mix-race marriages

Mouat · Post by **Mouat** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:55 am

Are there any marriage combos that would be taboo ICly?

I mean between two lawful or two neutral races. Not between a Drow and a Dwarf... although, that might be interesting...

Like, between an elf and a centaur? Would that be okay? Let's try not to make a mental picture of that...

Thanks for the responses that come and for not making a mental image of the above scenario

Mouat old fart ranger.

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:59 am

Depends on your character and how they would judge it.

My elf almost peed her pants because she saw a halfelf put his arm around a sun elf today, and was disgusted. Bob's elf may not have reacted the same. :)

IC preference, though I'd say in my opinion it shouldn't be as lightly as it is irl, these times(FK times) are not what they are today. :)

Danica

Ariala · Post by **Ariala** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:15 am

Take pictures!

No..
Okay. On a more serious not here...
I can see where the "Oh my goodness" and the "Ew!" will come from..
It's an elf and a Centaur.
As long as they are aware that they won't be able to "mate".
They could adopt though..right? That's a possibility isn't it?

Also..You can't help who you fall in love with.
Well...you can ICly..but...
Heck I don't even know what I was going to say anymore..

Edited: I remember now!

Could another race be possible? Such as..Elftaurs? Or..Centelfs? Or am I just being silly now...?

Larethiel · Post by **Larethiel** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:49 am

Elves like Fey-creatures, Fey-creatures like elves. But...Well, a centaur is basically a half-horse...Love might be possible. But offspring?

Best regards.

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:10 pm

I suspect in the FK setting most any admixture relationship would be seen as odd, but I wouldn't care to say even a dwarf/elf or half-orc/gnome combo would be outright taboo. People would just stare...and may assume they are old school buddies or something.

Selveem · Post by **Selveem** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:22 pm

Um.. with magic, technically anything is possible, I believe.

I can't remember for certain, but I think in the Draconomicon it said something about a Dragon who would polymorph himself/herself to couple with other races? I forget, really.

Also, don't forget that there are plenty of races who were created due to the infusion of magics.

As for regular bleeding, yeah, probably not possible. Definately not for a Dragon and a normal base humanoid.

Alvirin · Post by **Alvirin** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:00 pm

In fact most, if not all, of those born half-dragons that roam the realms come from a polymorphed dragon into a humanoid form.

Now to the current topic...

If seeing just a member of an exotic race can make people blink, expect people seeing that couple looking at them eye-widen mouth-opened. The most common folk in Faerun can spend all their lives without seeing a centaur, let alone a couple formed by a centaur and an elf.

In the other hand adventurers probably have seen enough different things in their life so they will be less surprised, but that will not avoid that adventurers just look at them in surprise, definitively that is something not seen everyday.

I also would expect that some sectors of the more conservative elves speak ill of the partner and frown upon them, I don't know what would think the centaurs about it.

Lerytha · Post by **Lerytha** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:18 pm

Also... centaur's lower half is a horse. I think its less of a question of "Is it socially acceptable?" and more a question of, "Can I survive this particular lovemaking?". I don't imagine most people would really want to put it to the test. Horses are heavy.

Larethiel · Post by **Larethiel** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:36 pm

I just planned to eat something with many calories. Thank you Lerytha for preventing me from doing so

Mouat · Post by **Mouat** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:30 am

Lerytha wrote:"Can I survive this particular lovemaking?". I don't imagine most people would really want to put it to the test. Horses are heavy.

Horse could be on his back, the elf...

Ariala · Post by **Ariala** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:34 am

Oh lord...
Oh my...
LOL!

Sairaven · Post by **Sairaven** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:38 am

I have a sinking suspicion I'm going to walk away from this thread mentally scarred...

Ariala · Post by **Ariala** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:40 am

Well..it's not like they plan to 'fade to black'..
So you can just get those nasty little thoughts out of your head.
:}
I'm not THAT stupid to rp something like that..
>.>

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:06 am

You can love and be married and never have sex. :P

But if your characters meet Miriel you damn well better be ready to explain the things you CAN do to her. XDDDD

<3Ollie. Bwaha.

Laurie · Post by **Laurie** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:53 am

You guys were getting creative there >.> I think I puked in my mouth just a little bit. Just a little.

