What are /tg/'s thoughts on Half-Elves as a race?
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What are?
What are /tg/'s thoughts on Half-Elves as a race?
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I always fluff my worlds the way Elder Scrolls does it, where there are no half-races and children are always the same race as the mother. It's not because I hate half-elves, it's because I don't want to have to deal with That One Guy who wants to make a half-elf-half-dwarf or half-gnome-half-goliath or some other weird combo that doesn't already have stats.
Half-elves, mechanically speaking, are fine. I just make them another sub-race of elves though.
This isn't quite worthy of "fpbp", but largely yeah.
Technically Elder Scrolls has Bretons, literal half-elves, but they were made over literal centuries of crossbreeding, intentional eugenics, and quite possibly intentional magical frickery.
Otherwise, yeah. This is how I handle it too. It's the cleanest answer to give in a D&D type setting that would otherwise have too many combinations to count.
Nah, they were not. Bretons are the result of Altmer men taking nede concubines in such a level that it left a genetic mark on the Breton race. There is no evidence that any magical shenanigans were happening here.
It's also important to remember that (according to lore at least, games are another matter) Bretons are supposed to actually look like elfie enough to the point the first Nords to make contact with them could tell they were actually human at first and only stopped instinctively slaughtering the civilians of the town they had just attacked when they noticed they could speak human languages.
>Bretons are supposed to actually look like elfie
Personal theory, but I like to imagine that it was much more pronounced back in the day, but over time, Bretons have grown to hate their elfen ancestry and they tried to leave that heritage behind them, making more humanly looks more appealing among them.
Pretty sure I've read accounts that Bretons were proud of their ancestry at some point and later hated it.
But of course, it all could just come down to Bethesda being lazy and all that.
Bretons aren't half elves, they're humans with distant elven blood.
Think Aragorn and the Numenoreans.
Elves already tends to be just humans with pointy ears. Maybe better vision or dexterity.
Half-Elves are likely just humans.
At that point, it's better to just do as
The elf name for Bretons is literally "man-elf". The Thalmor prosecute other elves for racial impurity. Guess what the impure part is. Far from no half-elves, in Elder Scrolls every elf might have a little human admixture and vice versa. Maybe not Redguards, though.
>Thalmor prosecute other elves for racial impurity
Because of wonky Kirkbirdian metaphysics, a kid is always born the same race as his mother. It took generations of interbreedings for Bretons to accept Mer traits into their racial makeup. That part is just Todd wanting to make "Nazi" type enemy rather than militant gnostics at war with Creation, which is infinitely more bases, but would fly over Western audience's head.
No it's because they're racist so having a human father anywhere in your family tree makes you impure and not worthy of life.
There is evidence to suggest that Clan Direnni bred Bretons deliberately to be a better slave race than the humans they had enslaved. Smart enough to do "middle management" in their kingdoms, but not actually as magically adept as they were.
Jokes on them, magic resistance is a hell of a powerful racial ability in the TES universe. I'm not sure if Breton's developing magic resistance was part of the plan, but they're still now around and the Direnni aren't, sooo...
I think there's like one family of Direnni elfs left, they're vassals of the king of High Rock and live in one of the towers.
>the way Elder Scrolls does it, where there are no half-races and children are always the same race as the mother
Kind reminder that Racial Philogeny is bullshit.
> Hey guys, for this next campaign we're going to be using a quick house rule for races
> Different races are genetically incompatible and cannot interbreed
> The sole exception is humans, who can breed with elves or orcs to create half elves and half orcs
> If a Half Elf breeds with an Elf, the offspring is an Elf
> If a Half Orc breeds with an Orc, the offspring is an Orc
> If either breed with a human, the offspring is a human with physical features mildly reminiscent of their non-human parent (a half elf and human child will look like Carey Mulligan when she was in Drive, a half orc and human child will look like a hungover Ron Pearlman)
There, problem solved.
this. my setting just considers half-elves a type of elf, who are not as magically affluent as regular elves, thus their "half" moniker.
Half-orcs similarly are essentially hobgoblins as they aren't what people consider to be goblin nor orc, so they appear to be "half" of something.
Just started DMing a campaign, this was one of my rules. No half breeds. However, I do just dislike half breeds.
Any half breeds that are around are results of curses, magical frickery, or homunculi.
