Eladrin but the history of the elves in
the D&D multiverse
so the elaborate are a family of elves
that are native to the FEI wild and many
people often wonder well how do they
connect to other types of valves and
more importantly why is it that we so
often say including in the players
handbook that all elves have Fae
ancestry and so all of that story is is
tangled up and it goes way back to the
origin of the elves which is something
we dig into in some nice depth in
wharton Kanaan’s toma foes that’s where
we finally lay out for you where do all
of these different families of elves
come from how are they created at the
beginning of time and of course as as we
delve into that we then go specifically
to this question of the Aladdin so in
the beginning when coral on gave rise to
the other elves and I use those words
carefully because the elves are in a way
offshoots of coral on you know one of
the myths is that when groom stabbed
coral on blood to spread it out and and
elves rose up and there are other myths
as well but what’s what is common to all
of the stories is that elves are
literally the offspring of a god and
coral on is this glorious being of
changeable nature you know it’s said
that Coraline can appear in any form and
not just in a humanoid form but might
appear as you know a a golden waterfall
or a beautiful thawne a unicorn a cloud
a rainbow and it is said that at the
beginning of time all elves shared this
mutable nature
and they were able to cavort around the
DND multiverse as these Fae beings
experiencing everything going in any
environment whether in the sky or below
the sea and really feeling at home
anywhere because of their divine
heritage now a ladrón came about when
the elves were fractured now here I’ll
have to go in a little bit of the story
of the drow but we can talk about the
drought and greater depth in a different
video wolf who was one of the other
elven gods looked at the changeable
nature of the elves and said this is
fine and all you know we have this
display full existence but what if we
wanted things to call our own bodies to
call our own kingdoms to call our own
and the elves heard her call and this is
a bit of the elf story that becomes it
comes into greater focus in Morton
Kamen’s tomb the foes that it wasn’t
just the drow who listened to lull all
of the elves did because they realized
that as glorious as their existence was
they were really the children of an
absent parent : in a way was no more
attentive to them than the wind would be
or the pond that they slept by certainly
a beautiful God certainly lovable for
for the divine glory that surrounded
coral on but not a God who would nurture
you and these semi divine beings wanted
to be seen and then also wanted to have
power and to have possession and to have
bodies to call their own
and so they listened to lull and they
began to have fixed forms and they began
to adopt particular forms depending on
various preferences
so this is how we started to see the
rise of things like CEOs wood elves etc
well the story goes that the elves
realized that wolf was going to betray
coral on and actually seek to become the
chief god of the elves and coral ons
place and so the elves balked they had a
doubt and many of them listening to the
other elven gods who basically said we
must be faithful to our parent they
pulled back and so it was only the drow
who remained faithful to lull and when
the elves were fractured they went off
with her into the darkness but here’s
the thing the other elves because of
their momentary betrayal of coral on
they were all cast out coral on in
sorrow pushed all the way all of the
elves away from his divine presence and
they began to become mortal and they
began to be trapped in those fixed forms
that they started to adopt and that they
were also cast out from Arvind or which
was the divine realm specifically boat
that belonged to the elves and so when
those first elves were cast away and
began to lose some of their divinity the
first place that they went to was the
FEI wild and so these Fae beings went to
this place that reminded them a bit of
home like Arvind or the FEI wild is a
place of deep emotion of splendid beauty
of great extremes you know where the
colors are the brightest versions of the
colors where the darkness is the darkest
version of darkness and so for a long
time the FEI wild was the new home of
the
as many of them began to transition from
being these divine Fabian’s into being
humanoids and then over the millennia
they began to scatter and they left from
the FEI wild which is connected
sometimes directly and other times
indirectly to nearly every world in the
D&D multiverse they began to spread out
and begin to appear in all of the worlds
of the multiverse except some of them
stayed and those of the Elad Rijn the
Elad Rijn are the elves who arrived in
the FEI wild when they were first cast
away from coral on and decided we’re
going to keep this as our home and
because they have stayed there longer
than any of the other elves the fame
magic of the FEI wild has seeped into
them and has begun to shape them because
remember in their original form elves
were mutable and so you put an elf that
is the child of this magical being into
a place that is a riot of magic if
they’re there enough centuries that
magic begins to shape them and so the
elad Ren bear the mark of the Fae wild
upon them upon their very bodies they
they can change with the seasons not
just seasons in the fair while but
seasons governed by their own moods in
in the book it’s now possible to play
sort of a more full-fledged version of
the elaborate we did an experimental
version in the Dungeon Master’s guide
simply as a here’s an example of what an
Aladdin might look like well in Morton
Kamen’s Tama foes we give you sort of
the fully fleshed-out version of the
Aladdin that you can play and that
version each you know each day when you
when you finish a long rest you have the
option to change which season you’re
associated with and that season
Association can affect some of your fame
attic specifically it has a little
kicker that it adds to your face step
aloud rune have this phase step ability
which
can use to teleport around and if you
are currently associated with the season
