Leisure Time: Orcs, Humans, Elves, Dwarves

[Chrisling]

Higher culture begins with leisure time. People sitting around, with nothing to do, so they invent poetry, art, philosophy, all that good stuff. So, who has the most leisure time -- and thus the highest culture?

I'm gonna consider -- sometimes with tongue in cheek -- the medium-sized races from the PHB (tho' not the half-races) and . . . orcs.

And I think the culture with the most leisure time is . . . orcs!

Why? I'll tell you, right now: +4 Strength. Orcs are good at work. When they cut stone, they cut it faster than the other guys. When they lift, they lift more per unit of time. When they push or pull, they do it better than the other races considered. In short, when orcs work, they work hard.

Which means that, for orcs, it's that much faster to get to Miller Time and be sitting around the town square debating philosophy, carving statues and singing songs.

Who would be worse at it? Elves. Why? -2 Constitution. They can't work as *long* as orcs or humans, and much less time than dwarves. Therefore, to get their work done, it would take a lot more elves to do it, cutting down on the amount of leisure time an individual elf would have. While orcs are sitting around drinking and inventing higher culture, elves would be taking shifts to get the farming done. And at the end of a hard day's work, would the low Con elves have enough energy to invent a high culture?

Just something to think about.

 

[Sir Hawkeye]

A. Orcs are stupid. They are uncooperative. Their work methods are probably less efficient than those of other races.

B. Orcs normally live by a hunter/gatherer or military society. Neither of which produces a preponderance of leisure. Leisure generally is most common in agrarian societies. Note: Elves are not generally farmers either. I will return to this.

C. Living in a physically competitive society, Orcs are more likely to spend their leisure time improving strength or combat skill than at intellectual pursuits.

D.Metabolism. Orcs are larger and shorter lived than humans, indicating a faster metabolism and commensurately higher food intake. Elves, on the other hand, are smaller and much longer lived than humans. I would estimate that the average Orc requires as much as three times as much food as the average elf.

This may be why elves are so rarely farmers: either a small number of farmers accounts for all of elven agriculture (probably with druidic help), or the average elf may comfortably hunt/gather for his own needs and still have sufficient leisure time.


On Dwarves: Dwarves, in general, seem to prefer work to leisure, so they probably have little of it.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...B. Orcs normally live by a hunter/gatherer or military society. Neither of which produces a preponderance of leisure. Leisure generally is most common in agrarian societies...

I like most of your reasons, but I have to disagree with your point on hunter/gatherers. In a reasonably fertile area with low population, the hunter/gather lifestyle yields more leisure time than any other I know of. The history of our world has been one of ever decreasing leisure time for the average person. All because we feel the need to "multiply and fill the earth..."

 

[Deedlit]

Of course, you must consider that elves usually have all the essentials needed through magic, so work is not a nescessity, merely something they do when they want to by something. And their work consists of performing and casting, not hard labor.

 

[Crothian]

I think dwarves leisure time is working. I'd also consider the elven time they spend in the arts as leisure.

 

[Chrisling]

Sir Hawkeye's point of orcs being stupid raises an interesting point. I was reading, today, a news article about how the actual tools uses by hominids in the paleolithic age didn't change according to the brain size of the hominid. Or, to quote: "Miller points out that musty theories claiming we developed our impressive cerebra from, for example, tool use, don’t seem to fit the facts. The stone axes chipped by our one-pound-brained ancestors were about as good as those made by their three-pound-brained successors."

The full article is here: http://www.msnbc.com/news/813414.asp?0dm=-23CT

Are orcs smart as elves or humans or dwarves? No. But that, ultimately, might not be very important: they're smart <i>enough</i> to develop, and certainly to steal, advanced agricultural and ranching techniques. And, give the importance of muscle power, in early civilization they'll have a lot more time to develop things technologically. While human farmers were still out bringing in the crops, his "dumber" orc neighbor is involved in his leisure time and inventing new ways to do his job better. Sure, he might do it "slower" but he's also got more time to do it in. I mean, orcs in the standard fantasy game have access to steel weapons and metallurgy -- if they can figure that out, they're smart enough to <i>farm and ranch</i>, I'd be inclined to say.

Also, elves are uncooperative, too. They're as chaotic as orcs. This might actually help *both sides* develop things, technologically, by the way -- orcs and elves have a lot of freedom to explore unusual subjects. Furthermore, a short generation time might actually benefit <i>orcs</i>. Scientific creation tends to happen early in a human's lifetime, so having a shorter lifespan means greater chance to produce geniuses.

About the military culture thing -- that is probably a great impetus towards invention, not a detraction from it. As any history text on science will point out, wartime generally leads to tremendous inventiveness in the people having the war.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Chrisling]

Orcs and magic -- and psionics

Elves aren't really THAT much better than orcs at most magic, too, I think it's important to recall. I mean, sure, the books SAY elves are all good at magic, but the standard elf doesn't get an Int bonus.

PLUS, if the game has psionics, orcs can be quite good at psionics -- ironically, the sort of psionics used to heal, too, which could have major ramifications of its own.

 

[Nightfall]

I prefer Slitheren! That +2 racial bonus to Fort saves against poison and disease ROCKS plus most of them get +6 to Con AND between +4 and +6 Dex.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Elves don't work! They "pursue artistic interests".

And really, where do you think all those tales of elves stealing human children and replacing them with changelings come from? Elves need someone to do the dirty jobs, after all, and they will charm the poor humans until the humans believe they are being done a favor

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

About the military culture thing -- that is probably a great impetus towards invention, not a detraction from it. As any history text on science will point out, wartime generally leads to tremendous inventiveness in the people having the war.

A good point that completely went by me. Many, many technologies were initially developed on order to get better at beating up the neighbors. Peacetime uses were usually secondary, if not tertiary. Metallurgy is a great example of this.