Half-Human Hybrid: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Half-elf.jpg|link=Sam and Max|frame|Now that's just being too literal!]]

 

[[Mix-and-Match Critters]] with a dash of human thrown in!

This is present in most [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|unrealistic]] fictional genres, including [[Science Fiction]] (or, rather [[Space Opera]]), fantasy, horror, etc. In reality, many closely related Earth species share over 99% of their DNA, but cannot produce viable offspring. This makes it extremely unlikely that creatures of different planets would be able to interbreed, but then again, [[Mars Needs Women|Mars does need women]].

 

 

Rarely does either species [[Maligned Mixed Marriage|accept the mixed marriage]], much less said hybrid, though. After all, [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]

In mythology and folklore, this is known as a "liminal being", like Merlin or centaurs.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Silver Diamond]]'' has Chigusa: half-man, half-plant. Which apparently makes you damn near immortal. {{spoiler|Apparently, it's a family trait of the Senroh clan, earning them the title of Immortal Monsters.}}

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', Kaworu Nagisa is strongly implied to be {{spoiler|a result of an experiment where an unidentified human donor's DNA "dove" into Adam. (The technobabble almost sounds like a euphemism for insemination.)}} Whether he is actually a {{spoiler|half-Angel/half-Lilin hybrid who for some reason looks human, or a straight-up clone of the genetic donor,}} is unknown.

** Rei Ayanami has {{spoiler|a connection to Lilith}}, as well, but printed sources only say that {{spoiler|she is a clone of Yui and contains Lilith's soul}}. The idea that she is {{spoiler|a genetic hybrid, or some such,}} remains strictly within the realm of fanon.

* Both Averted & Justified in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''Phoenix'' series, where there is only one species capable of breeding with others, the Moopies, who are able to do this due to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]] (which is a completely different scientific impossibility, but what the hey).

* {{spoiler|Rue}} from ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' has been raised on {{spoiler|the Raven's blood}}, and it's implied that it's made her a sort of hybrid.

** It's one theory on Kid's heritage that he's got a human mother and [[Divine Parentage|death-god father]]. Depends on how you interpret the Sanzu Lines issue in the manga.

*** That theory has been killed dead as of the latest manga chapters, where it's revealed that Kid is actually {{spoiler|a split-off piece of Shinigami-sama}}

** Mayumi is also a half-demon.

* Everyone except the hero in ''[[Utawarerumono]]'' has a varying combination of wings, long furry ears, and tails. It is revealed in the end that {{spoiler|they're all descendants of genetically engineered research experiments who escaped shortly before [[All There in the Manual|the end of mankind]]. Despite having only minimal animal features, they were on the level of lab rats and even dissected for research.}}

* [[Vampire Hunter D]] has D. A [[Dhampir]] created by Dracula himself after something like 5,000 years of trying.

* [[Dragon Half]] has the heroine Mink, whose mother was a dragon and whose father was a (human) dragon hunter. And Princess Vina whose father was a king, and whose mother was a slime (similar to those in [[Dragon Quest]])

* The [[Karin|Karin manga]]: {{spoiler|Yuriya is a half-vampire, half-human. She isn't affected by vampire weaknesses (i.e. sunlight, the smell of garlic, etc.). Unfortunately, she also has to drink blood, and she doesn't have any vampire ''powers'', either. She's also completely sterile. Karin and Kenta's daughter, Kanon, is the same deal.}}

** {{spoiler|actually Kanon can be debated because Karin's parents mentioned that she had become like a normal human so isn't it possible for her child to be normal?(since Kanon doesn't seem to have any vampiric tendencies at all unlike Yuriya}}

*** {{spoiler|The key phrase here being "like a normal human" as she still has her fangs and her powers are more likely dormant rather than her DNA completely changing into another species.}}

* The heroine Chisaya from [[Onikirisama No Hakoirimusume]] is half-human and half-yokai, with a giant [[Kitsune]] as a mother.

* This seems to happen a lot in [[One Piece]]. There are several variations between common species, including but not limited to; Humans, [[Fish People|Mermen, Fishmen,]] and Giants.

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]: The Initiative'' has Trauma, the son of {{spoiler|the demon lord Nightmare}} and a human woman.

** This is probably derived from actual folklore, specifically the Balken [[wikipedia:Dhampir|dhampir]], which is even more of a vampire-human hybrid (see ''[[Dhampyr]] The Trope'' for more examples).

* In ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'', the platinum dragon D'bra is actually a hybrid between two differing tribes of dragons, platinum on her mother's side and iron on her father's. This is notable as full dragons are rare enough between two partners of the same tribe (most eggs hatch into less drakes or wyrms), and hybrids are thus extremely powerful. However, not only are they extremely rare (six have been recorded in the entirety of draconic history), but also card carrying demonstrations that [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]. D'bra's own explosive temper is a considerable worry to the other dragons who are afraid of her snapping like all the others.

** Another cross between human-offshoots is Maelstrom, an Inhuman/Deviant cross. His son Ransak is a one-quarter Inhuman, three-quarters Deviant.

** Still another example, the Ritter twins are Eternal/Deviant hybrids.

* Adam X the [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|X-treme]], part of the Summers' [[Tangled Family Tree]], is half-human, half-Sh'iar.

* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', Genesis is the offspring of an angel and a demon.

