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View Full Version : Thoughts on Lindybeige's Thoughts on Half-Elves?



CuriousWanderer
2016-06-16, 10:20 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFXcTsLJlg

What do you think about Lindybeige's thoughts on half-elves?

veti
2016-06-16, 10:27 PM
What do you think about Lindybeige's thoughts on half-elves?

I think he should write them down, because anyone who thinks I'm going to spend my time listening to this kind of thing is wrong.

CuriousWanderer
2016-06-16, 10:31 PM
I think he should write them down, because anyone who thinks I'm going to spend my time listening to this kind of thing is wrong.

Dear Sir/Maam/Other.

I would like to please point out that various people learn through various medium and that you cannot reasonably expect everyone to canter to your medium of learning.

Have a nice day.

:smallamused:

Mith
2016-06-16, 10:51 PM
I think he should write them down, because anyone who thinks I'm going to spend my time listening to this kind of thing is wrong.

In summary, treat half breed races as mules, so they are infertile and possess a different tending behaviour.

This creates some social dynamics where half breeds are seen as a sort of burden on society where they do not have children, so it kills any inheritance, since the line ends with the half breed. And would society trust any individual that thinks different from the masses and cannot produce children.

If you have orcs being rampaging monsters, perhaps the rape and pillage is also a strategy to weaken the opposition because a portion of the next generation is infertile, which means in the long war, the human, dwarves, and elves in a localized area could lose due to declining long term population.

awa
2016-06-16, 11:09 PM
Humans can have multiple immature children at the same time, not to mention the fact that if your in a position to rape a woman your in a position to just kill them. So this "strategy" would have no long term effect.

Mith
2016-06-16, 11:39 PM
Fair enough, I wasn't thinking things through.

I was thinking in terms of resource strain with trying to create a population with a significant proportion of infertile offspring. Basically why half breeds would be undesirable (because they do not contribute to the next generation) but on a larger scale, and how that could come about.

CuriousWanderer
2016-06-17, 12:08 AM
I just found the idea of half-elves being very different from humans and elves to be interesting.

I think they might have more similarities with dwarves then humans or elves given their listed life expectancy.

awa
2016-06-17, 07:32 AM
the infertile resource drain thing could work just not with humans we breed much faster then we need to.

A few ways it could hurt a population is if the population reproduces slowly and lives a long time particularly if they do not have multiple sets of children at the same time.

If we look in to some animal breeding patterns some animals die after sex like octopuses and others like lions monopolize large numbers of females these animals could be hit really hard by a decent portion of the population being sterile particularly if being a half breed gives an advantage to mate selection

NorthernPhoenix
2016-06-18, 04:30 PM
"The Gods made it so" is usually my answer to any question related to why any sort of half-breed can exist.

sengmeng
2016-06-20, 09:35 PM
Females would end up as mistresses and concubines to the rich and powerful, males would be warriors in a suicide squad.

Society always finds a place for disposable people.

Joe the Rat
2016-06-21, 07:58 AM
Three things:

1) Mules and other hybrids are not necessarily infertile (rare but not impossible). Also, adoption: With all of the war-tearing and death in fantasy worlds, there are orphans to spare.

2) Society manages non-reproducers of various stripes now, and has done so in the past, and we shall not discuss what is and isn't biological factors in this regard.

3) So what else do they have going on? Heightened or weakened immunities? Wonky growth regulation? super-sturdy hirsute elves? Impulse control issues?

Run of the mill half-elves (with assumed sterility) are assumably bastard children or changelings (the traditional sense, not the Chameleon sense), so they have no claim to lineage, barring no legitimate (or adopted) heirs. Humans might find them exotic (as always :smallsigh: ), making interesting courtesans. Assumed infertility and a somewhat extended lifespan gives you a "safe" tutor or mentor for nobles. If lack of interest is assumed by society, you can fill in any "traditional" eunuch position.

I'd go with the liger half-elf. Human growth rate coupled with elven longevity. They reach Large size somewhere in the second century. Potentially, this is where Ogre Magi / Oni come from.

For Half-Orcs, we have brutal robustness and ridiculous adaptability mixing. So let's make Half Orcs are on average stronger than orcs, and smarter - cunning and clever and creative - than humans. Superb leaders and devious mastermind villains. Everything Bozzok thought he was.

erikun
2016-06-21, 07:13 PM
I've played around with the idea that different races have different diets (elves: herbivore, orcs: carnivore, humans: lactase persistence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence), dwarves: ability to metabolize alcohol and no intoxication, like we believe the pen-tailed treeshrew (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen-tailed_treeshrew) to be) and a half-breed would be a character with the traits of one race but the diet of another. Half-Elves would be elves without the herbivore diet, and are generally looked down as barbaric as a result. Half-Orcs, though, would be seen as beneficial for being able to establish stationary trading posts and towns.

However, all that relies on a character's diet mattering in a campaign setting, which is something I've not worked out yet. Not that I'm really running any games at the moment...

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Muls yet. A Mul is a D&D half-dwarf (/half-human) from Dark Sun, hairless, and sterile. So the idea isn't exactly new, although the popularity of Half-Elves is probably the reason we haven't seen such an idea applied to them. (And Half-Orcs are just a way to play a PC Orc, since for some reason Orcs are not allowed as PCs.)