Races and Languages

## Elves & Half-Elves

As a particular oddity of this campaign setting, elves (and
gnomes) “aren’t real” – or at least aren’t real anymore. There are stories
about Faeries: tiny flying and fierce sprites and pixies, mysterious Sidhe, and
fey creatures of all sorts: but within the boundaries of civilized realms, it
is not something that people really think about as something you would encounter.  There are some historians, archeologists, or
students of the esoteric who may know more (or suspect more), but most people
are more concerned with the here and now.

Half-Elves are generally seen as a variant of humanity, and any
pairing between half-elves and humans invariably results in a half-elf child. Insofar
as elves are stories of the Wild and of the forest and uninhabited places,
half-elves are seen as ‘savage’ or tribal or ‘less-than civilized/cultured’ by
more status-conscious humans. Popular stories and ballads about the half-elven
courtesan or the illegitimate noble half-elf child of a noble human
abound.  It’s rare, but some half-elves
use magic or other modes of disguise to ‘pass’ as human.

Half-elves, where they exist in older communities, share a
cultural story about elves as a powerful and magical race from thousands of
years ago who ruled over humans until the ungrateful human population, which
was more numerous, overthrew the Elves – with the assistance of their
half-elven sons and daughters.  There is
bitterness that over time enmity has grown between the humans and half-elven
peoples.

Languages: “Half-Elven” is a language shared between half-elves
who grow up in community, and it is not particularly a ‘secret’ – traders, priests
who minister to half-elf communities, citizens who live in mixed communities
all learn half-elven or at least how to speak a little.  It draws as much from Common dialect as it
does Elvish.

“Elvish” within the game is an ancient (largely dead) language
and is only spoken or studied by those practicing particular esoteric
traditions or deep historians.

## Dwarves and Halflings

While not precisely common in smaller human settlements, dwarves
and halflings are familiar to most humans and live within communities with the
sort of social stigma that is attached to half-elves (sociologists have written
about how this stems in part from the reality that dwarf/human or halfling/human
sexual pairings do not create offspring).

## Languages

Languages are fundamentally similar to how they are described on p. 123 of the Player's Handbook. In this setting, Elvish and Gnomish are "Exotic" languages, and Undercommon uses Dwarven script.

Arcane knowledge and spells (Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards) generally use Draconic as its base and fundament, the exception is for Warlocks: depending on Patron, a warlock's lore and spells could possibly use Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Primordial, Sylvan -- the specifics are determined when the Pact is created.

Divine knowledge and spells (Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers) are transferred primarily through Celestial language and script (for Clerics and Paladins), Primordial (for Druids and Rangers), and to a lesser degree, Sylvan (some Druids, Paladins of the Ancient).