Beyond the Rift (WHF/FFXIV)

Also for reference the point isn't "Woo gee the Dawi are exceptionally racist and self-serving and it's a wonder the Empire can even speak to them", it's that people unironically repeat this verbatim with the Asur. And when presented "This isn't the case, they aren't Biel-Tan exported to WHFB" they triple down. I don't know what Maugan Ra's intent is with them, but judging by what we've seen so far I'm confident in saying there's going to be a lot of confusion from these people when that shoe just. Never drops?
Yeah, this is worth keeping in mnd, the conversation only really took a turn for compare-and-contrast human relations with elves and dwarfs when Earthscorpion brought up the weird trend of SV questers bending over backwards to be pro-dwarf. This isn't, or shouldn't, really be a conversation about minutiae of the lore; it's about audience... wossnames. Shibboleths?
 
Anyway, does anyone want to speculate how Elriza would meet a Dawi and interact with him eventually at some point, making a good or somewhat okay impression on the one she thought Dawi are like Lalafell to her?
 
Well, on the plus side she's not likely to start out by insulting them thanks to not doing the Shadowbringers Healer role quests.
 
Hasn't she already met a dawi without realising? I distinctly remember someone short having so long a hair they have plaits in it, which screams dawi to me.
 
The funniest example of this was in Ulthuan Quest where the questers voted to have a Dwarf-King friend.
TBF that time it was rad. The weirdest sv pro dwarf moment was the human noble quest where for an imagined slight our daughter or wife got her head shaved then she had to use the hair to clean the halls or some other insane shit like that.
 
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TBF that time it was rad. The weirdest sv pro dwarf moment was the human noble quest where for an imagined slight our daughter or wife got her head shaved then she had to use the hair to clean the halls or some other insane shit like that.
...this calls to mind Drunken Dynasty, but I suspect it might be something elss.
 
Eltharin is a highly melodic language, and emphasis on certain words or syllables can eliminate subtleties or intended meanings. But not just that, it's also the sort of language where every word has multiple meanings, and those meanings are often antonyms to one another.

The elven lifespan means that they have all the time in the world to get used to it and grasp the relevant subtleties.

For instance, Yenlui means balance or harmony, but it also means chaos (or possibly Chaos). Sendai means dedication, sacrifice, and also resentment. And my favorite, Tavlu is the rune of Hoeth (god of knowledge), and it also means 'the tower, wisdom, misery'.

So certain complex concepts are just implied into the language, like how dedicating yourself to something or sacrificing your time can make you resentful, or how being wise also means being miserable a lot of the time.

Regardless of speaking it due to a gift, speaking Eltharin perfectly is remarkable.
I think I remember that one of the reasons that elves can master Qhaysh is that they can mentally compartmentalize and have multiple interweaving trains of thought running simultaneously in a way that humans cannot.

Though that may be an idea introduced in later editions, when they were shifting the elves more toward the 40K Eldar model.


Still irrespective of how similar to humans (or otherwise) they mentally are, Eltharin as a language would shape how elves see the world (as all languages do to varying degrees).
But it could also create problems for someone using magic to auto-translate.

Presumably Elriza is getting everything said in Eltharin translated into her native tongue in her head and/or processed in way that fits how her brain has developed since childhood to understand spoken language?

However, doing it in this matter could mean that a lot of subtext, metaphorical nuance and poetic implication will be lost along the way.

If a sentence spoken in Eltharin can manage to convey what in other languages could take several sentences to exposit; then Elriza is likely getting a very dumbed down version of at least some of what Yavinder might be saying.

Pseudo-audibly translating the additional context in a manner that Elriza's brain is used to processing would take too long in real time and make in person conversation a unnatural, drawn out mess.


In reverse (translating what Elriza is saying into Eltharin), there is no such problem.

However, there may be an issue in how Elriza's speech being translated into Eltharin may result in her saying more than she is aware of.

