u/_RaccoonWitcher

Hi!

A common question that comes up among Dungeons and Dragons players is ‘’Why is my elf character only level 1 if they’re 200 years old?’’. Basically, you’d expect someone who has lived for such a long time to already be very good at what they do, or at least better than the 22 years old human who just picked up a sword.

When it is not handwaved away for the purpose of gameplay, it is often explained with lore elements such as elves being less driven than humans, thus taking decades to master new skills or to grow as a person, or being socially treated as children for so long that they don’t start picking up practical skills until later in life.

I was wondering if there is something like that in TES. Is there a reason all the best mages and fighters, or artisans like alchemists, or even just cooks, tailors and bakers, aren’t elves? Or rather, why all elves aren’t the best at something, relative to humans?

I know there just aren’t many of them in Skyrim, but in cosmopolitan areas in Oblivion, for example, most elves you meet are just random citizens in the street who don’t seem outstanding at all, or bandits who are just as mediocre as every other bandit. Why aren’t they all super good at something?

Or is this a case of gameplay-lore dissonance, and elves do tend to be extremely good at what they choose to do over their lifetime?

Thank you!

Hi!

I played Oblivion and Skyrim as a young teenager, but at the time I didn’t engage with the Elder Scrolls universe much and mostly acted as a ‘’murder hobo’’ through the game. I’m playing them again now and I’m much more invested in the lore, understanding the universe and what’s going on and what playing a more consistent character.

For my Skyrim run, I decided to play as a Altmer dissident who went to Skyrim to oppose the Thalmor there (presumably after fleeing Summerset). I haven’t found much lore about what that entails, though, just that such Altmer exist and are treated by the Thalmor about the same as their other enemies, with what we would consider war crimes in our world.

Is there some established lore about this or will it be up to me to come up with the details? I’m fine either way, but I’d be happy to know more.

Thank you!

Hi!

I used to have a [[Elrond, Master of Healing]] elf deck that I really liked but, long story short, I decided to cut out all Universes Beyond cards from my decks, which obviously left this one in a rather poor state. The thing is, I really miss my Simic elves and I’d like to put them back together somehow as a Universes Beyond-free deck. I briefly played [[Lonis, Generics Expert]] instead to try and keep the +1/+1 counters theme, but I didn’t like how combo-focused it ended up being and took it apart quickly too.

I’m looking to rebuild a similar deck somehow now. I’ve been thinking about using [[Rashmi, Eternity Crafter]], doing away with the +1/+1 counters theme but keeping some top-deck manipulation and leaning more heavily into control. However, despite being an elf, Rashmi doesn’t really do much for them, so I’m not sure how to keep the deck’s identity alive. My best idea so far is to use elves to generate a lot of mana to be able to consistently cast a spell every turn, possibly untapping them with [[Murkfiend Liege]] and/or [[Quest for Renewal]], until I can win through [[Helix Pinnacle]] or at least take someone out with [[Mathemagics]].

My other idea for a similar direction would be to go with [[Kruphix, God of Horizons]] and just stock up mana ad nauseam.

Does this sound worthwhile or would I be better off losing the elf theme for this? I tried to look for Rashmi decks with the Elf tag on Moxfield but they are very few. If you’ve played something like this, I’d be happy to hear about it too!

Thank you