* Averted in ''[[Runaways]]''. The Majesdanian Karolina found herself betrothed to the Skrull Xavin as part of a peace treaty between the races; however, it is unlikely that they will have children. Not because it's impossible, but because Karolina is a [[Lipstick Lesbian|lesbian]], and Xavin [[Gender Bender|assumes]] a female form accordingly.

* The [[ClanDestine|Destines]] are the children of the genie Elalyth and Adam of Destine, a human who was granted immortality and invulnerability by said genie after [[Rescue Romance|he rescued her and they fell in love]]. The kids are all incredibly long-lived, but not immortal, and have superpowers of varying degrees of usefulness.

* Jimmy Marks aka Hybrid, the son of a human woman and a [[ROM Spaceknight|Dire Wraith]]. Recently appeared in ''Avengers Academy''. Don't worry, he's not as bad as a typical member of his father's race. {{spoiler|He's worse.}}

 

 

** Don't forget the [[Crack Pairing|Kyon/Ryoko]] ones!

** I ''have'' to ask this: Do interfaces have, you know... parts?

*** Of course. They're biologically perfectly human. Making a copy of an existing template is simpler than making something entirely new, and non-human physical traits like that could potentially arouse unwanted suspicion.

 

== Film ==

*** Also, the half-human hybrids Sill and Eve are healthy. {{spoiler|It's only the ''three-quarters human'' children of [[The Virus]] infected astronaut in ''Species II'' who are sickly and (apparently) sterile}}. Which means the whole thing makes even less sense. Not to mention it retroactively ruins the entire premise of the first two films, though the idea that a species with a starting population of one or two individuals could outbreed the six billion humans on Earth is fairly silly to begin with (realistically we'd just absorb them in a few generations, or they'd quickly become ridiculously inbred).

*** Oddly enough, inbreeding doesn't actually cause direct problems, or cause mutation or anything like that. It just increases the chance of already existing genetic "defects" (color-blindness for example) popping up. There is a small chance that no genetic problems would occur and a decent chance that those that do pop up would only be minor, if the two original beings have no expressed problems of their own. Not accounting for mutations, which always have the same chance of occurring, no matter what, of course. God I love biology.

** In Sturla Gunnarsson's ''Beowulf & Grendel'' (2005), Grendel is referred to as a [[All Trolls Are Different|troll]] but his mother is some sort of sea creature. {{spoiler|His son with Selma is this trope played straight.}}

* B-movie ''Arachnid'' has a gigantic alien spider giving birth to all kinds of other huge bugs. Sometimes it is required to lay the eggs inside a human. We never get any clue exactly what, if anything, it was mating with.

* ''Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief'' postulates that the Roman and Greek gods are still around, and have been mating with humans a ''lot'' , with hundreds of demi-gods sprinkled through human society. Some of them know their parentage, some don't.

* In ''[[Splice]]'', two married scientists pioneer a new technology to 'plug and play' any number of different animal's DNA together to produce new unique organisms. They decide to take the next step and insert human DNA into the mix. That worked out about as well as you would expect.

* Averted in [[Poul Anderson]]'s short story, ''[[The High Crusade]],''which includes an instance of the humans finding one or more [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|green-haired, feathery-antennae'd space babes]]. In the words of the narrator, "Nor was there any possibility of issue between [the Space Babe's] species and our own." Nevertheless, he indicates that the complications didn't stand in the way of [[Interspecies Romance]].

** Though being a priest, he does worry that "the prohibitions of Leviticus might apply," i.e. that it counts as the sin of coupling with beasts.

** In cases where the two species involved are otherwise physically... ''incompatible'', love springs have an inherent magic that overrules the laws of biology, allowing for even more bizarre blendings. When the two species are simply too different to coexist in a single form, they become were-creatures, able to transform from the one species to the other.

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' gives us Hagrid, who had a human father and a giant mother. Madame Maxime is also at least part-giant, but trying to pass as "pure human." This isn't the only [[Interspecies Romance]] suggested, but they're the only characters we meet who are exactly half-and-half.

* In Patricia Briggs' Hurog novels half the cast have a dragon ancestor several generations back.

** Handwaved in that {{spoiler|dragons can assume human form.}}

* There are a few examples of hybrids in Terry Brooks' ''[[Shannara]]'' books (the Urda, for example, are Troll/Gnome hybrids). Justified, in one sense, by the fact that dwarves, gnomes, and trolls are simply different subspecies of human mutated by the apocalypse. Less explicable is how humans can interbreed with elves, who are just fae ''evolved'' into humanoids...

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' has Taura, who's a genetically engineered remnant of a [[Super Soldier]] project, with horse genes somewhere in there ([[Lego Genetics|among others]]). She's friendly, cheerful and her favourite colour is [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|pink]], but she's also eight feet tall and looks quite a lot like a werewolf. People tend to misjudge her on these grounds.

** Justified in ''[[Dark Lord of Derkholm]]'' in which Derk is a magician specialising in genetics and creates griffin children using his and his wife's DNA as well as cat and eagle DNA. However, it is implied that Derks' griffin children will have no problem having children with the "real" griffins that turn up in the second book (well their Dad can help them out).

** In ''[[The Magids|Deep Secret]]'' a couple of {{spoiler|centaur}} characters have human fathers. It's pointed out that it has to be that way round because a hybrid foetus would be too big for a human woman to carry.