Her magic automatically expresses metaphorical subtext, poetic implication and varying degrees of obtusely inferred detail in the typical style of perfectly spoken Eltharin.

Elriza might say very little, but unknowingly convey a whole lot.
 
I think I remember that one of the reasons that elves can master Qhaysh is that they can mentally compartmentalize and have multiple interweaving trains of thought running simultaneously in a way that humans cannot.
Yeah, I believe the 2e RPG makes the analogy of how elves can think in eight different states of mind to balance out the Winds without them collapsing into Dhar, and that a human couldn't do that any more than they could walk in eight different directions at once.

There's a similar comparison to be made with how Humans tend to worship one god above others, but Elves tend to be more balanced in their worship of their gods.
 
Except Khaine especially when the High Elves stay from his sword that cursed Aenarion and his bloodline as a consequence.
I think it says something that while the other Elven gods occasionally show up in the Old World as minor gods with slightly different names, Khaine's didn't change at all, and also, his cult is considered a very dangerous fringe.

Not sure what exactly, but it says something.

(which, just as an aside, is bad writing and bad history, that's not how polytheistic societies work)
[redacted because I dont want to get into the weeds as to how a polytheistic society would work in a world where divine intervention can be directly felt]
 
I thought Khaine was Khorne the whole time considering they are way too similar when it comes to their aspects of war, blood and violence.
Nah, Khaine fought on the side of the elven gods back when Chaos first entered the world, and supposedly fought Slaanesh so hard that he marred their otherwise-perfect face.

He's a thoroughly unpleasant god, and if given the chance he would probably destroy the world too, but he's still an elven god. The Dark Elves may focus on him due to them also being extremely unpleasant, but the High Elves still give him prayers right before going to war, or before doing dark sins that are still necessary for the greater good.

The High Elves consider Khaine a grim necessity. Back before Chaos entered the world, they were extremely peaceful people solely under the guidance of the Everqueen. It's stated that to survive, they essentially had to remake themselves in the image of Aenarion, who wielded the power of both Asuryan and of Khaine. And so elfkind is both metaphorically and literally doomed by Khaine - literally, because the Curse of Aenarion is a tangible curse and Caledor spoke the Prophecy of Demise when Aenarion drew the Widowmaker, and metaphorically, because the elves can't go back to peace - they can't unknow violence.

...anyway, Elves are very much a 'things are both metaphorical and literal' people. There's a bit in the 2e RPG where a human scholar reads two texts, one which says the Elven Gods made the Elves, and the other that the Old Ones made the Elves. So the scholar concludes the Old Ones are the Elven Gods. Upon inquiring this to an Elven scholar, he gets the answer that the Old Ones aren't the Elven Gods, but that both texts are correct. The scholar then wonders whether the translations of his books are wrong.
 
...of course, a lot of leaders have since deliberately mistranslated that into "if you want peace, start war" and similar, for personal power - but nevermind that.
True about that but anyway, I do look forward for more interaction between Elriza and Yavinder regarding the Star Metal or Gromril.

I have a feeling that the Eonir Elf blacksmith will have a big role in this story as Elriza's ally and it's gonna be fun.
 
Just because this story had me fixating on the concept

Alliance Raid Series: Realms of Chaos

Khorne: Short 1st phase of fighting him while he's sitting on his throne, tossing waves of blood&skulls, concluded with Tank LB test against Sword of Khorne.
Main fight is straightforward attacks set to an extreme tempo
Slaanesh: Mechanics all based around baiting out certain behaviors. Faster and slower variations of attacks to catch greedy dps. Throws an under-powered version of tankbuster shortly before the real thing to bait bad mitigation usage, etc.
Nurgle: Raid-Wide death timer on the fight, complete certain mechanics to add time on the clock (sometimes at the expense of the player doing the mechanic).
Tzeench: YOU CANNOT GRASP THE FORM OF TZEENCH'S MARKERS. Attacks have numerous variables based on non-obvious tells.
 
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