Discussion Cross breeds

[Captaniser]

So yay for rule 34?

Kinky.

But for real, some races can interbreed with other creatures. Beastmen can interbreed with humas and farm animals. The offspring will always be a Beastman. In old Warhammer lore it was mentioned that every once in a while, a group of drunk Beastmen would come out of the woods and try too get some cow/goat/sheep/horse tail. Beastmen are especially hated by farmers. Skaven can also breed with human women, but in a weird way. The Skaven would have too turn the woman into a broodmare, a horribly obese and mindless monstrosity, indistinguishable from a regular Skaven female. This process is very long and has a low rate of succes, so it doesn't happen very often. Daemons can also do it, but the child will either be a complete daemon or a horrible halvbreed abomination.

 

[RoseThorn]

Well...
I certainly wasn't expecting this...
Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering the fairly NSFW topic.

 

[Killer Angel]

That escalated quickly!

like an exponential curve, I'd say.
Let's try to adjust it with a citation.

So yay for rule 34?

well, sex keeps the world turnin' around. Alongside with spare parts and broken hearts.

 

[The Sauric Ace]

Kinky.

But for real, some races can interbreed with other creatures. Beastmen can interbreed with humas and farm animals. The offspring will always be a Beastman. In old Warhammer lore it was mentioned that every once in a while, a group of drunk Beastmen would come out of the woods and try too get some cow/goat/sheep/horse tail. Beastmen are especially hated by farmers. Skaven can also breed with human women, but in a weird way. The Skaven would have too turn the woman into a broodmare, a horribly obese and mindless monstrosity, indistinguishable from a regular Skaven female. This process is very long and has a low rate of succes, so it doesn't happen very often. Daemons can also do it, but the child will either be a complete daemon or a horrible halvbreed abomination.

Fantasy breeding can be very, well, unique
I like the idea of enter breeding being a result of the species actual being several distinct subspecies, like humans and neanderthals. One could explain them all as being humanoid, which biologically would mean that such species should generally being cable of breeding with more or less successful outcome. Perhaps half breed would be sterile in certain cases, which is a dilemma, rarely explored in fantasy with half breeds.

 

[Scalenex]

Perhaps half breed would be sterile in certain cases, which is a dilemma, rarely explored in fantasy with half breeds.

The D&D setting called Athas had half-man/half dwarf hybrids called Muls (pronounced like "mules"). Like actual mules, Muls were sterile. Most Muls were created by force breeding to make Muls to fight in the gladiator pits and this usually killed the mother. Though there was a married human/dwarf couple, the mother survived giving birth and they definitely didn't sell their son to slavers.

Fun fact, on Athas Dwarves and Muls are bald...and proud of it! Basically whatever traits define a Dwarf in any setting, Dwarves are proud of.

Athas had a lot of half-breeds, but they don't go into a lot of depth on the mechanics, culture, and breeding possibilities of much beyond Muls and Half-Elves. Half-Giants are half giant/half human...somehow. The explanation is "magic" but they don't go into details. Most Half-Giants are lackeys to the seven evil sorcerer kings and queens which raises further questions because Giants are not on friendly terms with the sorcerer kings, well they aren't on friendly terms with the one king who lands are near theirs. Athas has also has a weird area infused with some kind of blood magic. Any living creature that bleeds even a little bit starts to mutate, and this area spawns a bunch of new races all the time.

Athas is a rough world. I'm guessing most Athasians would move to the Warhammer world if they could if that tells you anything.

My own WIP fantasy setting, Scarterras. Human, Elves, and Dragons were created by all the gods working together. Every other species represents another god's (or a pair of gods') pet project. Because they have the essence of all nine gods and goddesses, only the aforementioned three are capable of siring or bearing half-breeds.

You reawakened the idea of sterile half-breeds in my head. Maybe I'll use that. Combinations of the Big Three can be fertile but say a half-human/half orc would be sterile....

 

[The Sauric Ace]

You reawakened the idea of sterile half-breeds in my head. Maybe I'll use that. Combinations of the Big Three can be fertile but say a half-human/half orc would be sterile....

That sounds like a pretty fun idea to play around with. I never bother much about half breeding in my campaigns, generally because I tend to write the different races as if they represented different ethical groups, as such I never really question that much any half of them, since that would simply depend on where they where raise. I guess being half-breed could be looked down upon in both culture, so they would always feel like an outsider, but that's been done to death by now.
Maybe I should start considering more opportunities for half-breeds and what that means for such an individual in my next campaign. Sterile, outcast or something different. Perhaps it's not simply a mix of the two races benifits, but mix breeds are actually substantially worse off physically or mentally then either of the parents, making half breed even more undesirable (Of course this would make them undesirable for the players as well, so maybe only for setting purposes, where half breeds are a major part, but no PC's are playing one....)