Races of Destiny

[Morrow]

IIRC, Forrester (who no longer posts on these forums) had a story hour a long time ago where the PCs were goblins and kobolds fighting against genocidal elves.

Yep, Forrester's Against the Elves Campaign was a hoot. I don't know what happened to Forrester, but the game wrapped up when half of the players moved out of town.


Morrow

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't get the 'destiny' part either. Races of Sterility would make more sense genetically. I was told by a geneticist friend that, because humans and sheep have the same number of chromosomes, theoretically they could fertilize each other's eggs, though the embryo would almost certainly be stillborn.

In my game I've decided that half-Elves are phenomenally rare. Maybe twenty in the entire world. Perhaps one half-Dragon every thousand years. And yes, one half-human, half-Minotaur, because they were drunk, and . . . well, that's how Minotaurs, classically, were originally created.

 

[Filby]

If two half-elves in the Realms breed they also make another half-elf.

Yeah, I know. What I meant was that in Red Steel, half-elves were a distinct race from both humans and elves (probably from two groups intermarrying long ago in the past), and that the setting's humans and elves didn't themselves interbreed.

But that reminds me... in the Realms, yeah, isn't there a forest whose inhabitants are true-breeding half-elves? The Yuirwood, I think? Or the Chondalwood? I'm not so up on Realmslore, so I don't know exactly, but that's probably what the poster I answered was thinking of.

 

[Dark Jezter]

But that reminds me... in the Realms, yeah, isn't there a forest whose inhabitants are true-breeding half-elves? The Yuirwood, I think? Or the Chondalwood? I'm not so up on Realmslore, so I don't know exactly, but that's probably what the poster I answered was thinking of.

You're thinking of Aglarond, a country where a large chunk of the population consists of half-elves. The Yuirwood is located within Aglarond.

EDIT: Corrected myself.

 

[Alzrius]

Of course, in a Mystara-themed article in Dragon Magazine, we are introduced to a race of half-elf/half-ogres. Go figure.

What issue was that?

 

[Filby]

You're thinking of Aglarond, a country where a large chunk of the population consists of half-elves. The Yuirwood is located within Aglarond.

Yes... yes, thank you, that's exactly right.

What issue was that?

Uh... man. I wish I could remember. It was somewhere around #170-#180, I belieeve. I know that it was written by Bruce A Heard, and it was part of the "Voyage of the Princess Ark" series about Mystara's more out-of-the-way locations.

 

[the Jester]

I have a culture of half-elves imc, the result of many thousands of years of elven/human interbreeding and intermarriage... Most of the so-called 'half-elves' of these lands were anywhere from 25-75% elven, but statted as half-elves, just like some of the 'humans' were 1-25% elf and the 'elves' 1-25% human... It was basically a culture of mixed race elf/humans of varying degrees of pedigree.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Why can't a Orc rape an Elf woman and produce offspring, if the elf and orc can mate with a human but not each other...that's a problem.

You know that no matter how often different species may screw each other, they're simply genetically incompatible. Just think of how many times a human male has screw sheep....

Humans and sheep are genetically incompatible and can't produce offspring. That's why you don't see any human-sheep hybrids around, no matter how many times that happens.

As for why it's only human half-breeds in D&D, well that's because D&D is generally humanocentric, and written by humans after all.

 

[Khayman]

The elf-ogre hybrid race was called the N'djatwa --- featured in Dragon 158, in an Princess Ark instalment titled "A culture with a different sense of taste." Basically, they were once two races whose fortunes dwindled and got reeeeeal good at killing each another in competition for limited resources. Faced with extinction, the peoples (and/or their gods) came up with a compromise... interbreed.

The result was a robust, healthy, simple people... with a penchant for cannibalism. Bad place to shipwreck.

 

[blargney the second]

(I forget which world has them as a separate race that only breeds true amongst themselves - I like that idea a lot).

CleverName's Story Hour, Byzantium on the Shannon, features a race called the Cimbri. They're basically half-elves as a complete race/nation.

-blarg