D&D General So how do Half-Elfs feel different to Elfs?

[Charlaquin]

Let me give you all a personal first-hand example. I’m 1/4 Pueto-Rican, but my grandmother assimilated so hard, I basically had no idea of my connection to that side of my heritage. I call her “Abby” despite her name being Mildred, because it’a short for Abuela, and as a kid I just accepted that unquestioningly, the thought never occurred to me that there was anything unusual about referring to a grandparent by an anglicized shortening of a Spanish word, or thought about why she was the only grandparent I referred to that way. But every time my family went to visit her in Florida, we’d have one day we’d all go to see my ti-ti Frieda, and Abby was wildly different around her. The two of them would constantly slip back and forth between English and Spanish within the same sentence, and I had no idea why, because Abby otherwise never spoke it. I did like those days though, they felt very special in a different way than visiting Abby did the rest of the time, and I wished I could have understood what they were saying when they were speaking Spanish to each other.

It took me many, many years just to understand what all was going on with that aspect of my heritage, but once I got it, a lot of experiences started to make sense in retrospect. There are aspects of the way that I cook, for example, that are informed by that heritage, the cuisine and practices I grew up with from my mom’s cooking, which were an anglicized imitation of her mom’s cooking. My rice and beans seem “ethnic” to my white friends and family, but would probably be unrecognizable to a Puerto Rican person as the dish they’re bastardized from. And when I eat Abby’s version, it just doesn’t taste right to me, because it’s too authentic (and she criticizes her own version because she has to substitute ingredients that she doesn’t have access to).

This is pretty dark, but I will probably never need to fear being abducted ICE, unless America goes into full holocaust mode. That might not be as true for my mom and almost certainly isn’t true for Abby or Frieda.

These are things that could inform a half-elf or half-orc character. What is the character’s relationship with their peoples’ languages? Their cuisine? Their cultural practices? How do they feel about calling themselves “half” elf/orc, or about being called that by others, especially when they’re “technically only 1/4”, or “have some distant elf/orc heritage”? These are interesting character development questions, and by exploring them we create opportunities to expand our capacity to empathize with others who have had analogous experiences in real life. That’s how half-elves are different to elves, and why they’re worth including in the game as a distinct player option.

 

[Laurefindel]

Exactly. If Half Elves have sufficient numbers to build their own world, then they are no longer between two worlds. They evolve into their own species, and their connection to their species origin is remote.

I haven’t watched the video but from previous Eberron material, Khorovar haven’t build their own world; they acquired a cultural identity which they half developed, half imposed by outsiders’ views. Yet, they have no nations, no leaders, and basically no social representation outside the dragonmark houses.

This identity is still based on an in-between state between human and elf, often acting as liaison, and not knowing what to do with their elven heritage. Even as an established culture worthy of being a full-fledged species in 5e, they remain in-between. Only, it’s a fully assumed and socially accepted in-between-ness. Still relevant and keyed to the reality of 1st generation offsprings of mixed heritage.

 

[MGibster]

See my being of two worlds post upthread. Half-elf is a different feel from elf or human.

No, no. I understand that. I'm not the one who championed the remove of half-elf and half-orcs from the game. But when they get to the point where they're a self-sustaining population, well, at some point you kind of lose the idea of the outsider who never quite fit in.

On the flip side, I've long held that a character's species in D&D doesn't matter. Any particular scenario being run just doesn't significantly change based on whether the Fighter is an elf, goliath, human, or even a gnome. That's just me.

 

[Yaarel]

The differences between Human ages seem mathematically exponential. Consider the following age brackets.

10-12 (tween)
13-15 (teen)
16-19 (young adult)
20-24 (adult)
25-31
32-39
40-49
50-62 (sage)
63-78
79-99 (elder)

100-129
130-159
160-199
200-249
250-319
320-399
400-499
500-629
630-789
790-999

1000-1299
1300-1599
1600-1999
...

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

No, no. I understand that. I'm not the one who championed the remove of half-elf and half-orcs from the game. But when they get to the point where they're a self-sustaining population, well, at some point you kind of lose the idea of the outsider who never quite fit in.

On the flip side, I've long held that a character's species in D&D doesn't matter. Any particular scenario being run just doesn't significantly change based on whether the Fighter is an elf, goliath, human, or even a gnome. That's just me.

How long have ethnic groups like the Jews or Roma been "outsiders" while still having their own community?

 

[Yaarel]

I haven’t watched the video but from previous Eberron material, Khorovar haven’t build their own world; they acquired a cultural identity which they half developed, half imposed by outsiders’ views. Yet, they have no nations, no leaders, and basically no social representation outside the dragonmark houses.

This identity is still based on an in-between state between human and elf, often acting as liaison, and not knowing what to do with their elven heritage. Even as an established culture worthy of being a full-fledged species in 5e, they remain in-between. Only, it’s a fully assumed and socially accepted in-between-ness. Still relevant and keyed to the reality of 1st generation offsprings of mixed heritage.

That capacity of self-government is sometimes understood as the difference between an ethnicity and a nation.

The lack of self-government is a common experience of many ethnicities in the diaspora.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Almost like a distinct race with a name of its own

Khoravar/Half-elves

Keith, Wayne, and Kristian explore the culture and identity of Eberron's half-elves.

manifest.zone

The Khoravar are the only half-elven society I'd grant as being a little okay... but I still think they are superfluous.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Oh man, that reminds me.

As much as I personally want to think of half-elves as a proxy for children of loving and consensual mixed-race marriages, the fact is that elves and humans have an extreme age gap and IRL we do find that to be problematic.

There are some half-blood tropes online, mostly full of black humor. The grandmother-friendly one is from All for One, for their half-orc, where the "punchline" was the half-orc is from a loving (if somewhat violent) family.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This is incorrect. They have their own isolated society, but if they leave and go out into human or elf society, like an adventuring half-elf does, they are out of place and of both worlds again. The PC could also be one of those born outside of that half-elf society and not know it.

ANY person of any species that goes into a world of which they are not the dominant species gets the same exact "fish out of water" experience. A Human who leaves their community of humans and goes to the land of the elves is just as out of place and an outsider as a Half-Elf that leaves their community of half-elves to go to the land of the humans. But they still have their community there waiting for them back home where they aren't that. So a half-elf from a society of half-elves are no longer "of two worlds"... they are of a singular half-elf world who goes out amongst other species... just like every other species in the game does.

 

[Maxperson]

ANY person of any species that goes into a world of which they are not the dominant species gets the same exact "fish out of water" experience. A Human who leaves their community of humans and goes to the land of the elves is just as out of place and an outsider as a Half-Elf that leaves their community of half-elves to go to the land of the humans. But they still have their community there waiting for them back home where they aren't that. So a half-elf from a society of half-elves are no longer "of two worlds"... they are of a singular half-elf world who goes out amongst other species... just like every other species in the game does.

This is wrong. It's not the exact same. The half-elf would not be a fish out of water, but rather a fish in a pond with a slightly different fish. Enough to feel different, but not enough to be out of water.

That half-elf is still between two worlds. That they've created a third world for themselves doesn't remove the fact that they are still between the two worlds of human and elf.