[douglas]

Ah, so instead of saying "WTF do you have against elves?!", I'll think "Oh, so I'm somewhere in *that* country."

For xp, I'm just used to it being done at the end of every session, not waiting for the adventure to finish.

As for Shaorin's place of origin, he could be from anywhere, but he likely wasn't anywhere near where he was born at the moment when the unexpected teleportation occurred. He tends to wander a lot. Just to avoid some issues with in-party conflicts, I'll assume he grew up somewhere elves are not particularly hated.