FAT?

“Why don’t we see fat elves, or a tall skinny dwarfs, or a weak ogre…”

One of the common problems I see when talking about fantasy/sci-fi fiction is the whole “Uniform Race” issue that is brought up time and time again. It seems that people have issues with distinct groups of people being very similar in appearance, belief structure and social culture.

One question I saw asked was: “Why aren’t elves ever fat?”

Another was: “why are all the dwarves short and fat?”

So, far be it for me to try and use some fantasy type explanation on this, as with anything, a writer should look to reality for their inspiration and understanding, because it matters not if you are playing with living robots or sword wielding barbarians, reality is the bases by which all fantasy is built from, even if we get to change the rules.

With that put out, lets look at some history and ask “So why are there ‘no fat elves?” or why races in the fantasy world are mostly uniform.

Now to answer that question I would wager that authors don’t feel the need to use fat elves for the same motive that I didn’t see pictures of obese Native American Indians as they ran across the planes, or weak scrawny roman legionnaires, or short fat Spartans, or obese weak Zulu.(I could keep going, but I think you get the idea)

The ultimate answer is:

Lifestyle and genetics.

Slender elves can be a product of a diet containing lots of fruits and veggies combined with lots of endurance related activity like running. In that regard, that is like asking why professional bicyclers are all slim lean people. Well mainly because, they are!

Sure, there are some overweight marathon runners and even a chunky ironman, so you could write about them if you wanted to, or you could realize that they are few and far between and this people that eat vegan diets and run though the forest are going to be mostly slender.

What about Dwarves? (or the big people)

Well it works like this, if both your parents were four foot (1.3 meters) tall mesomorphs, there is a good chance you are going to be a four foot tall mesomorph. It is the same as if mommy and daddy both had blond hair, there is a good chance you will have blond hair as well.

Also, if your diet consists of two lamb chops, three tankers of beer and nut roasted bread topped with honey butter, and that was just breakfast. Then you spend the day working in a heavy labor activity like smiting or mining, well I am just going to have to wager your going to be strong and substantial.

Sure, there could be a skinny geeky weakling for a dwarf, and you can write a story about them if you like, the special cases. But, like the fat elves, it’s going to be some distance between them being around.

Write Racefully.