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Commonly referred to as humanoids, we find the term to be inexact for our purposes. In fact, we find most efforts to separate "them" from "us" to be flawed by the constant interference of exceptions. Some less tolerant scholars will call these peoples the "savage races" but this speaks more to the nature of the speaker than the subject, because it is clear that these people demonstrate complicated and often powerful civilizations and it is not uncommon to witness humans below this level. To a dispassionate observer it might be thought that the problem of classification lies in our own difficulties. But the physical evidence of events and the historical record has proven consistently that there exists "us" and then there exists "them". What is the nature of this separation? What are the palpable differences? We have chosen to adopt the term "Hard Races" because it is the least suggestive and most versatile in meaning to associate to this classification of peoples. This is not to diminish them as compared to ourselves and others we may label the "Soft Races", but rather to say that the disparities we encounter between us and them is the very definition and nature of the word "difficult". Not only do we find association with them to be such as their cultural personalities are so intractable, but we find that often they choose lives that preserve difficulty in favor of their own racial integrity. These peoples don't want to talk to us so much so that they prefer to live away and often in less than appealing conditions. It would be the height of ego for me to suggest that they are in fact jealous of our prosperity and so refuse to accept its accomodations, but through many interviews and conversations with the peoples themselves, some ex-patriates and others prisoners of various states across the world, we learn that this is directly or indirectly exactly the case. Some of the smarter and more influential Bosses, Kings, Headmen, Wisdoms, Lords, Khans, and Chiefs understand full well that the world has progressed without them and to request access is tantamount to begging. Many Kings and Lords have implemented programs of education and innovation in skills and crafts such as smelting, husbandry, and engineering in an attempt to catch up to human capability and productivity but with a lack of better tools and materials and an inability to share innovation and techniques with other communities they work against an ever growing deficit. Many of these hard leaders know that this is a race they cannot win and so choose an alternate (and more fun) practice of predation. They'll take the goods and technology from the humans and then they are effectively reversing the roles. Of course, this is preposterous. What they truly want is immediate parity, but that can't happen unless they engage the human and demi-human communities in other ways than war. Even more significant is the fact that the hard peoples routinely establish alliances to wage this war upon the civilized world as a joint venture possibly thinking that domination and control by these oppressed nations of the world can effectively replace the current governments. It's been proven to be not very likely. What diminishes this idea of class conflict is that there are plenty of communities of rustic humans, elves, dwarves, etc. who are just as threatening as any of these hard peoples and yet we cannot classify a primitive human with an orc. There are fundamental differences, so much so that even these peoples will clash despite the fact that primitive humans have no more to offer than most orcish tribes. On the other side, there are many nations where joint human and hard peoples efforts are set to establish despotic, imperialistic regimes wherein the creature comforts of humans are passed to the attendant hard peoples. This has done nothing to make them more pleasant and usually with the better direction of a human master they become more dangerous. Even in collusion, however, there are stark differences between the human and goblin contingents and the separation is mutually maintained. We'd like to make the class distinction, but such is not consistent enough to rely upon. Some suggest that the difference rests in comparative intelligence. There is nothing more outwardly driven by prejudice than an attack on an intelligence quotient. What we commonly mistake as stupidity is a combination of cultural variances, fundamental incompatibilities and stubborn pride and wars between humans exist for these exact same reasons. For every story a human has about a dumb ogre he killed there is another story about a dumb human an ogre killed. Ultimately, by dissecting interviews with both sides we can see that intelligence has a direct relationship with value, in other words, ogres value one thing and humans value a different thing and each is labeled dumb because the other doesn't value the same things. Value is a matter of cultural preference and has nothing to do with quality of any sort. Coupled with a reinforced racial pride that makes tolerance of difference anathema we can easily see how the intelligence consideration could seem applicable. But any veteran war general knows that if one underestimates his or her goblin, orc, or giant opponents, humans can easily be outclassed. When it comes to war, something almost all hard races specialize in, their abilities are often superior, not because of greater size and strength, but often they are tactically better organized. The breakdown regularly occurs for them by their overwhelming pride which often results in a breakdown in discipline. Lastly, it is worth noting that among the global community of sages and academics, many are of the hard peoples, not more intelligent than the average, but more even tempered. This then begs the question of temperament: Are the hard races then more emotionally volatile? I reply with one word: dwarves. Nothing need more be said. Even with all of these discussions, we haven't located the dividing line between us and them. Truly the greatest difference between them and us is their dietary choices. What we have identified as a significant split between the "soft" and "hard" peoples, unusual instances notwithstanding, is that the hard races consider other peoples as a food source, not indirectly through banditry, but directly. There are no elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, or humans, not even the most oppositional such as the drow or duergar, who consider as a cultural standard that other peoples should be eaten. All goblins, gnolls, orcs, kobolds, and most giants consider war to be a hunt as well. And let's be clear, I am not speaking of cannibalism. To all of these people, cannibalism is as abhorrent to them as it is to humans. For the hard races, there is an established value system of racial superiority that basically classifies all other peoples as animals or livestock. We assume that this is an inevitable result of regional overpopulation by many hunter-gatherer groups who don't instead develop agrarian understandings and the area has become overhunted. It is an easy next step for a culture to rationalize opening up new food options. It isn't ritualized and it doesn't bother them that their food can speak with them. It's not an obsession and when they have other options they are usually acceptable, but butchering and consuming another being is as natural as picking fruit from a tree. It's just the way things are. It seems odd, but the practice of racial gastricide is where the line is drawn between "us" and "them". In many ways it is most likely that this is in part why we see them as dumb savages and why we we are repelled by them. Needless to say, it will be them who will have to assimilate to us; we will not be going to the multi-ethnic cultural diversity potluck feast. Generally speaking, most of the hard peoples know that eating others is not acceptable in our communities. Travelers to some of the more rough and tumble cities in the world where many hard peoples have adapted to living need not worry about being eaten. In time maybe even this will go away, leaving the only cause for the separation of our peoples to be our own bigotry. |