'T1 & The Elven Deception' - Lion & Dragon, Adventurer, Conqueror,King rpg, & Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rpg

 So let's pick this up from yesterday with T1 & why the adventure context is so important here. The implication in T1 is that Hommlet is tired & so are the adventurers. In point of fact thier described as haggard & down on thier last gold piece. This is a Europe ravaged by war. 
And this brings us to the Elves who surround this Dark Europe campaign. And here's where Lamentations of the Flame Princess comes into play just not in the way you might be thinking. 

In Lamentations because it's based on Frank Mentzer's B/X we have Elves who are better then you at everything. And this is as it should be. Elves are extremely long lived, they have better abilities then humans, etc. Why?! 
Because Elves are entirely alien to our space time continuum. This isn't hyperbole because within mythology they were. 
The Elven courts are trying to pass themselves as nobles & kings to heads of state of Europe. And for the most part they are correct they are. 
However the Elven gods were behind them & they were cruel. Cruel in every sense of the word. 
And the abuse continues right down the line here. The Pagan gods of old literally consumed the Elves as per the Lion & Dragon rpg. 

Here we go into the mythology of Elves and look into the Encyclopedia Britannica website's definition from here;"elf, plural Elves, in Germanic folklore, originally, a spirit of any kind, later specialized into a diminutive creature, usually in tiny human form. In the Prose, or Younger, Edda, elves were classified as light elves (who were fair) and dark elves (who were darker than pitch); these classifications are roughly equivalent to the Scottish seelie court and unseelie court. The notable characteristics of elves were mischief and volatility. They were believed at various times and in various regions to cause diseases in humans and cattle, to sit upon the breast of a sleeper and give him bad dreams (the German word for nightmare is Alpdrücken, or “elf-pressure”), and to steal human children and substitute changelings (deformed or weak elf or fairy children). In the British Isles, flint implements called elf-bolts, elf-arrows, or elf-shot (which are now known to be prehistoric tools used by the aboriginal Irish and the early Scots) were believed to be the weapons with which elves injured cattle. Elves occasionally also were benevolent and helpful. The second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, which was published in 1777–84, calls the word elf obsolete but reports that belief in such creatures “still subsists in many parts of our own country. . . In the Highlands of Scotland, new-born children are watched till the christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed by some of these phantastical existences.” In time, elves came to be indistinct from fairies, though both older classics—such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Der Erlkönig” (“The Elf King”)—and such modern classics as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (1954–55) still treat elves as a distinct type." 

The Elves of the world's most popular rpg are literally former vessal Fairy states of the Old Gods. Royal vessals who have been filling thier ranks by switching out human babies for changlings. We know that the Elven strong holds are in England, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, etc. Yet why would the Elves be interested in human conflict & war?! Brecause for all these centuries the Elven courts of Seelie & Unseelie  been filling thier ranks with humans who have become Elves. 

The answers to these and other horrors are located under the former homes of the late Roman Empire. This was all explained away as 'barbarian invasions' & 'battles of historical conflict'. Yet ACK's Secrets of the Nethercity contains some truth of what the Elven tribes were up too. 

What do the Elven courts offer the heads of Europe during these conflicts?! Besides logicistical advice, war support, & magickal assistence?! Well, they offer the supernatural element all of the while fighting proxy wars through their human puppets. And entire villages disappear amid the fog of war & yet no one questions it. Those who adventurer are not even aware of the fact that this goes on. Elven adventurers are the exception and not the rule. They are seen from time to time acting as agents along the Silk Road for the Elven nations & as traders. 

Not all Elven nations are in on the use of humanity to stoke the fires of human civilization. And these are few & far between but they have their own problems with the Fey & the Unseelie courts (BTW human definitations). And the Dwarves know of all this & hence their contempt for the Elves. Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16 contains the "“The Fetid Crypt of Anatu the Defiler”, an ACKS adventure; 9 new monsters, including faeries, nymphs, and nosferatu; 5 new character classes, including the dread priestesses of Nasga and the Nosferatu scion". This adventure reveals some of the underlying horror of the Elves past. 

You see the Elves have a secret & that is that they live in mortal fear of their ancient Pagan god masters returning. And no I'm not talking about Odin, Shiva, etc. No we're talking about the Chthonic gods here. The gods of Chaos & horror that unleashed the orcs & the black orcs on the Earth as well as the other humanoid races of ACK's. 
And T1 & B2 Keep on the Borderlands are ground zero for their return. The cult of elemental evil is alive and within the Moathouse in the Black Forrest. Because everything centers around Hommlet & that Keep in B2. But this is merely the beginning. Stay tuned as we dive further into this.