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

[Charlaquin]

You are mischaracterizing Nordic cultures.

I’m not making any attempt to represent Nordic cultures

 

[Umbran]

Mod note:
Folks,

We are not here to discuss real world religious or spiritual traditions, Nordic or otherwise.

If you feel that some game product was actually trying to characterize your real-world culture, and got it wrong, that's probably a discussion to have with the publisher, rather than folks here who have no ability to address your concerns with someone else's text.

 

[Yaarel]

I’m not making any attempt to represent Nordic cultures

Yes, you are. You are talking about "religion".

I am talking about culture.


Edit, the mod note just appeared.

 

[Umbran]

Yes, you are. You are talking about "religion".

I am talking about culture.

We are done with this line of discussion. Thanks.

 

[Chaltab]

Has any half elf since Tanis been an outsider?

Vex and Vax. At least to other elves.

 

[Chaltab]

I think the biggest thing to me is the fact they're torn between two worlds. They have life cycles that are more comparable to humans--yes they can live well into their second century, but still not hundreds of years like a full blooded elf. They get some of the perks of being an elf but also most of the downsides of being a human, including having to spend a whole third of every day resting.

 

[AlViking]

I think the biggest thing to me is the fact they're torn between two worlds. They have life cycles that are more comparable to humans--yes they can live well into their second century, but still not hundreds of years like a full blooded elf. They get some of the perks of being an elf but also most of the downsides of being a human, including having to spend a whole third of every day resting.

My take as well. Even a fish out of water knows that if they could get back to the water they'd be home. But for a half-elf, there is no home.

 

[Hriston]

Something that could make the half-elf stand out from the bog-standard elf is to lean into the touch of divine ancestry which makes JRR Tolkien's lineage of the Half-elven special, basically make them explicitly extraplanar. A fey-touched variant could be standard, like the descendants of Lúthien who's really the first "half-elf" in the legendarium, being elven on her father's side and Maia on her mother's. She too was given "the choice" and chose a human fate. There could also be celestial and fiendish variants. Basically fold tieflings and aasimar into half-elves.

Eta: Or, conversely, make half-elves the fey-touched counterpart to the other two.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Something that could make the half-elf stand out from the bog-standard elf is to lean into the touch of divine ancestry which makes JRR Tolkien's lineage of the Half-elven special, basically make them explicitly extraplanar. A fey-touched variant could be standard, like the descendants of Lúthien who's really the first "half-elf" in the legendarium, being elven on her father's side and Maia on her mother's. She too was given "the choice" and chose a human fate. There could also be celestial and fiendish variants. Basically fold tieflings and aasimar into half-elves.

Eta: Or, conversely, make half-elves the fey-touched counterpart to the other two.

NGL the idea of "choosing" what race you are is something that lots of mixed race people have issues with, and I really regret Tolkien didn't put this racial binary into his half-elven characters because the fantasy genre has had to carry some Silmarillion One Drop Rule henceforth.

Obama is black and white. Obama did not have to choose to be black or white and gain the powers of bass guitar or country club membership. Race, being an ultimately social construct, a noumenon with no physical basis in the observable universe, is logically inclusive. If it makes no sense to ask someone if they are black xor white, then the same goes for a half-elf being human xor elf.

 

[Chaltab]

If it makes no sense to ask someone if they are black xor white, then the same goes for a half-elf being human xor elf.

I think this is kind of undercut because what is now called Species in D&D is not just a social construct. Half-elves and half-orcs can be used as a metaphor for people of mixed race, but it's not entirely analogous. Just like how Mutants in Marvel comics are analogous to various civil rights issues, but that will always be complicated by the fact that there are, in fact, Mutants with dangerous powers that people should have a healthy concern about being in close proximity with.

If someone could accidentally cause a thermonuclear explosion when they're angry, you need to keep that person in a place where they can't blow others up.