© Jerry Harris 2013
(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)
HUMANOIDS
The fractured races of the Humanoids breed prodigiously, but
die very young. 30 would seem to be the
genetic maximum, but their harsh lifestyles usually end in their 20’s. They are also the most varied and mutated
race, to the point where different “breeds” (Orcs, Goblins, etc) cannot
actually interbreed. Some of this is due
to regional species hyper-specialization, but mostly due to actual breeding
experiments by the other races and even amongst themselves. Hobgoblins, for example, may have been created
by Goblin selective breeding (or somebody else bred them, nobody’s sure).
Humanoids can be cloned and accept cyber implants. Neither procedure is wide-spread, as
humanoids breed quickly enough on their own and don’t live long enough to make
the expense of cyber implants worthwhile (except perhaps as a suicide cyber
terrorist). Genetic or magical
alteration of humanoids is forbidden by international law, due to past
grievances and also the very real possibility of creating some kind of
super-humanoid. Those experiments have
ended badly for the offspring. (You’ll
see later in the NPC section.)
The various humanoid races generally represent the barbaric
forces trying to destroy the current dominant civilization. They’ve entered into various causes over
history and occasionally triumphed, but they always collapse and are subsumed
into a new civilization built by Humans and Demi-humans. They are not adept at magic or technology,
and are only able to parasite on others’ work.
Their
main disadvantage is their general poverty and fanaticism, which makes them
easy prey for charismatic Human and Demi-human leaders seeking followers for
their personal causes. (Such as some of
the Drow have actually joined with the Humanoid Movement.) Where war and raiding were once their medium
of expression, now the Humanoids work in terrorism, mass infiltration,
protests, media attention, litigation, and low-scale asymmetrical combat. The various types of WMD’s held by Human and Demi-Human
dominated societies are the only thing keeping mass warfare from breaking out
with the Humanoid dominated countries.
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