fantasy races

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Originally Posted by Landwalker

There is if that race has some inborn characteristic that makes it disinclined towards cultural diversity. Humans are stereotypically adaptable, malleable, flexible, so they usually have very clear cultural shifts depending on the context. Dwarves aren't, but that doesn't mean that there won't be differences between a frontier dwarven settlement in the frigid wilderness and dwarves in a more metropolitan environment. There will be constants -- whatever it is that defines dwarves as a race like adaptability defines humans as a race -- but how those constants manifest will still be different. Other races will probably look at frontier dwarves and urban dwarves both, and think "Man, those dwarves", not "man, those hicks / city slickers", because how the hick-dwarves and the city-slicker-dwarves exist in their environments will be manifestations of their common racial traits -- they may be superficially different, but they have the same basis.

Any race can be disinclined to cultural diversity if the author wants that. I'm saying that just because a race isn't human, doesn't mean it automatically has to be monolithic, if the author doesn't want it to be.

I think that humans being stereotyped as varied and adaptable comes from unconsciously comparing us to non-sapient animals, since we have no RW nonhuman races for comparison. It's very difficult to come up with non-human cultural diversity, because a non-human race is most easily based on a stereotyped sub-section of RW human racial diversity. One option is to base some traits of a race's psychology on some non-human animal.

In the fantasy world I started writing, the four main races (including dwarves) were all intended to have a lot of cultural diversity, though I haven't designed any of those cultures yet.

[Gudiomen]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

I think that humans being stereotyped as varied and adaptable comes from unconsciously comparing us to non-sapient animals, since we have no RW nonhuman races for comparison.

That and traditional fantasy that has stereotyped fantasy races.

From the neurological point of view we can argue both for and against human adaptability. But the key here is ambient input.

As for non-human races in order to succeed and thrive like humans they'd have to be either adaptable or live in sheltered environments.

The reasons non-human races are pictured as monolithic, for me, are the following:

a) they are not in fact monolithic, but the protagonists are human so we get a skewed view of other races, or lack of information on them
b) the author's attempts to characterize also limit the race's profile, generating stereotypes (creating stereotypes of things we do not understand is a basic human reflex of categorizing and generalizing things, authors are not immune)

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Originally Posted by Gudiomen

The reasons non-human races are pictured as monolithic, for me, are the following:

a) they are not in fact monolithic, but the protagonists are human so we get a skewed view of other races, or lack of information on them
b) the author's attempts to characterize also limit the race's profile, generating stereotypes (creating stereotypes of things we do not understand is a basic human reflex of categorizing and generalizing things, authors are not immune)

I agree. Coming up with a non-human race and giving it interesting, believable, non-human psychology, and then extrapolating racial diversity that is both non-human and various, is just hard. If we shared the planet with 4 other sapient races, I imagine we'd find this sort of thing at least a little bit easier.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Gudiomen

That and traditional fantasy that has stereotyped fantasy races.

From the neurological point of view we can argue both for and against human adaptability. But the key here is ambient input.

As for non-human races in order to succeed and thrive like humans they'd have to be either adaptable or live in sheltered environments.

The reasons non-human races are pictured as monolithic, for me, are the following:

a) they are not in fact monolithic, but the protagonists are human so we get a skewed view of other races, or lack of information on them
b) the author's attempts to characterize also limit the race's profile, generating stereotypes (creating stereotypes of things we do not understand is a basic human reflex of categorizing and generalizing things, authors are not immune)

I was always curious regarding showing humans as monolithic and stereotypical from the PoV of aliens/fantasy races . . . without making it absurd. Preferably in such a way as to force humans to reply "But! . . But! . . Oh well, I guess we are [insert characterization] indeed."

[Landwalker]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I was always curious regarding showing humans as monolithic and stereotypical from the PoV of aliens/fantasy races . . . without making it absurd. Preferably in such a way as to force humans to reply "But! . . But! . . Oh well, I guess we are [insert characterization] indeed."

That shouldn't be too difficult, since different human groups do the exact same thing: Irish are drunkards; Americans are fat slobs; French are anorexic, chain-smoking elitist snobs; etc.

If you wanted to make a "stereotypical/monolithic" cultural view for humans as a whole, though, I would start with "Parasitic" -- a tendency to expand (territorially and biologically) as far and as quickly as possible and suck up as many resources as possible without giving any thought to sustainability or replenishment. "What would cancer be like if it were a sentient humanoid organism?" seems like a good starting point.

Cheers.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

I agree with Landwalker.

In addition, other races might see us a belligerently violent and warlike towards each other and towards non-humans.

In Tekumel, (I'm not familiar with the setting) I think non-humans generally view humans as very dangerous.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

I agree with Landwalker.

In addition, other races might see us a belligerently violent and warlike towards each other and towards non-humans.

In Tekumel, (I'm not familiar with the setting) I think non-humans generally view humans as very dangerous.

In my one space opera setting, I have a bit of background history where the various human nations were at war with an alien race. When the war made it to the alien home system, they were shocked and somewhat impressed - but not appalled or repulsed - by how willing the human fleets were to fire on each other over the right to fire on the aliens first! They were confused, however, because the humans denied that they were an "aggressive, treacherous, backstabbing" race, even when confronted with the evidence. The aliens accepted that the two races were a lot alike, but that the aliens accepted their nature rather than denying it.

[Crakkerjakk]

Meh, I think that's mostly sci-fi authors pining for the future where we ain't gonna war no more. It's possible that there's an alien species that abhors violence I suppose, but I don't think it'd be common.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Another interesting point in this is that the traits a race typically shows to others aren't necessarily the same set of traits they show to each other. Humans can be traders or violent aggressors towards each other or non-humans, but they're less likely to show their altruistic or artistic sides towards non-humans (or towards other, non-allied human groups).

[vicky_molokh]

Just recalled: In Master of Orion 2, humans are considered to have two positive traits and no negative ones. Namely, they're Democratic and Charismatic. Planet of hats, definitely, though not a negative one.