At which point does it become a half breed for you?
Like sub-race "half-breeds" are okay (like shield dwarf/gold dwarf, or any kind of elf with each other?)?
Half-X, Half-Y makes a half breed.
Sub races are still the same race. A Gold Dwarf, Shield Dwarf pairing would be more like Half Xi, Half Xii.
Half breeds should be genetic dead ends like Ligers or Mules if they exist at all.
Half-elves are not a race. They are basically just rootless race-mixed degenerate individuals that belong in no world, and should be pitied.
leave moron
I mean, that is how Half Elves are described almost word for word in every setting I can think of.
Makes no sense. It's already diluting the barely noticeable difference between humans and elves. The only reason they exist is because of Tolkien who added them for narrative reasons alone.
Tolkien elves are distinctly different from Tolkien humans. Tolkien half-elves are either elves or long-lived (for humans) humans with the path for the earlier half-elf generations generally depending upon which path they themselves choose but, for later generations, depending upon the path chosen by their ancestors. In his stories half-elf is little more than a title of parentage.
Half-elf is not a description of their major characteristics which is why Elros Half-elven and Elrond Half-elven are both half-elves but Elros was essentially human while Elrond was essentially elven, as were Elrond's children before Arwen chose the fate of Men. Tolkien didn't say what choice the other two children of Elrond made.
>or long-lived (for humans) humans
None of them lived particularly long because of their elfen ancestry, that's a different gift from the gods entirely.
>None of them lived particularly long because of their elfen ancestry, that's a different gift from the gods entirely.
I think you're confusing the gift to the Numenoreans with the choice of and gift to Elros. This is the passage about the Numenoreans getting long life.
>To the Fathers of Men of the three faithful houses rich reward also was given. Eonwe came among them and taught them; and they were given wisdom and power and life more enduring than any others of mortal race have possessed.
A page or so later this is about Elros and his family.
>And Elrond chose to remain with the Firstborn, and to him the life of the Firstborn was granted. But to Elros, who chose to be a king of Men, still a great span of years was allotted, many times that of the Men of Middle-earth; and all his line, the kings and lords of the royal house, had long life even according to the measure of the Numenoreans. But Elros lived five hundred years, and ruled the Numenoreans four hundred years and ten.
He and his descendants were given long life in excess of the Numenoreans specifically because he was half-elven and was allowed to choose the fate of Elf or Man.
Arwen herself died about 120 years after becoming mortal. She did not descend from the Numenoreans so her extended life span is definitely nothing to with the gift of long life given to the Fathers of Men.
>But to Elros, who chose to be a king of Men, still a great span of years was allotted
Yeah, same with the Númenóreans. He was given that (allotted) by the gods, not because he was a half-elf that chose human destiny.
Why cant a pc or npc then have the race for narrative reasons too?
>It's already diluting the barely noticeable difference between humans and elves
Going by archaic mythology they de facto are barely different
>The only reason they exist is because of Tolkien
As a fantasy maybe, but going by archaic inspiration half elves are not a new thing at all
I don't really care, I just like cute girls with delicate features and lickable ears.
I don't like when they're portrayed as Human+ in most regards yet still play the "woe is me, for I don't fit in with humans or elves" card. But I'm not otherwise offended.
>woe is me, for I don't fit in with humans or elves
You ever seen a hapa? Closest thing to a half-elf that exists IRL.
I myself am a hapa
Then you know what it is like to not belong fully to either race. It's almost worse than being gay.
the real master race Eurasian supremacy
It's pretty much the same thing as the classic half-orc/tiefling "nobody trusts me because I look like a monster" thing. Technically it's supposed to be a common story, but I swear I've almost never seen it play out in a campaign.
Should have never become a player race. Full elves or humans is all you need. Marks elves as the race "that fricks humans", which is awful enough, and no, please don't bring up Tolkien as counterargument. Often don't even occupy a good mechanical niche (aside from pathfinders and D&D 5e's charisma "diplomcatic race", I guess).
Don't even get me started on making this a core race but then shying away from every other potential combination, outside of half-orcs (another topic entirely).
Overall, a dumb sacred cow that needs some slaughtering.
