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I was wondering if there is any knowledge of what race is promenent in elf/human and male/female. I imagine no one cared and said you decide. As well, can you be the son/daughter of two half-elfs? Making you as well half-elven?

Y'know, I've always wondered about that two half-elf thing but it DOES make sense. As for the parents it really is up for you to decide. Was your character the product of a loving couple (Human and Elf) or a soldier passing through an elven community in a war, or even something darker?

Whats the line seperating a half-elf from a half-orc? Are Half-elves, a human/elf breed only or are there half-elves with orcish blood? If no to the latter, what if a half-elf hitches up with a half-orc, are there prodigy half-orc or half-elf?

And as far as I know any human or other blood in mixed with elf makes you a half-elf so even if a half-elf and an elf make an offsrping, that offspring will be a half-elf. Like wisea human mating with a half-elf will still produce a half-elf. Same goes with half-orcs.

I wonder if there are any half-hobbits or half-dwarves around too??

Long long ago in my table-top days this very question came up about the offspring of two half-elves. I forgot the formula they used (Like I ever cared about learning useful things or things in school ) but it effectively came out that the possible offspring would most likely be either half-elf, or quarter elf. Then a quite smaller chance that it would pure elven or human blood. The only problem is the laws of our world usually do not translate to the fantasy realm.

Well the base formula is this..

Half-Elf = 1/2 human, 1/2 elf
Half-Orc = 1/2 human, 1/2 orc

Now if you break it all up that means from two half-elven parents you get 2/4th elf and 2/4th human which comes down to 1/2 of each.

It could be a new race, "Half Half-Elf" or uh.. "Pure Half-Elf" or "Half-Elf^2"

As for Half-Orcs and Half-Elves hitching up, wouldn't that just make you 1/4th orc, 1/4th elf, 2/4th Human. Just think of the inner turmoil as your elven and orcish sides constantly war while your dominant human nature makes money off of said war!

Who's to say that just because it's a half-elf, that the non elven half HAS to be human? I've often wanted to RP a character that is 50% Orc as the other half of the "half-elf".

But let's get real... we all know the other half IS human! So...

When a donkey and a horse breed, the outcome is a mule.

Two mules cannot make another mule.

Think about it!

-Saiden

In response to Sharni - I have read the same thing somewhere too, though I do not recall where.
I believe it basically mentioned that all half-breeds had to be of base human. The reason I remember it giving was becuase all other races had some ties to magic, where humans did not. Thus to get the genetic side of the combo to work, you needed that human element to stabilise it, or some crap like that.

It kinda made sense when I read it, although me typing it here sounds like I am making it up as I go.

Hope that helps
Stayne

"If we can't weed them out, we'll breed them out"

I believe it is always by genetics half-elf and half human hence a half-elf... I do believe there is instances where elves mated with dragons& celestials but those would be considered half-dragons and half-celestials..

I think something for the conversions it was something like this
there is
elf
half-elf
then if a half-elf and an elf mate the child is still a "half-elf",
never an elf cause impure bloodlines and us humans drain away some of the magic..

now if the half-elf mates with another human once more, then the child would be considered a human I believe.. It might of been it would be 1/4 elf and hence a half-elf but I believe further on it is just considered a human and the traits of the elvenkin would be really withdrawn
it might be after 1/4 elf there is no more but I believe it is only half-elf hehe
jeffery

I've read a lot about the races too but there was no real explaination that I read inside the various books. I read that to make a pure breed Mind Flayer (Illithid, of course), a human was needed. Other combinations worked to create such frights as Half-Yuan-ti. Although, I think this is an exception to the rule at hand as they have a different type of creation process (worm placed into ear, worm eats brain tissue while creating a new one, new one becomes new mind with psionic ability..). I'm unsure exactly 'what' makes humans the most compatible, but I am very curious and really would appreciate it as I do DM for my roommates and a couple friends.

I believe the school related subject is punnet squares.



In this A would be Human and a would be Elf. As you can see, the possiblities lean towards a half elf being born between two half elves. I believe the Yuirwood is an example of this. Let me know if I got anything wrong.

The problem with the Punnet Square use is that it accounts for dominate and ressesive traits, not necessarily what happens when you start to crosses breed species. Sure, two people brown eyed people can produce a blue eyed child if there is enough of the recessive genes there to make up a pair.

What the punnet square does not address, something that Mendel also overlooked entirely, is incomplete dominance, which I think would be the case where you get half elves. One set of traits dominated over the other, but not entirely. A blue eyed parent and a brown eyed parent could have a hazel eyed child, brown dominated, but did not dominate all the way.

The way I've always seen it figured out is:
If you have some human blood (half-elven) and have a child
with a pure human, your child is human, elven blood factors
out. Just like if you have some human blood (half-elven) and
have a child with a pure elf, your offspring is half-elven, no
matter how many generations pass, a half-elven/elf union
will produce a half-elven child as human genes are
considered to be dominent in all cases. So from this, two
half-elven parents have equal chance of producing human
and half-elven children.

Again I am sure I have seen this clarified before in other
places (but I cannot name the specific source).

Hi there
Races of Faerun stats on page 58
"Half-elves have at least one elven parent or grandparent, or two half-elven parents. To put it another way the child of a half-elf and human will be a human, unless the half-elf parent is a child of a full-blooded elf. Unless a half-elven line marries into other elven or half-elven families, their elf characteristics fade in a generation or two, On occassion elven traits can reapper in otherwise human children born several generations later, but half-elves of such remove dscent are very rare."

Here's how I see it, you have a elf human union, they have a half-elf, let's say that half-elf mates with humans for the rest of it's life, and so on, the offspring later on would probably be considered human because it's got more human in it then it does elf. The elven features might disappear, but no matter what there will always always be some elf in them. So like it's been said: if you have two half-elves that'll make another half-elf. As for the mule thing, it's probably different in FK.

Penryn wrote:I believe it is always by genetics half-elf and half human hence a half-elf... I do believe there is instances where elves mated with dragons& celestials but those would be considered half-dragons and half-celestials..

I think something for the conversions it was something like this
there is
elf
half-elf
then if a half-elf and an elf mate the child is still a "half-elf",
never an elf cause impure bloodlines and us humans drain away some of the magic..

now if the half-elf mates with another human once more, then the child would be considered a human I believe.. It might of been it would be 1/4 elf and hence a half-elf but I believe further on it is just considered a human and the traits of the elvenkin would be really withdrawn
it might be after 1/4 elf there is no more but I believe it is only half-elf hehe
jeffery

I believe you are right. That is why I made a certain character of mine human. This character has slightly pointed ears, as a trait of some Elven ancestry, but it's back several generations, so she's all human. I'm just adding my say.