Inspired by Petiteflower and her article on the Casting and Characters forum at The White Council, home of the Elf Hunt.

The Message Board- The White Council (TWC)

The White Council is a Tolkien-oriented internet message board. Any can read it, anyone can register and begin posting their own thoughts and ideas. The board is divided into forums. Each forum has a theme- 'Lord of the Rings Movies,' 'Casting Rumors,' 'Lord of the Rings books

The forums have a list of 'threads' based on a topic that relates to the subject of the forum. "Mistakes in the Movie,' 'Drooling over Legolas,' 'Best Actor in the Fellowship,' would all be in the Movie forum. Each thread is begun by a member/'poster' on some subject, and anyone can reply with their own ideas.

The Beginning of the Hunt

Around March, Elf Lovers I (a thread at TWC)  was growing in the Movie Forum. It was just a drooling place for the Legolas lovers, where they could post their pictures and whine about how hot Legolas was.

Meanwhile, in another thread in another forum, some soon-to-be-hunters were complaining about their "Age Crisis" and how they wanted an Elf of their very own. Four of the posters (Nimrodel, Tadandader HalfElven, Saffron Piskie, and Mithril Flame) in that thread decided maybe it would be a good idea to form a hunt for elves. Nimrodel created her own Very Secret Diary about her first attempts. The hunt shifted to Elf Lovers I and the hunt was born.

Before you knew it, Elf Lovers I was pushing 60 pages and had half a dozen regular members, and Shelob, (aka the Great Spider of TWC)  wanted the hunt to start a new thread. So we petitioned for our own forum. Matt (aka Eru of TWC) agreed to turn the Casting Rumors forum into "Casting and Characters" for us, and our hunt completely took over. We had one "hunt" thread going, and one "offgame discussion" to chat with each other and keep from interferring with the story itself.

So we were advertised on The One Ring.net, more hunters came and joined, and the hunt had to be recycled to new hunts because the previous threads got too large.  MarianaMellon created a website for us, which Kelsey Undomiel has taken control of and kept updated.

The Sellath and the Veterans

Things got rather hectic when the hunt got so many hunters, and at times, within 24 hours there would be over 60 posts to read to catch up on. The very newest hunters were unsure about their role, and it seemed more fun to them to be all-powerful with Gifts of magic. The hunt took a serious turn, and because of the lack of cooridination, we would often have three or four plots going at once. Most of them were no longer funny.

That is the heart of the hunt. Do NOT be afraid to make yourself look like a fool! We were chasing Legolas with strawberry bubble bath and lembas launchers for Elbereth's sake!

So the "veterans"- those of us who had been there since the beginning- left, sometime in May or June. We couldn't keep up with the rapid pace the hunt was moving- two or three pages a day. And we weren't happy with the massive amount of serious newcomers that fought with death once a day and saved the world from destruction.

The Vets retired to Rivendell, another Tolkien Message board that was formed by some TWC posters. The board is co-adminstered by two Vets (Tadan and Luitha) and several more are moderators for the forums. The Sellath continued with the hunt, and is now on the seventh thread.

Until....

Revolution

In the very, very AM of June 26, the Vets returned with a vengence. The hunt of the young'ins/Sellath was dying a bit, posts were slow in coming, and the plot had lost all sense of order. The Hunt had erupted into choas.  The Vets, now named the ELVEN (see list of terms), returned to upset the hunt, kidnap the elves and take them back to Rivendell. It was a night to remember....

However, that calmed down rather quickly, the ELVEN returned into retirement, and the Sellath resumed the hunt. And here we are today.

Is C&C a “Droolie” forum?

C&C (Casting and Charcters) is the forum at TWC in which the current hunt resides. It has been accused several times of being nothing more than a drooling forum. Is it?

Totally.

Once Casting Rumors became C&C- the Elf Hunt was not the only thing that moved. The Aragorn drooling thread (called "Kneel before the king of Gondor") and the Boromir drooling thread moved with it. The Hunt has taken over the forum, but you have to bring raincoats and waders against the drool when you go in there now.
 

The lingo: PEF, PMF, PHF... What do they mean?

Cassandra Claire wrote something called "The Very Secret Diaries" that were just as the name implies. Each member of the fellowship has one, as do other LotR characters. They're hysterical. Those terms come from those diaries. They mean Pervy Elf Fancier, Pervy Man Fancier, and Pervy Hobbit Fancier, and are generally used to classify people according to their drooling tastes.
 

What are all these “Hunt” threads about?

It's one big collabrative writing. It could almost be called a role playing game. Hunters write themselves in first person, usually have an elf or two as their object, and they write hunting situations in which they catch their elf.  The reason they're are so many is that so many people are posting so often that you get threads with 70 pages, and Shelob prefers we keep the numbers down so they you don't have to scroll just to see the rest of the forum. So while you may see a thread called "Elf Hunters VI", that's really just the sixth chapter, sixth thread, sixth continuation of The Hunt itself.

If you want to know about my role- I was Luitha the Elf (everyone else but Tadandader was human in the beginning). I had Asfaloth with me, I think I was intending to be a form of Arwen. I was after the Ranger, and for a long time, until Lila Gamgeetook joined, I was the one and only PMF on the hunt, the only one who did NOT intend to snare Legolas!

How would a newcomer go about joining in the fun – as painlessly as possible?

I created a welcoming thread that's been pasted to the top of C&C with directions for newbies. The general rule is read back a few pages on the hunt, get a feel for where the plot is, who's doing what, how things are written, and then just leap right in. The other hunters love newbies and welcome them with open arms.