>shying away from every other potential combination
Great point as well, we have actual dwarves in real life that are essentially exactly the same as they are shown in any game or book or what have you, but there is never any indicating that they can interbreed with humans. Why not? The difference between an orc and a human is way bigger than the difference between a dwarf and a human.
>two people incorrectly claim pathfinder gives HElf a cha bonus
in both editions they have the same ability score increases as humans
>no source when looking up picture
>it's a new commission by Puckee21
Of course it is, accompanied by a non-game specific question
>a non-game specific question
You mean all of /tg/?
This isn't even the only site he spams with "let's have tangentially related at best discussion while you look at my cheesecake art".
What's your SA account name?
>accompanied by a non-game specific question
That's just every elf thread.
Really moronic concept, as are half orcs. You're either a human or an elf or an orc. If an orc rapes a human, you get an orc at best and more likely you get nothing, a stillbirth, or some other disgusting abomination. If an elf fricks a human, you shouldn't get a baby at all, but if you are going that way, their baby would be one or the other, probably an elf or whatever the mom was. Also moronic from a purely genetic standpoint that a human should be able to breed with an orc, which is not even close to the same thing, as if they are somehow the same species. It only makes sense if it's monster logic as I mentioned above, but instead it's treated in DnD and Pathfinder lore as if they're essentially the same thing and they always breed true like a mulatto in the real world. Really takes the wind out of both orcs and elves as concepts.
>I don't know frick all about genetics but it sounds scientific and that gives me credibility when I go on my dipshit rants
>as if they are somehow the same species
If they can breed viable offspring then it that setting they are the same species.
Number one, no that's not true. Most canines can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, and yet they make up several species, including dogs, wolves, foxes, dingoes, etc. Even if they were the same species, that's obviously moronic.
Buddy the literal scientific definition of a species is when it no longer successfully breeds with another population IN THE WILD. You're talking about artificial circumstances where humans overcome prezygotic barriers with our meddling, and even after that point, most of the canines you listed actually can't interbreed with each other. Foxes will never produce fertile offspring with wolves. You couldn't have picked a worse example to make your point, actually. Since I know you won't bother if I post up biology textbooks, here's a wikipedia link so you can be less pretentious in the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canid_hybrid
>Buddy the literal scientific definition of a species is when it no longer successfully breeds with another population IN THE WILD.
nta but just wanted to say, please don't waste anyone's time with that "the literal scientific definition of a species" nonsense because there is no THE literal scientific definition of a species.
That definition does not work for extinct dinosaurs, like pretty much every non-avaian dinosaur, or other paleo-organisms which are very much grouped into species despite no one actually knowing if they could breed or not, in the wild or otherwise, due to them not having been alive for mega-annum.The definition you're insisting is "the literal scientific definition" also doesn't work for viruses, asexually reproducing organisms, or ring species where it's not all at all clear where to draw the line of mutual (non-)interbreedability.
>The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is a domesticated species of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), along with the dingo (Canis familiaris). Therefore, crosses between these species are biologically unremarkable and not a hybridization in the same sense as an interbreeding between different species of Canidae.
>Coydogs (the offspring of a male coyote and a female domestic dog) are naturally occurring red or blond color variations of the coyote and feral dogs.
>Hybridization between gray wolves and coyotes has long been recognized both in the wild and in captivity.
>Three golden jackal-dog hybrids from Croatia. The discovery of these specimens confirmed that hybridization between the two canids occurs in the wild, and that the two have unlimited fertility with each other.
All of these quotes come directly from the article you just linked, you embarrassing dipshit.
Thank you for admitting you have no critical thinking and just skimmed the wiki article. It makes things a lot easier.
I've read about this concept extensively as it relates to hominids and canids, and have read that entire article multiple times. Care to explain how the article you posted doesn't completely blow your own argument out of the water when you just said that if two organisms bear fertile offspring between each other in the wild, they are the same species? Wanna move the goalposts again? Wanna address how your "literal scientific definition" doesn't apply to asexual organisms?
So you're going to ignore that there isn't consensus on if the couple canines that can interbreed are even different species in the first place so you can get angrier and say more stupid shit. What a fun game we're playing, mister buzzword.
You can't figure out what your own point is, you fricking mongoloid.
>Me: It's obviously moronic that such different creatures can interbreed, as if they are literally biologically the same species, rather than using monster (fantasy) logic.
>You: If they can interbreed, they're the same species.
