Superseeds
Anyway, a few years later I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and, having liked them, went on to The Silmarillion. Boy, was I hooked! I'm a sucker for mythological narratives and that book cast a new light on the whole story of Middle-Earth and Tolkien elves.
So, back in 1998, I was thinking of creating a campaign in an alternate modern Earth where magic and fantasy, along with super-humans, was prevalent. There weren't that many supers and the main teams that existed were government-sanctioned, representing specific nations.
I immediately thought of having an elven supergroup. Following the logic of the campaign, there should also be a country of elves that not only sported a few superindividuals, but also had some bad ass "first age" inhabitants. That's how Alfheim (or Edhilein, as its inhabitants call it) was born.
Alfheim's Earth was a bit gonzo (I like it, I confess): Nibelungen (dwarves) controlled Norway and were big on powersuit and weapon manufacture, the Allied States of America was an USA where North and South came to a truce, Lyonesse (the United Kingdom) was ruled by a reincarnating Arthur, Ireland was the playground of the S°dhe -- you get the idea.
However, in presenting Alfheim here, I'll try to generalize the external details so as to facilitate its inclusion in your campaign. I also put together a few words in a made-up elvish, because I'm too lazy to scour online Sindarin/Quenya dictionaries.
Pitch
An elven nation in a modern Earth, where magic and superpowers are present, complete with a national superteam.
Premise
Four thousand years ago, a large magic portal opened in a part of Europe that would become northern Finland. Through it came the edhil, or the †lfr, as the indigenous people called them. These elves were fleeing from the Otherworld where they were losing a war against their cousins, the S°dhe (yeah, I'm mixing mythologies here - I told you it was gonzo).
The native hunter-gatherers were no match for these super-human, sorcerous, battle-hardened elves, but the supernatural inhabitants of the land - giants, trolls etc. - proved a bit tougher and attrition took its toll on the elven numbers. It soon became clear to these first elves (ayedhil) that they needed to reproduce.
And so they did. After ten months the new generation was born and soon the ayedhil noticed something horrifying: their children weren't as powerful as them. The lower ambient magic on Earth prevented non-Otherworld born elves from developing the same gifts as their parents.
They were still stronger, more agile and longer-lived than common humans (essani), but remained a pale shadow of the ayedhil. And later generations fared worse, eventually becoming just prettier, slightly more agile and magically-inclined versions of humans (the usual RPG elf).
The elven leaders decided to search for a more welcoming place and climate and the group traveled south, reaching what we call the Gulf of Finland. They slaughtered or drove off any and all who got in their way. Where Helsinki is located in our world, they build their first city: Toras Eldor, the capital of Edhilein.
And then?
Thanks to the power of the ayedhil, the fledgling nation held its own against its neighbors, who were none too pleased with having a country of powerful supernatural creatures next door. Things changed when the first Roman incursion reached Edhilein borders.
The elves were not used to seeing such an organized human military force. The Roman army's tactics and discipline proved a near balancing factor to the high power of the original edhil. The elves won in the end, learning a valuable lesson: they could no longer count on the dwindling numbers of the ayedhil for their safety.
Although the elven population grew strong, the ayedhil numbers only decreased and not just because they became proportionally smaller as the other generations swelled up. Many of the original elves died due to the unending conflicts facing their people. Others, however, were tired of existence, no longer finding joy in living. These exiled themselves and faded away. Finally, some decided their rightful place was in the Otherworld and returned there.
The surviving ayedhil trained the new generations extensively until the elven armies became a force to be reckoned due more to martial prowess than supernatural power. This became handy during the Dark Ages when the Catholic Church decided that Edhilein was a prime target for a crusade.
Soon after the military campaign against the Cathars, the Church called a new crusade against the elven nation, which became known as the Alfheim (as humans called Edhilein) Crusade. Despite the resources granted by Pope Gregory IX, the human forces failed to invade the land of the elves. Further attempts were discouraged when the edhil threatened to forget their isolationism and cut a swath of destruction across Europe to invade Rome.
Here comes the elven representative
With the end of the Middle Ages and the coming of the Renaissance (and later Enlightenment), the more diplomatic voices among the elves finally convinced their hardline isolationist peers that Edhilein needed to be more present in European affairs and so the first elven embassies were born, as the edhil sent representatives to the main courts of Europe.
Despite this approach, the elven leaders remained wary of closer relations with the humans and kept contact between the two people to a minimum, the only exception being commerce. This was extremely frustrating for humans, because everything that had to do with elves became all the rage in Europe at that time.
War!
Things progressed more or less well until World War II. Russian and then Nazi armies pounded against Edhilein borders only to be sent back by the power of the elven army. Despite the continued aggressions, the edhil rulers refused to take a more active part in the war, even as the Allies sent representative after representative to Toras Eldor
This attitude would only change when the elves learned of Hitler's ultimate plan: summoning the Norse gods to win the war for Germany (it doesn't need to be this in your campaign, but it should be something BIG). Faced with the possibility of having to deal with an enemy more powerful even than the S°dhe, the edhil joined the Allied forces and fought until the end of the conflict.
