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alt title(s): Our Elves Are Different 
Pointy-eared smugness comes in multiple flavors.
As a rule, elves are both beautiful and graceful — and they know it, too, which is my major problem with the manky little gits. The fact is that most elves are arrogant snots. — "Wulf", in Heart of the Lion 3: The Red and The Green , by Anthony Pryor-Brown
Everything you can do elves can do better, elves are much better at everything than you. — Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
Elves are many different things to many different people, but it's important to remember the one thing elves always are: Better.
Better than you, me, and even other elves. Especially other elves.
They are also quite aware of that fact and will let you know it, again and again and you won't argue about it, ever (Most of the time, at least). After all, they've quite often been around for a lot longer than those upstart humans. That said, fantasy elves aren't always elitist Smug Snakes. In fact, elves in fantasy fiction come in a number of flavors, whether all-natural, magical, or just plain nasty:
- High Elves: These guys are better than you, and they won't hesitate to remind you at every opportunity. They're usually physically superior in "every way that counts" (which is to say, they don't count others' strengths as worthwhile) and are usually highly proficient in magic. They'll frequently be part of an ancient civilization/kingdom that has been in Medieval Stasis since before human speech. These guys usually favor whites, reds, blues, and imperial purples and wear super-sumptuous clothes along with delicate jewelry that make fangirls squee with envy. Rapiers, bows, and spears are favored weapons for their ground forces, with the option of sleek scimitars in settings where rapiers are too modern.
- Wood Elves: In tune with nature and prone to spiritual contemplation. All the same, they kick bow-y butt in combat. Generally they're magical in a druidic rather than wizardly way. Can be The Empath, often found in a Hidden Elf Village in a forest, which can overlap with a Tree Top Town. These guys are among the least stuck up elves, but that might not be saying much, since they usually replace Cultural Posturing with lectures on respecting nature. Obviously, they favor greens, browns, and flowy billowy clothes when they aren't wearing leaves. They generally use bows, knives, and (if they have metal) short swords. Sometimes an Expy of the Magical Native American.
- Dark Elves: Take the above two, sprinkle in some xenophobia and a dash of Always Chaotic Evil, allow to simmer and season to taste. Dark Elves are usually closer to The Fair Folk, except these guys are organized as cities or even civilizations and hell bent on evil, rather than "just" operating on an alien morality. These guys will wear black leather bondage gear when they aren't wearing Spikes Of Villainy, speak in the Black Speech, and kick dogs. Same weapons as the others, only their blades are serrated. Yet despite living in caves they're still gorgeous.
- Half-Elves: Since elves can't help being so awesome, it's no surprise they get to "know" a lot of people. Biblically. The result of all this canoodling are Half-Elves. These guys have half the coolness of their elf parent, but half the suck of their human side (including mortality and — worse by far — facial hair). They are usually outcasts, or if not outcasts, then have utterly embraced one of their parentages completely (not surprisingly, usually the Elf part because humans suck). Even so, expect pure blood elves to sneer at them, and at best pity them, dark elves to damn them as mongrels and try to kill them, whilst humans tend to stand, point, gawp slack jawed and go "Oooo!" at them. Only rarely will they be treated as equals, which gives them an Wangst rating on par with the Friendly Neighborhood Vampire. Oddly, Elves will usually treat Half-Elves far worse than they treat normal Humans, despite the fact that Humans are the only real reason for their hate in the first place.
- Space Elves: A newer variation, Space Elves can be a straight up copy of any of the aforementioned variants, but IN SPACE! Usually, they are also notable because their technology is either organic, crystalline, or otherwise very pretty and completely renewable/in tune with nature (and can probably blow your ships right out of space before you can even see them). And of course, replace a bow with a laser gun (or better yet, laser bows!) and you're in business.
- Rock elves: They play guitars.
All elves usually share the following traits:
- Human-sized, if not slightly smaller. (Exception: High Elves are frequently taller but slimmer, just to emphasize their inherent
arrogance superiority.)
- Lithe and nimble, bordering on Squishy Wizard.
- Pointy Ears. The exact pointyness varies. Some favor "Humanlike with a point at the tip", while many works (particularly anime for exaggeration purposes) have thin, triangular ears a foot long, often sticking out at a 90-degree angle from their heads.
- Long Lived and immune to Who Wants To Live Forever.
- Though lifespan varies, from immortality+reincarnation down to about 200 years.
- Usually accompanied by low birth rates.
- Magical in one way or another, either from being highly spiritual or innately magical.
- Straight and golden-blond or white shoulder length hair, straight dark hair, or flowing red tresses "the colour of autumn leaves" (with that quote) are common. For some reason other colors and curly or kinky hair are rarely seen, unless it's a setting where elves are distinct from humans by having a rainbow of unnatural hair colors, like metallic silver, ruby red, purple, bright blue, pink and green.
- No facial hair. Period. They don't grow it and never have to shave. This is pervasive to the point a Perma Stubble or beard on an elf would be near mind shatteringly weird. (This is occasionally averted, most notably in Looking For Group and the Warcraft universe; half-averted in Elf Quest (only impure elves grow beards, but all impure male elves do). Also in Lord Of The Rings where extremely old elves possibly can grow a beard as impressive as any human, but it's rare). Half-Elves can often grown facial hair to show how inferior they are. If they do, it'll probably be a fashionable, Errol Flynn-esque business.
- Very, very pretty. To the point of fetishism. (Those pointed ears...)
- Anything they make is likewise beautiful, more durable, more delicious, and just plain better than human wares. However, they do sometimes lack a certain creative flair.
- A strong warrior tradition. Perhaps because of the nature of the settings they exist in, pacifist elves are surprisingly rare. As above, they usually specialise in archery and swordsmanship, but also expect guerrilla warfare, stealth, speed and strong magical backup. A Magic Knight is likely to be an elf.
This subject is prone to Internet Backdraft on RPG forums. Many see elves as only enjoyed by twinks or those who wish to see themselves as better than everyone else in every facet, yet others claim that elves are above such things. Which, really, only makes things worse- can you really claim to be above being above people?
Compare Our Elves Are Worse The Fair Folk. Contrast Humans Are Special. Also see Christmas Elves for the other kind of elf. See Screw You Elves when you — inconceivably — don't believe in their betterness.
And whatever you do, don't mention the Dwarves.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The Abh from Crest/Banner of the Stars count as space elves for all intents and purposes. Pale skin, pointed ears, and unearthly beauty. They live for over 200 years (but probably under 300), and would live even longer if they were not genetically programmed to die before their minds begin to degrade.
- The pointed ears only belong to one family, actually; the distinguishing racial traits are blue hair, lifespan, and the space adaptations. But one of the two main characters is a pointy Abh, so we see it a lot.
- They're still the Space Elves in all other aspects except one: they're hiring.
- The Juraians from Tenchi Muyo also qualify; nigh-immortal, incredibly powerful, friendly with powerful space-trees that serve as their spaceships, and somewhat flighty.
- Word Of God seems to disagree on the matter. Juraians and humans are, for all intents and purposes, the same race. Some of them just didn't get their trees from the discount rack at Lowe's, I guess.
- Even the normal Juraians seem to enjoy far longer lifespan and physical abilities than any humans, though their nobility explicitly gets their even more outrageous powers from their Royal Trees. They do have a larger variety of natural hair and eye colours than Earthly humans, in any case.
- Tenchi Muyo GXP clearly showed that Earthlings just don't get all the treatments and augmentations that are the norm in the bigger galaxy. When Seina Yamada finally got augmented, he could fight with the best of them. And garish hair colors are just cosmetic: Ayeka's hair naturally should've been light blue, like Sasami's and Misaki's, but she genetically dyed them purple.
- A more typical anime elf example happens in Zero No Tsukaima's third season. Tiffania Westwood is a (very busty) elf who helped revive Saito at the end of the second season, and became a major character in the third. She's technically a Half-Elf, but has all the common traits of a Wood Elf; she's also the cousin of Queen Henrietta, and becomes a New Transfer Student at Louise's Wizarding School.
- The Ralgon Empire from Irresponsible Captain Tylor is a clear example of space elves (with a hint of Persian decor), although the occasional beard is seen.
