Elven Relationships

[Hardhead]

I figured that if there are half-elves and half-orcs there should be some connection. So those people are actually 1/4-racers...

Actually, the reason is that the only half-races in Middle-earth were half-elves and orcs, and D&D inherits a lot from Tolkein. Though, of course, if you don't want to use something like that, a new mythology is required.

In Middle-earth, both humans and elves were the crations of Manwë, essentially the over-god of Tolkien mythology. Dwarves were the creations of a "regular" god (Manwë was upset at first, but eventually embraced them, but they were never destined for racial greatness because of this). No one really knows where Halflings came from - it's not addressed in any of Tolkien's published works.

Anyway, because humans and elves were the two children of Manwë, they could breed. Orcs were once elves, loooooong ago who were captured tortured, and corrupted by Melcor (also spelt Melkor on occassion, especially in the Silmarillion), the main evil god. Since orcs were still kinda-sorta elven, they could breed with humans too. You could probably assume that elves could breed with orcs too, but it never happened, becuase an elf would never consent, and neither would an orc (they hated elves so much, they'd never even think of touching them except to kill them).

Anyway, dunno if that's useful or not. Obviously, if you don't want to adopt a Tolkein-esque mythology behind humans/orcs/elves, then you'd have to come up with something else. Just thought you might want to know.

 

[Storminator]

Manwe (how do you do the umlaut thingy?) was one of the regular gods. Iluvatar was the over god. All else as you say it...

Actually, the reason is that the only half-races in Middle-earth were half-elves and orcs, and D&D inherits a lot from Tolkein. Though, of course, if you don't want to use something like that, a new mythology is required.

In Middle-earth, both humans and elves were the crations of Manwë, essentially the over-god of Tolkien mythology. Dwarves were the creations of a "regular" god (Manwë was upset at first, but eventually embraced them, but they were never destined for racial greatness because of this). No one really knows where Halflings came from - it's not addressed in any of Tolkien's published works.

Anyway, because humans and elves were the two children of Manwë, they could breed. Orcs were once elves, loooooong ago who were captured tortured, and corrupted by Melcor (also spelt Melkor on occassion, especially in the Silmarillion), the main evil god. Since orcs were still kinda-sorta elven, they could breed with humans too. You could probably assume that elves could breed with orcs too, but it never happened, becuase an elf would never consent, and neither would an orc (they hated elves so much, they'd never even think of touching them except to kill them).

Anyway, dunno if that's useful or not. Obviously, if you don't want to adopt a Tolkein-esque mythology behind humans/orcs/elves, then you'd have to come up with something else. Just thought you might want to know.

 

[Hardhead]

Manwe (how do you do the umlaut thingy?) was one of the regular gods. Iluvatar was the over god. All else as you say it...

It's been a while since I read the Silmarillion.

You do the umlat thing by holding down alt and hitting 235, then letting up on alt. There's a of other nonstandard characters with their own alt-codes here: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html.

If you're on a Mac, it's a bajillion times easier to remember. Hold down command and alt and hit u. Then, hit the letter you want an umlat over (the other accent characters, like accents and tildes are done the same, except tied to different letters, such as e (accent) or n (tilde) if I remember correctly; I don't have a Mac handy at the moment).