Half-elves, then, are born of either a human mother and elvish father, or the reverse. These offspring are most likely to dwell in the culture possessed by their mother (as determined by their place of birth). Elves are not able to breed with other humanoids beyond humans. Contrary to popular belief, there are no sustained half-elven cultures; this is because the mother’s race will prove to be dominant after the first generation, so that the offspring of a half-elf will be either human or elf, with mere peripheral characteristics of the human or elven grandfather.
In the case of two half-elves, where one has an elven mother and the other a human mother, the offspring’s grandmother’s race, through the matrilineal line, will establish itself as the child’s birth race. For example, half-elf Gareth (human father, elven mother) has offspring with half-elf Miri (elven father, human mother); in such a case, the offspring would be human.
Both humans and elves will almost always embrace the offspring as a member of their own natural race. As well, racist abuse of half-elves is rare, since both humans and elves know the consequences will ultimately restore a trueblood offspring in due course. This is true even if the half-elf breeds with yet another race (which is possible). The mother of that race, or the half-elf’s mother (if the half-elf is the female), will always prove to be the dominant race of the offspring.
Why go to this effort? One, I don't want to deal with half-race societies, at least not those between two races that are both player character options. I have a different solution for half-orcs, that I'll be posting on the wiki sometime before the end of the weekend, I'm supposed to be doing some work on burglary (thief sage) for oft-commenting reader Ozymandias, who is taking advantage of my offer to write specific posts on specific subjects for the wiki. All the content about Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and two posts about the Bronze Age came about because Vlad asked me to do the same.
It never hurts to ask. I'm open to suggestions from those named on that post, or anyone who wants to make a $12 donation through Patreon or the button on the sidebar. If you don't know my game world and take on things, I suggest you speak with me through the comments field or by email, alexiss1@telus.net, before donating.
I like the idea of the race being dominant through the matrilineal line, but if I'm reading this correctly I see something that doesn't jibe, and it is this:
ReplyDeleteIf a half-elf woman (human mother) marries an elven man, her offspring would be human? I'm looking at the last two sentences of the fourth paragraph.
I would think that such a "three-quarter" character would end up as an elf (with human blood on its mother's side) or as another "half-elf" (human dominant due to matrilineal descent). Just a little weird that a full elf father would have an all human child.
Looking forward to the half-orc entry (as traditional D&D orcs are known to breed with a lot of species).
Hah. There's always something not covered. Good call, JB.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your solutions, I find myself in the unwanted position of having to deal with a population of varying degrees of pure elf above 50%, reinforced by elven fathers in perpetuity. Since I'm god of my universe, this is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.
I could take the earlier statement to its absolute measure: "Elves are not able to breed with other humanoids beyond humans." Pure Elf/Half-elf, null program. The half-elf's genetic relation to elves would be compromised by the mix in a way the human's would not be, so that elves & half-elves can't breed.
But truth be told, the strangenesses of genetics don't preclude that a half-elven mother and an elven father giving birth to a human child. I point at the results of fruit fly copulations. The very fact of it would likely discourage such couplings, if the elven father knew in advance what the result would be.
What about something like mules, where half-elves, orcs, etc. are sterile?
ReplyDeleteI considered that, S.P., but given that this would apply to player characters, I did not want to take away the option of a character having offspring.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much how I handle half-elves too, explaining it's due to mixing of genes and there being only a couple of genes involved (and thus the maths is purely integer based, no infinite fractions).
ReplyDeleteAnother fun bit of genetics is the explanation of Calico, Tortoiseshell, and Ginger cats - https://twitter.com/ZiziFothSi/status/1118224823988248576 - not sure how I'll fold that into D&D races just yet though.