Character creation 100, 000 BC

Discussion in 'Roleplaying Forum' started by ytzk, Nov 30, 2011.

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  1. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    I don't intend to run a game but I'm thinking: If you had a lifetime and a tribe in ancient prehistory, who/what would you/they be?

    Every humanoid has speech, fire, hunting and domestication, plus whatever you think you could achieve with five hundred protohumans over five hundred years, given all the space in the world, and a billion monsters in your way.

    I think I'd be most comfortable on a trained proto-elephant, the hell away from all the other megafauna... With another twenty mammoth riders to watch my back. Some kind of neanderthal crossbreed following aurochs herds on the steppes of eurasia with the technology of fur coats and throwing axes.
     
  2. Zanza

    Zanza Well-Known Member

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  3. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    The most men in those days were hunter/gatherers (sp?), but I probably was a tribe leader or someone who leads them into battle against other hostile tribes. Riding Proto-Elephants? No thank you. I will keep my feet on the ground.

    Edit: Was there any pseudo-religion in those days, or did that come some years later? I cannot remember that at this moment.
     
  4. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    I can't quite remember that far back either, but I'd say the short answer is that practically everything was a part of a pseudo-religion.
     
  5. Constipation

    Constipation New Member

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    Extinction of Neanderthals explained.
     
  6. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    Constipation: It was not my fault that they did it to themselves. I tried to warn them. But...you know the outcome. Oh well.

    Ytzk: I know for sure that at one point they revered that Bloated Woman *. (whom they regarded as the Goddess of Fertility) The thing is that I am not that sure when they started to that at this moment. It might be possible that they started to regard Nature and/or Forefathers as a psuedo-religion first.

    *Not to be mixed with the one of CoC

    Edit: Fixed grammar and sentances.
     
  7. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    Prehistoric folk worshipped Boomers. Fact.
     
  8. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    Boomers? As in giant kangaroos? I'll bet they did...
     
  9. Zanza

    Zanza Well-Known Member

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  10. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    I've got some Neanderthal DNA in me, as does anyone who's ever had a non-black family member. I also have red hair, which may be derived from my distant ancestors. I think...not a tribal leader, I never liked telling people what to do. Definitely neanderthal, a tool maker and body painter. I'm not sure if people knew how to make lasting pigments for tattoos that long ago, and no tools used for tattoos even in primitive cultures today would last 100,000 years for us to be sure unless they were somehow petrified or fossilized, but in an abandoned humanoid settlement there leaves little time for things to be buried and mineralized under tons of clay.
    As far as a history goes, my character would have been a hunter who also knew how to make tools and body paint - but during the last hunt he was on, which was several years ago, he ended up breaking his leg and it didn't heal too well. He increased his artistic and practical output for his community to compensate for his inability to make that explosive sprint and leap at any prey native to the area. However, when mammoth herds travel through his people's territory, he can still help scare a few off of the nearby cliff, because that kills a panicked pachyderm better than quite a few things, and will feed everyone for quite some time.
     
  11. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    Cool.

    I like to believe that 'people' back then were generally more observant, patient and inventive than modern humans.

    Whatever could be cobbled together by a lone genius probably was, at some point.

    Tattoos would be easy, and if that didn't work, well, decorative scarring is even easier.

    What's your aesthetic choice for tattoos? Stylized snarling like maoris? Gnarly blue spirals? Crocodile-scale scarring? Indepth hunting scenes across your skin? Some kind of codified protocalendar? Sabre-tooth tiger stripes?

    As I understand it, also as a throwback hybrid, the function of art is to impress the hell out of fellow cavemen so they give you food.
     
  12. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Star positions that coincide with the migration of prey, so a codified protocalendar, though one of those could be made by taking bark from a tree and mapping it out. Perhaps an image of the mighty Auroch, the prey that finally took him down. From what I've seen of their bones and from what experts say, neanderthals would gather injuries similar to what's seen in career rodeo riders. Aurochs were in Europe around 250,000 years ago, which would coincide with the arrival of the neanderthal in Europe, and it's thought our relatives were following prey north anyway to end up there... Haven't figured out a name for him, but he was definitely an "all or nothing" kind of guy. Probably had to be, because "nothing" tends to mean you die.
     
  13. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    I am not sure that they already did this in those days, but it could possible that they not only used body paint for hunting but for special ceremonies (pseudo-religious duties) like ‘become of age’ etc. as well.

    There is a possibility that they used different body paint to recognize each other of which tribe they were.
     
  14. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    That's a very distinct possibility, as it's been seen that the neanderthal was aware of symbolism and art, and would possibly use accessories of various kinds (body paints, jewelry, possibly tattoos given how ancient traditions are still active today {and the Maori method can fucking kill you}) to establish an individual identity and perhaps explain themselves a little more visually to another community if there was a language barrier. There is also a strong possibility that they painted themselves in a ritualistic fashion to ensure a good hunt or prosperity in honor of some lost god, as well as some sort of ritual or painting/tattooing/scarring done as a rite of passage.
    I know they were some of the first people to wear clothes, but apparently they burned so many calories while hunting that, during the warmer months, they'd stalk prey naked to keep cool. So would I, actually, if all I had to wear were animal hides.
    Men and women, naked, with spears, killing mammoths. They'd get the whole tribe involved if they didn't have other responsibilities (a baby to nurse, perhaps) or were too old (the first neanderthal found who, because of arthritis, inspired the initial "ape like posture, must be the missing link" argument).
     
  15. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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  16. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Of course you think that now, but are you really ready to not be the hero Gotham needs, and instead take the role of the one it deserves? Plus, Zanza might want to be the Batman too. Nobody wants to be Robin, because he's disposable. Now, if you played the new, rather sociopathic Batman as portrayed by Frank Miller (the one who lived in a cave and ate rats as a child because he wanted to), you could be The Goddamn Batman and Zanza could be the Batman.
     
  17. Arthgon

    Arthgon Well-Known Member

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    It is too bad that they have not find out the exact name of the Bloated Woman who represented Fertility for them. Maybe Earth-Mother?
     
  18. Zanza

    Zanza Well-Known Member

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  19. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Considering he's the only Robin who didn't turn evil after he died (or isn't still actually Robin) I would agree.
     
  20. Zanza

    Zanza Well-Known Member

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    Jason Todd isn't really evil though, he believed that to eliminate crime in Gotham you had to take a harsher stance. He has now moved on from then and Red Hood and the Outlaws is a pretty good comic. I don't like Damien as the new Robin, to me Tim Drake was the best Robin.
     
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