Guild Wars 2

First of all, this is for roleplay purposes.

I’d like to know if any of the main races of Tyria are able to interbreed and we just haven’t seen it. I’m gonna automatically rule out the Sylvari, though I’d like to know if the Pale Tree is self-pollinating or not. I’d also go out on a limb and say Humans and Norn can probably interbreed, though if the Human were the mother there would probably be complications to the pregnancy due to the size of the Norn. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also if any of this has already been answered, please direct me to those answers.

Long before GW2 actually got released, Anet officially said there is no such thing as a half-breed between the playable races.

The closest thing to one we’ve seen is the toxic hybrid which was Krait with plant parts.

In GW1 there were hints Norn and humans could interbreed, but never officially touched on. So in general, one COULD imply GW1 humans and norn could interbreed, but as of Gw2 that isn’t possible anymore.

It is but it wouldnt be normal, I could imagine that the Inquest is working on something like that: Intelligence of Asuras, strength of the Norn, adaption abilities of humans, courage of Charrs and empathy of the sylvaris to foresee what the enemy will do next.

@Pessimist, I don’t think the Asura would ever do that. They view themselves as inherently superior to the other races, if they were to acknowledge that they lack strength then they would also point out that their high levels of intellect render strength unnecessary (and so on and so forth). Also they certainly wouldn’t include the empathy of the Sylvari, I’m sure that to Asura empathy is seen as a weakness.

Such things wouldn’t be natural in ANY sense, and would basically be frankensteins or horrific monsters.

It’s kinda an official fact that naturally, you cannot have half-norn-half charr or humans or such.

Now people can RP as a halfbreed, but it’s not supported by the actual canon however. My personal acceptance of them would depend on how good the character is.

Sylvari, I’m assuming, can’t interbreed. Or breed, for that matter (and to answer your question; since the Pale Tree seems to have no knowledge of other Pale Trees, I’m gonna assume that yes, it’s self-pollinating)

I would say, seeing the real-life existence of things like wolphins (whale/dolphin) and ligers (lion/tiger) and mules (horse/donkey), you could technically interbreed them, but the offspring would not be able to reproduce due to the mismatch in genetic chromosome layout/numbers (7th grade bio finally being useful whaddup). Maybe charr and asura are a little too genetically different to interbreed, but norn and human, quite possibly. But like I said, they’d probably be sterile.

Sadly the interview in question isn’t around anymore (tried wayback machine as well…) that dealt with it.

ANet has stated categorically before that none of the races of Tyria can interbreed. Then again, since it was stated in an interview and “not in the game”, presumably anything would be possible with enough experimentation. Inquest or otherwise.

What was stated is that none of the playable races can interbreed with each other. The most likely possible of these cases were human and norn – and given recent lore, it seems that norn predate humanity on the world anyways.

It may be possible for a playable race and a non-playable to interbreed (only chance I can see happening would be norn with ogre or jotun since the three races are implied to be cousin races anyways), or between two non-playable races (such as hylek and heket – also cousin races – or naga and krait, whom are very similar). In any case it is most likely to result in sterile offspring.

Due to their non-Tyrian nature, it wouldn’t make much sense for humans to be genetically compatible with any race to produce halfbreeds.

But the source for this came from out of game, so who knows. All sources out of GW2 are malleable now.

Yeah, I was told recently that it’s not possible. Which really screws with the idea behind my norn, she’s suppose to be a descendent of my Paragon (they even have the same woad). But I suppose I could say a norn in Elona was so impressed with me saving the world multiple times that, after the furious love-making we (her and two other norn, naturally) engaged in, she decided my surname made for a good family name.

Boneheart.3561:

Yeah, I was told recently that it’s not possible. Which really screws with the idea behind my norn, she’s suppose to be a descendent of my Paragon (they even have the same woad). But I suppose I could say a norn in Elona was so impressed with me saving the world multiple times that, after the furious love-making we (her and two other norn, naturally) engaged in, she decided my surname made for a good family name.

For RP purposes, you can go with “For some reason, back then interbreeding was possible, but it’s not in the modern day.” A friend does that. Not officially true, but it’s not a horrible twist :P.

Technically, if they can breed they are the same species.

^ Not necessarily. Tigers and lions are different species, but they can interbreed. So can camels and alpacas, which is rather extraordinary when you consider that both species were separated geographically many thousands of years ago. (Even more remarkable, the hybrid offspring of camels and alpacas are still fertile!)

