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Homogenized Races?
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7640423" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>In my campaign, several of the nonhuman races are extremely long-lived, which leads to a significant amount of linguistic stasis. Elves, in particular, live thousands of years, or at least they did until the last generation or so. But they travel and disperse themselves at about the same rate as humans, so widespread elves speaking a single tongue makes good sense to me. Likewise, dwarves live several centuries and are extremely linguistically conservative on the whole.</p><p></p><p>Despite this, I do have Ancient Elven (from long, long ago) and Old Dwarvish. And two elves (or whatever) from sufficiently far apart might not speak the same tongue; a long time ago, a pc elf arrived via long-distance teleportation and spoke a language that was similar to Elvish called Elfisti. </p><p></p><p>I do think some degree of the culture of a given race arises from their makeup- call it their genetics, their soul, or whatever. So the fact that my dwarves are almost universally conservative cultures, slow to change and with significant reverence for the ways of generations past, is not *just* a cultural thing- it's innate to some degree. Those innate traits are part of what make dwarves not-human.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Did you play 3e? In 3e, a monster's alignment wasn't just "chaotic good"; it was either <em>always, usually,</em> or <em>often</em> (? might be misremembering that last one) chaotic good. So I would treat elves as "usually" chaotic good. Not all elves are, but the average elf you meet probably is. </p><p></p><p>No, I don't have an issue with a race having an innate moral position. In a game where there are actual demonstrable gods of moral positions, it only makes sense. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There needn't be. The Common Tongue in my game is currently Imperial, but a while back, depending on where you started, it might be Forinthian, Strogassian, or Peshan- hell, it might even be Elvish, if you came from the right place. </p><p></p><p>Common Tongues are real- today, it's English. Not too awfully long ago, it was French (thus <em>lingua franca</em>). At one point, it was Greek or Latin. But I will agree that, generally, a language actually <em>named</em> Common would be weird.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 7640423, member: 1210"] In my campaign, several of the nonhuman races are extremely long-lived, which leads to a significant amount of linguistic stasis. Elves, in particular, live thousands of years, or at least they did until the last generation or so. But they travel and disperse themselves at about the same rate as humans, so widespread elves speaking a single tongue makes good sense to me. Likewise, dwarves live several centuries and are extremely linguistically conservative on the whole. Despite this, I do have Ancient Elven (from long, long ago) and Old Dwarvish. And two elves (or whatever) from sufficiently far apart might not speak the same tongue; a long time ago, a pc elf arrived via long-distance teleportation and spoke a language that was similar to Elvish called Elfisti. I do think some degree of the culture of a given race arises from their makeup- call it their genetics, their soul, or whatever. So the fact that my dwarves are almost universally conservative cultures, slow to change and with significant reverence for the ways of generations past, is not *just* a cultural thing- it's innate to some degree. Those innate traits are part of what make dwarves not-human. Did you play 3e? In 3e, a monster's alignment wasn't just "chaotic good"; it was either [i]always, usually,[/i] or [i]often[/i] (? might be misremembering that last one) chaotic good. So I would treat elves as "usually" chaotic good. Not all elves are, but the average elf you meet probably is. No, I don't have an issue with a race having an innate moral position. In a game where there are actual demonstrable gods of moral positions, it only makes sense. There needn't be. The Common Tongue in my game is currently Imperial, but a while back, depending on where you started, it might be Forinthian, Strogassian, or Peshan- hell, it might even be Elvish, if you came from the right place. Common Tongues are real- today, it's English. Not too awfully long ago, it was French (thus [i]lingua franca[/i]). At one point, it was Greek or Latin. But I will agree that, generally, a language actually [i]named[/i] Common would be weird. [/QUOTE]
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