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Homogenized Races?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7635858" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Dwarves are biologically pretty close to humanity, or at least the ways that they are different are usually poorly explored. </p><p></p><p>Despite the apparent ability to crossbreed, elves are further from humanity biologically speaking than dwarves, though again the exact impact of those biological differences is usually poorly explored.</p><p></p><p>One thing for example that struck me when I brainstormed on this is that Dwarves seem to have a preference for communal living and also have a hardy constitution that would make them disease resistant. Elves on the other hand have a preference for a great deal of individualism and low density low environmental impact communities, and also have a frail constitution that would make them prone to communicable disease. I don't think these two things are unrelated. I mean, even the relative reluctance elves seem to have to keep livestock could have something to do with the fact that livestock at least in human communities tends to be a powerful vector for new virulent diseases. </p><p></p><p>What I've basically decided is that elves and dwarves are biologically adapted to very different lifestyles and correspondingly have a psychological preference for the very sort of environments that are linked to their biological needs. For each race, my first take on it is to ask, "What about this race makes them biologically different than humans, and how would it change their culture?" So Elves as a relatively unsocial xenophobic race of arboreal vegetarians defines them, in the same way that dwarves as a highly social race of subterranean warrior-smiths defines them.</p><p></p><p>Consider, you are an elf. You are going to live for centuries unless you die from something like a disease or violence. So what are you likely to do? Avoid disease and violence. Live in diffuse groups away from unsanitary urban conditions, avoid conflict with your friends, and avoid strangers as much as possible - and if you must interact with them it's likely to be at bowshot distance. And it's likely that all of that is baked deep into your subconscious and a matter of intuition for you. Your culture is created from your biology, and if we stripped down the cultural trappings from the different elven communities and focused on primal elven behavior, it would look pretty darn similar in the same way that stone age human communities look pretty similar except for the 'hats'.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7635858, member: 4937"] Dwarves are biologically pretty close to humanity, or at least the ways that they are different are usually poorly explored. Despite the apparent ability to crossbreed, elves are further from humanity biologically speaking than dwarves, though again the exact impact of those biological differences is usually poorly explored. One thing for example that struck me when I brainstormed on this is that Dwarves seem to have a preference for communal living and also have a hardy constitution that would make them disease resistant. Elves on the other hand have a preference for a great deal of individualism and low density low environmental impact communities, and also have a frail constitution that would make them prone to communicable disease. I don't think these two things are unrelated. I mean, even the relative reluctance elves seem to have to keep livestock could have something to do with the fact that livestock at least in human communities tends to be a powerful vector for new virulent diseases. What I've basically decided is that elves and dwarves are biologically adapted to very different lifestyles and correspondingly have a psychological preference for the very sort of environments that are linked to their biological needs. For each race, my first take on it is to ask, "What about this race makes them biologically different than humans, and how would it change their culture?" So Elves as a relatively unsocial xenophobic race of arboreal vegetarians defines them, in the same way that dwarves as a highly social race of subterranean warrior-smiths defines them. Consider, you are an elf. You are going to live for centuries unless you die from something like a disease or violence. So what are you likely to do? Avoid disease and violence. Live in diffuse groups away from unsanitary urban conditions, avoid conflict with your friends, and avoid strangers as much as possible - and if you must interact with them it's likely to be at bowshot distance. And it's likely that all of that is baked deep into your subconscious and a matter of intuition for you. Your culture is created from your biology, and if we stripped down the cultural trappings from the different elven communities and focused on primal elven behavior, it would look pretty darn similar in the same way that stone age human communities look pretty similar except for the 'hats'. [/QUOTE]
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