zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
edited February 2013
Here's the general gist of what happened to the elves.
The Sun Elves (Gold/High) have always considered themselves to be the direct descendants of the original elven race (Eladrin). This however had been lost to them in their history and knowledge for many millenia. With the merge of Abeir-Toril, the original Eladrin started coming into the Realms from the Feywilds and their history has been reclaimed and founded true.
When making an Sun (Gold/High) Elf in 4e FR PnP, the rules specifically state that you need to choose if you come from the Feywilds or if you are a native of Toril. Many Sun (Gold/High) Elves who are native to Toril have adopted the ways of their ancestors (Eladrin) and now consider themselves Eladrin. On the same hand, there are still those that have not and still consider themselves to be native Sun (Gold/High) Elves. Because elves live so very long, it could be another millenia or more before the Eladrin have completely taken over and replaced the Sun (Gold/High) Elven sub-race.
So, if you see a Sun (Gold/High) Elf, they are either full blooded Eladrin (having come from the Fey within the past 100 years) or are native to Toril and have either chosen to adopt the Eladrin way of life, or not. Many Moon (Silver) Elves have also adopted such ways and just like the Sun, and are also able to be considered Eladrin.
The rest of the elven sub-races are all native Torillian Elves, which are the Wild (Green/Sylvan) Elves , Wood (Green/Sylvan) Elves, and Drow Elves. The Wild and Wood elves are descended from the native Green/Sylvan elves.
The 4e Forgotten Realms Players Guide only dabbles in this knowledge however the 4e Forgotten Realms Neverwinter Campaign Setting explains all this in far greater detail.
(The names for the elves in parenthesis are included for those more familar with earlier editions and their other names through out the varied campaign settings. They generally do not go by these names for their races in the realms anymore however)
denkasaebaMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
Oh, i actually know. I had a debate on sub-races a couple of years ago in the official 4e forum. I have to say there are many people who care more about race than about class (which is awkward, imho).
Dilige, et quod vis fac (Love, and do what you will)
The rest of the elven sub-races are all native Torillian Elves, which are the Wild (Green/Sylvan) Elves , Wood (Green/Sylvan) Elves, and Drow Elves. The Wild and Wood elves are descended from the native Green/Sylvan elves.
Very good summary Zebular. The only thing I would add(which I'm sure you know) is that there are now two separate sub-races of "dark elves" in the Forgotten Realms.
Drow are basically a deep black color and have white hair. The reason that they are this dark colored is because of the Taint of Wendonai(and possibly the casting out by Corellon, its not entirely clear). In my opinion, they are evil today mostly due to conditioning in the Underdark(there is definitely, however, debate as to nature versus nurture as far as Drow are concerned. Though I think my position is favored because of the sheer number of good Drow that exist/existed.)
In the recent past, the one good Drow deity, Eilistraee, sacrificed herself to remove the Taint from her Drow followers. This had the effect of turning 20% of the Drow into "Dark Elves." Dark Elves have brown skin rather than black, black hair instead of white, and no darkvision. It is interesting to note that Drizzt is still a Drow, and didn't get converted to a Dark Elf, most likely because he is not a follower of Eilistraee.
It doesn't help matters that some still refer to Drow as Dark Elves, even though as far as Forgotten Realms is concerned Drow and Dark Elves are now separate Elven subraces. It will be interesting to see how the game designers handle this situation, if they do at all.
A custom race option would be cool but they probibly wont do it for a while, As people have said there are many more races and classes in d&d and they probibly plan on adding them slowly with updates and new content. for people who claim a bunch of races would be less like tabletop D&D have obviously not played in very many homegames. there is always somone who trys to pass thier Kobold warroir or avariel elf past the gm.
Comparing any MMO to a pen-n-paper game is like comparing a comic book to that comic book's movie. Some thing have to be changed to make it work. Some fans will be upset that the "official" canon was changed to make the plot movie-worthy. They just have to accept that each format has its own challenges. There have been many bad (horrible) comic book movies that tried to stay true to the comic plot-line. I'd rather see a good movie that was worth sitting through. I'm sure there have been several lousy MMOs that tried to be as true as possible to this or that table-top game. As far as Neverwinter goes, I'd rather have a great MMO to spend my time/Zen in. Sure, it would be nice if they could spend millions of dollars and decades of time to incorporate the astounding level of detail available to the table-top version of AD&D. It would also be nice if I could win the lottery. I got a good feeling about this game and I look forward to playing it for what it is. Let's all try not to get <too overly worried> about the details that weren't included. Please make suggestions, but going ballistic doesn't help anyone, including yourself.
Please, let me put it another way.
What kind of race do you want to play?
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
Yes the philosophy since the release of the...other publisher is to do it right and take your time doing it. This is the main reason of the race's number not upped more and (as noted) coming out around the same average of other games on release.
