Half-Elf
Half-Elves are common in all of Sanctum. The race is unique to this planet, where it grew out of the earliest mingling of humans and elves in the Crash Zone. Half-Elves can be as haughty as elves, though they are more able to work comfortably with humans. A few half-elves, fascinated with death and the practice of their elven ancestors, become accomplished necromancers. Others favor their human heritage more strongly, to the point of blending almost invisibly into human society. While the majority of Half-Elves belong to their own distinct race, elves and humans throughout Sabaku still intermingle and occasionally produce offspring.
Personality: Most half-elves have the curiosity, inventiveness, and ambition of the human parent, along with the refined senses, love of nature, and artistic tastes of the elf parent.
Physical Description: To humans, half-elves look like elves. To elves, they look like humans — indeed, elves call them half-humans. Half-elf height ranges from under 5 feet to about 6 feet tall, and weight usually ranges from 100 to 180 pounds. Half-elf men are taller and heavier than half-elf women, but the difference is less pronounced than that found among humans. Half-elves are paler, fairer, and smoother-skinned than their human parents, but their actual skin tone, hair color, and other details vary just as human features do. Half-elves’ eyes are green, just as are those of their elf parents. A half-elf reaches adulthood at age 20 and can live to be over 180 years old. Most half-elves are the children of human–elf pairings. Some, however, are the children of parents who themselves are partly human and partly elf. Some of these “second generation” half-elves have human-like eyes, but most still have green eyes.
Relations: Half-elves do well among both elves and humans, and they also get along well with dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. They have elven grace without elven aloofness, human energy without human boorishness. They make excellent ambassadors and go-betweens (except between elves and humans, since each side suspects the half-elf of favoring the other). In human lands where elves are distant or not on friendly terms with other races, however, half-elves are viewed with suspicion. Some half-elves show a marked disfavor toward half-orcs. Perhaps the similarities between themselves and half-orcs (a partly human lineage) makes these half-elves uncomfortable.
Alignment: Half-elves share the chaotic bent of their elven heritage, but, like humans, they tend toward both good and evil in equal proportion. Like elves, they value personal freedom and creative expression, demonstrating neither love of leaders nor desire for followers. They chafe at rules, resent others’ demands, and sometimes prove unreliable, or at least unpredictable.
Half-Elven Lands: Half-Elves have no homeland but can be found throughout the five kingdoms. They are common in Sabaku, Teiboku, and Tez, and few have migrated to Trifia to be closer to their elven heritage.
Language: Half-elves speak the languages they are born to, Common and Elven. Half-elves are slightly clumsy with the intricate Elven language, though only elves notice, and even so half-elves do better than nonelves.
Names: Half-elves use either human or elven naming conventions. Ironically, a half-elf raised among humans is often given an elven name in honor of her heritage, just as a half-elf raised among elves often takes a human name.
Adventurers: Half-elves find themselves drawn to strange careers and unusual company. Taking up the life of an adventurer comes easily to many of them. Like elves, they are driven by wanderlust.
Racial Traits:
Medium: As Medium creatures, half-elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Half-elf base land speed is 30 feet.
Immunity to sleep spells and similar magical effects, and a +2 racial bonus on saving throw against enchantment spells or effects.
Low-light Vision: A half-elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks: A half-elf does not have the elf’s ability to notice secret doors simply by passing near them. Half-elves have keen senses, but not as keen as those of an elf.
+2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks: Half-elves get along naturally with all people.
Elven Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-elf is considered an elf. Half-elves, for example, are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect elves as their elf ancestors are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by elves.
Automatic Languages: Common and Elven.
Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). Half-elves have all the versatility and broad (if shallow) experience that humans have.