Not sure if this is the right place to ask this sort of thing, but how does surrogacy work in a D&D world? Are there sperm doners, is there applicable magic that can be used? If an orc and lizardfolk couple want to have children, is there magic that can temporarily change race so that they can conceive? Lots of interesting (and possibly uncomfortable, sorry about that) questions.
Surrogacy works exactly the way the GM wants it to. There's no lore on any such thing being practiced in most D&D worlds- in the event of a couple being biologically incapable of reproducing, shapeshifting magic is generally the go-to route to get around it. Though there are very few instances of couples that were made up of two races that weren't interfertile.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I think Faerun is way too low-magic and low-tech to have this concept. For the most part it's based on Medieval Europe and Middle East. Sure two powerful wizards could make their babies with modified clone spell or in some other weird ways, but 99.999% of population is stuck with the old fashioned reliable *******. And if your species cannot interbreed, well tough luck...
I think most DMs (at least that I know) run worlds as if they were closer to the Renaissance; if you pick an NPC at random and ask whether they can read, the answer's probably yes.
Even ignoring that, how would a setting like Eberron handle surrogacy?
I think an Eberron game might do a riff on The Princess Bride regarding surrogacy and say, "That word, you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
But assuming you are, do you really want to know how a couple "fantasy biologically" incapable of interbreeding may have biological children? Magic aside (and that's putting a lot aside) the endeavor would be literally a one sided affair for the couple. One needs to either sire or become impregnated, and the nonparticipatory member of the offspring getting treats said offspring as their own. I can't think of any official D&D settings that have ever expounded on this possibility within their society. So, given that, if you again put magic aside, the methodology wouldn't be that different from the way surrogacy or male donated contribution works today. Discounting the possibility of a very generous public health system invested in creating families (but hey, you never know), these methods would be available only to relationships with resources.
I think when it comes to these sorts of things, D&D is more a Scarlet Witch and Vision sort of thing than some set of official rulings.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Even ignoring that, how would a setting like Eberron handle surrogacy?
House Jorasco would probably have some designer spells and eldritch machines that could cure infertility and handle artificial insemination, but it's likely to be high-end products only available to the richest of clients. House Vadalis likely also have some designs in that field, given they run themselves through eugenics program and even magebreed their members. For them it would be eldritch machines designed for mage-breeding animals, but with some adjustments capable of working on humanoids too, since they're technically also animals.
Cross-species breeding however would likely to be a taboo, as it reeks of the kind of shit Daelkyr and Mordain do, and no one wants that kind of dirt on them. Maybe Soldorak flesh-smiths could experiment in that field due to how little ****s they give about the moral stance anyone else have, but most of their research is focused on the war effort in the War Below right now, and there's not a lot of military application for making cross-species breeding possible.
Of course if you managed to convince Mordain the Fleshweaver to help you make sweet half-dwarf-half-dragonborn babies it would be child's play for him, but it's more likely that he'd find it more interesting and fun to turn everyone into horrible aberrations.
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask this sort of thing, but how does surrogacy work in a D&D world? Are there sperm doners, is there applicable magic that can be used? If an orc and lizardfolk couple want to have children, is there magic that can temporarily change race so that they can conceive? Lots of interesting (and possibly uncomfortable, sorry about that) questions.
Surrogacy works exactly the way the GM wants it to. There's no lore on any such thing being practiced in most D&D worlds- in the event of a couple being biologically incapable of reproducing, shapeshifting magic is generally the go-to route to get around it. Though there are very few instances of couples that were made up of two races that weren't interfertile.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I think Faerun is way too low-magic and low-tech to have this concept. For the most part it's based on Medieval Europe and Middle East. Sure two powerful wizards could make their babies with modified clone spell or in some other weird ways, but 99.999% of population is stuck with the old fashioned reliable *******. And if your species cannot interbreed, well tough luck...
I think most DMs (at least that I know) run worlds as if they were closer to the Renaissance; if you pick an NPC at random and ask whether they can read, the answer's probably yes.
Even ignoring that, how would a setting like Eberron handle surrogacy?
I think an Eberron game might do a riff on The Princess Bride regarding surrogacy and say, "That word, you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
But assuming you are, do you really want to know how a couple "fantasy biologically" incapable of interbreeding may have biological children? Magic aside (and that's putting a lot aside) the endeavor would be literally a one sided affair for the couple. One needs to either sire or become impregnated, and the nonparticipatory member of the offspring getting treats said offspring as their own. I can't think of any official D&D settings that have ever expounded on this possibility within their society. So, given that, if you again put magic aside, the methodology wouldn't be that different from the way surrogacy or male donated contribution works today. Discounting the possibility of a very generous public health system invested in creating families (but hey, you never know), these methods would be available only to relationships with resources.
I think when it comes to these sorts of things, D&D is more a Scarlet Witch and Vision sort of thing than some set of official rulings.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
House Jorasco would probably have some designer spells and eldritch machines that could cure infertility and handle artificial insemination, but it's likely to be high-end products only available to the richest of clients. House Vadalis likely also have some designs in that field, given they run themselves through eugenics program and even magebreed their members. For them it would be eldritch machines designed for mage-breeding animals, but with some adjustments capable of working on humanoids too, since they're technically also animals.
Cross-species breeding however would likely to be a taboo, as it reeks of the kind of shit Daelkyr and Mordain do, and no one wants that kind of dirt on them. Maybe Soldorak flesh-smiths could experiment in that field due to how little ****s they give about the moral stance anyone else have, but most of their research is focused on the war effort in the War Below right now, and there's not a lot of military application for making cross-species breeding possible.
Of course if you managed to convince Mordain the Fleshweaver to help you make sweet half-dwarf-half-dragonborn babies it would be child's play for him, but it's more likely that he'd find it more interesting and fun to turn everyone into horrible aberrations.