A half-elf is humanoid being from the world of Aselia who play large roles in Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Throughout the games, the player comes to learn of how they are hated and oppressed by the other people and just why this has come to happen.

History

Half-elves are initially born when an elf and a human have a child together and as such they carry traits from both races of people, namely a more human-like appearance and the elven ability to use magic, although half-elves may have normal human ears or pointed elven ones. However, this has caused many to hate the half-elves with humans complaining about their power being too much for them and the elves believing that they have tainted blood.

Half-elves are able to live up to one-thousand years just like the elves due to their elven blood. Genis Sage in Tales of Symphonia explains this in skit in the Torent Forest that he fears the future due to the fact he and Raine Sage will continue living after their friends have died. This is further supported in Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon due to the fact fact Arche Klein is still living after two centuries after the events of the original Tales of Phantasia.

A measure of the half-elf discrimination from Tales of Symphonia still exists, as it is revealed that Arche Klein, as a half-elf, is forbidden from entering the elf colony. However, while the elves still treat half-elves as outcasts due to their "tainted blood", humans in general treat them much better than they did four thousand years ago.

The following is a list of some of the half-elves in Tales of Symphonia:

• Genis Sage - Genis is the twelve-year-old friend to the game's two main characters, Lloyd Irving and Colette Brunel. He is also the younger brother to Raine Sage.

• Raine Sage - Raine is Genis Sage's older sister, and the school teacher in Iselia. She's obsessed with ruins and magitechnology, and was always looking for the Otherworldly Gate, the ruin which she and Genis were abandoned at. She originally passes herself and Genis off as pure-blood elves to avoid the discrimination she experienced as a child in Tethe'alla.

• Mithos Yggdrasill - "Mithos" was said to be a great hero, while "Yggdrasill" was said to be a great villain. It is not revealed that "Mithos" and "Yggdrasill" are the same being until after a crucial point in the game. In other words, "Mithos" is the true form of the great hero, and the "Yggdrasill" form is just a form he took on to be a "more befitting leader of Cruxis".

• Yuan Ka-Fai - Yuan is one of Cruxis' Four Seraphim, and a minor antagonist in the game.

The following is a list of some of the half-elves in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World:

• Richter Abend - Richter is the game's main antagonist and a half-elf, and was willing to make the Vanguard cause violence and bloodshed all over the world, make pacts with demons to borrow their power, willing to kill Ratatosk and anyone else in his way, open the door in the Ginnungagap to Niflheim, then act as a sacrifice using a Cruxis Crystal to stop the door opening and unleashing Demons by stopping his internal clock and using his Mana forever just to revive Aster, since he was his friend despite being a Tethe'allan human, who was killed by Ratatosk.

• Alice - Alice is one of the main antagonists who is a sadist constantly trying to kill the party, particularly Marta Lualdi for her dependence on others, and only passes the opportunity if something more important occurs e.g. Commander Brute Lualdi's orders, Decus losing control etc. Her constant lust for power and control over her peers, along with her allying herself with some of the game's major antagonists, Brute Lualdi and Richter Abend for power stems from her own feelings of powerlessness she doesn't seem to display. Her parents were killed in a pilgrimage forced by the Church of Martel when monsters attacked, forcing her to live in an orphanage in Hima, where she was bullied for being a half-elf. From then on, she shrived to be powerful and feared because she didn't want to be powerless like her parents.