#elf biology

[modern-inheritance]

Tapetum Lucidum

Toying with the idea that while elves already have stellar night vision, they have a rarely used tapetum lucidum that is a part of an internal membrane that they can consciously move into and out of place inside their eyes for making everything even more visible/luminescent. Would lead to weird color intensities (original dragon bond addition again) and its not used frequently by any of them since they don’t really need it, but sometimes an elf will be normal and then they get reflective eyes while your shining a light on them for a second. Then it’s gone. Sorta a vestigial offshoot from the dragon bond fucking with elves genetics and physiology, and drawing in more of the additions I like to do with the whole ‘bond had greater effects than the elves like to let on they’re almost halfway to dragons themselves and they’re…not always okay with that.’

Urgals have tapetum lucidum in MIC btw. Dwarves also do but it’s a bit different I’ll have to work on it.

[rateatingraccoon]

I believe in half-elves with full elven ears and human ears.

Why? Genetics.

Ramble under cut. Keep in mind I am going off of bg3 races and probably have no clue what I'm talking about. Also, I am a teenager who simply has an interest in genetics. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong or anything.

(TL;DR: When looking at stereotypical half-elf phenotypes (appearance), it can be inferred that the children of two half-elves have a possibility of expressing fully elven ears or fully human ears, despite still being half-elves.)

Anyway, we see in Baldur's Gate 3 that half-elves usually have pointed ears, however they are smaller when compared to those of a full elf.

The smaller-but-still-pointed ears implies that pointed ears MIGHT be the result of incomplete dominance (see the cream gene in horses), where one copy of the dominant allele (heterozygous) only partially displays the effects when compared to those who carry two copies (homozygous dominant). Hence the seemingly "watered down" version of elven ears.

I'm going to call this hypothetical gene E/e, with E being elven ears and e being human ears. This means:

Full elf ears: EE genotype

Partial/shrunk elf ears: Ee genotype

Human ears: ee genotype

This means that every first generation half-elf, assuming they are the offspring of an elf and a human, will have these shrunken elf ears they are displayed with in BG3. HOWEVER- I have found nothing that implies half-elves are infertile. And since elves and humans seem to be similar on a basic biological level (ignoring the lifespans), I have no reason to believe half-elves can't reproduce.

Which means half-elves can have offspring with other half-elves.

Now, I'm not about to make a punnett square for a tumblr ramble nobody will see, but I will lay out what this means.

These offspring will have a...

25% chance of having full elven ears (EE)

50% chance of having partial/shrunk elf ears (Ee)

and a 25% chance of having human ears (ee)

And half-elf x half-elf children will still be half-elves.

Which means you could very well have a half-elf character with those long, pointed elven ears or the subtle, curved ears of a human, and still have them be half-elves.

Even if the size is dependent of independent genes, I think it's still safe to assume the pointed shape is at the very least dominant. That still leaves room for possible human ears.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[morphimus]

[deletedelight]

canon is a fucking liar btw kabru and mithrun are best friends 4lyfers every once in a while mithrun comes knocking at his door like Kabru we are going fishing and he cant say no bc his weird fucked up bff finally found a new passion for life (going fishing every other day like a middle aged white dad)

[odoanaga]

back on my dwarf and elf bullshit - just gonna get weirder with each redesign

[living-dead-guyy]

Elves (Speculative Biology)

If elves were real, what do you think they’d descend from? Personally I find them being a subspecies to be a little bit boring. Please lmk!! I’m considering for my fantasy world

[spacelingart]

A ride through the woods

I really want to try and do more illustrations from my original setting, so here we go!!

The domesticated kessit is found nearly everywhere on Athera; they come in a small variety of colours, though they typically maintain their white noses and the stripe over their shoulders, and can have longer winter coats in colder regions.

Kessits have prehensile lips, four toes, and a long, thin tail with a tuft of fur at the end. They also have a distinctive singular ossicone in the middle of their face, giving them the nickname of "false unicorn".

🪙 Toss me a coin at Patreon or Ko-fi 🌛 Check out my commissions 📣 Twitter • Bluesky • Tumblr • Instagram 💬 Join my Discord art community!

Timelapse 👇

[swanhild]

I like to think Celegorm left Huan with Maedhros while he recovered after Thangorodrim because having Huan around calmed Maedhros down and made him feel safer. Caranthir brought the pillows and the blanket is Fingon's. Helping Maedhros heal was a community effort that made them set their various grievances aside for the time being.

(credit for the idea goes to @outofangband whose worldbuilding and headcanon posts about trauma and recovery inspired this)

@tolkiengenweek (for the family/community/animals prompts)

[kirbyddd]

Despite its flaws, there has never been a more beautiful and faithful adaptation of Tolkien's work

[roselightfairy]

@deheerkonijn​ and I had parts of this discussion when we wrote Acceptable Losses because there is also the question of Teeth Lost In Battle Or Stupid Accidents . . . does your mouth change shape to accommodate for missing teeth? Do your teeth grow back? Or do you just live with a gap for the next thousands of years of your life?

A cursed thought just occured to me and I decided to make you all suffer to

So in Tolkien lore elves are immortal right? After a certain point they don't age and will just keep living, save for the intervention of accidents, illness/poison, or very pointy objects. This leads to a whole laundry list of questions on biology but there's one in particular I want to bite into today(pun much intended).

Teeth.

How do elf teeth work? Because the main issue with teeth over time is that they wear down with use. This is not as much of a problem in modern times, we are spoiled with a lot of very soft easy to chew food, but it's still a thing and historicaly you wore down your teeth alot over the course of your life. Things like smoking a pipe can carve a grove in your teeth where you hold the pipe stem.

