Elf Only Inn

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Elf Only Inn
Author(s)	Josh Sortelli
Website	http://www.elfonlyinn.net/
Current status	Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Launch date	May 23, 2002
Genre(s)	Parody, online culture

Written and drawn by Josh Sortelli, Elf Only Inn is a webcomic set in the virtualization of a fantasy chat room. Though its cast represents a broad spectrum of gaming, fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres, each character is actually an avatar for a chat room participant. Represented through their characters, it is about the relationships, neuroses, and sub-cultures that grow up around online communities. The Inn itself is a room within a larger BBS, though the exact technology involved — whether it is chat or an Internet forum — is vague. It is ostensibly dedicated to fantasy role-playing, and elves in particular, but in reality, very little quality role-playing takes place, and elves are in the minority.

The comic debuted on Comic Genesis (then KeenSpace) on May 23, 2002 with a varying schedule, mostly appearing three times a week. It was nominated in 2003 for the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards for outstanding newcomer^[1] and won in 2004 for outstanding story concept^[2]. Sortelli officially put the comic on hiatus in September 2004, citing time constraints, shortly after its move to Keenspot. However, following an announcement in August 2006 on Sortelli's LiveJournal^[3], a new strip appeared for the first time in two years on September 11, 2006, with the "Inn" moving from a BBS to a MMORPG known as Marauders of Gaia, and the old players are slowly trickling in to Lord Elf's new haunt.

