best of luck mate

Do you know how many people dont want kids, you would be choice because there would be no risk in pregnancy. Especially if the world dosent have birth control.

Bread does go well with a lot of things...

Yeah, that's pretty much how it works in Forgotten Realms

Humans in RPG's are much like bread, bland and boring on it's own

One exception i can point out is Warcraft, there's half orc-half ogre or half orc-half dreanei for example

Well, Orcs (In some editions of DnD) actually have that as a racial thing, cause their god says so or somethin. As for Human, well I guess they just get around a lot.

The race name is even pronounced the same as "mules." And they're used primarily as strong, sturdy workers--like mules. It's....pretty unsubtle.

that sure sounds like a perfect warrior, I mean, the qualities of a Dwarf, but with human size? man, that's incredible, it's like a super heroe

SSVjoker That's ok, everything in Dark Sun's dangerous- even the scant plants are trying to kill you, and the world's mineral poor, so you have to be self-sufficient. Hah, in case you can't tell, it's one of my favorite fantasy worlds! And visually it was great too- it largely designed by Brom. -Nerdarchist Ryan

my good friend played darksun as a large insect like creature , massive advantages...

Thri-Kreen? Those are cool.

Half-elves ain't shit but mules and tricks! - Dr. O.G. Dre

TheSquidPro Like Spock in that Star Trek film. I think there are a couple of episodes of TOS as well. One where he wears an Nazi 'coalscuttle' helmet to hide his ears & another where he wears a wooly hat (they might be the same episode. My memory is hazy)

TheSquidPro Separate drinking fountains for Half-Elves and Dark-Elves?

Sean Douglas if memory serves he wore a few hats when they traveled through time. I remember a fedora as well. though though can't remember if that was due to traveling through time or on a planet based on 1930's america (been a long time since I watched TOS)

TheSquidPro I recall a story of Luda-drizzt and 50 copper - two dark elf criminals who hold their hand crossbow sideways and have a distrust for officials. It's on 1d4chan.

Wessel Stienstra Beautiful pictures of nature, animals and JEOR FUCKIN' MORMONT

Wessel Stienstra It seems to be autographed.

Wessel Stienstra Oh good, I'm not the only one that noticed.

Wessel Stienstra Good to know he has his place on the Wall

Rathieh He's the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he lives on the Wall

10/10

Good sir you failed to mention the flagon of ale they all carry from hatching till death, and they always have sharp steel gripped tightly when hatching. I mean sure the lava pisses them off but good steel breaks the egg.

And female dwarves have beards!

So is that the Dorf'n version of the stork?

why do we have the same picture?

This is the most underrated comment that universe maybe multiverse has ever seen

M

U

L

E

BlockFin Infertility also solves to eradicate the worst of human behavior. I'm of course speaking about pretentious humans claiming to have 'elf heritage'.

BlockFin I'm reminded of a passage from one of the Drizzt books where Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar joke about the offspring of a gnome and a halfling "A...quarterling?"

Well, the perhaps you could right in rules claiming that the extent of their infertility makes them disinterested in sexual behaviors. The idea being, that because they are that blend of human and elf, they might only be interested in those two specific species. Or you could take it around a different, darker fashion, even if your original campaign was all rainbows and sunshine. Basically, using that idea you had to make them the common prostitutes of the setting, being so free from things like pregnancy or impregnation. Of course, you'd have to make it clear that these elves are super slimy, and thus have some major disadvantage over elves or humans because of their genetics.

Maybe a drastic penalty to saving throws/resistance to disease.

BlockFin A world full of magic, but they don't have contraception spells? Do they have fertility spells? I guess most RPGs just don't think about anything more than combat; because a fertility spell is about the first thing a magical (pseudo-)medieval society would develop....

lol!

+KaiserApfel Elronds second name is Halfelven

+Ieuan Hunt That's also the second name of another famous half-elven character from a Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman book in the Dragonlance world, Tanis.

Tolkien half elves either go the way of one parent's species. So if the child take on the traits of the Elf parent, they are no different from an elf and can reproduce will have elf children.