** The mysterious gualdians of ''A Sudden Wild Magic''. It's not very clear ''how'' they're not human, but they consider humans to be a different species and prefer not to interbreed, although it's definitely possible and humans often consider it desirable (to the extent of having very nasty plans for a captured gualdian).

* Showed up fairly often in the works of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]: The inhabitants of the titular town in ''[[The Shadow Over Innsmouth]]'' come to mind in particular, but there were also ''[[The Dunwich Horror]]'' and the Jermyn family in ''Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family''. There's a bit of [[Subtext]] reflecting Lovecraft's famed racist views in how the interbreeding is portrayed as so extremely unnatural.

* In Eric Nylund's ''A Pawn's Dream'', all the Dreamers are half (or less) human, as a child born of two Dreamers is incredibly powerful and therefore forbidden, as it would disrupt the balance of power. In this case the intermarrying isn't very far fetched, as the only differences from regular humans are the existence in both worlds and the ability to use magic.

* James Patterson's ''[[Maximum Ride]]''. Six kids with wings and the ability to fly hundreds of kilometres. On top of that, one six-year-old can also breathe underwater, speak to fish, change her appearance at will and read and control minds.

** All of the members of the "Flock" have powers not related to birds at all, with the possible exception of Max with her super speed. Apparently she's part falcon.

*** ''Maximum Ride'' came from James Patterson's earlier novels ''When The Wind Blows'' and ''The Lake House'', also featuring flying kids. However, they are slightly creepier. This Max lays eggs.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [[H. Beam Piper]]'s short story ''When In The Course''. One human female character is reminded several times throughout the story that, even though the inhabitants of Freya appear human, the two races "started in two different puddles of living slime, seven hundred light-years apart." At the end of the story, she announces that she's pregnant by a Freyan.

* Half-Giants, Half-Veela, Werewolves, Centaurs, Merpeople and Half-Goblins in [[J. K. Rowling]]'s ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Collectively referred to as 'half-breeds'. They suffer a lot of prejudice from the rest of the Wizarding world.

** The Uruk-hai engineered by Saruman are implied to be made of orc and human stock.

* S.L. Viehl is fond of this trope. Humans can interbreed with all kinds of freaky aliens—from [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned humanoids]], to avians, to something that [[Starfish Aliens|looks like a human-sized three-way hybrid of a mudpuppy, a catfish, and a lamprey]]. The [[Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid|aforementioned blue people seem to be able to hybridize]] with even ''more'' races... including some that are ''really'' bizarre.

* [[Our Dragons Are Different|Anthrozils]] in ''[[Dragons in Our Midst]]''.

* Hybrids ("breeds") are so common in Glen Cook's ''Garrett P.I.'' fantasy series, they sometimes outnumber the human characters. Exempting non-humans from military conscription, then inviting them in to work while your human subjects are off fighting a hundred-year war, can have unintended consequences...

* Human/fairy hybrids appear prominently in ''Goblin Moon'' and ''The Gnome's Engine''. They are prone to psychological instability and have unique responses to emotional stress, a fact which is central to the plot. A mixed dwarf/human marriage is also mentioned, although it's unstated whether children are expected to follow.

** A straight example would be {{spoiler|Tristran himself, as his father was mortal and his mother was a fairy.}}

** The [[Film of the Book]], however, ends with mention of Tristan (different spelling) and Yvaine's children and grandchildren.

* In Iain M.Banks ''Culture'' novels, Culture citizens have 'genofixing,' one result of which is that they can reproduce with other species (if desired, as other modifications allow the whole pregnancy cycle to be averted, paused indefinitely or aborted at will). Its immediate usefulness is in allowing the many similar but unrelated pan-human species to interbreed, but this being the Culture, plenty of people take it to [[Boldly Coming|more exotic extremes.]]

* [[Isaac Asimov]]'s 'Tweenies' short stories features Martian-Human hybrids. There most noticable features are large white mohican crests and high intelligence. They are outcasts of both species. In the stories a sympathetic human ends up looking after several Tweenies, later becoming a small commune. Once older, they leave Earth to have adventures colonising Venus.

* [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''[[Next]]'' has Dave, the son of a researcher who manipulated his DNA and a chimpanzee's donated cells. He displays both human and monkey aspects, especially in personality, where he ''flings poo.'' It's also implied, that, playing with the theme of genetic engineering gone insane and that people never expect problems with their newfangled tech, he's aging rapidly.

*** Subverted in Jadis/the White Witch's case, as she only ''pretended'' to be part human to assert her claim to the throne. Her non-giant blood is actually ''genie'' (jinn), not human.

* {{spoiler|Mordred}} in the final volume of Stephen King's [[The Dark Tower]] is the child of {{spoiler|two full-blooded humans, one demon elemental who was turned human by [[Magitek]], and one [[Physical God]] who had at least one human ancestor and may be as much as half-human.}} [[It's a Long Story]].

** Also in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series, the Can-Toi, or the "low men" are half-human, half-taheen.

** One of the early [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] books has a crossbreed mechanic whose parentage is also never described, who admits to Han Solo that he's not wholly of either species and is relieved when Han is okay with that.

** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] is filled with hybrids, due to the large number of "[[Human Aliens|Near-Human]]" races, which aren't so much alien species as subspecies of humanity that descended from early space explorers who were cut off from the original human homeworlds thousands of years earlier, only to be rediscovered later. How far they diverge from regular humans varies; some just have [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|different skin colors]], while others have more extreme differences (the Miraluka, for example, have no eyes and see using [[The Force]] instead). On the other hand, species that ''aren't'' Near-Humans explicitly cannot interbreed with humans, no matter how human-like they appear to be.

** In "The Scarlet Citadel," the alleged [[Backstory]] of Tsotha-lanti

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'', Miranda learns that her mother was not who she thought she was, and therefore the demon that addressed a "nephilim" in her presence might have meant her.

* Meredith Gentry, in the series of the same name by Laurell K. Hamilton, is Unseelie Sidhe on her father's side and (I believe) human, brownie, and Seelie Sidhe on her mother's. In fact, about half the cast are hybrids, half-human or otherwise. This is to say nothing of her kids...

* The D'Artigo sisters of Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld series have a human mother and a fae father. Aditionally, Delilah was born with the powers of a werecat, and Menolly was turned into a vampire. Camille is a Moon Witch, but that's not exactly a species designation. Aditionally, it would seem that interbreeding is reasonably common since "ordinary" humans are referred to as FBH's. (Full Blood Humans)

* [[Bruce Coville]]'s book ''Half Human'' is a collection of short stories all about this trope. These half-human creatures range from the traditional to the unexpected, with just a few examples being a girl who discovers one morning that her hair has turned into snakes overnight and that her mother doesn't wear a turban all the time just for the [[Nice Hat]] factor, another girl who was conceived when her mother drank dragon blood and begins exhibiting dragon-like mannerisms and [[Body Horror|sprouting ridges on her back]] when she grows up, and a ''tree'' [[Humanity Ensues|transformed into a man who must learn how to be human]].

* In [[Arthur Machen]]'s ''[[The Great God Pan]]'', the character Helen Vaughan embodies this trope as played for [[Body Horror]].

* Hemi From [[Un Lun Dun]]. He's half ghost, although it's implied that it's extremely rare, and frowned upon by ghosts and humans, for such a pairing to occur.

* ''[[Fablehaven]]'' has Kendra who is part human,part fairy. Curiously this was because fairies [[It Makes Sense in Context|kissed her]]

* In Jacqueline Carey's ''The Sundering'', Ushahin Dreamspinner (one of [[Big Bad|Satoris's]] three [[The Dragon|lieutenants]] is half-human, half-Ellylon.

* In ''The [[Griffin's Daughter|Griffins Daughter]] Trilogy'', half-human/half-elves - like the title character, Jelena - are known as ''hikui'' among the elves, and are treated as second-class citizens, at best. Which is still far better than half-elves are treated in the (human-ruled) Soldaran Empire, where the local religion says elves are demons looking to steal human souls and half-elves are creatures of evil.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

*** Hybrids apparently have a much harder time dealing with their dual heritage than most of their friends and colleagues.

** Sarek rejected Spock for choosing to join Starfleet rather than the Vulcan Science Academy. [["Well Done, Son" Guy|They make up later]]. (If Sarek had actually had issues with humans, he wouldn't have married Amanda ''or'' had Spock.)

** Ensign Tarses (introduced as part-human, part-Vulcan) is the accidental victim of a witch-hunt on board the ''Enterprise''. Hounded by the over-zealous persecutor for a sabotage conspiracy, it ends up being revealed that the secret he's hiding has nothing to do with the sabotage. He lied to Star Fleet about his heritage to avoid persecution in the first place: his heritage isn't Vulcan, it's Romulan.

** This actually becomes a plot point in ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'': An enemy of the Federation is busy studying hybrids for hints as to how to make the perfect body so that one of their own can wear one and infiltrate {{spoiler|And it turns out it works, as either Nechayev was a hybrid all along, or she was kidnapped and a hybrid made to look like her infiltrated Starfleet.}}

** Aside from the Nazi-esque "pure demons" The Scourge, who claimed not to be hybrids, but weren't any more powerful or less humanoid than other demons.

** Connor is an interesting case. Both of his parents are vampires (who normally can't have kids, but [[A Wizard Did It|there was magic involved]]), but he seems human at first, though it's later revealed that he's part demon.

* There is [[Internet Backdraft|some debate]] over whether the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' TV movie on FOX was canon, and if the Doctor is in fact half-human, half-Gallifreyan, as was stated outright in that movie.

** There is also some debate over whether the statement was ''intended'' to be true, within the context of the movie...etc, etc....!

** Likewise, "Gridlock" included a cat man (supposedly evolved from humans) having children with a human women. They looked exactly like normal kittens.

*** [[Expanded Universe]] sources claim that the cat people evolved entirely independently of humans, on a different planet in a different galaxy, and just happen to be genetically compatible with humans (the offspring always being the species of the father).

* The existence of Cylon/human hybrid children is a central plot point of the rebooted ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'': There has been only one recorded case of a Cylon-Human hybrid. The other turned out to be a subversion, as although we were led to believe Nicholas Tyrol was one of these, turns out the mother had been with another man around the same time she got together with her eventual husband.