>Me: No, that's not true. There are several species that interbreed and generate fertile offspring that are different species.
>You: Uhh, I meant they have to do it in the wild, I guess.
>Me: All the examples I already mentioned do it in the wild. Anyways, what about asexually reproducing species? Your definition obviously does not account for them. Your only choice is to move the goalposts once again.
>UHHH, actually those aren't different species maybe? Yeah sure, whatever.
Absolutely pathetic. First of all, they are widely accepted to be different species. Scientists are not going to suddenly say wolves are the same as foxes are the same as coyotes are the same as domesticated dogs anytime soon. That would completely undermine the useful purpose of classifying animals into species. You're grasping at straws.
Secondly, all of this is irrelevant because we're talking about fantasy fiction, so biological logic doesn't have to, and in my opinion absolutely shouldn't, be in effect. That was my original point in the first place, so this whole conversation was utterly pointless except in helping you to understand the following: You aren't smart, you're just an arrogant butthole.
Oops, sorry anon.
Meant for this jackass
>Oops, sorry anon
It's pic related. That other guy is being silly isn't he.
Viruses aren't alive, idiot.
Wow great job, you called out one individual thing in the dude's two paragraph post, completely ignoring the actual point which disproves what you insisted was true.
It's nice every once in a while to read a post that shows the person who wrote it has a brain and can use it.
Totally fricking irrelevant. I didn't claim they were alive, I didn't claim there weren't, that you'd bring it up at all just points to you not having a clue what's being discussed.
Viruses are classified into species. The "breeding with another population in the wild" definition doesn't apply to them which is why I included them as a counter-example proving the non-universality of that proposed definition.
Thanks. I'm impressed I broke it down so quickly too.
Viruses have species in the chemical sense, not the biological. You're getting bent out of shape because of homonyms.
>Viruses have species in the chemical sense, not the biological. You're getting bent out of shape because of homonyms.
You're again ignoring that you said there was one scientific definition for species, you're backpedalling to say that the meaning of species is different depending upon context which is admitting that your definition was wrong, you're again focussing on one statement about viruses ignoring that I was so fricking inarguably right on everything else in a vain attempt to misdirect away from your wrongness, you're wasting time saying that viruses are species in the chemical sense when chemists have their own definition for chemical species, and viruses are the province of biology and I was right to include them.
I'm done, not worth any more of my time arguing with someone who insists upon acting so stupid.
Great post, absolutely loving destroying this moron with you.
You've been wrong every time you've posted this thread. Stop embarrassing yourself. Have some shame.
An opinion that is generally agreed upon but not universally so
Again, no that's not true. Many organisms that don't reproduce sexually at all are still classified into species via genetic markers and other criteria. And those canine species I mentioned absolutely have reproduced in the wild, so I'm not sure where you're making that up from.
Ehh, I'm gonna call bullshit on this one. First of all muh realism argument can go get fricked in our magical fantasy land anyway, but in the real world hybrid animals do freaking exist anon. They themselves are (usually) sterile but they exist and some like mules (donkey and horse) been bred purposefully by humans because they have advantages of both their parents, just like fantasy half-things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)
But second I think Half-Orcs are actually interesting. Half-elves are always a bit fricking awkward. "Oh yeah my dad is a farmer, and my mom is Shadewind, 1000 year old Queen of the land of always Late Autumn. They met at a party. Not sure why dad was there honestly." It ends up just seeming like elves want a cheap frick or can't say no to BHC (best human courtship).
Half-Orcs make orcs scarier. They're fricking mongols raping and pillaging, here be proof. Half-Orcs being the result of friction between humans and orcs gives them a more interesting back story. But theyre also more dynamic characters. Half-orcs can actually rise in the brutal but meritocratic orc society, orcs recognize the human side adds something and that they can use their brains to get shit done. While you can have the counterpart in human society being sidelined and hated and a good source of a criminal underclass or thug.
On half-elves, I think I'd only want them if the game system basically says that roleplaying elves is beyond people or doesnt make sense because elves are all hundreds or thousands of years old and a level 1 elf doesn't really make sense 99% of the time. Otherwise I'd want to make them the human race with a modified background.
There's only two thoughts about half-elves. Either they're a metaphor for being mixed-race in the real world and all that implies, or they're just a cheap way to get mechanics from multiple templates. People don't tend to realize they're doing the former, like most of the posters in this thread.
