Creating a Character of Mixed Ancestry

Instead of making a character from a single ancestry, such as an elf or human, it may be the character comes from a mixed ancestry. Perhaps one parent was a human and another an elf. Then again, one parent may have been an orc and another a medusa. The combinations are wide and fascinating!

However, this means that character should have certain characteristics from each side of their bloodlines. They could look more like one parent than the other or have physical traits that lie somewhere in between. So two children of an orc-medusa couple could have one child look more like the medusa, while the other displays traits that span both parents.

To help reflect this, when creating a character in Elohey that is of mixed ancestry, use the following guidelines

Ancestries

Select two ancestries from the available list of Elohey Species and Ancestries. This would be the ancestries for the character's parents. No more than two.

Age

Find the age of maturity for both ancestries. Either take the average of those ages then add a two to four years to account for learning a profession. That is the potential starting age of the character. Adjust this as necessary for the character concept.

Lifespan

Barring horrible accidents while adventuring, knowing the possible lifespan of the character might come in handy. To determine this, take the average of the lifespan from both ancestries. That is the potential lifespan of the character.

Size

Rough size of the character (small, medium, and so on) is determined by comparing the sizes of both ancestries. If both parents are 'medium', the the character is medium. However, if one parent is 'small' and the other 'medium', pick either small or medium to indicate the character takes more after one parent than the other!

Speed

Similar to size, look at the base speed indicated for the selected ancestries. If they are both the same number, such as 30, then use that number. However, if they are different, such as 25 and 30, look to the size selected for the character. If this character takes after the shorter parent (size of small) then take a base speed of 25. Otherwise, select the speed of the other ancestry.

Darkvision

Darkvision is a dominant trait in Elohey. if either ancestry has the Darkvision trait, then the child will have Darkvision,

Ancestral Trails

Last look at the list of all traits from both ancestries, skipping any mention of Darkvision. This would be any Ability Score increases, or special abilities like "I Can Do This All Day" for an orc or "Amphibious" for a cecaelia. Select two traits. This could be one from just one ancestry, or one from each ancestry. But select no more than two.

And that would be it. There would be your "half-human/half-elf" or your "half-orc/half-medusa" ... perhaps even your "part-halfling/part-cecaelia"! Use all the selections above when creating the character, selecting ability scores and so forth.

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Author's Note: The idea on mixing ancestries when making a character is inspired by and adapted from the Ancestry and Culture series by Arcanist Press! Check them out!