Fantasy Government, part 3: Elven Gene Queens and Gnomish Advisors

Previously: Weak Executive, Powerful Bureaucracy

In D&D 5E, the elven Fey Ancestry trait provides advantage against charm magic. And elves can pass this trait on to any half-elf children they produce with humans. This is highly desirable to small communities, as effects that inflict charm are one of the most common ways monsters and magic could undermine their community. So they would be eager to accept an elf who was willing to join them (either settling permanently, or just staying long enough to produce some children). 

And while elf-on-elf pregnancy is presumably pretty rare, based on their long lifespans, elves and humans could produce half-elves at a much faster rate. Because of their longevity, elves who settle in human communities would rise to positions of leadership, and the society would take on small elements of elven culture (filtered through "their" elf's preferences, of course). Ironically, many of these elves were probably outcasts or low-status individuals in their home societies, or they wouldn’t have left home in the first place.

Gnomes are less likely to settle exclusively with one group of humans, because there is no half-gnome benefit for offspring.¹ But gnomes are naturally resistant to mind-affecting magic, so they would be desirable participants in governance. Perhaps a gnome would move from community to community, taking on a residency-style advisory, arbitrative, or even investigative role.

Other humanoids could integrate in human societies for similar reasons (dwarves for resisting assassination by poison, tieflings and red dragonborn for dealing with fires, and so forth). But among the humanoids in the core rules, elves and gnomes would have the most significant roles in human societies, because the biggest threat to small and medium communities is charm effects and mind-affecting magic.

Next: Leibgeber Leaders and Perfect Face Dancers

1 Within the implied setting of the 5E core rulebooks, at least. My D&D game assumes that all sapient humanoids can produce offspring, either directly or with the help of magic. But most of those combinations don’t have mechanically defined “half-creatures” like half-elves or half-orcs; rules-wise, they would just fall into whichever category represents the majority of their lineage. If I had my druthers, I would toss half-orcs and half-elves entirely, as they raise more questions than they’re worth. But I typically allow them in the interest of offering a game with minimal deviations from D&D as presented in the core books.