Being a half-elf in Krynn

This is written from the point of view from playing in a 5th Age campaign GM'ed by Harald Venes.

Krynn is one of the hostile places for a half-elf. Most half-elves have no real family to count on for support, society scorns them if they are lucky. I guess more than one half-breed was left in the forest to die as infants.

Both humans and elves dislikes interbreeding of the races, though when it comes to being blatantly racist the elves, and especially the Silvanesti, are in a league of their own. The Silvanesti have fought wars over racial purity, and they still think those wars were a good idea. The Qualinesti are more relaxed on this issue, but remember, even a Kagonesti clan, typically even more tolerant than the Qualinesti, may ban a woman from their clan if she is pregnant with a half-elf.

Daily life for the half-elf ranges from hard won tolerance (rare), through being denied access to ins (usual) to being chased by mobs (somewhat unusual). Being outside most social structures, the typical half-elf is a very lonely and vulnerable individual. Hunting for something to belong to is probably not too unusual, especially comparing relatively to other races. Another effect of being of an unpopular breed is that some half-elves have a gallopping minority complex. Always being viewed as something less than others has created an intense need to show their worth. Others act the other way around, being hounded most of their lives have made them timid. These half-elves usually try to avoid conflict, and will rarely speak up against elves.

Identity is a problem for half-elves. Some hang out in the fringes of the culture they grew up nearest, and try to find a place for themselves there. Others break up with everything they knew and become, you guessed it, adventurers. Half-elf adventurers can be some of the more extreme people wandering the road, they may have no home, no loyalties to others than their personal friends, and hardly anything else than what they wear to lose. My character ventured into the world to avenge the death of his mother, when he had completed this quest, the band of adventurers he had gotten to know (the other PCs) was all he had. Today he is adopted into a dwarven clan. In other words, half-elves may be wild cards who may turn up in places you expect neither elves nor humans to be.

Half-elves themselves dislike both the terms half-elf and half-human, some feeling they are somewhat derogatory, others not wanting to identify themselves with either culture. (The latter being somewhat hard, when taking into account what flows in their veins.) Generally, half-elves do not try to find a new word for themselves as few half-elves consider their breed to be a single homogenous group, but avoid issues of race and insist on being treated as a single individual and not some representative of a genetic entity without a single culture.

More to be added later...

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