I am considering not allowing Elves to be chosen when players a generating rank one characters because i just dont see it happening in terms of background. For an Elf to be special (thus a PC) and still Rank one he would need to be younger than fifty. In Elven terms thats about aged ten.. I just dont see a ten year old turning round to his family and house/kin saying

"hey i think im going to sale across the ocean to the old world and go slay some Dragons!"

I realise there are various high elven colonies within the old world, and obviously wood elves are based there, but the Elves are a dying Race, even more so than Dwarves and therefore the very few children being born in the current times would be kept as far from harms way as possible until they were considered young adults (about 80-100).

I also think that i will let the Eldar Races (Dwarves & Elves) repeat a career they have already completed as both species strive for perfection in there chosen vocation, and thus gain an improved version of there career ablity from this.

I also feel that Elves in the Old World should have that Tolkien feel about them, distant, magical and otherworldly, and having one or two in every player group really spoils that image for me, i mean really how many adventuring Elves are there?

Obviously this is all based on my vision of the Warhammer world, so is very subjective to different peoples vision. I will also say that i dont allow starting slayers, the only way to become a slayer is in role, and im not allowing starting iron breakers either as the are a holds elites, gifted gromil from the clan hold not something gifted to a mere beardling.

Anyways just thought id share my thoughts on the subject and see what others thought...

Crimsonsun

Hi,

I could be mistaken, most of my fluff knowledge goes back to v1 and I have not read the latest Warhammer army books, but elves physically mature far earlier than 80-100. Certainly that was the case in prev WFRP editions. It may take them longer than 20-40 years to mature emotionally, but I wouldnt see that as a problem for them in becoming adventurers, possibly an advantage in terms of working out char personality and motivation? It may not be a case of wanting to go slaying anything. 30 years of Elvish culture, history and philosophy then the young lad goes off on a gap decade to study Imperial culture, falls in with the wrong sorts, runs out of cash and ends up rooting out chaos cults and being abused by backwards village yokels...

Hmmm, this reminds me we haven't had a "we want an Elvish supplement and we want it now!" thread for least a year now. Fond memories of pages of gamers hopes and pleading for the never-published-under-any-edition-but-always-needed-elf-book. Hopefully the rumours of an elf book late this year are true and questions like yours will be answered. I'd buy an elf book. Or two. So would my friends... (hints to FFG for profitable future venture )

Have fun.

I recall having a discussion about the age of elf maturity on some D&D newsgroups a bazillion years ago. I never quite liked the idea of a 40 year old infant syndrome. I I much prefer what the other poster indicated that they physically mature at about the same rate as humans, but have a delayed emotional maturity level (hence, they tend to be frivolous in that case) and plateau at the best years of life for longer. In the Warhammer world however, there really isn't a lot room for frivolity and lack of emotional maturity. Beastmen and greenskins skin frivolity and eat it raw and still 'wriggling, for breakfast.

I do like the impression that they are distant and otherworldly. They are in fact, just that, in the Empire and Bretonnia. I prefer the wood elves of the hobbit to the high elves of D&D. Baby-stealing, witchery, and incomprehensible behavior should be the order of the day in my games!

jh

No.12 said:

Yeah I did exaggerate slightly in my earlier post, they do physically mature earlier and emotionally later, as for exact ages for High there is a vast amount of conflicting information from the wfb fluff, novels, and whrp.. which does lead me to think that GW simply cannot decide, im actually going to look into this later this evening. Thumbing through any Elf lore ive gathered over the last 18years collecting. I expect to find alot of conflicting information as if you look at the fluff from woodelves in wfb they would never join adventuring parties, but in wfrp they are indicated to actually have relations with those that live near them.

I wonder if this is one of the main difficulties of bringing out an Elf suppliment... I will look into information I can find on all three Elven races regards to age, and see whats what.

I still think I will have a general ban on Elves at character creation, but if a player comes up with a great back story and character concept I wouldnt dream of refusing him, but I would expect the player to actually play like an Elf not an agile Human with pointy ears, as they have a very unique way of talking to and interacting with other Races which is a seperate reason im often at odds with Elven Characters.

Elven age I found very difficult to work out, and from my old books that i have been able to dig out, right up to the more current ones I have found absolutely nothing in WFRP that gives any hint to the actual life span of Elves within the warhammer world thats in any place that i would expect to find it. Nothing detailing when they hit maturity or such thing using WFB army books as early as I have (1993 High Elves, 1995 Dark Elves) to present i have the following information.

Morathi and Malakieth are well over 5000 years old

The current pheniox King Finbar has been crowned for 2857 years so far, and 500 hundred years before that he was known as finbar the sea fairer, placing him likely close to 4000 years old.

Shadow blade is a hundred and fifty years old, and considered unheard of in Dark Elf society to get where he is today.

By alot of guess work I place teclis and tyron at being aged between 400-500, at aged roughly between 200-300 they stopped the first great war against Chaos, and were considered Extremely young. ( This is the only fact im not a hundred percent sure on, ive yet to check via various chaos suppliments)

Orion and Ariel are both over 5000 years old.

So an Elf aged under a hundred is seriously young, how mature and grown he is i am totally and untterly clueless through.

Just found of interest on pages 68-69 of the 2003 wfb dark elf book a story which describes the sacrific of a dark elf child (aged 100) to harpies.

Crimsonsun

Yea. Scratch that. 100 year old babies is ridonkulous. i think the author hadn't though it out much.

jh

It wouldn't be logical for a sentient being to take that long to mature. Being mature is about having experience with the world and 20 years of experience with the world is after all 20 years of experience with the world.

If you do go with the idea that they mature slowly then logic suggests they will also aquire their skills slower and for that reason follow the relative progression of humans.

Either way I don't think it matters much. If everyone in my group wanted to play elves it would be fine. We would just create the story around that background.