D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Except, apparently if you look at their thumbs which apparently may have been better for holding spears and such but not as good at fine manipulation.

Hmm, that's news to me. I don't think many people would be looking at their thumbs. If they were, that wouldn't set them apart as a different species. I mean, look at this person's thumb:

"You know, the dumbasses?"

I don't think we really know if they were less intelligent than us. They had language and similar tools, but just were more "loners" than us Homo Sapiens.

 

[Undrave]

I don't think we really know if they were less intelligent than us. They had language and similar tools, but just were more "loners" than us Homo Sapiens.

Probably not but I'm sure there were this kind of insult being thrown about

 

[Oofta]

Hmm, that's news to me. I don't think many people would be looking at their thumbs. If they were, that wouldn't set them apart as a different species. I mean, look at this person's thumb:
View attachment 129402

I don't think we really know if they were less intelligent than us. They had language and similar tools, but just were more "loners" than us Homo Sapiens.

I don't know if we will ever definitively know exactly how different they were, other than that it might feel strange to shake their hands.

If you go back far enough on the family tree, say back to the ancestor of us and the great apes you'll find something that we would definitely say is not human. However, that doesn't mean that the way their minds work would be considered completely "alien" any more than trying to understand anyone else.

I mean, I had a girlfriend once that was pretty inscrutable but I assume she was not literally from Venus.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Except, apparently if you look at their thumbs which apparently may have been better for holding spears and such but not as good at fine manipulation.

You think that the average person would notice that?

 

[Gammadoodler]

Hmm, that's news to me. I don't think many people would be looking at their thumbs. If they were, that wouldn't set them apart as a different species. I mean, look at this person's thumb:
View attachment 129402

I don't think we really know if they were less intelligent than us. They had language and similar tools, but just were more "loners" than us Homo Sapiens.

To be fair one of the creatures in that photograph is clearly an alien.

 

[Oofta]

You think that the average person would notice that?

If their thumb permanently sticks out at a right angle from their palm? Probably.

Whether we'd notice much else in the way of personality or how they think, I don't know. Most likely any differences could be attributed to culture rather than inherent nature.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If their thumb permanently sticks out at a right angle from their palm? Probably.

People can do that (in my own family, too). People with HEDS (Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlow's Syndrome) can hyperextend their joints (arms, thumbs, knees, everything else). I know from experience that no one has ever asked me or anyone in my family if we were a different species because we can permanently stick our thumbs out at a right angle.

Whether we'd notice much else in the way of personality or how they think, I don't know. Most likely any differences could be attributed to culture rather than inherent nature.

Exactly. No one would look at someone who acts differently and think "they must be a literal, living Neanderthal". They think "they must not be from around here".

 

[Oofta]

People can do that (in my own family, too). People with HEDS (Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlow's Syndrome) can hyperextend their joints (arms, thumbs, knees, everything else). I know from experience that no one has ever asked me or anyone in my family if we were a different species because we can permanently stick our thumbs out at a right angle.

Exactly. No one would look at someone who acts differently and think "they must be a literal, living Neanderthal". They think "they must not be from around here".

There's a difference between being able to stick your thumb out at a right angle and it being difficult (or impossible) to close the gap between your thumb and forefinger. Besides, there are a lot of things people don't comment about that they notice as odd.

It's also pretty irrelevant to the conversation unless we happen to find a neanderthal frozen in suspended animation and manage to thaw him out. In any case I just thought it was an interesting tidbit and may be part of the reason we ultimately out-competed neanderthals, adaptability was ultimately more important than specialization.

 

[Marandahir]

I don't know if we will ever definitively know exactly how different they were, other than that it might feel strange to shake their hands.

If you go back far enough on the family tree, say back to the ancestor of us and the great apes you'll find something that we would definitely say is not human. However, that doesn't mean that the way their minds work would be considered completely "alien" any more than trying to understand anyone else.

I mean, I had a girlfriend once that was pretty inscrutable but I assume she was not literally from Venus.

Only by looking backward and comparing to the present.

There was never a sudden switch from one species to another; the entire concept of species itself is overrated after all. Just iterations upon iterations of useful or at least non-malignant mutations that over time add up to a change from their ancestors and a separation of lineages assuming some geographical limiting factor.

And there's good reason to believe that lineages separated by hundreds of thousands of years if not millions of years from one another still interbred; human ancestry is a mix of lineages that broke apart seemingly from Homo erectus into groups like Denisova, Heidelbergensis, and early "Homo sapiens," etc. Horizontal gene flow is incredibly important element of evolution that has not been given as close a look as vertical gene flow over the centuries of the study.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think we really know if they were less intelligent than us. They had language and similar tools, but just were more "loners" than us Homo Sapien

I heard a theory that the main reason they "lost" to homo sapiens was less intelligence and more that they had fewer and small groups. Therefore their numbers took bigger hit from raids, disasters and interbreeding.