On the matter of half-orcs

[arscott]

S'mon I don't think those standards of beauty are as universal as you suppose.

It would probably be more accurate to say that West African* men and east-asian women are considered physically attracive by our present-day western standards.

*And that's without going into detail on the horrible history of forced breeding programs in the real world.

 

[S'mon]

It would probably be more accurate to say that West African* men and east-asian women are considered physically attracive by our present-day western standards.

No - I'm talking about universal criteria.

There are also culture-specific criteria, and particular cultures' normative standards of beauty vary somewhat over time - eg the amount of body fat considered desirable will vary depending on whether there is a scarcity or surplus of food.

Plus there are some consistent variables such as skin tone. Eg in warm climes where people are dark skinned, very light skin is often taken as a sign of sickness*. There is a fairly consistent universal preference for relatively lighter skin (& often hair) tones in women and darker in men, though.


*Black female doctor in south London hospital, looking at my newly born son:

"Your baby is too pale! We need to run a blood test!"

Me:
"I'm from Northern Ireland! We all look like that!"

 

[Cadfan]

Hm, and yet I definitely remember that subtext being present back in the 80's. I wonder where the idea came from, then.

You didn't dream it up. At the least it was used in a number of published characters.

I remember coming across a D&D character card (I honestly forget what product it was from, one of my friends gave me some cards with D&D characters on them) that used the child-of-rape backstory for a half orc character. I was pretty young, and I remember it being a bit jarring. I understood what rape was, and that orcs were monsters. Monster rape wasn't really something I was fully equipped to deal with.

 

[Aeolius]

Behold....
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMz_OT-GNfc"]The Hidden Origin of Half-Orcs[/ame]

 

[avin]

On my first campaign orcs weren't so ugly, just bigger gray dudes, so half orcs would be common.

Wanna trow half orcs in? Just make orcs look a bit more attractive and there we go.

 

[Nymrohd]

In 3E both in Eberron and FR the backgrounds intented for PC half-orcs were not rape-related. The half-orcs of shadow marches and thesk were a product of tolerance, and in the shadow marches actually a celebrated development. Heck when I try to think of a half-race character that was the product of rape, the first person who comes to mind is Tannis.

 

[Pseudonym]

What makes you think it worked that way? Those female orcs are pretty strong, and after a hard day of raiding...

That was pretty much the origin of a Half-Ogre character I had in 3E.

 

[Vael]

I wonder, could you do the Half-Orcs like Eberron shifters? Shifters are sometimes considered half-lycanthropes, but there was a mention of a different origin, that Lycanthropes are diseased and twisted shifters.

Maybe Orcs are a twisted evil version of Half-Orcs. The main problem is you'd have to rename them ...

 

[Felon]

It is.

Too bad. I'd love to see them a big whack at the PCization of orcs.

 

[frankthedm]

(and the tendency to believe that half-elves NEVER are).

Where do you feel such sentiment is expressed? Yes, i think most folks will think more half orcs are spawned in such a manner over half elves. But that is because Orcs are made to raid and pillage. Also, elves having low fertility rates seems to be a common perception, where as orcs officially [1E] are very fecund. So even if elves raided and raped just as much as orcs, there would still be fewer rape spawned half elves. I generally also assume most attempts of humans to rape elves end with a human run trough with an elfin sword.

This. I'm fine with WotC being squeamish about rape, but do they really need to be that squeamish about a guy or gal with an Orc fetish?

Because it's pretty obvious to me what the likely situation is for a half breed of a race made to raid and pillage.