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| Little People; an exploration into speculative anthropology | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 13 2016, 07:23 PM (1,459 Views) | |
| Dr Nitwhite | Sep 13 2016, 07:23 PM Post #1 |
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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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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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| trex841 | Sep 28 2016, 05:39 PM Post #31 |
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Entity
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I think it was less they didn't exist, and more they weren't on earth. |
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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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| Dr Nitwhite | Sep 28 2016, 09:04 PM Post #32 |
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Luddite
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Seeing as we haven't really seen sapients suddenly pop into physical existance with basically blank minds, surely not short lived ones that might think very differently from how we do, It would be difficult to predict what would happen. Who knows, maybe they have been here longer than we think. Perhaps they live in some sort of cycle... some of the sprites in the maple seem to speak some kind of Eastern Algonquin but I'm not sure... |
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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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| Scrublord | Sep 29 2016, 01:49 PM Post #33 |
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Father Pellegrini
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But that goes back to my first question. If they've been here longer than we think, why haven't they left any evidence? This is a good project, but it has a few holes in it that need to be filled in before it can be truly great. |
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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 | Sep 29 2016, 02:00 PM Post #34 |
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Entity
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Isn't that part of the mystery? Just where the hell they came from? |
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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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| Dr Nitwhite | Sep 29 2016, 02:02 PM Post #35 |
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Luddite
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Yes. |
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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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| Dr Nitwhite | Oct 1 2016, 04:05 PM Post #36 |
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Luddite
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The Rhododendron Lenape The plant in question In an effort to understand and document the various cultures in my yard before they expire, the most baffling culture I’ve yet identified seem to be the inhabitants of the rhodie next to the front porch, who I haven’t even gotten a true understanding of yet! They must be one of the largest groups in the area, claiming a good deal of the front garden, and I first observed one of their hunters sitting, partially concealed, on a leaf, spear in hand. I backed away and watched him for nearly a half hour, until a carpenter bee came into striking distance and was summarily speared. As the spear flew, I noticed it was attached with some sort of fibrous rope analogue to the twigs nearby. As the bee fell, it was roped back in by the hunter and, with a second spear, stabbed until the bee stopped moving. He then dragged the kill back into the bush. I highly recommend that any of my fellow ameture anthropologists purchase a pair of close focusing binoculars, 8x42 is a good measure. I was curious, but didn’t want to disturb anyone else living in the bush needlessly. I then proceeded to run out for whatever errand it was I was supposed to be doing, and when I came back I noticed that the plants in the garden where rustling much too much and irregularly for the wind at the time. Peering into the garden I laid witness to the first real conflict I had seen thus far. A number of the Serviceberries (the group that had agreed to hunt slugs and other pests in our garden in exchange for protection from birds and goods) were rushing over the walkway, with pins and needles mounted on twigs no less (one of the aforementioned “goods”) in the direction of the rhododendron. As they scampered onto the stones several were speared from the plants on the other side. Using my binoculars, I determined that one of the throwers was the hunter from earlier, though he was wearing the bees head! His comrades also wore invertebrate heads, almost all bees. The Serviceberry leader, Blotch, issued a shrill “RUN AWAY!” to his warriors, who quickly turned tail and fled into the foliage on the other side of the trail. Quickly I stepped into the path and demanded Blotch an explanation. At the sight of me, the bee-headed warriors slunk back into the foliage. After quite a bit of muddled shouting from the Serviceberries, I ascertained the cause of the conflict. Apparently, a pair of Serviceberry hunters ventured onto the other side of the path to hunt pests. The “beemen”, as the Serviceberries described them as, did not take kindly and started shouting a strange language at them. It hadn’t occurred to me that any the groups around here spoke anything but english. The two parties quickly came to blows, one of the Serviceberries and a rhododendron dweller were killed. The two groups, in the course of an afternoon, appeared to have mobilized for war. And it seems this was because we had contracted the Serviceberries to rid the garden of pests. I told Blotch that he mustn’t cross the walkway without my permission or I would take the bird net off his village. A different language, huh. I went inside and talked to Down, the leader of Blanket (the group that lives in the downstairs of my home) to see if she might know how to communicate with the rhododendron folk. Down wouldn’t tell me unless I traded something, and I was thus forced to give up a cutting of felt. Down, despite being a cheap bastard (much like myself), has never let me down, and then was no exception. She said a few of her scouts had picked up the language, which when one spoke it I thought it sounded a bit like some Native American tongues. I narrowed it down to some form of Lenape, the Native American group found in my region prior to the advent of Europeans. The language is almost dead. I’m sure linguists would be thrilled, but a search online reveals that several groups that speak Native American languages have been discovered all over North America. Down’s scout also mentioned that the people called themselves “Amëwë”, which appears to mean “bee”. Every once and awhile, I’ll hear them chanting in the bush or witness them hunt carpenter bees, something we’re grateful for. Blotch and the Serviceberries have made their peace with the Amëwë (by giving them a wide berth), but I can’t seem to figure out how I can get more observations as they seem to be territorial. Perhaps, if I could let them know that they are helping us with the carpenter bees, I could provide them with provisions in exchange for their help. Maybe I can garner their trust that way? The walkway. You can see the rhodie and the serviceberry tree on either side, the homes of the respective cultures. (I promise all my descriptions won’t be so narrative, with so many “I”-s everywhere. Accounts of better studied cultures will be much more formal.) Edited by Dr Nitwhite, Oct 1 2016, 05:56 PM.
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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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| Finncredibad | Oct 1 2016, 04:14 PM Post #37 |
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Edgy and Cool
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My theory of why the sprites have never been seen before that summer is because they were very few in numbers, and decomposed quickly. They have probably been around for a while, and were doucmented by other humans, but were dismissed as myths and nonsense. That's just my interpretation anyways. |
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| Dr Nitwhite | Oct 1 2016, 04:16 PM Post #38 |
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Luddite
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A theory as good as any other. We may never know the truth. or will we?!? |
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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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| Finncredibad | Oct 1 2016, 04:22 PM Post #39 |
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Edgy and Cool
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Yea I think I might have some whatsits living in my moms garden and in my room. The one in my room live on my bookshelf. I'm not sure what they eat though. Maybe they eat scraps of food leftover from my gecko, or they farm the crickets I have in my cricket container. |
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| LittleLazyLass | Oct 1 2016, 04:29 PM Post #40 |
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Proud quilt in a bag
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Next time I'd reccomend splitting up huge paragraphs like that. Walls of text don't look good. I thought we already established magic, why are we still questioning the lack of evidence? |
totally not British, b-baka! You like me (Unlike)I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess. Me What, you want me to tell you what these mean? Read First Words Maybe | |
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| Dr Nitwhite | Oct 1 2016, 04:32 PM Post #41 |
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Luddite
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I always have a little trouble deciding where to split up my thoughts, and I'm afraid what I have I can't satisfactorily do so. I'll do it proper and nice-like next time. |
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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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