Alfar - Half-Elves

The Alfar are a misunderstood race. Possessing traits of both elves and humans, many Alfar would say that they have the best of both worlds. While they possess the adaptability of the human race, they live far longer and possess some of the agelessness of the elves. They possess the ethereal beauty of elves, but Alfar men are broader of shoulder while the Alfar women are curvier, making them more attractive in many eyes but the elves.
They make natural ambassadors between the two worlds, able to glimpse the ageless elven mindset, but much more willing to adapt and take quick action. In many elven communities, they act as liaisons for their Houses and ambassadors to the outside world. In many elven domains, it is often the Alfar who run the governing body, a chore the aloof elves would rather not trouble themselves by.
In human communities, the Alfar also rise to the top of their professions and governments. Their longevity allows them to see and plan for the long term. Plans which often take more than a human lifetime to come to fruition.

Half-Elf No More!

It sounded like something out of a tale. Star crossed lovers, elf and human, come together and defeat all odds to consummate their love, bearing a child of two worlds.
Then the nightmare began. These children fared well if raised in the human world. Those raised in elven villages fought racism and prejudice their entire lives. They often filled niches in those villages that the elves disliked, translators and envoys to the outside world, bureaucrats and administrators, and physical laborers.
After generations of this, the half-elves came to a few realizations. The first realization was that they no longer owed their existence to a random elf-human pairing. Guided into neighborhoods of their own kind, their children most often outnumbered the elven children in the village. And secondly, that their neighborhoods were growing much faster than the purely elven neighborhoods, and they represented a significant portion of the population.
So they moved. Where the elves lived in the deepest parts of the forest, the half-elves moved to the outskirts. Where they were once envoys and ambassadors between the elves and human visitors, their villages and communities actually stood between the two now. They began building their own communities and establishing their own identities, separate from elves and humans.
Alfarandalani is an elven world whose quick translation means "quick-blooded". It is used by elven elders when one of them comes to a decision or acts before thinking things through for an appropriate amount of time. It sometimes symbolizes the impetuousness of youth. No one is quite sure when these half-elven communities began calling themselves the Alfar (roughly meaning "the quick" or "the quickened"), but the word has spread rapidly. Except for far-flung communities, and those who have not broken with their elven descendants, most "half-elves" now insist on the name.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Approximate Age Categories

• Adulthood: 20 years

• Middle Age: 62 years

• Old: 93 years

• Venerable: 125 years

• Maximum Age: Most alfar pass before 185 years.

The Alfar possess some of the same agelessness as elves. Once they reach maturity, their bodies significantly slow the aging process. Although they are not "as young as they feel" like the elves, they don't really show signs of aging for about a century.

Average Physique

Alfar Male

• Random Height: 4'10" +2d10

• Random Weight: 110 lb. + [Height Roll × (2d4) lb.]

• Average: 5' 9", 165 lbs.

Alfar Female

• Random Height: 4'5" + 2d10

• Random Weight: 80 lb. + [Height Roll × (2d4) lb.]

• Average: 5'4", 135 lbs.