Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

Guinea pigs are actually a good match for the cramped quaters of the Dwarves. The Andean peoples who feast on them tend to already have thicker trunks and shorter limbs (though not so dramatically). Rabbits would be logical for Halflings, Elves, and Dwarves. Manatees might be good milk animals for the Nix/silkies.

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

I actually would prefer to have an evolutionarily stable strategy for each species; that's part of what I'm getting at with the "partial equilibrium" thing. But at this point, what I'm doing is looking for possible analogies in nonhuman mammals, with a subtext of "let's give them differing degrees of sexual dimorphism." I'm perfectly willing either to see suggestions as to what sort of evolutionary history might give rise to the proposed trait, or analyses of why a different sexual dimorphism might make sense as a stable strategy. That's one of the points of discussing all this here—to profit from exchange of ideas with people who are more knowledgeable or better at certain sorts of analysis than I am. If it changes my design, that's not necessarily a bad thing. As Tolkien says, "Their plans were improved with the best advice."

Bill Stoddard

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

Brewing from a nut base is difficult as many have too high an oil content. It interferes with the generation of proper head. However, there are workarounds with roasting. I know of two different beers in the southern US that are based on roasted pecans, but still need some grains to supplement the process.

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

Doing some research on eusociality, I find that there are actually two models of it: life insurers and fortress defenders. Dwarves seem like a natural to be fortress defenders. Their mines provide both close quarters and a valuable resource that needs to be defended. There is a shrimp species, Synalpheus regalis, that exhibits the behavior pattern.

I believe that many eusocial species have a mechanism for promotion of a sterile caste member of fertility if the fertile female dies.

As to what motivates a sterile dwarf: concern for the welfare of siblings? devotion to the mother that they all serve? a sense of the sacredness of the mine? eagerness to carry on the trade whose profits put food in the storehouses? ancestor worship? stoicism?

Bill Stoddard

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

With selkies, I would note that their favored habitats are island/beach and lagoon settings; that constrains the amount of space available to them. So there should definitely be competition for space between males. This is especially important for reproductive space, as, like seals, they can't give birth out at sea.

I envision selkies as having developed song competition as a displacement of physical competition and a focus of sexual selection. Having a loud, sustained, and resonant voice naturally correlates with size and health, which is a possible starting point for the evolutionary process. There could also be something like Inuit song duels. Of course, in a world with magic, song could also be a vehicle for magically effective attack, like the duelling magical songs in The Silmarillion.

Once they develop net weaving, female selkies are likely to have work songs that involve elaborate counterpoint. And perhaps both sexes will have fishing gang songs.

I wonder if there might be a tendency to chieftainships with potlatch-like redistributive economies? Or to recruitment of whaling parties through sung advertisements of how generously past hunts paid off?

Bill Stoddard

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

Having a larger head to body ratio than humans could be a problem with pregnancies. Or is just that male trolls have relatively small heads?

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

Trolls are bigger than humans in the first place. A typical human weighs 150 pounds, which comes to roughly 70,000 cubic centimeters; a typical human brain is a bit less than 1400 cubic centimeters. But if you doubled the body mass to get 140,000 cubic centimeters, the equivalent brain volume would not be 2800 cubic centimeters but only 2250, because brain volume is proportional to body surface area, not to body volume.

In the second place, it's possible to fit a bigger brain into a human frame. Neanderthal brains actually averaged 1500 cubic centimeters.

So if you start out with male trolls at 140,000 cubic centimeters and brain volume 2250 cubic centimeters, and female trolls at 200,000 cubic centimeters and brain volume 2800 cubic centimeters, and then cut the female body down to 140,000 cubic centimeters, you've only restore the mannish head proportions.

In the third place, male troll brains might well be a bit smaller in volume than this would predict; the females might have the full 2250, for example, and the males might have less.

Bill Stoddard

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

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Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

So if you don't have grain, you can't make beer, basically?

Bill Stoddard

Re: theme for a fantasy campaign
 

I think beer is defined as being made from grains. But you can make alcohol from anything with starch or glucose.

Edit: No, you don't need barley to turn starch into glucose. Saliva will do - it has a lot of amylase in it.