So half-orcs were made because people wanted to play as orcs but why were half-elves made?
>>96950295Because LotR has half-elves though they function very differently and earlier editions had more restrictions on what elves could be, so playing a half-elf let people skirt those restrictions.
Where did the "orcs are Male Orc/Female Human rapebabies" thing come from? Aren't there just as many female orcs raping human men?
>>96950478Only if the designers weren't cowards.
>>96950478The way I see it:Orc + Human = Half-OrcOrc + Dwarf = GoblinOrc + Elf = Uruk-Hai
>>96950478Who said there aren't?
>>96950563>Orc + Dwarf = Troll>Orc + Elf = HumanWho says we don't know how humans were formed?
>>96950295Both are from Lord of the Rings. It was a sort of racial hirarchy, orcs and goblins being the worse, humans as average, with elves being the best. The mixes were ways to have improved orcs/goblins (half orcs) and improved humans (half elves). In the books, half orcs were abominations made by Saruman, a blend of horrible orcs and slighty better humans to make super orc soldiers. Half elves were what Aragorn was, a branch of human that could live hundreds of years due to being descendants of ancient kings - a sort of master race, a blend of human and much better and near heavenly elves. This sort of 'one race can be better than another' is politically contentious nowadays, as most players can't seperate fantasy from reality and game publishers don't want to give ammo for SJWs to use that might effect the sale of their products. So now orcs, half/orcs, humans, half elves and elves are all equal and the reason behind them is lost.
>>96952649>Half elves were what Aragorn was, a branch of human that could live hundreds of years due to being descendants of ancient kings - a sort of master race, a blend of human and much better and near heavenly elves. What? Absolutely not. Half-elves (more unique than rare) in Lotr are literally the spawn of a human and an elf, they are given the choice as some point to pick one of the two fates (of the men or of the elves), those who picked the elves side get to be essentially elves and the other that don't get to have extremely long lives (around 500 years), eg: Elrond and his brother Elros were both half-elves, Elrond chose the fate of elves and Elros chose the fats of men.You're literally confusing the Numenurians, basically uplifted humans as reward by the Valar, with the specific Aragorn ancestry, a numenurian one descending from Elros (so a unique case as well).
>>96950295>people wanted to play as orcsgenocide will solve this problem
>>96952782>>96952649Elrond is a half elf.
>>96950563>Orc + elfNot in forgotten realms at least because Corellon and gruumsh hate each other so much
>>96950295Because people wanted to fuck elves.
>>96950295for anal
>>96952649This dude didn't watch the movies or read the books, he just wanted to say the SJW thing.>>96952782This Anon didn't spell everything correctly, but got it right. LotR Half-Elves, of which there were only a handful, got to pick whether they wanted the fate of man or Elf. It's a shame the first guy didn't read the books & just sperged out, the Numenorians' whole schtick is that their ancient literal gods-given blessing has faded after intermarriage with the locals of Middle-Earth for so long, & also their societal corruption & lack of maintaining ancient tradition & morals made their gifts be revoked.
>>96950295Three reasons:1. Meta game stat wise it allows more freedom of stats than elf.2. It's a fun story for many people to be the product of a inter-species love story, the immortal/long lived species settling down with a human and having a child is an enjoyable trope.3. It's easier to self-insert as a half-elf than an elf, and more interesting to many than just being as human.
Half-elves are gypsies, just like Tieflings.
>>96950295Setting aside the Tolkien and mythological influences, Mike "Old Geezer" Mornard on one of those forum things (I forget whether it was Purple or Pundy) recounted that since elves couldn't have player character clerics in the original rules, a player who wanted to be a fighter/magic-user/cleric asked it he could be a half-elf, and whoever was DMing at the type (Gygax or Kunz) said sure, go ahead. And those rules made it into Supplement 1.
>>96962146>Elves can't have player character clerics Why was original DND so retarted?
>>96962242I think it was a way to futher differentiate elves from humans, much like melniboneians have different way of thinking compared to humans in the elric saga. I like how it was explained in Birthright were the advantage mankind had over them was the fact that humans could call these immense powers called "gods", the notion on which was alien to elves. They understood natural spirits and the inherent ways to manipulate the forces of the physical world (arcane magic) but having communion with something "beyond" didn't make sense to them without using the lens of arcanism.
>>96962242Clerics exists to add a vampire-hunter to the Fighter/Magic-User dichotomy.
>>96950478It was never explicitly stated, but since the OG lore for orcs was that they were utterly hideous, disgusting, foul-smelling brutes of malign temperament and evil inclination, everybody just presumed that was the case.Ironically, even TSR started softening on that stance; there's an NPC in Planescape, the Factol of the Bleak Cabal, whose parents were a human man and an orc woman.
>>96950295>but why were half-elves made?don't wanna be full on gay...just a wee bit curiousya know?
>>96962242Not retarded, medieval.OD&D clerics are much more heavily Christian in flavor than they become in AD&D, despite the ostensible sword & sorcery setting. (Poul Andersen is one major influence on that.)So I guess the real question would be, why are you so retarded as to want elves and faeries who could become Christian priests? They're scared off by church bells and can't even set foot on consecrated ground! Their becoming clerics just wouldn't make any rational sense!Facts & logic, dude. Elf facts & logic.
Half-races are a retarded idea and I will die on that hill. Look at nature, even closely related species like a horse and donkey only create infertile offspring like a mule. If half-races were allowed they should limited to be considered freaks of nature by all. I understand half-elves are a tolkien thing, he can have that exception and have it work in his world. In DnD, I think it is dumb. Play as a human, elf, orc, dwarf, gnome, etc. fuck that half-race bs.
>>96950478Orcs breed a lot so the females aren't usually out and about on account of their pregnancies. Crossbreeding (through rape) orc males and human females was how Saruman created the Uruk-Hai.
>>96970569Having a bunch of humanoid races running around interacting with each other and not expecting some crossbreeding is even more retarded.
>>96970643Because a greenskin, ogrish body orc is going to have a similar chromosome count to a human right?
>>96970274>They're scared off by church bellsPuck notes very pointedly that he is *not* scared off by church bells in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
>>96950295>why were half-elves made?So players could have children with their imaginary perfect elven wives.
>>96950478It's said as such in 3.5's PHB
>>96971152>greenskinThey're not green.>ogrish bodyOgre =/= orc>is going to have a similar chromosome count to a human right?First of all, orcs are canonically rapists. Second of all, the threat of orc rape makes them a more interesting threat to society. Third of all, if elves can crossbreed with humans and orcs are (canonically) corrupted elves then they would also be able to crossbreed with humans. Fourth of all, pic related can crossbreed produce viable offspring and is not that far off from what we're talking about here.
>>96950478>>96970613Orcs operate like the Natives from Bone Tomahawk where women only exist as breeding stock, as soon as female Orcs start to menstruate they're getting knocked up by the top dogs in the tribe.Stop applying human morality and behavior to Orcs. They're monsters, they don't see women as anything more than a wet hole that spits out piglets.
