Background

This is the second in a series, each of which covers a standard PC race as well as a common evil humanoid species. The first covered gnomes and kobolds and the next is going to do dwarves and goblins. Orcs and hobgoblins have each been covered by their own books, as have dark elves.

Appearance

The art throughout the book is very nice. With the exception of the cover, it is all black and white line drawings, and I found it to be very accurate to the text. Often, the artists don't seem to have read the material and so the pictures are at odds with what it written, but this doesn't seem to be the case here at all. The cover art, in particular, does a nice job of showing off the coloration differences between the elven subspecies.

Layout

The majority of the book discusses elves. Their section is bookended with chapters that cover general topics applying to all the surface species and between are four meaty chapters covering each of them individually. Each section has a standardized format, dealing with physiology and psychology first, then detailing social structure, government, cycles of life, religion, diet, habitat, clothing, language, names, warfare, funerary practices, beliefs about the afterlife, and then closing with a bit on misconceptions about the race. Also included are their attitudes towards other races and towards the various classes (including NPC classes, standard D&D classes, and the variant base classes from the Player's Guide). One thing I particularly like is the defining of a pantheon in the religion section, a subset of the numerous Tellenic gods which are the core of worship with the race. This is a nice way to pare down the formidable number of deities to a more managable group.

The rest of the book deals with bugbears, including the bugbear magi and two new subspecies that dwell in the desert and arctic. The same basic format is followed except that each subspecies isn't given its own chapter, the minor differences discussed within the other sections as they apply. There is a separate chapter, however, for playing bugbears as PCs (as there is for the elves) and then a chapter which discusses plot hooks for both races as well as a summary glossary of terms from their languages.

High Elves

The different elven subraces were the result of a schism within the race many thousands of years ago over the use of magic and religion. Elven lore says that the race was tasked by the Creator to tend to her works before her other creations, the gods, ousted her and the disagreement is about how this should be done. The high elves and the wood elves represent the middle ground with the high elves leaning towards the side of civilization and use of arcane magic. High elves are presented as deeply spiritual people who dwell in cities carefully constructed not to impose on the surrounding forest. They are dedicated to protecting their forest and tending to its needs, but also spend time on civilized pursuits such as art, craftwork, and learning.

At times the calm, hippy, spiritual vibe of the high elves got to be a little much, but generally the chapter gives a good feel for their culture, their values, and their lives. They are one of the more playable subraces, being willing to deal with other races and lacking the extreme perspectives of their more radical cousins, the gray and wild elves.

Gray Elves

Gray elves represent one of the extremes of the schism. They believe that magic, rather than nature, is the legacy the Creator meant for them to oversee and so aren't as focused on nature (which they see as merely a part of the magical weave) than the cultivation of magic skill and defending the world from evil outsiders. Unfortunately, their focus on being saviors of the world has only amplified the general elvish attitude of superiority (other races, after all, were merely the creations of gods), making them insufferably arrogant and haughty.

This used to be my favorite subrace, but the presentation here makes them much less appealing, just because of their holier-than-thou attitude. It is nice, though, to see proof that just because you are trying to save the world, doesn't mean you are a nice person. The section does a very good job, though, of explaining why they are so different from other elves.

Wild Elves

Wild elves are the other extreme from gray elves. They spurn the use of arcane magic in favor of primitive divine magic focused on spirits (shamanic) and nature (druidic) as well as all trappings of civilization, believing that the Creator wanted them to remain a part of nature rather than just tend it. They are a wild, savage people who keep to the deepest depths of their forests and try to adhere to the oldest practices of their race.

Like the gray elves, these folks are tough to use as a PC race but make great antagonists. Particularly because they aren't evil but are xenophobic, aggressive, and territorial. I am always a fan of conflicts that aren't solely based on good versus evil. As with the other subraces, their perspective is very well presented so that their practices and customs make sense and their differences from their brethren well-defined.

Wood Elves

Wood elves are the rural counterparts to the more sophisticated high elves. They tend to their forests in a manner that lies between the "gardening" approach of the high elves and the "hands off" approach of the wild elves and live a more simple life than their more civilized cousins. Often sharing space with the high elves, they tend more towards tree villages than cities and don't spend quite as much energy on the civilized arts.

While not terribly exciting, the wood elves help complete the continuum and are quite easily playable being more gregarious than any of the other subspecies and having more frequent dealings with nearby races like the halflings and gnomes. For those who wish to play an elf less restrained than the high elves and more in tune with their natural-loving roots, these are the guys.

Bugbears

Bugbears believe that they were the creation of seven evil gods, each of whom gifted them with some capability (from darkvision to fearlessness) in exchange for tribute and worship. They see themselves as the pinnacle of creation, the perfection at the end of a process that included the failed races of orcs, hobgoblins, and kobolds. Their culture is based on aggression and dominance. They don't want to rule other race, they just want to prove their superiority through destruction and terror.

The author did an outstanding job with these guys. While evil in an incredibly disturbing and violent way, they are also quite believable and their culture has an internal coherence that reads true. In many respects, their society is based around amplified versions of the behavior of any pack animal. They are constantly fighting to establish pecking order, culling the weak, and asserting their dominance in order to attract mates. Two things in particular I enjoyed: the role of females and their views on the afterlife.

Males outnumber females five to one and mating is for life, so female have incredible social power as they get to pick and choose who they mate with. Add that they are as physically formidable as males and are able to hold many powerful positions in bugbear society (like adept and shaman) and you have a society which has a strong matriarchal element.

The other cool thing concerns bugbear's habit of trophy taking. Rather than just being a symbol of dominance or achievement, there are religious reasons for this practice. First off, the god of death (called "The Collector" by the bugbears) was one of the contributors to their creation and tasked them with collecting trophies for his glory, giving them in return the ability to draw power from them. In practice, though, only bugbear magi and certain prestige classes gain actual perks. Second, the bugbear believe in reincarnation holds that a spirit cannot be reborn if his head is taken and that any other body part taken will weaken a person in their next incarnation. So, if they take the leg off a dead man, in his next life he will be lame. I just love these sorts of details.

Overall, though, it is just very coherent. The evil the bugbears do isn't just because the book says they are evil. It is because of their obligations to the dark gods they worship and as a side effect of their nature, of their urge to dominate and their gnawing hunger (they are said to require extreme amounts of meat for sustenence, which they attribute to being the price they pay to the god of famine for his gift of teaching them to hunt).

Conclusion

This is a very cool book. I haven't had a chance to read the first and was putting off picking it up because I'm not a big gnome person, but the quality here has pretty much guaranteed it will be my next purchase. It just adds to much depth to the races that I can't resist, being the consumate anal detail-hound that I am. I recommend it to anyone who uses these races extensively and wants details to flesh them out. Or, really, just anyone since, after reading this, you'll definitely be inspired to use these races more.

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