Talk:Alfheim

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Attitudes

I've added in some Alfheim/elven attitudes I got from from Ian, not sure if this is the right place for them though .... Sally


Deleted note about Gods as the Elven Gods and religion stuff is still heavily under discussion. Mandos


Lands and People

Elvandar, a place for rough, mean elves to call home. A kingdom the size of Canada just cant be pretty twinkly lights. Several PCs do come from this place. Think Mirkwood as compared to Lothlorien. -- William


Sounds perfectly reasonable. There's an NPC that Marc Harrison used to use called Prince Eoren (a son of the Queen), who was styled Warden of the Northen Marches and would make a good area govenor if you like (with all the headaches of a Lord Lieutentant of Ireland sort of position). Martin Dickson 09:12, 25 Mar 2006 (NZST)


Sounds good. Especially when all the locals listen to Lord Velteyn. The Princes court is likely to be a mostly deserted building with a skeleton staff and nobles that no-one in Eidolon currently likes. There are a number of reasons the 'Provincials' don't like the 'Nobles' and a few good reasons why they are not squashed. Eidolon may have political dominance but with up to 75% of units being Elvandans or sympathetic enforcing any harsh ruling is problematic. It helps to explain why the elves don't regularly act to sort out niggly problems with their vast resources.

William


Makes sense. Also, from memory, Prince Eoren is more of your off-in-the-wilderness, ranger type than a courtier / politician, so he's mostly likely to be found off in the north of the north fighting off giants in border raids (quite possibly with more than a few Elvandan troops), while leaving little liked and largely ignored deputies at the palace.

Martin Dickson

Location

Any idea where Eidolon is in Alfheim (roughly, not looking to bomb the place)? Vaguely north of Elfenberg? I believe there's a canal system from Borovia to there, so someone must know its vague direction and distance? I'd like to give a rough Lat/Long.

Andreww 23:13, 26 Feb 2008 (NZDT)

I'd make it about the third corner of a triangle with Tac and Elfenberg. Regarding canals, there is an extensive canal network throughout much of Alfheim (used for almost all mass/bulk transport in place of roads), and the canal from Barovia does indeed connect to this (through a number of gates, locks, defences, etc). Martin Dickson 13:14, 4 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

High Elf Provinces

There they are (I think) with a v brief discription of each. Most of the locations are analogous to a map of germany with Eidolon centered on Munich. If ever asked why a convieient excuse is that long ago the dwarves provided the first useful comprehensive map and the names stuck. These a very rough sound bites. Fantasy Medieval England would be decribed likewise as "An island north of France populated by pirates, reavers, barbarians and inheritors of the viking trade" :-)


The provinces and their descriptions look good... I'd just be keen to alter some of the names to make them more Elven (or less German) :-)

I changed Monsterland to Úvandor by way of my Quenya dictionary -- not that Quenya is the language of Alfheim (or in use in DQ) per se -- but rather it just seemed to fit well with Elvandar and sound more like a non-human/non-common fantasy name. Úvandor means land of monsters... I'm wondering if we might manage something similar with some of the other names. Martin Dickson 23:39, 8 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Addendum: I refuse to believe that Alfheim would have a province named Erfart. :) Hmm... Erfart from Erfurt, from Erphesfurt, meaning Ford on the Erphesa river... Erphesa meaning dark coloured or brown... easy. :)

Hildesolm - Land of soothsayers, prophets and portents renamed to something less German and more bastard elven--William 15:26, 5 Aug 2009 (NZST)

Names

"Queenie" and "Aunty" may be fine for Isil Eth but the rest of the known world needs a more workable nom de guerre. Also the Hier's name would be handy.


Still trying to find the Queen's name, but the current heir (presumptive) is Princess Illyana.

Princess Illyana -- more formally titled "Venerable-Princess", a unique title granted her by the Queen -- is a young elven noble-woman (approx. equivalent age of early twenties) born in the days of the old empire (before the War of Tears) into the clan "Dancing Turquoise Tiger", and who was placed in hibernation for her safety at the outbreak of hostilities. She was rediscovered and awoken by a Guild party in the 790's (will try and find date) and taken to Alfheim. Her arrival caused something of a stir amongst the traditionalists since technically she may have a greater claim to the Elven throne than the current incumbent. While records are fragmentary the Dancing Turquoise Tiger clan is known to have been a cadet branch of the then royal clan "Noble Sapphire Day", making Illyana very probably a close-ish relative of the last Empress, Letheana.