Half-elves are an import from Tolkien, but they weren't a race in so much as a very exception of a human/elf pairing that Big Daddy God himself, who is usually not involving himself in mortal affairs because he respects their free will, had to ask them if they want to be human or elf.
Usually played by girls as rangers with wolf companions.
Yup; it's adventuring time.
In Pozzfinder and 5e, where HE get a CHA bonus, they're usually sorcerers, paladins, bards, or paladin/sorcerers.
Every IRL female player I have ever played with (at least in D&D) has played a full-blooded elf, or a tiefling. There is no in-between.
Is that an Ohmes khajiit?
I've seen some girls play halflings and compulsively describe them as "smol" or "gremlin". But yeah, never seen a girl play a dwarf.
That sounds alot more like "girls" than girls.
Nah, they were actual chicks. The couple "girls" that I've shared a table with almost exclusively played tieflings and elves/half-elves.
Anon when was the last time you shared a room with a woman
The police said I'm not allowed to share rooms with women anymore.
You imagine women would be ashamed of using such words like a man would. They aren't.
One simply possesses the knowledge
It can plainly be inferred.
Half-elves should have the niche of high elves, while full elves have the niche of wood elves.
Vestigial artifact from Tolkien that add little and bring weird implications.
2e/3e Faerûnian Half Elves that have emotionally stunted development for humans and grow and develop way to fast for elves, and thus fit in in neither society, except in rare areas like Aglarond where there is no longer an elf population and there's a distinct half-elf civilization, are kind of neat - but it brings up all sorts of weird questions of why they can crossbreed at all.
I you want an elf-human crossbreed, it should require a wizards lab and magic genetic engineering to artificially create the hybrids, like if you wanted to cross a dog with a shark.
I don't like most half races because they are often a vector for Mary Sue type bullshit and depending on who is writing them, a way to exaggerate and exalt either humanity or the non-human race, or by portraying the half breed as being superior to both its parent races for one reason or another.
Elves are already human enough; we don't need "elves, but even more human".
Half elfs are classic fantasy and are based.
Of course a slop slurper would think that garbage is good.
What distinguishes that bit of slop from a full elf?
She's a half-drow. She has lighter skin and shorter ears than drows, her hair is hay blonde instead of platinum blonde, and her eyes are brown as opposed to red or purple.
>drow
>brown
>"blonde"
Okay
well, data-mining corporate shill, I don't mind them existing, but not as a separate playable race; that's just excessive
same with half-orcs
in my own setting, I just have humans, elves, orcs
I don't even bother with "well I want to play a half (whatever)"; I just say "well pick one of those races and say you're a half-breed"
You're a fricking idiot.
I wish. You seem happier.
I'm fine with crossbreeding, but it's honestly such a boring concept that they may as well just be full elves. At least cause the result of human-elf hybrids to be radically different from both parents, not just diet elves.
Like imagine if half-elves were in tune with the ecology of cities like how regular elves were in tune with nature?
Genetics as we understand them don't really govern the sentient races the way the human genetics work. I handwave this because all of the races are magical creations. Elves were madee by Corellon, Dwarves by, uh, you know the dwarf god, Orcs by Gruumsh, gnomes by Garl Glittergold, and so on.
I go with the old lore that orcs and elves can't interbreed. I think it's orcs that can otherwise breed with anything, or maybe it's ogres. Dragons can magically frick and breed with anything because they're fricking magical mysteries who ain't gotta explain shit.
I don't really care one way or the other about half-elves but I leave them in as is because of fantasy inertia. I don't really care all that much about the implications, either about genetics or anything else, that arise from it.
moradin
surprised you remembered garl but not him
Thats because Garl Glittergold, is a hell of a lot more memorable name then Moradin.
well, that's just, like, your opinion, man
Half Elves are the best argument that "race" really should be replaced with "lineage" since being a mixture of two races definitely isn't a single race
Fun to make, not so much to have around.
What do you mean "make"? lol 😉
If you have to ask, you're probably not old enough to be here.
Why is she tip-toeing?
Just to add to allure I guess?
It's like wearing heels, without wearing heels.
