# Jabrosky's Race Concepts



## Jabrosky (Jun 21, 2012)

This is a spinoff from the thread on lions and Amazons. Each of these races is technically its own species, although all are descended from _Homo sapiens_. I don't know what kind of feedback to request (suggestions?), but I wanted to share these concepts with the community anyway.
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The Juoktari:* Living in the world's tropical regions, the Juoktari are a tall and lean race with black skin and tightly curled hair. Although they are technically omnivorous, meat from hunting is a more highly food source than plant mattter. Women are the primary hunters and warriors in their societies whereas men are the spiritual and domestic leaders. Those men with the greatest religious or political clout tend to have multiple wives, some of whom hunt and fight while a small remainder help their husbands run the household and children. Those men unlucky enough to remain bachelors may choose a celibate life of monasticism. Juoktari women can lactate for a longer proportion of their lifespans than women of other races, allowing grandmothers to nurse their grandchildren while their daughters are away. Juoktari can run faster and have greater agility than the other races, but this comes at the expense of raw physical strength.

*The Balerians (formerly Valerians):* This white-skinned race of Caucasian descent lives in the world's temperate to subarctic regions. They have stocky builds, with women carrying a lot of body fat and the men having broad shoulders and robust musculature. While women and children live in matriarchal villages and have predominantly vegetarian diets, men spend their adult lives roaming alone or in small "bachelor clans" and prefer meat. Balerian men usually visit women's villages only a few times a year for breeding and rarely involve themselves in childcare. Balerians are the physically strongest of the races.

*The Taridim:* These olive-complexioned, diminutive desert-dwellers resemble the Semitic peoples of our world's Middle East. Indiscriminately omnivorous, the Taridim carry prominent humps of fat on their buttocks (steatogypia) to store energy while crossing the barren wastes of their homeland. Unlike the other races, both Taridi men and women are solitary for most of the year, with women raising children all by themselves. Occasionally multiple Taridim may congregate in one area for commerce and breeding, but more often than not encounters with conspecifics are hostile. Taridim have superior physical endurance and can go without food or water for longer periods of time than the other races, but their evolution into a solitary species has eroded their social intelligence in favor of greater aggressiveness.

*The Shanji:* Descended from Mongoloid people similar to our Asians and Native Americans, the Shanji are a short and moderately stocky race who live primarily in temperate forests. Monogamous nuclear families without strictly enforced gender roles compose their societies; as a result of their gender equality, the Shanji have a remarkably less sexual dimorphism than the other races and a more peaceful culture. They are predominantly vegetarian and agricultural although some coastal and riverside communities supplement their diet with seafood. The Shanji have long, elf-like ears and superior hearing to the other races, but their eyesight has atrophied as an evolutionary trade-off.


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## Steerpike (Jun 21, 2012)

I like these races, Jabrosky. The only thing thing I questioned when reading it was the Valerian diet (at least for the females). To the extent they are in sub-arctic regions, particularly, I am not sure it would be possible to subsist on a vegetarian diet (the available edible plant selection is very limited), and particularly if the body is to maintain the large fat stores that they have.

Of course, in a fantasy world, things may be different than they really are, so your world might make this perfectly plausible, but I thought I'd throw it out there as a consideration.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Jun 21, 2012)

I like the races. 

The only issue I have is with the name Valerian.... Sounds too similar to Valarian from GoT.

Other than that it's a solid start. 

Question, how do the different races interact? 

Might be getting ahead there but just curious.


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## Jabrosky (Jun 21, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I like these races, Jabrosky. The only thing thing I questioned when reading it was the Valerian diet (at least for the females). To the extent they are in sub-arctic regions, particularly, I am not sure it would be possible to subsist on a vegetarian diet (the available edible plant selection is very limited), and particularly if the body is to maintain the large fat stores that they have.


I would think they would have evolved the ability to ingest subarctic vegetation like conifer needles and tundra plants better than _Homo sapiens_ can.



T.Allen.Smith said:


> Question, how do the different races interact?


Commerce probably occurs between the Valerians (maybe *B*alerians would sound better), Shanji, and Juoktari, but the disagreeable Taridim are mostly an annoyance to all three. Sometimes Taridim form temporary mobs to raid other races' caravans passing through the desert.


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## Jabrosky (Jun 22, 2012)

I'm going to give my Taridim a major retcon. I originally conceived of them as being solitary, anti-social vagrants, but now I feel that my world should have a few more "civilized" races and so made the Taridim somewhat more sociable.

*The Taridim:* These olive-skinned, short-statured people resemble the Semitic peoples of our world's Middle East. Indiscriminately omnivorous, they carry humps of body fat on their buttocks as energy storage for long trips across their desert homeland. Unlike women in other races, Taridi women are physically larger and stronger than their men. Taridi families are ideally polyandrous, with one matriarch having multiple husbands providing for her and her children. Some Taridi cultures are nomads foraging in the desert, but others have settled alongside oases and developed agricultural civilizations. Taridim can be highly cooperative within their own societies but tend to be xenophobic and tribalistic.


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## amar654 (Jun 22, 2012)

are there any magical ideas intervened in the socities of any of the races?


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## Jabrosky (Jun 22, 2012)

amar654 said:


> are there any magical ideas intervened in the socities of any of the races?


Honestly, I don't even know if their world even has magic.


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## ThinkerX (Jun 23, 2012)

> I like these races, Jabrosky. The only thing thing I questioned when reading it was the Valerian diet (at least for the females). To the extent they are in sub-arctic regions, particularly, I am not sure it would be possible to subsist on a vegetarian diet (the available edible plant selection is very limited), and particularly if the body is to maintain the large fat stores that they have.



For what little it might be worth and for however relevant it is -

- as somebody who lives in an area which is snowed under six months of the year, certain types of veggies (particularly cabbages and potatoes) do dang good in high temperate / lower subarctic climes.


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## Eeirail (Jun 23, 2012)

My question is, how do they tolerate and act torwards one another, what do they speak, and for example, the hunting, what is the "Main game" for them and such, are the seperated religiously, and do they ever war?


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## Caliburn (Jun 30, 2012)

Cool  I don't have much to suggest, but cool. Is this from your Sekhmetka project? I notice you have a pronounced interest in African culture and tribal/primitive cultures in general. Your work has an anthropological vibe 
Regarding magic, I was reading a comic recently call Age Of Bronze: A Thousand Ships, which was set in ancient Greece and had magic limited to visions and dreams (but presented in a way that left you unsure whether it was magic or just hallucination).


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## Jabrosky (Jun 30, 2012)

Caliburn said:


> Cool  I don't have much to suggest, but cool. Is this from your Sekhmetka project?


No, they're unrelated. This one is more old-school fantasy whereas Sekh's story and world are sci-fi.



> I notice you have a pronounced interest in African culture and tribal/primitive cultures in general. Your work has an anthropological vibe


Considering that Biological Anthropology is my major at UCSD, I guess my anthropological studies have impacted my world-building.

I've always liked prehistoric and by extension tribal stuff. My interest in things African in particular started with ancient Egypt in second grade, but over the years it has expanded to cover the rest of the continent, especially as I came to perceive a closer fraternal relationship between Egypt and the so-called Black African cultures than most people acknowledge.


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