Kregor · Post by **Kregor** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:10 am

Mele wrote:You can love and be married and never have sex.

Sheesh! What's the plus in that???

Belose · Post by **Belose** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:22 am

You know.. about the Centaur/humanoid thing? It IS possbile.. there's plenty of dirty pictures people find out there that prove THAT. I can't believe some of the things my friends have shown me to try and shock me. There are people in Real Life who have relations with animals. Now we know there can be no children to be able to come from it. I mean, Catherine the Great ..I think she was great..well.. The Czarist Catherine did it with a horse, so....
But anyways.. in FK, you have magic. You have wizards who make magical creations. YOu have people who can polymorph into animals. Could be how we got were-creatures, maybe? But with magic, anything is possible...

I personally would love to see the application for this RP if anyone had the cojones to try it!

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:50 am

Belose wrote:I personally would love to see the application for this RP if anyone had the cojones to try it!

Belose raises an important point here, in that something like this would deserve an application before it was tried; I think conversation here does suggest it wouldn't be beyond the pale, and that the application would be considered based on its specifics. That said, whether you should go ahead with whatever you might specifically have in mind is up to the Imms, and they may have specific hopes for the realm that would obivate certain combinations.

I'll also add that while the discussion of the physical aspects of all of this is...er...interesting...it's really not relevant to the issue at hand; we do have a fade-to-black rule. ...and I'd like to check the discussion of those details before it spirals out of control and offends/troubles anyone unnecessarily.

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:36 pm

I think it's a bit too far to have to apply for this....

You already have to apply for marriage, that should be the only app in any relationship.

Kelemvor · Post by **Kelemvor** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:48 pm

Addressing the original question first ; do IC taboos exist which might impact upon inter-race marriages?

Speaking solely from DMing experience and looking only at the idea of a marriage between different races:

Some demi-human societies have clear bias on this and any relationship would be outside the norm and therefore subject to IC reaction.

Elves and drow/half-drow is an obvious one, though evil-aligned elves might feel less restrictions.

Elves and humans is another well known one, though this differs depending upon the elven sub-race and breaking the taboo is often a fun roleplay. The most often cited reason for such relationships being frowned upon is the very short life span of the human partner.

Elves and centaurs. Since this has been mentioned as one possible relationship it makes sense to examine the potential consequences. Centaur have a lifespan even shorter than humans, so I'd expect the relationship to be frowned upon. That said, centaur and elves have one of the closest social relationships of the main PC races. Which would win out might be interesting.

Orcs and any other race. Whilst forced acts of parentage are common enough themes, orcs are generally as socially rigid as elves. Any weakening of the orcish bloodline being frowned upon socially. Note though, that mating with stronger races could probably be not only acceptable but socially enhancing.

Dwarves and other races. My opinion only, but dwarves live in a society which tends to categorise folk as only one of two things - you're either a dwarf or you're not a dwarf. I'd expect that marriage to a non-dwarf would be extremely rare and carry some fairly heavy social consequences. Again, this might make for a very interesting roleplay - especially if the non-dwarf partner were a gnome

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The main difficulty in offering guidance in these situations is the obvious 'next step' of a marriage or relationship - the physical aspect.

I would say that if a hybrid offspring is possible within Forgotten Realms lore - half-elf, half-drow, half-ogre, orog, derro etc - then you may assume that a marriage and sexual encounters are not beyond the boundaries.

I would agree less with the line that 'magic makes everything possible', though. Magic is not a free pass for the impossible.

Taking again the humanoid and centaur relationship, for an elven or human woman to bear a centaur offspring would be physically taxing to say the least. Half-centaur do not exist that I am aware of, probably for this very good reason. And if they did, would a half-centaur be wholly two-legged or still four-legged? Too many imponderables just to sweep aside with 'magic' tag

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Which leads me finally to the 'OOCly acceptable' aspect of these relationships.

Our policy has always been that any player is free to submit an application for unusual or rare roleplay. The more effort and forethought that goes into the application, the more likley it is to succeed.
Conversely, a Beavis and Butthead style 'Like, wow.. centaur manhood, tiny elf girl! huh huh huh' application will just end up being rejected.

The notion that an elf and a centaur could have a platonic relationship leading to marriage is not impossible - though the lifespan difference is extreme. If you feel you could uphold such a roleplay, then by all means apply.