Shattered Kingdoms

Where did this enmity come from? Did someone just make it up or did it carry over from the "D&D" feel of things?

I am also curious why this is the only racial enmity.

Nah. Its not.

Everyone hates griffons.

Now that I think about it, doesn't the Half-elf help file say something about people thinking that Half-elves are like mutts, or something? Never seen anybody roleplay that. (Not that I'm complaining, it'd hurt my feelings if they called my character a mutt)

I cannot account for when or why it was originally created.

It now stands to justify the reason that the two groups are separate races. Someone pointed out that the two races can look almost exactly alike. If this is true, why does SK make them into two distinct types of beings rather than one that can choose to be either a purely evil alignment or purely good? Simply having different stat maximums is not a worthy cause to have the split.

The answer comes from lore about a racial enmity. There was a cataclysmic divide between the groups in the story. It divided the very base of their spirits in such a way that cannot be reversed or mended. There have been some who believe that the differences are so vast that they were never the same race.

A deep-elf lives by feeding off of their power and will. Their motives are twisted at the base of their being. Their own goals are more important to them than anything else. One can only hope to persuade them to change their goals.

An elf lives off of the true spirit of life. Their motives are righteous in nature. Their goals work to promote the good things in life. They are often selfless and work to help others at the expense of themselves.

These things are true no matter who they are raised by. They are each the antithesis of the other. Enmity is the recognition of that fact and the conflict their opposing interests causes.

I agree somewhat, but this is how I see it:

The shrinking playerbase and the addition of cabal HQ's has made it nearly impossible to find very many people to RP with. Forcing players to hold hardcore emnity would pretty much eliminate the any desire what-so-ever to play an elf or deep-elf, unless you aren't into RP and are just here for "the kill."

On that note, I believe a "principled" elf or abherrant deep-elf should hold stronger to emnity than a scrupulous elf or miscreant deep-elf, since the latter would tend to care less for the rules and throw more caution to the wind. A scrupulous common elf with high wisdom might be less likely to generalize and profile a race and look for more dangerous individuals.. say a deep-elf adept that follows hate or a deep-elf necromancer would be considered a much bigger threat than a marfik following goofball harliquin deep-elf. The latter would probably even be tolerated in a group with a common objective or even a poker game. Does that mean that the elf is in any way a friend to the deep-elf? No. It's simply a business transaction. A principled Sylvar elf would find it difficult to even be in the same room as any deep-elf, simply because they would consider that deep-elf an abomination or demon and want "it" destroyed.

Also, in real life things change with time. For example, in the 1950's you could be killed in the US for admitting to be a Communist or [REDACTED]. Today, they openly run for political offices. It is natural for time to change things or even cause us to forget our roots. Why should it be so different in the game? When we forget our past we repeat mistakes of the past. In the game, this opens the door to richer RP, IMHO.

In one of the enmity files, the story of Henkilo is retold. It tells a more organic story of how elves divided into deep-elves and elves, through yes, a cataclysmic event, but also because they chose. Some chose to follow Svart, and were cast into darkness and driven underground. Some chose to follow Sith'a'niel and lived in the trees. One race is good, the other is bad, but from the story of Henkilo, it looks more like evolution and environment than some magical event. Svart's children were taught to love power, and raised to be evil. Sith'a'niel's children were taught to love beauty, and raised to be good.

I don't see any evidence in the helpfiles for this "mystical" viewpoint on the elves and deep-elves. They were not created, like griffons, where the secret ingredient was good alignment. They existed as one race before, and they continue as two separate races now, if that part of the helpfile is accurate. Elves and deep-elves, at least in my view, are the products of their genetic stock (which selected for traits that helped each survive -- ruthlessness would surely be a survival trait for deep-elves, for instance) and of their environment, which tend to produce the "good" elves and "evil" deep-elves. A good deep-elf would not be likely to survive in the delven city -- either he'd become evil, or he would die. An evil elf? Either they'd be rehabilitated, if possible, or locked away and never spoken of again.

I don't believe in this mystical view on elves, where if they commit an evil act suddenly poof they don't exist. The story of Henkilo surely doesn't support that, and there has been no intervening mythology to explain the sudden inability of elves ever to do wrong. I think it's nature and nurture, not magical intervention. If I'm wrong, the helpfile should reflect that more clearly.

Thanks Dabi! Nice post fxartyst.

I like how on my previous post my reference to "g*y" was changed to happy. Neat!

I agree with Liri, a lot.

The only time I've ever seen anything happen to an elf that did evil was an elven priest of Calrion was cursed by being changed into a deep-elf and kicked out of the religion. I don't remember his name. Most of the time theres a lame justification or a blemishment if that person is in a religion.