Hmm. Light. Light has not been on my mind very much lately.
Shadow has.
Often when talking about light one also brings up dark as in the opposite of, or the absence of, light. If you pay any attention to what is going on in the world of D&D publishing now there has been a strong push to change, or alter, the nature of certain "dark" races like Drow and Orcs. I am not going to get into that today, nor do I even find the topic particularly interesting. Want "good" Drow? Ok. Fine have them. Want good orcs? Sure! They existed in 2nd Ed, nothing new here. My Desert Orcs have been portrayed as "good" since I came up with them.
But if an "evil" race or species can be good, then a "good" race can also be evil. I pretty much play elves as xenophobic assholes who really don't give two-shits about humans and frankly are just hoping they all kill themselves off. Are they evil? No, but they are not "good" either.
But extremes are dull. They are cartoon versions of the people I want to represent. Give me nuance. Give me flaws AND strengths. Good and Evil. Light and Dark.
Give me Shadows.
I got to thinking back in June when I was doing my BECMI work I picked a copy of the Shadow Elves guide for the BECMI system. The Shadow Elves of Mystara are more interesting than Drow. They are little more nuanced than the Drow are, and this was back in the late 80s.
While reading this I could not help but think of the Shadar-kai from newer D&D. The Shadar-kai from 3rd and 5th Edition D&D are a type of elf/fey, but they were more human-like in D&D 4 where they got the largest treatment.
There is also the Shadow Fey from Kobold Press which are also interesting.
Between all these treatments there is something I am sure I can use.
Personally I rather liked the 4E take on shadar-kai, at least in part due to the way the edition handled the cosmology. They definitely fit into the Shadowfell comfortably and provided a nice contrast to the undead stuff that dominated the plane. A whole race dedicated to a death goddess because she hates their undead neighbors as much as they do? And they're all masochists because they desperately need the sensory stimulation to deal with their bleak home plane? Yeah, that sounds legit.
ReplyDeleteAnd best of all, they're not elves in 4E. D&D has plenty of elves already, and could do with less. It's enough to make a guy long for Talislanta sometimes. :)
Not that I mind the Mystaran shadow elves. Good way to break the expectations established by the drow elsewhere.