What if the Queen (from Lords and Ladies and *The Wee Free Men)* went up against Count de Magpyr (from [url=]Carpe Jugulum)? The power of elves lies in their glamor – sorry, glamour – their beauty, their egos, and in projecting into your mind the feeling that you are weak and ugly and worthless and helpless . . . but the Count has ego and to spare, and his own skills in controlling the minds of non-vampires. Mmmm! Elf blood!
Both would retreat from the fight, while trying very hard to make it look like that’s not what they’re doing. Or more likely, carefully arrange to never meet to begin with, nor to ever give any indication that either knows of the other’s existence.
From The Art of Discworld:
From Carpe Jugulum:
From Lords and Ladies:
Vampires. Most of them are old and rich enough to pay the both the workers of the street of cunning artificers and guild of assassins to figure out efficient ways to inhume elves and set them to the task.
I’d go with the Elf Queen over most of the “modern” vampires of the Disc, as most are either poseurs (Carpe Jugulum) or basically decent folks who have struggled to overcome their dependency on human blood. So I think they’d be vulnerable to being hit with a blast of “I’m awesome, you’re a disgusting animated corpse” from the Queen.
The Old Count Magpyr or Lady Margolotta would be much more challenging opponents. The former seems to have embraced who he is, and the latter’s political power and past liaison with Lord Vetinari suggest that she’s as tough and cunning as Granny Weatherwax and therefore more than a match for the Queen. In fact, I’d give her the edge over the Old Count. We don’t know a lot about him, but his willingness to play by the rules could be a major liability if he were up against a powerful opponent who truly wanted to destroy him. Then again, the Queen might not have the wit or attention span to follow through with eliminating the Old Count for good once she’d temporarily defeated him by, say, throwing open the drapes as the sun was rising.
I don’t think any of the Discworld vampires would have much interest in elf blood, as it’s suggested in Lords and Ladies that it’s significantly different from the blood of humans and most other Disc species. It’s green rather than red, presumably because it contains copper instead of iron (which elves cannot tolerate).
The Lady Margolotta always plays by the rules, too. She just has the good sense to write the rules herself, immediately before playing.
I’d love to see Otto the vampire (with his camera, of course) vs. the Elf Queen.
By the way, I’ve read both Lords and Ladies and The Wee Free Men. An Elf Queen is in each one. Is she the same person?
Is she an elf queen in Wee Free Men? She’s the queen of fairyland, but I don’t remember her being called an elf… scuttles off to find the book
Regardless, vampires all the way- they’re far more adaptable.
I believe she’s supposed to be, although the Discworld Wiki mentions that in Science of Discworld II it’s said there have been many elf queens and that they’re basically indistinguishable from one another. I thought it was a bit strange that a villain who posed a challenge to Granny Weatherwax in Lords and Ladies got beat by a little girl in Wee Free Men, although Tiffany is pretty tough and if it was the same queen maybe she was still smarting from her encounter with Granny.
Well…
Tiffany did have help from her extremely awesome Granny Aching.