Oh that’s just typical … racism! 😀
I’m looking for the classic racial stereotypes of a fantasy world, expressed as clear behaviours.
What would you consider something that is typically Human rather than Elvish?
What would make you say:
Oh that’s just typical human behaviour!
Expecting everyone else to have the same morals and values as them.
Progression of technology without thought to impact.
General superiority complex.
Expecting everyone to speak their language.
Not being happy with the status quo. Always in need of constant change and expansion. Never being happy with what they have always wanting more.
Unprecidented hope even in the most desparate times “we will get through this” “we will be okay”
Thinking outside the box, goes with the status quo thing. Who cares if the old way works, maybe there’s a better way (and often there is and they find it).
cool!
but… is this all typical human behaviour?
or are you mixing stuff up from all races?
To me those are human, but it depends on the game world. I was thinking of most traditional D&D style worlds.
Dwarf version of the same:
Expect other Dwarves to have the same values as them and no one else to share them. It’s what makes us Dwarves.
Progression of technology to improve on thing things Dwavres do best, mining, all with a thought to sustaning the resource. Not overusing or over mining.
General superiority complex. – okay maybe this one may fit for all races. Though I think a Dwarf doesn’t consider this. We are Dwarves they are not, doesn’t make us better, it makes us Dwaves.
Dwaves speak our language, and when others try it’s laughable. Stick to your own tongue we will learn it if we want to trade with you.
The status quo is good. If it worked for my great great great great grandfather it will work for me.
The world is doomed. The younger races are ruining everything. If we just stuck to the status quo everything would have been fine.
Again there is the old way and the wrong way.
“Oh that’s just typical… humans, always looking to change things.”
Humanity tends to be much shorter lived than their peers in most fantasy settings: elves and dwarves live for several centuries on average, and so do halflings depending on who’s writing them. Humans are usually lucky to reach one hundred unless they’re a particularly powerful wizard.
I feel that humanity is often portrayed as much more ambitious than the other standard fantasy races as a result of that, so the negative end of that ambition is probably reflected in the stereotypes the other races hold towards them: humans have a much shorter time to make their lives matter, so they’re always in a foolhardy scramble to invade somewhere new, discover something new, and generally upturn their social order every few decades, whereas both elves and dwarves usually seem content in their millennia-old traditions.
W. Flack amazing analysys!
So you have similar insight regarding Elves, Dwarves and Halflings? 😀
Sometimes dwarves HATE elves, sometimes they are mere rivals. Sometimes dwarves HATE goblins (to an extent beyond the norm that they get a racial bonus for it). Most of the time Elves hate Orcs (to the same extent) I’ll note that I don’t recall having seen a goblin or orc in racial options. I did see a goblin race but I’m wanting to tweak it to make it my own. I like to make goblins junk/bazaar/curio dealers.
Complaining about death and striving for immortality and envying those with long or eternal life .
Typical humans have poor impulse control and are easily manipulated. They form emotional attachments to things other races find trivial. Their potential exceeds all other races, for good or ill. Their fate is the most changeable. They breed like crazy.
Have 12 children, fully expecting 8 of them to die before adulthood.
Give undue respect or material resources to one caste or another because of arbitrary accidents of heredity rather than merit.
Violently oppress other humans based on trivial differences in physical appearance, language, religious practice, diet, or other cultural expressions.
Fuck anything.
Get really uptight about who other people fuck.
Endure horrible hardship, squalor, and inequity in the name of “opportunity”
Completely forget the lessons of history painfully learned 3 generations ago, because everyone who learned it first hand is dead.
Disregard and dismiss long standing cultural norms of others as “weird” or “outdated” or “barbaric”.
Expect other peoples/races to share their values.
Speak LOUDLY AND SLOWLY to other races, as if that will make them understand.
Increase population density when resources are scarce. (i.e. during a famine, everyone moves to the city).
Establish new farms/settlements in the lands of other people, then claim that it’s their own “by right.”
Get on a tiny boat and sail well beyond sight of land, just to see what you fucking find.
“Oh, look, a path opened up in the glaciers. Let’s see where it leads.”
Drive an entire herd of animals over a cliff, for dinner.
Betray friends, allies, loved ones in the face of fear.
Gather in a mob and riot.
Burn a forest to provide grazing lands for livestock.
Introduce a new species to an ecosystem without really thinking it through.
Thanks to everyone, all the contributions have been helpful in clearing my ideas and finding a way to do what I want to do 😀