History Main / TrueBreedingHybrid

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** Planetouched races, such as tieflings, aasimar, and genasi, can usually be born to planetouched parents, but whether or not this is how they're usually born [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on what edition and what setting you are talking about]].

** Much like in ''Dungeons & Dragons'', tieflings and aasimar return as the true-breeding descendants of intermingling between mortal humanoids and evil or good outsiders, although they are sometimes also born from the union of a half-fiend or half-celestial with a mortal, or from the resurfacing of long-buried traits in seemingly baseline mortal families. Genasi are replaced by ifrits, oreads, sylphs and undines, self-perpetuating humanoid species descended from humans and genies (and more rarely other types of elementals).

** Many half-dragons breed true and are capable of establishing themselves as self-sustaining species, if enough are created close enough to each other. [[BasiliskAndCockatrice Dracolisks]] are the most notorious example of such half-dragon species.

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* ''Videogame/{{Diablo}}'': According to the lore of the series, demons and angels are able to breed with one another to create hybrid children called 'Nephalem', who in turn are fertile and able to breed with each other. However, demon/angel unions are rare due to the two races being locked in a ForeverWar with each other, and the first generation of Nephalem (born from a truce between the angel Inarius and the demon queen Lilith) eventually became so terrifyingly powerful that a PowerLimiter artefact was used to cause future generations of Nephalem to be born much weaker. Thus, the Nephalem became the ancestors of the setting's humans.

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* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Planetouched races, such as tieflings, aasimar, and genasi, can usually be born to planetouched parents, but whether or not this is how they're usually born [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on what edition and what setting you are talking about.]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** Tieflings, aasimar and genasi are three species of plane-touched humanoids (plane-touched being a general category for mortal creatures with some inherent connection to other planes of existence) descended from the interbreeding of humans and planar beings. While the origins of each race lie with direct cases of humans having children with, respectively, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent fiends]], [[OurAngelsAreDifferent celestials]] and various types of {{elemental|Embodiment}}s, they all became self-sustaining, if somewhat uncommon, races long in the past. In the various settings' modern day, all tieflings are born to tiefling parents, all aasimar to aasimar parents and all genasi to genasi parents.
** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'':
*** Fey'ri, maeluths, tanarukks, wisplings and mur-zhagul are a group of minor races introduced as counterparts of sorts to the tieflings. They differ in their mortal ancestors -- sun elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings and trolls instead of humans, respectively -- but they are identical in all major respects, being the descants of the children of mortals and various sorts of fiends who became their own self-sustaining species long ago. Fey'ri in particular are highly proud of their bloodlines, and make a point of only ever breeding with other fey'ri.
*** On a similar note, worghests are a species descended from the intermingling of goblins with barghests, LawfulEvil shapeshifting {{Hellhound}}s.

* Discussed in [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] for ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}''. Elves like to believe they were the first race to appear in the world, and most people are uncomfortable with the idea of humans and orcs being related due to FantasticRacism. However,the author of the chapter on races, John Beddoes, proposes a controversial theory that orcs and elves are both offshoots of humans that have mutated into new races by exposure to magic:
-->'''Beddoes''': "The premise most difficult to accept is this: two organisms cannot create offspring together unless they are closely related. Although every naturalist and farmer knows it, we are reluctant to accept the same premise when it is applied to ourselves! It is nearly impossible to make the average elf, orc or human accept the truth: the very fact that half-elves and half-orcs exist at all must mean that the parent species are cousins to one another. Further more, the fact that both half-elves and half-orcs are fertile, viable hybrids, rather than sterile sports, means that the relationship between the parent species is very close indeed!"

** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Half-elves are considered a distinct race, as in most cases their purebred human and elf ancestors were several generations ago. There are even two Dragonmarked Houses composed of half-elves.

** Rune giants were originally created by the Runelords of Thassilon through forced crossbreeding of fire and taiga giants; they breed true with no particular issue, and have remained a stable independent species since the fall of the empire that bred them into existence.

