Some funny cross-species genetics (like two half-elves producing an elf etc)

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Let's take two half elves in Mendel's scheme. I is your given allele (version of a gene), where H is human and E is elven. Capital is a dominant allele, lowercase is a recessive one. Therefore:

Half-elf1: I_h, I_e
Half-elf2: I_h, I_e

In this example of alleles are recessive. Taking only one allele from each parent (that's how you do it - you take one allele from each parent and that's why you have two in said parents - they also got one from each parent of their own), we can get:

I_h, I_h - a human trait
I_e, I_e - an elven trait
I_h, I_e - blend or mix
I_e, I_h - blend of mix

This means that you can have a family where the parents are both half-elven, one sibling is human, one elven and one half-elven.

If some alleles were recessive and some dominant, you could also get:

I_H, I_e - the human trait persists, due to the dominant human allele, despite the recessive elven allele
I_h, I_E - the elven trait persists, due to the dominant elven allele, despite the recessive human allele
I_H, I_E - either a mix, or the human and the elven trait appear simultaneously

Side-note: yes, this means there could be near-complete elves with round ears or near-complete humans with pointy ears, which is because your race is decided by the proportion between human and elven traits; but I guess this aspect of half-elven genetics is never going to be covered in D&D books...

Side-note 2: but, realistically, some traits will appear in both full-blooded elves and full-blooded humans, so sometimes it won't matter whose allele persists from the point of view of the race of the child - this only increases the probability of elven or human alleles prevailing (as you don't need the full set to be specifically elven or human because only some of the traits carry any meaning from the point of view of race)

If a human were to have kids with a halfling, there would possibly occur the following combinations (H for human, HH for halfling, lowercase for recessive alleles):

I_H, I_hh - the youngling takes after the human, i.e. a race-irrelevant or typically human trait
I_HH, I_h - the youngling takes after the halfling, i.e. a trait which is race-irrelevant or halfling-leaning
I_h, I_hh or I_H, I_HH - a blend or two traits appearing simultaneously

This is taking into consideration that humans and halflings are so closely related that they can reproduce normally and there's no mix (a bit like between a human and a half-elf). What you get is a halfling, a human... or possibly a tall halfling or a short human. Or a nice little human girl... with hairy feet. Hehe. Or a halfling with bald feet. Horror!

Now, a generic human (GH) and a half-elf (CH - human trait, CE - elven trait, caps for dominant alleles, lowercase for recessive ones):

I_GH, I_e - despite the child having one elven allele, this particular trait will be human
I_gh, I_E - despite the child having one human allele, the elven trait will dominate
I_gh, I_H - the dominating trait is taken from the half-elf, and it's a human trait
I_gh, I_h - the dominating trait is human and taken after the human; whether the allele from the half-elf is human or elven doesn't matter a lot
I_gh, I_E or I_GH, I_E - either the human and the elven trait appear simultaneously, or there's a blend of the two

Of course, a half-elf doesn't (as a rule) have enough exclusively elven dominant traits to pass and make the child more of an elf than he was (I'll cover exceptions in a moment). A couple of elven traits will persist, but the child will most likely be human. Maybe half-elven but the chance isn't high.

Now, the exception I promised. This is going to be a very hypothetical half-elven father, unlikely ever to happen:

All his genetic traits look like: I_H, I_E.

This means that there's either a blend between the human and the elven version, or both versions appearing, for each trait. Thus outh half-elven father is a perfectly valid half-elf with more dominant elven alleles than even some full-blooded elves have.

He meets a human whose all traits look like: I_h, I_h. So what? This means that the human has all alleles recessive. Perfectly valid human, but see what happens in a mix:

Most likely: I_H, I_h for some traits and I_E, I_h for some others. What is the result? This suggests a human or a half-elf.

Q: But what if all alleles taken from the father were I_E - dominating elven alleles?

A: All traits of the child would look like: I_E, I_h. Yes, this means a perfectly valid elf born of a union between a half-elf and a human. Probability? Next to zero. One in gazillions. Ten to the power of negative near-infinity. But theoretically possible. It's a bit more probable between a human and a full-blooded elf.

This rests on the assumption that the genetic structure of a human and an elf is similar. Said assumption I rest on the fact that mixes are fertile, unlike your typical cross-species mix that won't breed. Again, if we had the structure change as well, then indeed the effect would be more akin to the classic elven, human and half-elven scheme with cross-species traits distinctly standing out. However, as I said, we need to keep humans and elves similar enough to produce fertile offspring. Thoughts?

[ December 22, 2004, 00:10: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

Wuh?

Thats my thought, though genetics/breeding isn't really my thing. I would have thought that half elf + half elf = half elf, but I am no expert. Genetics scare me.

 

Not that genetics between interbreeding races gets that simple. For example, if you breed a horse and a donkey, you'll always get a mule. And it'll be sterile.

It's interesting note that all half-elves have the property of elf blood, meaning that they are affected by magic (or affect magic items) as if they were normal elves. However, half-elves don't have a "human blood" property (the same applies to half-orcs and some templates, e. g. a half-fiend is considered an outsider*.)

* - but a half-fiend does not possess the evil or extraplanar subtype; it only has the native subtype.

 

That's still quite an assumption, though it might be a hypothetical question. Under that assumption, humans and elves are basically the same species (unless you also assume that they wouldn't breed naturally), elf/human traits skip generations, so on. The idea of elves and humans, considering D&D elves' sleeping and longevity, being the same species is at least pretty interesting.

Or whatever, maybe you're absolutely right about Mendellian genetics, and if we someday encountered a lost race of elves, we'd have to dial you up.

---

Now that I think about it, the whole is very hypothetical. Applying science to fantasy - that's a bag of worms. Especially when you consider physics and magic...

[ December 17, 2004, 03:12: Message edited by: Oaz ]

 

Yeah, fact stands that elves are always said to have been created before humans and they never result from evolution - about humans things are unclear. I have to agree, about elves it's very hypothetical and it's much like applying science to magic. It become a bit more certain when it comes to two half-elves, a human and a half-elf or an elf and a half-elf. Definitely human and halfling, as these two are practically one species.