The ElfQuest

The Past

Long, long ago, in a time wherein even the memory of the Elves runs dim, the Elves dwelt in splendor in their homeland in the distant East. The Green Elves reveled in their forest gardens, the Grey Elves celebrated in their glades and caverns, and the High Elves in their walled cities and fortresses won the allegiance of the rest by deeds of might and magic.

But the Elves had an Enemy that hated their beauty and feared their might. Over ages beyond human comprehension It plotted the downfall of the Elves. In its fairest guise It beguiled them, seducing them from the paths their Powers had set for them; in Its foulest guise It battled them, slaying and defiling all with which It came into contact. And even where the Enemy could not and did not go, Its minions did Its work: weakening, corrupting, preparing for the fall of the Elves.

In time the Enemy rose up to smite the Elves and they found they could not stand before It. It drove them forth and as they fled before it, It scattered them across the many realms. And in their flight they walked down the chains of worlds, where they hid from the Enemy that had compelled them to abandon their first home. Over the millennia since that first flight, the Enemy has followed the Elves down the chains of worlds, hunting, destroying, devouring ... leaving nothing but ruin and twisted mockeries in its wake ...

The Present

The Crown is lost and the nobles are content to play at monarchy in the hinterlands, heedless of the danger that seeks them. Those who counsel a stand against the Enemy are few; the princes of the High Elves disregard them, and mock as madness any plan to regain what the Elves have lost.

The Grey Elves and the Green have grown distant from the High Elves. They have learned to despise their former leaders, who have lost all care for the common Elf in their petty political games. And the Enemy laughs, seeing his ancient foes squabbling amongst themselves.

The Plan

Some of the High Elves have not lost all hope. Though they are few and their voices are oft ignored, they secretly plan for the return of the days of glory.

One such is the new Keeper of the Lore, holder of an office second only to the Monarch's own. Since she gained the office some few decades ago, the young princess has defied the conventional wisdom and sought out Elves of all kindreds who share her dream of bygone days.

Now she seeks adventurers from the realms further west along the chains of worlds -- the protected realms where the Enemy's power is less directly felt -- to openly oppose the minions of the Enemy. And perhaps, in the future, these Elves will make their own power felt more directly ...

In the realm where you have been adventuring, an intriguing rumor has reached you. The rumor states that the Keeper of the Lore is seeking heroes of all the Elven kindreds for a mysterious quest. No one knows the nature of the quest. There is wild speculation as to what the Keeper might want or need, and why she would or could not merely get it herself.

The rumor also says that aspiring heroes should look for the Keeper at a halfling-owned tavern called the Short Stop Inn. At least you'll get a good meal out of this ...

The Plot

The characters will adventure in a variety of worlds, where they will confront the minions and machinations of the Enemy. Initially, they will seek to achieve goals set by their patron, but as the characters grow and learn, they will also achieve their own goals.

The characters will initially travel between the worlds with their patron's help. The objectives of the early scenarios will include the gathering of materials required to make a sky-boat that the characters will use for travel in subsequent adventures. The boat will also serve as a base for storing spellbooks, a place for clerical shrines, a stable for mounts, etc.

The People

The characters will have several realms in which they will adventure repeatedly to give them a chance to make friends and enemies that will provide campaign continuity. The players will determine which realms will make repeat appearances.

Examples of the realms to which the characters may travel include:

• The High Elven city of Sirost, where dark forces move in the court.
• The Grey Elven realm of Hithannon, where evil has stalked the children of the King so that no close heir survives.
• The Green Elven realm of Galentar, where the Green Elves have become xenophobic and hardly permit other Elves to enter, much less non-Elves.
• The holy isle of Elbereth in the Western Sea.
• The ruins of a long-destroyed Elven city.
• The Plains of Battle, a pocket realm that defends a gate to Hell.
• The Well of the Unicorn.
• The Gaming Fields, a Faerie realm where anything can be won or lost on the outcome of a duel.
• An Arthurian realm after the fall of Camelot.
• An Arabian realm where sorcerers learned in the ancient magics of the serpent people hold sway and where the Elves are unknown.

The Point

The goal of the game will be to develop a group of heroic adventurers of mythic stature who embody archetypal qualities and at the same time are still people. The characters will enter play as proven heroes in their own right; the establishment of the party will be equivalent to the gathering of the Argonauts or the founding of the Round Table.

Every character will have his or her own story to tell as part of the group's story. The development of these stories over the long term, complete with friends, allies and nemeses, will be as important to the campaign as the long-term group goals. A character's long-term goals need not be established at the time play begins (since it would hardly be fun if everyone knew in advance how the character's story would play out!) but each character should have the potential to grow and change over the course of the adventures.

The PCs

I'm looking for Elven or Half-Elven characters for this game. I may allow other established characters at my discretion, if the concept interests me and I feel it would fit with the group. I prefer established characters and legacies, since they will have more character hooks, but I'm open to new characters. The PCs must be good and heroic; those motivated by hope of financial gain need not apply.

I'll handle all conversions of established characters and new character development together with the player. Initially I'll want a character sketch; after we get the character outline nailed down, we can work out the details.

Examples of characters I've seen that I would have happily accepted for this game follow:

• A warrior-mage with fragmented past-life memories of his true love and the terrible doom that awaits him, attempting to master his destiny before it masters him.
• An Elven prince, kidnapped at birth and raised as a warrior by the Dwarves.
• A Gypsy half-Elf striving to reconcile both halves of his heritage.
• An Elven princess, ashamed of the base deeds performed by her family, traveling under an assumed name until she can restore her house's honor.

Without going into too much more spoileresque detail, I can say that my influences for the Elves, especially the High Elves, are Tolkien, Guy Gavriel Kay, P.C. Hodgell, Steven Brust's Dragaera novels and the Chronicles of Amber.

This is a game I've had running around in my head for seven or eight years now. I originally thought of it as a quest for one of my own characters, but I later retired her and came to the conclusion that I'd do a better job conceiving this campaign than I would playing in it. Later on, I was serious enough about doing this game that I actually wrote up a proposal for a gaming group I was playing in at one point. We were changing games and GMs, and several of us sent out proposals to our email list. This is an edited version of the proposal I emailed to the group. I thought it was pretty good, but we ended up playing Traveller anyway.

Nowadays I know it almost has to be an Everway game. I don't think there's another system that quite captures the feel of high fantasy with so few rules. Rules, we hates them!