+Sol Zen But if that was the case why does Aragorn have an extended life span? A partial elven trait due to his descent from Fëanor.

GBatT exactly.

Hobbyist Contrarian yes, females are sometimes better kept. And there are the occasional outbreaks of chainmail skirts...

Huh, I was under the impression that Dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground.

I mean dwarves aren't goblins... Oooof Only goblins have just males

Me and my beard are gonna go as a female dwarf in larp now

@@SuperPresidentBeefbroth dwarf queen

Albino Spaz Don't trust elves with swords. Thrust elves with swords.

m8e "Thrust" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Spiritchuck That's what the female dwarf said.

Albino Spaz Fuck you Freedom hippie potprowler

Albino Spaz Around elves watch yourselves!

+ondank Good thinking-- half-elves who are easily able to "pass" in human society, and it becomes a really sore spot if you ask them about their parents.

yeah some red indians look quite asian and vice versa. In new zealand some maori even look asian.

Old comment but I just wanted to say that this is really interesting!

Yeah Morgoth took captured elves & tortured/mengeles-like experimented used chaos magic/genetic engineering to make orcs/goblins (btw I think that all magic is just high-level science that's workings are not known to the average joe ie Gandalf tapped into quantum entanglement/matter-antimatter. I think because of this is possible for orcs to breed with elves & humans just like elves & humans can breed together. Theoffspring are fertile because both elves & man created by same creator possibly from same template originally as the Ainur [Valar & Maiar] so even Gandalf could have some great-great grandkids lol who would be the ordinary run of the mill magicians & witches sorcerors, seers etc.

Aren't Uraks half orc/half goblin? So a crossbreed.

I would imagine that mixing between Dwarves would be much the same as Elves because of, as in worlds such as Middle Earth or Abeir-Toril where Dwarves can often live to be some 300 or 400 years old, Dwarves are clearly similar to Humans, yet are not the same species.

I have hardly no ideas as to how breeding between Orcs and Humans would work, although one could perhaps assume something more primal and consider Orcs as similar to Neanderthals, where there is a clear special difference, but no lack of compatability. This would give severe complications to either race giving birth to a mix, but not make it impossible to breed

As to Human/Halfling relations, that is for people with particular fetishes and while there is certainly complications for a Halfling mother, Halflings were a real race of people and not some fictional race out of a book. Sadly the Halflings all died in a volcano explosion followed by a tsunami and their island was mostly destroyed some time during the mid 1500's.

Marc Latorre Not too short, not too tall, not too stocky, not too lithe... Maybe a dwarf and an elf result in a human? ;)

I was thinking a hobbit

Marc Latorre too short and weak

Marc Latorre Hobbits are explained to be a close cousin to humans in LotR.

Marc Latorre A dwarf+Elf? A Dwelf? An...Arf? Aw, Gawd LOL...

blessed reference

+rom65536 DERNIT...you beat me to it...I'm a day late and a comment short

+CCs Welding I'm writing the report On losing and failing when I move I'm flailing now

Sounds like the inspiration for the Elder Scrolls' Betrayed.

90's

You forgot their final trait: Bad ass as fuck.

Bütes gotta love timezone disparity.

Bütes Ah, a fellow observer of Batman hours.

I chortled

Isn't half elf racism there just an extension of nonhuman racism?

ShieldWife Yes indeed. They're deliberately bred as slaves if I recall correctly, often being used as gladiators, so there was a massive social stigma. Seem to recall they were naturally psionic wild talents, too.

Caramel Johnson Yes they are. Most of the Dark Sun versions of the standard races have a bit of an unusual spin on them.

theHiddenStone the main reason they where bred as slaves is the extended activity class feature. Extended Activity: Muls may engage in up to 12 hours of hard labor or forced marching without suffering from fatigue

Edwin Suijkerbuijk Most of them were not the product of love between their parents but bred for the sole purpose of their stamina with either hard labor or a prime gladiator in mind. Combine that with c-section and the mul's mother dying at childbirth and as mentioned their own infertility and you have a pretty alien view on live, living and your role in this world. Muls made great companions and feared enemys under the dark sun.