See the Joining the Hunt article below.
 

What changes do you foresee with the releases of TTT and ROTK?

More drooling. Much more drooling. New huntees- Eomer and Faramir will become lust objects. There will be a rise in the registered members of TWC with the movies, and so more people will find the hunt and possibly want to join.

Back to Home page

This was taken from a post at the top of the C&C forum called "The Elf Hunt: A History (Newbies Please Read)"

Welcome to the White Council’s Elf Hunt!
Due to the recent popularity of our little hunt and the migration of posters at TORn, I decided those poor confused people trying to jump in needed a little help from the hunters.

The ELF HUNT was created a few months ago by some PEF (Pervy Elf Fanciers) as a role playing game. The original intention was to hunt down elves in Middle-earth and has now expanded to three hunting threads and several off-hunt ones. The storyline has been modified, twisted and turned, and now changes every few pages or so.

A html history and good links

It all started as part of the Calling all Elf Lovers thread, created for drooling Legolas fans. The hunt itself starts around page 40.
(This is the actual thread. For a simplified, storylike version of this, start reading the chapters on this site.)
And expanded to its own thread Elf-Lovers II, which expanded to Elf-Hunters III and The Elf Hunt- Volume IV and The Elf Hunt- Volume V

Then in the wee hours of the morning of June 26, the Vets came out of retirement in force and took over the hunt once more. Their revolution lasted only a few page, and the Hunt continued on. The New Elf Hunt- Revolution!

The current hunting thread The New Elf hunt- Revolutions II.

There is an offgame discussion used to keep chattiness out of the hunt itself (see tip below). The current one is OffGame Discussion III.

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However, you DO NOT have to read all that!

Tips for Newcomers:

1. Go to our homesite: www.angelfire.com/film/elflovers. You can find a little information about the hunt, bios and other interesting info on the current hunters and huntees, various techniques for catching elves, and most importantly, a dictionary of terms we use.

2. Jump in. Make a name for yourself, and don’t be shy! You have to take an active role in this hunt or you will be overlooked. Read back a few pages, get a feel for the hunt, and dive right in!

3. Stay sharp. This hunt moves. We’ll go 3 or 4 pages an afternoon, more during the evening. During rush hours when everyone is one, you need to go back and check what’s happened as you wrote your post. No kidding, a storyline can take a strange twist just while you write a reply.

4. Use the offgame discussion. We try to keep all posts on the hunt related to the hunt, but we won’t scream or call names if someone posts otherwise. (We do ask that you please refrain from using the hunt for chatty discussions that would better work on AIM.) But if you have a question, want to tell a story, find out where we are and what the h*** is going on, post in the offgame. That’s our conversational thread where anything and everything goes.

5. Don’t be shy! We don’t bite and we love new faces! And don’t be afraid or overwhelmed! This has made some of the best online friends possible, and in time you’ll get to know the other hunters like the back of your hand. We’ll do our best to help you get started, but get ready for quite a ride!

Here are some suggestions posted by fellow hunters:

Mirkwood Mistress: The important thing to remember is that you have to develop your OWN character and bring it into the story wherever YOU want to be. As you've noticed, we move around a lot and sometimes we have to edit our posts to reflect where someone else has taken the storyline we are a part of. This is why it is impossible to answer your questions as to who is where and what's happening... this story changes faster than a bolt of lightning. I find that I often re-read a page, just so I catch changes people have made, and to make sure that my own contributions to the story actually help to further it...

Nimrodel: I think I speak for a lot of PEFs when I say, we love you all and want you in the story, BUT there are too many people to keep track of so...Please don't get offended if you haven't posted for awhile and aren't mentioned...mention YOURSELF and develop your own character, don't ask everyone where you are...just try to keep consistent on who's with who if you write for someone else...

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Guidelines

Since the hunt has expanded so much, there are a few things Tadan and Tinuviel have suggested in order to check the chaos and make things easier to follow...

Guideline One: No more than five characters per person. Now, some characters do not count in this, such as Legolas, as he is shared by so many. But exculsives and originals do. This would translate into yourself and four friends, pets, etc. Too many names, and we all get lost.

Guideline two: No more than one 'magic' or 'psychic' power or amulet per person. Our telepathic connection does not count toward this, as that is also shared. But having a power for every situation also loses people. To show a few examples, this would not touch MM's Medjai tattoo and it's tingling warning. But if it should suddenly give her the power to fly and read everyone's minds, that would be going a bit far. The Lizard senses are one power. A life-stone is one amulet. And so on.

Guideline three: Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Some of the best parts in the hunt were when someone (or a group of someones) got caught, or stuck in their own traps. This gives the PEFs and PMF chances to have fun and charge to the rescue. Rescueing yourself is never as much fun. Trust me on this. However, try not to make yourself excessively vulnerable, though. It becomes complicated if PEF's are passing out left and right, unless with good cause

Guideline Four: This is not a contest or fight within the huntresses. (except certain duels, DD vs. DT for instance) If someone can do something well, it is not polite to say that you can do something better. That only leads to bickering.

Guideline Five: If you need to post right after you have already done so, please edit. Numerous posts by the same person are confusing and difficult to follow.

Guideline Six: Try to make sure that a character you intend on using, is not in use somewhere else. For example, if Haldir is sneaking through Mirkwood, make sure you don't accidently write him in doing something else in Lorien. Originally this is how the clone war began, but I don't think we could do that again.

Guideline Seven: Try to avoid netspeak or other slang that is hard to interpret. People will get your incorporate you more if they can get an idea of how you speak.
 

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