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Little People; an exploration into speculative anthropology
Topic Started: Sep 13 2016, 07:23 PM (1,458 Views)
Dr Nitwhite
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Little People

Because I’m bad at naming projects.

It was a lovely spring day of yesteryear, the rains and schools giving quick way to summer. Students were taking exams, their parents planning vacations, and the air grew heavy and humid. Perhaps that’s what set it off. Anyone who cared to stroll outside the confines of their northern hemisphere homes and offices through a garden or wood that day would notice something rather peculiar. Those with keen ears and a knack for observation would have noticed a rustling, scratchy, unmistakably burrowy sound emanating quietly from the soil beneath their feet. Perhaps the more brave among us dug up the source a bit earlier, but the less curious, more nervous, and woefully oblivious among us would discover it not soon after. Little sprouts burst from the earth, as if someone pushed a fast forward button on time.

But hold on a moment, is that a head?!

The sprouts that had so suddenly appeared quickly revealed their true nature, they weren't plants, or even fungi, but people. Taking stock of their surroundings, these inch tall folk quickly turned to one another and started to mobilize, running about seeking shelter, food, water, and improvised clothes in small groups. To absolutely no surprise, this sudden occurrence resulted in a form of mass hysteria, a mix of panic, excitement, screaming, bewilderment, and the occasionally smug I-told-you-so. After a month or so of the new summer, the little people, or sprites as they came to be most commonly known (alternatives include fairies, pixies, elves, hobgobs, cicada people, littleuns, faefolk, and whatsits) settled into tribes and villages while their human analogues began to calm down and attempt an explanation. The sprites were physically impossible. Absolutely no scientific explanation on their sudden appearance or internal biology where (or can be) mustered. Despite their flying in the face of established fact, a proverbial precambrian rabbit to nearly all major disciplines, the planet slowly began to accept their presence. Over the course of a year (several lifetimes sprite-wise), the two peoples of earth have become accustomed to one another, for better or worse depending on the local circumstances. Due to their being no back up plan for this occurrence, no world government has successfully passed any legislation concerning sprites and they continue to debate to this day. The citizens of these countries have taken all sorts of stances, benevolence, disgust, denial, you name it. The sprites have reacted accordingly. The world is a lot more confused than previous, and several cultures remain undescribed by humanity. Sprites have been transported to every corner of the globe, and untold nations reside in skyscrapers, glens, gardens, streams, and any other “microenvironment” one could dream up. The world spins silently in space, apparently unchanged from the outside. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Edited by Dr Nitwhite, Sep 13 2016, 07:24 PM.
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malicious-monkey
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I remember a discussion way back revealing that many of us used to imagine creatures running beside the cars we were in. A similar discussion came up somewhere else (reddit?? meatspace?) where we all admitted to daydreaming (as kids) about interacting with mini people. I used to imagine making rides for them. I wonder how many people here have similar stories.

Little people are the perfect candidates for spaceflight. Imagine how much cheaper it would be to launch a few Borrowers into space and feed them while they're there, than to send big people (I bet some of them would object to calling us "normal sized"). It's a fun concept, anyway.

Are you planning on doing all the updates yourself, or opening this to collaboration ala The Library?
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Dr Nitwhite
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Quote:
 
I remember a discussion way back revealing that many of us used to imagine creatures running beside the cars we were in. A similar discussion came up somewhere else (reddit?? meatspace?) where we all admitted to daydreaming (as kids) about interacting with mini people. I used to imagine making rides for them. I wonder how many people here have similar stories.


Given the amount of legends, stories, and imaginary thoughts based on little people practically world-wide, I wouldn't be surprised if it had some sort of biological basis. Something innately human maybe.

Quote:
 
Little people are the perfect candidates for spaceflight. Imagine how much cheaper it would be to launch a few Borrowers into space and feed them while they're there, than to send big people (I bet some of them would object to calling us "normal sized"). It's a fun concept, anyway.

Many little people call us "big folk" or some variation thereof. This is a great idea anyway.

Quote:
 
Are you planning on doing all the updates yourself, or opening this to collaboration ala The Library?