1 Format
2 Characters
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Format

In the beginning, with the exception of a few black-and-white strips, Elf Only Inn was in color. Now, however, the comic is primarily in black-and-white, with only a few color strips. The panel count varies considerably, but six is the most common. It started out as a copy-and-paste comic, with each of the characters having one image modified in minor ways between the panels and strips. The author used this format because it represented the static nature of the avatars used in most chat rooms and online forums. Later on, however, the artwork became more dynamic, and he eventually abandoned copy-and-paste altogether.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Name	First Strip	Description
Lord Elf	#1 (2002-05-23)	Elf Only Inn's egomaniacal host, Lord Elf is a small-minded would-be autocrat whom nobody likes or respects. He rails against the regulars for not role-playing or abiding by the Inn's charter, but because the forum's SysOp pays even less attention to him than his fellows, his threats of bannings are hollow. He appears as a bleakly stereotypical fantasy elf, though he occasionally moonlights as another character, the Blue Wizard of Forestdale, when he needs someone to agree with him. His character has married M'Lady at least 50 times, and has proposed to Megan once. His real name is Jason.
Megan Ayrwyn	#29 (2002-07-15)	Once an overly serious and self-important vegan and wannabe pagan, Megan evolved into Lord Elf's main foil and leader of the other characters. She plays an elven ranger, is a bit of a drama queen, and when she was still in Lord Elf's favor managed to become the co-host of the Inn. She has briefly dated Woot in real life, and also shown interest in Duke. She is a very close friend and possibly roommate of Herman/April, and her character looks very much like her real life face.
Nimoy	#4 (2002-05-26)	Nimoy wandered into Elf Only Inn when he wasn't quite nerdy enough to fit in with his fellow Trekkies in their room. He appears as a Vulcan in ceremonial garb, so he can occasionally pass himself off as an elf. He's reserved, sardonic, and mainly just wants to be left alone to drink his coffee, though is willing to zap others with his phaser if he sees fit. In MoG he plays a magic-using character, though he still often uses his phasers. His name in real life is James.
Lord Wootsayediditagyn (aka Woot and One-Eyed Willy)	#81 (2002-10-27)	The Eternal Sweeper, Woot is a cthulhoid janitor that somewhat resembles Shuma-Gorath. He has an unhealthy fascination with Britney Spears. The name of his avatar's race is apparently an "Eternal Sleeper", but Woot insists that he is an "Eternal Sweeper", due to a misprint on p60 of the first edition of the Ryftworld RPG sourcebook. Therefore, his avatar is almost always shown with a broom. Initially brought in from the "Deamon Citadel" chat room to defeat the rampaging Lord of Dorkness, he decided to stick around. Though he occasionally causes mayhem, mostly he likes to clown around. In MoG Woot plays on a PvP server under the name "One-Eyed Willie"; his absence from the roleplaying sister is the MacGuffin for Barbvine's cult, who managed to get him his tentacled icon, though because of this Percey has limited him to Lord Elf's inn, forbidding him from exiting or else be banned. His real name is Will. According to an early sketch by Sortelli, Will/Woot wears a leg brace and eye patch in real life, ostensibly due to injuries sustained in a former career as a professional skateboarder [1].
Duke Commando (aka Duchess)	#3 (2002-05-25)	Based on Duke Nukem, Duke is the Inn's resident womanizing, cigar-chomping, beer-swilling tough guy. His mere presence breaks every rule in the Inn's charter, but to Lord Elf's chagrin, that's never stopped him. Despite the blatant anachronism of his character, and his ineptitude at first impressions, Duke generally manages (if awkwardly) to get along with the Inn's other regulars. In MoG he plays a Barbarian-type character. When he joined Barbivine's Sisterhood, his Amazon-like avatar was named Duchess.
Goku666	#2 (2002-05-24)	Goku is based on the Dragon Ball character of the same name, but possesses even less in the way of wit, being an archetypical noob in behavior and speech. He's largely incomprehensible, communicating in a mixture of leetspeak and typos, usually with the caps lock on. He often claims to possess God-like powers that make him invincible, which frustrates the rest of the group. He constantly tries to get people to fight him, but is usually ignored.
M'lady	#3 (2002-05-25)	Though her full name is Lady Sunset Autumn Honey Purity Sunflower Rainbow, the Inn knows her simply as M'Lady. She is flirtatious, voluptuous, and perpetually sweet and friendly, at least as far as anyone can tell. Mostly she speaks in emotes and smilies; when she does talk she's almost as incomprehensible as Goku. Her character has also had children with nearly everyone in the Inn. M'lady's avatar is a visual jibe on Dawn, a lingerie-clad Linsner comic book character that is popular role-playing avatar material. Her main roleplaying theme is to be a <insert race here> (half).
Lord of Dorkness (aka LoD)	#12 (2002-06-03)	The Lord of Dorkness made an unfortunate typo when he created his character, but since all the other names for Satan were taken, he's stuck with it. He appears as a large demon, reminiscent of the Lord of Darkness from the movie Legend. He's one of the few role-players in the Inn, but is prone to bouts of egomania, and frequently "leaves forever" when things don't go his way. His melodramatic exits are invariably coupled with a round of kissing up to Lord Elf, who always falls for his bids for attention. Now known as LoD, and was a beta tester on MoG.
King Herman of the Humans (aka April)	#67 (2002-09-29)	Megan's friend in real life, Herman is also a serious role-player. He plays a human king and representative of his kind to the elves. In his role, he's willing to take some grief from Lord Elf and Megan, but, armed with the One Ring, he'll zap anyone who annoys him too much. It is implied in some instances (and confirmed on 25 October 2006), such as when at one point Herman has his Santa beard yanked off and appears rather feminine[2], as well as in the crossover with Penny Arcade, that Herman is played by a female named April, who may also have been Megan's roommate at some point. Herman/April secretly finds the male room regulars amusing [3] and thinks of them as Megan's harem of "silly boys". Herman is married in-game to Lilith, though Lilith did not know Herman is a woman in real life until December 18, 2006 (Lilith had previously thought Herman was a gay man). Herman's usual avatar is of a king with robes, a crown, and a long red fake beard (and, in MoG, heavy armor and weaponry); however, she has an alternate avatar of a female bard with short, spiky red hair, very similar to her real life appearance.
Hambonetaru-chan	#16 (2002-06-17)	Hambonetaru-chan is a scheming corporate marketing executive in the form of a cute, Pokémon-esque critter. Though not affiliated with any particular anime franchise, his character was loosely designed after Hamtaro.
Lilith_123 (aka Lily and Lilit)	#182 (2003-12-10)	Another refugee from the Daemon Citadel chat room, Lily is a shapeshifting succubus who plays the role of seductress to the hilt. Unlike Woot, however, she was a respected member at the Daemon Citadel and only came to EOI to annoy Megan. Initially an antagonist, she eventually mended fences and became an Inn regular. She is very forward and manipulative, and possibly bisexual. Lily was a beta tester for MoG. She is also in the words of Lord Elf "more anal about role playing than he is." Megan believes her to be fat in real life. In MoG, she has taken to spelling her name "Lilit", without the final h.
sweet_grrl (aka Stabby Girl)	#183 (2003-12-12)	Sort of a female Goku, Stabby Girl likes Linkin Park and stabbing people. Mostly stabbing people, especially Nimoy. Her representation is a play on doll avatars, paper-doll-esque images that are a popular on the web, particularly among younger teenage girls.
Geoph Mo'drin	#215 (2004-03-22)	Even though he plays a dark elf outcast, he is not a Drizzt rip-off. At least he tries not to be. A serious role-player, he is somewhat befuddled by the likes of Duke and Lily.
The SysOp	#14 (2002-06-05)	Represented as a generic male outline since he doesn't bother with an avatar, the SysOp is true lord of the BBS. He appears infrequently, usually to thwart Lord Elf, but his authority is not to be denied. Lord Elf often pesters him to ban people in the Inn, but SysOp generally ignores his requests. The author has publicly stated that, due to the change of setting to MoG, SysOp will not return. He has been functionally replaced by a new character, GM_Percey.
The Goths	#25 (2002-07-07)	Natives of a vampire chat room, the Goths (Gothboi, Gothgrrl, and Slave) spend most of their time flopping, sighing, reciting bad and plagiarized poetry, and writing in tiny fonts. Emoticons and being cheerful are grounds for an immediate ban in their chat room. Gothboi is rather pretentious and in some ways highly resembles Lord Elf. Gothgrrl is quiet and very introverted. Slave is generally quiet and inscrutable, but occasionally shows an odd and playful sense of humor.
The Darths	#20 (2002-06-27)	Nearly everyone in the neighboring Star Wars chat room wants to play Darth Vader. The Darths spend most of their time proclaiming their fatherhood over the lone Luke Skywalker character in their chat room. A Darth who has taken on secondary identities is "Ben", one of which was an ill-fated stint as Legolas. Ben's attempts to play Darth Vader are usually thwarted when he is shouted down for horning in on the other Darths' turf. In the new strips, Ben plays one of the many copies of Captain Jack Sparrow in the local harbor town. He gets the same reaction he got in the chatroom.
Barbivine Thunderjugs	[4] (2006-10-11)	An aggressive blonde dwarven female who is either the leader or the high priestess of a cult known as the Sisterhood of Lace, on the surface devoted to "chainmail bikini" portrayals of fantasy women, but actually devoted to a mysterious Cthulhu-like abomination (in MoG terms, trying to circumvent the system to create an avatar for Woot). The group's logo is the Yellow Sign. At one point, it is suggested thet she's Woot in an alternate avatar [5]; however, Herman/April believed otherwise, as Barbivine seems not to be aware of Herman's real identity, which Woot would, having met both April and Megan in real life, not to mention the fact that King Herman and GM Percy encountered both Barbvine and Woot's characters in the Oceanography server of MoG at the same time. She is in truth Woot's real life girlfriend, and was not lying about attempting to give Woot his icon, something that she manages to succeed in.