+Jan Schulte What were half carrots ?

Maybe they each have the same amount of chromosomes

Stormeris I think it depends on the number of chromosomes that the hybrid has. If it's even, then it's fertile.

That's not the point. The point is that some are, and that it would be more interesting to have this feature in this particular environment.

RamsesTheStone It would be an interesting plot tool to the game master, that almost all, but not all halflings are infertile. Of course, don´t give the decision to the player, but use dices in a relevant situation. Maybe a 1D10 for fertility (with the outcome beeing permanent and maybe unkown to the player) and a second dice role for the change of pregnancy after the situation. That would be funny :-)

sarowie Now this sounds like some pornographic flash or text based game.

My elves are quite similar. They aren't trusted by the other races, either due to ancient feuds (orcs) or because they make very poor allies, as they can take far too long to make decisions (for example, if you have a food crisis in your country and you turn to the elves for help, it could take them years to respond with food deliveries) - They come up with the best solutions to problems, spending a long time thinking it through, but the response can be late sometimes. They don't concern themselves with mortals much either, only taking care of themselves and nature.

Conundrum to Lindy's defence, 90% of D&D would be more interesting by just being Dark Sun.

kster809 Years to put an emergency disaster relief supply order into motion? Sounds like the US. But in all seriousness, that's a bit silly. In all their years and supposed wisdom, you'd think they'd have some kind of contingency to help, ASAP, allies suffering a famine. It's not like they take many times longer to starve or dehydrate. I'm sure they'd understand the necessity of acting quickly in dire situations, otherwise they'd all be horrible warriors as they debate amongst themselves where to launch their arrows and at what trajectory for the most effective assault, meanwhile the enemy storms the gates and take the city. Elven lifespans would be tragically short by the sword then, I'd imagine.

Conundrum It should also be noted that the whole "elves and humans can perfectly breed with each other but not dwarfs" stems from Tolkien. Eru created them together while Aule created the dwarfs to fill his want for crafts(men/dwarfs). And from there it just stuck.

My own elves have the exact opposite point of view for the same reason. They live for millenia, they see laws change, human kingdoms rise and fall. Nature prevails. They are patient, but ultimately an emotional people because laws are meaningless to them. White Elves are almost the exception in my setting, they are "Lawful" but consider laws to be obsolete and have a social order based on magical curses and a racist hierarchy of beauty. In the end, a long life has made Elves see human legal practices as meaningless or ineffective.

Ok. Thats actually really interesting

I don't know, I don't see too many sterile people going to prostitution.

Gecko o Yeah, being sterile doesn't make you have less meaningful relationships either. I have a friend who has fertility issues, she adopted a kid!

But then, that's current world, where we live comfortably and safely, somewhat. Back in the medieval age, most family's would have 4-8 children, mainly because a fair amount of them would die before being able to reproduce, and you needed a continued legacy not just for the sake of natural wish of having one but because when you became too old to work and sustain yourself, family was what was left to take care of you. Hence, being infertile could make someone great for short encounters and physical pleasure, but could be seen as a great big downside when looking for partnership. Even more so if you consider that your parents opinion of spouse mattered a lot more back then; they'd certainly not want you to not have tons of kids to take over the family business etcetera. They didn't have the luxury to say "oh, marry whoever makes you happy, you can always adopt children". Since most fantasy roleplay is set in a setting similar to that of the medieval ages, I think it's safe to assume that this logic could be carried over to that as well. Interestingly, the Witcher franchise/mythos/stories/whatever deals with this in a similar way; the protagonist, Gerald of Rivia, is a Witcher, and since Witchers are humans mutated to get extraordinary abilities, they are also sterile. Because of this, whilst Witchers are shunned in society for being weird, dangerous, foreign and unknown, women also have a tendency to... Take liberties around him. More so in the books than in the videogames. Sure, he develops meaningful relationships... But he also runs around getting laid with anything and everything, which I find very silly but explainable in the context.

