Interspecies Romance/Tabletop Games/Dungeons & Dragons: Difference between revisions

** In the Basic editions of D&D where elves were a class rather than a race, [[Interspecies Romance]] between a human and an elf typically resulted in either a human or an elf, much like in Tolkien's world.

** Eberron gives a very reasonable explanation to why half-elves are a race, and lays down specific rules for half-elves and their offspring (half-elves breed true, elves and half-elves always have half-elf children, and a half-elf/human pairing has an equal chance of producing a half-elf or human). When the elves first started trading with humans, they realized that humans were very short-lived and could die in a matter of ''decades''. Some elves decided it would be good business to marry wealthy human merchants, enjoy the relationship for a few decades, and then inherit sizeable holdings. It [[Did Not Do the Research|didn't even occur to the elves that half-human/half-elf offspring were viable]], and when half-human children started being born [[Fantastic Racism|the elvish nation restricted trade and closed its borders out of fear]]. However, all of the newly born half-elves were born into rich families, and most of the elven parents stayed around to raise their children, so half-elves came to occupy a nice section of upper/middle-class society in Khorvaire and make "Khorvar" villages on their ancestral land holdings.

* Daddy, where do half-[[Our Orcs Are Different|orcs]] come from?

** At least some stories do show half-orcs that came from consenting parents. The ''[[Planescape]]'' setting had at least one half-orc character whose parents were a genuinely loving human/orc couple (male human, female orc). There was also the ''[[Dungeon (magazine)|Dungeon Adventures]]'' module "Rudwilla's Stew" where the villains were three half-orcs and their human mother, who was a moderately powerful wizard. One of the brothers kept the skull of their father in a trunk in his bedroom, but no clue other than that was given as to how he was killed.

** In fact, orcs likely have the most unstable genetic structure of all humanoid beings. One source claims that can crossbreed with almost any humanoid race except for elves, and have done so with goblins, dwarves, and gnomes, as well as humans. Two well-known half-orc species that don't involve a human parent are orogs (which is the result of male orc and a female ogre, and somehow smarter than its parents and much more disciplined than either) and an ogrillion (a rarer creature that occurs with the same two species, but the genders of the parents reversed; more stupid than both parents and, somehow, armored).

* Derro and all Gith subraces are results of slave breeding by illithids.