And this means that if you're immortan and alive long enough, your teeth will wear down to nothing because elves do need to eat. But obviously Galadriel and Elrond aren't looking like grandmas who forgot their dentures, so elves must have something to solve this.

I therefor present my 3 running theories for how elves keep their teeth:

- The OP Teeth Of Steel Theory

Elf teeth are simply to strong to wear down. A bit boring if you ask me.

- The Elves Are Rodents Theory

Rodent front teeth grow continiously their entire life, it's realy cool. It's also why they're always chewing on things, because if they don't their teeth will grow so long it stops them from eating. This theory proposes elf teeth also just grow forever(this could lead to a extremely annoying habit of elves to grind their teeth to keep them down, but oh well).

- The Elves Are Sharks Theory

Sharks tackle the problem of teeth by simply?

Growing more teeth?

Like they just keep loosing teeth and growing new ones. For elves this could mean that when a tooth gets to worn it simply falls out and a new one grown in, like human milk teeth but their entire life.

This was all writen in about 10min while getting ready for bed, so please enjoy these lovely cursed thoughts while I escape to dreamland :)

@tathrin

[farttrucker420]

Concept: Neanderthals as elves

[useless-prophet]

What if elves were carnivores—

—is a question absolutely no one asks except for me. I had a lot of fun doing this one! I've been in a worldbuilding and art slump for a bit, so it was really nice feeling the brain muscles stretch a little again.

This is set in my currently unnamed D&D setting where you can steal gods and I can have fun with biology. I really like the feel of having distinct and unique cultures within each race instead of just 1 race=1 country irl, and also exploring what fantasy people would eat! These aren't all the elven ethnic groups, but they are the largest groups with distinct biology. Plains elves, for example, are more Mongolian-inspired but have similar anatomy to wood elves given their relatively short time of divergence and similarity of environment.

I love questions!

Click and zoom in for the details! Outfit/pose references: https://www.tumblr.com/amens-closet/618824611739631616/this-is-a-stage-susohiki-i-got-a-while-back-but, https://www.deviantart.com/katananature/favourites?page=8, and the third was a mishmash inspired by the houppelande, which is a new word I learned today!

Separate arts below ↓

Shasaran Wood Elf

Hojiri Sea Elf

Iaiunean High Elf

[t00thpasteface]

A quick and messy rundown of my own elves, dwarves, and orcs. I loathe the "planet of hats" bioessentialism of most fantasy races, as well as blatant coding meant to parallel human phenotypes via highly limited hairstyle and skintone selections, so I wanted to buck those trends in my own worldbuilding. These elves, dwarves, and orcs can each resemble any type of human in their face, body, and hair (aside from their more fantastical elements like scales and horns), and they have no single personality or culture, either.

You may notice a trend of dinosaurian features in these; that's no accident! In my own little high-fantasy world, the fauna is a melting pot of Paleozoic and Mesozoic species, from Anomalocaris to Zuniceratops. As there are no animals from beyond the K-T boundary, there were no apes (or other large mammals) for human(oid)s to evolve from. Therefore, as an exercise in highly speculative biology, the common ancestor of these sentient species was a member of Dinosauria that diverged very early on:

Jury's still out on whether or not that means humans, etc., lay eggs, but the odds aren't looking good...

[dayundying]

An elf falconer feeding his falcon a treat made from beef for its good work (and he spoils his bird)

Falconrys a uncommon hobby, but a hobby nontheless for some elves. Usually they hunt food, rarely used as messenger birds* but most commonly, just to show off.

*While elves like their airborne companions, their communities are so closeknit they dont see much of a purpose for messenger birds, it's not really as convenient as some falconers think.

[aut2imagineart]

This is a sort of blast from the past a bunch of my earliest drawings were reimagining of creatures from author Dougal Dixon's speculative biology books, in particular Man After Man which sparked my interest in the concept of posthumans. As much as I've enjoyed drawing them I've moved away from them to try to create my own ideas. That said is was nice to draw them again to see how my skills have improved since I started. Anyway, here's a brief rundown of the species shown here (they include labels I made for them). Woodland Dwellers (Orks of the west): fierce hunters who's lack of specialization allows them to adapt to most environments. They're also resistant to most natural poisons/toxins. Aqatics (Merfolk of the oceans): skilled fishers who can breath in and out of water. They've developed a tradition where they mark unique traits and significant life events with ritualistic scaring. Forest Dwellers (Dwarfs of the south): colorful and arboreal, they are remarkably strong for their size to move swiftly through the trees. Over generations, they've manipulated the growth of vines to create living pathways throughout the forests for themselves. Tundra Dwellers (Giants of the north): towering nomads who lead quiet lives traveling across the Arctic circle. Their great strength enables them to hunt exceptionally large prey who's blood they adorn their faces with after each successful hunt. Plains Dwellers (Elves of the east): Swift and long lived, they transverse the grasslands on long powerful legs while dark skin, large ears, and hair running down their backs allow them to tolerate intense heat. Initially herbivores, given bladed hands, replaceable teeth, and larger stomachs for eating grasses, they have since incorporated meat into their diet. Coupled with a longer lifespan, they became the first posthumans to redevelop culture. If I was to do anything with these guys (and gain the rights to them somehow), it would probably be a survival game similar to Ancestors: a human odyssey where you go through their evolution into sapience. Man After Man belongs to Dougal Dixon.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

[antiparticular]

everything i have on my original star trek species. it is extensive

i welcome, nay encourage, people to create their own z'lichte character (so long as I am credited)