After the war, the elves participated in several global organizations, like the United Nations, but never became full members. They were a little more open, it was true, though they remained isolationists by nature.
The Second Lesson
The war made the elves realize one thing: they had lagged behind the humans in industrialization and technological development. Sure, they had adopted such things as gunpowder weapons, combustion engines etc. But most of these were imported goods, they didn't have the capacity to produce them in Edhilein.
They were still the world's foremost center of magical research. Technologically, however, they were far behind most of the main nations. And in this new world, this could be a fatal mistake. The elven leaders decided it was time to change that and, like it was done after the Roman attacks, invested in filling this gap.
The next fifty years saw the flourishing of the elven age of science, with several research centers being built and many young edhil choosing to pursue scientific careers. By the 90s, Edhilein had become a technological potence, like the United States and Japan.
The Super-Human Factor
Another thing that came to the attention of the elves during World War II was the super-human phenomenon. Although there had been superpeople before, their appearance was sporadic, separated by decades or even centuries. Now, however, they were coming out of the woodwork.
And what was more curious about superpowered beings was that they were a completely human thing. There had never been documented cases of superelves, supergiants etc. Before, this was just a curiosity. Now, as the number and power of the super-humans grew, it became clear something had to be done to level the playing field.
Superelven development became as much a goal as technological superiority and was pursued by the more standard methods of intensive training, both physical and mystical. However, edhil scientists and sorcerers had a couple of other ideas.
Project Caledhil
One of the main goals dancing inside the minds of Edhilein scientists was recreating the glory of the ayedhil in the current elven generation. Procreation was out of the question given the lower mana level of Earth.
But what would happen if genetic material from the original elves was spliced into other individuals, who then would be exposed to a high-intensity (tac nuke-high) magical field? The researchers at the Edhilein Institute for High Studies (EIHS) thought the question merit an answer. And so Project Caledhil (High elf) was born.
After many years and a lot of money, the elves conducted a trial run with 100 subjects. They had 15 partial successes and one unexpected "epic win". The other 84 subjects fared less than well: death, insanity, disease, physical mutation. Two volunteers came out of the ordeal unchanged in any way - they considered themselves lucky.
The 15 subjects didn't attain ayedhil glory, but became perfect specimens of the elven species (think Captain America). These were later enlisted into the new Edhilein Army special forces branch, the Wraiths.
What about the epic win?
His name was Danion Felfax (later he would be known as Galedhil, the Golden Elf) and the elven scientists were at a loss to explain how he had acquired superpowers and become the first true superelf. Danion could manipulate light, create powerful laser beams and generate high-intensity luminosity - he could even turn into light.
After analyzing Danion form head to toe, the researchers spotted the possible cause for his unexpected abilities. They had neglected to perform full genetic scans of the subjects and so missed some odd genes in Danion's genome - human ones.
Despite all the isolationism the elves proclaimed throughout the centuries, some of them did fall in love or simply mated with humans. When the mother wasn't elven, these half-elves usually disappeared into human society. When she was, they were raised in Edhilein and the matter of their human ancestry was quickly hushed.
Danion's human ancestry, combined with ayedhil genes and magic, resulted in his superpowered nature. Further subjects revealed that human genes by themselves weren't a guarantee of metagenicity. And so the creation of additional superelves eluded the brilliant minds of the EIHS.
Enter the Moredhil
Meanwhile, the top mystical experts were hard at work to come up with another option. They decided summoning extradimensional powers was the way to get their superelf and spent many years perfecting a very dangerous ritual.
One night, 21 years ago, they conducted their ritual, which required sacrificing a baby elf. If everything worked out, the baby would be resurrected as a powerful being. Still, blood sacrifices of innocent newborns were something frowned upon by elven society, so the sorcerers kept their mission secret.
The ritual was cast perfectly, except for the not so minor detail of the forces summoned sucking the life out of all of the mystics and turning their bodies to dust. At the end, only the baby elf was alive, but his skin had turned a deep black and his hair was now silvery. Moredhil, the Dark Elf, had been born.
Moredhil was raised in secret by the authorities and trained to be the ultimate spy and assassin, careers his supernatural stealth abilities made him the perfect candidate for. When the elven leaders decided to create a supergroup to defend their interests worldwide, Moredhil was an obvious choice.
The Galgarad
By the late 90s, all the major countries on Earth had their national superteam. Edhilein could not stay behind. The Calderach, the high council that led the elven nation and was formed by the nine remaining ayedhil on the planet, appointed one of their own to lead this group.