Well, it's not working
She's not on tip toe. She's got what most of us would consider very unattractive feet, they go all the way down which is why she's carefully pointing the ventral surface of her feet to our point of view to hide the rest. Tau feet are positively attractive compared to elf feet. pic related
Because Korean artists don't know how to draw women without giving them heels
lel
Anons of excellent taste
best race. i like playing rangers and shit but i think full elves are kinda gay if im being honest. if my character is half human i feel a bit more masculine and not as hoity toity. a bit more rough around the edges.
also they have the best girls. basically softer/more feminine humans with lickable ears as anon said.
I play half-elves frequently so I can say "My mom was an elf and my dad was lucky" whenever someone asks my back story,
Females, perfect. Males.. the Supreme Gentlemen.
I also played a half-elf when I was in a campaign where all of the PCs were half-something and half-siblings because we had the same dad.
That's actually really cool
I like making them more than I like playing them.
literally just play elf or human and say you're a half-breed, you don't need unique racial stats for everything, the exception being if the resulting race has some really special and unique power or whatever.
I like them. Let's a player draw upon some of the fay nature of elves without us all having to deal with their unsuccessful attempt at roleplaying a 600 year old being.
What do they do differently than a regular elf? The whole point of the Half races was to take a race you wouldn't normally give as a PC race and make them into one. Which is weird considering how some of you spurgs prolapse uselessly with rage at the idea of other half-race types or race options like tieflings.
While I don't like Pathfinder 2e broadly, I do like the way it handles this.
You are a Human or an Elf, and you can have some blood of the other inside you. This way you can mix any species as well, not just Human/Elf and get something that is 'half-elf;' if you like that.
Broadly they always seem to sit in the realm of the generic character, lazy conflict for someone without a clear idea;
>Errr, I'm a ranger. My Mom was an Elf and er...Dad was a human and they couldn't be together or something...anyway, I adventure and stuff now. Can I roll to shoot an arrow?
Setting aside the obvious fetish shouldn't moat halfies have elf fathers instead of mothers? Parenthood is way more commitment-heavy for women than it is for men, so it's weird that an elf woman would settle for a human man that's just going to die on her relatively soon. Also, it's usually men that move out of their place of origin and would have more contact with other races for making half-breeds along the way.
>be elf woman
>have to take care of your halfie children for possibly decades after your human husband kicked the bucket
>already had raising a family take its toll and likely won't have children with another elf for an actual immortal family
>be elf man
>work as a mercenary in a mercenary company
>human women kinda look like apes to you but whatever, you haven't seen a proper elf woman in decades
>leave a bastard in each city you visit, human just throw themselves at you if you act aloof and mysterious
>eventually retire and go back to elf land, and marry a qt you'll actually build a family with
>don't even know your halfie bastards' names
>whatever, they're probably already dead anyway
I think you are vastly overestimating a male elf's sex appeal to human women.
Just make him a little dangerous and women won't even care that he's a dandy
Astarion gets the vampire sexiness boost. Him being an elf is almost an afterthought.
Pretty much, but the consumer base for fantasy is lots of males, which is why they don't like seeing male elves as competition.
You have to look at it from the ever-living perspective as a temporary thing.
>be elf woman
>don't know if the family life is cool
>do a dry run with hunky neanderthal knight met while adventuring
>married bliss, and the kids frick off before you're sick of their antics
>pet hubby kicks it, get lots of attention and sympathy from rando's
>accidentally become mother goddess in several human hamlets, cause your mongrel kids are as horny as you are
>never talk to in-laws, cause they died before ever meeting you.
Really doesn't work.
First, regardless of how much coombrains and elf-haters like to joke about it, male elves are still the ones with testosterone and with dicks, which is why they are more likely to go out, do dangerous stuff and stick their dick in something. And fantasy settings can spout this trope about female elves being as physically able and competent as male elves as much as they like, it doesn't change the biological fact that these produce the babies. Henceforth, they will be more protected and they will be held to account for the race's well-being and population.
A male can just pump and dump and then leave, not caring if he ever sired any kind of half-anything. The burden is then on the girl to give birth to these mongrels, feed them, raise them and make them part of a larger community. A male elf creating half-elves doesn't put any burden on elf society (unless the kids somehow found out who their father is).
