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Help With an Elf-like Species

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Joined: 06/21/2012

I have been creating my own fantasy world for a couple of years now. One of the central things in it are my Elf-like people, the Alati (this name is subject to change, suggestions are welcome). I've pretty much got them down to how I want them to be (you wouldn't believe how much they've changed from the original incarnation). However, it has come down to this that I cannot decide: should they have fair skin or golden skin? 



This may seem like a small matter of aesthetics, but it is very important to me. I am trying to make the Alati as inhuman looking as possible, but retain the iconic Elvish beauty. I've taken a lot of inspiration from the Altmer models from Skyrim and the description of the Melnibobeans. 



This is their physical description so far:

Males: 6'7; females 6'5 in average height

They have medium body builds and are very muscular but not bulky like Mannish races; females don't have a lot of muscle definition; they are sleek but not thin, wiry or lanky. Males have broad chests and shoulders.



They have long torsos and legs, slightly longer arms, fingers and feet than the average Man.



Their skulls are long and their brows (both sexes) have slightly pronounced ridges. Nose bridges are flat but nostrils are not. They have North Atlantid shaped eyes (not the almond shaped eyes a lot of elves have). Their jaws are thin. They have full lips and slightly pronounced chins (not as pronounced as an Altmer's).



They have sapphire, light green, or violet eyes.



Their hair colours are pale blonde, blonde, white blonde, golden, platinu

Blonde, or auburn or strawberry hair.



As of now, I've concluded that I want them to have golden skin. 



I might, later today, post the notes on their language. I've been working really hard on this (it's not easy to make a new language!).



Please tell me what you all think! If you would like to know anything about their culture or cosmology or anything, please let me know!



Must know things: they are not the goody goody two shoes types of elf-like beings. They enslaved humanity and are completely alien to human thoughts and feelings. They are immortal. They experience emotion much more acutely than a human ever could (they are very passionate beings). They are very lawful and tradition bound.

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Joined: 06/21/2012

And lo, here is the Anur language notes that I have.



-Alphabet (letters in the English alphabet that are in their alphabet)



a,b*,c*,d*,e,f,g*,h,i,l,m,n,o,q,r,s,t,u,v*,w,*,y*



*- b's are only used when following the first letter in a word, never are they the first letter (ex. "loras'nib" dark-falling, evening; "abnueli" water)

*- c's always make a "kuh" sound, never an "s" sound (ex. celébred" awakening)

*- d's, like b's, never come as a first letter, always proceeding (ex. "hedd" bowl)

*- g's come only as first letters of a word or as the last letter (ex. "gathlôr" air; "abnëag" death)

*- v's are almost used solely as beginning letters of names and rarely occur in other words (ex. "Varla" goddess of life and death, journeys and consort of Ëa; "Aruvanon" the homeland of the Anur; "athavûn" mountain)

*- x's also never come as first letters (ex. "anaxm" tower; "éthxiul" fire)

*- y's are never the last letter of a word (ex. "y" it, "yrlôm" home, residence)



-Full Alphabet

a, aa, b, c, d, e, ë, é, f, g, h, i, ii, l, m, n, o, ô, q, u, û, v, w, x, y



-Vowel Combinations

aa, ae, as, au, ea, ëa, ie, ii, ûa, uii



-Consonant Combinations

dl, fl, gl, hl, hr, ll, th, tl



-Pronouns

He- aan

She- ôn

Her- ôth

Him- aath

It- thaan

I- mae

You- elth

Me- naa

We- tii

Them/they- naor



-Present Tense

When someone speaking the Anur language is speaking in the present tense (when adding the -ing on the end of verbs), they add 'aad to the end of the verb they are speaking.



ex. I am dreaming.



Mae noth ûthien'aad.



-Past Tense

When someone is speaking in the past tense (adding the -ed to the end of a verb, they add 'aaf to the end of the verb.



ex. I walked in the garden.



Mae cunlû'aad dyr iinth.



When someone is saying "I was...", they say "Mininieth'Mae" before the "I" pronoun.



ex. I was going to the temple.



Mininieth'Mae taa'morôl'laliin nûl.



(taa'morôl'aliin nûl- this mean "going to the". When it is in the past tense, "taa", "going", is added to "morôl", "to", as well as "laliin", "the", though "laliin" is not always used when there is no "the" in the sentence.)

YH
YH's picture
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Joined: 06/28/2010

Not to spoil your fun, but if you want them to be inhuman, why not really make them inhuman? Why settle for making them look like every other elf? If you want them to be unique, there's plenty of things you can do.

