I’m happily running the base game + Raven’s Purge at the moment, and mostly that works, but occasionally I need to add stuff that goes beyond what’s written in the official books. Overlaps a fair bit with fixing things; if it’s here it’s because I’ve added stuff, rather than disagreeing.
What is it like to be an elf?
Awesome, of course; always has been, always will be
Elves don’t die, so aren’t restricted by age, and keep their numbers in hand so there’s no struggle there either. Elves Gone Bad are probably self-limiting also.
If you’re immortal, though, you need to actively manage your memory: remember, fade, or forget, or, in a society, note. That includes forgetting current visitors or politics if you don’t care. This influences elf language.
The end result is that elf villages are beautiful, and therefore it’s hard, but interesting, to make elf PCs work.
Gracenotes: elf punks, elves with tails or more, if all elf names end with “iel” then “Derekiel” is the funniest elf name ever, elves are all about colour, can elf memories be forged?, there’s living stuff everywhere in an elf village, elf fighters are scary, elf rogues are nails also.
Elves are social creatures
Ferenblaud’s tragedy is that he isn’t
Elves like surprises, and the best surprises are other elves.
The best way of explaining contradictions between the Bitter Reach and Raven’s Purge is to consider that the Bitter Reach is written from the perspective of Ferenblaud, whose big ruby didn’t shatter when it landed, so of course his instinct is to subjugate everything that moves.
Sidenotes: Mard the Freak, Neyd split herself up into many elves to explore Ravenland.
My headcanon on Stanengist
Creating a crown is an act of defiance, which attracts and repels demons
The elves had no want for slaves, but if they did, why was there no attempt to restore the status quo? Why can Stanengist seal the nexus for good, which includes no sneaky “opening another nexus” takebacks?
Nebulos’s original circlet was reforged into Stanengist, and immediately used to enslave the orcs. That created a single ruler of the land, which inherently attracts demons, but also fatally repels them if they don’t know any better.
Stanengist is expanded like the other ancient artifacts, notably adding a help me Obi-Wan, you’re my only help mode so other PCs can interact.
Sidenotes: Kalman Rodenfell was there and it was his decision, which Iridne disagreed with violently. When the PCs find Stanengist, some of the rubies should have fallen out, to increase the scale of “what have we found? there’s more rubies?”.
Expanded ruby and item descriptions
More love for the three ancient elves who stuck around in Stanengist
More and/or replacement Stanengist rubies, each revamped to have a ritual and a preferred weapon.
Neyd can make maps and weather terrain. Nebulos has a mini-Stillmist. Gemelda can actively consider others’ perspectivess. Kalman Rodenfell has a scout network.
Gracenotes: Neyd argued with existing dwarves rather than some God, a too-slow way to cure Viridia, Gemelda as a dynamic leader, Nebulos’s original circlet was reforged as Stanengists, individual pendants of Algared’s shepherd’s crook can be detached for individual use, why Gall-Eye uses up your food and water.
Who knows the Shardmaiden’s name?
(It’s clearly not “Shardmaiden”, for instance)
read moreTurning the previous elf house into Stanengist was what enslaved the orcs, and made demonic incursion possible
An early version of my headcanon about Stanengist
Wyrm and Clay can’t have created the orcs as slaves; anyway, orcs are too much like humans for comfort, and there’s no saying what would happen if they managed to revolt.
Did anyone ever rule with Stanengist? Why can Stanengist close the rift for good?
Proposed solution: reforging the previous elf circlet into Stanengist enslaved the orcs, sending a cruel signal demons could hear. The reason the orcs weren’t enslaved again was that Stanengist was missing.
Zytera doesn’t know about Stanengist because he never had to face it in serious battle. It will send him mad because he’s a demon and not part of this land.