Half-Elves

Half-Elves are products of interbreeding and subsequent hybridization between the various Elven races (High Elves, Wood Elves, Dark Elves) and Humans or Orcs (overlapping with Half-Orcs).

Humans and elves sometimes marry and crossbreed - a human is typicaly attracted by the elf's beauty, while the elf may be attracted by the energeticism and eagerness of the human. Tragically, these marriages are always short-lived by elven standards, due to the obvious differences in lifespan: however, the fruit of the marriage, the Half-Elven offspring still remains. Prior to the foundation of Artaburro, the childhoods of half-Elves tend to be sad and tragic: unable to fit in within either Human or Elven society - too isolated, emotional and sensitive for humans; too energetic, impatient and hyperactive for elves. Prior to the Exodus of the Half-Breeds, the best they could do was to keep their heads down. In fact, this problem with integration still exists today, as there are still a large number of Half-Elves who insist on living in the Human Etrand, the High Elven Froturn or the Wood Elven Dragoc rather than the Half-Elven Artaburro.

Terminology and biology
Half-Elves have a long lifespan (albeit not as long as that of true Elves), ageing roughly at fifth of the speed of humans after the age of eighteen, meaning that a 50 year old Dark Elf is biologically equivalent of a 24 year-old Human, a 100 years old Elf is essentially 24 years old, and so on. This extended lifespan however can be spent in agony and ostracism for many Half-Elves, as while attitudes towards mixed-species individuals may have grown more relaxed compared to the last six centuries, they still can't quite fit in within either Human or Elven societies - hence why they founded the Principality of Artaburro in the aftermath of the Exodus of the Half-Breeds.

Simplified model
It is also important to know that the intermediary state between an Elf and a Human/Orc is an unstable one, hence when Half-Elves breed with other races, the other race tends to dominate the offspring's genetical expressions:
 * When two Half-Elves breed, the end result tends to be another Half-Elf, albeit (due to the fact that the intermediary state is unstable) two Half-Elves somehow breeding a full elf or human isn't unheard of either.
 * When a Half-Elf and a full-Elf breed, the end result is always, without exceptions, an Elf.
 * When a Half-Elf and a Human breed, the end result is always, without exceptions, a Human (although some elven traits may still surface, such as dolichocephaly, slightly pointier ears and tendency towards old-age depression).
 * When an Orc-Elf hybrid breed, the end result is always, without exception an Orc.

Extended model
The aforementioned model of Elf-Human breeding is oversimplified, and does not accurately represent their biology. In reailty:
 * Those with an Elven ancestry between 45% and 55% (implying that the remainder is Human ancestry) are scientifically classified as "clean crossbreeds", the true Half-Elves. They are coloquially known as Half-Elves, as they exhibit both Human and Elven traits in a half-half ratio: their lifespan is five times that of a human (as opposed to the ten-times-that-of-a-human that a full-blooded Elf would have), their eyes are slightly pointy (but not as much as full-blooded Elves), they are taller than Humans but shorter than full-blooded Elves. They are typically dolichocephalic, just like full-blooded Elves, though mesocephaly is not unheard of.
 * Those with an Elven ancestry below 45% or above 55% (implying that the remainder is Human ancestry) are scientifically classified as "dirty crossbreeds". Colloquially, they aren't distinguished from full-blooded Humans and Elves, because pretty much anything other than a perfect 50-50 mixture (or rather, between 45% and 55%) results in a strong tendency towards the dominant side.
 * Elves with some Human ancestry (below 45%) are typically indistinguishable from regular full-blooded Elves, though they may be shorter and have slightly shorter lifespans.
 * Humans with some Elven ancestry (below 45%) are typically indistinguishable from regular full-blooded Humans, with the exception of the dominant Elven dolichocephaly. Among the typically brachycephalic humans, dolichocephaly is usually a telltale sign of Elven ancestry.

Attributes (FRPG)
Enabled aligment: any