Human Skin Color [Archive] - Wizards Community

Human Skin Color [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Romulus LoneWolf
02-26-07, 10:12 PM Here's something I was thinking about concerning the variety of humans on Eberron..

Back in Sarlona, humanity evolved a decent variety of physical appearances, depending on their region of origin; dark-skinned in the south, pale-skinned in the north, etc. This was one of the main divisions of the 12 kingdoms of Sarlon, and continued until the Sundering and the Human Exodus to Khorvaire.

Once in Khorvaire, the Humans found themselves truly challenged by the still omnipresent Goblinoids, as well as the other Humanoids of Khorvaire. The Human Immigrants found they could no longer allow themselves to stay divided by something as silly as skin color, and began uniting themselves as a single race. A similar process of racial melding occured back in Sarlona, in both Reidra and Adar.

As a result, modern Humans in Khorvaire and Sarlona see themselves all as Humans, whether white or black, tan or brown. Skin color is seen as little more then a familial trait, same as hair or eye color. So a white merchant in Sharn meeting a black man would only think: "Oh, you're West Karnnath? Any relation to the Jaranus of Senne?"

At least, that's my recent thinking about it...
cancerousmango
02-26-07, 10:24 PM How naive. But yes, i think the us vs them factor widens us to blacks and whites when there are greens and purples.
Ramses III
02-26-07, 10:26 PM That would be correct. People from Khorvaire, whether human, elf, gnome, or whatever, tend to identify themselves more by what country they're from than their race, and humans don't view differences among their own species as racial divisions. A human after all shares much more similarity with another human, whatever their complexions, than with a shifter or a halfling. However, if the human, shifter, and halfling are all from the Eldeen Reaches, they will recognize each other as members of a shared culture and the human will view another human from Karrnath as the outsider among them, due to cultural differences.
Charles Phipps
02-26-07, 10:31 PM How naive. But yes, i think the us vs them factor widens us to blacks and whites when there are greens and purples.

I think it's more the fact that it's been a thousand years of non-homogeneity amongst skin color.
Moebius
02-26-07, 11:00 PM As a result, modern Humans in Khorvaire and Sarlona see themselves all as Humans, whether white or black, tan or brown. Skin color is seen as little more then a familial trait, same as hair or eye color. So a white merchant in Sharn meeting a black man would only think: "Oh, you're West Karnnath? Any relation to the Jaranus of Senne?"Yeah. Skin color is little more than one's accent. Shows what part of the world they were born in.
Romulus LoneWolf
02-26-07, 11:04 PM Yeah. Skin color is little more than one's accent. Shows what part of the world they were born in.

Actually, I was thinking it wouldn't even represent that, considering a thousand years of human wanderings and homogenizing would've caused humans to settle all over Khorvaire. So you'd have Humans of various skin colors in the four corners of the continent, independantly from climate.
Nived
02-27-07, 03:35 PM All humans in Khorvaire are descended from Immigrants, there are no native humans to Khorvaire. So human skin color in Khorvaire has little to nothing to do with where YOU are from.

Considering that there hasn't been any serious immigration from Sarlona for a few thousand years, and the regions and kingdoms that once existed there no longer do... I consider it unlikely that human skin color maters at all in Khorvaire, nor is it a major factor in determining their Khorvaire region or origin.
yossarius
02-27-07, 04:08 PM Considering the amount of intermingling that has probably happened in the Kingdom of Galifar over the past thousand years (not to mention the fact that humans were in Khorvaire two thousand years prior to that), I have chosen the idea that there are not major differences in skin color among humans in Khorvaire. Stealing from Anne McCaffery's Pern, my humans in Khorvaire are a light mocha skin tone, with vaguely asian facial features. Kind of what I think Earth humans will eventually look like, given enough "globalization."
Vharuck
02-27-07, 04:18 PM I'd also say that skin color means little to humans when they dealt with people who weren't of a different color but a different race (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.)
Darth Syntax
02-27-07, 04:31 PM I would generally agree that human skin color doesn't matter much to the Khorvairans, but I would imagine one might see a degree of regional variation. I very much doubt the Sarlonan migration was a single event, so we could have people coming over in waves. These people very likely did not speak all one language (in my version of the world they did not) and it is likely that these cultural-linguistic groups stuck together and migrated to specific places. What this might mean is that is the more rural, isolated parts of the contentent, it might be uncommon to find humans with particular physiological traits. Maybe there are more shortish, dark haired people in northern Karrnath than not, and more red hair in what was central Cyre.

