Half Orc? Half Goblinoid?

[Fighelm]

Gotrek did say that no Dwarf would ever stoop to such a mixed marriage (or words to that effect), though Bjorni Bjornisson did try.

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Gotrek was probably right. And as for Bjorni- it takes all types! Anyway who are we to question what those reptilian minded 'Old Ones' ever intended with the races. Thought they were all created to fend of chaos, including the (unfinished) Ogres specifically. Well, according to the elves. .

 

[Brother Meredith]

Poor old half-orcs they get a bad wrap… Shunned by both of their parent societies. 😢
Like the satirical undertones of the 3rd ed bestiary.
Played against a unit of half-orcs at BOYL last year, the old models with their amusing hunched backs and mono-brows looked like the Gallagher brothers…

 

[Fighelm]

Poor old half-orcs they get a bad wrap… Shunned by both of their parent societies. 😢
Like the satirical undertones of the 3rd ed bestiary.
Played against a unit of half-orcs at BOYL last year, the old models with their amusing hunched backs and mono-brows looked like the Gallagher brothers…

Interesting the neutral or evil disposition dependent on parent. But despised, abused, slaves/ servile, etc, or into banditry, assination etc. No worse than debased humans... Yet they, as a race, seem to be dropped by 4th ed (... replaced with human mutants/beastmen in the Warhammer pysche?). Yet later descriptions of Eastern steppe half orcs/ badlands demi orcs, incl. in WFRP 1st ed, have them as only malignant bandits/mercs - vicious, mean hearted and pledging violent allegiance to the 'dark gods'. Myself, I prefer the earlier WHFB 1st to 3rd descriptions...

 

[Brother Meredith]

Yet later descriptions of Eastern steppe half orcs/ badlands demi orcs, incl. in WFRP 1st ed, have them as only malignant bandits/mercs - vicious, mean hearted and pledging violent allegiance to the 'dark gods'. Myself, I prefer the earlier WHFB 1st to 3rd descriptions...

WFRP 1st Ed came out before WFB 3rd ed? Which descriptions do you mean?

 

[Fighelm]

WFRP 1st Ed came out before WFB 3rd ed? Which descriptions do you mean?

I meant WHFB 1st Ed original, then they seemed to 'ease off' making them neutral or evil. See below...1st ed WHFB + forces of fantasy being arguably the first Warhammer RPG (and tabletop battle crossover) and it's slant to develop player characters and armies.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Inter-species breeding is hardly ever viable (mules being one of the few exceptions, and then sterile). By saying orcs and humans (or goblins and humans, or fimir and humans) can interbreed you are effective declaring them the same species. Unless you want to claim "cos fantasy".

In my own head cannon I do in fact declare us the same species. And also a little "cos fantasy." In my fiction/games I tend to work from the theory that the same entity or entities created all of us, thus the parts are largely interchangeable, making orcs and elves no more different than my wife and I. (She is, to be fair, visibly pretty different than me, but I suspect it falls well below the speciation level. There are times I think I make her wonder, but . . . ) So maybe the Slann made us all, created by careful selective breeding to make this varietal purple, or that one really long and slender, but we're all the same stock in the end. Or maybe we're all echoes of the Maiar, who are themselves echoes of Eru Iluvatar, or something like that. All the same clay and all compatible, no matter how you shape it. Which is to say, it's fantasy, so at the end of the day genetics need not apply. Cos fantasy. Why let physics get in the way of a good faerie story?