Allotter 2011/05/16(Mon)10:51 No. 6942 ID: 544dd4
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Manishness is apparently a dominate trait is LoTR. Well, Aside from elves where the child just got a choice to persue either heritage (Elrond was Half-Elven and immortal, his twin Elros chose the human path.)

If I remember there were hints that hobbits would eventually be absorbed into the general human population and culture after the end of the 3rd age. Most of the fantasy critters were on the decline and the elves leaving, this amusingly implies that orcs too were doomed to either dwindle (unlikely for goblins), or be absorbed as well (remember that fellow Bill Ferny at Bree?)

Then I really suppose this depends on how open they were to outsiders (in more ways than one, dur hurr hurr.) It's likely that many of the more reclusive and traditional hobbits simply dug themselves deeper and deeper into obscurity. Avoiding the prying eyes of the world at large.

A half-hobbit is a short man with slightly elevated levels of body hair and an expected lifespan increase of something like ten percent. They are wholly indistinguishable from many humans, and due to complete reproductive compatibility, the distinction does not matter anyway.

>>316971
>Slightly extended lifespan
>Extra hair
Wizards.
Apparently they inherit the sedentary nature, too...

>>316971
>due to complete reproductive compatibility

Should half elves and half orcs be infertile and only able to breed with help of magic?

>>316976
Muls are infertile, but there also from Dark Sun and not tolkien.
Not that Elrond and whatever his brother was were typical to D&D anyway.
I've always liked the fluff idea that ELF stands for Engineered Life Form...

Hobbits were just a group of human people I think.

>>316979

So, making them separte race was just Gygax being derpy?

>>316979
How do you figure?

>>316987

Dunno aboout that anona, but I'd say hobbits are pretty much just white pygmies.

>>316987
No special mention was given for their origin in the Silmarillion and
>"It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. [...] But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered."

>>316995

It could mean that they are geneticaly divergent from other humans and on their way to become separate species, because no crossbreeding with mainstream human population occurs. "Us" could mean "white people of Middle earth."

>>316997
So to sum up what you're saying, Tolkien's Hobbits where just an ethnicity, not a separate species from mankind?

>>317013
Tolkien did call them different races rather than different species, you know.

>>317014
Yeah but in Startrek even creatures from different planets, even no humanoids are "race".

In fiction "race" == "species"

>>317033
Tolkien could be a complete hack and still abuse less terminology than the Star Trek writers. Also, sci-fi, and ISTR it's actually stated in-universe that they have to use their fancy future medical science to allow crossbreed freaks.

>>317033

>Yeah but in Startrek even creatures from different planets, even no humanoids are "race".

All of the primary aliens in Star Trek were created by the same alien super-species that came through the universe and made all of their genetic codes fit together to spell out a 'good job!' message.

Anonymous 2011/05/23(Mon)10:17 No. 7037 ID: bf6085
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>>317036
Also, hot alien sex - wait...