With a female elf having half-elf children, you have the massive problem that the kids know who their elfen mother is. This leads to questionable inheritance problems and it furthermore besmirches the elfen family of the mother. And guess what, elves in fantasy tend to be racist (for good and dumb reasons) and often don't want to have to deal with half-anything being now part of the family. As unfair as it may seem, expectations are a lot more lenient when it comes to males fricking around.
And frick this idea that a female elf just does this for fun at the side. She is forever marked as some kind of human-fricker and thus has very low chances in elfen society to ever amount to anything. And even if she would find an elfen husband and being able to join elfen community, you still have the problem of some day some of her half-elf kids showing up demanding stuff.
Most elves aren't even immortal, so that argument doesn't fit either. It's not just some minor side-activity.
This is making a lot of assumptions about elf society. I know it seems like natural assumptions just based on responsibility in child rearing, but a lot of these things depend on very human notions of time and resources.
Only if you assume that the women can get pregnant as many times as they want without issues and that pregnancy isn't dangerous for them, neither of which are realistic (or interesting) premises.
Life-threatening birth is not common in animals. It's more unrealistic for non-humans to have our fricked up evolutionary quirks than for them to be different.
I've never seen a setting do this but imo half elves should be genetic frick ups, you know how ligers or grolar bears end up being way bigger/more aggressive than their parents' species but usually also plagued with health issues, I want a setting that treats them like that, they're taller and stronger than humans and elves, but also mentally fricked with anger issues, depending on wether the settings elves are more adapt at magic they could have raw energy coursing through them as well making them effective spellblades/battlemages
>picrel's the only image I have of a magical hammer character, if anyone has more art of battlemages/spellswords that are buffer/use hammers and axes just imagine that
Dungeon meshi, in some way.
Unstable grow spurts, erratic lifespan, able to potentially live longer than regular elves, unable to bear children.
Although they are just regular elves outside of that.
They also have downs
That sounds neat, apparently they made a show of it recently, is it any good?
Anon, you missed /tg/ having constant chapter dumps during the mangas almost ten years lifespan. Yes, the show is good so far, the manga is better.
The existence of half-elves is somewhat of a spoiler. Enjoy.
is the no children thing actually mentioned?
In the webcomic Errant Story they have a propensity toward mental illness, which combined with magical skills they often inherit from their Elven parent means they become "Errants" and frick shit up.
Race doesn't matter, only breast size matters.
So Orcs & Dwarves?
Pretty neat. Half-races in general are pretty cool and provide good RP fodder. I think rules on race-mixing kind of need to be fleshed out more though, like why not half dwarfs, for example, or quarter elves
Yeah and we should also have rules for 1/8 elves and 1/16 elves at the very least
>why not half dwarfs
But we do have half dwarves.
-2 to all CHA/social checks with Humans and Elves since neither consider them kin.
I always loved the Aelfborn from Shadowbane. They're sterile and and the mix of elf and human blood is cursed from centuries of feuding and causes them to slowly go insane. Parents try to ward off the curse with ritual tattoos to dubious effect.
https://morloch.shadowbaneemulator.com/index.php/Aelfborn_Lore
The male elf was literally too pure to break a woman's heart, so he just outright rejected her instead.
>What are your thoughts on mules as a species?
I love mules they are great animals
Mules can and will kill mountain lions. They'll bite the frickers by the neck and snap their fricking spines. The reason mules cannot breed is that god knew they would be too powerful.
I don't think the same can be said for half elves, those frickers are too dainty, but I feel like half orcs would carry a similar energy.
Mules can breed though, it's just not very common.
Wow! Didn't know that about mules. Mules are more than just stubborn I guess? They're killing machines!
I should clarify, they don't snap their necks with bite strength alone. No, they clamp down, pick them up, and whip those frickers around hard enough to snap their spines.
Mules do not take shit from anybody.
Damn
Wasn't the Lion that one Mule got filmed bauling already dead? Apparently it had been shot by a hunter or something, the Mule just decided to rake its frustrations out on the carcass.
Donkeys are domesticated from African equines related to zebras and evolved to be dangerous for a lion to appeoach an adult. Mules are their superjacked, smarter offspring. It's not a stretch that they'd be able to kill a lion one on one. Not every single time since felines are such ideal hunters, but still pretty good odds.
