A reminder on racial roleplay re: Half Elves...

[RogueGunslinger]

I don't find that black and white mentality very realistic. But I support the passion against breeds.

[HavokBlue]

If I'm playing Joe Kurac and my Fist sergeant is a breed, I'm damn well treating that breed better than the human he just hired as a recruit.

My opinion of him will still be colored by the fact that he's a breed, but and I probably like all the human sergeants more than I like the breed sergeant, but he's elevated himself somewhat.

[Jihelu]

Say a breed manages to find another breed girl/human/elf/how the hell did this happen/etc and has a kid/settles for a bit. Then they hit that 'muh independence' phase, do they just abandon them or do they eventually 'grow out of' their need for acceptance? I'm assuming they run off.

[Barzalene]

If I'm playing Joe Kurac and my Fist sergeant is a breed, I'm damn well treating that breed better than the human he just hired as a recruit.

My opinion of him will still be colored by the fact that he's a breed, but and I probably like all the human sergeants more than I like the breed sergeant, but he's elevated himself somewhat.

You, your bomb sniffing dog, and some guy, right out of training, walk into a building with an explosive. You know you can rely on your dog. You like your dog better than this random guy. But your dog is still a dog.

[Patuk]

Say a breed manages to find another breed girl/human/elf/how the hell did this happen/etc and has a kid/settles for a bit. Then they hit that 'muh independence' phase, do they just abandon them or do they eventually 'grow out of' their need for acceptance? I'm assuming they run off.

They don't grow out of it. Ever. It doesn't need to be a full-blown ragequit screw you guys I'm out kind of thing, but asserting independence is something breeds don't stop doing.

[Delirium]

Think of a cat.

"Rub my belly!" "Now stop. Go away!" "Now come back and snuggle with me." "Hsssssss. Stop! *claws the shit out of your hand*"

People don't like halfbreeds because they're emotionally exhausting to be around, and they're not nearly as cute as kittens.

Their existence is also an uncomfortable reminder that somewhere, somewhen, a human and an elf did it.

Gross.

[Barzalene]

Fido is a great dog. Fido is not alright for a dog.

[Marauder Moe]

Think of a cat.

"Rub my belly!" "Now stop. Go away!" "Now come back and snuggle with me." "Hsssssss. Stop! *claws the shit out of your hand*"

People don't like halfbreeds because they're emotionally exhausting to be around, and they're not nearly as cute as kittens.

Their existence is also an uncomfortable reminder that somewhere, somewhen, a human and an elf did it.

Gross.

This is a great post.


Let's also not forget that social relationships are not 1-dimensional.  A half-elf can be a Kuraci sergeant, but that doesn't mean his unit buddies up to him like they might with a human leader, or that they like him at all; they just follow his orders.  Respect, but not acceptance.

That said, any veteran that plays an elf/halfbreed/magicker/mutant is not only willing to play with social scorn/rejection, they're probably looking forward to it.  I'd say that means you can go a little further in confrontations without sparking a major retaliation.  Not to say that there isn't a line, every character has one, but don't fear so much you're going to piss off the player over a little insult.

[hopeandsorrow]

Something I'm always curious about is how breed infants even make it.

Considering they're undesirable.
On top of an already high infant mortality rate.

There is still enough breeds making it child hood, and even then making it to adult hood, to be all over the game world as vnpc's,npc's, and even pc's.

I just imagine, is this because a mothers love is stronger then social stigma? 
Infants will not survive long with out milk, I don't orphanages are pack with wet nurses, or is there any type of formula. 

Something I've always pondered.

Is there such thing as "He's breed alright... but he's OUR breed."

or "I know she's a half-breed... but I couldn't abandoned her."

How do the little angsty things survive?

[Beethoven]

Well, it just kind of pushes the issue back a step, but a lot of, if not most, half-breeds are probably children of two half-breed parents. But again, somewhere down the line, elves and humans had to have deliberately carried a mixed child to term and reared it. I think that it's probably most likely the parental bond thing. They don't want to love the little monster, but it's instinct, and they can't help it. Some people will be able to abandon their unwanted offspring, and others won't.

[Lizzie]

"I'll get this creature weaned and then I'll sell it to the Guild boss. I could probably earn me enough sids to get out of the rinth once and for all!"

[Marauder Moe]

I believe those are all perfectly valid options.

[Delirium]

There's also the possibility that half-elven ancestry isn't immediately obvious until they're older.

