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<blockquote data-quote="Guest&amp;nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8184179"><p>Before humans knew or understood genes, it was understood children looked like their parents and shared traits of their parents. I think Dungeons and Dragons worlds generally operate under a cosmology informed by pre-science paradigms. When you start applying actual scientific thinking to a dungeons and dragons world, things tend to break down at certain points (a good example of this is the Mordenheim novel for Ravenloft where Victor Mordernheim tries to reconcile science and magic (which he calls 'new science'). Also races in D&amp;D are not like races in the real world. Real world races are all contained within humans. Demihumans in D&amp;D are closer to subspecies like Neanderthals or mythic peoples that ancient world geographers used to describe. In D&amp;D the difference between a human and elf is greater than the difference between even the difference between a real world human and a neanderthal (and connected to cosmological forces in many D&amp;D worlds, not to a concept like genetics).</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Guest 85555, post: 8184179"] Before humans knew or understood genes, it was understood children looked like their parents and shared traits of their parents. I think Dungeons and Dragons worlds generally operate under a cosmology informed by pre-science paradigms. When you start applying actual scientific thinking to a dungeons and dragons world, things tend to break down at certain points (a good example of this is the Mordenheim novel for Ravenloft where Victor Mordernheim tries to reconcile science and magic (which he calls 'new science'). Also races in D&D are not like races in the real world. Real world races are all contained within humans. Demihumans in D&D are closer to subspecies like Neanderthals or mythic peoples that ancient world geographers used to describe. In D&D the difference between a human and elf is greater than the difference between even the difference between a real world human and a neanderthal (and connected to cosmological forces in many D&D worlds, not to a concept like genetics). [/QUOTE]

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