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TheVindicators — Elf Character Sheet
Published: 2019-10-21 08:02:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 1073; Favourites: 10; Downloads: 0
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Here is my take on the classic fantasy elf. Now in almost every fantasy, Elves are depicted as almost identical to humans except they have pointed ears, are slimmer, live longer lifespans, not to mention have a reputation for being stuck up a-holes towards humans and other "lesser races". In this setting Elves are almost alien in both appearance and mindset. Having a fairly humanlike shape, but with digitigrade legs, four fingered hands, black sclera on their eyes and skin colors ranging from light green, blue and purple. Unlike other examples of Elves, they have high opinion on Human beings and have great respect for them as they taught the Elves technology as the Elves are creatively sterile.Related content
Comments: 4
So, let me try to break this down. I'm assuming your elves are like a "sister taxon" to humans, here, since they're very similar with a few key differences.
- Blue skin. Guessing this is from iridescent microstructure in the stratum corneum, probably for display. Perfectly plausible - humans are a very display-oriented species, and its not like other primates don't have similar adaptations.
- Black sclera. Wikipedia tells me human sclera are white because eye contact is vital in cooperative hunting and that the high contrast between sclera and iris/pupil means the eyes can be seen and followed at a distance. Black-sclera'd apes are not as good at following eye movements as humans are. I'm guessing the black sclera indicates less cooperative hunting and behaviour that, while not exactly solitary, is a lot less group-focused - a culture where everyone is expected to pull their own weight and find their own food instead of relying on each other. This could have some interesting implications for their culture.
- Digitigrade feet. Human feet are shaped the way they are because they're ideal for persistence hunting (moving long distances at a relatively slow running pace). Digitigrade feet are better for more typical cursorial behaviours - running very fast for short periods of time. Your elves are probably champion sprinters, but without a whole lot of stamina - they're probably ambush predators, hunting mostly colourblind prey that can't see their blue skin. The three toes work too, as lots of cursorial animals have a reduced toe count.
- Big, pointy ears. I was originally going to dismiss this as another display feature but it actually makes a lot of sense in an ambush predator. Larger ears can direct more sound to the eardrum, meaning they're more sensitive to their environment and can be helpful in choosing the right ambush spot as well as prey surveillance.
- Four-fingered hand. This one I'm not sure about. The pinky finger is actually pretty important to how human hands work, and you lose a lot of manual dexterity if you drop it. You'll notice that there are no primates that have lost their pinky, though a few have lost their thumb (and no, losing the thumb wouldn't work either. Losing the thumb would indicate an arboreal habit, and the digitigrade legs already established this species as ground-dwelling and cursorial). Finger reduction really only happens when the hand is repurposed from a manipulator to something else, like a foot, wing, or grasper (a la chameleons, which technically still have five, but they're fused together so they're functionally two). Since your elves' hands otherwise look pretty much like a human's, I don't think this is the case. The only way I can see the pinky being dropped is if it's an accidental genetic consequence of inbreeding - maybe the same kind of inbreeding that drove them to sterilization?
This is actually a pretty interesting idea for elves. If you take all these suggestions, you end up with a pretty unique hominid species and an equally unique culture. Social, but not cooperative, each hunting their own prey by stalking and ambush. This could make for some peculiar ways of thinking (A rampant streak of competitiveness and self-dependency, for example) that could carry on into whenever they develop civilization and affect their government, family structures, friendships, etc. I'm sure any human that visited would be freaked out by their tendency to silently sneak up behind and startle the living daylights out of them.
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About the four fingered hand, based on what you said, you're saying that four fingers would make elves rather clumsy in many things that require dexterity like archery, one of the many things commonly associated with Elves in fantasy. My reason for giving my Elves only four fingers was to differentiate them from humans, I see that in a lot of depictions of humanoid aliens and even the Elves from the series Dragon Prince.
I intended to make Elves a species of sentient humanoid from an Order of other various humanoids sharing similar features mentioned above. These species include Goblins, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Merfolk, Pixies, etc. This Order are known by the Humans as "Fair Folk" in legends.
