How did Giant Elves come to be?

Err honestly I'm not really sure where the "no-giant forms of humanoid species" rule comes from ^^;
As for many thing, I'm not a big fan of absolute rules, especially in a world like Felarya.
Ok, as I see it, Elve are a race more prone to magic than Humans and Nekos. And more receptive to it too. So there would be a few elves who would grow naturally giant, somehow infused by the magic of the Felaryan soil.
Now the mechanism of having some elves enlarged through magic means make sense to me too ( like how Tajyms do to create their Khajals ), though that would be something rare, the process being very long and difficult to implement. Both occurences would be pretty rare actually. Though of course when two giant elves mate, their children would be giant too ( like for scarlet elves )

In that case, JT's chronology isn't necessarily wrong, as the elves could have got together a whole lot of giant elves and convinced them to breed for the good of the empire. Maybe get other elves who had shown a potential for giant growth but hadn't quite been able to absorb the power and help them start the start the growth.

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Err honestly I'm not really sure where the "no-giant forms of humanoid species" rule comes from ^^;
As for many thing, I'm not a big fan of absolute rules, especially in a world like Felarya.

It's not that there's no giant forms. It's that humanoid species are only one size. ie: humans are human sized. Nekos are neko sized.
I believe this came about because so far in canon humanoids only have one size. It's an assumption.

I believe that this shouldn't be an absolute rule. For example, there exceptions Neko in the manga. These are a characters though. Individuals. They're fine. The rule is more like this; there can be different sized humans and Nekos, but they are individuals, not an entire species. For elves, by your description it appears that the giants are a sub-species. They could technically breed with human-sized elves, but well, it's be a little difficult.

Yes, giant-elves can breed, I'd assume. That's how they continue to exist.

Hm, Karbo said pretty much what I was thinking. Elves would be more "attuned" to ambient magic than humans. This would mean that any possible magic-related mutations would affect them more rapidly, and more drastically. Since elves can breed, and seem to be divided into "species" rather than just individuals with unique mutation, I'd assume it's genetic. This is both a boon and a danger, of course, because while it gives them various advantages, wanton mutation can quickly lead to evolutionary dead-ends and extinction of that line.

AJ, consider this: in domestic cattle, the females are often so fat and unfit (thanks to our meddling) that to be mounted by an adult bull would snap their legs. So, you could say that breeding's difficult for them, but not impossible. It's a matter of physical form, not genetics. With cows, humans have to artificially inseminate, but I'm sure that a sapient species could find their own methods.

Now, if breeding is possible, that would mean that giant elf gametes are the same size as those of regular elves. This brings up a slew of other problems.

Well, the wiki's been updated on the topic of Elves regarding this so I guess it's a moot point now.

ZionAtriedes wrote:

AJ, consider this: in domestic cattle, the females are often so fat and unfit (thanks to our meddling) that to be mounted by an adult bull would snap their legs. So, you could say that breeding's difficult for them, but not impossible. It's a matter of physical form, not genetics. With cows, humans have to artificially inseminate, but I'm sure that a sapient species could find their own methods.

Wait... where in the hell did you get that information?

Because, I'm pretty sure it's wrong.

Artificial insemination is used for cattle not because the cows are "Fat and unfit", but because it allows for improved chances for pregnancy and tighter control of a herds genetics.

In fact, because of a society that demands lower fat content, most beef cattle are grown fairly lean, which makes me wonder why you see cattle as "fat" or "unfit"...

Black Aquila wrote:

ZionAtriedes wrote:

AJ, consider this: in domestic cattle, the females are often so fat and unfit (thanks to our meddling) that to be mounted by an adult bull would snap their legs. So, you could say that breeding's difficult for them, but not impossible. It's a matter of physical form, not genetics. With cows, humans have to artificially inseminate, but I'm sure that a sapient species could find their own methods.

Wait... where in the hell did you get that information?

Because, I'm pretty sure it's wrong.

Artificial insemination is used for cattle not because the cows are "Fat and unfit", but because it allows for improved chances for pregnancy and tighter control of a herds genetics.

In fact, because of a society that demands lower fat content, most beef cattle are grown fairly lean, which makes me wonder why you see cattle as "fat" or "unfit"...

Gah. It is possible I am acting on exaggerated information. However, there are recorded cases of bulls breaking the back of their mate, and there is also widespread usage of steroids and homrones in livestock throughout the industrialized countries. I would imagine there would be a correlation between the two. My apologies, I said "legs" instead of "back", and has mistaken "fat" for "vastly weakened structure due to hormonal imbalance". Then again, as a nitpicker, I should be prepared to fall victim to it myself...

I digress.

ZionAtriedes wrote:

Gah. It is possible I am acting on exaggerated information. However, there are recorded cases of bulls breaking the back of their mate, and there is also widespread usage of steroids and homrones in livestock throughout the industrialized countries. I would imagine there would be a correlation between the two. My apologies, I said "legs" instead of "back", and has mistaken "fat" for "vastly weakened structure due to hormonal imbalance". Then again, as a nitpicker, I should be prepared to fall victim to it myself...

I digress.

Still calling "Bullshit" on that man...

While it wouldn't surprise me that an overzealous bull has broken a heifer's back a time or two, I highly doubt it was because of a severe hormonal imbalance interfering with the strength of her spine.

Seriously, if you've messed with the animal's developmental process enough that her bones would be that fragile... you're doing something wrong!

And it would be a big problem too, since cows in heat will mount each other.

I'm not what you'd call a "farmboy", but I have spend some time around livestock, and the idea that a COW of all things could be perverted to the point that it couldn't support the weight of a mate is laughable.

Now, broilers on the other hand...

Black Aquila wrote:

you're doing something wrong!

Humans? Doing something wrong? I never would have guessed.

Speaking of doing things wrong, this thread is going offtopic.

When you think about it, making a rule about how stuff can survive on Felarya, and applying it to all species would cause a vast number of problems.