The classic advantage of humans is numbers. Humans can start having kids early and often do. You can easily fit several generations of humans into the time it might take a pair of long-lived elves or dwarves to have and raise an elflette or a dwarfling. This is good, because any species with an elven lifespan and a human reproductive rate would run into some extremely serious problems very quickly.
However, this also means that each loss hurts the dwarves and elves far more than it does the humans. If you have one of those “a generation of warriors lost” situations because of a war or a plague or whatnot, then the humans are pretty well suited to recover from that. It only takes ~18 years to go for a human to go from newborn to adult, compared to ~100 for a Tolkein elf.
Accordingly, humans tend to dominate through sheer attrition because they’re just much better at replacing fallen soldiers than the longer lived peoples.
I mean the Silmarillion was an unfinished work, Tolkien’s notes, published posthumously, not a fully realized novel. But I think the whole concept of free will is a bit more complicated in it than you might think. Even the curses that, for instance, the Noldor were under, was the result of their own bad actions. But that probably shouldn’t be discussed on this topic.
EDIT: Again, don’t want to keep the debate going. But Eru saying that he, as the omnipotent God of the universe, is ultimately in control, doesn’t nullify free will. People clearly act against his wishes, even the Valar do it by bringing the elves to Valinor when he wanted them in Middle Earth. Eru basically just meant that he had final say and would use evil deeds for good.
JRRT was and remains standard-setting. You can’t play a fantasy MMO or read a fantasy novel (rare exceptions) without seeing the touch of his influence. Even those which try to radically deviate with, say, a nomadic desert people with sorceo-mechanical tattoos, are being influenced, maybe even more. Halfings (hobbits), elves, magic rings. But since he was–I think openly–writing a bit of a Christian allegory w/LoTR, moralizing requires humans to be the most corruptible, since humans are reading the text. I think that bit kind of stuck too. Helps to resonate w/audience.
As for the human industriousness which creates greed, accomplishment (extra skill points), lasting institutions–D&D and some others have accepted that it’s logical that these should fall out of their short lifespans. This is very much in the ancient Greek tradition–see Achilles. I would argue that Homer, whose epic journeys influence even epics like Dante’s Inferno and Virgil’s Aeneid, is the only “Western” author more influential over mainstream fantasy, Dragon Age or not. EDIT: Maybe Arthurian legend.
I want to preface by saying that it’s something I personally dislike and don’t vibe with; that doesn’t make it an objectively bad thing.
I don’t like most made up fantasy languages. Especially when it’s just thrown in with no explanation. Yes, I understand context but often it’s not clear. Or people will use four or five of their original words at once and the meanings are completely opaque. It’s most prevalent in fantasy because of the enduring influence of JRR Tolkien’s work.
I think it’s better used sparingly and with terms clearly explained. I don’t think it adds much value to a work and often detracts.
Interesting, the game I’m thinking about making definitely includes conlangs, multiple of them. But it sounds like what you don’t like is random single words that only mean anything to the author. What about developed conlangs?
Depends how clear the meanings are upfront. I just get super frustrated when it’s just used helter skelter and I don’t know what’s going on.
And I personally don’t see a whole lot of point for things we already have words for? That is a matter of preference and won’t make me drop something as long as the meanings are clear.
But not for everything? It seems random and jarring to me. It does not add to my enjoyment of the writing. But that’s why I want to be clear that it’s not a wrong thing to do. I just don’t like it.
No, for everything… the narration is translated into English for the reader. None of the characters speak English or have any idea what it is. They have no concept of it.
I’m really not sure how this is any different from including a character who speaks Spanish in a game set in England. But maybe you don’t like that either, I dunno.
But then why do you skip a dozen or so words if you’ve translated everything else? If it’s a thing or concept that has no English analogy, I get that. But then it needs to be explained or made clear through context or I’m back at the same square of not understanding.
Other real languages not translated isn’t my favorite, but I can actually look those up and find the meanings. Or I do like it when you’re not supposed to know the actual content, just the tone or something.
We’re probably going to have to agree to disagree. Which is fine! That’s why I keep saying it’s just a thing I don’t like, not an objective criticism. (Except when the clarity is poor.)
I think I’m gonna need an example of what it is you don’t like… I’m not sure if we agree or disagree, but maybe I just don’t understand you’re talking about.
I think furyleika is trying to say that there’s no real point including any conlang words in the actual text, assuming that one is already employing the device of ‘translating’ all the words into English, because it’s just gibberish to anyone who doesn’t understand the conlang. Odds are, no one will understand it, and then you’ll have wasted space in your text on gibberish that you’ll then have to translate anyway.
So, I want to say mine too. The thing I can’t stand the most is the romanticization of kidnapping and stalker in YA fanfiction and novels. Things like these that should be condemned are considered as romantic and that is very wrong.
Another thing I can’t stand is the trope of Mary Sue/Garry Sue, especially in the stories of self-insertion. Girls or boys that everyone indicates as perfect and say it all the time and have the same character as a cardboard silhouette. The beauty is that these stories are also successful (someone said After or twilight?). I am not offending those who read them, I just want to understand why they are so successful, when in addition to being poorly written they have wrong messages.
The MC in my game isn’t necessarily supposed to understand the other languages (unless you choose for them to, which will be an option). I’ll provide the translation if the MC understands it. Otherwise, putting a conlang there makes more sense than using a natlang, both because it is a conlang in-universe and because the player could theoretically speak a given natlang I choose.
The only time I’d use a partial translation is for conworld specific things that don’t have a good translation into English. Otherwise, I’m writing the entire segment of text in the conlang.
I’m not saying a natlang would be better, but frankly, if you’re going to the point of writing entire segments of text in a conlang (gibberish), it would save energy and the annoyance of some to simply say that the protagonist can’t understand what is being said. It’s also arguably more believable, since people who don’t understand a language often find it difficult to hear individual words said by fluent speakers in normal conversation.
Yes, I understand that it’s not technically gibberish, at least to the constructor. However, unless you have a huge, devoted fanbase of people who actually bother to learn your language, like Tolkien, it will be as good as gibberish to (almost) anyone else who reads it. A language with one speaker is not really a language at all.
If people are annoyed by it then I guess they can just say they speak all of the languages. This should only be more work for me, it shouldn’t be any more work for the reader.