Looks like I beat someone to the punch! ;)

Though I never intended to do this, given your and I'm sure others interest, I'd seriously consider it. I'll put up some preliminary posts here first to lay some groundwork, and then we'll see. No promises, but due to the enormous amount of potential cultures and cultural interaction, this might be an optimal project for collab. Still, I'm not sure exactly how comfortable with the idea I am, I'll see how I feel after a bit of work.
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trex841
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Dr Nitwhite
Sep 14 2016, 05:42 PM
Quote:
 
Little people are the perfect candidates for spaceflight. Imagine how much cheaper it would be to launch a few Borrowers into space and feed them while they're there, than to send big people (I bet some of them would object to calling us "normal sized"). It's a fun concept, anyway.

Many little people call us "big folk" or some variation thereof. This is a great idea anyway.

I put in my vote for Stompers.
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malicious-monkey
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I'd bet there are different slang words for big people all over the world.
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Finncredibad
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Big Kahunnas are probably island slang for big folk
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LittleLazyLass
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How many Trumps out of ten are we giving the levels of discrimination against some of these guys?
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Are you planning on doing all the updates yourself, or opening this to collaboration ala The Library?
It's interesting to me how this seems to come up in a large portion of projects released nowadays, even if there's no reason to think it'll be a collab, nevermind open. It shows how big of a project that The Library has become that some people expect it to be the standard.

On one hand, it seems kind of rude to ask whether you can work on someone else's project without any invitation that such an idea was even on the table. On the other hand, collab projects are more likely to not die, and will probably have more of a following.
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trex841
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A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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Dr Nitwhite
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How many Trumps out of ten are we giving the levels of discrimination against some of these guys?


Anywhere between -1 and 11 depending on the individual big dude. People have such completely varied responses without any respect to traditional groups people put themselves in, like political parties and religions. A liberal may regard Sprites as friends, a resource to exploit, employees, or vermin.
Edited by Dr Nitwhite, Sep 14 2016, 08:00 PM.
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Niedfaru
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This is really cool.

The description of them as cicada people had me (not previously knowing about the Ultraman aliens) thinking they were actually sapient cicadas that had a vaguely humanoid body plan. Which got me thinking about the idea of sapient insects as an actual spec version of faeries. Not suitable for this project, since you've said that their biology is unknown (though I imagine someone somewhere has dissected some in the name of (inter)national security), but I really like the idea.

Anyway, this is cool idea whichever way you go. Nice one.
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malicious-monkey
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Sep 14 2016, 07:55 PM

On one hand, it seems kind of rude to ask whether you can work on someone else's project without any invitation that such an idea was even on the table. On the other hand, collab projects are more likely to not die, and will probably have more of a following.
That's why I asked. Besides, I don't intend to write anything at the moment because god knows I can't even keep on top of my own project let alone multiple community projects.
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Beetleboy
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So are the little people of just one species? I had a similar idea for various magical humanoids, including beings such as brownies, dryads, etc, but they were all different species.

Anyhow, cool idea!
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Scrublord
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What I'm wondering is, what did these "little people" evolve from, and is it even possible for an organism to be sapient at such a small size?
Are they even from Earth at all? Are they from outer space? Are they from another dimension?
Edited by Scrublord, Sep 16 2016, 10:23 PM.
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Dr Nitwhite
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The description of them as cicada people had me (not previously knowing about the Ultraman aliens) thinking they were actually sapient cicadas that had a vaguely humanoid body plan. Which got me thinking about the idea of sapient insects as an actual spec version of faeries. Not suitable for this project, since you've said that their biology is unknown (though I imagine someone somewhere has dissected some in the name of (inter)national security), but I really like the idea.

I do too. Sprites are anatomically human, which makes them impossible, yet they exist. This answers this question as well-

Quote:
 
What I'm wondering is, what did these "little people" evolve from, and is it even possible for an organism to be sapient at such a small size?


Sprites are entirely fantastical. This project isn't an exploration into spec evo per say (though there may be elements) but speculative anthropology. It's why it's in cosmique.
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So are the little people of just one species? I had a similar idea for various magical humanoids, including beings such as brownies, dryads, etc, but they were all different species.


All one species.

Here is a link to the original concept I posted here on the project idea thread, which may answer more of your questions.
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LittleLazyLass
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Yeah I've been assuming they're legit magic; which has so many short term implications, realizing magic is real and all.
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