- In the Record Of Lodoss War OAV, there is the following exchange between an Dark Elvan bodyguard to a Dark Elven noblewoman, and a drunken human soldier, both in a Mook army:
- "Pirotess would never involve herself with a human male."
- "Eh? You saying elves are better than humans?"
- "Are you saying that we are not?"
Comic Books
- ElfQuest. In a clever mix of trope and Averted Trope, the elves in ElfQuest are smaller than the (very!) primitive humans around them and only slightly more advanced. They do have supernatural powers, such as healing and the ability to shape rock and wood. It's not until late in the series that the reader discovers they are really the descendants of Space Elves who were trapped on the planet ages ago. Their seemingly magical powers are really Psychic Powers and the Palace where their souls go after death can travel through space.
- The Gliders , before they all died and their spirits went to the Palace of the High Ones, and Savah, the Sun Folk's Mother of Memory, play the High Elf archetype rather more straight, although Lord Voll and Aroree are considerably less haughty than the rest of the Gliders, and Savah is far too serene to be called haughty. Justified in that they're also rather older than most of the cast — becoming smaller over generations was an adaptation to the new world, and the Gliders in particular haven't had any new children in just about forever when first met. Oh, and of all the elves only the Wolfriders have facial hair due to their part-wolf ancestry.
- In a subversion of the typical half-elf, the master trickster Two-Edge is half elf and half troll. The same psychological rules generally apply though, as Two-Edge uses his cunning throughout the series to force the other characters through "games" of his devising, in an attempt to reconcile the two halves of his heritage.
- Suitably enough, Poison Elves subverts most of the prevailing Elf tropes. Sure, the elves are haughty and self important, but justified in that they did avert The End Of The World As We Know It...back in pre-history. By the time of the events of the comics, the Elves have become just as urbanized, lazy, indolent, and outright bastards as the Humans are. The protagonist doesn't much help anyone's opinion of the elves, but the author never presents any serious evidence to the contrary. Even the elves who live in enclaves are a far cry from the "Wood Elves" above, and only seem to be humans with ''really'' pointy ears.
- Completely subverted in Amulet. Elves are Complete Monsters and also The Empire, and they're not particularly good-looking either, since they have More Teeth Than The Osmond Family and vertically-slitted eyes. They're still tall and skinny, with long hair, though.
Film
- The Film Of The Book Eragon had High Elves. Oh wait, no it didn't.
- Prince Nuada and his kin of Hellboy 2 are called elves, but play up the folkloric angle a lot more, hence the Celtic names. Nuada himself is possessed of semi-psychic abilities, incredible grace and poise, and despite being half his size can run rings around Hellboy himself in combat. He's also a White Haired Pretty Boy, so guess who the fandom likes most. Abe.
Literature
- Kristen Britain's Green Rider series has the Elt or Eletians, elves in all but name. They're incredibly arrogant and very conscious of how much innate magic they have compared to humans. On occasion, though, the human characters will call them on it—and on how unhelpful they can be when the fate of the world is at stake. The trope is also subverted when the villain of the first book is an Eletian gone bad.
- Steven Brust's Dragaera has the Dragaerans, who refer to themselves as humans and practice Fantastic Racism towards "actual humans" (whom they refer to as "Easterners"). As the series has elements of both science fiction and fantasy, they are arguably an example of Space Elves. They definitely fit the hairless part, using the term "whiskers" as their insult of choice against humans, but unlike many examples, aren't typically blond (in fact, it is a rare hair coloring). Fitting the high elf idea, they are much taller than humans, ranging somewhere between seven and nine feet tall, and ridiculously long lived. Somewhat subverting their idea of superiority, is that they were genetically engineered from humans.
- Jacqueline Carey's duet of novels, Banewreaker, is effectively LotR from the Big Bad's point of view. The elves aren't called elves, but trust me, they're elves.
- The Elves (the main family of fairies) in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series are pretty much pure Space Elf. Yes, I know they live underground, but they carry plasma rifles and their wings are nuclear-powered.
- Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. novels subvert the Dark Elf version of this trope: this world's dark elves don't live underground, are nihilists rather than spider fanatics, and dress like they just walked out of the medieval edition of GQ. Morley Dotes, the protagonist's sort-of-friend, fits the half-elf trope minus the low self-esteem, as he's half dark elf and has inherited several levels of Badass from his elven side (multiclassing in Chick Magnet).
- High elves in the Garrett novels stick with their image, including being bigoted against their own half-elven offspring. Seldom seen in the novels, they're a bunch of uptight snobs, albeit more middle-class than "noble".
- The long-lived, beautiful, magically talented Tiste in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen are basically Elves by another name. Tiste Liosan are the standard arrogant High Elves, Tiste Andii are the Dark Is Not Evil flavor of High Elves, and Tiste Edur are the Wood Elves. There are also characters who are half-Tiste.
- All elves in the Riftwar saga by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts were originally a single race, who were once slaves by the ancient Dragon Lords. The eledhel (Wood Elves) are descendants of the slaves who handled outdoor work such as farming and gamekeeping. The moredhel (Dark Elves) worked more closely with their masters. The Eldar (High Elves) performed more scholarly / skilled work, such as being loremasters.
- On the humorous side of things, Esther Friesner's Majyk By Accident series gives us the Welfies which are kind of a cross between elf and fairy and are snooty enough for both. In Welfie society, males are tall and willowy with the long blonde hair and the pointy ears but are expert archers and rangers. How they hide in the woods wearing sequin-encrusted pink leotards is anybody's guess. Welfie warriors (a male-only occupation) are the only tribesmen allowed to eat meat besides the elders. Welfie elders communicate only psionically. All Welfies can change their size and do so as a matter of fashion. When they're small, they live in mushrooms and housing shortages are created when tall Welfies are a la mode. Female Welfies are expected to remain subservient and "foot it fleetly upon the merry greensward, ho" whilst gathering flowers and moonbeams and generally being all pretty and stuff. Some of them resent this.
- The inhabitants of Stormhold in Neil Gaiman's Stardust, who come across as essentially amoral humans with pointed ears — particularly the male rulers, who wear the hat of being a bunch of Evil Princes.
- Elves in Kim Harrison's urban fantasy The Hollows novels are a large departure from the usual depiction. They look much like humans and only live a couple of centuries as opposed to the typical near immortality. They are a little faster and stronger than humans and while they can use magic, this is not unique to their race nor are they any better at it than any other. They pass as 'old money' humans to blend into society and maintain the remnants of feudalism. They lack the connection to nature most other types of elves have, but in an interesting example of Post Modern Magik, they are heavily invested in illegal genetic engineering technology.
- Tanya Huff's Confederation of Valor series has the Taykans, who at least physically are Space Elves (except for their technicolor hair)... but instead of being arrogant or building crystal spires, they're an entire race of nymphomaniacs.
- Mercedes Lackey's Serrated Edge series features classic versions of High Elves (tall, pointed ears, magical, immortal) who incidentally drive race cars. They must have needed a little extra Bad Ass.
- The Elves in Mercedes Lackey's and James Mallory's Obsidian Trilogy have a lifespan on average of a thousand years, which has allowed them to develop an acute eye for detail and perfect various crafts. It's also allowed them to develop a rigid form of etiquette that humans often find infuriating (a key taboo is asking questions in any form, save in times of war).
- The Halfblood Chronicles series by Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton features a race of elves that are basically Tolkien's elves put under the Bad Ass ray. Newcomers to this world? Yep. They fled there through a portal from a magical civil war in their own world. Stronger than humans? Yep. The first thing these refugees did was to conquer the nearby human kingdoms, set themselves up as all-powerful overlords, and mindwipe all humans until they believed they'd always been slaves. Arrogant? Yep. They hate each other as much as any other race and fight one another, mostly over power. And fading from the world? Double yep. Since they're so hateful, it's hard for an elven lord to find a bride he approves of, and they're slowly breeding themselves out of existence.
- The Takisians of George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards are short, long-lived, pretty, flamboyant, posturing, smug, and have "magic" in the form of Psychic Powers and Organic Technology. Their warships even look like colorful seashells. Space Elves in all but name.
