Stretching the bounds of typical fantasy races -OR- What makes an elf?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I think I may incorporate some Glaswegian stereotype into my dwarves going forward. Incredibly friendly, but they tend to measure their friendships by how many teeth they've knocked out of one another.

Like my idea from decades ago of trolls being friendly but say hello by biting off pieces of shoulders... Hey, it'll grow back, right?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

My Dwarves are more German and Norwegian than Scots. No haggis for them.

Mine vary between Norse, Germanic, and Jewish (with some Quaker mixed in).

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Mine vary between Norse, Germanic, and Jewish (with some Quaker mixed in).

Hmmmm.... Amish dwarves?

Other dwarves consider them heretical because they shave their mustaches?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Like my idea from decades ago of trolls being friendly but say hello by biting off pieces of shoulders... Hey, it'll grow back, right?

I'm reminded of certain less than serious manga where characters made a practice of "dynamic entry", always arriving on the scene by kicking something or someone just to announce their arrival.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by tanksoldier

In the Traveller settings I’ve always thought of the Darrians as Space Elves... and Sword Worlds as Space Orks... both are human cultures but they fill those niches.

In any setting Elves appear unpredictable to outsiders not because they actually are capricious but because they make their decisions on a different, unknown, set of premises and values.

Darriens might make Space Elves, but Swordies are more Space Dwarves. Swordies don't spend all their time brawling and shouting for,"more dakka", in fact their frontiersman trope is as much their hat as the soldier one. The best model of Space Orcs is the Ithklur if you allow for the fact that Ithklur aren't really baddies, they are just Boisterous Bruisers.

[Flyndaran]

I think most of us would agree that Klingons are space Orcs, and Vulcans are space Elves.
Ferengi could work as space goblins or even Zurich gnomes in DS9.

I can't think of any species that works as space Dwarves in any of the Star Trek series though.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I think most of us would agree that Klingons are space Orcs, and Vulcans are space Elves.
Ferengi could work as space goblins or even Zurich gnomes in DS9.

I can't think of any species that works as space Dwarves in any of the Star Trek series though.

Tellarites. Short, stocky, bearded, belligerent toward the elfy Vulcans and Andorians. And their stereotype occupations are miners and merchants.

[Flyndaran]

They weren't short that I remember. Wikis even list their species as slightly taller than human on average. The first individual we see in the original series was slightly short, but that's all.
And I don't think you can have Dwarves that aren't short.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They weren't short that I remember. Wikis even list their species as slightly taller than human on average. The first individual we see in the original series was slightly short, but that's all.
And I don't think you can have Dwarves that aren't short.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tellarite says "Tellarites were a stout humanoid species with an average body height shorter than that of Humans."

And if you showed me this picture out of context, I'd have said they're dwarves.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They weren't short that I remember. Wikis even list their species as slightly taller than human on average. The first individual we see in the original series was slightly short, but that's all.
And I don't think you can have Dwarves that aren't short.

Memory Alpha and Star Trek Online both describe them as "short". I can't find any first page references that suggest they are taller than human on average and the first example tends to set the stereotype. Even apart from that, "bearded", "stubborn", "hard-drinking" and "doesn't like elves" do seem to cover a lot of dwarf territory. Not to mention that they first appear as parties to a mining dispute.