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You do have a lot of interesting ideas for your Elves and most of the points I would have made regarding them have already been made by other people, so the only insight I have to offer is from what I'm doing with my Elves - they don't all get along with each other very well and some of them (primarily the Sun Elves, aka Solarians) like to consider themselves the only "true" Elves. As a result, they use inbreeding to try to "preserve" their "purity," resulting in Elves who are basically like the Hapsburgs in terms of how inbred they are. So, what I wonder is if any of your Elves are like that - thinking that they're better than all the other Elves and trying to reacquire their former magic through selective breeding.
 

mc.joeyy

Dreamer
You do have a lot of interesting ideas for your Elves and most of the points I would have made regarding them have already been made by other people, so the only insight I have to offer is from what I'm doing with my Elves - they don't all get along with each other very well and some of them (primarily the Sun Elves, aka Solarians) like to consider themselves the only "true" Elves. As a result, they use inbreeding to try to "preserve" their "purity," resulting in Elves who are basically like the Hapsburgs in terms of how inbred they are. So, what I wonder is if any of your Elves are like that - thinking that they're better than all the other Elves and trying to reacquire their former magic through selective breeding.
I really like your "Hapsburg" concept for elves and think it's true to some of the elven arrogance we commonly see, so it only makes sense that many would breed like this. I do actually have something similar in my elves, but it's less widespread, where only a few types engage in selective breeding, particularly the Elves of Eyâd (meaning emerald) who once had a powerful society and great command over magic. The remaining members of this group do have more selective breeding, where they don't branch out from their own group, and so many of them are likely inbred. Also an ancient tribe called the Moonhi, as they accuse other elves of appropriating their religion and culture and ideas, live isolated from other tribes and societies to preserve their culture. There must be a lot of inbreeding there too. And also most tribal elves think they're superior to elves which have migrated to cities and so exclude them from any interaction. Most of the protectionism is territorial as elves highly value their land, so there are subtypes which have defenses, such as venemous elves, that repel creatures intruding on their space. As for the recovering lost magic, many elves, though they struggle to accept the theft of their gift, endure the life without it. This is especially city elves. But most become desperate and either isolate themselves more to preserve and recover culture or they turn to alternative magic, like divination or alchemy, despite them not able to properly do these and instead they are false magic. Elves used to have these types of magic but now it's also been lost hut many still cling to it. Overall, it's pretty sad the actions elves have taken to recover their glory, and so despite the ferocity or arrogance of some elves the real overarching enemy is the oppressive regime.
 
What's this, a topic that doesn't involve pointy-ears smugly claiming they're smarter and wiser and better in every single way than every other race out there simply because they live longer? Okay, count me in, especially since I hate the damn things so damn much that every time I see their name I roll my eyes over because I know it's going to boil down to the same old stereotype sooner or later.

The pointy-eared folks certainly make for excellent villains but they're a pretty poor choice for protagonists, mainly due to the Legolas "too perfect in every way" complex. Let's hope you never land into that pitfall, or the one where every conversation with a pointy-eared boils down to comparing age.

I completely agree with the concern that the detail of pointy-eared blood having special properties (especially addiction) opens up a whole can of worms that could threaten to overshadow everything else in the worldbuilding process, so if you're going through with that idea I'd suggest you focus your attention on resolving that before you move on anywhere else. It would definitely help if you have someone well versed in medicine to provide an in-depth discussion about mixing blood groups and genetical heritage, I can tell you from experience it greatly helped me define some of the races in my world.

PS EDIT: Speaking of inbreeding, it's a proven fact that it's very, VERY bad health hazard the more it's practiced, so I would suggest avoiding it altogether. An inbred race is far more vulnerable to diseases than a regular one, it's one of the main facts of evolution and ignoring it could throw your entire setting off.
 
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mc.joeyy

Dreamer
What's this, a topic that doesn't involve pointy-ears smugly claiming they're smarter and wiser and better in every single way than every other race out there simply because they live longer? Okay, count me in, especially since I hate the damn things so damn much that every time I see their name I roll my eyes over because I know it's going to boil down to the same old stereotype sooner or later.

The pointy-eared folks certainly make for excellent villains but they're a pretty poor choice for protagonists, mainly due to the Legolas "too perfect in every way" complex. Let's hope you never land into that pitfall, or the one where every conversation with a pointy-eared boils down to comparing age.

I completely agree with the concern that the detail of pointy-eared blood having special properties (especially addiction) opens up a whole can of worms that could threaten to overshadow everything else in the worldbuilding process, so if you're going through with that idea I'd suggest you focus your attention on resolving that before you move on anywhere else. It would definitely help if you have someone well versed in medicine to provide an in-depth discussion about mixing blood groups and genetical heritage, I can tell you from experience it greatly helped me define some of the races in my world.
My elves don't really fit with that stereotype you mention in the beginning, because not all members of one race are a certain way, I'm really rejecting that idea of "homogenous races" for the creatures that aren't human cause I think that's wrong.

