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<blockquote data-quote="Barak" data-source="post: 3004558" data-attributes="member: 3028">I happen to agree with your friend.How are non-human races described?Dwarves: They're short, stout, greedy, love beer to excess but are very industrious.&nbsp; They live underground, and even their females have beards! (I know, I know.&nbsp; That only describes -one- type of dwarves, and they aren't like that in all settings.&nbsp; Just bear with me here).Klingons: Extremely warlike and combative, Pretty tall and beefy on average, ridged cranium.And the list goes on.&nbsp; The point is that they are all described from the human point-of-view, mostly by listing how different from humans they are.&nbsp; Are dwarves really short and stout?&nbsp; To a human, sure.&nbsp; To a gnome?&nbsp; Some books avoid that &quot;trap&quot; to a degree, listing actual height and describing body types in greater details instead of &quot;short and stout&quot;.&nbsp; But since the writers and the readers are humans, in virtually every case, to some degree, they'll be compared.&nbsp; And I think that it's important to have a good frame of reference to compare the &quot;aliens&quot; to.&nbsp; The easiest, and, more importantly, best way to do that, I believe, is to include something familiar to the reader that the race in question is compared to.&nbsp; What's the best way to drive the point home that dwarves are short?&nbsp; It's to have humans, or a race of people the same height as humans, around.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Barak, post: 3004558, member: 3028"] I happen to agree with your friend. How are non-human races described? Dwarves: They're short, stout, greedy, love beer to excess but are very industrious. They live underground, and even their females have beards! (I know, I know. That only describes -one- type of dwarves, and they aren't like that in all settings. Just bear with me here). Klingons: Extremely warlike and combative, Pretty tall and beefy on average, ridged cranium. And the list goes on. The point is that they are all described from the human point-of-view, mostly by listing how different from humans they are. Are dwarves really short and stout? To a human, sure. To a gnome? Some books avoid that "trap" to a degree, listing actual height and describing body types in greater details instead of "short and stout". But since the writers and the readers are humans, in virtually every case, to some degree, they'll be compared. And I think that it's important to have a good frame of reference to compare the "aliens" to. The easiest, and, more importantly, best way to do that, I believe, is to include something familiar to the reader that the race in question is compared to. What's the best way to drive the point home that dwarves are short? It's to have humans, or a race of people the same height as humans, around. [/QUOTE]

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