It is funny that we're all discussing cross species.. I think there's a difference GhostWolfe about a lion/tiger mating and a horse and a donkey - they both come from the same species - feline and equine. Even the fact that they're both animals doesn't really make it realistic - I wonder like to see a mouse after an elephant had a go on it! When we look at dwarves (the fantasy kind) where do they come from? This excerpt from wiki - Norse mythology, as recorded in the Poetic Edda (compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources) and the Prose Edda (written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century) provide different mythical origins for the beings. The Poetic Edda poem Völuspá details that the dwarves were the product of the primordial blood of the being Brimir and the bones of Bláinn. The Prose Edda, however, describes dwarves as beings similar to maggots that festered in the flesh of the primal being Ymir before being gifted with reason by the gods. The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda contain over 100 dwarf names, while the Prose Edda gives the four dwarves Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri a cosmological role – they hold up the sky.[5] In addition, scholars have noted that the Svartálfar, who, like dwarves, are said in the Prose Edda to dwell in Svartálfaheimr, appear to be the same beings as dwarves.[6] Very few actual dwarf characters appear in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda and have quite diverse roles: murderous creators of the mead of poetry, 'reluctant donors' of important artifacts with magical qualities, or sexual predators who lust after goddesses.[7] Some scholars have proposed that the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá may contain an account of the first human beings, Ask and Embla, as having been created by dwarves. A preceding stanza to the account of the creation of Ask and Embla in Völuspá provides a catalog of dwarf names, and stanza 10 has been read as describing the creation of human forms from the earth. This may potentially mean that dwarves formed humans, and that the three gods gave them life.[8] However in Norse Mythology, it cites Ask and Embla as being the first humans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ask_and_Embla ) so why not have dwarves and humans mate - same species
Personally, I would have my fantasy-dwarves matings with humans similar to Lion/Tiger or Horse/Donkey matings - that is, they give rise to infertile offspring.
cn... it's your book... and it's fiction... ergo, you can make them be capable of mating or not, depending on the needs of your story... if you write well enough to make it make sense, why would you think it might not be 'accepted' by the readers... it's fiction... it's fiction... it's FICTION...
I have to disagree Maia, are fiction and fantasy the same? The guy is writing fantasy so as far fetched as his FANTASY is, it still has to be believable and a lot of fantasy readers won't accept a flying rat monkey made of cheese fighting the ice-face pasta man in the furnaces of hell on a bed made of tomato paste - purely because they would both melt so it's not really a case of anything goes as long as it makes sense. Might make a nice pizza though...
Earlier in this thread, you referred to the "basic rules of fantasy." I don't think there is such a thing. There is no one, single fantasy universe. Many fantasy universes are very similar, but that doesn't mean that all of them must conform to the same rules, the same laws. I don't read much high fantasy (I don't think I've read any since LOTR in high school), but it wouldn't bother me at all if a human-dwarf hybrid appeared in a story.
Fantasy is all about inventing stuff. He can have his dwarves mating with monkeys and fighting flying pokemon and still be believable (well, maybe not so much but still). It all depends on how the writer writes his story.
There's your answer Creative Nothings - some people will accept anything while others like me think you should stick to the basic rules of what makes a creature what it is. Of course you can expand on these and while I didn't think dwarves and humans should mate, after reading the Norse versions of dwarves being the primordial humans then why not - same species, let them party. Of course - fantasy is fantasy - but would you believe in an ageing vampire that lived only on lettuce and could die from a good sneeze? Just the basic rules of a vampire is he needs blood to survive, 99% can't go out in sunlight (the other 1% being a daywalker) and they are all frozen at the age of their turning. If he could grow extra limbs and was turned on by dead zebras he would no longer be a proper vampire. I'm all for creating new creatures though!
It may have been easier to make outsiders by being completely hairless, A Dwarf without a beard outrageous. No proper Dwarf would have anything to do with them
Your World, your rules. Besides makes a change, i think people would accept it. Dint a human fall in love with an ape in planet of the apes?