** The Finale reveals that {{spoiler|Hera is the Mitochondrial Eve, and thus a common ancestor of all modern humans. In addition, Baltar and Cottle discussed [[Boldly Coming|interbreeding with the natives]] of the second (our) Earth. This means that modern humans are actually a mix of Cylons and two types of human, while what the Colonials would call pure humanity is extinct.}}

** But also played perfectly straight as well, with D'Argo's son Jothee, and {{spoiler|John and Aeryn's baby}}.

**** It is revealed in the ongoing comic series (the ''D'Argo's Trial'' storyline) that Jothee's conception required assistance from an expert doctor.

*** It is rather ironic that Sebaceans, with their emphasis on genetic purity, were the only race that was shown to have hybrids with more than one species.

== Music ==

* The [[Mercedes Lackey]] song "[http://www.lackey.de/valdemar-songs-mis-comception.htm Mis-Conception]" is about a...somewhat drastic...instance of this.

 

 

== Mythology and Religion ==

* Other mythologies such as Greek are filled with the half-human children of gods and monsters as well. Zeus being particularly infamous, with upwards of 30 noted hybrids by mortal women, several of his hybrids ascending to the pantheon, such as Heracles and Dionysus. Even Judeo-Christian legend has Lilith's demonic children and the nephilim, the result of "unauthorized" human/angel relations.

** Of course, presumably, if you were a god, you could use some miracle to make it work out between yourself an a mortal, meaning that as silly as it sounds, this might actually be justified.

** Both Loki and Thor from [[Norse Mythology|Old Norse religion]] are half-Aesir half-Jotun hybrids - Loki on his father's side, Thor on his mother's.

*** Loki is full Jotun. His parents are the Jotuns Laufey and Farbauti. Odin himself is half-Jotun and half-Aesir...his father Bor was Aesir but his mother Bestla was a frost giant. Thus making Thor three quarters Jotun and one-quarter Aesir. Loki's children Narvi and Vali born of the Goddess Sigyn would qualify as half-Jotun and half-Aesir. Magni, Thor's son with the giantess Jarnsaxa would be seven eighths Jotun and one eighth Aesir.

* [[King Arthur|Merlin]] is traditionally depicted as the son of a woman (sometimes a witch, occasionally a nun) and an incubus. [[Distaff Counterpart|Or, sometimes, a man and a succubus]]. This is often given as an explanation for his magical and prophetic abilities. Modern interpretations of the legends vary significantly on Merlin's parentage.

** Pretty sure in both the Christian and non-Christianized versions of the Arthurian Tradition Merlin was depicted as something of a fey spirit. So, half fairy was more like it. See works like the Elfin Knight, which predates most of the Malory as we know today. In the ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]'' Merlin was depicted as born from a rather consensual experience. Try not to think about that too much.

** ... And if you want to go back to the source material with the myth of Myddrin and his sister, it's implied that they both have 'magical' heritage. However, the emphasis is more on Myddrin's far-reaching Sight than anything else.

** [[Mortasheen]] has an entire class of monsters based on this concept. But, given the nature of the series, you probably won't be surprised to learn that they're Brundlefly-style arthropod-human hybrids of about every notable insect one could think of.

* Series in the fantasy genre descended from Tolkien usually just use "half-elves", with the occasional half-orc, half-dwarf, half-minotaur (minotaurs themselfs in mythology being an example, see above.), etc.

** In addition, "Half-breed" could be both a race and a template. Half-Orc and Half-Elf were races, but Half-Dragon and Half-Fiend were templates that could be added on to any sentient race. Applying one to the other yields results like, "Half-Dragon-Half-Half-Orc". What would ''that'' family reunion be like?

*** Probably because dragons can take any humanoid form so it would depend on what form the dragon was in at the time of the breeding.

** In the ''[[Eberron]]'' campaign setting, half-elves have graduated into being a full-blown "race" in their own right. Their earliest ancestors were human aristocrats and elven opportunists looking for an inheritance from the short-lived humans (not knowing at the time that their species were mutually-fertile). Born into the aristocracy, these half-elves had an easier time marrying their own kind since noble marriages are typically limited to other nobles. Eventually they went on to become a true-breeding race and most modern half-elves are born to half-elven parents, with only a small minority coming from human/elf pairings. They have even developed two [[Power Tattoo|Dragonmarks]], which are generally unique to specific bloodlines within specific races, thus further cementing their perceived status as race unto themselves apart from elves and humans. Half-elves (or Khoravar as they like to call themselves) can still interbreed with humans and elves, as well as with the Kalashtar.

** Averted by [[Ravenloft]]'s "half-Vistani", as Vistani are simply a human ethnic minority, albeit with some unusual supernatural baggage. Averted differently by several [[Ravenloft]] monsters, including red widows and dread doppelgangers, which mate with humans but produce their own kind rather than hybrids.

** 2nd edition [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it with the Mongrelmen, a monster race that's said to be the result of centuries of cross-breeding and tend to have mismatched bits of fur, scales, hide, etc.

** 4th edition half-elves, gain bonuses that correspond to ''neither'' of their parents.

*** [[Humans Are Special]] - [[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law|in their pants]].

** [[Dragonlance]] also gave us such a creature as half-[[Fearless Fool|kender]] (!). Yes, half-''[[Curious as a Monkey|kender]]''.