- The Melniboneans of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone saga are a mix of High Elf, Dark Elf, and Decadent Empire on the Wane.
- The Melniboneans are almost textbook versions of The Fair Folk, although they do bear more obvious similarities to several societies' deities — intentionally.
- The Iftin of Andre Norton's Janus series are both Space Elves - they are (or rather, were) the original native intelligent species of the planet Janus - and Wood Elves. They were wiped out long before the arrival of human colonists, but set traps to create changelings so that their race would continue. Messing with any of the traps causes the person handling it to fall ill with the Green Sick, after which one is physically Iftin - green-skinned, pointy-eared, and bald - and carries some memories of an original Ift person, generally those memories geared toward survival skills, such as recognizing edible plants. The Janus novels play the trope straight - the traps cause the victims to become xenophobic toward their former kind; they theorize that this was at least partly intended to keep them from trying to resume their former lives.
- The Inheritance Trilogy's elves are basically LOTR elves with MAGIC! and vegetarianism. And atheism. And the ability to beat the most well-trained human in a fight as kids. Oh, and even more haughty and elitist. And the author is apparently too enamored of them to notice how obnoxious they are. An entire race as The Wesley.
- In the John Ringo's Council Wars series, the Elves are both Better and different. They are a race genetically engineered as Super Soldiers in a long-ago war — ageless, superhuman in all physical characteristics, and made to look like hot pointy-eared chicks because, well, they could. They are protected by genetic copyright laws which say that no human can have their powers and appearance, and only Elves are allowed to live in Alfheim. (Ironically, Alfeim has become an overcrowded housing project because all elves crave the honor of living there, and since they don't die, the population just goes up and up. Or so our semi-reliable source says).
- Most of the Elves are actually much closer to the High Elves, with Bast being the only one described as anything but stereotypical High Elf. There are hints that she and the other Wood Elves (who may or may not exist) were created more for other purposes than as super soldiers. Although they're pretty good at super-soldiering anyway.
- On a convention panel, Ringo mentioned that they didn't always look all pretty and pointy-eared; it was something that they engineered into themselves afterward. He also mentioned that the primary rootstock for their particular super-soldier project was chimpanzees.
- John Ringo also made the Posleen War Series, which features the Darhel (Space Elves).
- The elves featured in Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series subvert many of these traits (which is made of postmodern subversion, so it would be strange if they didn't). They are long-lived, grow no facial hair, and constantly belittle humans, but they're not that better, and one can argue with them. They like to be In Tune With Nature, but having been driven by humans to barren highlands (the humans came from across the sea and did to elves what barbarians done to Rome), they had to learn human farming techniques to support their populace. They are actually Aen Sidhe — there are also Aen Elle, who have slipped into another plane at the time of Conjunction (let's call it a cosmic event many many years ago) and retained their sophisticated culture by slaughtering local humans. Now they play Fair Folk and kidnap humans from Aen Sidhe' plane to make them their slaves.
- The Lord Of The Rings is the classic example. Elves in LotR are divided into Dark Elves (native to this part of the world) and High Elves (exiles of Valinor, descendants of those Elves who traveled West across the Sea to live among the Gods and avail of their blessings and knowledge). The former are more "mundane" while the latter are capable of magic and physical feats few humans could hope to match. Both are immortal and ageless, extremely good looking, and martial weapon masters. By the time of LotR, the High Elves are only slightly elitist. They're aware of their innate gifts, but also of how badly they screwed up.
- The Hobbit also features Wood Elves, who seem to be a lot less 'noble' and 'fair', etc. than the High elves. Per the retcon, these "Wood Elves" are the aforementioned "Dark Elves" (Moriquendi), but their leaders, including Thranduil and Legolas, are Sindar, or "Grey Elves.", who fall somewhere in between.
- The popularity of this trope might be considerably lessened if more authors had read The Silmarillion. Tolkien's elves can be outright dumb sometimes, as well as self-centered, impatient, and a whole lot of other humanizing traits. One WMG-style discussion came to the conclusion that the reason the elves in Lord Of The Rings are better is natural selection: all the stupid and violent ones got killed off by Morgoth.
- The high-elves are still split into three groups of which the Vanyar are the highest-elves. They were the first ones to arrive in Valinor and NONE of them ever questioned the Gods. They NEVER set foot back to Middle-Earth, except once to kick the ass of Morgoth after he had all but crushed the elves and men of Middle-Earth. This is the only time any human has ever seen a Vanya. Galadriel has some Vanyar blood in her lineage though, which explains her golden hair.
- They weren't all elitists either. Finrod is a particularly glaring example, being a very good friends of Men, and even Dwarves; but most of the more positive Elven characters got along well with humans (Fingolfin, Fingon, Turgon, etc.) and had valued human allies.
- For half-elves, there's Elrond (half-Elf, embraced Elf side), Elros (half-Elf, embraced human side... for some reason, probably because he could be the best human alive [Númenórian King] rather than the worst elf). Half-Elves don't actually get a bad deal in Tolkien's works; Dior, Elrond's grandfather and son of Beren and Lúthien married an elf and became king of Doriath. If not for the fact that he chose to keep the Silmaril, he would have had a happy life. Also, they're not Immune to Who Wants To Live Forever. In fact, they actually embody that trope.
- There are mostly two lines of half-elves in The Silmarillion and one of them (Lúthien, Dior, Elrond) actually has Maiar blood in it, which might make them more badass than most proper elves. Also Eärendil is of the other line and he still ranks right up there with Fëanor and Fingolfin in badassery.
- It should be noted that the badassness of that particular lineage comes from the fact it has the blood of all three races; something of an 'all your powers combined' deal.
- Tolkien insisted on the spelling "elven", rather than "elfin", because the latter brings to mind elves entirely different from his. This required some wrangling with his editors, and some editions get it wrong.
- Despite being the trope-maker here, Tolkien managed to subvert part of it, too. Cirdan, of the Grey Havens and one of the very first elves, he was actually among the ones who first awoke aside Cuivenien, is depicted as having a very long silver beard. He's that old.
- The Hobbits of the book are slightly fairy-like in their sneakiness and light-footedness. Plausibly done to further distance the elven races in the book from that depiction by having the niche filled by a race of another name.
- Also somewhat subverted with Galadriel, who really looks the part of an impossibly beautiful, haughty, Elven Queen, but treats everyone in the Fellowship she talks to with respect and graciousness — even Gimli.
- Deliciously parodied in The Harvard Lampoon's Bored Of The Rings, where wood elves are tacky low-lives who run tourist traps, and high elves are effectively white trash with delusions of grandeur.
- The Dragonlance novels give us Tanis (half-elf, reject), as well as the Qualinesti (Wood Elves) and Silvanesti (High Elves), the latter of whom are arrogant and xenophobic enough to be a deconstruction of the trope (especially after their refusal to seek help from the other races, and even the Qualinesti, causes their entire country to become magically entrapped in a horrific nightmare-made-real). Later books also introduce the Kagonesti (Wood Elves as Noble Savages). There is also Dalamaar the Dark Elf (which in Dragonlance, isn't a race so much as individual elves being exiled from the elven nations), who's just as arrogant and haughty as the other elves, but also evil.
- Possibly a subversion, since the Elves in Dragonlance are widely regarded as dicks. However, the gods of the Good Pantheon never called the elves on their shit.
- Are the Qualinesti really wood elves? From what I remember, Qualinesti civilization is rather urban and civilized. I think the Qualinesti are just supposed to be less stratified than the Silvanesti.
- The Silvanesti are extremely stratified, isolationist High Elves. The Qualinesti are (slightly) more open in both senses but they are fully as civilized as the Silvanesti so they probably fall under High Elf too, just less extreme. Also for all their supposed 'betterness' the Elves sure seem to the collective Butt Monkey of the Dragonlance setting: Qualinesti was invaded twice inside thirty years, occupied for forty years and then destroyed by a green dragon. Silvanesti was turned into a nightmare realm by a (different) green dragon, was 'protected' by a magical shield that turned out to be sucking out the liveforces of all the Elves and was then invaded and colonised by the minotaurs. Currently both Elven kingdoms are in exile led (in a satisfying bit of irony) by the part human son of the despised Tanis.