 

Try purple or green instead of gold, or how about stripes or spots? Maybe they don't even have hair at all, they can have scales, or they're totally covered in peach fuzz, or both. Make them glow in the dark like deep sea fish, or change color like chameleons and octopi. Maybe they're smooth and rubbery like whales and dolphins, or they have skin like a shark. How about four fingers or an extra set of thumbs like the Neo-Sapiens from Exo-Squad? Compound eyes, like a dragonfly. They could have cartilaginous plates or barbs, or retractable claws for climbing. What if the males grow antlers, or you could make the females larger and they're like bees and it's an army of androgynous drones serving a bloated monarch.

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Joined: 06/21/2012

Ummm.... no. Just...no... I'm trying to make somewhat traditional elf like people, not something that would fit a different archetype.

 

They aren't going to look like freaks or anything. They are going to look extremely beautiful and radiant. As such, I've already decided on gold.

YH
YH's picture
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Joined: 06/28/2010

If the internet and LSD has taught us anything, it's that the concept of beauty is relative; but fair enough, they were only suggestions.

 

I guess my suggestions didn't sound as helpful as they were meant. I think I misunderstood the point, sorry.

Penguim-God's picture
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Joined: 04/26/2013

So, you want them "elfy-looking", beautiful in their own way, but still inhuman? I got an idea: make them extremely, no, perfectly symmetrical. See, it's like this: although the common human ideal of beauty depends on symmetry, no living human, no matter how beautiful, is perfectly symmetrical. Everybody has some "flaws"/"disproportions", no matter how small they are, and it has been said that those flaws make us physically unique. Such a species, "irreal" in their perfection, could evoke a "uncanny valley"-like feeling on humans, making them uneasy/unconfortable. I believe that this attends to both the concept of beauty and inhumaness on the same species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_%28physical_attractiveness%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealDoll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reborn_doll

PS: It always amazes me to see people capable of, and willing, to craft fictional languages. I simply have no skills for that.

Aquilus's picture
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Joined: 07/23/2010

Have you thought about body markings? Such as tatoos (I'm thinking Kratos' ink in GoW) or symbols etched into the skin (such as the angelic symbols Nightcrawler carved onto himself in X-Men 2)?

Example: One would be given a specific mark to denote their social status or commemorate an achievement.

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Joined: 05/30/2012

I have been making an Elf like race for half a year now and i must say you're Alati people are quite interesting and their language is very nice as well, I was wondering about the cosmology and the social system of them, also their religion, if its not to much to ask thank you. 

Happy Hist Friend's picture
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Joined: 11/14/2013

I just wanted to say that their language sounds in some parts very Quenya-like to me (one of the languages created by Tolkien). Words like "abnueli", "Aruvanon", "gathlôr" ... have a Quenya feel. It may be a total coincidence, are you familiar  with Quenya? Still, I'm no Quenua buff, I just know a few words and the general sound, so I may be totally wrong.

 

I was interested in the psychological and social description of your elves. It's interesting to go the path of "they're don't understand human emotions", as in a modern world, they would simply dubbed as sociopaths. But what's interesting is that these notions don't necessary apply in fantasy fonctional worlds. Also, in terms of fiction tropes, it evokes aliens in science-fiction to me. However, I didn't really understand how they don't get human emotions at all, but still can experience emotions much more intensely than humans ?.. Are these emotions different from human emotions, then? That's an incredibly tricky thing to pull off, to create an emotional system that's not human (sounds impossible to me, actually).

 

Another thing : since you dont give more information, I'm having trouble imagining how they can be very passion-driven, and at the same time extremely lawful and tradition bound ?.. The two can go together, but they can also create tension, that's traditionally what hapens. When you're passion-driven, since the Ancient Greek tragedies and the Shakespearian theatre, you tend to break human laws and get yourself into situations where it's you (and eventually the one(s) you love) againt the world/society. It's a constant in theatre and in novels. The more you're passion-driven, the more you disregard the human law as something of no importance. You have to follow your true feelings even if they tend to clash with society's laws and expectations. So I'm really having trouble to see how your elves could be extremely passionate beings, and, at the same, time, very law-abiding.

 

Another thing : I don't know if that's your intention, but I'm wondering if you'll go into the "they're better than humans" trope. Because it's a trope that's unfortunately extremely used in paranormal romance and fantasy these days (Twilight and the holier-than-thou vampires, Eragon and Mary-Sue elves ...) and, to me, is extremely boring. To bash humanity gets old quick. Of course, it's only my opinion, but I was curious if you wanted to go there or not.

 

Sorry if the post seems a bit rough, but I wanted to offer sincere critique which will encourage you to keep up the good work, I hope! Cheers!