*** In the third book of ''[[Spelljammer|The Cloakmaster Cycle]]'' one joins the crew and, [[Fun Personified|of course]], [[Hilarity Ensues]]. She "picked up" stuff out of curiosity as kenders do, but wasn't too distracted to remember where and ''put it back'' after examining. All this was pulled so well that instead of being a Sue Bomb she [[Ensemble Darkhorse|ended up praised]] as one of the best sidekicks ever and fan-preferred [[Love Interest]]. Later she was able to concentrate long enough to learn [[Psychic Powers|psionics]] (which in AD&D era implied above-average Intelligence and impressive Wisdom score, whether the teacher is an ancient supra-genius slug or not).

** That said, this trope is averted in Classic D&D, which has races as classes. An elf and a human can certainly start a family with each other if they wish, but the result of their union will be either an elf or a human.

** And then, [[Pathfinder]]. The following is a current (early 2012) list of things which have created bloodlines for sorcerers, meaning your ancestors interbred with them and you were born with innate magic: Aberrant (think Cthulhu Mythos like monsters), Abyssal (Demons or worse), Accursed (Hags), Proteans (chaos spirits), Aquatic (anything from sea elves to deep ones), Arcane (plain ol' [[A Wizard Did It]] - and how!), Boreal (giant & troll kin ala Norse Myth), Celestial (heavenly creatures), Deep Earth (earth spirits), several different kinds of genies and all four Western elemental types, Draconic, Fey, Infernal (Devils), Maestro (some musical monster from trumpet-wielding angels to shoggoths), Orc, Rakshasa (evil spirits of Buddhist myth), Serpentine (your friendly reptoids), Shadow (another dimension), Starsoul (spacefarers), Storm (unknown elemental spirits), [[I Love the Dead|Undead]], and Verdant (plants). It's probably better not to ask how some of those happened. There are even more bloodlines available from third party developers or for characters with unusual archetypes.

*** There's no rule that says such a sorcerer can't also belong to a race which is already a half-human hybrid. A dhampir (half human, half vampire) sorcerer could have an Abyssal bloodline and the half-celestial template. [[Special Snowflake Syndrome]] can really run amok here if a GM allows it to.

** The seventh expansion, ''Even More Good Cards'', gave us the Chimaera and One-Third-Breed cards. Does it make your brain hurt? It should.

*** The [[From a Certain Point of View|One-Third-Breed]] makes [[Insane Troll Logic|some sense]]. Say there's a half-human half-elf who has children with a full dwarf. Then you have a human-elf-dwarf.

** This might be an aversion regarding the Nazzadi hybrids, since Nazzadi are literally humans with very slightly altered DNA. It's similar to two humans with different color skin having kids.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has lots of these, but with a slight twist: God-Bloods, Fae-Bloods, Demon-Bloods, Beastmen, and Ghost-Bloods are actually significantly ''weaker'' than the "normal" races available for play. They're a step above ordinary humans, sure, but the titular Exalted outclass them by far. [[Squick|Beastmen]], by the way, are exactly what they sound like.

* [[Scion]]: Part of the premise.

** There was mention of a human/Eldar hybrid who became a chief librarian in Rogue Trader fluff. Rick Priestley himself has said that the 2 races are close enough genetically to interbreed to have viable offspring. Of course, what Eldar would bring itself so low as to mate with those filthy mon-keigh. And official Imperial policy is to, ahem, greet the Xenos [[Kill It with Fire|warmly.]]

** Since Retconned, however. Humans, Eldar, and Tau are humanoid. That's where the biological similarities end.

**** Given that the average Dark Eldar is a [[Complete Monster]] and the remainder are worse than that, "love" likely never enters the picture.

* Nearly every werewolf in ''[[Tabletop Game/Wereworlf The Forsaken|Werewolf : The Forsaken]]'' or ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' is the product of [[Interspecies Romance]] (or not romance, as the case may be), and ''all'' have some human or [[Squick|normal wolf]] in by two rungs of the family tree. In the [[Old World of Darkness]], the natural result of a werewolf-werewolf mating is deformed and sterile, so werewolves had to cruise the bars or the woods to propagate their species. In the [[New World of Darkness]], only werewolf-human mating produces living children, while a pair of werewolves bumping uglies end up with [[Fetus Terrible|spiritual Ghost Children]] trying to kill the mother. Hybrids that couldn't transform became the Kinfolk and Wolf-blooded of the respective games.

*** The [[New World of Darkness|NWOD's]] version of half-vampires turn up in ''Night Horrors: Wicked Dead'': Dampyr, the children of vampires and humans, walking curses on the Kindred. The presence of a Dampyr can utterly ruin a vampire's life, and the Dampyr may never realise what happened, because the effect they have on the Kindred is completely unconscious on their part.

** ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'' featured kinain, changeling-human hybrids whose closest claim to fame was not driving fae sane.

*** Changelings themselves were half-human hybrids, as they were the result of a fae soul merging with a human soul. The Dark Ages book contrasts changeling with fae by showing how... well, off some of the Good People could be.

*** Then there are "L'Enfant Diaboliques", the Lucifuge's [[Evil Counterpart|evil counterparts]] - they're the ones who chose to ''embrace'' their heritage...

* Averted in [[Shadowrun]], where the various metatypes (humans included) can breed freely with one another, but their offspring don't blend the traits of their parental strains. A child of different metatypes will have the type of its father, that of its mother, or (rarely) a completely different type. This is because metatypes are really more akin to breeds than separate species - elves and dwarves spontaneously began to show up in human births around 2010, while the first orcs and trolls were caused by a bizarre biological process called "Goblinization" that struck random humans shortly afterward.

