So, the Glanfathians are multiethnic?

[Eisenheinrich]

Guten Tag!

I was wondering how this works. So, elves can get very old in Eora (the one anamfath you meet in Elmsreach is way over 250 years old), while I assume, that humans have a decent lifespan up to 50 years (wich is high compared to the real Renaissance). And as if the game ignores this fact, the elves come across as pretty down to earth and grounded folks. Heck, there's even a elven miller in Gilded Vale, and I ask myself, why someone should become a miller when having that lifespan? This struck me as irritiating. With a lifespan up to 200 - 300 years, elven worldview would highly differ from other races. But in Eora, Elves come across as humans with pointy ears and a waaaaaay longer lifespan, which in no way affects their traits. They don't come across to be more wise or experienced, as someone could assume due to their age. 

 

I assume, such a difference would cause lots of conflict, but there's even miraculoulsy a culture known as Glanfath wich includes several different races, as dwarfs, elves, orlans and human come together and share some type of a backwood-hippie-thing. How does this even work? There is a mention, that interracial sex could not lead to pregnancy. How can they be in the same clan or tribe? An elven anamfath would block the throne of his clan for several human generations, without a chance for the other races! This sure would stir some jealousy. Heck, why would any tribe choose a weak and shortliving human over an elven anamfath, who could lead the tribe for a much longer term and has more wisdom from the past as even the best human scholar?

Or, and this is the burning question, doesn't race matter, because souls can travel from race to race after death? That one soul could be reborn in a human, elf next life and after that maybe as an orlan? Is this mentioned in the game?  

Hope I made my thought clear!

P.S. The game is great, I love it, but the world is also very new and complicated to understand. 

Edited April 7, 2015 by Eisenheinrich

[Yria]

Or, and this is the burning question, doesn't race matter, because souls can travel from race from race after death? That one soul could be reborn in a human, elf next life and after that maybe as an orlan? Is this mentioned in the game?  

I'm pretty sure they can. Here come spoilers for Sagani dialogue and the main storyline itself.

 

First, as I recall, Sagani mentions that sometimes their village's elders reborn as pale elves in the White that Wends.

Second, some of the lines in your dialogue with Thaos suggest that PC was Iovara's brother/sister in their previous life. Iovara is an elf, so her PC sibling used to be an elf, too. But their  present incarnate can be of any race, so...

 

Edited April 7, 2015 by Yria

[Rosveen]

Do you have the guidebook? It answers most of your questions and is a great source of information - most of which can be learned by playing the game, but it's nice to have it all in one place for reference and further reading.

 

How kith races see each other is up to the individual and certainly varies between nations and cultures. Aside from Eir Glanfath you mentioned, there's also Aedyr, born of a merger between human and elven kingdoms, where nowadays there are no significant cultural differences between humans and elves. As for the tribes of Eir Glanfath, they consist of about the same number of elves and orlans (40% vs. 45%). You're right, it is quite interesting because they're the longest and the shortest living races, respectively. I can't say much about their society because I just reached Twin Elms today, so I haven't had time to properly dive into local issues. However, as everywhere else, souls are important and anamfatha are chosen based on their soul heritage. For example, there's a quest involving the Three-Tusk Staelgar leader frustrated because none of his children were deemed worthy of being his successor. With souls able to be reborn into pretty much anyone, I suspect this way of appointing leaders may have unexpected results sometimes. Racially, it's possible that each tribe consist mostly of one race - which makes sense from the reproduction perspective - but of course there are exceptions like the mixed tribed of Twice-Split Arrows.

 

And in fact, souls are volatile. They decay over time, they can split so several people can carry shards of one older soul, they can even be reborn into animals. You should do Sagani's quest to learn more about reincarnation. Also the Knights of the Crucible, who accept only candidates carrying souls of heroes of old. In this world soul origin is often more important than your current position.