Provided you write it in a way that is truthful to your mythology, I don't see the problem. It's your world, so it's your rules. The reader is going to have already made part of the journey with you in terms of accepting the type of genre, so I'm sure if you handle it carefully it'll fit okay.
If you ask whether it is believable, it won't be. MAKE it believable. Sell it to the reader. Sell it to yourself. The best storytellers spin the wildest yarns, and never ask if anyone believes them.
This is all you need as a writer, you can write about anything if you make it believable in your world, and dont let anyone tell you otherwise
Most fantasy universes seem to treat the fantasy "races" as humanoid variants. So long as you haven't included anything in your setting that would obviously counter that basis (like your dwarves aren't born, they're formed out of clay or something), then most readers will accept cross breeding.
Yes, you sure can. But consider the impact of such a "half-breed" in your world. Would they be accepted in human or dwarf society? Are they few or many? Can they breed true? Would they suffer from cross breeding mutations or have the best attributes of both human and dwarf? D&D did it in their Dark Sun setting, just google "Dark Sun Mul"
If a sixteen+ feet giant can mate with a human in HP, why can't a dwarf mate with a human? Stop worrying about this, there are stranger things out there that no one every stopped to question. If you can pull it off with your writing then I'd like to read it.
We did accept Tanis the Half-Elven in Dragonlance. Who is to say there can be half elves but not half dwarves? But like others been saying. It's your story, you make the rules.
In the real world, we have stories where... #1- In Dragonball Z, a fully-human woman can sire two children with a freakishly strong monkey-man from outer space. Oh, and a certain little bald, noseless dwarf can sire a daughter with an android (well, really, a human with augumentations, but still...) #2- In Avatar, a guy falls in love with a cat-girl. #3- In Babylon 5, a human captain falls in love with an alien woman and presumably marries her. #4- In Star Trek, Spock is the son of a pure Vulcan father and pure human mother. #5- In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Worf's kid is the son of him and a human mother. (Speaking of which, did we ever got to meet the kid's mom, or was Worf just mute on that and advised everyone else to shut up about it?) #6- As mentioned before, a frickin' giant can sire a child with a human. #7- In that same story, we have a boy who is the son of a werewolf and a human mother. #8- In the videogame The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there's an NPC who is the child of a vampire and a human. It should also be noted that, in that same series, there is the implication that all of the ten fantasy races (ranging from people, to elves, to the orc race and beast races) can sire children, and the child takes on the mother's race. #9- In Superman Returns, Superman apparently had a son with Lois Lane. So, before this list gets too long, no, it would not be unbelievable if a human and (insert fantasy/sci-fi race) were to mate. As long as they both consent, and they have the proper working parts, then why not? Basically, it all just boils down to what paper55 said. a- Is there a taboo in-universe? What would happen to the dwarf and the human? Are they willing to risk it all for their love? Will they defy their own cultures? b- If they have a baby, what will become of him/her? Will there be a risk of the baby being deformed/sick in some way because of the conflicting DNA/genes/blood/whatever? Again, are the parents willing to take the risks? Would they want to take that risk, knowing that there's a chance they would condemn an innocent child to suffering? That could add some angst and drama to your story, if you wanted to go down that road.
A half(!) alien, after she goes through her transformation. But, it's cool, because Minbari souls can be reborn in human bodies (even if that only happened once that we know about). If your half-dwarves are less complicated than that, I think you're golden.
Wow. I must've been a really stupid kid. xD When she ended her transformation, I couldn't exactly piece together that she literally was reborn into a human body. I just assumed that weird thing was just complicated, Minbari (oh, so THAT was the name of the race! Not 'mimbari'!) self-plastic surgery.
It wasn't explained too well. She went into the chrysalis as a Minbari & came out half-human so that she could marry Sheridan & unite their people. This is somehow linked to the fact that during the War of the Line, the Minbari captured Sinclair (the first captain of Babylon 5 - the Minbari said they wouldn't participate if he wasn't appointed captain) & discovered that he was Valen reborn in a human body, causing them to decide that Minbari could be reborn as humans & killing them would be akin to murdering their own people, so they surrendered. Simple, right?