In the more cosmopolitan regions of the continent, who knows, its a grab bag. You want really dark skin and green eyes, you've got it! Sadly, I can't imagine too many plaid people.
Joni-san
02-27-07, 04:32 PM I think there's a suitable Terry Pratchett quote for this thread, something along: Black and white ganged up to fight green.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Romulus LoneWolf 02-26-07, 10:12 PM	Here's something I was thinking about concerning the variety of humans on Eberron.. Back in Sarlona, humanity evolved a decent variety of physical appearances, depending on their region of origin; dark-skinned in the south, pale-skinned in the north, etc. This was one of the main divisions of the 12 kingdoms of Sarlon, and continued until the Sundering and the Human Exodus to Khorvaire. Once in Khorvaire, the Humans found themselves truly challenged by the still omnipresent Goblinoids, as well as the other Humanoids of Khorvaire. The Human Immigrants found they could no longer allow themselves to stay divided by something as silly as skin color, and began uniting themselves as a single race. A similar process of racial melding occured back in Sarlona, in both Reidra and Adar. As a result, modern Humans in Khorvaire and Sarlona see themselves all as Humans, whether white or black, tan or brown. Skin color is seen as little more then a familial trait, same as hair or eye color. So a white merchant in Sharn meeting a black man would only think: "Oh, you're West Karnnath? Any relation to the Jaranus of Senne?" At least, that's my recent thinking about it...
cancerousmango 02-26-07, 10:24 PM	How naive. But yes, i think the us vs them factor widens us to blacks and whites when there are greens and purples.
Ramses III 02-26-07, 10:26 PM	That would be correct. People from Khorvaire, whether human, elf, gnome, or whatever, tend to identify themselves more by what country they're from than their race, and humans don't view differences among their own species as racial divisions. A human after all shares much more similarity with another human, whatever their complexions, than with a shifter or a halfling. However, if the human, shifter, and halfling are all from the Eldeen Reaches, they will recognize each other as members of a shared culture and the human will view another human from Karrnath as the outsider among them, due to cultural differences.
Charles Phipps 02-26-07, 10:31 PM	How naive. But yes, i think the us vs them factor widens us to blacks and whites when there are greens and purples. I think it's more the fact that it's been a thousand years of non-homogeneity amongst skin color.
Moebius 02-26-07, 11:00 PM	As a result, modern Humans in Khorvaire and Sarlona see themselves all as Humans, whether white or black, tan or brown. Skin color is seen as little more then a familial trait, same as hair or eye color. So a white merchant in Sharn meeting a black man would only think: "Oh, you're West Karnnath? Any relation to the Jaranus of Senne?"Yeah. Skin color is little more than one's accent. Shows what part of the world they were born in.
Romulus LoneWolf 02-26-07, 11:04 PM	Yeah. Skin color is little more than one's accent. Shows what part of the world they were born in. Actually, I was thinking it wouldn't even represent that, considering a thousand years of human wanderings and homogenizing would've caused humans to settle all over Khorvaire. So you'd have Humans of various skin colors in the four corners of the continent, independantly from climate.
Nived 02-27-07, 03:35 PM	All humans in Khorvaire are descended from Immigrants, there are no native humans to Khorvaire. So human skin color in Khorvaire has little to nothing to do with where YOU are from. Considering that there hasn't been any serious immigration from Sarlona for a few thousand years, and the regions and kingdoms that once existed there no longer do... I consider it unlikely that human skin color maters at all in Khorvaire, nor is it a major factor in determining their Khorvaire region or origin.
yossarius 02-27-07, 04:08 PM	Considering the amount of intermingling that has probably happened in the Kingdom of Galifar over the past thousand years (not to mention the fact that humans were in Khorvaire two thousand years prior to that), I have chosen the idea that there are not major differences in skin color among humans in Khorvaire. Stealing from Anne McCaffery's Pern, my humans in Khorvaire are a light mocha skin tone, with vaguely asian facial features. Kind of what I think Earth humans will eventually look like, given enough "globalization."
Vharuck 02-27-07, 04:18 PM	I'd also say that skin color means little to humans when they dealt with people who weren't of a different color but a different race (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.)
Darth Syntax 02-27-07, 04:31 PM	I would generally agree that human skin color doesn't matter much to the Khorvairans, but I would imagine one might see a degree of regional variation. I very much doubt the Sarlonan migration was a single event, so we could have people coming over in waves. These people very likely did not speak all one language (in my version of the world they did not) and it is likely that these cultural-linguistic groups stuck together and migrated to specific places. What this might mean is that is the more rural, isolated parts of the contentent, it might be uncommon to find humans with particular physiological traits. Maybe there are more shortish, dark haired people in northern Karrnath than not, and more red hair in what was central Cyre. In the more cosmopolitan regions of the continent, who knows, its a grab bag. You want really dark skin and green eyes, you've got it! Sadly, I can't imagine too many plaid people.
Joni-san 02-27-07, 04:32 PM	I think there's a suitable Terry Pratchett quote for this thread, something along: Black and white ganged up to fight green.