D&D 5E MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

[Riley37]

Psssh, we haven't even gotten to terrain-based elves(desert, snow, jungle, etc..) and planar elves!

We have three so far in 5E: Wood Elves, Sea Elves, and Subterranean Elves (Drow.) By legacy from previous editions we have Valley Elves, like, from Greyhawk, gag me with a spoon. High Elves get High in Grassland. WotC will publish rules for Desert Elves as soon as they acquire rights to Frank Herbert's "Dune".

 

[dave2008]

I am not aware of any dinosaurs changing gender in Jurassic Park. So far as I know, they all had female anatomical sex; none of them had gender *roles* linked to their anatomical sex, such as a bow in their hair (which is how you can tell Pac-Man from Ms. Pac-Man). Some of them laid eggs, presumably through parthogenesis. None of them became anatomically male, and none of them acquired male-coded social behaviors such as manspreading.

Though I agree with your general point, in JP the implication is that they did indeed change sex like some amphibians and fish can / do.

 

[Sunseeker]

We have three so far in 5E: Wood Elves, Sea Elves, and Subterranean Elves (Drow.) By legacy from previous editions we have Valley Elves, like, from Greyhawk, gag me with a spoon. High Elves get High in Grassland. WotC will publish rules for Desert Elves as soon as they acquire rights to Frank Herbert's "Dune".

WOTC already has desert elves in the Valenar elves. But from legacy we do have Jungle and Snow elves. Wood elves are a Tolkeinism, not a terrain-based elf. Otherwise Jungle Elves would be tropical wood elves, which they aren't. They're more Aztec-Elves.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So it's the reverse of Mad Max Fury Road, in which a patriarch controls the water supply?

I was thinking of Dune...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Are you suggesting someone spliced Elf DNA and Frog DNA?

OMG a new idea for an Elf subrace Frelfs, Frog Elf hybrids! Just when WotC was out of ideas for new Elf subraces.

Hopefully, they used Colorado River/Sonoran Desert toads or poison dart frogs. Either way, someone gets to see pretty colors...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hopefully, they used Colorado River/Sonoran Desert toads or poison dart frogs. Either way, someone gets to see pretty colors...

"I was just licking the elf to get high!" is probably not an excuse that'll save many human marriages.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

That’s how the Dragonborn matriarchy got established. The females control the water...

That they keep in their boobs. How does this not involve nursing, again?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I am not aware of any dinosaurs changing gender in Jurassic Park. So far as I know, they all had female anatomical sex; none of them had gender *roles* linked to their anatomical sex, such as a bow in their hair (which is how you can tell Pac-Man from Ms. Pac-Man). Some of them laid eggs, presumably through parthogenesis. None of them became anatomically male, and none of them acquired male-coded social behaviors such as manspreading.

In Jurassic Park, it was mentioned that all the dinosaurs were female to prevent unwanted breeding. That was part of the reason Ian Malcom delivered his “Life finds a way.” line after the DNA splicing revelation.

From IMDB:

John Hammond: [as they gather around a baby dinosaur hatching from its egg] I've been present for the birth of every little creature on this island.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: Surely not the ones that are bred in the wild?

Henry Wu: Actually they can't breed in the wild. Population control is one of our security precautions. There's no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: How do you know they can't breed?

Henry Wu: Well, because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female. We've engineered them that way.

[they take the baby dinosaur out of its egg. A robot arm picks up the shell out of Grant's hand and puts it back down]

Dr. Ian Malcolm: But again, how do you know they're all female? Does somebody go out into the park and pull up the dinosaurs' skirts?

Henry Wu: We control their chromosomes. It's really not that difficult. All vertebrate embryos are inherently female anyway, they just require an extra hormone given at the right developmental stage to make them male. We simply deny them that.

Dr. Ellie Sattler: Deny them that?

Dr. Ian Malcolm: John, the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is.

John Hammond: [sardonically] There it is.

Henry Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?

Dr. Ian Malcolm: No. I'm, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

We saw eggs in the wild. Either they had some who changed gender or- as has been documented in some reptiles- the females were capable of laying viable eggs without need of males.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That they keep in their boobs. How does this not involve nursing, again?

I didn’t say it did. In fact, I was basically implying that the chesticular water humps were still relatively...boobish...in function.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"I was just licking the elf to get high!" is probably not an excuse that'll save many human marriages.

Depends on how open minded the other party is, now doesn’t it?