Campaign Guide find locked doors, strange tests to determine if the traveler is “real” or not, and thinly veiled threats Half Elf The multicolored ring within ring of the half elven eye is the surest way to know their heritage To most, the half elf seems only to be a well-proportioned human were it not for those eyes and the practiced movment of their body The smooth movements were born from the unity of natural talent and decades of training Physiology Most half elves bodies are built more like their human ancestry and have more muscle and broader shoulders than the average Huldufólk Elf A tendency towards a more rounded face is another aspect typically held on from the human ancestry as well However, the slight point of their ears and dark elven hair colors reveal their elvish ancestry It is in the eyes that the balance between the mixed ancestries is most blended, if not a little unsettling, balance The iris of a half elf is a soft blending from the typical human eye colors on the outside toward the neutral sun-flecked elvish colors closer to the pupil Society Half Elves in the Avitian Empire originate from the ancestral lands of the Keale family They are a deeply spiritual people who strive to combine the efficiency and strength of their human Avitian ancestry with the powerful call of their elven blood The result is a society that has birthed an unusually high percentage of politicians, diplomats, actors and poets when compared to other societies Education is of great importance among the half-elves, especially in the fields of history, oratory, politics, and the more subtle magics of divination and enchantment Most half elves, even among the peasantry, have spent some time listening to the tutors found selling instruction in the city squares of Wealdrath Arts Half elven art tends more towards rhetoric and musical performance than the visual arts While fine pieces of carved stone and wood are found, it is performances by actors, storytellers and musicians that come to mind when thinking of their great works Many noble families in both the Avitian Empire and the Ceravossian Republic seek out these performers not only to add to the prestige of their family, but also to be used as tutors in the skills of oration and speechcraft Many of the more famous sagas currently popular in the cosmopolitan areas of Avitus are written or 12 at least performed by half elves Among the most famous is the “Dance of the Autumn Leaves.” This saga tells of the love affair between a human noblewoman named Aloras Ke and the Huldufólk Elven warrior Valerian Aladone Set upon the backdrop of the long-ended War of the Peaks and the negotiation of the Treaty of Songs between the Huldufólk Elves and the relatively young Avitians, this piece is a highlight of poetic verse History A millennia ago, when the elves and dwarves of the Godspine Mountains were locked in a cycle of destructive warfare, the elves sought out allies in the hopes of turning the tide They found this ally in the fledgling Avitian Empire, in particular the Keale family It was the members of the Keale family who first met with the elves and negotiated the Treaty of Songs which brought together the elves and the humans While the Keale spent years working on behalf of the elves, many from both sides became romantically involved with their counterparts Many marriages and children were the result The bloodlines mingled over the centuries resulting in a new half elf bloodline that rules over the border between the forests of the Avitians and the mountains of the Huldufólk elves As the bloodlines mingled, so too did the two cultures and the Kingdom of Keale come into being Today most half elves originate, or have ancestors who originated, from this region Human Humans…the most varied race in both body and mind While relatively short-lived compared to the other humanoids the roam Aeliode, the heights in which humans may soar mark them as blessed by the gods Humans have the ability to change the world to their hearts desire, if not by clarity of thought, then by the brute force of their muscle Symmetrical in form, divinely inspired intuition, adaptable to any challenge placed before them…were it not for their short life humans would most assuredly have risen to the heavens and become gods themselves Physiology The physiology of humans within the borders of the Avitian Empire runs the range found in the real world Farther to the north paler complexions are found while to the south dark skin and hair tones become the norm Most Avitians tend towards more olive tones and darker hair colors commonly found in the central regions of the continent The average Avitian male is between 5’6”-5’11” tall while the