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Following the thread Is Fantasy shallower than Sci-Fi I have become inspired (or perhaps deranged) enough to start creating a work of high fantasy myself - but I want the protagonist to be non-human.

To that end, would all you nice folks summarize what we know about elves, dwarves, dragons, drow, kobolds, goblins and so on? You know, their likes and dislikes, physical characteristics, longevity, religion, politics, commerce, characteristics - and anything else you can think of. Oh, and the laws of magic as well.

That would be an immense help to me in creating and populating my world. Obviously I'll post the product up on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ when I begin writing it.

Lol Paul - literally first post in a long time when I actually laughed out loud. I must say you've got me stumped and can't tell if you are serious or if I'm just to gulliable to believe that you are.

Paul wrote: To that end, would all you nice folks summarize what we know about elves, dwarves, dragons, drow, kobolds, goblins and so on?

I can only speak for my own creations, Paul, but the elves in my Griffin's Daughter trilogy are on average a little shorter and more slimly built than the average human and they have tapered ears. They live approx. twice as long, also. I consider them a different species within the same genus, so they can interbreed with humans and produce fertile offspring--to put it "scientifically"!! As for their society, I based it loosely on medieval Japan.

Nowadays, I think most people's ideas of the stock fantasy races come from traditional folk tales and Tolkein; it's all quite Eurocentric. Fantasy role-playing games have also heavily influenced people's ideas over the last 20 or so years, which were in turn themselves heavily influenced by traditional folk tales and Tolkein. I suggest going to the source material--those folk or fairy tales, and try reading some from non-European societies as well--for your ideas, then put your own original spin on them.

Since Paul isn't likely to break character, I'll warn the gullible: Irony Alert! Irony Alert! Woop-Woop-Woop! Do not drop out of medical school in order to research and post a paper on the above topic! Woop-Woop-Woop!

I've never really met any of them, at least that I know of, to discuss the meaning of life or politics or anything at all. So all I can give you is hearsay.

Not really ironic :-)

I would actually like to write a book(s) with the main protagonist being recognisably non-human - in thought, attitude, action, philosophy and physiology. Obviously not an easy task. I find it hard enough to deal with female characters, never mind aliens!

Well, you could try reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus to learn about all the outer space aliens here on Earth.

A lot of stories seem to mention that elves have different priorities and different motivations, yet almost all make elves as if they were humans that are a little more capable in everything that they do. The first time I tried role-playing I played an elf and basically I played my own personality with only a few changes and I got compliments on how well I played it.
I don't know what to suggest, but I do like it when books add something a little bit different to their culture. The only one I can think off the top of my head was from the Obisidian Trilogy by Lackey and Mallory where elves didn't ask questions. It was a minor difference, but it did make me laugh.

Elves tend to keep to themselves, have a profound love of nature, and "appear" to be infinitely wise, although I think that's a function of them living darn near forever.

Good luck with the book, but if you can't get female, you'll never get elf. They are WAY more complicated than female.

For female characterization actually done somewhat well, go to Terry Goodkind's earlier Sword of Truth novels and see how he works Kahlan's character. Especially in the Temple of the Winds.

Hmmm, quite a challenge I've set myself by the sound of it! Never mind, I'll give it a go. Have to come up with a suitably Elvish plot first, where every-one is motivated by things profoundly different to humans.

I'll get back to you all.

First of all beware of the "profoundly different" motivations, you might lose your readers directly when or if they are unable to identify with the persona and motivations of the characters. I think that it's a large reason why many authors use elves as secondary characters (who may temporarily have goals that are in-line with the human protagonists) - they still have access to the aloofness or otherness of the characters, but are able to give them understandable goals.
The Drizzt Do'urden books by R.A. Salvatore take another tack by having a dark elf as protagonist, but Drizzt is rebelling against his society and assimilating human goals and values.

Also be aware that almost any elf you will come across in fantasy today is based on Tolkien, so your goto sourcematerial is The Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion. I'm quite certain that before tolkien elves and fairies were basically the same; small winged people with a penchant for mischief.

If you want to get a more specific description of the characteristica of the generic fantasy elf (dwarf and orc too), the best you can do is grab a couple of RPG rule books. For the Tolkien elves you should probably look for MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing) published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). I think MERP is out of print, but you should be able to either get them used or borrow them from the library. D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is another good system to look for elven influences. The basic rulebooks have limited info for the different races, but there are tons of more specific sourcebooks out there, and since you're only interested in the descriptions you don't have to worry about getting the same version number of everything. Again the library should be able to help you.
If you want to see D&D's take on elves in a fictional setting you should grab Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles.

Another thing entirely is the question, if you want to do something different in the fantasy genre you may wish to skip the elves/dwarfs (dwarves)/orcs scene entirely and choose to go with a completely human society. Either that or go for a less used fantasy/mythology theme - why not a society of merpeople? Either that or look at China Miéville and his Perdido Street Station for a fantasy and steam punk setting that eschews the fantasy stereotypes.
Elves and dwarves have become so stereotypical that I personally am becoming wary of books using them, even more so if they are of the quest-format type with a motley band of different races. And my impression is that I'm not the only fantasy lover who feels this way.

Cairnraiser, if you are looking to avoid stereotypes with races, there is Steven Erikson's Malazan series.

Tiste Andii, T'lan Imass, Jaghut, and Thelomen Toblakai are just a few examples of Malazan world races. They are fascinating to read about..There are also several breeds of humans that have different backgrounds and appearances...

The only problem I really have in this series is getting a good mental picture. I mean, what does a Jaghut look like? One character is half Jaghut and half Toblakai. It's hard to picture these, though Erikson does give good descriptions. If there is an elf character, I immediately know approximately what it looks like.