TheMushroomLord

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

Fair enough. My bad.

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

The abstract for that paper clearly identifies the primary correlation with skin pigmentation as UV levels; furthermore the conclusion continues the same premise. Pages 72 and 73 identify the alternative reason for how both native Greenlanders and the Inuit maintain a darker skin tone in such northern climates (maintain, not develop) in the high degree of Vitamin D available in their diet. Therefore, if a fair-skinned population were to move north, there would be no overriding pressure to increase pigmentation, and thus they would retain a pale skin-tone. i.e. a darker skintone moving north is the baseline taken when assessing changes in relative melanin content in humans; increased Vitamin D in the diet would not have the same effect.

Otherwise, the mass domestication of chickens would have had a really strange effect by now.

@Raineh Daze

If I'm not mistaken does snow not often cause an increase in exposure to UV radiation due to its high reflectivity? Might that act as a selection pressure for developing a darker skin tone. Also while chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years, how long have we been able to consume their products consistently?

EDIT: @Myrna Minkoff My concerns weren't with the similarities between elves and humans in a fantasy setting but rather the validity of evolution as a whole within one.

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

Ah sorry, I missed that quote in your prior post. Now I'm feeling pretty silly, that's one of the papers I was looking at when I looked up the subject. Thanks for that, it's interesting stuff.

One thing I would note there though is the fact that the Dark Elves are an immortal race would probably entail a much slower evolutionary rate than humans given the time between generations is likely longer. If you call a human generation 30 years then there are ~15 generations in those 500 years if elves have babies half as frequently than humans than it may take 1000 years to see a change.

Also worth noting is we're both looking at this from a very scientific perspective and a lot of science, particularly evolution breaks down in most fantasy settings.
@Myrna Minkoff

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

@Myrna Minkoff

Regarding the Fish

Just out of curiosity do you have a source for the vitamin D making skin darker.

From what I understand in colder climates when people have darker skin it's usually because they're getting the vitamin D from fish rather than having to produce it in their skin, the process for which would have been inhibited by the presence of melanin. This alternate method of receiving the vitamin allows evolution to select for darker skin as a beneficial trait.

This is to say that the skin tone in this case is the product of evolution and not epigenetic and as such could not be acquired through a diet rich in fish without many generations of such.

Take what I just said with a grain of salt though and tell me if I've misunderstood something, I might have. I just thought you might be interested.

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

I'm sorry, it's just that I do have a clear, fleshed-out setting here. It's a personal work for me as well as something I think works well in RPs: When you have an established setting you know what's possible and you know what can happen. I want to keep the rules consistent and I want to keep the races consistent.

That's why I want people to ask questions and please wait for my full response. Even when I don't have something completely fleshed out at the very least I can provide a general idea of it.

@VitaVitaAR

I mean there's nothing wrong with that approach at all. I've always been a fan of the give detailed lore but leave large enough sections of it blank as to allow flexibility approach, setting tendencies and upper limits but leaving plenty of wriggle room in between. But that's only my personal opinion.

I would say that it might be worth holding off on an initial response until that more detailed one or at least mentioning there will be one in the initial response, because I can see how one might jump to the conclusion that that's all their getting and get frustrated.

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

I think I'm going to have to drop out of this one. I like the setting, but from looking at the problems that players have faced in the character creation process so far I feel it might be a bit to ridged which coupled with how detailed and fleshed out it is means it's not quite my cup of tea. That said the premise and setting do still interest me so I might read along.

@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

Not a good reason to be undead, no. Particularly as undead might not look undead but it wouldn't take months to realise "wait, I don't need food or rest".

@Raineh Daze

Ah sorry, I'd made the assumption that other than what was written they were still pretty much normal people and subsequently still needed food and rest, simply not needing to be so choosy about how they acquired it, my mistake. I did forget to ask about that after all. Oh well, it's not like it'll be hard to adjust my CS to have it be a human with amnesia rather than post mortem amnesia.

On another note, just before I finish up my CS could I get some information on how the guild determines the ranks of its members? Is it based off some kind of ability assessment or work done with the Guild? Particularly I want to know how long it might take a previously unskilled and relatively unfit amnesiac with a knack for picking up new skills to rank up as a Coin.

@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

Damn, there goes that idea. My original plan was to create a sentient undead that woke up in a field a while back with no memory of their former life, not even realising their undead nature for the first few months after awakening, given sapient undead look like normal people as far as I can tell. The idea was to have their inability to find out who they were previously and the realisation that it really doesn’t matter be the basis for their personality and the lack of memories being their drive for becoming an adventurer. Unfortunately, that’s more of a character gimmick than a good reason to play a sapient undead, so I don’t suppose that’d be acceptable? Figured I'd check anyway.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

Dungeon Clearer! The Wonderful World of an Adventurer

I'm also interested. Might make something soon.

A Funny and Clever Name for a Superhero RP

Ava was running to school, thinking up increasingly elaborate excuses for not having her homework, when she'd overheard some kind of argument, seemingly over some kind of accident. Despite doubting her ability to do anything about the dispute and having no current intention to attempt to do so, curiosity still managed to get the better of Ava. Not thinking to slow down as she rounded the corner, her momentary lapse in attention was enough to prevent her from noticing the girl until the moment before she collided with them.

Ava somehow managed to maintain her balance only to be pulled down into a comically tangled mess a moment later by the girl as they attempted to right themselves by grabbing onto Ava’s brightly coloured outfit.

By the times she’d recovered from the crash the girl Ava had collided with had already managed to untangle herself. Ava couldn’t help but notice the girls stare which stung a little, but given that she seemed to be offering Ava a hand up and for some reason apologising in spite of the collision not being her fault Ava guessed that she probably didn’t mean any harm by her staring.

“I’m fine thanks… I’m also sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to run into you!”

That didn’t quite sound right did it? Ava grabbed the girls hand, pulling herself up as she silently reprimanded herself.