* In ''ElGoonishShive'', this was thought to be averted for elves who are hybrids of the god-like Immortals and humans in this setting. However, this turns out to be a lie Immortals told themselves in order to spare themselves the attachment to extended families. In actuality, not only are elves true-breeding but [[http://www.egscomics.com/comic/2018-01-12 all wizards have Immortals in their family tree.]]

* The majority of half-elves in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' are the children of two half-elves, from communities made entirely thereof. They greatly exceed the numbers and geographic distribution of the pure elves, who are only shown occupying a single HiddenElfVillage. Exire is a whole self-sustaining village of half-elves, most of whom have never even ''seen'' a human.

* Many species of small wild cats are capable of successfully producing fertile hybrids with one another. This has resulted in the creation of a number of domestic cat breeds created by breeding domestic cats with wild cats of various species and then breeding the hybrids together to obtain varieties of cat with appearances and coat colors housecats don't normally develop. Examples of stably self-perpetuating breeds created in this manner include [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_cat bengal cats]] (descend from hybrids of domestic cats and Asian leopard cats), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chausie chausies]] (domestic cat x jungle cat) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_cat savannah cats]] (domestic cat x serval).
** Though first generation male savannah cats tend to be sterile, requiring the females to be bred with other domestic cats.

** Bretons are a distinct race that resulted from ten generations of elves breeding with their human slaves, resulting in humans with elven characteristics such as a greater affinity for magic and -- occasionally -- slightly pointed ears.
** The Bosmer -- wood elves -- are a sort of inverse of the Bretons. Like the latter, they descend from elf-human crosses in the distant past; unlike the Bretons, they strongly favor their elven side, resulting in a race of elves with somewhat human characteristics.

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** Bretons are a distinct race that resulted from ten generations of elves breeding with their human slaves, resulting in humans with elven characteristics such as a greater affinity for magic.

In real life, hybrids between different species are often sterile, which precludes the possibility of their further hybridizing. But, especially in fiction, there are exceptions to this rule; often, fictional hybrids are capable of having children themselves. Two hybrids of the same kind can thus be able to have children that would technically be hybrids like themselves, and those children can in turn have children of their own. If there are enough hybrids of the same two species, they might be able to produce a completely new species combining the two.

In real life, hybrids between different species are often sterile, which precludes the possibility of their further hybridizing. But there are some exceptions and if there are enough hybrids of the same two species they might be able to produce a new species combining the two.

* ''Literature/TheWarGods'': Half-elves aren't ''quite'' a stable sixth race, but they come close. If two half-elves have children, those kids will be half-elven even if the elven ancestors are several generations back. (A half-elf - elf pairing also produces half-elven children, but half-elf - human means the children are humans.)

** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': half-elves are considered a distinct race as in most cases their purebred human and elf ancestors were several generations ago. There are even two Dragonmarked Houses composed of half-elves.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' half-elves are sometimes HalfHumanHybrid but in some countries with a significant population they may be born of two half-elven parents.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' orcs were almost entirely confined to Golarion at the time that it disappeared, so most half-orcs now are the result of true-breeding between half-orcs.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': Bretons are a distinct race that resulted from ten generations of elves breeding with their human slaves.

* This phenomenon is somewhat more common in birds than in mammals. Both a species of Galapagos finch and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-crowned_manakin one of manakin]] are known to have arisen in the manner. A more complicated relationship of this sort exists between the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomarine_jaeger pomarine]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_skua great]] skuas: it is known that one originated from the other interbreeding with other skua species, possibly as recently as six or so centuries ago, but exactly which species came first and which arose from self-perpetuating hybrids isn't entirely clear.

* The majority of half-elves in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' are the children of two half-elves, from communities made entirely thereof, like Exire. They greatly exceed the numbers and geographic distribution of the pure elves, who are only shown occupying a single HiddenElfVillage.