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Little People; an exploration into speculative anthropology
Topic Started: Sep 13 2016, 07:23 PM (1,461 Views)
Dr Nitwhite
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Luddite
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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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Dr Nitwhite
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Kinda legit magic. Their appearance and very existence is definitely supernatural, whatever brought them into being can't be interacted with or harnessed or even comprehended. It's basically refined ASB.

But yes. Interesting short (and long) term implications indeed.
Edited by Dr Nitwhite, Sep 16 2016, 02:57 PM.
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Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
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Scrublord
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I like this project, but I can't help but wonder what an evolutionarily sound, scientifically rigorous take on faeries/little people would be like.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
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trex841
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I'd be shocked if that hasn't been explored by someone on the site in some shape or form before.
F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs
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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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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*coughmecough*
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Scrublord
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I saw that project. As I recall it didn't last very long.
Edited by Scrublord, Sep 16 2016, 10:22 PM.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
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Beetleboy
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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Scrublord
Sep 16 2016, 10:19 PM
I saw that project. As I recall it didn't last very long.
Er, nope, I never even put it in the forum.
~ The Age of Forests ~
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Scrublord
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Father Pellegrini
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Well, then, I'd like to see it.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
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Dr Nitwhite
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Tiny little update, but important to keep in mind.

Some Notes On Size

The average human is somewhere around 5 feet tall, with some in-between numbers. If we were to say the average human height was 5 feet 5 inches, and the average sprite height to be around 1 inch (which it would appear to be), we can scale the height of everyday objects back and forth to help visualize what it would be like to see through a sprites eyes. Let's investigate a few examples (height equivalencies will be made each time an animal is mentioned)

Grasshoppers- Most grasshoppers are about 2 inches long, but some may be as large as 5 inches. Scale this up, we are looking at an animal slightly larger than 10 to 25 feet.

Honey Bee- Around 0.5 inches, so half your height. About 2 and a half feet.

Dragonfly- Can range from 1 to four inches. 5 to 20 feet in our world.

Cruise Ship- 950 feet, give or take. Scale this down, 80-ish feet would be the sprite equivalent.
Speculative Evolution Projects-

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Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
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Corecin
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Have you ever been bitch slapped for lack of listening? lack of doing what your told? cuz i'm not far from slapping you
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Dr Nitwhite
Sep 20 2016, 04:12 PM
Tiny little update
Heh.
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Dr Nitwhite
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dammit. i didn't even do that on purpose...
Speculative Evolution Projects-

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Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

Dragonflies to faeries are actually dragon size!
totally not British, b-baka!
Posted Image You like me (Unlike)
I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
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Scrublord
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What I'm kind of surprised by is that (within the world of the story) they weren't discovered earlier. Surely, even if they're good at hiding from humans, someone would have found the remains of one inside a raptor pellet or something like that.
Edited by Scrublord, Sep 20 2016, 09:10 PM.
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
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Dr Nitwhite
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Scrublord
Sep 20 2016, 09:08 PM
What I'm kind of surprised by is that (within the world of the story) they weren't discovered earlier. Surely, even if they're good at hiding from humans, someone would have found the remains of one inside a raptor pellet or something like that.
Sorry I hadn't gotten back to this earlier. Little people only ever existed once they crawled out of the ground or where born. That means that prior to the summer day they emerged, they did not exist in any capacity. They just showed up. It is theorized by some that they appeared a few hundred years ago and gave birth to fairy myths, but no remains have been found but legends.

I intend to write about the hunters in my rhododendron bush in the backyard. They have some peculiar customs for sure ;)
Edited by Dr Nitwhite, Sep 28 2016, 03:53 PM.
Speculative Evolution Projects-

Other Relevant Work-

Final SE Lifelist standings

BREAKING NEWS
We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this cutting edge report.
ATTENDANCE DROPS DRASTICALLY ON SE SERVER
This past Monday on Discord, famous server Speculative Evolution took a hit in the attendance office when it's offline member list suddenly reappeared. Mods scrambled to rectify the situation, but unfortunately there was little anyone could do. Server member Ivan was asked what he thought of the situation. "So long as Flisch, lord of machines and scion of Urborg lives, all will be well". SE, (in)famous for it's eccentric userbase, has recently been spiraling downward, and now we have hard conformation of the decline. Moderator "High Lord" Icthyander states "There is nothing to be concerned about, Discord is merely changing its UI again", but members are beginning to suspect the honesty of their staff.
Stay tuned, we'll be back with more at 11.
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peashyjah
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This all sounds great and interesting anyways but also keep up with the project.
Discontinued projects:
The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday)
The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents)



All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018)
Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020)
New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020)
All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018)
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Scrublord
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Father Pellegrini
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But if they just now started to exist, then surely they haven't had much time to develop a culture?
My Projects:
The Neozoic Redux
Valhalla--Take Three!
The Big One



Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com

In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado.
--Heteromorph
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