesting.
Pyraeus – Sorry about that; there will be a reason to why he hates them, but that reason will be unknown to the public. At present I don’t know what the reason is, but that should come in good time, probably once I know the world and the people. shangrila – There will b be more than just elves; humans are a definite and I’m thinking about dwarfs and possible people along the lines as werewolves… Anyways, thanks for the encouragement! I will see what I can do to make them unique for my story! I don’t plan on using existing elf races; the idea is to create my own. If I named the race Derevo, for example, they won’t say that they are a Derevo elf; a human may initially say something like ‘You’re a Derevo Elf, aren’t you?’ or ‘You’re a Derevo, an elven race’, to just indicate that they are elves. There will be various types of elves featured. For example some will be tall, with broad shoulders and a muscular physic, where as others will be shorter, slimmer and build for agility. I don’t plan on them all being ‘the tall, wise, beautiful beings with flawless skin, polysyllabic names and no split ends’, nor do I plan on them being long lived or demi-gods as I’ve reads them to be seen as. Thanks for the comments!
