"The fact is, Handraine and I both came from the same neighborhood, and I can promise you, he was given all the same opportunities I was growing up. Only difference is, rather than trying to make the best of his situation, he would rather pout, and complain. Only his pouting has gotten out of hand; now he and his hooligans are doing damage, and getting in the way of my and my superiors' ability to do real good for the people of this community."
-Advisor to the Lord of Hudelvon, Yigriss of the Blue Banner
Half-elven Culture
The Great Diaspora
In the ancient past of Adra, one of the first advanced civilizations was that of the Elves. Steeped in lore, martial skill, and magical prowess, the elves quickly came to dominate the regions they inhabited. As they did so, they came to interact with many new races and peoples along the way, and each in turn they incorporated into their growing empire. It was uncommon for the elves to fraternize much with these new peoples, and often treated them paternalistically, believing them too ignorant or incompetent to build or do anything of note. However, there came to be a growing number of elves who lived more and more among these non-elven peoples; these were often merchants, government officials, or educators. Through one way or another, inevitably this lead to friendship, fellowship, and eventually romance between elves and non-elves. Despite the disapproval of most of their kin, these more accepting elves would sometimes settle down and build families and communities with their non-elven neighbors. It is cloudy, and not precisely known how it began, but eventually, the most common of these relationships, humans and elves, began producing children. It was not, for the longest time, thought possible for elves to successfully produce offspring with any non-elves, or at least certainly no non-fey creatures. Legend has it that a couple beseeched Faetari for divine dispensation. More conservative elves suspected that too much mingling with non-fey creatures had diluted their blood. Whatever the truth, elves began having children with humans, and the pairings often cemented ties between the two races in Adra. The pairings generated children more rarely than elf-only relationships, and certainly more than human-only relationships: probably only 1 in 3 elf-human partners resulted in children. Still, it became quickly the most common hybrid race in the world, with other half-races being far more rare (Half-Dwarves for example only resulting from 1 in 50 dwarf-human pairings). Furthermore, unlike the vast majority of half-races, other than half-orc, half-elves were not sterile; they were themselves able to pass on their heritage to future generations. However, perhaps lending credence to the legend that the pairings came about only through divine dispensation, it seemed that no matter how many human ancestors one had, half-elves were always that: half-elven. Even those who only had 1 elf great-grandparent and 7 human great-grandparents, still seemed to have the pronounced elven features of the child of an elf and a human. This was truly unique, as even the fecund half-orcs would slowly become more orc or more human with each generation. Eventually, when came the schism of the two great Elven Nations, the half-elves decidedly sided with those who wished to remain the Blackwood; the high elves who were boarding ships to venture south had no interest in half-bloods living among them: their entire ethos was that the elves should rule over a land of only elves, and keep all other races out. Still, even after the dust had settled from the great schism, half-elves continued to become increasingly marginalized from their communities. Half-elves would almost never be considered for positions of high authority within the Blackwood, due to their shorter life-spans. Often, rather than being offered magical training, they were placed within other fields, at best being able to become a forest ranger. Furthermore, they were often forced away from their human kinsmen. It was thought that if one was to be a member of the Elvish Consultari, one could not continue to live as a human, and so continued dalliances between elves and humans were discouraged, and often half-elves were discouraged from seeing their human families, or in some cases, forcibly kept apart from them. Eventually, this would come to a head. In the latter part of the 1st Common Era, a large group of half-elves within the Blackwood gathered into a single group, and approached the Three Consuls to protest: they wished to be allowed to fraternize more with humans, they wished to not be held back from the best positions, and they wished for humans to be allowed to live in the Blackwood among them, in mass. The first two were perhaps possible, but the third request was impossible. Disheartened and angered, the group of half-elves swelled to a size of some five thousand, and left the Blackwood, most to never return. They at first settled the province of Zaltia, living in human communities, and building homes for themselves. But mistrust over years between human settlers and the mysterious and powerful elves led to the half-elves facing the opposite problem: the humans thought they were too elvish, and didn't trust them. This triggered many half-elves to move further away form Zaltia, in search of a community they could make their home. In rare cases, they found such villages and towns, willing and able to make permeant places in their society for the refugees. Usually though, they had the same problem as before. All the while though, this diaspora continued to mingle and coexist, often messily so, among many human-dominated societies, and as human-half-elf pairings grew, so did the number of half-elves. These new waves of half-elves faced the same problems as their predecessors, and over time, the Half-elven Diaspora was solidified. Today, there exists scattered across most of Adra Majoris, with pockets in other places as well, a Half-elf diaspora, living among but usually not fully integrated with many villages, towns, and cities. Due to their ability to retain their half-elven blood, these people have retained a shared history, shared culture, and shared struggle. In some places, they are welcomed as skilled craftsmen and fearsome warriors. In others, they are feared for their otherness, and often the source of rumors surrounding plots to take over a local city or village. Despite all of this, the half-elven diaspora has thrived, and in the current day has a population of considerable magnitude: enough never to be simply ignored.