Live Action TV
- The Minbari in Babylon 5 can be considered Space Elves. They're mysterious, long-lived, highly spiritual, physically superior, much more technologically advanced, all while having space ships that are so pretty they look like tropical fish. True, they have bones on their heads rather than pointy ears, but still. Culturewise, the Minbari are a very prominent example of a better-than-thou elder race. Minbari do not kill Minbari (except when they ditch that rule in the Minbari Civil War), Minbari do not lie (except to save another's honour or when it's really convenient), Minbari are led by noble and ancient tradition ( which almost led to massive genocide and permanently ravaging the future of the galaxy because they couldn't figure out how to stop), and their religion is ancient and wise and has a deeper understanding of the universe than any other lesser race is capable of (and was established by an Earthman in a Minbari suit — a Jesuit-trained Catholic, yet). Delenn tops things off by describing how Minbari humor is intellectual and more sophisticated than Earth humor, then doubling over from the next pun.
- She also comments at one point that they do not pry into the affairs of others and are "told exactly what we need to know, and no more", just before being informed that a tabloid-like "Eye On Minbari" isn't accessible for her customized newspaper. At Sheridan's raised eyebrow, she comments that it is "sometimes good to know what your people are saying about my people. And I sometimes learn things about my own world before I am told what I need to know, and no more."
- Technically the Minbari humour isn't described as more sophisticated than the human equivalent, but not containing mockery of other people in any form. Which, it seems, leaves only Incredibly Lame Puns.
- Minbari also have a couple of disadvantages compared to humans; high temperatures that humans would merely find incredibly uncomfortable will rapidly kill them (the Minbari homeworld is much colder than Earth).
- Also, consuming alcohol will cause, as Lennier explains, "psychotic impulses and violent homicidal rages" (at which point Londo snatches away his drink before he can take a sip).
- In whole, the Minbari seem something of a Deconstruction of the trope at times, showing themselves capable of extreme hypocrisy, and willingness to endanger the future of the galactic civilizations for their skewed sense of honour. The benign and sensible Minbari protagonists actually appear to be atypical members of their species.
- Vulcans in Star Trek are also rather elf-y. Pointy ears, long-lived, super strong, spiritual, and mildly telepathic, with names that make liberal use of the Decorative Apostrophe. The whole stoic persona is a bit unelfy, but their vegetarianism does make them pretty green. (Or perhaps that's just the copper-based blood.)
- In Star Trek Enterprise, Vulcan stoicism is leavened with enough Arrogant Superiority to deposit them firmly in this trope.
- On the half-elf front, we have Mr. Spock (half-Vulcan, embraced Vulcan side), who had nothing but disdain for human weaknesses like "emotion".
- Spock also fulfills the "half-human means half-suck" rule. Vulcans are actually far more emotionally volatile than humans, and require their discipline and adherence to logic to control themselves. Logically, a human/Vulcan hybrid would experience emotions more strongly than a pure human, but less than a full Vulcan. So, being raised under Vulcan discipline and adherence to logic, as Spock enthusiastically did (choosing his "elf" side), Spock should have been LESS emotional and more logical and controlled than any pure Vulcan, ever. But no; Elves Are Better.
- Not to mention Romulans = dark elves.
- And now in the new film (Spoiler is pretty damn big) a race of the edge of extinction.
Mythology
- Norse Mythology is where it all started. They were more magically gifted, long lived/immortal, and very beautiful. The dwarves, in Norse the duergar, were a subrace of elves, and commonly called dark elves, who aren't believed to have been a separate race from dwarves. They even mated with humans to create Half Human Hybrids. There were some things which didn't make it into modern times: they could also phase through walls, they lived on their own plane called Alfheimer, and they had facial hair.
- In earlier Norse myths, the Dvergar were entirely separate from the Aelfr, having sprung from Ymir's flesh as maggots. The idea they were a subset of elves was made fairly recently as far as the myths go, when Christianity was already taking hold in Scandanavia.
- The nymphs of Classical Mythology.
New Media
- The web video series Edward the Less does an extended spoof of this trope with the Round-Stander People, as epitomized by the Noble One. He is tall, handsome, proud, arrogant, loutish, and craven, with an instinctive penchant for selling out his allies in a pinch, extensive knowledge of the shockingly vicious traps with which his people have so nobly strewn their forest, no reservations about using violent coercion, and is full of tales of his many "petty, conniving, yet selfless" deeds: Soapy: "So your shooting me in the leg was actually very brave!" Noble One (gallantly): "And I would gladly do it again!" Granted, he does offer a really nice topical salve to friends he's injured once he gets his way...
- Gaia Online has two type of elves. Elftechs, which are basically what would happen if you took the Labtechs from the Zombie Apocalypse arc and made them into Santa's elves. They were all brutally murdered by Zombie Santa Riding a Giant Yeti with a Machine Gun surgically attached to its arm. Don't even ask.
The Kuro, on the other hand, are the Dark Elf Mafia. They're fairly traditional otherwise, although their leader is 2 feet tall with a Empathy Pet.
Tabletop Games
- The standard modern version of elves may not come directly from Lord of the Rings, but rather descend indirectly from it via Dungeons and Dragons. D&D unabashedly copied Tolkien's elves and their cultures: it has high elves, wood elves, dark elves, and half-elves, and inspired decades of fantasy writing. There is a slight subversion in that D&D's elves are a foot shorter than humans, except in the Forgotten Realms setting which loves this trope too much for its own good.
- If elves are arrogant, then drow (evil elves banished underground) are elves squared: They regard every other race with contempt, and use arranged breeding, eugenics and infanticide to weed out any drow that is "defective" or plain not handsome enough.
- The number of elven subraces (including aquatic elves, winged elves, and star elves, to name a few — eleven different races at least) has grown to the point where the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons prunes it down to Elves (wood elves), Eladrin (high elves fairy folk), and Drow (dark elves). Oh, and the half-elves, too. Right back where it started. Now taking bets on how long before the subraces start to proliferate again...
- Pre-4th Edition D&D splits the high elf archetype into two separate subraces: The noble but friendly high elves, who have a bit of wood elf flavor as well, and the regal yet arrogant gray elves, who fit the trope to a T. Both names are taken from Tolkien, though their descriptions were switched around a bit. The wood elf archetype was also split into the wood elves proper (civilized but rustic, and stronger than the average human) and the wild elves (perilous savages).
- Pleasantly, the Elves in Eberron come in three cultures: the corporate ones, who are generally considered to be all-around backstabbing scum with a minor trade war going on between two of the houses; the arcane ones, who play this pretty much straight except for keeping their ancestors around as
undead deathless, and the Bad Ass Proud Warrior Race Guy elves, who may not be ethically better than you, but will gladly split you in half with a double-bladed scimitar if you point this out.
- This Troper considers that last group to be Eberron's answer to Spartans.
- Spelljammer has Space Elves.
- Elves in Mystara mostly fall under the Wood Elf variant, although they make a lot more use of magic, owing to the Basic/Expert/etc system having given all elves spellcasting ability. The dark elf trope is partially averted, in that the subterranean shadow elves aren't black-skinned or Always Chaotic Evil, and are actually pretty naive if you get to know them. Too bad they're pissed at the surface elves for not telling them the planet had recovered from a Nuke War thousands of years ago, never mind how the surface elves had no idea the shadow elves were still down there. Several elven populations on Mystara are acutally well-integrated with their non-elf neighbors, particularly in Graakhalia (elves and gnolls as buds!) and on the Savage Coast.
- At least under the Basic/Expert/etc system, half-elves don't exist on Mystara. Human/elf pairs aren't very fertile, and their descendents are either humans or elves, depending on which parent is male and which is female. Oddly, Mystaran elves and ogres have proven genetically compatible, giving rise to a hybrid race of Giant Ugly Half-Elves.
- The Ravenloft setting has High Elves in Darkon and Sithicus. The latter are more snobbish than the former, having a country of their own; the fact that the Land of Mists has only existed for ~400 years, and Sithicus for a fraction of that, means that their claims of "ancient heritage" tend to fall flat for the Genre Savvy.