 

== Theatre ==

* In [[The Elder Scrolls]] universe, the Bretons are a racial blend of men and Altmer (elves), a result of generations of humans being enslaved by elves. As a result, the Bretons have more skill with magic than any of the other humans races but lack the physical vulnerabilities of the elves.

** Also, Oblivion has a rare example in which a family descended from the union of man and dragon is actually worshipped and glorified; however, it makes perfect sense as the dragon in question is also the god Akatosh, and the current emperor is one of them.

** Similarly, Mileena is a half-Edenian, half-Tarkatan Mutant, though due to her nature as an artificial clone, she could arguably also be considered a [[Biological Mashup]].

** Finally, ''Mortal Kombat Armageddon'' protagonist/antagonist Taven and Daegon are half-Edenian, half God. Technically, Rain is also one, but that goes into [[Retcon]] territory.

* Even the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series falls into this;

** In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', Cecil and Golbez are half-human and half-Lunarian.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has Aerith, the last of the Cetra or "Ancients", who had a human father and a Cetra mother. According to Professor Hojo, she's 18% less Ancient-y than her mother.

** ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' had a typical villainous example in the form of Seymour, a half-human, half-Guado. Yuna was also half normal human, half Al Bhed, though Al Bhed are clearly just a human ethnic group with swirly pupils.

** The prejudice is also supported by the extremely rare birth of a type of monstrous asari variant from asari/asari mating. This variant kills anyone she mates.

* Samus Aran, the protagonist of the ''[[Metroid]]'' series of videogames, technically qualifies. Though born to human colonists, she was raised by a race of humanoid birds called the Chozo; at the age of three, she was genetically manipulated into a half-Chozo hybrid, to allow her to survive the harsh conditions of the Chozo colony world Zebes. Despite being a hybrid, the changes to her DNA haven't altered her appearance. It's pretty clear she's not entirely human when she can jump twice her own height outside of the Power Suit, though.

** One thing to note, however, is that instead of one body like most hybrids, Youmu's ghost half exists as a ''separate'' entity that follows her around. Kind of like a daemon in ''[[His Dark Materials]]''.

** Backstory also gives us Youki Konpaku, Youmu's half-ghost father. And that just raises further questions.

* A half-sepp, half-human appears in {{spoiler|Endorph's ending}} in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]''.

* Lilica (half-demon) and Konoha (half-dog) from ''[[Arcana Heart]]''.

** ''Warcraft'' also has half-elves, whose most famous example is the paladin Arator the Redeemer (the half-elven son of Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner).

* Dragonfable from Artix Entertainment gives us Nythera, a half dragon NPC. In a rather hilarious scene in one of her flashback quests, Nythera's parents, a human wizard and a dragon mother are sitting down at dinner. Said dinner is a ''live'' Chickencow (half chicken, half cow), and her mother is in ''dragon'' form about to devour it. Her father sees nothing unusual about this at all.

* Cade Masters from ''[[Twice Blessed]]'' is 3/4 human, 1/4 elf. (His father was a human and his mother a half-elf).

* Akaino Fenrir, from ''[[Academicon Ex Virtus]]'' As revealed in his character profile, Akaino's parents were a Mage and a Werewolf. Assuming Mages are human, that qualifies him for this trope.

** Also her "brothers" Guineas, Hedge, and [[Gender Bender|Vlad/Vladia]].

* In ''Triquetra Cats'', the Soricha family has an :adopted" sister named Vyolette who is half demon. Vyolette was raised by Ariel Soricha after Ariel was contracted to kill Vyolette's demon father.

* In the webcomic ''Errant Story'', half-elves are often magically powerful, but prone to [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]], provoking a war of near-extermination by the elves in the distant past.

** And the whole reason that the Errants were formed was because it was found that Elves could breed more easily with Humans than with other Elves for some unknown reason. It was only decades later that Errants suddenly started going bad at random.

*** Part of the appeal for a human lover was that elves idolized the concept of losing a lover before you grew tired of each other, so you could remember them for how much you loved them. Humans, with their comparatively short life spans, were very well suited for this.

* {{spoiler|Veser}} in [[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]] is the child of a human and a selkie.

* And then there's ''[[Kevin and Kell]]''. The central family is itself several mixed species, and while the setting has a bias against [[Interspecies Romance|interspecies romances]], it really is more inter-diet relationships (carnivore vs herbivore vs insectivore). As far as strict species goes...

** Corrie Dewclaw, Rudy's ... cousin, I guess. Half grey wolf, half sheep. Lives and looks like a sheep, but don't get her mad.

*** Yes, she's Rudy's cousin. Corrie's father Ralph and Rudy's mother Kell are brother and sister.

*** Turns out, {{spoiler|he's human, due to Danielle being originally human. Lindesfarne theorizes the same would happen to her children.}}

** And there's some minor mixes, like a half-moth half-firefly who orbits himself, or the illicit baby between a turtle and a weasel. Confused yet?

** There is a bit of a subversion though: as revealed on Lindefarne's blog, {{spoiler|human genes are dominant -- no matter what the offspring of a human or former-human relationship looks like at birth they will always become completely human within a few months}}. This is based off of the discredited theory that people "evolve" from single-celled organisms, to fish, to reptiles, to mammals, to monkeys, and so-forth, ''all while they're still in the womb'', but what the hell, certainly makes for a few interesting plot points.

