my intro + discussion on orcish genetics

I just realized something! Have anyone of you ever seen a child of a half-breed? They don't seem to exist. I mean, there are no third generation orcs or elves. There are only the half-breeds!

This means that half-breeds cannot breed! Ha HA!!

 

I'm afraid not Wolfsbane. This is from the Sierra site:

Yes I accept that. At the time the only true example I could think of was diploid and triploid strains of ancient wheat but I thought that was too obscure to make a good example.

It seems that the minute races cannot interbreed with each other because they are too greatly separated by natural selection or truly ancient supernatural selection.

Now where all this falls down is the fact that ogres and humans can interbreed to create fertile offspring. Ogres are descended from giants and are not related to humans.
But there are a couple of possible explanations:
1. The gnomes are using potent magic to make the species compatible.
2. Ditto but with science.
3. Giants are descended from humans via supernatural selection so de-magicked giants (ogres) are actually quite similar to humans.

 

There is also the note that while different species cannot breed together, subspecies can. Look at dogs. Different subspecies easily combine to create new offspring. So perhaps the racial differences are quite minute on a genetic level.

 

Allright, allright, I'm beaten.... Damn, I was close on that one.
But... Why are you so goddamn interested in this, if one dare ask?

 

1. I think the races of Arcanum are one of its most interesting features. It's a pleasant break from elder elves and young humans.
2. The Races of Arcanum section of the Sierra site was my introduction to Arcanum. Nostalgia?
3. The ogre breeding program was my favourite quest.
4. I am attempting to breed a race of super strong, aggressive orcs in my spare time. This largely involves trying to get a crocodile to mate with a pig. Success has been...limited.

 

Crocodile can't get up can it? Yea it's hard getting turned on by the fat ones sometimes, but you learn to deal.

 

He's mad, Blinky. Don't you go and sympathize him just because he's a lunetic with a taste for breeding. He's no better than those evil little gnomes in Arcanum.
Down with the industrial council! Long live Don Throgg!

 

*stabs wolfsbane* Fucking communists.

 

Communistic Heaven! (name of my team on humoristic competittion: there we won 1st place, maybe because of name) Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!

Spoiler

jokes, I'm democrat.

 

Down with Lenin! I just like Don Throgg better because he doesn't kill innocent people when trying to breed bodyguards for himself. He's brave.

 

Make mod where he is level 50, master in guns, and all Tarant guards are level 1

 

But then he wouldn't be so very brave, since all the guards would die before he even got to fire at them (I'd kill the lot of them before he even appears)

 

Isn't that the whole point? Killing, aside from stealing, is one of the coolest things one could ever do in Arcanum. I remember killing Tarant just because I didn't feel like pickpocketing everyone. I think I did the same thing to Caladon and Roseborough.

 

good job, soldier!

 

If you want to do that with a reason, then just help Don Throgg in his cause and both of Caladon and Tarant will turn against you.

 

I killed everyone because they didn't like me.
Must have been because of the Bangelian Scourge.

Anyway, it was fun seeing them trying to kill a 50th level dark elf mage with three magic colleges.

 

Well, odd as this may sound, I actually have something to say related to this thread's topic. The way I see it, considering many of the races of arcanum occured through the use of magic, I think what happened with Gar was a pre-natal Magickal exposure. This may actually be how Orcs and elves came to evolve. Humans, dabbling more and more in magic, ended up having children who were innately magical, or deformed by some abjuration of nature. What I think happened, is that some children were born more elf like, and no one could really complain. What would they say? "Oh, my daughter is so beautiful and fair, I just can't live with her." If an Orc child was born, I can understand if they threw it away. I'm all for tolerance, but if your kid is born green with jutting lower canines, put it in the woods and run away. What I'm thinking is, Not many Orcish children survived, but obviously elves were plentiful because their parents took care of them. The remaining orcs were forced to mate with each other, but the gene pool thinned out, resulting in heavy inbreeding, aggression, and stupidity. This is why half orcs are as smart as humans; Their brains weren't too far off, but the aggression was retained. It's the same reason why some Doberman Pinschers are untrainable. The brains continued to grow, but the brain cases were too small, resulting in too much pressure over the medulla oblongata, the emotion center of the brain. So, the orcs were not only mentally deficient because of these deformities, but also overly aggresive. And that's my theory. What do you guys think?

 

It could work.

 

Zer Gut!

 

It's "Sehr Gut".