Ancestry & Culture

Instead of race, this world uses the Ancestry & Culture expansion to determine characters' inherited characteristics. See that expansion for many options and how to mix them. The Ancestry & Culture expansion breaks the features and traits for each race into two types: ancestral traits and cultural traits. Thus a gnome raised in a dwarvish culture would have a gnome’s ancestral traits, and a dwarf’s cultural traits.
This also works for different “sub-races” or ethnicities. For instance, all elves have the same ancestral traits, but high elves and wood elves have different cultural traits. This structure allows much more mixing of ancestries, between two or more races. How that works is summarized below.

Mixed-ancestry for characters

Ancestral traits

Age. Pick a lifespan between the two races
Size. Pick the listed size from your one of your chosen ancestries
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, unless both of your chosen ancestries have a base speed of 25 feet, or your size is Small, in which case your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision. As long as one of your ancestries has the Darkvision trait, you may have darkvision as well, if you choose.
Additional Ancestral Traits. You may select one other ancestral trait from each of your two chosen ancestries.

Cultural traits

Whatever society the character was raised in, they have those cultural traits (e.g. a gnome raised in dwarven culture)

Diverse Cultural Traits (pluralistic communities)

People of mixed ancestries are most often found in multicultural communities where elves, humans, dwarves, and halflings, among others, live together. Anyone of any ancestry can be found in such communities, which is one of the strengths of such cultures.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and two other ability scores of your choice increase by 1. Alignment. Those who grow up in such diverse cultures often share a pluralistic and open-minded bent. They value both personal freedom and creative expression, demonstrating neither love of leaders nor desire for followers.
Skill Versatility. You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and two extra languages of your choice that might be spoken in your community.