Called the Galgarad, the Golden Guard (I created a few elvish words, but as you can see I use them over and over again :), the team had six members:
Falarion: ayedhil, Calderach member and a mighty warrior. Falarion is the leader of the team, but despite his obvious tactical skill, his ability to deal with differences is sorely lacking. He is the closest thing to an elven supremacist and does not hide his disgust with the non-edhil Guards - Titania and Maugrir. He thinks Galedhil is an insolent child and that Moredhil and Silgolssà could be the future of elvenkind.
Galedhil: Danion's superpowers make him an invaluable addition to the elven supergroup as a blaster/flyer. Although Galedhil is as patriotic as the next elf, he has a firm opinion about Edhilein isolationism: it should end. This puts him in direct confrontation with Falarion. Normally, Danion would not antagonize someone so powerful, but he's confident that his abilities put him on equal footing with the ayedhil, at least powerwise. Galedhil has no particular ill feelings towards Moredhil or Silgolssà and is close to Titania and Maugrir.
Moredhil: the master infiltrator and chosen black ops guy of the Galgarad, Moredhil is also Falarion's protÇgÇ. The ayedhil believes that despite his rather horrid origin, the Dark Elf has the potential to become one of the greatest heroes of elven history. Moredhil likes Falarion as a father and regards everybody else in the team as possible targets. He doesn't mind conducting black ops for the Golden Guard. Actually, he relishes it - because the voices in his head get happy and don't bug him as often...
Silgolssà: the Silver Sorceress is the greatest graduate of the elven magical college in a thousand years. She combines great raw talent with amazing skill and is the mystical heavy-hitter of the group. Silgolssà has a high opinion of herself and her abilities (not necessarily unfounded), toes the party line and usually sides with Falarion when there's some dispute inside the group. She shares the ayedhil's feeling towards the outsider members, but to a lesser degree. Silgolssà finds Moredhil problematic at best (she thinks something is not quite right with him and they should banish him to the Otherworld) and has developed a crush on Galedhil against her will.
Titania: a green-skinned amphibious half-elf/half-S°dhe, Titania has always been considered a freak in elven society, only tolerated because her mother was an elf. Titania's other traits, super-strength and resiliency, ensured she had a place in the Golden Guard as the resident brick. She likes the group because it gives her a sense of purpose and a small degree of acceptance. Despite that, she doesn't buy the propaganda against the S°dhe and the humans. Titania thinks Falarion is a fascist and is friends with Galedhil and Maugrir. Moredhil scares her and she sees Silgolssà as a stuck up bitch.
Maugrir: a renegade Nibelungen (he can be other things in your campaign, but the idea is that he isn't an elf) tech genius, Maugrir fled his native country for reasons of his own and found a place in Edhilein as a technological consultant. Maugrir shared the Nibelungen power armor tech with the elves and, bored as hell with his life, offered himself as a volunteer for the Galgarad. Maugrir's armor is very useful in a scrap, but it's also versatile enough to function in other capacities. The Nibelungen considers Falarion an anachronic buffoon, would really like to sleep with Titania and Silgolssà (probably at the same time), thinks Moredhil is weird and considers Galedhil a friend and drinking buddy.
Some Alfheim seeds
Streets of Alfheim: During a battle, the PCs are transported across dimensions to Alfheim. At first, it just seems like they are in an European country, until they notice the pointy ears. The elves, seeing unknown super-humans in their country, cry wolf. Cue in the Galgarad. The PCs have to run and hide, battle the elven supergroup or try to reason with a superpowered team led by an elf with a very low opinion of non-edhil.
Blood of the Edhil: A PC receives an official communication from the elven embassy stating he is the great-grandson of an important elven businesswoman and sole heir of her estate. The PC must now decide if she accepts elven citizenship and abandon her old alliances. Some in the Edhilein government want this, thinking of inducting the super-human into the Galgarad. Others, like another branch of the businesswoman's family, would rather lose all their wealth and influence than see a human come into their genealogy. Good thing the latter know Falarion, who knows Moredhil. Could this trip to Alfheim be the last one of the PC's life?
Strange Bedfellows: The S°dhe open a gate from the Otherworld and invade Alfheim. The situation is grim enough that the Calderach asks for help from other countries. The PCs go in to help the Galgarad and the elven armies against the S°dhe forces. But just because their leaders invited the PCs, it doesn't mean the other elves are happy about it, especially the Golden Guard ones. The heroes will have to fight in two fronts: the war proper and their supposed comrades-at-arms.
Inspiration
I left a lot of things vague so you can easily build your own version of Alfheim. If you want more color, there's no shortage of elven-related material in the many RPG supplements that have been published so far, which could be used in modeling your Edhilein. You can also take a look at the Silmarillion for more inspiration, especially on ayedhil behavior.
As always, share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever use Alfheim or the Golden Guard, let me know.
