View source for Post:Races: Crossbreeding - 9/8/2009 - 20:00:23

{{Post
|a=DR-ARMIFER
|t=Re: Races: Crossbreeding
|d=9/8/2009 8:00:23 PM
|n=2016
|f=The Races of DragonRealms (12) \ General Discussions - Races (3)
|c=r
|p=There's more to race than genetics. In fact, that's probably the least important element when I speak as a social scientist.

Someone's daddy is an {{PRel|Elf}} and mommy is a {{PRel|Human}}. Is it a Half-Elf? Well... biologically? Not as far as anyone can tell. Maybe there's some recessives floating in the mix or "elf blood" or whatever, but that's a level of understanding of life that [[Empath]]s and [[Necromancer]]s don't have access to. Far as the setting is concerned, it's one way or the other with no exceptions.

That isn't everything, though. Does his father's extended family ignore him, realizing he's likely as not to die before a "real" child would hit puberty? Hell, does his father feel the same way? Do the other kids in his hamlet, who know nothing about these high faluffon concepts, expect him to shoot fireballs out of his eyes? Is it an easy way to insult him when you're drunk and searching for a rock to throw? Does there happen to be a messiah-figure in the setting that, coincidentally, is strongly identified as being part of an inter-species couple?

Just because we say, resolutely, you cannot be a Human with suspicious ears and an extra-long lifespan does not mean there isn't a story to tell, if you are willing to give up the generic fantasy interpretation of a half-elf for something more sociological.

-[[Armifer]]
|sub=Gor'Tog,Rakash,Prydaen,Elothean,Gnome,Halfling,Dwarf,Kaldar
}}