WoR - Races - Evolution vs. Deity Created

[Gez]

I've used both concepts together.

Basically, the various lifeforms were created by divine entities that each specialized in a model. They frequently created a lot of variations on the same model (like, all felines are the work of one of these entities, while all moss are another's, etc.). Of course, they had no laws against plagiarism (pegasi and hippogriffs can be seen as the result of the Horse-creator copying birds), and the large amount of roughly humanoid races can be traced to that (when the Lizard-creator decide to copy men, he created lizardfolk, troglodytes, kobolds, etc.).

This allowed me to explain both the anomalous amount of intelligent races, and the great number of chimerical creatures (sphinx, hippogriff, owlbear, and other mix'n'matched hybrids).

 

[Tonguez]

Cut and pasted from another of the sibling threads:

Well, here's the question for you - how long ago were the races created? Evolution is characterized by action on geologic timescales, not human timescales. If the races were created 100,000 years ago, there's not much (if any) need to deal with evolution. If they were created 100 million years ago, evolution becomes a big issue.

Unless you accept the theory that evolution is powered by isolated mutation 'jumps' in a small population that then radiate out and replace the existing form. In a magical landscape I suspect that lots of cataclysmic events and weird morphology will cause a whole lot more mutations to occur over a much shorter period - so much quicker evolution...

Personally I adopt the creation view of Kinds - that is every KIND of animal is divinely created but then gets modified under enviromental pressure (eg Tigers, Lions and Leopards are the same KIND of animal but have modified under enviromental pressure).
In my world then the divine ancestors of humanoids gave birth to seven children "who were well formed but without detail or purpose". These seven were then given to each of the 'creator gods' "who gave them shape and purpose according to their need"

Other subspecies were then descended from these original seven

.

 

[Umbran]

Unless you accept the theory that evolution is powered by isolated mutation 'jumps' in a small population that then radiate out and replace the existing form. In a magical landscape I suspect that lots of cataclysmic events and weird morphology will cause a whole lot more mutations to occur over a much shorter period - so much quicker evolution....

No, I was considering that, "punctuated equilibrium" version. Consider, for the moment, that the human race, for all it's attempts to concentrate and breed animals, has yet to see the birth of a single new species.

Rate of mutation be darned, when your critter is an elf or dragon with a lifespan on the order of a millennium and a correspondingly long generation time, evolution is gonna be darned slow.

 

[Tonguez]

I once considered the 'problem' of the plethora of elfs and come up with this:

Creatures in a highly magical world have varying degrees of morphic stability which can be altered by entry into new environments. That is whenever a humanoid enters a new environment (say from Alpine mountains to desert, or subterranean to extraplanar) this will cause some physical trauma (hyperthermia, sunstroke, oxygen depletion, insanity) and this trauma will be dealt with in various ways

Humans have a very stable morphic field and thus can survive in multiple enviroments without mutation

Dwarfs are less stable but use their improved fortitude to shrug off minor trauma they suffer (also the reason dwarfs are always grumpy -they really are in pain but shrug it off)

Elfs on-the-other-hand are morphically unstable and in fact every time an elf enters a new enviroment it suffers trauma and begins to mutate, modifying itself to suit the new environment.
If two elfs modified in this way mate their offspring will carry the mutant genes (ie new species in one generation) prolonged residence in the given environment means a new subspecies has arisen in as little as two generations (say 1000 years)