Also my protagonist is an elf but she doesn't have that feeling on things really, especially since elves aren't at the tip in this story at all, and I avoid some of that smugness she definitely isn't like that. There are maybe some elves that are but it's not really portrayed as a good thing, just as with the humans that are like that.

But yeah, I actually have figured out a lot on the blood thing now, and I appreciate the advice on the medicine thing. I've been researching that actually. I still love elves though but I understand some of your issues with how they're often shown. Thanks.
 
One thing I did forget to mention and tried to edit in before you replied:

Inbreeding is a very, VERY BAD health hazard, the Habsburgs are the prime example of that and it's a proven fact that the more inbred any race is, the more prone it is to going extinct in case of an epidemic. Unless you want to take a step back and avoid inbreeding, I hope you have a genuinely plausible way of countering that fact, especially with Elves and their longevity.
 

mc.joeyy

Dreamer
One thing I did forget to mention and tried to edit in before you replied:

Inbreeding is a very, VERY BAD health hazard, the Habsburgs are the prime example of that and it's a proven fact that the more inbred any race is, the more prone it is to going extinct in case of an epidemic. Unless you want to take a step back and avoid inbreeding, I hope you have a genuinely plausible way of countering that fact, especially with Elves and their longevity.
I think I did mention their inbreeding declined....and I also said that it's only a few select groups of elves which practice the inbreeding, like subtypes of subtypes. Pretty much like 98% of elves don't do it I'm aware of the hazards of inbreeding.

EDIT: Longevity declined I meant to say.
 
In my setting, the inbreeding of the Sun Elves is primarily restricted to the ruling class. Additionally, the longer lifespans of Elves means that generations are more spread out than in other races, so it takes longer for the problems of inbreeding to manifest. However, they ARE manifesting, primarily in the form of sterility. Other Elves are not following this practice, so they’re doing a lot better.
 

mc.joeyy

Dreamer
In my setting, the inbreeding of the Sun Elves is primarily restricted to the ruling class. Additionally, the longer lifespans of Elves means that generations are more spread out than in other races, so it takes longer for the problems of inbreeding to manifest. However, they ARE manifesting, primarily in the form of sterility. Other Elves are not following this practice, so they’re doing a lot better.
Yeah thats similar to how I've structured it, that Moonhi tribe I mentioned is basically disappearing but it's only been about 60 to 100 years.
 
For the sake of variety, I'm going to throw you an idea I developed for my Dungeons & Dragons setting I'm running as a GameMaster, it's not related to Elves but maybe it could spark your imagination to help with the maintenance of the race.

Tymanther, the country of the Dragonborn, in my D&D setting, is a matriarchy that's primarily ran by the Dragonborn race, there are other races in the country but they're the dominant ones. The main thing about the Dragonborn by canon is that they aren't a natural race and they've been actually developed by the Dragons to serve as their slaves. They've had a pretty haphazard backstory and their heritage is pretty muddled, so I had to add a couple of details to streamline them as a species and allow them to exist without their creators having to do all of the busy-work with breeding them:

1.) The females are remarkably easy to conceive and they can cross-breed with any other race. The males are not so fortunate.
2.) When the youngling hatches, it inherits the mother's appearance but has a slightly enhanced genetics, meaning the race gradually improves over time the more variety it obtains.
3.) Every major city that wants to have direct relations with the country has to take a Dragonborn egg and adopt the hatching into the family. Refusing to do so means being completely cut out of their politics. Once it reaches adulthood, the adopted Dragonborn acts as an envoy of that particular city or country.
4.) Dragonborns come in various colors, but that means nothing to them. As far as they're concerned, they're all scaled.
 

mc.joeyy

Dreamer
For the sake of variety, I'm going to throw you an idea I developed for my Dungeons & Dragons setting I'm running as a GameMaster, it's not related to Elves but maybe it could spark your imagination to help with the maintenance of the race.

Tymanther, the country of the Dragonborn, in my D&D setting, is a matriarchy that's primarily ran by the Dragonborn race, there are other races in the country but they're the dominant ones. The main thing about the Dragonborn by canon is that they aren't a natural race and they've been actually developed by the Dragons to serve as their slaves. They've had a pretty haphazard backstory and their heritage is pretty muddled, so I had to add a couple of details to streamline them as a species and allow them to exist without their creators having to do all of the busy-work with breeding them:

1.) The females are remarkably easy to conceive and they can cross-breed with any other race. The males are not so fortunate.
2.) When the youngling hatches, it inherits the mother's appearance but has a slightly enhanced genetics, meaning the race gradually improves over time the more variety it obtains.
3.) Every major city that wants to have direct relations with the country has to take a Dragonborn egg and adopt the hatching into the family. Refusing to do so means being completely cut out of their politics. Once it reaches adulthood, the adopted Dragonborn acts as an envoy of that particular city or country.
4.) Dragonborns come in various colors, but that means nothing to them. As far as they're concerned, they're all scaled.
That's all very cool! And yeah, it's certainly inspiring. The city idea with having the hatchling is a cool concept. Also, I guess my elves are sort of "artifical" in a sense too, being developed many years before by the demons, though it was so far back they are basically a natural race.
 
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