Half-Elf
Potentially as willowy as their elvish parents, as strong as their human parents, and fully capable of interbreeding with either species or with each other, half-elves are nevertheless an extremely rare race. This is mostly due to the secretive and isolationist nature of elves - elf/human romances are few and far between, considering how secluded elf grottoes tend to be.
As a hybrid race, many half-elves are prone to a tendency to feel strange and not to fit in anywhere. Shunned by most elvish communities and only barely tolerated by humans, half-elves often feel that they are apart from their peers - too human for the elves, and too elvish for humans. It does not help that humans and elves rarely form cohesive communities, meaning that even if both of the half-elf's parents are still around, they are seen as Other by their cultures.
This isn't always the case, however - in fact, the vast majority of half-elves are born to the Lanirieth, a mostly-elvish subculture of travelling entertainers. Although studies have never been completed, it is speculated that a full quarter of the Lanirieth are half-elves, and as such many of these children grow up blithely unaware of how different they may appear to less tolerant communities. To the Lanirieth, a half-elf child is no more remarkable than a human or elvish child. Because of this acceptance and praise of such relationships, the Lanirieth are also the most likely race of elves to have half-elf children.
Because of elves' isolationist tendencies, and the wide variation among half-elf traits, many half-elves can also disguise themselves as either fully human or fully elf when travelling abroad - few humans have ever met an elf, and vice versa, and so a half-elf travelling among humans may appear to be fully elvish, while a half-elf among elves can sometimes pass themselves off as fully human. Depending on the traits exhibited, some half-elves can even pass for elf or human among the members of that same species, though generally their elongated/truncated lifespans will eventually reveal the deception.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Half-elves are generally quite unique - they exhibit a variety of traits from both parents which may be either dominant or recessive depending on their parents. Some half-elves may appear almost fully elvish, while some may appear fully human. However, most fall somewhere in the middle between the two species, exhibiting a few traits from either group. No two half-elves will exhibit exactly the same traits, so it is often difficult to peg someone as half-elvish or not.
Genetics and Reproduction
Half-elf genetics are extremely complicated, and traits from either race may lie dormant for many generations, only to pop up further down the line. Half-elves often retain recessive or inactive genes for either species, which can then be invisibly passed on to their children and grandchildren. It is not unheard of for pointed ears to suddenly crop up among a group of humans that had a troupe of Lanirieth pass by several generations ago.
The Lanirieth in particular have so much intermingled blood that it is generally impossible to predict what species a newborn Lanirieth child will appear to be. Although generally considered an elvish tribe, there are so many half-elves and humans in their heritage that two apparently elvish individuals may produce a fully human-appearing child, and vice versa.
Generally speaking, it is a bad idea for first-generation half-elves to interbreed with other first-generation half-elves. The resulting offspring can have severe physical and mental disabilities and abnormalities due to the strangeness of how human and elf genes interact with each other. Although cases of severe disability are usually rare, they occur often enough that first-generation half-elves are discouraged from interbreeding with each other. Second-generation half-elves (i.e. those with one grandparent of one species and three of the other) are more likely to produce stable children, and the further back the original hybrid occurs, generally speaking the healthier the children are likely to be.
Interestingly, there are a few cases of half-elves interbreeding with half-orcs, which suggests they would also be capable of interbreeding with full-orcs. The resultant offspring display an astonishing variety of elvish, orcish, and human traits.
Growth Rate & Stages
Half-elves vary in their maturity rates significantly, depending on which traits are inherited from either parent. Generally speaking, most half-elves age slower than humans but faster than elves, and this discrepancy is often considered a defining trait from which to identify a half-elf passing as human or elf.
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