[TheWanderer]

^

[Talia]

You know why any babies, ever, make it? Because they are cute. Cute is the survival mechanism of babies. Because without the cuteness that for whatever reason inspires humans/elves/gith to take care of these tiny, wretched, miserable, shitty, loud creatures--we would eat them or conveniently "forget" them someplace. The babies of some species can start to take care of themselves pretty quickly, so they stop being cute after not too long. Human(oid) babies are cute for a long time because they are so fucking annoying and dependent for so fucking long.

By the time that half-breed baby/toddler/kid isn't cute anymore, it's already able to take care of itself. And it should.

Lots of parents actually hate their children IRL, but keep taking care of them anyway, up to a point. That's always been a hard, sad truth of this awful, crazy world we live in.

I guess my point is: There's IC justification for however you want to play it. Let's not make it so difficult, and let's just give players of half-elves the benefit of the doubt.

[Patuk]

Yeah.. Out of all the accusations you could level at breed playersm 'how did your dude even survive' seems kind of low on the list.

[valeria]

And kids are also more resilient and able to take care of themselves at younger ages then people give them credit for.  I see a lot of neglect cases and very sadly, some of the kids have been raising themselves since four  years old. I don't recommend letting your four-year-old live off trash and begging, but some kids will find a way to survive.

[hopeandsorrow]

Yeah.. Out of all the accusations you could level at breed playersm 'how did your dude even survive' seems kind of low on the list.

Well I wasn't making accusations, just an honest curious question, that perhaps hopefully opened up some thought or discussion about half-breeds beyond the usual answers that makes the world Armageddon seem like an entire population of complete sociopaths. 

[Incognito]

edit: For all the (good and well-done and properly represented) roleplay hate vs elves... that does not and shouldn't mean half-elves are one step above since they can join Houses and Clans... They are -lower- than Elves in the regard to both human and elven cultures.

Lemme give you a few twists on this one :
1) Elves will ALWAYS consider half-elves to be way beneath them, but then again, elves view ALL other races beneath them.
2) Humans and dwarves might have their own "personal" opinions on whether they prefer half-elves over elves, or the other way around. Its a judgement call really, and depends on how the individual player has his PC set up, and influencing experiences and background might also play a role in here.
3) As far as half-giants are concerned, I'm inclined to believe that they might actually hold half-elves in higher esteem than elves, simply because half-elves have a great rapport with beasts (something that perhaps a half-giant might be inclined to think might be akin to kindness), furthermore, half-elves as a rule, don't con half-giants as much as elves might do. Half-giants might be slow and immature, but they're not dumb! Once they know "elves bad" - they can pretty much remember it forever.
4) Now, half-elves themselves, they know that they're the result of some kind of an immoral or illegal or unnatural act, and probably view themselves as the lowest rung with possibly the exception of muls, who they might feel are the result of experimentation and hence even lower in status than themselves. Half-elves walk a thin line - between wanting acceptance, and rejecting company - they might find it suitable to be more open with other half-elves of course, and perhaps other unwanted creatures - such as slaves and muls.
5) As far as Muls go - they KNOW they're the product of twisted magickery and unnatural experimentation - and so they have no doubt that they're the lowest of the low, so to speak. Of course, certain muls (as with all other creatures) will always prove to be the exception.

[BadSkeelz]

Just going to jump in and say that half-giants are incredibly dumb and not playing them dumb is bad roleplay.

[Narf]

Just going to jump in and say that half-giants are incredibly dumb and not playing them dumb is bad roleplay.

Half giants have an impeding mindset that's separate from their actual intelligence.

Anecdotally, their coded intelligence isn't quite as crippling as people portray it.

[Patuk]

Half-giants are dumb. How did you come to the opposite conclusion?

[Incognito]

Half-giants are dumb. How did you come to the opposite conclusion?

Just going to jump in and say that half-giants are incredibly dumb and not playing them dumb is bad roleplay.

As per docs - half-giants are infamously "stupid" and have low wisdoms.

Stupid is NOT the same as dumb.

Without going into details of language - lets just please move ahead and not derail this thread.

Purely as a sidenote:
Dumb, simply put, is when you don't know any better.

Stupid, simply put, is when you know better, but you do it anyway.

[whitt]

Purely as a sidenote:

Dumb Ignorant , simply put, is when you don't know any better.

Dumb , simply put, is when you don't learn from mistakes.

Stupid, simply put, is when you know better, but you do it anyway.

[HavokBlue]

this is going to be a riveting argument