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Post by Sofia on Sept 21, 2014 10:56:44 GMT 1
We have several different animal-blooded elves in our Holt, which makes genetics a bit tricky. Differences can be good, but too much can result in unviable births. I've been in Holts where the solution to this was that elves with different animal-bloods couldn't Recognize each other, only elves with the same animal-blood or purebloods. That, I think, is boring  Plus, it leaves us with much fewer options for Recognized pairs, also boring. The other solution I've seen, and which I use in other Holts I'm in, is this: Example: Elf A (wolf-blood) Recognizes elf B (tiger-blood). Their child, elf C, then ends up being wolf/tiger-blooded, but only one of those bloods will be "active". That means elf C will only be able to bond with wolves or tigers, not both. However, if C ends up with dominant tiger-blood, they can still pass on their wolf-blood to their offspring! So say elf C (tiger/wolf-blood) Recognizes elf D (owl-blood) and has a child called E. E can then be a tiger/owl-blood or a wolf/owl-blood, with one of those bloods being dominant just as it is for elf C (no tiger/wolf/owl-blood though, that's just too much of a headache for us players). Does this sound like a good set-up? |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2014 11:23:41 GMT 1
It does, and it make sense. I played a character that was mixed blood being wolf/cat-blooded, but she was highly conflicted, since she'd had bad experiences related to her feline blooded relatives/tribe. She loved the wolf, as it helped her to survive their cruelty, but hated the feline because it represented her suffering and pain. So spiritually she relied on the wolf-half, but rejected the feline-half, so she couldn't actually recognise. Came close once, but couldn't complete the potential bond as her feline-half concealed her soulname, broke the connection, and created, inevitably, a shallow 'soul imprint' in which she became something of a soul-sibling to her potential recognised and not a soulmate.
I think it would work, but if the elf was in conflict with themselves, which I think is inevitable, they may have to choose a side. I mean Timmorn struggled for equality between the wolf and elf parts of him. I think for mixed blooded elves it would be the same. Both beast natures would be very at basic levels quite compelling, so dormancy of one over the other makes sense. You could also have the parents seek help from a healer, though that ultimately might be unnecessary. Nature would find a way to balance it or the elf might be driven insane.
It is a good solution suggested thus far.
If I had an elf like this I'd just mess with it a bit to make the unfolding of it for the baby-elf more interesting.
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Post by Badger on Sept 21, 2014 12:17:21 GMT 1
Sounds reasonable. I was thinking about this today. Like if ... Juniper Recognized one of the cat-blooded dames, would their child become rider of what animal? Would the players decided on that with coin toss?
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Post by Sofia on Sept 21, 2014 16:30:09 GMT 1
I definitely think an elf baby with different animal-bloods would grow up a bit differently than one-blood animal-blood, just like an animal-blooded elf grows up differently then a pureblooded elf. Your "blood" does affect how you grow up, especially when it contacts with your environment; being more different from one of your parents than the other is always a bit of a challenge to a family. I think the players of the baby's parents should get to decide which bloods the child inherits and which will be dominant. If they can't agree, we do the coin toss  Players of a Recognized couple also get to decie the baby's appearance and temperament - but I think we leave fullblown personality a bit vague until they're more grown. No fun to decide "this baby will grow up to be like _this_" right away. Also, if one or both of the Recognized elves has a magic or magic in their family, they get to decide if the child inherits that magic (though please no Plant-Shaper/Healer/Glider/Rock-Shaper super babies). |
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Post by Badger on Sept 21, 2014 16:44:03 GMT 1
Well, naturally just one magic power if the child has magic. Also, I suspect that we need to keep the powers in the traditional range, instead of thinking of new super powerful magics, yeah?
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Post by Greywing on Sept 21, 2014 18:12:48 GMT 1
That calls into question what role these children will play. Will they be NPCs? Will they be adopted out? How long do we have to wait until they're playable?
I would personally prefer that whoever adopts the child gets to choose what magic they have. Magic doesn't always have to be hereditary, or it could skip a generation, so maybe that child has grandparents with completely different magic to choose from, or we just choose from the pool, or they're not magical at all. I think most elves come in to their magic later on in life...healers and gliders often know from birth, but like, Snakeskin, for example, needed a catalyst. I don't think Redlance found out until later either. I basically just don't want a bunch of superbabies, or a pregnant elf who leaves flowers in her path because her child is a treeshaper.
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Post by Sofia on Sept 21, 2014 20:15:10 GMT 1
I was thinking that we'd have the child be an NPC until they were old enough to be interesting for a player to pick up (and how old is that? 2? 5? 10?) so good point about a potential player getting to pick magic. Magic is something most elves don't know for sure that they have until later in life, so it's very possible to wait with deciding until they baby is a teenager or young adult, or even older. Maybe we should wait with both blood- and magic decisions until a potential player expresses interest in the character? Then the player can get a list of possible magic the elf could develop (based on what the players of the parents say their elves have and what magic their ancestors might have had) and be told what blood options there are to choose from, as well as choose which blood will be dominant (though then they'd have to adopt the elf when it's about 5-10 years old, since that's when elf children usually find their first bond-friend). In some cases there could of course be magic appearing that hasn't been in the family of either of the parents popping up, but that I think we should save for rarer occasions and not have every elf baby get. And of course a lot of elves don't have more magic than Sending and Animal-Bonding and they are fun to play too. I think we should refrain from inventing new magic that hasn't been established in canon somehow. That could be another "slippery slope". And it's not like canon doesn't have a lot to choose from |
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Post by Greywing on Sept 21, 2014 20:28:23 GMT 1
I would say 5, minimum, for interesting enough for a fully-fledged character. I would be down for waiting for what blood is dominant as well...I think the parents should only choose physical features, like eye and hair color, name and soul name. Then whoever adopts the character will get like...a gene map, that lists what options are available to them in terms of blood, magic, but also like...body types, height, and that sort of thing. And whatever beast they bond with first will represent what blood is dominant. I definitely am not down with creating any NEW magic...just the possibility that, say, Panaetha and Reefshadow could produce a treeshaper, even though there's no treeshaping in their families. Happens in canon too...Pool's got a particularly strong Magic Feeling sense, even though no one in his immediate family or among his grandparents has that same sense. Same for Korafay; no other floaters in her gene pool. I am, of course, a huge advocate for elves without magic as well. |
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Post by Sofia on Sept 21, 2014 21:48:15 GMT 1
Yeah, I'm not against elves having magic not that heard of in the family tree - elves seem to be born with magic that is "needed" to the tribe (like Venka, born with magic able to stop Winnowill, or Pool, born with magic able to find Winnowill's creatures, etc.) most of the time at least, speaking more for the "intelligence" of Recognition. And while Korafay and Pool might not have those magics in their immediate family or two generations back, who knows what their very far back ancestors had + they were born after the elves discovered the Palace For arguement's sake we could of course just say "you can inherite anything since the High Ones had all of it" but I think it could be fun to play firstly on what's been in your family tree recently. Magic can of course jump a generation or two. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2014 21:58:50 GMT 1
Too true. I mean was Kimo is a shape-shifter like Timmain. I can't remember that skill being common in any of the elves after Timmain's generation, although saying that, it could have been buried in the Sun Villager genetics or the wolfrider too, just happened to express itself in Kimo. Which is fairly kewl, so yeah the skipping generational magic thing, does happen in canon.
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Plus, it leaves us with much fewer options for Recognized pairs, also boring.