This will never be your site and you will never belong. Go back to X
DnD elves are one of the only times I outright dislike elf lore, and Half-Elves transcend the lore problems they normally have. They're also a favorite of Silver Dragons to LARP as, so there's narrative hooks there.
Pick a lane noob.
They're very... Reddit? Most people who play them want to feel special or have some sort of qualm with just playing a human or an elf. They may be a Tolkienism, but that's they're only redeeming feature. Either make your setting so that some races just can't breed, or that they end up the same race as one of their parents.
Or take the Elder Scrolls approach, Bretons are powerful mages and renowned knights of great blood that came from generations upon generations of mixing human and elvish blood. (Best option IMO)
>half-elves
>Reddit
>not dwarves
>not tieflings
>or the furryfolks
Depends very much on the setting and what the author of the setting envisions
While tolkien technically had half elves, they were not treated as their own thing
Personally i like them as option because often people make their elves insufferable, make for interesting social dynamics, and are a good middleground for people that find playing elves too extreme or human too mundane
Also bonus point for archaic inspired elves: elves and gods were synonymous, half elves as a race could fill and recall the role of the ancient heroes of the past that were almost all demigods and got also special mention in the bible (Genesis 6, 1-4 the "gibborim")
Heracles was a half elf, how cool is that?
I like mixed races because then my Human Warrior gets to leave more varied bastards behind which I can use as characters later.
>What are /tg/'s thoughts on Half-Elves as a race?
half-gay.
captcha: pussy
Why is always half elf, or half orc or whatever. Why is it never half human?
What other race would gladly bone both an elf and an orc?
Dragon, they'll bone anything and they're always horny
Why do you think they abduct all those fair maidens and constantly get it on with bards?
Which are is better? Half-Elf or Half-Orc?
Mischlings are not citizens.
I like to use half-elf as a general race of "Human with some kind of fey ancestry".
One parent could be an elf, or it could be literally anything from the fey world, it's unknown.
Half-Drow are more interesting than half-elves
Half-elves are so numerous you can get into some backward village and still see at least one, they're not rare
And I think over time this entire thing about not belonging to either gets a) dull and b) in this day and age every group seems to have at least one of those
Half-Drow and horcs are way more interesting and exciting for the simple reason that neither orcs nor Drow are common on the surface world and that people have way more prejudice towards either of those
>Also rape baby
half-drow (drow mother)
I'd say half-drow are the most rare. I imagine half-orcs are actually pretty decently common what with all the orc rape going on.
>the quality of a half-mongrel is based on its rarity
No, that doesn't make them any more narritively or mechanically more compelling.
>Human + Elf
Two horrible things coming together.
Better or worse than a gnome, you half pint frick?
Lazy, if you're going to include half-anythings you should make rules for your system so that you can play half and halfs of any two races.
They can fit in the setting depending on how the setting is and how they are implemented in the setting.
In my settings I generally have race reinforced by incompatibility among the humanoid races (elves, dwarves, men, orcs etc.) so that is why they see each other as different instead of say humans but with slightly different traits.
The coomer in me tells me that Half-Elves are fun to make and fun to breed.
Three days to go.
these posts are a contributing factor to me making elf threads
Sauce?
I have 2 different settings
Setting 1 has no halfies, the spieces are so different from eachother that the spieces cannot crossbreed
Setting 2 does have half breeds, but the half breeds are infertile
I prefer setting 1 though, half-breeds are a bit stupid
One monster race among others for the human PCs to exterminate.
Oh, so humans are violent, barbaric, Chaotic Evil savages in your setting? That's at least giving them a niche I guess.
Eldroons make quality mistresses.
It's stupid as shit.
Maybe you have an elven grandmother way down the line and an occasional atavism pops back up (think the protags in Shannara). You're either human or an elf.
Do hybrids exist in nature? Yeah, but this is fantasy. Gygax saw Elrond Half-Elven's name and stopped there, despite the fact that said character clearly lives life...as an elf and is in fact more like 3/4 elf. In LotR, elves can eschew their immortality and frick off and die or choose to essentially be human. Gygax, of course, didn't grasp that, and here we are.
Don't even get me started on the "we all start at level one" bullshit
They are fine.
Tinkering with it is a sigh the DM doesn’t care about the game and just wants to write bad novels instead.
They're for fence sitters, either go full human or full elf.
Would you apply the same logic to half-orcs?