D&D General Vague idea: Humans as the descendants of Elves and Orcs

[Professor Murder]

Had a LotR vid on in the background and had a thought: Humans can produce viable offspring with both Orcs and Elves because they are themselves the descendants of those two older peoples sometime in the distant past. Not a general lore but more one to develop for a specific setting.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I used something like that a long time ago, it had to do with alchemy and elements, and I was riffing off the idea of orcs being 'corrupted' elves.

But, yes, the fact humans produce fertile offspring with both elves and orcs certainly implies to the modern scientific mind, that the two races are much more closely related than they'd like to think....

 

[Scribe]

After an embarrassing amount of thought on the subject I have arrived at the most elegant solution in my world.

A God did it.

The linked ancestry is a viable option however.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I always went the other way. Fey steal children. Some changelings were made "prettier" and some were made "brutish". It isn't a clear seelie/unseelie thing, it's more about what kind of servant the fey wanted.

I actually have it where elven people are incapable of calling themselves elves, because they are compelled to obey true elves (the ageles fey). They are mostly pathological about never going to a fey court.

After fifty generations that might fade but that takes 10,000 years or more, while 50 orc generations is like 1,000yrs so they are now 99% immune.

 

[Tonguez]

Including sapiens, habilis, erectus, rudolfensis, heidelbergensis, floresiensis, neanderthalensis, naledi, and luzonensis. there were 9 Homonin species, plus any number on Hominids right through to Pan (Chimps, Bili Apes and Bonobos) so for one game world I posited that it was much bigger than Earth and all those species survived in relative isolation and were able to develop their own civilizations thus

Orcs = Homo Sapiens Neanderthals
Humans = Homo Sapiens Sapiens
Elfs = Homo Sapiens Heidelbergensis (spirit-touched)
Dwarfs = Homo rudolfensis
Halfling = H floresiensis
Gnome = H Naledi (magic-touched)
Goblins - Australopithecus etc


In another world
Half-Elfs are the offspring of Humans and Fey
Half-Orcs are Human offspring touched by the god of beasts (Orcs dont exist)

 

[BookTenTiger]

Alternatively, humans could be the offspring of halflings and goliaths!

...

Honestly, the orc + elf thing is not a terrible idea, and would be a fun revelation for a campaign... Especially if it featured a big elf vs orc war.

 

[Corinnguard]

In the Diablo setting, humans are the descendants of the Nephalem, Celestial/Fiend hybrids.

 

[Reynard]

I rather like the idea that the primordial humanoid races are Orcs and Elves as different aspects of the Creators (whatever that means). Because they are so dissimilar, it makes sense that humanity would arise from their union. I am not sure whether that should be a thing still known int he world, though, or a "secret origin" that somehow ties into a bigger campaign story.

But if that is true, what do we do with dwarves, gnomes and halflings? Are they even further "diluted" or "degenerate" descendents of orcs or elves, or are they something entirely different. And if so, how and why? Are gnomes dwarf-halfling hybrids, or just an evolutionary dead end? Where do other humanoid species fit in, liek gblins?

In one campaign world I created, goblins and gnomes were both fey and in fact the same species. But if they veered toward "good" they looked like gnomes, while if they became malign they looked like goblins. This is literally the nicest I have ever bene to gnomes in any campaign I have run, because I allowed them to exist.

 

[GMMichael]

Had a LotR vid on in the background and had a thought: Humans can produce viable offspring with both Orcs and Elves because they are themselves the descendants of those two older peoples sometime in the distant past. Not a general lore but more one to develop for a specific setting.

Doesn't this put orcs and elves much closer together in terms of genealogy? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

[Scribe]

This is literally the nicest I have ever bene to gnomes in any campaign I have run, because I allowed them to exist.

Of the things in my world design I struggle with, its Rangers, and Gnomes.