- Elven lifespan seems to have been shriking monotonically with edition, from 900-1500 years (depending on variety) in the old days to 200-300 in 4e. This enrages me to an irrational degree.
- In Magic The Gathering, elves are pretty much the default humanoid creature type for green. Most of them qualify as High Elves or Wood Elves.
- Elves of the plane Lorwyn have ram-like horns and deer-like hooves for feet, though they can't really be compared to humanity, as Lorwyn has no humans. However, they do look down on the kithkin (i.e., dwarves). In addition, their entire society is based on physical beauty, with the most beautiful among them being worshiped as gods. In contrast to the typical nature-loving elf, they take it upon themselves to "improve" upon nature to make it more beautiful. Beings that are not beautiful — mostly other races and disfigured elves — are labeled "Eyeblights" and routinely exterminated.
- The Eldar of Warhammer 40000 are akin to Space Elves. Heirs to one of the oldest civilizations, their hedonism and magical power created a Chaos God that destroyed their galaxy spanning civilization and has since terrorized men and monsters. They even have a cousin faction who are like Dark Elves in space.
- The "better" part of the trope is, however, up for debate as the Eldar are pretty much universally genocidal pricks willing to instigate wars (from behind the scenes, of course) in which billions of humans can die to save a few thousand Eldar. The Second and Third Armageddon Wars are a perfect example of this, an Eldar farseer engineered the rise of an Ork Warboss who went on to start the two wars which claimed billions of human and ork lives because he had foreseen that if he did not then ten thousand Eldar would die. He later looked back on the act and stated that it was completely worth it. The "up for debate" part, however, is because this isn't particularly out of the ordinary for any of the factions in 40k. Doubtless the Imperium of Man would do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed, to say nothing for the unquestionably more evil sides.
- They don't act too much like standard fantasy Elves; rather than being loose and free-spirited, their lives are entirely focused around discipline and they take on Aspects in battle, dramatically changing their personalities.
- While all the Eldar are somewhat High-elfin, the different craftworlds play to different parts of the stereotype. Biel-Tan are quite Proud Warrior Race Guy, Ulthwe emphasise their Witch Species nature, Iyanden play up an ancient race in decline, the Alaitoc have many rangers (making them more Wood Elf, along with Exodites) while Saim Hann all ride Jetbikes to show off cool elven technology.
- And the Dark Eldar are pretty much universally complete bastards that make Drow look like saints. Incidentally, 'Eldar' is another name for Tolkein's elves.
- And of course, we can't forget Warhammer, with its fairly standard High, Dark, and Wood Elves (and Sea Elves, but no one talks about them anymore). The High Elf army book goes on and on about how the High Elves are the greatest wizards, warriors, etc. etc. etc. in the world.
- The Wood Elves are quite different from the standard Elf, they can be very cruel and capricious and generally act more like The Fair Folk, especially their king Orion and his Wild Hunt. The High and Dark Elves are admittedly pretty standard, although the Cult of Executioners aren't the kind of thing normally associated with Dark Elves.
- Warhammer's Dark Elves also have velociraptor-mounted heavy cavalry.
- Even the High Elves are different (arguably MORE different than the other two) mainly due to the structure and tone of their military, which tends to focus a lot on combined arms. And also on really, really big [[BFS swords]] and axes, which aren't usually considered classical Elf weapons. But then, they wield their six-foot long two-handed swords gracefully.
- The now-defunct Mage Knight miniatures game had the standard Three as well, played fairly straight. The High Elves were a race of Knight Templars, the Wood Elves shared power with a consortium of Centaurs and other woodland critters, and the Dark Elves were vampires-in-training lumped in with the 'undead faction'.
- The Elves of Shadowrun average a foot or more taller than humans, with a more-than-proportional corresponding increase in arrogance.
- Around 2011 AD a noticeable percentage human mothers began, apparently at random, to give birth to Dwarf and Elf babies. Dwarf/Elf and Either/Human couples give birth to only Dwarf, Elf or Human babies; no Half-races exist. Elf/Elf couples breed true as long as there's enough available magic, but when magic dips, they give birth to apparently human children. Thousands of years later when magic rises again, their otherwise human descendants give birth to elf babies. There's also a random genetic quirk that can make an Elf ageless rather than the normal two-hundred plus lifespan. By 2050 AD, a handful of conspiracy-loving surviving Immortal Elves have organized many of their born-since-magic-returned-in-2011 brethren into full-fledged Hidden Elf Nations. Generally speaking, the elves who live in normal human society know nothing about Immortal bloodlines or previous ages of magic and are frankly annoyed that the elf-centric countries exist, because it's Fantastic Racism Fuel.
- But it gets subverted heavily, as the Ancient Wise Immortal Elves are actually quite useless. They have grotesque magic ability, but their leadership is decidedly suspect: being a great statesman or economist wasn't what let them survive all those eons. Tir Tairngire (Oregon, basically) and Tir Na Nog (Ireland, basically) are both unusually repressive, even for Shadowrun(!), and economic disaster areas, kept running largely by property stolen from or labor expropriated from non-elves, run for the benefit of unusually selfish, even for Shadowrun(!), feuding elf leaders. They like to espouse philosophical/mythical/historical stories which they know for a fact are blatantly false in an effort to degrade the status of non-elves. In addition, a few Immortal Elves have a tendency to wreck things, usually by assuming that "magical power" is the same as "knows how to use it properly".
- As of Shadowrun 4th edition, Tir Tairngire's elven government has effectively collapsed, and been replaced by a coalition government where the greatest influences are a charismatic ork prince, the AAA megacorp Horizon, and the Great Dragon Hestaby... who are actually bidding fair to put Tir Tairngire back together where the elves failed. You couldn't design a worse Humiliation Conga for the Immortal Elves than this, given how they feel about orks, human-run megacorps, and especially dragons.
- The sidhe of Changeling: The Dreaming are the closest thing the setting has to elves. They're inherently beautiful, and are considered to bear the "divine right" of rule after returning to Earth in the late '60s. This is a bit of a sore spot for some commoner fae, who spent centuries trying to fight off the tide of Banality while the sidhe faffed about in Arcadia.
- Well no one who's come back from Arcadia can completely remember what was happening over there, but some accounts say that Arcadia is under siege or might already have fallen - either way, I can't imagine being locked inside a world that is under threat of extinction is a walk in the park...
- The Fairest of Changeling: The Lost are in many ways the spiritual successors to the sidhe.
- Rifts Elves come in normal (i.e.: High), Space, and Jungle, which are Wood Elves ON HERBAL STEROIDS.
- The card game Warlord put a different spin on Elves. These elves are covered in fine scales, have horns growing above their eyebrows (which are sometimes mistaken for pointy ears if their hair covers them wrong), and live only 30 years unless they use necromancy to lengthen their lives.
- Averted in Talislanta, where the complete absence of elves in the game-setting was actually used in advertisments to promote the game.
- I remember a setting (perhaps Uresia: Grave of Heaven, but I'm not sure) where the author stated that basically every elven community was in fact a separate subrace - so you did not only had High Elves, you had Mountain High Elves, City High Elves, Wood High Elves...
- In Tormenta, a D&D setting, not only the elves lost their nation, Lenórienn, in a war against goblin-kin, having refused an alliance with humans, but their goddess, Glórienn, lost a battle against the leader of the goblin-kin army, and then went mad in frustration, bringing to the world Eldritch abominations in the name of vengeance, which in turn didn't work because they killed EVERYTHING and not just goblin-kin (and didn't even strike where the goblin army is, for what matters). Then, the Tormenta invaded her own divine realm, demoting her to a minor goddess. To make matters worse, she was so terrified that she accepted protection from the minotaur god of power, Tauron - a god that demands the weak to serve him. So, basically, the elven goddess is but a sex slave, the elves have no nation, no goddess, no pride and no love from the setting's creators. Oh, and most half-elves were born from rape in the war.
Video Games
- Age Of Wonders has both the Wood and Dark Elf variants, both of which tend to have their share of attention over the series despite the existence of up to 13 other races (as of Shadow Magic). Wood Elves are good and like Light Magic, Dark Elves are evil and like Death magic. Go figure.
