D&D General Vague idea: Humans as the descendants of Elves and Orcs

[Smackpixi]

Sure, since there are half-stuff and I don’t blink at Dragonborn/gnome unions I guess i also consider all playable races somehow genetically related, but, not anything that I’ve ever bothered to parse out cause the 100k year distant family tree thing isn’t a subject of any of my games. Falls into the category of things worldbuilders worry about but players don’t care about I think.

 

[jgsugden]

In my primary setting, the Giants were byproducts of a war between Gods. After them, the Dwarves, Elves and Angels were intentionally created by Gods to be their servants, or more accurately - their hands. There is a lot of history to unpack, but essentially the Dwarves and the Elves were the great populaces of the world (along with Orcs, Goblins, Gith, Drow and Duergar that had been created by tainting Elves and Dwarves) for 5000 years before the Gods discovered how useful it was to have free willed worshippers and and spawned the great multitudes of humanoid creatures (including Humans). It would be 700 years before an event took place that gave Humans a significant place in the universe as a dominant species.

Interestingly (to me at least), Elves and Dwarves are immortal in my setting. Their bodies weaken over time, so the eldest are essentially bed ridden when not aided with magic, but the very first elf still lives (8500 years old).

 

[aco175]

All I'm saying is that things happen, especially if the elves and orcs look like the other thread going around with AI pictures.

 

[Raiztt]

Had a LotR vid on in the background and had a thought: Humans can produce viable offspring with both Orcs and Elves because they are themselves the descendants of those two older peoples sometime in the distant past. Not a general lore but more one to develop for a specific setting.

I've seen it, and prefer it, the opposite way: Humans are the oldest existent evolutionary branch and elves/orcs spring off from them.

 

[Umbran]

Had a LotR vid on in the background and had a thought: Humans can produce viable offspring with both Orcs and Elves because they are themselves the descendants of those two older peoples sometime in the distant past. Not a general lore but more one to develop for a specific setting.

Well, apocryphally in Tolkien, orcs are elves twisted by Sauron, because making new things isn't his strong suit.

Also in Tolkien, Elves and Men are not evolved creatures, they are created by Eru Ilúvatar, the supreme being of that fictional universe. They are created such that they can interbreed. Dwarves in Tolkien were made by Aulë, effectively one of the highest angels, and coming from a different creator, they cannot interbreed.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In the Diablo setting, humans are the descendants of the Nephalem, Celestial/Fiend hybrids.

Honestly, that explains a lot.

 

[Corinnguard]

Honestly, that explains a lot.

This could explain the birth of an Aasimar or a Tiefling to human parents. Humans are already carrying the blood of Celestials and Fiends.