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How can Charname be anything than a Human, a Half-Elf, and a Half-Orc?

NoloirNoloir Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 380
Considering that Bhaal was a Human ascended to God how is it possible for his spawn to be anything but a Human, a Half-Elf,or a Half-Orc based on the allowed in-game player races?

If Bhaal mated with an Elf wouldn't the spawn be a Half-elf instead of a pure one? If Bhaal mated with a Dwarf wouldn't it be a "Half-Dwarf"? If Bhaal mating witha Halfling wouldn't it be a Half-Hafling? "A Quarter-ling"?

How is it that any Bhaalspawn besides Humans, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs considered to be full raced, despite Bhaal being a God-Human?

Comments

  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    I'll give you the standard DM's answer: "It's magic!"
    MERLANCE
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    As a deity, I'm pretty sure shapeshifting is easily within Bhaal's skillset. Avatars, anyone?
    NoloirMERLANCEAerakarsarevok57
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Two words: Chinchilla Bhaalspawn
    BlackbɨrdThacoBellAerakarsarevok57
  • kalekale Member Posts: 53
    I think age is more of an issue here: if charname's age is 20 (I think it's 20 according to the game's intro), then how could they possibly be an elf (who reach maturity when they're 100+)? But, I mean, it's the same with the classes - some of the professions (shaman? druid?) seem rather unlikely.
  • AciferAcifer Member Posts: 151
    edited March 2020
    ThacoBell wrote: »
    As a deity, I'm pretty sure shapeshifting is easily within Bhaal's skillset. Avatars, anyone?

    That‘s true. All Deities share the ability of shapeshifting, depending on their power. Bhaal is an intermediate deity.
    There is a chapter about divine powers in Faiths and Avatars:
    An intermediate deity can shapechange into any object, animate or inanimate. (...) Thus, an intermediate power could assume the shape of a huge bull elephant, but not one larger than the largest ones found in nature.
    So Bhaal could easily assume the shape of an elf, dwarf or anything else.

    ThacoBell
  • ZaxaresZaxares Member Posts: 1,325
    Bioware and TSR left it a bit vague as to HOW exactly Bhaal produced his offspring, but there's 3 most likely theories:

    1. Bhaal simply shapeshifted into another creature for the mating.
    2. Bhaal possessed another mortal creature who is actually the Bhaalspawn's REAL father; the offspring just possesses a portion of Bhaal's divine essence due to the god being present in the physical father during the conception. (This is my preferred theory. I think that upon arrival on the Material Plane, Bhaal likely split himself into many different avatars, which then proceeded to wander the world and possess various males to impregnate partners/victims. Given that Bhaal was only on the Material Plane for a few weeks before he was killed at Boareskyr Bridge by Cyric, this is the only logical way he could have produced SO many Bhaalspawn within that period of time.)
    3. Bhaal didn't even mate with the various females bearing his offspring at all. He simply pointed at them and went "Presto, you are now pregnant, courtesy of Bhaal!" As an intermediate deity, this is well within Bhaal's power using his "Alter Reality" ability as spelt out in the Deities and Demigods accessory for 2nd Ed.
    AciferThacoBell
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @kale Elves and the long lived races are kind of tricky. They seem to reach physical maturity at a reasonable rate (ever any elf children?), but just kinda, remain, for a long time after that. There's also the potential of cultural norms. A 100 year old elf might be childlike or maybe teenager(?) mentally in elven society because that's their culture. They look at the total lifespan and treat each other accordingly.

    An elf (or dwarf) raised among humans would probably be expected to take on bigger responsibilites at the time that the rest of the children in the community would. So mentally and emotionally, they could be much older than their "native" counterparts, because they would be treated and expected to act as such.
    AerakarZaxaresDaevelon
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    Just how it works when a god lays with a mortal woman.

    Like at one point you meet a Bhaalspawn that's a chicken. Even in the realms I'm pretty humanoid races can't just procreate with chickens willy nilly.

    Also I'm pretty sure that implicit in the "Bhaal was a human who ascended to godhood" is that he hasn't really been anything that can be considered human for a long time. Once he was human. Then he was a god. Then the Time of Troubles happened and that's where things got weird.
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