: This is horribly off-topic, but I wanted to point out
: that Cro-Magnons aren't really more
: "evolutionarily modern" than Neanderthals.
: Neanderthals were, if anything, more distinct from the
: common ancestral Homo Sapiens than Cro-Magnons were.
: It seems like they probably weren't as good at
: language as us, but that's not really an objective
: inferiority and for all we know their other mental
: faculties may have been superior. Their brains were
: actually proportionately larger.
true, true. I was just playing of halforc's analogy when looking for and example of two physically similar "cousin" races.
: In fact, I'd say Neanderthals are a good analogy for the
: model where the Mauls *did* evolve. Why are they
: smaller, stockier, and tougher-looking and more
: thickly-muscled than the Oghre? Because they're Oghre
: after a thousand years of a grueling and extremely
: COLD life, without medical care or nice polar fleece
: parkas. (Not that the Trow were necessarily keen on
: health benefits for their slaves, but at least their
: land's probably a little bit warmer and they have some
: vested interest in keeping their slaves healthy.)
: These are the same physical adaptations the
: Neanderthals developed in order to survive in cold,
: hostile regions without the benefit of comparatively
: advanced technology. To some degree, the Inuits have
: developed them as well.
I personally think that they're not _Oghre_ after a thousand years of cold life, since the Oghre lived in the Steppes as well. I think it's more likely that they're both dual offshoots of a protoMaul/Oghre ancestor, ala Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon Homo Sapian ancestors. The two races look vaguely alike, but were quite distinct. This is the only way I see that the Mauls would have survived the trow genocide. Also if you look really closely, both races, while the Mauls are more pronounced (like the Neanderthals), have those characteristics to fight the cold. Thus they both came from the Steppes, and the Maul are not a recent evolution to survive there.
: I myself don't have a strong opinion on what MJ thinks
: the relationship is between the two races...I think
: we'd need some direct info on Mauls in Myth III to
: have such on opinion. But I think Mauls being evolved
: Oghres is certainly possible. Creatures do evolve in
: a thousand years, both in our world and in the
: Mythworld. MJ said as much about the Ghôls.
I never quite caught what MJ said about the ghols. I just assumed that the ghol classes we see in Myth3 we just didn't see in the TFL -> SB wars because (aside from the Balin levels) we were never close to the dwarven homelands.
As for mauls, etc… evolution can definately occur in a thousand years, but it will not be terribly marked, especially if, like the Oghre, the species has already evolved quite a bit to fit its home. Minor aesthetic changes may occur (but _very_ minor, a thousand years isn't very long at all, especially to a race like humans with such a long maturing time). I just can't see the Oghres changing that much in that short of a time without a displacement of somesort (but they go back to their ancestral lands, if your theory is correct, not exactly a displacement).
I'm not abandoning my theory of cousin races yet ;)
-Disc
