Return of the Tribal Elves

Years ago I wrote a piece about how elves wouldn't build cities. It seems to have been eaten. Here's a second pass at the topic.

One of my favorite aspects of world building is developing races and cultures. Aliens, whether in science-fiction or fantasy, can be so much more than humans in funny suits. civilization is shaped by biology and pressure. Ancient Egypt became a nation that endured for thousands of years because they had plenty of food and fresh water, which allowed them the time to organize, build, and develop arts and sciences.

Having that easy access to the staples of life created a population boom, which required planning, storage, laws, and other elements we now define as being part of civilization. But there are cultures in remote areas of the world where that pressure never came, leaving them with food and water that sustained their populations but never allowed it to grow into dense communities. For the most part, these peoples live a tribal existence.

Which brings me to a staple of fantasy literature: the elves. The modern view of the elf comes to us from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, who took the "light dwarves" or Sidhe of Germanic and Celtic mythology and turned them into willowy guardians of nature, steeped in magic and deadly with their bows. Elves were immortal or at least lived long enough for it to seem that way.

That model became the standard mold for almost all the writers who used elves thereafter. Fantasy novels, role-playing games, long-running comics, all gave us this view. And it's a legitimate one, to be sure. But I have an issue with the standard model.

Far too many of these elves are shown living in beautiful cities, creating magical swords and rings, working the earth, forging metals . . . in short, being humans with pointy ears. That's not going to work for me.

I get a lot of my inspiration in creating cultures from "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. The book asks a simple question. Why was it that cultures in Eurasia developed to the point of domination of the world? The answers are complex, and I highly recommend the book, but it comes down to the wide stretch of temperate latitudes and numerous animals that were easily domesticated.

But what fascinated me was the idea that societies pass through levels as they develop resources and settle in place. My question was this: why would elves settle down? If we imagine them as guardians of nature with long lives and a low birthrate, there is no need for them to organize much. Bands of elves, all of the same family and numbering a few dozens, might range as hunter-gatherers over a traditional territory whose borders were negotiated long ago.

Over time, these bands might form tribes of several hundred elves, all still tied to the kin-based clan. This would be a natural response to a threat like humans or dwarves pushing into their forests, or a dragon taking up residence nearby. Such associations might be temporary or may endure as an informal alliance, allowing the member bands to live in peace. One standard of such an arrangement is the tribal will have a neutral meeting place, a holy site or a place of historic note, where the bands can come in peace to resolve disputes.

In times of trouble, it's fairly common for tribes to elect a war chief who rules until the threat is taken care of. Note that this model was in use in what is now Russia up through the 14th century. Cities and towns, ruled by a council of landowners, would hire a "prince" to lead their militia.

These elves are not going to be quarrying stone, forging metals, or building great cities. They are thriving as small bands of gatherers, living off the bounty all around them, killing only when needed. They will remain at this level for as very long time unless something changes and their borthrate skyrockets.

Now we add the magical element. Elvish weapons, lacking metal working skills, would be of natural materials; wood, bone, and stone. But with magic, their weapons would be as effective as any iron swords. Remember what I wrote about dragons? Dragonhide makes magnificent armor, and a properly enchanted dragon bone sword would be a thing of legend. Add in spells that hide the elves, silence their movements, and trick the eyes of the enemy, going into an elven forest without an invitation would mean never seeing or hearing your enemy, just seeing yard-long arrows sprout from their chests.

There will, of course, be contact between the elves and strange races like dwarves and men. Trading villages will spring up where the cautious elves come to trade furs and meat for metal goods and arms. These settlements must be careful not to offend the elves, lest a band decide to raid the village.

The usual fate of the bands or tribes that meet more organized civilizations is they are destroyed. Either in a war of just by cultural contamination. However, I think two factors will slow this process to a crawl for the elves. First, if they do have some sort of mystical connection to their forests, changing their ways in a fashion that will damage the forest will anathema to them. Secondly, their long lives, over 300 years in most sources, means that this we be an extremely conservative culture locked into the old ways with a vengeance.

Frankly, most human cultures will come and go so fast the elves won't even notice. Until the next deluded army marches into the forest.