- Somewhat justified by the fact that it is the human invasion of the Elven Court that kicks off the high/dark elf split (and thus the entire story) in the first place.
- The "High Elves" and "Space Elves" roles are filled by the High Men/Archons and Syrons, respectively. Perhaps.
- Completely and utterly subverted in Dragon Age. Elves were enslaved by humanity and are now regarded as second-class citizens.
- Although the Daelish elves seem to combine the High and Wood elf types, both living in the forest and being rather proud of themselves as the only followers of (their patchwork version of) true elvish tradition.
- In Warcraft, the Night Elves are the original ones. They live in the night, worship the moon, are in tune with the nature etc. After realising magic addiction is bad for you, they banned arcane magic completely, leading to the elite Highborn being exiled for not agreeing. These exiles formed their own nation and renamed themselves High Elves, or simply Elves. After Warcraft 3, the High Elven homeland was ravaged by the undead, and most of the ones left renamed themselves Blood Elves and started wearing red and using demon magic. All elves in the setting, however, fit into the Wood (Night Elves) and High categories.
- The blood elves are rather haughty, but the night elves are less so, as befitting their high elf/wood elf likenesses.
- The Night Elves are haughty enough to ignore massive wars happening, literally, right in front of them. They get slightly better by the end of WC 3.
- Also trolls to some extent. They aren't particularly pretty, being gangly, rawboned and pointy-nosed, with tusks and blue or green skin. They also have two toes and three fingers, including the thumb. They also aren't particularly haughty and have a tribal culture. But they have the long ears and have been cast as the Horde counterparts to Elves since WC2. WoW even implies that elves evolved from trolls.
- Wretched, felbloods, and naga could all be construed as Dark Elves, although all of them have been magically altered somehow (into scuttling little mutants, semi-demonic humanoids, and ugly reptilian things, respectively). The naga even have a culture that appears to be reminiscent of D&D drow.
- It's been argued that World Of Warcraft's revamp of the draenei count as "space elves," although they don't physically fit the elf stereotype much. (They have pointy ears...but they also have tails, horns, and hooves. And while the females are certainly lithe, their brothers are built like bank vaults...and are permitted not only facial hair, but catfish whiskers.)
- The same thing is true of the Night Elves. The males especially are built like four brick shithouses stacked together and have often quite bushy facial hair. The females are much more slender, but still quite muscular, like Olympic athletes.
- If you compare Night Elf males with their human counterparts, you'll notice they're actually relatively slender. It's just that the men in practically every species in the game appear to be built out of barrels. Still, the overall effect does leave Night Elves rather resembling the local trolls in shape.
- The Warlords strategy game series literally have three factions of Elves named: High Elves, Wood Elves and Dark Elves. The backstory of the setting explains that they all used to be High Elves, before a Prince named Mordaine dabbled in
Demon Daemon Magic. When he brought his discoveries to his people, they were promptly rejected, despite him honestly just trying to help his people. As you probably can imagine, the whole thing escalated in a rather nasty civil war, ending with the Year of the Seven Fleets, a time when they simply built seven fleets and split up, forming new colonies around the world. Most of them still exist, but one of the Dark Elf ones blew up when the Horsemen Of The Apocalypse entered the world. I guess dabbling in Demon Daemon summoning really was a dumb idea. And if you read through that entire Info Dump, then go get yourself a Muffin, you've earned it.
- The Protoss of StarCraft are an excellent example of Elves In Space!, with their height, slenderness, long lives, advanced technology, beautiful architecture, endless arrogance, dogmatic split (between High and Dark Templar, no less), declining society, and the fact that they (and Jim Raynor) are
pretty much the only good guys.
- Although the really arrogant ones tend to be Knight Templar types who give a lot of grief to the extremely humble
Jesus Tassadar.
- The Elder Scrolls features variations on the Tolkienian Elf archetypes. Starting with a Precursor race called the Aldmer, they broke of into groups known as the Falmer (snow Elves), the Chimer ("changed ones"), the Altmer (High Elves), the Orsimer ("pariah folk"), the Dwemer (Dwarves), the Bosmer (Wood Elves), and the Ayleid ("Heartland Wild Elves"). The Falmer were supposedly killed by the Nords; all but one Dwemer was killed off by mass absorbicide (yeah...it's hard to explain) and the Chimer changed into the Dunmer (Dark Elves); and, the Ayleid either slaughtered by humans or assimilated into other elf cultures. Exiles from Altmer society are the Maormer (tropical Elves); the Orsimer were changed into Orcs by the Daedric Prince Boethiah; some breeds of Khajiit are difficult to distinguish from Bosmer; last but not least are the Bretons, who are Man and Mer hybrids.
- The Altmer are respectable "we're more civilized than you" High Elves. While they are frequently labeled by canon sources as exceedingly arrogant, this rarely if ever comes up in the games, where most high elves are polite and genuinely amiable. It, along with Dunmer promiscuity, is something of an informed trait.
- "I suppose it is my duty to help those less fortunate than myself."
- The Bosmer live in trees and are forbidden to eat vegetable matter. They're complete non-vegetarians and subsist entirely on meat. Including other races, when the opportunity knocks ... They're seem as flightly and thievish.
- According to their traditions, they're required to eat anyone they kill in combat. It's actually mentioned in one of the games that they fast for several days before engaging tribal warfare. Fortunately, Bosmer living outside of their home country seem to have given up this practice.
- The Orcs, prior to Daggerfall were a warrior-like outcast race that were scraping for a homeland to call their own, often demonized as nothing more than brute animals. After the events of Daggerfall, Orcs were accepted into Imperial society as a strong and noble race, for the most part.
- The Elder Scrolls Dwarves were "deep elves". The only reason that they're called dwarves is because their homeland was shared by a race of giants; to them, the Dwemer were dwarves, and the name stuck.
- The Dunmer form a traditionalistic, racist, religious society who practice slavery, ancient magic, back stab their own for acceptable political gain, and, despite their current tolerances, would just kindly wish for the Empire and anyone who is not them to get off their land. Actually, some of the Ashland Tribes aren't as bad as the Three Great Houses because the former still adhere to courtesy laws ...
- No one thinks about the Bretons much. They're naturally better wizards than any other race though. Also, thanks to their extremely high innate magic resistance, they're pretty much Game Breakers in Oblivion. Turns out that every magical effect (including those that lower magic resistance) are defeated by 100 percent magic resistance (which Bretons easily achieve by just equipping ONE particular ring).
- They're also a lot more man than elf. It's not a race of half elves, it's a race of men with some elven heritage WAY back in their history.
- There are about twenty unique kinds of Khajiit according to the Imperial Library, swinging from bestial and Bosmer characteristics, but they all like illegal narcotics. Khajiit are treated like slaves to the Dunmer, like sneaks to most everyone else, but they're not really that bad.
- Spoken like a FILTHY Khajit!
- Arcanum Of Steam Works And Magick Obscura features typically haughty Tolkienian Elves that are long-lived, good with magic, live in trees and consider all other races "lesser". However, facing the vast expansion in the power of the humans following their industrial revolution, they have either retreated into their treetop towns or integrated into Human urban society. Since they consider themselves the oldest race in the world, some are rather annoyed at fossil finds that suggest Humans evolved first and that the Elves branched off from them later due to the influence of magic.
- The Asari in Mass Effect are a combination of space elves, blue-skinned space babes, and a monogender species. Their space elven traits come through in their immense, millennium-long lifespans, their powerful mental and biotic abilities, and their military doctrine of using small highly trained commando units that utilize their natural physical agility and the aforementioned powers to overcome their lack of brute strength. Of course, it also helps that they're incredibly hot. They avert the arrogance associated with elves since their Hat is "Diplomatic".
- Well, most of them avert it. There's several asari characters in the game that make this troper regret that there was no dialogue option for punching them in the mouth. Nassana Dantius anyone?
- Also Alestia Iallis, although you CAN get a chance to fill her with shredder rounds.