They can be promiscuous without consequences. Sex would be purely a leisure activity... Perhaps a service they can provide for income. Female full-blood elves or humans would be able to fool around with male mules and not get pregnant and female mules would not have such of a need to be attached to a financial provider through marriage as they would have no young to consider and could therefore consider themselves to be eternally 'available'.

Really? I thought in biology the test for two creatures being of the same species is if they can produce fertile offspring

@@thijmstickman8349 the line between species is exceedingly blurry when you get into the nitty gritty of the actual biology. There are still re-classifications to this very day. And even within the discipline itself there are a variety of different definitions for what to define "species" the word itself. Look it up in wikipedia.

@@trevorh6438 ah okay, thats very interesting, I think I heard this in biology class, I guess the Dutch curiculum needs an update

@@thijmstickman8349 all of the sciences need an update. Schools teach science as it it were a religion, turning various favored and pet theories and unproven presumptions into dogmatic doctrines and narrative myths and teaching as if they were facts not to be questioned. At least so they do at the basic levels the layman is left at. Everything should be studied personally and one should not look to their school curriculum or the pop sci rags for the whole story. As it relates to species fertility, generally hybrids are infertile yes, but on very rare occasions and with proper matchups, they might not always be. And some species are such because their breeding habits snub other species even while the two are actually still fertile between each other.

@@trevorh6438 Ligers are fertile if I remember right... It's the only example I can think of off the top of my head, Ligers being a bit of a meme... Ironically In most fantasy I could see a human/elf hybrid being infertile, however if Orcs come from Elves like in a few different settings, I could see such a coupling actually produce a fertile child. I mean that would be a cool origin for Hob Goblins... Similarly Half-Orcs could be fertile if Orcs come from human stock. I generally have all Humanoids come from a common ancestor, that being Humans, and all Goblinoids come from Elves (Elves still come from humans). So In such a setting a Half-Elf would be fertile, but a Half-Orc would not. Though it occurs to me now, Elf/Orc couplings could be an interesting idea to explore even if it's more than a bit... dark. Gonna definitely be glossing over specifics there. (Yes Half-Dwarves are a thing)

Reece Crump Can you imagine being guaranteed an attractive person (elf blood), guaranteed infertile (halfbreed), and low stationed (infertile), in Westeros? I'd go crawling in a dungeon or tomb for treasure for a living, too!

Reece Crump from my own experiences, the reason many groups take sexual themes off the table is because they've had - or heard of - those themes being done badly and used as an excuse to harass female gamers and heap abuse on ANY gamer playing a female character while hiding behind the "It's what my character would do," excuse. This doesn't always happen, but it happens often enough to make many gaming groups shy away from the subject. In the groups I GM for, we have explored such themes but we are a group who are friends and trust each other and we always discuss the possible inclusion of anything that we see as potentially problematic BEFORE introducing it. In terms of the likely role of an infertile, beautiful half-breed, you are undoubtedly right. Historically speaking, this was true of eunuchs.

Fuck you.

@@mojebi3804 sure, where and when?

@@mojebi3804 If you do i'm calling Civil Protection.

My ancestors smile upon me, Imperial! Do yours do the same?

kster809 As soon as I have ridden Skyrim of all storm cloak traitors, Even the holy trees will remember my name and the colour of my scales.

Hidole555 The water belongs to the argonians :3

Hidole555 Damn rebels...

I remember a Breton saying to a Nord: Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled like elderberries!

MegaHasmat I'm sure you're joking but, human

Kelberoth I think the point is that they're (almost) always referred to as half-elves from a human perspective, even by other elves, who really should call them half-humans. But then, most writers are human. In a setting I'm writing, that's actually an important distinction. There are half-races of variants that aren't half-human.

Another Duck I always thought that implied that humans were the race everyone else could intermingle, so no one could make a half-elf, half-orc type combination.

Another Duck Although equally, I could imagine Elves calling them Half-Elves because to them the Elf part is the bit that's important. Elves being the arrogant jerks that they usually are.

Gabriel Munn It's not arrogance when it's the truth.

Very rare. The two mules that would be attempting to have offspring would have to have to proper chromosome balance.

