Background for Half-Elves in D&D
Josh Horowitz
Created: 3/15/02

$Revision: 1.4 $    
$Date: 2002/03/20 00:14:52 $

Since a number of people have decided to play half-elves, I thought I should
briefly describe how I see them.  This will have no effect on the game
mechanics, but it might help with your backstory.  Elves are pretty reclusive
in this world, and 3 party members with a direct elven parent is probably not
credible.

Elven blood in humans runs a bit like a recessive gene, but a bit more
randomly.  A human with even a hint of elven blood (like 1/128), might be a
"half-elf" for game purposes.  Her siblings, however, could be "full-humans."
(And their children still have a slight chance of being "half-elves".)  This
leads to all sorts of folklore of changelings (human infants swapped for elven
babies) and such.  On the other hand, the chance of being a half-elf is
greater the closer you are to an elven ancestor  The child of an elf and a
human is almost certainly a half-elf, while his children might be.  Half-elves
are sometimes viewed with suspicion, and even outright hostility in some
places.  Vesh, however, was settled many centuries ago by elves, and many of
the human inhabitants still have a trace of elven blood.  "Spontaneous"
half-elves, while rare, are not unheard of.

It works just the opposite with human blood in elves.  Elves who are 1/4 human
are just like normal elves, except their life-span might be a bit shorter.

Half-orcs, btw, definitely have one orc and one human parent.  A human with
1/4 orc blood is human (although the orcish ancestry is still apparent).


Hope this helps!