Mixed Ancestry

Even the oldest records of the Cobalt Soul are unclear as to whether the ancestries of elves, dwarves, orcs, and goliaths routinely mixed before the arrival of humankind on Tal’Dorei’s shores. But it’s easy to assume that explorers and ambassadors would inevitably find love or companionship among the folk of unfamiliar lands—and it is well known that the arrival of humans changed Tal’Dorei forever.

From the earliest days of human exploration on the continent, love and passion began to blossom between all of Tal’Dorei’s people. The children that spring from the unions of folk of different heritage bear the traits of each of their parents, so that a human child might gain patches of scales and reptilian eyes from a dragonblood parent, or an orc and a dwarf might raise a child of squat, stout stature and olive-green skin, and bearing wisps of a coppery beard even as an infant.

In the modern age, love unites all folk. People of mixed ancestry can be found all across Tal’Dorei, though they are most common in the realm’s cosmopolitan cities. Some ancestries are biologically improbable (such as a goliath and a gnome having a child), but sufficient application of magic makes even those unions possible. However, money can be a limiting factor in such things, as having a skilled mage on hand during conception and childbirth is an expensive process.

Non-humanoid creatures with the magical ability to assume humanoid size and form, such as dragons, can also sire or give birth to mixed-ancestry children.