- Subverted in Final Fantasy XI. The Elvaan have the arrogant attitude down (along with the ears, of course), but little else really corresponds to standard elves. They are very tall and thin, making them look very disproportionate. They have a martial society where all the men (and presumably most of the women) are expected to have combat skills. They have little skill in magic, shown both by a lack of spellcasters amongst NPCs (in fact, the magic store acts surprised to get customers) and by the fact that their MP and INT are lower than average (although they have good MND... presumably as an obligatory counter-balance). They have little appreciation for art, with the city designed prioritizing function over form (although the palace has a fairly perfunctory opulence). But one thing they maintain to a tee is the arrogance. They view the other races (and all foreigners regardless of race) with derision, tolerating them only because of the global threat of the beastmen. That hardly prevents them from espousing their xenophobic beliefs on people.
- Subverted, sort of, in Dwarf Fortress, which is understandable given that it's from the point of view of the dwarves — elves are arrogant and can do some nasty damage with wooden weapons, but are otherwise shown more as annoying than otherworldly or superior.
- With the release of the new version, though, DF's elves are now famous for literally outnumbering their enemies "83 to one"◊, and still losing... To make things worse, they eat their enemies' corpses.
- Maybe I'm not looking at it right, but i believe that link says that the elves WON that encounter.
- Never fear, they got slaughtered later.
- I'm pretty sure attacking with a force of 1700 against a force of 20 and losing 500 before defeating said 20 counts as losing in most strategic cases.
- The elves' cannibalism combined with their tendency to kill for minor offenses such as chopping down a tree often leads to a vicious circle that results in the elves getting out of world generation in the middle of multi-century long wars with every race they've ever come across.
- There have been reports of badass elves killing demons (demons are leaders of goblins) and eating their corpses!
- The Suikoden series arguably subverts this trope, as their elves have the arrogant, condescending attitude turned up to eleven, but never really do anything to back up their claims of superiority. Indeed, most of the elven characters available for recruitment are rather sub-par in comparison to the human characters, and even with the better ones there's no compelling reason to use them over another character. In Suikoden I, this is shown in the storyline, as well, when the elves' arrogant assumption of superiority and refusal to accept outside help results in their getting wiped out by the Scarlet Moon forces.
- Played with in Suikoden IV. The elves are Not So Different from the human natives of Na-Nal: both groups are self-absorbed Jerkasses convinced that they are the ones who 'own' the island while the others are just intruders. This eventually has horrific consquences: the elves manipulate the Kooluk occupying forces into slaughtering the humans while staying safe in their Hidden Elf Village. One elf helps the heroes stop the massacre, and is promptly exiled for her trouble, while the rest of her kind pull a Karma Houdini, in sharp contrast to the original game.
- In Mother 3, the Magypsies are a group of immortals with powerful magic and the friendship of the beasts of the forest. They live away from human civilization, caring little for our brief lives, and have names like Doria, Lydia and Aeolia. They look like hairy men in garish drag, wave their limp wrists, shake their bums, and stretch their bass voices falsetto as they call people "dahling" or "snookums." If you're now blinking rapidly and giving off strange high-pitched yelps, you've caught on.
- Caster of Fate Stay Night almost fits the High Elf example of this trope perfectly. Pointed ears, extremely proficient in magic, originally from a ancient kingdom, and she wears mostly purple. She also wears a somewhat tight fitting dress beneath the hood and cloak she is usually seen in.
- She is never stated to be an elf. In fact, Medea, the woman she is suppose to be in her past life, is a human with some godly blood. Its kinda hard to miss so Type Moon probably just gave her pointy ears for the heck of it. Len from Tsukihime also have pointy ears, which traditional succubus don't, I think.
- Bosco's Reality 2.0 character is a half-elf. Vertically. See Half Human Hybrid for the picture...
- Legend Of Zelda uses a variation. The Hylians are elves, if the pointed ears are anything to go by. Occasionally, Hylians with round ears (called humans in Fanon) show up, but they are easily overlooked by many players. However, the Hylians make no claims of superiority, several games show them to be flawed, and they sometimes serve as Muggles. The Hylians are also not immortal, and don't even seem long-lived. Finally, most seem to not be superhumanly beautiful (Link and Zelda being exceptions), some are even Gonks!
- It seems, in fact, that Hylian elves are on the decline (as very few showed up in Twilight Princess) and the only thing separating them from normal humans are the aforementioned pointed ears (and of course the fact that a Hylian family is the royal line, namely Zelda's). Which brings up interesting questions as to how they keep the trait going. Half Human Hybrid pairings maybe? (Link/Ilia, I'm looking at you)
- By Link to he Past the Hylians have all but died out, presumably wiped out in a flood. But in Link to the Past, it's stated that Hylians could also use magic and read the ancient language of the Hylians, which has various effects on different parts of the world. You need to get the Book of Medora early on to get to the second level.
- Ocarina of Time has the Kokiri, who seem to be rather traditional examples of wood elves, complete with nature-based deity and seemingly eternal youth.
- Ruthlessly parodied in Overlord. Its elves are arrogant, self-absorbed dimwits who believe themselves to be the sole source of beauty in the world, despite having no discernable talent or ability at anything. They've been driven almost to extinction by the dwarves before the game starts, and you have the option to send them the rest of the way (though the Overlord canonically saves their pathetic hides). Their Ironic Hell in the Raising Hell Expansion Pack forces them to watch and act in a terrible play that mocks them and their Mother Goddess while celebrating their downfall.
- Due to limited character interaction in Super Robot Wars Endless Frontier, normal elves (armed with machine guns) are mere random encounters. However, the dark elf Dorothy is the Hot Scientist who developed bullets that can break Einst crystals. She also sells the game's best accessories (...which are also the most expensive).
- Elves in Spellforce are Wood Elves, with something rather unusual - mages focusing on ice powers. Oh, and they have unusual accents that may or may not be the result of extremely bad voice acting.
- In Radiata Stories, the Light Elves are mostly the Wood Elf type, except they have the arrogance of the High Elf type. They're also physically between elves and fairies (they get fairy wings and flight). The Dark Elves in that game aren't much like typical Dark Elf types, and are generally less arrogant, but they are also half-elves, and half-human.
- Heroes Of Might And Magic V has Wood Elves (Rampart) and Dark Elves (Dungeon). They used to be one, until a demon deception split them, forcing the latter to go underground. They are pretty much polar opposites, though they both have relatively powerful, but low growth creatures and have dragons as their tier 7 units.
- The Newmen of the Phantasy Star series are genetically-engineered elves created by humans to create a more intelligent race. Unlike other Space Elves, they're more Wutai (as revealed in Universe) than nature-loving or medieval, and they pretty much use the same kinds of weapons everyone else uses. They do, however, have their own flavor of haughtiness in Universe.
- The Nedians in Star Ocean The Second Story seem to be a Deconstruction. When they're first discovered, they seem fairly typical; they ruled the the galaxy in a utopian society until a group of superpowerful rebels appeared out of nowhere and forced them into hiding for the good of the universe. An easily missed late game side quest reveals something quite different. Nede actually ruled the galaxy through force of arms and their own innate symbology. The "rebels" that forced them into hiding were actually bio weapons created by the Nedians themselves to stop the real rebels. Their programing was changed when their creator's daughter was killed in a terrorist attack, causing him to go mad. It wasn't even the Ten Wise Men who forced their species into hiding and they certainly didn't do it for the altruistic reasons their descendents were told. The battle with the Ten Wise Men had severly weakened their hold on the colony worlds. They destroyed Nede and fled to an artificial planet because they were terrified of what the newly liberated races of the galaxy would do if they reached Nede.. The Morphus of Star Ocean The Last Hope seem, at first glance seem more like stereotypical fantasy elves in space, until you put two and two together after examining their dictionary entry and certain aspects of their own artificial planet.
- The Sylvari in Guild Wars 2 are shaping up to basically be Wood Elves in all but technicality.
