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hrothila — Dark Elf
#darkelf #fantasy
Published: 2014-09-23 19:43:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 649; Favourites: 8; Downloads: 1
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Description
Like every self-respecting Tolkien nut, I also dabbled in world building at one point. It was pretty standard stuff: elves, goblins, orcs, dwarves, what have you. Most of it was very superficial and involved very little visualization. One race, however, stood out, with distinct aesthetics and glimpses of an original culture that changed throughout the centuries. These were the dark elves, and this is how I pictured them towards the end of their "Bronze Age".If I had a model, it wasn't the svartálfar of Norse mythology, and it certainly wasn't the Moriquendi of Middle-earth. I knew nothing about Warcraft, TES or D&D dark elves. I would have to say the biggest influence was probably Age of Wonders.
Aight, I'll stop nerding up the place now.
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Comments: 14
Lovely! I can't decide which is more intimidating: his face or his helmet. Definately gives off that 'ancient culture' vibe. Great to see original elves rather than the same old gimmicky leaf ornaments and plastic pauldrons for once. I'm curious about what kind of society you invented for them? I guess this is a kind of noble?
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Thanks! Yes, he's supposed to be a noble, and his equipment (vambraces and masked helmet, but also his greaves, which aren't shown here) is supposed to be even more about status and fashion than about functionality. A commoner would have used a simpler helmet at this time, and leather or cloth vambraces (which they all would wear in their daily civilian lives). Oh, and the vambraces should have been lacquered, but I kinda forgot 
The idea was that the dark elves had developed weapons and armour for 1-on-1 duels before they met the elves, who for the most part only had hunting weapons (plus some long spears that would have been developed for ritualized wild boar hunting). Theirs was a relatively violent society, but "evil" and "good" were largely meaningless labels applied by the uncaring gods. It was all very cynical.
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I wonder how they evolved after encountering these peaceable elf tribes, and the other way as well? I hope it wasn't only cynicism.
You gave up on the world though? There's some good ideas in there imo. I once read and I believe that building a fantasy world means expressing oneself in a language of concepts and meaning (that's why it is such a popular genre among adolescents and shy people). Maps and histories of a fantasy world are crucial in structurizing these meaningful elements. I don't know enough about it to psychanalyze anybody, but it is to say that I too think the lacquer on vambraces matters!
Nice to see you're giving it another (visual!) expression though!
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Well, the other elves copied much of the dark elvish equipment after fighting their way to a stalemate in their first war thanks to sheer numbers, but they lost one of their two major cities in the process. It was a bit of an arms race after that.
I haven't really written anything new about this world in ages. After a while, most of the stuff I did for it was linguistic in nature because of course it was 
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Sounds like there's enough conflict in your world to make it go a long way. This conflict between the elves shows the underlying opposition in the worldbuilding itself. (This is what I meant: concrete fantasy events and races are a translation of real world concepts). Even though Tolkien was a devout Catholic, in his world too his values struggled with opposite, nearly nihilistic antagonisms. I guess that's what makes it mature and literary relevant. Also linguistics!
I myself never really got past the stage of petty escapism. Nor do I feel I need to really.
Keep up the good work! I'd love to see more drawings of yours!
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Este apuesto soldado se parece a los bichos violetas del WOW, pero mola más porque me recuerda a las historias de Moorcock (ya sabes, el Elric ese albino) y me ENCANTA la ropa que lleva, especialmente el cinto de la espada y el yelmo (el yelmo es lo más!). Tienes que hacer más personajes propios, te salen genial!! 
Por cierto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pSmhZ…
No te vayas a dormir sin verlo!
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¡Me alegro de que te guste! Seguramente haga algún otro por el estilo (en la carrera había un personaje que dibujaba a menudo por mesas y apuntes, y no estaría mal actualizarlo un poco 
El vídeo: loooooool. ¡Es descojonante!
Toma, para que tú tampoco duermas: cdn.plp.cl/chacalon/2012/12/32…
¡Gracias por comentar!
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I hadn't thought of that. Interesting to see what other people see.
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He looks like he is being nagged by his wife/sister/mother/random female, and he is annoyed by it but he has to stay or else he will get worse than a nagging.
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I just think they were naturally pissed off most of the time, haha.
Thanks for the comment and the fave!
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