Elves and Sex

My previous post had a throwaway comment on elves being like bees, which led me to note that I needed to say something about elves and their society. So...

One of my pet peeves in gaming is the "human with a funny nose" approach to playing a non-human race. This is most commonly the case with power-gamers, who probably chose the race purely for some mechanical benefit (which, in turn, is why I don't like races having ability score adjustments). The player duly writes 'elf' on the character sheet, and then proceeds to play the character exactly the same as if he was human.

Yet if we are to accept the in-game conceit that elves start at 100+ years old and that they potentially live for many more centuries, it is absurd to imagine that they might be indistinguishable from a human. Either they have grown up in a radically different culture, or they were raised by humans and have seen every single person they knew as a child die of old age.

And yet, non-human races also shouldn't be too inhuman in their manners, and in the case of the 'known' non-human races (elves, dwarves, halflings), they equally can't stray too far from the common portrayal of these races. In either case, players will find themselves having difficulties getting into the mindset, or simply won't recognise the races for what they are 'meant' to be.

So the challenge, then, is to find a portrayal that is different, but also one that is not too different.

In my campaigns, or at least in my homebrew settings, elves have a strict caste system. However, unlike human caste systems, this is based not on social conventions and/or inheritance, but rather is a function of birth and diet. Yes, like bees.

The vast majority of the elves in a colony are of the Worker caste. These are the lowest ranking elves in the colony, who dedicate their entire lives to a single mundane pursuit. Some are soldiers, some are farmers, some are craftsmen of various sorts. None are wizards. Worker elves are likely to be exceptionally skilled at their one chosen field (as centuries of practice are likely to cause), but they are almost mindless and totally without imagination. Worker elves are therefore unable to adapt to changing circumstances, are without ambition, and must be directed.

The mid-ranking elves are the Lords and Ladies. These are the elves most commonly encountered by outsiders - both lower and higher ranking elves tend to remain in or near the colony, while the Lords and Ladies may travel abroad. And, similarly, when a visitor to an elven colony must meet an ambassador, it is a Lord or Lady who serves in that role.

The elven Lord or Lady is essentially the 'known' elf - they tend to be skilled in swords or spells, be skilled trackers or archers, and so on and so forth. Elven Lords and Ladies are somewhat larger in stature than Workers. There is little difference in height and weight between Lords and Ladies.

A subset of elf Ladies are elf Maids. Treated in all respects as being a Lady, a Maid is distinct in only one respect: an elf Maid has the potential to be promoted to Queen.

At the top of any elven colony there is a single Queen. The largest, wisest and most powerful elf in the colony, though not necessarily the oldest, the Queen in the lynchpin that holds the colony together. She sets the direction for the colony, directs the Workers, and in many ways she is the colony. Of particular note, in all elven colonies other than those of the drow, the Queen is typically not a child of the colony. Instead, as the old Queen reaches the end of her life, the colony will arrange to bring an Elf Maid from a nearby colony to be promoted to Queen and succeed from the old.

Ambrosia, and the Elven Lifecycle

As soon as a new elf Queen ascends, and at periodic times during her long life, she will select a consort from amongst the Lords of her colony. She mates with the consort, and will shortly thereafter lay a multitude of eggs. Over the course of a year, these eggs will grow, and eventually hatch the next generation of elves.

The overwhelming majority of young elves will be Worker caste. These grow to maturity over the course of a decade or so, being apprenticed into the roles they will follow all the rest of their days.

About ten percent of young elves will be nascent Lords, Ladies, or elf Maids. However, if left alone at this stage, their development will halt at the same stage as that of Workers. They will remain near mindless, and could be apprenticed to roles in the same way as their kin.

However, elven colonies maintain a supply of Ambrosia, a foodstuff of unknown composition. To races other than the elves, ambrosia is little more than a slightly alcoholic but fairly anaemic beverage. However, when fed to a young elf Lord, Lady, or Maid, it provokes a transition from Worker caste into their full selves. This transition, and the full training to maturity of the elven mind, takes the better part of a century; it is not clear whether an elf must be fed ambrosia regularly during this process or only once.