Webcomics
- The Elves in 8-bit Theater are a parody of this trope. They like to think of themselves as superior, but are just as moronic, gullible, xenophobic and destructive as every other race. Possibly worse. In fact, they were responsible for oppressing the world for thousands of years with the help of evil dragons, caused at least one civilization to be incomprehensible because they had cooler stuff (namely Airships), have been exchanging atrocities with the dwarves for a long time for control of the Earth Orb, and have conquered the Giants to pillage their lands and use them as weapons. Hell, even the Dark Elves aren't as bad as the main elves (the one we see is something of an Only Sane Man among the Dark Warriors), though exchanges between Thief and Drizz'l reveal that that's simply because the Dark Elves were out-bastarded.
- Errant Story goes to great lengths to deconstruct Tolkien-esque elves. Not only do they have the conventional 'high/wood/sea/dark' elf distinctions (and then one of them gets huffy when a human points out this out after an elaborate lecture on the different groups), they have precisely the sort of snotty arrogance that typifies this trope, especially after they have spent a few centuries in hiding following the Errant Wars. But it is their treatment of half-elfs ('errants') that is most telling: they made a huge mess of things when they first encountered humans, then after this led to a bloody civil war, refused to do anything to clean up the mess except ruthlessly hunt down and kill their own hybrid descendants.
- And the Errants only exist in the first place because for some reason it's much easier to conceive Elf-Human hybrids than pure Elf children. The war happened later one when it turned out that Errants with magical power have a tendency to suddenly go utterly insane.
- Erfworld has the Royal Crown Coalition (get it?) made of the classic "Good Guy" fantasy races. Their elf allies are divided into: Woodsy (tall), Shady (goth), Luckless (die), Eager (Link), Schlemiel (Jewish), Altruist (nurses), Lofty (aloof), and Superfluous (emo). There's also the Tardy Elves, but we don't get to see them because they move too slowly to get to the battle in time.
- Tales Of The Questor have elves with a very serious problem. In their past, the race had lifespans that were marginally longer than humans and one Elf monarch wanted to stop his people from aging. So, he made a deal with a magic giant salamander for a spell that would ensure Elves never got old, which unfortunately was done by limiting Elf lifespans to 20 years (Half-Elves live a bit longer). The King tried to fix this catastrophic problem by getting a magic goblet that could give immortality to any elf drinking, which worked until it was stolen/destroyed/? (nobody remembers). As a result, Elf society totally collapsed with a population unable to get enough maturity and the race degenerated to a bunch of petty thieves and vagrants with nothing to live for. Naturally, when Quentyn the Questor learns of this from his new elf companion, Samantha, you can bet he'll keep an eye out for that goblet in his quest.
- Parodied in this Sluggy Freelance strip where elves are described as "mythological hotties who wouldn't give humanity the time of day." Mostly averted in the rest of the series, where elves are short, not particularly attractive laborers at cookie companies and Santa's workshop (though they do get some cool black ops equipment).
- Drowtales: simultaneously played straight and deconstructed.
- For clarification, the elves are pretty much immortal humans with magic powers and a culture vaguely remniscient of a matriarchal version of the ancient Rome. They are arrogant enough to consider humans as dumb animals, enslave them, and use them for food.
- Heliothaumic has the Dark Elves described above in the dying country/empire of Ilthmir, which is an oppressive monarchy wrecked by civil war and ruled by a 600-year old queen. It also has these Elves breeding with humans to produce the Half-Elves, the vast majority of which live outside of Ilthmir and embrace their human side more.
- Haru-Sari has an interesting twist on elves: They are born from human mothers or genetically engineered, and have the power of magic. They are stuck in prepubescent bodies for their entire life, and they are treated as dangerous second class citizens by the society around them. And they only live for about 30 years before their affinity for magic kills them off.
- Outsider features a lone human's contact with the Loroi, who are Blue-Skinned Space Elf Hotties, who happen to be locked in a genocidal war with Bugs, and have no problems with glassing planets that get in the way.
- Averted in Order Of The Stick. Vaarsuvius spends a fair amount of time being arrogant and lecturing people in as polysyllabic a way as s/he can think of, but genuinely seems to care for people, clearly isn't always right, and recently got suckered in a big way by a trio of fiends. Furthermore, V's arrogance is incidental to hir elvenhood, stemming far more from hir wizardry. The only thing that comes close to this trope was V's mention about how hir noble elven metabolism is so efficient that V only has so concern hirself with such base needs as going to the bathroom every few weeks. Which frustrated anyone who wanted to know what sex V was when they arrived at a bathroom.
- The drow (dark elves) are apparently played straight, although the abundance of Wangsty no-I'm-the-non-Evil-exception drow in games and game-books is poked fun at.
- It had to happen ... we now have confirmed in El Goonish Shive how elves work. Apparently, if you're the child of a human and an immortal, you're an elf. And, to some, an abomination. Still, since immortals seem to have rigid 'hands off' rules, the elf that does show up laments about his limited career choices with regards to fighting. And then, once negotiations break down, attacks with a sword and exploding magic crows.
- In Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts, the elves are in danger of becoming exclusively female, thanks in part to a low birth rate and the fact that many male elves died in a great war long ago.
- Linburger the Cyll. They were once powerful and long lived, but once Gotterdamerung hit, they became short lived as humans, and live in slums. They kept their pointed ears though.
- My Roommate Is An Elf has Griswold Strelich as the titular elf, and would be classified under 'High Elf'. Doesn't seem to have any superior attitude towards his roommate though.
- Guilded Age has Sky elves, Winter elves, Shit elves (which may just be a colloquial name), and Wood elves, so far.
- Mocked in this strip of Phil and Dixie. Phil stands by describing an elf's wonderful traits while an elf stands by berating him for being fat, inadequate, ill-mannered and incapable of getting a girlfriend. Dixie gets the last laugh, however.
Web Original
- Tales Of MU plays around with this, most obviously by having dark elves who insist they're simply regular elves and it is the surface-dwelling "faint elves" who are the evil bizarro version. Half-elf Steff also both overestimates her keen elven eyesight and underestimates the nightvision of humans, on separate occasions.
- However, one of the reasons that elves used to be discriminated against are that they're awesome, as this professor explains:
Professor Hart: Good? Good? Ms. La Belle, elves aren’t ‘good’… they are better. These people can run twice as fast as you can without making a sound. They can see to the farthest horizon on a starless night and they can hear the heart beat of a mouse. They don’t sweat. If they fart, you’ll never hear about it. They can go into a human town and fuck everybody’s wives, sons, and daughters for fifteen hours straight, they are going to live forever… and can you imagine what would happen if the brand-new emperor had stood before his people and said, ‘Hey, these are the people who are going to be in charge of you.’ Do you think the people who had just thrown off one tyrant would have just rolled over and accepted that?
- The trope is parodied in this piece of RPG Motivational art: "Elves. Anything you can do, they can do better."
- Limyaael suggests any potential writers think up reasons for the clichés.
- Plain avoided in Warlock Games. The elf is useless.
- From what little we know of them, the Sidhe in the Whateley Universe may well have been embodiments of this before their version of the end of the world as we know it happened. The modern-day reincarnation of one of their most powerful queens is already considered one of both the most powerful and the most beautiful students on campus before the end of her first semester, and it's been strongly hinted at that her ancient original (whose personality lives on in her head for the time being) was easily a hundred times more awesome and at some point ruled not only over her own people, but the humans living in the area as well — to say nothing of dealing with a variety of supernatural movers and shakers on at least an equal basis. (We haven't yet learned much about the 'common' Sidhe, but there have been a hint or two that the humans were second-class citizens at best back in that day. Note that this is apparently the past of this universe's Earth.)
Real Life
- If we ever get good human genetic engineering, I expect elves to be a realistic outcome. How would lots of people engineer their children, or themselves? Tall, pretty, thin, smart, and as long-lived as we can manage. The main aesthetic competition might be from designs with exaggerated sexual characteristics: manly Conan men, busty women, vs. the Bishounen androgny of most elves.
- Plus, in the family of ape and hominid species, humans are the elves, in a way: 'gracile' vs. 'robust' bodies, weak, neotenous, longer-lived, and much much smarter.
- And we act as arrogant and snotty (not to say plain genocidal) towards them like any good elf would to humans.
- And lets not forget old Addie Hitler probably had wet dreams about a world full of elves...which brings in all kinds of unfortunate implications about the use of the trope.
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