Margaret Weis - The Second Generation

Elvish for “master.” Red-robed mages, being neutral in all things, may apprentice themselves to a master of any alignment good, neutral, or evil.

Customarily, among elves, a son takes the name of his father’s house. But since Tanis Half-Elven is of illegitimate birth and questionable bloodline, his son Gilthas was given the name of his mother’s father’s house, which is Solostaran.

It is a kender belief that the stork delivers babies to fortunate households by dropping the babies down the chimney. Certainly, this might almost be true, for kender women have a wonderfully easy time during pregnancy and delivery. Babies really do seem to appear by magic. Thus kender families tend to be quite large; a good thing, since the attrition rate among kender is high. Relatively few kender ever live to a ripe old age.

The Qualinesti consider the custom of body-painting barbaric and have been working to halt the practice among the Wilder elves, especially those who come to live and work in Qualinesti. The elder Kagonesti adhere rigidly to the old ways, but the younger elves—particularly those who want to remain in Qualinesti—have given up the custom. This has not pleased many of the Kagonesti, who have accused their cousins of attempting to lure their young away from them, perhaps even eradicate the Kagonesti race.