Some interesting ideas there for the characters, though rather different to what I had in my head when I was working up the backstory to this setting. With so much of the world ravaged by the plagues centuries ago, nations effectively ceased to exist. What I had in my head was that there would be a handful of effectively city-states as the central power structures now .. one capital city with a network of smaller settlements (towns and villages probably) that supported them.<br/><br/>Civilisation, for the main, is around the coasts, and maybe up to a couple of hundred miles inland. The city states are now starting to eye the uncharted wilderness that was once nations, but finding the best places to expand into means scouting, which is where the adventurers come in. After all, maps are centuries out of date, the old cities are all overgrown and ruined, monsters have flourished, and you never know what traps desperate people might have set before they died.<br/><br/>I should probably try and whip up a map on Inkarnate or something to help flesh things out more.<br/><br/>Unless you're planning on having your character be way more capable and powerful than the others, I wouldn't be looking at centuries old elves. Particularly Tolkiens style elves, as they did have a lot of innate abilities that made them simply better than other races. I remember that much from playing MERP :) If you want to take special abilities, think of it in terms of merits and flaws .. take some stuff to hinder the character as well. They shouldn't be the best at everything all the time, you know? :)