The custom race as also noted is not as simple as making it no matter what the small population of vocal posters say or not here. It's related to permission.
Unlike Paramount which approved the custom race because their interpretation of finding new races fit the ST IP, WOTC is NOT likely to approve a "custom race" in their IP. All races classes etc are approved through WOTC or they are not put into game. This company is so serious about Cannon that Cryptic's adherence to it caused WOTC itself to revise the Neverwinter source-book to update the concept this company made. Often it's the other way around!
So, no, no new custom race and no going forward unless you can get WOTC on boad first which is but one of many more steps...and that doesn't include getting past the rabid do...err, fans.
Comments
The Sun Elves (Gold/High) have always considered themselves to be the direct descendants of the original elven race (Eladrin). This however had been lost to them in their history and knowledge for many millenia. With the merge of Abeir-Toril, the original Eladrin started coming into the Realms from the Feywilds and their history has been reclaimed and founded true.
When making an Sun (Gold/High) Elf in 4e FR PnP, the rules specifically state that you need to choose if you come from the Feywilds or if you are a native of Toril. Many Sun (Gold/High) Elves who are native to Toril have adopted the ways of their ancestors (Eladrin) and now consider themselves Eladrin. On the same hand, there are still those that have not and still consider themselves to be native Sun (Gold/High) Elves. Because elves live so very long, it could be another millenia or more before the Eladrin have completely taken over and replaced the Sun (Gold/High) Elven sub-race.
So, if you see a Sun (Gold/High) Elf, they are either full blooded Eladrin (having come from the Fey within the past 100 years) or are native to Toril and have either chosen to adopt the Eladrin way of life, or not. Many Moon (Silver) Elves have also adopted such ways and just like the Sun, and are also able to be considered Eladrin.
The rest of the elven sub-races are all native Torillian Elves, which are the Wild (Green/Sylvan) Elves , Wood (Green/Sylvan) Elves, and Drow Elves. The Wild and Wood elves are descended from the native Green/Sylvan elves.
The 4e Forgotten Realms Players Guide only dabbles in this knowledge however the 4e Forgotten Realms Neverwinter Campaign Setting explains all this in far greater detail.
(The names for the elves in parenthesis are included for those more familar with earlier editions and their other names through out the varied campaign settings. They generally do not go by these names for their races in the realms anymore however)
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St. Augustinus
Very good summary Zebular. The only thing I would add(which I'm sure you know) is that there are now two separate sub-races of "dark elves" in the Forgotten Realms.
Drow are basically a deep black color and have white hair. The reason that they are this dark colored is because of the Taint of Wendonai(and possibly the casting out by Corellon, its not entirely clear). In my opinion, they are evil today mostly due to conditioning in the Underdark(there is definitely, however, debate as to nature versus nurture as far as Drow are concerned. Though I think my position is favored because of the sheer number of good Drow that exist/existed.)
In the recent past, the one good Drow deity, Eilistraee, sacrificed herself to remove the Taint from her Drow followers. This had the effect of turning 20% of the Drow into "Dark Elves." Dark Elves have brown skin rather than black, black hair instead of white, and no darkvision. It is interesting to note that Drizzt is still a Drow, and didn't get converted to a Dark Elf, most likely because he is not a follower of Eilistraee.
It doesn't help matters that some still refer to Drow as Dark Elves, even though as far as Forgotten Realms is concerned Drow and Dark Elves are now separate Elven subraces. It will be interesting to see how the game designers handle this situation, if they do at all.
Neverwinter Official Wiki - http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/
Human, Half-Elf, Half-Drow (Expansion 2?), Elf (Sun, Moon, Wild, Wood, Drow), Dwarf (Shield, Gold, Duegar), Gnome (Norm and Deep), Halfling (Two types here), Plane Touched (Tief, Asa, Fire-Gen (Exp1), Water-Gen (Exp1), Air-Gen (Exp1), Earth-Gen (Exp1)), Half Orc, Gray Orc (Exp2), Yuan-Ti (Exp2). I feel I'm forgetting one.
Please, let me put it another way.
What kind of race do you want to play?
The custom race as also noted is not as simple as making it no matter what the small population of vocal posters say or not here. It's related to permission.
Unlike Paramount which approved the custom race because their interpretation of finding new races fit the ST IP, WOTC is NOT likely to approve a "custom race" in their IP. All races classes etc are approved through WOTC or they are not put into game. This company is so serious about Cannon that Cryptic's adherence to it caused WOTC itself to revise the Neverwinter source-book to update the concept this company made. Often it's the other way around!
So, no, no new custom race and no going forward unless you can get WOTC on boad first which is but one of many more steps...and that doesn't include getting past the rabid do...err, fans.