Population and location

[Mouse]

Prelude to a sneeze!

I've decided... *Mouse's nose twitches uncontrollably and her sides inflate*.... Eeekshoo..... Eeekshooo....

that I'm allergic to discussions about the R thing!

[Elterio Delgard]

Prelude to a sneeze!

I've decided... *Mouse's nose twitches uncontrollably and her sides inflate*.... Eeekshoo..... Eeekshooo....

that I'm allergic to discussions about the R thing!

stop it thats just TOO CUTE now XD I like rodents.

[Elterio Delgard]

About interbreeding and skin colours...
Orcs can be green and gray, which humans can't. If they breed, would that not be interesting? How are half-orcs generally in books and D&D? I ask this question while I remember Tales of Symphonia (a good JRPG game on Game Cube I really enjoyed as a child) in which elves and humans didn't despise each other as much as a mixe between them. I find it a little bit abstract to be honest. If you do not hate another specie so to speak, how can you be against a ''mixed bred''? Though I wonder if those cliches are not there to give a context to a love story as in Romeo and Juliette...

I wonder if a green orc could give its green colour to a human half orc? If the gene is dominant, it could be interesting to have some green humans!

Something else someone brought up is the possibility of having FERTILE children. You can have a mule from a horse and a donkey, but a mule cannot reproduce... Which species would probably not mix well? Elves and humans are basically similar everywhere. Maybe a male orc making a female human pregnant could mean a dangerous birth for her since orcs can be really well built and solid, which would be quite the ordeal on a woman's bassin. Maybe after a few generations of mixing the human females could have a sturdier skeleton and mix with a higher survival rate with an orc? Goblins wouldn't probably be able to give birth to orcs, humans I doubt. Dwarves? OKAY! Do dwarves spring forth from a hole in the earth or they have female dwarves? Sorry but I am not a huge reader so my knowledge is quite limited.

[Mouse]

About the first paragraph... and risking the fact that I may come out in an unsightly rash from mentioning the R word again so soon...

I think the resentment towards half-breeds lies in the fact that they are undeniable proof that someone dared to break the taboo, and lie with a member of the 'inferior' race. In the case of half-breeds that exist in an environment where racism is all about the perceived inferiority of 'the other race', I expect there would be a stronger sense of genuinely felt revulsion and anger, and that the half-breed would be driven away or killed so that it wasn't around any more to remind the 'good people' that such a 'horrific and unacceptable' thing had ever happened. They would want to get rid of the 'bad example' to their own pure-bred children.

Humanoids can be so ridiculously self-centred and ugly at times!

[Ilanthar]

As I tend to join Diamond's comment, I think there are 2 particular situations where it's not the case.
1) When populations are isolated and rarely encounter each other
2) When the mix of different species is too important. I mean, in some fantasy world, humans are a minority as well as the 50 other sentient species... and therefore, it's hard for one to gain a dominant position. Of course, there must be an explanation (often magical or godly) of how this situation is possible

Concerning color skin : there is the melanine thing, but there is also the color of the blood. Human blood is red due to hemoglobine, but blue blood exists on Earth (with hemocyanine). Other blood colors could be possible with some imagination. In a lot of fantasy settings, orcs & gobelins are called black bloods. That should interfere with the color of the skin, especially when the melanine is low.

[acrosome]

A special hatred of mixed-race people is pretty well demonstrated, historically. Similarly for mixed-race couples. In the US historically black/white couples get no end of grief, especially if the man was the black. Hell, in some parts that could be fatal. Yet white men taking Indian wives was never really frowned upon, even if the resulting offspring were often disparaged as "half-breeds."

Concerning color skin : there is the melanine thing, but there is also the color of the blood. Human blood is red due to hemoglobine, but blue blood exists on Earth (with hemocyanine).

Also green, yellow and violet. Blue uses copper as the binding ion, and the yellow uses vanadium!

[Mouse]

A special hatred of mixed-race people is pretty well demonstrated, historically. Similarly for mixed-race couples. In the US historically black/white couples get no end of grief, especially if the man was the black. Hell, in some parts that could be fatal. Yet white men taking Indian wives was never really frowned upon, even if the resulting offspring were often disparaged as "half-breeds."

You could sum up the evident reaction as being like this:

"We still don't like you, but the law has changed and it says we have no choice but to tolerate you. However, we absolutely will not allow any proof to exist that there is any kind of love felt towards any one of you, by any one of us!"

[Elterio Delgard]

You could sum up the evident reaction as being like this:

"We still don't like you, but the law has changed and it says we have no choice but to tolerate you. However, we absolutely will not allow any proof to exist that there is any kind of love felt towards any one of you, by any one of us!"

Okay, that does make sense. HEY! YOU DIDN'T SNEEZE!

[Mouse]

I didn't actually say the R word

[Mouse]

If you think about it, what I said basically sums up the sentiments contained in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

That also proves another point - that if you let it this whole question has the potential to smother the story you are really trying to tell in your novel. Heck, it can fill a whole book on its own.