** Now she's grown wings... but they're hilariously tiny and useless. Her demon mom is embarrassed.

** Also Jyrras, whose father is a pureblood Kangaroo Rat, but his mother is only half that... the ''[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_327.php first]'' half.

* The genetic cocktail that spawned Molly and Galatea in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' did contain some human DNA, albeit not much. In fact, {{spoiler|it was Jean's, making her their biological mother, just "a little bit."}}

* ''[[The Challenges of Zona]]'' has Ginsha, a half human/half [[Lizard Folk|Urrt]] woman. There's also a Snake Clan among the [[Proud Warrior Race|Erogenians]] many of whom have varying degrees of Urrt blood

* [[MSF High]]: Most demi humans are these on varying human to animal ratio's with domestic's being on the human end of the scale and martials being on the animal end.

* [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=84608 Dolly Bird] and [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=115038 G-Nat] from [[Everyday Heroes]] are both half-human genetically engineered beings. They are two of the few successful experiments by their creator/father, the [[Shout-Out|Somewhat-Below-Average Evolutionary]].

* In [[Juathuur]], Thoss and Thlassa are half-solluu (fish people) and half-juathuur (humans with powers).

* [[A Magical Roommate]] has an interesting example in the case of X and Alexis. Their mother, who was born a black fairy, shapeshifted to a human form she kept for her pregnancy... well, for the most part. This has made the twins roughly ninety-eight percent human and two percent fairy.

* The amorphs from ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' are capable of creating offspring with any species, although the children are identical to normal amorphs. An offer to make children to Breya by Schlock causes a lot of [[Squick]] reactions, but although she turns him down, they are able to talk about it in friendly terms after the humans realize amorph reproduction doesn't involve sex.

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' {{spoiler|Antimony is part [[Elemental Embodiment|Fire Elemental]].}}

* In ''[[Trying Human]]'', 6 seems to be an artifically engineered human-Grey hybrid. [[Berserk Button|Although...]]

{{quote|'''Roger:''' So you're half and half then?

'''6:''' ''[http://www.tryinghuman.com/comic.php?strip_id{{=}}311 I'm not HALF anything!]'' }}

* In ''[[Accidental Centaurs]]'', the two main characters appear to be half-human/half-equine beings.

* Mara from [[Elf Blood]] is half dark elf, half human. According to TKO, there aren't that many half-elves, most likely to do with the hidden nature of the elves.

** Carlita Delacroix is also half-human. Her other half is feline spirit incarnum (fleshy forms of natural spirits).

* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', {{spoiler|Shelly is a human/sphinx hybrid. This gives her most of the powers of a sphinx, but with a human lifespan.}}

* ''[[Fans]]!'' deconstructs the trope with Zaha, an engineering student who was merged with her pet cat in a freak accident, and ended up a [[Catgirl]]. She has to take several kinds of medicine daily just so her body can function, and [[I Just Want to Be Normal|longs for humanity]]. {{spoiler|Eventually she exchanges bodies with a member of [[Furry Fandom]], who is thrilled.}}

* Wyrmspawn in ''[[Wizard School]]'' is a half-dragon, half-human hybrid leading the Dragonkin.

* Keti of [[Footloose (webcomic)|Footloose]] is half human, quarter werewolf and quarter nymph.

 

== Web Original ==

** Ben and Gwen's grandmother was an Anodite, making them only three quarters human.

** {{spoiler|Kevin.}}

{{quote|'''Warden:''' What has gotten ''into'' the inmates?

'''Alice''': Looks like a whole lot of bird dick. }}

* Roxy of ''[[Winx Club]]'' is a half fairy; {{spoiler|Queen Morgana is her mother}}.

** Then again, there are no male fairies, so there may not be such thing as a "half fairy."

** It has to be noted though that no breeding between ghosts and humans was involved: the former two were both results of [[Freak Lab Accident|lab accidents]], and the latter was cloned.

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Kif has (accidental) half-(mutant) human/half-Amphibiosan children with Leela. No, [[Mister Seahorse|Leela didn't get pregnant]].

* One Halloween episode in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' revolved around Maggie's real father being an alien.

* An episode of ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' involved a [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Twi'lek]] woman and her two half-human, half-twi'lek children as major characters, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|inadvertently validating]] ''decades'' of Star Wars [[Fetish Fuel]].

 

== Other ==

* [[Limyaael's Fantasy Rants|Limyaael]] discusses these in her [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/152437.html half-breed heroes] rant.

 

 

* It's possible that very early in human history, other species of proto-humans (think Neandertals, but not quite) interbred with humans. The human species as we know it eventually out-competed all other variants, though.

** Actually, there is very strong evidence that homo sapiens did mate with Neandertals and a significant portion of non-African people's genomes are of Neandertal origin [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/science/07neanderthal.html\].

* There was a Russian scientist in the early 20th century who attempted to create a Humanzee, but apparently none of his experiments panned out & his funding was eventually cut.

** Interesting that in all accounts of trying to inseminate human women with ape sperm, the ape always happen to die shortly before the scheduled date.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Transformation Causes]]

[[Category:Stock Characters]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]

[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]