12-07-2017, 02:49 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
The idea that weird not-quite-humans lived in faraway lands was really common in classical, medieval and early modern times, although it's difficult to ascertain with what degree of confidence it was believed in. But a dwarf or gnome is no weirder than a pygmy or wild man, and considerably less weird than the headless men, one-legged men, and dog-headed men that supposedly were to be found all over Africa, India, and similarly inaccessible places. It's entirely possible that there would be a genocidal freakout - perfectly human minority groups like Jews and Roma did get that treatment more than once. But it's not at all implausible that a humanlike race would just be incorporated into the worldview and even society of medieval humans with little difficulty.
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12-07-2017, 02:52 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
'Medieval' isn't one time or place, it's a bit like asking how DF races would be treated if they turned up in the real world any time from Queen Victoria's reign onwards. Local reactions would range anywhere from between fleeing in terror, locking them up in a zoo forever, impromptu murder and shanghaiing them into some dodgy reality TV show.
Also, our ancestors weren't an homogenous mass of superstitious dung age simpletons. There are plenty of intelligent, educated and/or powerful people who would be extremely interested in their origins, the point of differences between normal humans, how they got here and also how they could be exploited for profit. |
12-07-2017, 03:36 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
With this in mind, assuming they considered those to be people and not some sort of monster, I retract my statement about reactions to much less deformed folks.
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12-07-2017, 04:28 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
The ninth-century Frankish theologian Ratramnus wrote a letter, the Epistola de Cynocephalis, on whether the Cynocephali should be considered human (he thought that they were). This meant of course there was a duty to preach the Gospel to them.
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12-07-2017, 04:42 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
The Catholic Church had no doubts that the Native Americans were people, but the Spanish and Portuguese still enslaved, raped, and murdered millions of Native Americans. The same thing applied to the Protestants and the treatment of Native Americans in North America. I can only imagine that their treatment of nonhumans would have been worse than their treatment of humans.
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12-07-2017, 05:34 PM | #26 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
There is no treatment so bad that actual historical humans haven't committed upon other peoples.
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12-07-2017, 05:49 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
Eh, I would assume 'the same', but it's also fairly situational. It's less a case of "people as a group want to do bad things to you" than "people as a group don't care whether bad things happen to you", and then some individuals decide that doing bad things to you is fun and/or profitable.
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12-07-2017, 06:06 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
Quote:
1. How many of these guys are there? If a single elf shows up they can end up just being an exotic curiosity...like Pocahontas in London. 2. How tough are these guys? Do humans have a substantive combat advantage over them? The Chinese Empire would not have been treated like the Native Americans had they made it there. 3. Do these guys have stuff that humans actually want to take? If they live in places that aren't really habitable for humans like...under da sea, under da sea, conquest may not be in the cards. |
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12-07-2017, 09:37 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
Quote:
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12-07-2017, 11:04 PM | #30 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy races in a real world medieval town
Who gets treated more inhumanely, those that are prettier and better off than you, or those that are uglier and worse off?
History seems to say, "yes.", or "it depends."
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