Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Fenris" data-source="post: 255526" data-attributes="member: 2820">The justification in Shadowrun for the inability of the various sub-species to interbreed (thus preventing them from being classified as a sub-species) was of coarse: Magic. Magic can be intoned to counted many logistical flaws. But if you look at this antropocentricly, elves represent the more refined side of humanity, orcs the baser side. I think part of the reason we have just the two half-breeds is that these represent the desire to show these traits within the human race. The half-breeds illustrate the best and worst of what humanity could be. Then again I plotted out a phylogeny for most of the sentient races IMC. Since elves and orcs diverged early on the likelyhood of mating is slim. I got around this by convergent evolution. The humanoid reproduction system is fairly well conserved. In closely related species one of the four principle barriers to reproduction arose (temporal, spatial, physical, chemical). In orcs and elves however the initial divergence did not alter the reproductive structure or timing. Therefore these races can inter-breed. IMC dwarves and gnomes are more ancestral and have temporal barriers to cross reproduction and halflings have the obvious physical barrier.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fenris, post: 255526, member: 2820"] The justification in Shadowrun for the inability of the various sub-species to interbreed (thus preventing them from being classified as a sub-species) was of coarse: Magic. Magic can be intoned to counted many logistical flaws. But if you look at this antropocentricly, elves represent the more refined side of humanity, orcs the baser side. I think part of the reason we have just the two half-breeds is that these represent the desire to show these traits within the human race. The half-breeds illustrate the best and worst of what humanity could be. Then again I plotted out a phylogeny for most of the sentient races IMC. Since elves and orcs diverged early on the likelyhood of mating is slim. I got around this by convergent evolution. The humanoid reproduction system is fairly well conserved. In closely related species one of the four principle barriers to reproduction arose (temporal, spatial, physical, chemical). In orcs and elves however the initial divergence did not alter the reproductive structure or timing. Therefore these races can inter-breed. IMC dwarves and gnomes are more ancestral and have temporal barriers to cross reproduction and halflings have the obvious physical barrier. [/QUOTE]

Verification