Fantasy Genetics of Half Humans

I have a question with no relevence or real purpose but I wanted to ask the PNP D&D world to see if this has ever been addressed.

If you cross a horse and an donkey, you get a mule. Mules are sterile. You can't mate two mules to get more mules. Is it the same with Half-orcs and Half-elves?

If so wouldn't that make them rarer and not really a "race" since it can't be propagated. If they are not sterile can they mate with other humans, elves, or orcs to get 1/4 or 3/4 varities of those "races".

Also do half elves and half orcs always have to be half human? Can a character be half orc and half elven?

Finally, what about dwarves? No messing around outside their race?

Just curious which might be disturbing in itself. Happy breeding.

 

Apparently, same spacies, different breed. Geographical diiferences produce great variation among humans.

In addition, some of these are produced by 'magic'. Orcs are supposed to to be monsterous elves, even though the game considers them 'goblinoid'. Thieflings are supposed to be part demon, part human, which raises a LOT of questions.

To consider the other question: Why play a half dwarf when you can play a dwarf?

 

In monty python's meaning of life, there's a scene of fish with human faces in a fish tank talking. Anything is possible. Life finds a way.

There's some pretty hot trout out there.

 

Depends on the fantasy setting, I guess. In most D&D-based worlds, 1/2 elves and 1/2 orcs are not sterile and can breed with either of their progenitor races, but the resultant 3/4 breeds share all characteristics of the majority race (except for maybe some minor appearance traits.)

But in one of my favorite fantasy series, The Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenburg, cross-breeding is possible, but the offspring are sterile like mules. There is at least one example of a human-dwarf hybrid in the novels that I can recall (probably been 15 years since I read the series.)

 

From my knowledge of various in-game D&D race descriptions I conclude that GuardianAngel82 is right and

- "races" in D&D are NOT species.
- "races" in D&D are like real human races.

So
African + Caucasian = Mulate (A fully able human in his (or her) own right, who could interbreed without limitations)
Human + Elf = Half-Elf (A fully able fantasy character, who could interbreed freely.)

Of course, there is a question of WOULD a half-elf mate with an orc or not...

As a side note I must add, that it is possible to get a hybrid of two different species, which would not be sterile and which could mate with others like it.

The matter is to get a cell with two full sets of chromosomes.

In most cases every parent provides only one of its every pair of chromosomes to the child.

So, if parents are of different species, child's chromosomes do not have pairs and meiosis can not occur (that is when cell doubles, but chromosomes do not).

But if we somehow manage to get a hybrid with two full chromosomes sets, each chromosome gets a pair from its species.

So it would be possible for half-orcs to interbreed even if humans and orcs were different species, but only if half-orcs had double chromosome sets.

 

half-dwarves are Muls (as in the Darksun games for instance) and are sterile.

 

I wonder if that happens nowadays in our society. If someone who's not a midget decides to marry a midget, or more likely, just "date" a midget, is their get mules?

 

No, all of the the children have normal fertility, with a mix of sizes. So perhaps dwarfism is recessive. It's definitely rare.

Apparently, D&D dwarves are a separate species then.

 

Hi
I should point out that Midgets and Dwarfs in our world are two entirely different types of people. If I remember correctly, Midgets are people you are smaller than normal but are perfectly proportional, whereas Dwarfs are smaller than normal, and are not always proportional (an adult dwarf might have a head the same size as a "full size" human or longer than normal fingers). If I remember correctly, they used Midgets in the filming of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Return of the Jedi" (they were the Ewoks). I seem to recall hearing that the Midgets that were the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi" might be the last midgets ever, because if given Human Growth hormone when they are young, they can grow to almost "normal" height.
The Royal Canadian

 

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! This cannot be borne! I want our hobbits to stay the way they are, dammit! Don't mess with Mother Nature!

 

I agree. But, I was referring specifically to dwarfism, where, to over-simplify, the bones don't seem to gain full length.

I'm not sure exactly what a 'midget' is, or if it is one thing, or if it is inherited.

 

I seem to recall that dwarfs though mis-proportioned are fertile, while midgets are properly proportioned but tiny and gernerally infertile. General Tom Thumb was a famous midget, the little fellas in Time Bandits are dwarves.
The march of science has probably made this nugget of wisdom obselete.

 

If you can breed an orc with an ogre, then you can breed a half-orc with a half-helf. And assides, they are both half human.

 

(copied from Wikipedia )

" A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse species...a mule is easier to obtain than hinny (the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey). All male mules and most female mules are infertile."

So would the offspring be different if the races of the parents were flip flopped?

 

I'm not sure which game you mean, but DnD 3.5 certainly doesn't.

Also, they're seen mostly as "races" than as "species". Except that they're distinguished by features not present in real humans.

Except Half-Ogres, I guess. Half-Ogres in Arcanum were specially bred, all male, and indeed sterile. But then again, Arcanum isn't DnD, and Half-ogres aren't even common to DnD at all.