General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
In Eberron, half-elves are a full on, true breeding race like the half-orcs.
Half-orcs of the Shadow Marches call themselves "Jhorgun'taal", which I think is a cool name.
Half-elves in Eberron call themselves "Khoravar", and I'm not so enamored with that name. Sounds swashbuckle-y to me, which is not inherently bad, but not elf-y at all, to my ear. Anyone have any alternate suggestions?
I've actually been identifying the half-orc as "halfork" as its truebreed name (pronounced as HALL-fork) for quite a while now, because it was simpler and less campaign specific than the Eberron name. I usually do identify half-elves as "khoravar" when I'm playing specifically within Eberron, but I don't yet have a different truebreed name for them outside of it. I've toyed with using "elvan" (pronounced el-VAN), but it has not become as ingrained in me as "halfork" is (I write it that way pretty much all the time now). But compared to other options I've seen, "elvan" has been the one I've disliked the least.
While I'm not sure if Occam had an aesthetic rule, perhaps the simplest option would be the most pleasing.
You've got hu-mans in the world (although I'm not sure what a Hu is), so why not call those with both fey and human traits the feyman? It's a little dopey, but no more than true-breeding races calling themselves 'half' of something.
Halflings, I'm looking at you.
While on the subject, if Dragonborn only have some distant connection to dragons, it strikes me as a very silly name. You don't see people going around calling themselves the Monkeyborn or Apeborn.
Tiefling also seems a bit weird, like an entire race has chosen to call themselves by some derogatory name.
For the last two, I used the names Gendrak and Turatha for one of my homebrews. Halflings were either River Kender or Sea Kender. Sadly, when you crossed an elf and a human you got... nothing. As the song goes, "pig and elephant DNA just don't splice."
However, the official Eberron name Khoravar doesn't seem too bad to me. Who says that a race that combines human and elf traits has to take their name from the elven side? I think many of the default D&D race names are just awful, though.
Half-elves in Eberron are called "Khoravar" because they never existed before elves from the continent of Aerenal and humans from the continent of Sarlona met and mingled on the continent of Khorvaire. There's actually a strain of "we are the true children of Khorvaire" thinking running through the true-breeding half-elves of the modern day.
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"Half-Elf" always seemed to me to be a name that others would call them...usually regardless of what they'd prefer to be called themselves. Perhaps they even see it as a deliberate insult.
How about the Fael? That way, when one reaches level 21+, he can be an Epic Fael.
In a world where we have named tiger/lion hybrids "tigons" and "ligers", perhaps we can call them:
1) Elmans
2) Huefs
3) Huves
4) Elans
And, since they're true-breeding just like the Half Orcs- who obviously need their own name- the possibility looms even greater that there would be H-E/H-O hybrids as well. (Who, FWIW, probably wouldn't like to be called "Heho"...)
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