Political factions and maneuvering began around Illyana -- not so much because the nobles wanted her in power as to provide a lever on the throne. The Queen countered by making Illyana her ward and naming her "Venerable-Princess". (I have the Elven form somewhere -- but the point is that it had overtones of "Princess for historical reasons only"). :-) This didn't even the politiking and eventually the Queen named Illyana as her heir, conditional on daughters of her body being heir-apparent. As the Queen currently has no daughters, and her son Eoren cannot inherit, Illyana is for the present the heir presumptive to the Elven throne.

Martin Dickson 13:07, 4 Mar 2009 (NZDT)


Been wracking my brain -- and trying to find an old note from a long-ago game that wasn't scribed... but I have a funny feeling that Her Elven Majesty's name might be Caitríona. Martin Dickson 00:16, 6 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Nobody else has come up with a name they know has been used for her, so let's go with that then. Btw has anyone stated how old she is or how long she has ruled for? Or are those questions that result in a fatal fall from Eidolon? -- Stephen 10:51, 6 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Excellent. So much better. "Down with the foul tyrant um, whats her name, er." just lacks that certain oomph needed in these cases. Also, what sort of ruler are we looking at? Is she an Elizabeth I or Loius XIII+? Or is Catherine the Great or even Gustav Aldolphus more her style. My preference goes to a Justinian analogue. William

If you are looking for someone to model her on I vote for Mary the First, daughter of Henry the Eighth :-) --Mandos 18:51, 6 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Good idea. William


I'm not sure Mary is a good model -- her life and reign were marked by wranglings over succession (before she was crowned) and religion that seem somewhat at odds with what (little) background we do have for Alfheim, even just considering the campaign years. I'm not sure we'll find a really good human/historical analogue for an elven queen... but if we were looking for fitting attributes (and ones desirable to the campaign) we'd want to ensure we avoid an "imperial" or "uniter" type -- it is better that we don't have a really cohesive Alfheim, and certainly not one with imperial ambitions.

Eidolon works well as something like the Sun King's court with its extravagance and myriad of polite minutiae, political factions with nobles falling in an out of favour. etc -- the nobs live on a floating city (literally) high above the hoi-polloi...I think their attitudes should fit with that physical representation. Like Louis XIV's palace at Versailles nobles can either remain at court in the Queen's orbit -- with some of them largely then dependent on the crown for hand-outs, or they can live on their own lands away from the political center of things. I do think the provincial nobles are still much more independent than they were at the height of Louis XIV's reign (much more as they had been when he was a boy).

On the whole a largely inward- and backward-looking philosophy seems to fit -- the Scottish clan Bruce has the motto Fuimus (We Have Been) which to me sums up a lot of the elven attitude. The elves are largely isolationist, some appear to believe that if they just wait long enough all that unpleasantness beyond their borders will just go away, others seem to simply feel that there is simply nothing worthwhile out there. It is definitely something of the Middle Kingdom mentality, where foreigners are "white ghosts" and where the concept that China was "all under heaven" gave the distinct impression that nothing else mattered, not least the wild savages inhabiting the reaches beyond borders. Even the "lowest" rural elven tree farmer (or whatever they do) knows that they are vastly and inherently superior to those benighted barbarian younger races. Martin Dickson 12:13, 7 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

I was thinking more of someone with huge popular support but with large factions keen to work against her, relatives popular to the rest of the populace and a large number of people working the courst to their own ends. Replace the religion angle with Elven issue of choice and it should work in nicely with what William appears to be doing in the area. --Mandos 17:05, 7 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

OK, cool. Throw in something like the Sun King's court and stir to taste. :-) I finally found my notes -- seems I had a few things wonky... updating to fix. :-) Martin Dickson 00:30, 8 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Headings

I had deliberately kept the Headings simple and just used their names for simplicity of linking to them. E.g. Prince [[Alfheim#Eoren|Eoren]]

I'll adapt to adding in their titles, but can we drop '(Heir Presumptive)' from Princess Illyana?

-- Stephen 10:30, 8 Mar 2009 (NZDT)

Done. I've dropped the titles too, e.g Prince Rylec > Rylec. Martin Dickson 23:27, 8 Mar 2009 (NZDT)