The half-elves are one of the, if not the most diverse culture in Adra. It is perhaps not completely accurate to call them a culture, but rather a cultural group. Due to their lack of a single geographic home which they concentrate in, the cultural traits and idiosyncrasies of half-elves are largely affected and modified by the cultures and communities to which they attach themselves. For example, half-elves in Eldios tend to be outgoing and cosmopolitan. Half-elves in Aegyr tend to be diligent and agrarian-minded. Half-elves in Zaltia tend to be hardy and self-sufficient, and so on, and etc. Despite this, there is some degree of similarity between members of the diaspora, no matter where they find themselves. Most half-elves retain lore and histories of the elves, and due to this, are more often erudite and well-educated than their neighbors, particularly in places where their neighbors are not so-educated. In addition, their fey-background tends to lend them to having more of a bond with the land and the wilds. Because of this, half-elves often serve as the rangers, loggers, trappers, hunters, and guides of human villages and towns. Because the half-elves are necessarily almost all the descendants of romantic and loving pairings and families, the place of love and family takes a central focus in the lives of most half-elves. Many half-elves travel in search of lucrative work, only to send large portions of their income back to their family, to help provide for them. Half-elves often have strange relationships with their parents; they in many cases outlive their own parents by several decades, and in other cases are outlived by their parents by a few centuries. However, rather than making the half-elves a culture of lone wolves, this asymmetry has over time forced half-elves to develop extremely intricate ways to connect and love their family. Finally, common to most half-elves wherever they are, is a complicated relationship with their dominant cultural backdrop. Many half-elves view such cultural majorities as oppressive and unmoved by their plight, and look to the many histories of their people to know how little human cultures can be trusted. On the other hand, many half-elves look to build bridges between their own diaspora and the lands in which they settle; to maintain their own cultural roots, while fostering new and lively engagements with the dominant culture. And still, many other half-elves reject their past, thinking that holding onto the diaspora is a waste of time. These people often climb high in human-led hierarchies, never looking back on their past. Whatever the view of a single half-elf happens to be, their view of non-diaspora cultures will likely frame much of their own background and personality.
The Half-elven people are most highly concentrated across Adra Majoris, with many groups in Adra Minoris and Kelior, and occasional pockets outside of those lands. The most common race among half-elven are half-elves obviously, but there are also many humans and elves that consider themselves apart of the diaspora, and occasionally other races. Faetari remains an important pantheon within most half-elven households, and often half-elves balance their religious obligations between Faetari and whatever the dominant religion is where they have settled. The Half-elves tend to follow the cultural affects of the communities they live amongst, though they tend to be loving, erudite, and green-thumbed in addition. The Half-elves often speak Elvish, and some variety of Common, whatever is spoken in the land in which they live.
If you choose the Half-elven Culture, you gain the following:
~Either a +1 to your Intelligence score or a +1 to your Dexterity score~
~A -1 to your Constitution score~
~As a known language, either High Elvish or any appropriate dialect of Common~
~A Sub-Discipline in every knowledge skill on checks relating to Half-elven Culture~
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