Lesser Elves
Gameplay:
For a full description of elves, refer to the Player’s Handbook (p. 21). When designing an elven player character use those pages as your guide. In this world, the lines between elf, half-life, and human are more fluid than in baseline Dungeon & Dragons. When players pick their character's race they will have to think about the game mechanics (as presented in the PHB), the character's appearance, their identity, their ancestry, their upbringing, and how the world around them views them. For example: a player might design a human character (with all the game mechanics of humans) with a touch of elven ancestry that shows in a bit of sharpness in the nose and ears. Or the player might make a character with well mixed human and elven ancestry with the game mechanics of a half-elf who was raised in and identifies as a full wood elf. In general, for the game purposes of character race selection, the offspring of various races can be classified as follows.| true elf | lesser elf | half elf | human | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| true elf | no children | lesser elf | lesser elf | lesser elf |
| lesser elf | lesser elf | lesser elf or
half-elf |
half elf | |
| half elf | half elf | human or
half-elf |
||
| human | human |
The "lesser elves", are those races of elf that have resulted from the mixing of the immortal true elf bloodlines with the bloodlines of mortal races, in particular humanity.
Lesser elves are the most varied type of elf in the world, with a multitude of appearances, cultures, ways of life, and languages. Since seeing a true elf is such a rare occurrence, they have become almost the stuff of legend for many elves and non-elves alike. As a result, the lesser elves are what most beings think of when they think of elves.