Editing Elf (section)

=Good Post-Tolkenian Elves=
Here we'll list examples of Elves from modern fantasy which are inspired by Tolkien and why they work...

* WarCraft: As already noted, they actually are closer to Tolkien's take than many other modern depictions, plus having the inventive weakness of magic addiction. And, for those who are tired of seeing the usual High/Wood/Dark sub-types, WarCraft instead has its own sub-types: Night Elves and Blood Elves. While at a glance, you can pretty easily accuse the former of just being Wood Elves with a different name, they do actually have the advantage of being more "nature magic" types than merely "people who live in the woods" of a lot of Wood Elves. 
** You also have some weird new ones as of late such as Void Elves (Blood Elves who delve into the void), The Illidari (While technically not a new race, they are demonic elves), and the undead elves (Sylvanas and the Dark Rangers). In Warcraft they are also descendant from trolls and different races have weird cultural quirks. Oh, and several other races in WarCraft are either mutated Elves or cousin-races of Elves (Dryads, Naga, etc.)
* The Elder Scrolls: Say what you will about Elder Scroll's incessant retcons and other mindfucks in their canon, but if nothing else, they ''do'' have some legitimately creative takes on the Elves. Want Elves who are intentionally unlikable in their arrogance and racial supremacist views? The High Elves (called Altmer), have you covered. Want Elves who live in nature but are hardcore and not a bunch of walking Vegan and Hippie stereotypes? Look no further than the cannibalistic and rather unstable Wood Elves (called Bosmer). Want Elves who aren't High, Wood, or Dark? They've got those too. Heck, even the setting's Orcs and Dwarves are Elf types here. 
* The Witcher: While still often arrogant and anti-human, here it's a lot more understandable given that most humans in the Witcherverse are enormous assholes where Elves are concerned. Also the Wild Hunt are solidly designed villains who neatly eschew most Elf stereotypes (and are effectively a different race from the native elves).
* Dragon Age: Similar to Witcher, DA Elves have it rougher than Elves in many other Fantasy settings, which helps get them more sympathy points. They are also a lot less OP relative to humans, having access to the same classes and roles and not enjoying any obvious racial advantages. While they do get a bit of a stat bump in magic, it's not enough to keep plenty of humans from having comparable magic might, and as a trade-off, DA Elves tend to be very frail. [[Space Wolves|They also have wolf motifs, if you're into that sort of thing]].
<!-- Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder elves who work could be listed here, but only those from actual published settings. -->
* Warhammer: This one's debatable. On the one hand, for those who have gotten sick of seeing the Elves as totally pure goody-two-shoes, they're plenty flawed. Plus, they get dragons and most of them understand the benefits of armor and metalworking. On the other hand, they fit the usual problem of "Elves being arrogant pricks" more than virtually any other modern Fantasy setting. But, they have Malekith and Teclis, so they're not all bad.
** Warhammer 40k: This one's still arguable, but much less so than Warhammer Fantasy (if you ignore the Science Fiction angle, at least); their pride and arrogance led to the largest fall from grace possible without going extinct, and their Dark Elf equivalent are a pretty large part of what makes the setting Grimdark, while the non-Dark Eldar are played as, effectively, "''slightly'' worse than the Tau and non-Chaos Human factions, but for sound reasons". In other words, possibly the most morally darkish-grey Elves around.
* Iron Kingdoms, AKA Warmachine and Hordes: Another Grimdark tabletop war game setting with its own spin on Elves, the Elves of Iron Kingdom have numerous elements that separate them from the standard Tolkien-esque takes, including mech suits and various other weapons and tech you don't generally see Fantasy Elves with, which helps them feel unique. Still arrogant overall, but in a much more precarious situation due to looking at possible extinction.  Their souls are supposed to reincarnate, but that has broken down and now Iosian children have a 50/50 shot of being born [[Solitaire|soulless]].  Did we mention they have mechs?
* Starfinder: Remember how we mentioned that Elves with chainsaws/chainswords are automatically [[Awesome]]? Well, in this Sci-Fi counterpart to Pathfinder, you can have exactly that. Also a good choice for those who want Space Elves but prefer something more palatable than the haughy Eldar and depraved Dark Eldar.  The events of Starfinder mean the long-lived elves all REMEMBER having society-wide amnesia, and it's made them super paranoid to the point of forting up and building space-elf Israel (which we guess makes their warriors Space-Mossad, which is also cool).
* Dragonstar: Another solid "Space Elves" take. While they fit the stereotypical modern Elf mold pretty well, they tend to not be unbearably stuck-up and seem to really just want to help preserve nature across the cosmos, being basically the galaxy's resident conservationists. Basically, like Tolkien Elves, the writers remembered to keep them ''likable''. Its more the dragons in this setting who are the arrogant jerks.

(Apparently, that's all of them. Well, besides Dwarf Fortress Elves, who are straight up assholes, like just about everyone in that setting, including the Gods and Dwarves.)