Hybrid creatures, sterile?

[Caged Maiden]

this article might help. It defines dog and other canid species interbreeding. that might help you define the hybrids of your world and know where to draw the line. Very interesting some can interbreed while others cant, and some produce fertile offspring and some don't:

Canid hybrid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Generally matings between different speciesdon't produce viable offspring at all. The fact that horses and donkeys can even produce offspring at all is something of a minor miracle. And similarity in appearance is no guarantee of genetic similarity. Sheep and goats look damned near identical but are completely different species and cannot produce offspring, while chihuahua and great danes are in fact the same species (canines) even though they look completely different, which is why they can reproduce. As for the big cats, the four species - lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars are close enough to have viable offspring, but often the offspring have issues. Ligers and Tions are the largest of the big cat hybrids - larger than both parents in fact - and are prone to becoming hugely obese. They don't have long healthy lives.

My thought therefore would be that for your offspring you would expect them in some ways to have traits that are a mix of both parents, but equally might have some completely inexplicable traits that match neither.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Forgot to add, there's a semi official naming convention used in designating hybrid critters. Usually its the Sire's name first (often reduced to a single letter) followed by the mother. And of course it's latinised taxonomy names that are used. So a male lion (leo) and a female tiger (tigriss) produce a Liger, the other way around it's a Tion (Also tigon, tigron etc).

The point being depending on who his dad is, your hybrid could be either a vampelf, though probably a Velf, or (and I like this one) an Empire! Now if he back breeds with another elf the offspring would be a Velfelf (assuming he's a velf) or with a vampire it would be Velfampire. If he was a she and back bred the offspring would be either a Vamvelf or an Emvelf. If he was a he but an Empire the back bred offspring would be either and Empireelf (Empelf?) or an Empirevampire (Emvamp?) And if he was a she Empire and back bred you'd get a Vempire or an Elfempire (elpire?)

The point is that you can really have some fun with the names, especially if you Latinise them first so you'd start with a Vampiris or an Elfaen?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Erudite]

Odd thought. The vampire is immortal? Then offspring aren't necessarily required. Although, as it's been stated above - sterility occurs through disagreement in the chromosomes. Introduce another character of similar breeding, and maybe it becomes believable?

 

[Gwydir]

All hybrid animals are sterile. Ligers, Zedonks and the like. The simplest way to put it, it's because of something called hybrid vigor. Nature automatically wants to give offspring the best traits of each parent to ensure the survival of the species. Now hybrid vigor is like genetics hax. So nature makes hybrid animals sterile to stop hybrid animals breeding making a race of super animals that would **** up the food chain etc. (My fiance is doing a degree in animal genetics and that's the way she explained it to me).

But usually in mythology vampirism isn't a species, it's more of an attribute I guess. So I see no reason why your character couldn't be able to have kids.