My Games

Monday, August 20, 2018

Elves

Unless I'm completely forgetting something, I believe this is my first Weird & Wonderful table that is setting-neutral and decidedly NOT Phantasmos. Elves in the traditional sense don't really exist in Phantasmos, but everyone likes elf subtypes, so I figured I'd if  I was going to do a non-Phantasmos table, this is where I'd have to start. My main goal will still be to focus on this setting (and at some point post about my other settings), but if people like these, I might do some more non-Phantasmos works now and then.


Elves (1d20)Description
1. X-Ray ElvesMostly translucent, shadow-like skin, muscles, and everything else up to the skeleton. Can project X-ray beams for X-ray vision.
2. Gamma ElvesGlowing neon-green skin, gigantic and muscular, violent and quick to anger, radioactive. Can project destructive gamma beams. Many wear special suits to contain their radiation and protect those around them.
3. Radio ElvesBat-like ears which allow them to hear with greater spatial resolution and across a wider range of frequencies than typical elves. Have a mechanism in their throat like a cross between vocal chords, direct current generation, and the visual system, allowing them to emit and transduce radio-wave signals.
4. Cock ElvesRaptor-like warriors. Their hands and feet are bird claws, their forearms and lower legs are covered in feathers (usually white, brown, black, red, yellow, or less commonly green or teal). Males tend to have more exotic colors, and long, curled tail feathers (females have shorter tail feathers). Have a mohawk-like comb, sometimes feathered and sometimes hairy or bald. Commonly wear weaponized beak-masks.
5. Pestilence ElvesMottled, jaundiced, green or blue skin. Rashes, parasites; bugs, mold, fungus. No hair or wispy and white. Pink eye. Rotten yellow or black teeth or gingivitis gums. STDs. Flesh-eating bacteria. Virulent. Can't be killed by any kind of disease, but can't live a life worth living either.
6. Purple ElvesSkin various shades of purple. Shiny obsidian hair like a starry sky. Fae-like in demeanor; whimsical and musical and brilliant and out of touch with reality. Dress lavishly, exotically, erotically, erratically, anachronistically, unconstrained by gender or class or race.
7. A-Gnostic ElvesLike a photo-negative of a black and white photo. Immune to any kind of divinity, divine presence, divine magic, faith, belief, or religion. Their very presence challenges the existence of gods, even in a world where gods or their divinity are tangible. Draw anti-divine power from themselves like a libertarian paladin, or jazz or blues or punk-rock bard.
8. Karma ElvesBorn backwards- they spontaneously appear as elders, ending their natural lives as a sack of egg and sperm cells in meiosis. In their early elder stage they are nigh-invincible, full of karmic presence like an asura. They are childish, impulsive, and materialistic, but not necessarily evil. As they (de)-age, their karma drains, they detach from the material world, and their physical presence weakens. They can extend their stages of development by clinging to the material world, and in rare cases even reverse development, but in such a case they will inevitably and irreversibly transform into an asura, regardless of the cause or intention.
9. Asura ElvesKarma elves who, even if for noble reasons, became too attached to the material world. Incredibly powerful, but so driven by their base, material desires, that they no longer have a soul. They are still conscious, intelligent beings, but lack agency. Any intelligent being with a soul or agency innately finds them pathetic, unattractive, or disgusting, no matter how powerful, attractive, noble, wealthy, skilled, or accomplished the asura elf may be. For all their strength, they are perceived as children full of impotent rage.
10. Mu ElvesElves from a sub-sub-atomic quantum relativistic microverse where logic is not only many-valued, but linear and effectively continuous. Causality as we know it does not apply, but can be roughly interpreted as backwards-causality. Their consciousness is a state of nonbeing; pure awareness prior to knowledge or experience.
11. Qualia ElvesThe mental images or thematic apperceptions of psychological projective tests; the objects seen in clouds; the phosphenes and hypnogogic imagery before sleep; pareidolia. Abstract like a Van Gogh painting or a projection of an elf through DeepDream. On sunny days they stream through physical space across sparse clouds on bolts of invisible lightning composed of the static charges of qualemes, the smallest units of subjective thought. They exist in and out of consciousness on the sunny plane of foggy minds known as The Overlight.
12. Starborn ElvesLong ago, alien beings of light came to this world. The plants that absorbed the light merged with the celestial essence, transforming them. Able to absorb and manipulate light so efficiently that they can grow and move as rapidly as animals animate. Attuned to the world's electromagnetic field and plantae-sphere.
13. Shadow ElvesThe distortions left behind in the presence of the divine- the platonic shadows of the gods themselves. Neither better nor worse than the gods from whom they are shaped. Manipulators of holy fire and the lesser shape of things, beings defined by absence.
14. Sex ElvesFor every sexually reproducing species in every ecosystem, there are one or more ideal sexual types. They take on these types, co-opting the breeding pool of a species. Some take a form that will attract the most mates, others take a form that will attract a specific type of mate.
15. Blue ElvesBlue-blooded, tinge of blue to their skin. Vampiric, superhuman, superintelligent oppressors. Formed from the desire of other hierarchically-organized species to absolve themselves of responsibility for the state of their own civilization. Derive power from others believing in them, like Gaiman-esque gods or the desperate delusions of conspiracy theorists who want to feel important or believe there is order in the universe.
16. Lost ElvesNearly indistinguishable from half-elves or even humans. A collection of elves all of whom were once of other kinds, but in failing to capitalize on their abilities, gradually degraded. Can be found, but the longer they are lost, the less likely it becomes. In rare cases, a lost elf not only finds themselves, but becomes some entirely different kind of elf.
17. Kink ElvesA homologue of sex elves. Not merely acting on primal "alpha" or "beta" instinct (although some utilize these instincts), they are intellectual and theatrical, charismatic, wielding force of will like sorcery. Systemic power is manipulated like an engineer designing an electrical circuit. Unlike sex elves, they are not necessarily physically attractive, their attractiveness comes from how they manipulate systems, power, and will.
18. Dada ElvesNot truly elves, an abstraction of a post-human fantasy age. Whereas humans bring civilization, science, and logic, the dada elves bring abstraction, critical thought, and uncanny deconstruction and recombination. Like uncanny valley alien anime characters come to life.
19. Reminiscence ElvesFantastical creatures of sweetness and joy and naive adventures. A peaceful but stagnant people. Full of power, but without the desire or wisdom to apply it. Often develop co-dependent relationships with others.
20. Deep ElvesOf the forests, jungles, oceans, and other bodies inaccessible to humans. Majestic, but also fearsome. Animalistic but alien. Generally resemble dangerous, unknown, or long extinct creatures.

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