When an elf Maid is to be promoted to Queen, she is fed a second, much more concentrated, diet of ambrosia. This provokes a very painful, but thankfully short, transition from Maid to Queen.

It is possible for a colony that has been devastated to promote Worker caste elves to the rank of Lord, Lady, or even Queen if this is essential. However, elves promoted in this manner are seldom as wise or powerful as those born into those ranks. Elven colonies therefore only do this if some disaster has forced them to that point. They do so to enable them to produce the next generation of elves, who will be in all respects normal examples of their kind.

The Grand Tour

Most elven Lords and Ladies, shortly after reaching their maturity, engage in a period of wandering away from their colonies. They travel in the wider world, either in the societies of other races or entirely on their own, simply to gain experience of things away from their insular colonies. This grand tour may last just a few years, or may last for the remainder of their lives - eventually, most elven Lords and Ladies return to a colony, though not necessarily their former homes, and make their homes with their kin thereafter.

Sex and Fertility

Elves of the Worker caste are completely unable to procreate, and indeed have little to no interest in sexual activity. Elven Lords, Ladies, and Maids are capable of sexual activity, but are infertile amongst themselves. The next generation of elves are born of the mating of the elf Queen with her chosen consort, who will be one of the Lords of her colony.

Because of this infertility, and because also of the elves' chaotic nature, elves have no concept of marriage, commitment, or monogamy. Elves take lovers as suits them, and the couple remains together as long as they wish it. Because of the conventions of their society, elves rarely feel any great jealously or pain about such partings; after all, they might well be lovers again at some future time.

There is one oddity in elven physiology, however, that sometimes causes elves problems while on their grand tour. Although elven Lords and Ladies are not fertile with other elves, they are entirely able to have children with humans. However, young elves are frequently unaware of this fact, and very few give it any serious thought. After all, the conventions of their society are such that such matters don't occur.

Thus, an elf Lord in human society may think nothing of sleeping with any women who take his fancy, and with the otherworldly glamour of the elves, they seldom lack for willing partners. And, equally, they may think nothing of departing quickly thereafter, perhaps even without a word, and potentially leaving any number of half-elves behind them. Needless to say, this can cause some amount of strife in human villages, and leads to no small amount of suspicion aimed at newly-arrived elves!

Perhaps more difficult, however, is the plight of an elf Lady in human society who, for exactly the same reasons, may think nothing of taking lovers. If she should subsequently find herself pregnant, she is likely to be scared and confused by this experience, and is unlikely to have anyone able to explain or assist her. Perhaps fortunately, most such elf Ladies return to the nearest colony, where the Queen typically takes a great interest in her wellbeing for the next year. The half-elf child may then be raised by the colony, or may be fostered amongst humans.

Of Drow

Drow maintain the same castes as other elves, but the vast majority of drow Workers are simply left to starve in the Underdark - drow simply do not have the food to feed large populations, nor the interest in raising young. The vast majority of drow who live to adulthood, therefore, are Lords and Ladies.

Drow also lack any supply of ambrosia. However, these exiled elves have become adapted to the strange radiations of the Underdark that suffuse their environment. As such, those drow who survive, and who have the potential of advancement, will automatically advance to the rank of Lord or Lady. (Some elves postulate that the radiations that suffuse the Underdark are also responsible for the twisted nature of the drow. They speculate further than drow who were raised on the surface and fed ambrosia instead might return to the light. Naturally, neither the elves nor the drow are keen to test this theory.)

It is not known how drow Maids advance to the rank of Queen. It is known that the elven convention of Queens moving from one colony to another is not practiced by drow, and it is believed instead that a drow Maid may perform some ritual to take on the mantle of the former Queen when she dies. However, the details remain unclear.

And that's basically it. Any thoughts?