I started playing with the LGG again. So, I break down the percentages of races and came up with some interesting numbers of populations.
For each race is the largest population recorded (headcount, not percentage) and the country this is found in. The winners are S
Centaurs
10,000 (2%) Paynims, Plains of the
Dwarf, Hill
104,988 (19.5%)Ulek, Principality of
Dwarf, Mountain
56,532 (10.5%) Ulek, Principality of
Elf, Gray
11,931 (29.1%) Lendore Isles
Elf, High
60,830 (43.45%) Celene
Elf, Sylvan
212,074 (8.1%) Nyrond
Elf, Valley
2,500 (25%) Valley of the Mage
Gnome, Rock
108,000 (6%) Keoland
Goblin
78,546 (3%) North Kingdom
Halfling, Lightfoot
345,249 (9%) Ahlissa
Halfling, Stout
130,910 (5%) Nyrond
Halfling, Tallfellow
13,533 (1.8%) Urnst, Duchy of
Half-Elf
125,504 (32%) Ulek, Duchy of
Half-Orc
42,768 (9%) Bandit Kingdoms
Hobgoblin
70,000 (10%) Iuz
Orc
315,000 (45%) Iuz
How what impact do you all think these groups make back onto other areas of Flanaess? I chose this approach rather than percentage because it is normally easy just to say "well they are a significant influence in the country they live in."
Quite awhile ago (I can't remember why, but I had a reason at the time) I did a spreadsheet brekaing down the Human, Elven and Dwarven population by kingdoms. I think I was doing a comparison of elven and dwarven populations and added the humans as a base.
For example in the Duchy of Ulek, with 32% of the population being Half-Elf, that shows that there is either a lot of racial tolerance, irresponsible intermingling, or perhaps a population that is becoming a race of its own. What do you get when two half-elves get children?
also, elves live longer than humans. so one elven male with a 'thing' for human females could literally sire hundreds or even thousands of half elves in his life time. given the generation time difference between half elves and humans, his bastard half elven progeny could sire dozens of quarter-elves, etc.
this is still somewhat true even if the elf is faithful to each human mate in her lifetime. lets say his average wife lives 50 years and has five children. if the elf has a 1000 year breeding lifespan, thats 20 wives potentially and 100 children.
bottom line, even a strictly monogamous elf could throw off an enormous contribution to the country's gene pool.
For example in the Duchy of Ulek, with 32% of the population being Half-Elf, that shows that there is either a lot of racial tolerance, irresponsible intermingling, or perhaps a population that is becoming a race of its own. What do you get when two half-elves get children?
Mathematically, a quarter-elf.
I hate to go to another world for the answer, but the majority of half-elves in Eberron are considered a distinct subspecies, born to half-elven parents. I can't imagine this being impossible in certain areas of the Oerth.
A child of two half elves is a half elf. For game purposes in in one of those 'races of' books the rule basically worked out that if there was less than 50% elf blood, the character was human. If there was *any* human blood and at least 50% elf, then the character was half elf. So a 7/8ths elf was a half elf by D&D race. While a 7/16ths elf was human.
This idea of the purity of elf-ness is redolent of the old (yet persistent) notion that a person's racial whiteness is forever lost if s/he has even a drop of "black blood" - the rule of hypodescent.
I think this racist idea may represent the grey olven idea about their racial purity but think that the high and sylvan olves refute it.
In game rules, I'd say that the child of two half elves is half-olven. If a half-olve and elf or human had a child, I'd use the race appropriate to that character's upbringing, i.e., if raised amongst humans, the "quarter-elf" would be "human," if raised amongst elves, the "three-quarters-elf" would be an "elf."
That's nice and all, but the issue was resolved, BTB, in AD&D2. Mixed elven heritage <50% human = half-elf. >50% human = human. That is the BTB rule.
This matters because it has game-rule implications. Racial abilities, ability mods, aging, etc are all governed by the character's species, or race as it is imprecisely, but themeatically correct, called in the rules.
Both of the half-breed demi-humans are born of humans and humanoids. This also affects what happens to them in the afterlife and how to bring them back from there, ie, can't cast resurrection on a humanoid.
Hi Andy. I used to like the Deities & Demigods distinction between souls and spirits. You likely recall that humans, demi-humans, and humanoids all had souls, except for elves, which had spirits.
I forget how 2e treated that old distinction but 3e seems to have dropped it, i.e., Raise Dead works on elves. I think it's fine if one wants to keep it; it provided good flavor and puts elves closer to fey (although Raise Dead apparently works on fey too in 3.5e).
Leaving aside the rules but keeping the soul / spirit conceptual distinction in mind, it makes sense to me that a half-elf would have a soul (and free will). Recalling Elrond's children, I'd likely posit that a half-elf + elf mating produces a child that can "choose" spirit or soul, perhaps at a coming of age ceremony. I think the birth default would be soul.
Back to NathanBrazil's original post, the most surprising one to me are all those sylvan olves in Nyrond, "212,074 (8.1%) Nyrond"!
Hi Andy. I used to like the Deities & Demigods distinction between souls and spirits. You likely recall that humans, demi-humans, and humanoids all had souls, except for elves, which had spirits.
Humans and demihumans have souls. Humanoids and everything else have spirits. And elves, alone among the PC races, are humanoids. That's how it worked.
Anyway, I keep the distinction in my 3E house rules. Actually, I made demi-human a sub-type of humanoid. I found it the smoothest fit with the ruleset. All the demihumans also retain their original sub-type, so a dwarf is a humanoid (demihuman, dwarf). A drow is a humanoid (elf).
I was toying with the idea of making most of the AD&D humanoids fey instead, but I'm not sure how that will interact with the rest of the rules.
Wilt Chamberlain could take some lessons from the elves of Greyhawk!
If one constructs a very simple genetic chart for half elves one in 4 will be a true elf, two in four will be half-elves, and one in 4 will be a true human. However, any results are always beholden to the "DM Fudge" rule. Of course.
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