| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| muir |
Posted - 06 Nov 2013 : 19:25:26
I like the idea of genasi, and they have made appearances in several of my games, whether set in Planescape or the Realms. Usually, whether PC or NPC, their elemental ancestry came into the game in some fashion. I only just realized that I never considered what might spawn an earth elemental bloodline, and I only barely considered fire. (Default to Efreet.)
What caused me to realize this, was browsing through the 3.5 book Races of Stone, and reading the Stonechild entry, which begins "Born of a union of mortal and elemental..."
My thoughts ran: "Okay, like a cambion, but with an earth elemental parent...wait, what?!"
There are a fair number of air and water elemental(kin) which are noted for breeding with humans. Fire and earth are trickier. After browsing through my 2nd Ed MM and Planescape books, all I can come up with are Dao and Pech for Earth, and Efreeti and Azer for Fire. Races of Faerun just mentions "outsiders from the Elemental Plane of Earth."
Leaving aside shapechanging (which I believe is the default for dragon ancestry) and magical meddling, what other beings might produce a fire- or earth-touched bloodline?
One thought I had is that long-term dwelling on certain planes (see: Shades) can infuse mortals with planar essence. If they then bred with a non-infused mortal, might a planetouched result? |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| muir |
Posted - 07 Nov 2013 : 19:20:15
The comic made me chuckle.
I was not entirely discounting salamanders; for reptilians they make sense. My viewpoint is sadly anthropocentric, so I discounted them when I sought earth elemental ancestors for (demi)human genasi.
Firenewts I figured, given their main location, to be a product of sarrukhi meddling.
Thanks for the links; they were informative, and suggested some new possibilities. The genasi one produced the following quote:
"any initial coupling with a genie/elemental/mephit/magical infusion of elemental energy/etc"
Mephits?! Well, looking at certain species of baatezu/tanar'ri which have produced mortal offspring, I suppose it is possible. Unpleasant, but possible.
The magical infusion of elemental energy, likely from a ritual, seems like something that would have been experimented with a few times in the past.
Yes, clan Azerkyn. FR also has "the Ludwakazar clan of shield dwarves deep in the Earthspurs" and "the Tobarin family of rock gnomes in the Great Dale" neither of which "would be true earth genasi, but something quite different." Right, genasi are only human-based...bah. I use the term to refer to any demi-human with elemental ancestry, if only in my own head. I do not think a dao would be likely to breed with a gnome, and not just for size difference reasons.
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| TBeholder |
Posted - 07 Nov 2013 : 04:48:14
quote:
Originally posted by muir
What caused me to realize this, was browsing through the 3.5 book Races of Stone, and reading the Stonechild entry, which begins "Born of a union of mortal and elemental..."
My thoughts ran: "Okay, like a cambion, but with an earth elemental parent...wait, what?!"
Yeah, that. Heh heh heh.
quote:
There are a fair number of air and water elemental(kin) which are noted for breeding with humans. Fire and earth are trickier.
Don't disregard Salamanders completely. Let's remember the absurd number of reptilian critters potentially interbreedable with them.
I used to think that a lizard was a lizard, you know, but then I saw that there were as many types of them as there are of people like us. I met some trogs once, not very friendly ones at that, and, wow, did they ever stink. It was incredible. Then I met dracons, saurials, sithp'k, and, of course, the wasag, like that little blue guy over there.
- Gaeadrelle Goldring (The Maelstrom) And then there are e.g. Cayma, Gurrash, Krolli and Shazak from Mystara, or Agrutha, Crocodilian, Geckonid, Iguanid and Varanid (Dragon #268)...
Back to FR - somehow they ended up with Firenewts. 
quote:
After browsing through my 2nd Ed MM and Planescape books, all I can come up with are Dao and Pech for Earth, and Efreeti and Azer for Fire. Races of Faerun just mentions "outsiders from the Elemental Plane of Earth."
And that FR got Azer-blood shield dwarves, descendants of clan Azerkyn.
quote:
One thought I had is that long-term dwelling on certain planes (see: Shades) can infuse mortals with planar essence. If they then bred with a non-infused mortal, might a planetouched result?
That, too. Was discussed around here sometimes - see 'Genasi; Past, Present, Future' and 'Alchemical process to become Half-fiend???', search for "bloodline" or "infusion". |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 06 Nov 2013 : 20:15:59
I've always figured that the four genie types provided the elemental half of most genasi family trees. The "planar essence" is an interesting idea, though it would be exceptionally rare. Remember that most demihumans born off the Prime are just planar demihumans (or humans). So for most people if a prime gave birth on the planes, the child would be a planar version of the parents' race(s). |
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