Doxx Still happens, it's not "impossible"

Michael Dante Never said it was impossible.

Then as a half elf you spend your days searching for the true sole mate.

When it does happen, the offspring isn't a mule. It's either a true horse or true donkey.

Is this a math question?

Jens Schwehn Either that or a dead elf.

Ah, I just saw someone mentioned the exact same thing back in the comments... :P

Imhornydadcomeinside This is because of the deliberate decision of the developers to make the player choices not really matter (such as what sex or race you choose), lore wise TES is full of racism.

***** That is somewhat true (Although I Think it's stupid because racism and sexism would actually ENRICH the gameplay in many ways but that's Another story), but I find it lacking in fantasy literature too, in Tolkiens World for example, where you just see hints of it.

Imhornydadcomeinside In Morrowind, all of the slaves are Argonians and Khajiit. That seems pretty racist to me.

John Harvey It's rather an exception than norm, in the rest of Tamriel such strong racism such as racial-slavery didn't exist with the exceptions of the Aldmer. I mean Skyrim and Cyrodiil are very multiracial places, the nords are still dominant in SKyrim but there seems to be Little conflict outside of windhelm (And that's a very minor conflict anyway you would except from the situation of refugees coming in)

Imhornydadcomeinside Gotcha. Morrowind is mentioned to be a more *ahem* traditionalist place, where slavery and ancestor worship are still common, whereas the rest of the empire has outlawed such things. I've only played Morrowind and Arena, so that's the lore I'm familiar with.

Henry Brownell Whose mules are the imps? Do you perhaps have a species called "The Lannisters"? ;D

Zombigotron Orcs and Dwarves make Imps. That's usually the go-to for most rogue characters.

Henry Brownell Makes sense! Thanks for the reply.

Henry Brownell I'm not gonna ask how elves and male giants mate. I'll just presume that it involves lots of blood and pain.

Sir Evilmustache The best kinds of mating always do... ;P

+DemTacs That seems to be pretty much a hafling.

+Vieira Fi An infertile one. With a beard.

+Beelzibubbles A beardling, if you will.

+DemTacs What about a dwelf with the most prominent parts being primarily dwarven, with large beard(or mustache, or both, if any), very bulky, with wide chest and big muscly arms and legs and all that, and as tall as an elf, maybe taller than humans, if elves in the fictional universe in question happen to be normally taller than humans(maybe the dwelf in question would have been taller than elves too)? :D Would have made a great warrior, cleric, barbarian, swordsman or whatever.

+DemTacs Oops I just realized, taller than humans, and elves being taller than humans, has nothing to do with dwarfs/dwarves. x) Why would they need to be taller than humans if it's a half-breed consisting of a dwarf and an elf? Oh well, could still be taller than elves, while elves in turn, might be taller than humans in that fantasy setting. A minor nitpicking of my myself.

halfling is a term to describe the race of hobbits in the Tolkien fantasy setting, so that'd be my assumption^^

A ling is probably a lot like a human but half the size of a halfling and with really, really big feet. Tiny clowns basically.

ling is a suffix to describe lesser nature to something greater. In this case, the -ling means they are inferior in size and half describes how much smaller. So basically, the name halfling is a derogatory term for a hobbit, but since the name hobbit is still held copyrighted by the Tolkien estate, other companies have to use the term halfling

Halflings are hobbits.You can't call them hobbits for legal reasons.

Yes. Early DnD called them Hobbits, until the Tolkien estate lawyers contacted TSR. The next edition of DnD changed that to "Halflings". I was a TSR stockholder at the time, so I should know. This was not the only time our start-up company made a similar mistake.

That sounds like a pretty sexist, racist, elitist, xenophobic, privileged, intolerant thing to say.

I heard depending on the sex of the father... lol

I made a character whose name was Ass-Biter AngerSquat The Awe-Inspiring Dank AngryBalls of Squating... He was a Master Wrestler/Biter and we called him Abastaidabos for short.

how old are you losers jesus christ

Well... If you order sperm online, the father would be mail.

