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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8862247" data-attributes="member: 58172">We are saying moreorless the same thing here.Tolkien posits a thought experiment: &quot;what if other hominids coexisted with their own culture and languages?&quot;... But the more these &quot;hominids&quot; resemble the species sapiens, the more Tolkien relies on the pseudoscience of his era to characterize these &quot;hominids&quot; as if human &quot;races&quot;.I also view Elf etcetera as different species of life. In some ways, they are radically Nonhuman.For example, the Fey Elf is a spirit of the immaterial Fey plane. There is no flesh-and-blood. There is no DNA. There is no biology.But the Elf can still a 5e &quot;Humanoid&quot;.Nordic traditions color my view here.In the Norse animistic traditions, mountains, lakes, rivers, sky, sun, sunlight, and daylight, are all conscious living persons.Elves are the army of sunlight. Literally.So when this sunlight takes the form of a human of flesh-and-blood, the sunlight is using the same magic that human shamans use to take the form of a wolf or falcon.While in human form, the sunlight actually is a human, and can reproduce offspring genetically with a human, albeit typically exhibits some telltale evidence of the true form being the sunlight.Likewise, when a human takes the form of an other animal, the animal typically evidences the true human form, such as human eyes in an otherwise normal animal.Fortunately! This is the saving grace of D&amp;D!Plus, for a fantasy gaming, figuring out ways to carry out thought experiments about what Nonhuman lifeforms is part of the fun.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 8862247, member: 58172"] We are saying moreorless the same thing here. Tolkien posits a thought experiment: "what if other hominids coexisted with their own culture and languages?" ... But the more these "hominids" resemble the species [I]sapiens[/I], the more Tolkien relies on the pseudoscience of his era to characterize these "hominids" as if human "races". I also view Elf etcetera as different species of life. In some ways, they are radically Nonhuman. For example, the Fey Elf is a spirit of the immaterial Fey plane. There is no flesh-and-blood. There is no DNA. There is no biology. But the Elf can still a 5e "Humanoid". Nordic traditions color my view here. In the Norse animistic traditions, mountains, lakes, rivers, sky, sun, sunlight, and daylight, are all conscious living persons. Elves are the army of sunlight. Literally. So when this sunlight takes the form of a human of flesh-and-blood, the sunlight is using the same magic that human shamans use to take the form of a wolf or falcon. While in human form, the sunlight actually is a human, and can reproduce offspring genetically with a human, albeit typically exhibits some telltale evidence of the true form being the sunlight. Likewise, when a human takes the form of an other animal, the animal typically evidences the true human form, such as human eyes in an otherwise normal animal. Fortunately! This is the saving grace of D&D! Plus, for a fantasy gaming, figuring out ways to carry out thought experiments about what Nonhuman lifeforms is part of the fun. [/QUOTE]

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