Your opinions on the way that dark elves are written in fantasy novels

[CharlesEBrown]

Akshully!
As both Elves and Vampires are fictional beings with enough common traits, there would be no discrepancy to create an in-lore reason for authors as to why elves are vegan vampires or how vampires evolved from carnivorous elves. And if we go by etymological definitions vampires would just be coffin-bound zombies and not the blood-drinking nobles of the night they're commonly portrayed as.

Vampir
Anyway, I like the idea of dark elves just being tanned elves and the pale tree huggers just being arrogant assholes as usual for the different race explanation xD

We-el Vampires are much more varied than that. The Chinese "Hopping Vampire" is more of a ghost that can assume one of three material forms - a songbird to charm victims, a rain cloud to travel, and its normal, monstrous form with long, sharp fingernails, powerful legs, an inability to walk (thus it can only move by shape shifting or hopping), and a need to return to its underground "home" (noted by five holes in the ground above it) as the sun rises.

There is a Russian type of vampire (that I have yet to find the correct name for) that is, essentially, a super-strong zombie. It is not hurt by sunlight but prefers to travel at night, and it feeds by breaking its prey in half and lapping up the blood that spills out.

There two Greek creatures that are essentially vampires - the Vrykolakas and another I can't remember the name of. One is a still-living creature that can only survive on blood (and prefers human), the other is much closer to the D&D ghoul than to a vampire, but has a few special powers including the ability to stretch its limbs out (or maybe I have the two types mixed up and the Vrykolakas is the stretchy ghoul and I can't remember the living vampire name; been a LONG time since I researched this stuff).

Central Europe had three different "vampires" that Bram Stoker blended to create Dracula.

On that note you have at least four possible types of Dark Elves:

1. The Games Workshop pale-skinned elves who just live underground (and are more prone to serving Chaos Gods).

2. The AD&D/D&D/Pathfinder ones who are a cursed remnant of Elven society, banished from the sun and given darkened flesh so that they stand out from their brethren as part of their curse. Generally evil and decadent with a few notable (and allegedly rare but almost every gaming group has one) exceptions (the original AD&D version was highly matriarchal with males literally as second class citizens slightly better than slaves, but that was dropped during the 3e days).

3. The Germanic Svart-Alfer - a type of malevolent fairy with darker skin (note that darker in this context might be violet instead of lavender, or orange instead of yellow) than a true elf and a love of lethal practical jokes (as opposed to the generally harmless but ultra-irritating practical jokes of the regular elves).

4. The one I've seen in at least one Urban Fantasy story - essentially the Svart-Alfer but almost as tall as a human (the typical fairy creature is maybe half a meter/6-7 inches in height at most).

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

They're elves. And they have brown or darker skin. Authors then either make an excuse on why they're different, be it curse, location they lived in, or different race altogether from elves. Powers wise, like elves but shadowy, stealth/black magic aspect. And booba. Big booba is must, there is no dark elves with small booba.

I’ve only read Dark Elves that have a bluish tint to their skin because they have the complexion of the dead. At least, if that’s their main moniker. They also have red or black eyes. The elves that are a darker ethnicity generally have a different main moniker, such as Sunfire or Duskari. At least in my experience. At least, if they are divided on racial lines, then it’s been handled well. Generally the conflict is covered with the gravitas it deserves.
But I am also very picky about fantasies with Tokien-esque influences, so that might be my own bias filtering out the trash.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

A bit of world building that I have been trying to find a story to put in a story for awhile now is my take on dark elves. I’ve abandoned the plot thread and stories several times, but I really like Gaelic inspired elves.

The world building thread was that the elves are faeries and exist in a separate world, they can only cross over into the humans world in certain spots or under certain conditions. Dark elves were simply elves that killed themselves in the human world, and used magic to raise their bodies as undead and circumvent the fae restrictions.

Since a big theme in sexton/gaelic folk lore is that faeries are obsessed with following and bound by rules. In the world building I had it that vampires were just elves that followed a strict set of rules (only consuming blood, not crossing running water, not entering a habitation uninvited etc) and by doing such could remain in the human world.

That’s just me expositing my ideas since I don’t know if I’ll ever fit it into a story