It really depends on the fantasy literature at hand, some fictions have elves to be just supper pretty humans while others make them so different as to make them different species entirely.

Yagi Well it's kinda up to the game-makers to create interesting variations between human and elf. I could make a case that horses and donkeys look pretty much the same; donkeys are just a bit smaller, with stocky bodies and stumpy legs, there heads are a bit bigger with large floppy ears. I wouldn't call someone who has a never encountered donkeys in their life stupid for mistaking a donkey for a particularly unusual type of horse. But when you actually take a deeper look at their entire anatomy and genetics the difference is indeed stark. Elfs and humans do indeed look alike, but it's the nuances about there deeper anatomy and genetics that would separate them. I would say elves may have some form of specialized organ quite unlike anything seen in a human that helps regenerate wounds and illnesses at a *inhuman* rate, There diet consists of exclusively vegetation including a special root that is incredibly poisonous to humans but due to a specialized digestive system (That purges there body of most poisons used in combat) elves are able to extract vital nutrients that gives them heightened resistance to magic (Or whatever) and they also possess a gene that helps to hinder or reverse the aging process that gives them greatly extended life (as seen in certain types of jellyfish and octopi among other things) which allows them to devote more time to the arts and science and less time to war giving the elves there distinctive advanced culture. That shit was all made up of the cuff by some tired 18 yr old...I'm sure a bunch of nerds working around the clock can come up with a comprehensive Encyclopedia for there LARP world.

Yagi When u assume that modern biology apply the difference could be massive. You are looking at the outward appearence (phenotype) of those organisms and they may seem similar, but their biochemical insides may be completly incompareable. Butterflies (Moths more precisely) are a good example. There are some species (even genera) that look pretty much identical on the outside and only have known to be nonrelated since their genomes were compared. From a genetic standpoint it is completly sufficient to both explain why halfelves could be fertile or infertile, its up to your preference and noone can proof you wrong. You just have to agree on one of the two. Personally i find lindys point about infertile halfelves to be more intriguing.

Schattenmaler Heck, salamanders and lizards look a lot alike on the outside, but they're not even the same taxonomical Class.

Yes, and in the end trying to account for all the different avenues science has for species can make fantasy race designers heads spin, so to be honest sometimes the great acronym 'F.M.' Or 'f***ing magic' is applied. The best explanations for races or species are really explained in science fiction where fantasy has them just existant with little to say where their race is from besides just regional origin. The elderscrolls is a perfect example of that. Men and Mer (elves) were just from different continents or islands.

also consider one simple fact that your missing in all this, the mystery of magic and all the wonderful things it does.

That is in the movie, but not in anything Tolkien himself wrote.

I don't really think point one would deter the existence of half-dwarves, though. In real life, there are people with a fetish for little people/dwarves(whatever the PC term is for them)...so I don't see why there couldn't be humans, at least, with an interest in dwarves in fantasy settings...certainly enough that a few half-dwarves should exist. Of course the bearded faces might throw off even _those_ fetishists...

Possibly, yes, but Tolkien's conception of sexuality in Middle Earth is usually very tame and plain (as in heterosexual, reproductive intercourse) so the very existence of such fetishes may be debatable. Meh, I guess someone should have asked R.R about interracial. Oh, and I think dwarf is P.C since the fact of being that short is medically called dwarfism.

Wouldn't that ratio be an incentive for male dwarves to seek out female companions from other species?

hell yeah dwarves would bonking human women left, right & centre.

They wouldn't necessarily be accepted by women from other species ( once again, go figure if fetishes even exist in Arda), and they would probably not want to be that close to humans or elves (Dwarves, the people who live inside huge mountains, between dwarves, doing dwarf stuff and everything)

kimarous or you could give them the size of a human combined with the burly build of a dwarf ^^

kimarous That's pretty much how Japan generally depicts regular female dwarves, permanent preteens.

Orc-human crossbreeding however definitely exists in Middle Earth, and knowing what orcs are like well, we can assume it never happens happily

With elves being magical creatures, you'd think their genes would be the most likely to express themselves, not the least, IMO.