# Race: Half-Elf > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Uncommon | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Neutral, and only recently so. Tolerated across most of the world within living memory, claimed by neither parent people, and actively despised by the older elven bloodlines. | > | **Guide Section** | Uncommon Races | ## Overview Half-elves walk between two worlds and belong fully to neither. They combine the adaptability and ambition of their human parentage with the refined senses and magical affinity of their elven line, and across Gryth they rarely form communities of their own, instead finding a place within existing settlements or not settling at all. ## Only Recently Tolerated Acceptance is new. For most of recorded history a half-elf carried the taint of their elven bloodline in the eyes of everyone who had been under the Eldari, which was most of the world, and the ordinary peoples of Gryth wanted nothing to do with them. That has only lately begun to lift, and in much of the world “lately” means within living memory. A half-elf of seventy can remember being refused service in towns that now think nothing of it. The elves never shifted at all. To them a half-elf is a fall in order and in culture, proof of a bloodline degraded rather than extended, and the view is held with the serene certainty of people who have never had to defend it. ## Loth’Torin, Outside the Walls [[Region - High Vel'Nora|High Vel’Nora]] admits half-elves to its southern shore and no further. They may land at Loth’Torin, the Outer Port, trade there and live there, and the great walls beyond are where their journey ends. A substantial half-elf population has grown up outside those walls as a result, and it has built the Courts of the Others, an unofficial court through which it presses, generation after generation, for a blood-right the island has no intention of granting. Even that arrangement enrages the older bloodlines. There are houses on the island for whom the destruction of half-breeds ranks above every other grievance they hold, humanity included, and the only reason Loth’Torin still stands is that those houses do not yet have their way. ## The Only Mixed Blood There Is Humans are the only people known to produce children with another race. Of those pairings, two are formally recognised: the half-elves, and the half-orcs. Everything else lives in song. Half-dwarves appear in a handful of tales and ballads, always at a distance and never with a name anyone can check, and half-halflings are the subject of a great many extremely clever limericks and no serious record whatever. ## Where They Live Half-elves gather where nobody is counting. The large cities take them in without comment, and most half-elves in Gryth are city folk for that reason rather than by inclination. The exception is Loth’Torin, where they are counted very precisely indeed, and reminded of the number. ## Half-Elf Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1. **Age.** Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live far longer than humans, between 150 and 400 years depending on the elven lineage, but age quickly in their final years. The oldest on record, a bastard of the Eldari line, lived to around 600. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** Half-elves are about the same size as humans, ranging from 5 to 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 feet. **Darkvision.** Thanks to your elf blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **Fey Ancestry.** You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic cannot put you to sleep. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and one extra language of your choice. ## Lineage Options A half-elf takes one of the following, reflecting the elven side of their ancestry or the lack of it. The elven parent’s lineage decides which is available, and some of these are far harder to account for than others. A half sun elf is unusual. A half Eller’Kirn is a theological problem. ***Sun Half-Elf.*** You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it. ***Moon Half-Elf.*** You gain proficiency in the Performance or Acrobatics skill. Additionally, whenever you or a friendly creature who can hear your song or dance completes a short rest, that creature regains an additional 1d4 hit points. ***Wood Half-Elf.*** Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet. ***Drow Half-Elf.*** You know the *dancing lights* cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the *faerie fire* spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. ***Sea Half-Elf.*** You have a swimming speed of 30 feet, and you can breathe air and water. ***Snow Half-Elf.*** You have resistance to cold damage, and you are naturally acclimatised to extreme cold and high altitude. The snow elves are extinct, so a character with this lineage is either very old or the product of something that requires explaining. ***Shadar-Kai Half-Elf.*** You have resistance to necrotic damage. ***Grey Half-Elf.*** You know the *guidance* cantrip, and you have advantage on saving throws against effects that would read your thoughts. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for the cantrip. ***Dread Half-Elf.*** You know the *primal savagery* cantrip, and you have advantage on saving throws against poison. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for the cantrip. Like your Dread Elf parent, you are magically barred from passing the threshold wards of High Vel’Nora. ***Eller’Kirn Half-Elf.*** You can cast *mage hand* at will, and the hand is invisible. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it; choose when you select this option. ***Skill Versatility.*** You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice. This option suits a half-elf raised entirely among mortals, with no direct inheritance from the elven side. ## Connections - [[Region - High Vel'Nora]] — Admits half-elves only as far as Loth’Torin, the Outer Port - [[Race - Half-Orc]] — The only other formally recognised mixed blood --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Half-Elf.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*