of winter your face step does something
different from an Aladdin who’s
currently associated with the season of
autumn now we previewed a version of the
Aladdin onion unmarked Arcana and that
is not actually how any of this worked
based on the play test feedback we
actually redesigned the Aladdin so that
the season association specifically
flavored your face step and some of the
some of them are combat related and some
of them are non combat related one of
the options is you teleport and as and
the fame magic of it actually charms
people around you whereas the summer one
which is associated with fire that one
deals damage to people around you when
you face step so there are some
interesting options we also change
things so that rather than being able to
change your season sort of on a dime
it’s now at the end of a long rest so
that people could sink their teeth into
role playing a particular season longer
we also point out in Morden Canaan stone
the foes that some Alandra never changed
their season some allowed run our winter
Aladdin for instance their entire lives
so it’s really up to the player of an
Aladdin to decide are they changing
seasons based on their mood or they feel
a strong allegiance to a particular
season and to a particular arch Fay
associated with that season now some
people ask what about the Aladdin then
in previous editions especially back in
second edition who were in Arvind or and
we’re with the the elven gods and were
considered Celestials
well Morton Kanan stoma foes actually
delves into that part of the story also
what we explained is that there are
certain Aladdin who over the millennia
have been so saturated by the magic of
the fey wild that they have actually
reverted to being Fey so over the years
there have been special
Aladin sometimes called like the gale
and others that fully embody the power
of a particular season and the story is
they have become so splendid and so
powerful that the elven gods have looked
at them and said essentially you’re so
glorious we want you to come home and so
those allowed Rijn have been given the
grace of returning to Arvind door and
dwelling among the elven gods sometimes
because they’re kind of amusing but also
because in other cases the gods actually
want their company and and so what we
what we reveal in the book is that some
elad Rijn are humanoid and others are
fully fey because again others have so
drunk
that’s drunk so deeply from the magic of
the Fae wild that they have been
transformed like the original elves that
could originally transform and so really
in in sort of summary you can imagine
Aladdin as being part of me the most
like the original elves in having this
mutability this is this power to be able
to change your association with a season
which not only gives you certain magical
abilities but even can alter your
appearance if you change to autumn for
instance your hair might take on
autumnal colors your skin color might
change if you change to winter you might
have bluish a bluish complexion you
might even have some icicles in your
hair because again you are a creature of
magic and you are alike the first elves
back before they were cast out and lost
most of their divine nature I really
like a ladrón because of how
otherworldly they are they really embody
the side to elves that appeals to many
people who are drawn to play elves and
many many people like to play
Elves we know looking at player
statistics in some ways a ladrón are
like the elfia STUV the elves because
again of that other worldliness because
in a way they wear their magic on their
sleeve you know we often have said over
the decades in D&D that elves are a
people of magic it’s often said they
make great wizards you know and they
have they have beautiful cities that
sometimes defy physics you know you look
at it it’s like clearly big only were
able to build this thing because of
magic in the Forgotten Realms they are
known with the missiles to have these
mighty magical works that survived for
thousands of years yet despite saying
all that often it’s easy for an elf to
basically come across as a very refined
human with pointed ears and so one of
the things I like about Aladdin is there
is no mistaking that these are a people
of magic who are descended from a god
because you know they can teleport
around they they look like a Fae being
you know you can imagine walking and
like in a fairy tale into a strange snow
filled glade with this beautiful elven
being you know playing his harp and
think oh I might be beguiled by him and
beware of any bargain he tries to make
with me and so a land run in a way
straddle the line somewhat between what
we normally think of as a player
character and what we might think of as
a monster you know they’re there they’re
starting to drift over towards creatures
like satyrs and dryads
they’re in many ways like drow and
shadow kai in this way that also are
kind of on the line like you can play
them but they are there less
recognizably human than some of our
other playable species you look at you
know a halfling for instance and
certainly they are different from humans
but they have many characteristics like
humans
and even many High Elves and wood elves
their personalities are a bit different
living for centuries certainly gives
them a psychology that is different from
other folk but as soon as you get again
get to folk like Aladdin drow and
shatter Kai then you really start
getting into the realm of the truly
alien and that’s that’s part of what I
like about them because they again they
are on the these sort of beautiful
vibrant side of that alien spectrum and
I think there’s a lot of juicy
role-playing opportunities there and
storytelling opportunities Thank You
Jeremy Crawford for being on D&D beyond
you can learn a lot more about elves and
the Aladdin in Morden Kanaan’s
toma foes you can pre-order that book
right now Ondine DB on comm by clicking
on the link in this video description
I’m talkin Rick thank you for watching
Eladrin and the history of elves—that's what I talk about in the latest preview video for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: https://t.co/o5dYYpnxpU via @YouTube @DnDBeyond #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) February 28, 2018