My understanding is that male tiger-lion hybrids are both rare and infertile and there are deleterious abnormalities in the female hybrids as well.

Yes, that is the general rule for hybrids. They are usually sterile, and sometimes suffer from genetic abnormalities. But as I mentioned with the camel-alpaca hybrids, it’s not always the case. Some hybrids do turn out to be fertile and breed true, possibly leading to the creation of an entirely new species if allowed to continue.

‘Species’ is a broadly used term but one of it’s definitions includes being able to interbreed so you are both correct.

Jip no half-charr-asuras running around. So no natural offspring, we might get something like a ligor from say human x norn but possibly likely not.

Kalavier.1097:

The closest thing to one we’ve seen is the toxic hybrid which was Krait with plant parts.

I think (lore wise) it was actually a plant in the shape of a krait.

Wanderer.3248:

Technically, if they can breed they are the same species.

Well the concept of a ‘species’ is purely man made construct. It’s part of the taxonomy that we’ve created in order to well categorize living things. So what’s considered a species is a bit murky at times (take dinosaurs, that’s a wonderful discussion since having only the bones there was a couple of mix ups here and there). But yeah by definition you have to not only be able to breed but produce viable (i.e. can reproduce as well) offspring.

Wanderer.3248:

My understanding is that male tiger-lion hybrids are both rare and infertile and there are deleterious abnormalities in the female hybrids as well.

Not really and abnormalities. Other than ligor are huge! They lack a growth inhibiting hormone which was suppose to come from the missing parent. They’re not particularly viable in nature though. As for rare that’s purely because lions roam the plains of Africa and Tigers the… mountains of Asia? (sorry never been to Asia). So naturally they don’t have a lot of opportunity to interbreed. Well it also makes sense given that isolation is necessary for genetic divergence to take place. It’s only thanks to things such as zoos and very bored and curious zoo-keepers that we know of their ability to interbreed.
Actually there has been some cases of tiglons (or is that tiglions?) being able to reproduce, although this is actually rare.

[quote=4193492;Zaxares.5419:Some hybrids do turn out to be fertile and breed true, possibly leading to the creation of an entirely new species if allowed to continue.[/quote]

Technically possible, but I can’t recall any particular example of this. Of course this is where the definition of species get’s a bit blurry (since there several examples I can think about which could be called hybrids or could not depending on how you define species).
However most of the issues of course derive from the genetics. Thinks such as number of chromosomes do play a role (having a odd number doesn’t help) and gene functions, a specific gene at a specific place might not do the same thing in both species. And well as physiological considerations (sometimes the genitals aren’t… compatible). Species with a very very common ancestor could easily interbreed, but then we get into the debate of if they’re different species or simply sub-species (for which interbreeding isn’t really too much of an issue).

most of the Nord-Human hybrid speculation seemed based on one quest dialog, Prenuptial Disagreement.

Olaf Olafson
It is Norn custom that marriage can only happen between those of equal reputation. All your hard work has paid off! Now we can be wed, raise a dozen half-Norn children, and live in the mountains. I have a strong cottage in the hills. Actually, it isn’t much of a cottage…more of a cave. But it is a good cave! A good cave in dire need of cleaning. You’re not afraid of spiders, are you? Dire spiders?

However, at one point, and I cannot recall where, an Anet source said “NO”. Out of game tho, so Olaf wins.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

most of the Nord-Human hybrid speculation seemed based on one quest dialog, Prenuptial Disagreement.

Olaf Olafson
It is Norn custom that marriage can only happen between those of equal reputation. All your hard work has paid off! Now we can be wed, raise a dozen half-Norn children, and live in the mountains. I have a strong cottage in the hills. Actually, it isn’t much of a cottage…more of a cave. But it is a good cave! A good cave in dire need of cleaning. You’re not afraid of spiders, are you? Dire spiders?

However, at one point, and I cannot recall where, an Anet source said “NO”. Out of game tho, so Olaf wins.

ONE Norn collector implies she had ‘elonian ancestors’ because she hated the cold.

However, in the interviews leading up to GW2, Anet officially said no half-breeds among the player races. As of GW2, Norn-human hybrids aren’t possible. (One could, for RP, say it was possible back then but not now).

@Cure we have had confirmation that the Hybrid was a normal krait altered by the tower’s toxins.