Imagine comparing these "Fairies" to Artiodactyls
*Elves
*Goblin=Antelope *Trolls=Hippos
*Merfolk=Cetaceans
Based on what you said, these "Fairies" share several features, irisdescent skin colors, digitigrade three toed feet(except merfolk), a humanoid shape, pointy ears and black sclera.
Now onto a few questions:
1) Would black sclera prevent night vision, or ultraviolet vision?
2) By having four fingers, that would slow their development in civilization thus explaining why humans advanced so quickly compared to them, right?
3) Based on the anatomy of my Elves, what would be their hunting strategy and what weapons would they more likely use if they had only four fingers
4) How would Humans and Elves interact upon first contact, depending on the culture? Ex. a medieval culture of Humans towards an Iron Age Elf culture?
5) Whats the most likely way for Humans and Elves to form mutual beneficial alliances?
6) What kind of name for the Order of Fairies if they were classified by modern scientists(which exist in my setting by the way) similar to Artiodactyla?
Also can you comment on my artwork that features three Elves? The Elves featured are a female Wood Elf Ranger, a High Elf Soldier and a Dark Elf Hunter. Several things happened to them that pressured them into the cultures they are currently in now.
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Yes. The absence of a pinky finger would absolutely hinder their dexterity and would make it very difficult to use or craft tools. Different numbers of fingers is a common trope among fictional races, but frankly I think it's kind of an overused, "cheaty" way to visually distinguish humans from nonhumans. If you can come up with a good reason behind it, go ahead and keep it, but otherwise it's not a good idea for a species that relies on dexterity.
The "fair folk" thing is neat, it'd be interesting to see how a human body plan would react to different environmental pressures.
1. Nope. The sclera has very little effect on how the eye absorbs light. Be careful with the ultraviolet vision, though; no mammal, primates included, has an ultraviolet receptor cone in their eye.
2. Yes. It might even prevent it, since it would make it nearly impossible to craft basic tools. If it were me, I'd have them be ancestrally five-fingered and then lose the pinky as a result of a genetic bottleneck AFTER developing a complex culture. That would stall development long enough for humans to develop past them, and then the humans could swoop in and save them from a crumbling civilization which they can no longer maintain.
3. I'm thinking leopards. They're solitary hunters that can run very fast for short distances, so their strategy would be to get as close as they can to their prey without being detected, and then running up and attacking before it knows what's happening. As for weapons, you're extremely limited since they can't really craft stone spearheads and may not even be able to throw things properly. Maybe sharp sticks or bones, broken precisely across a fracture plane, would give them some basic weaponry, but nothing like the chipped stone arrowheads primitive humans made.
4. No idea. Depends on the specific situation. If the elves were fairly submissive, the humans might see themselves as "saviours" and treat the elves as underlings; if they offered resistance, there'd probably be a war. Historically, humanity hasn't been kind to those they deemed "different" from themselves.
5. Dunno. Maybe gifts, trading, negotiation. It entirely depends on the relevant cultures.
6. If the "fair folk" were a clade and a sister taxon to Homo sapiens, and assuming your fantasy world follows the same system of Latin nomenclature as our own world does, maybe call it Tangaranthria ("shiny man") or Dromotarsi ("running ankle"). It really depends on what part of their anatomy you want to highlight.
I mean, I can comment on it, but I don't really have anything to say. The costumes are pretty standard fantasy fare - I encourage you to try and put more originality into their designs.
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The Fair Folk are shiny so I guess "Tangaranthria" while "Dromotarsi" will be a subgroup containing Elves and Goblins. And you know what, your right, I can't really think of a good reason for Elves and the other Fair Folk to have only four fingers, besides simply distinguishing them from Humans. So I'll redesign them with a complete set of five but keep everything else.
By the way, there are other sapient species I included in my gallery, such as Orcs and the dinosauroid creature called the Kenku. Maybe you can offer some anatomical advice to those creatures.
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