Half Elves

## Half-Elf

Half Elves are beings which result from the union of a human and an elf. Caught between two worlds, they stand out among either of their parent races, and often have trouble fitting in. The first half elves came into being thousands of years before, when the elves and dragons ruled the land in their Eternal Empire of Aeliliea, and held humans and other races as slaves. Elven masters often made use of human slave women for their pleasure, and half elves were the result.

## Appearance

Half elves tend to look like very attractive humans, though they lack the otherworldly, ethereal beauty of true elves. Their features are not so refined, and they tend to exhibit amounts of body hair more commonplace in humans. Half elves typically have the clear skin and straight teeth of elves, though most have human ears, and those that are possessed of elven points are less prominent. It is fairly common for them to have eyes that are as vivid and exotically colored as elves, though it is far from universal, and most do not possess hair that is as rich and lustrous. In terms of build, half elves are usually closer in height range to their human parent than their elven ones, and tend to have less graceful proportions than elves.

## Life Cycle

Half elves begin their existence with a nine month pregnancy, regardless of whether their mother is a human or an elf. Such pregnancies result in proportion with human frequencies, meaning that matings between elves and humans are far more likely than with humans and elves than between an elf couple.

After being born, half elves mature at the same rate as humans, up until they reach their twenties, whereupon their aging slows massively, though unlike a full elf, they do still age. By the time a half elf reaches their fifties and sixties, they retain the physique of a human in their thirties. As they near the end of their first century, they compare to a forty year old human. By the time they are around one hundred and twenty or so, they have entered their waning years, like a human in their fifties. At a hundred and fifty or a hundred and sixty, they possess bodies akin to sixty year old humans, and as the end of their second century draws near, they become much like seventy year olds. A half elf who lives beyond two hundred is ancient indeed, like a human in their eighties or nineties, One of the oldest known half elves was Annis the White of Orgonia, who lived to be two hundred and seventy three, and was so feeble by the end that she could not walk or see, was deaf in one ear and dim in the other, and had lost all her teeth.

### Offspring

Half elves that mate with other half elves produce half elf offspring, as do those who mate with full elves. Mating with humans produces quarter elves, who function much the same as an ordinary human, but almost always live two or three decades beyond a century. Quarter elves who mate with humans produce fully human offspring that tend to retain more vitality into old age, while mating with fellow quarter elves or half elves produces quarter elves, and with full elves produces half elves.

## Abilities

Half elves inherit the gifts of the elves, though far more limited versions. They are resistant to most diseases, though not fully immune as true elves are, and the rate at which they heal is comparable to ordinary humans. Their vision is better suited for making out small details than humans, but lacks the range of elves, and while their hearing is almost universally at the human peak, it is nowhere near as sharp as that of an elf. Half elves are naturally athletic by human standards, but cannot hone their bodies as easily as elves can, nor do they innately possess an elf's effortless dexterity and grace.

They do, however, fully equal elves in their capacity for inherent magical talent.