Medieval Fantasy in Popular Culture

Eberron: Reinventing Dungeons and Dragons               In the early 2000’s, Wizards of the Coast decided that they needed to update their most popular and well-known game, Dungeons and Dragons. To that end, in 2002, they ran the Fantasy Setting Search, a competition to establish a new setting and world for Dungeons and Dragons to allow for new styles of play. Out of more than 11,000 entries, game designer Keith Baker’s Eberron campaign setting was chosen as the winner, and the setting was officially released in June 2004 with the publication of the Eberron Campaign Setting hardback book. Since then, the setting was updated for the fourth edition of the game, though only three books were released detailing the new rules and settings info for the new edition of the game, with an unofficial update for the fifth edition being provided in February of 2015 in the online feature “Unearthed Arcana”, but unfortunately, the sett...

In Dungeons and Dragons, there are 3 main types of elves. All three are described as having an "...unearthly grace and fine features..."  and “…flexible in the face of danger.” The three main races are the High Elf, Wood Elf, and Dark Elf/Drow. The first elf listed in the player handbook is the  High Elf, which is split into two categories, friendly and non-friendly. Those of the former include the “…grey elves and valley elves of Greyhawk, the Silvanesti of Dragonlance, and the sun elves of the forgotten realms.” They are “…haughty and reclusive, believing themselves to be superior to non-elves and even other elves.” The latter include the “…high elves of Greyhawk, the Qualinesti of Dragonlance, and the moon elves of the Forgotten Realms.” There’s also included the sun elves of Faerun. These greatly varied elves are granted an intelligence boost, an extra cantrip, an extra language, and proficiency with “elvish” weapons. Only two of these groups of elves are g...