A comparative inquiry into the origins, physiology and hereditary limits of the Principal Races, and into the errors and superstitions that surround them.https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/en-GBhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/title-page/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/title-page/The title page of the collected writings: the full title of the work, and the appointments, honours and prior volumes of its author.https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/third-edition-revised-and-expanded/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/third-edition-revised-and-expanded/The third edition, with new appendices on Aesir pulmonary capacity, recently excavated pre-Imperial remains, and a reply to Professor Hest’s objections.https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/foreword/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/front-matter/foreword/The author declines to apologise for intruding on the reader’s time, and sets out the qualifications and the thirty-four years behind the present volume.Scholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-alleged-common-ancestry-of-the-principal-races/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-alleged-common-ancestry-of-the-principal-races/The five Principal Races are held to descend from some vanished progenitor. The proposition is persistent among educated men and supported by very little.OriginsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-aesir-and-the-giants/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-aesir-and-the-giants/Scholars who cannot encounter anything large without declaring it a remnant of giants have long had opinions about the Aesir. The northern legends examined.AesirOriginsFolkloreMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-artificial-creation-of-the-gremlins/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-artificial-creation-of-the-gremlins/That Gremlins were manufactured by a vanished civilisation is hard to kill as a theory, chiefly because Gremlins find it hilarious and encourage it.GremlinsOriginsFolkloreMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-human-race-as-the-original-pattern/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-human-race-as-the-original-pattern/Humans have contributed a theory placing Humanity at the centre of creation as the original and unaltered pattern. Its advantages are chiefly to Humans.HumansOriginsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-supposed-lithic-origin-of-the-dwarves/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-supposed-lithic-origin-of-the-dwarves/Antiquarians hold that Dwarves were awakened from living stone beneath the oldest mountains. The evidence offered is poetic rather than material.DwarvesOriginsFolkloreMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-five-lost-kingdoms/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/origins-and-ancestry/on-the-five-lost-kingdoms/Each of the Principal Races is said to descend from a separate primordial kingdom, all five destroyed in one catastrophe. The curious observation behind it.OriginsFolkloreMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/excerpt-from-a-treatise-on-the-reproductive-compatibility-of-the-principal-races/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/excerpt-from-a-treatise-on-the-reproductive-compatibility-of-the-principal-races/The half-blood flourishes in tavern anecdote and penny romance while remaining wholly absent from the ledgers. Why the records and the stories differ.ReproductionMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/a-note-on-practical-difficulties-in-certain-mixed-race-marriages/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/a-note-on-practical-difficulties-in-certain-mixed-race-marriages/Reproductive incompatibility between the Principal Races should not be confused with sexual incompatibility, a distinction more often needed than stated.ReproductionPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/on-the-limits-of-hope-in-cross-racial-conception/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/on-the-limits-of-hope-in-cross-racial-conception/The failed pregnancies represented in tables and case histories were wanted by someone, a thing easily forgotten when the discussion is purely anatomical.ReproductionHumansElveshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/the-length-of-a-marriage/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/the-length-of-a-marriage/Four days after her wedding to a Human a tenth her age, an Elven friend answers Veyne’s objection that her marriage is temporary.TravelElvesHumansLongevityDeathhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/dictation-notes-examination-of-stillborn-human-elven-fetus/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/reproduction-and-mixed-marriage/dictation-notes-examination-of-stillborn-human-elven-fetus/Examination notes from the third documented Human-Elven pregnancy, taken by dictation, with external development inconsistent with expected chronology.ReproductionHumansElvesDeathhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-birth-rate-longevity-and-the-misleading-arithmetic-of-population/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-birth-rate-longevity-and-the-misleading-arithmetic-of-population/Reproductive statistics of the Principal Races are quoted more often than understood, chiefly because the annual birth rate is the wrong measure.LongevityReproductionMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-longevity-and-political-wisdom/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-longevity-and-political-wisdom/Long-lived peoples are presumed to produce wiser governments. Dwarves, Aesir and Elves have between them produced very little evidence for it.LongevityInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-longevity-expertise-and-the-limits-of-accumulated-knowledge/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-longevity-expertise-and-the-limits-of-accumulated-knowledge/Why an Elf of nine hundred years is not, by simple accumulation, wiser than every Human scholar alive. The question is posed by Humans rather than Elves.LongevityMemoryElvesScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-comparative-alcohol-tolerance/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-comparative-alcohol-tolerance/Dwarves metabolise ethanol efficiently rather than magically, and body mass explains more of the comparative figures than anyone drinking wishes to hear.PhysiologyFoodDwarvesHumanshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-the-sudermark-tables-of-human-measure/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/comparative-studies/on-the-sudermark-tables-of-human-measure/The most cited collection of Human measurements records only men already accepted for pack service, which makes it useless for the comparisons built on it.HumansPhysiologyScholarshipInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-gremlins/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-gremlins/Gremlins hatch, disperse and learn from strangers, so clutch counts, family registers and tales of manufacture or dishonesty all mislead.GremlinsHumansPhysiologyDevelopmentReproductionMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-developmental-stages-of-the-gremlin/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-developmental-stages-of-the-gremlin/Few of the Principal Peoples have a life history so thoroughly misrepresented. Popular accounts begin with the adult and omit everything before it.GremlinsDevelopmentMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-language-acquisition-and-the-problem-of-the-unraised-child/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-language-acquisition-and-the-problem-of-the-unraised-child/A hatchling emerges among a score of siblings and is raised by nobody, which leaves open the question of how so many become socially competent at all.GremlinsLanguageDevelopmenthttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-cohabitation-tolerance-of-adult-gremlins/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-cohabitation-tolerance-of-adult-gremlins/That adult Gremlins dislike the company of other Gremlins is correct and scientifically useless. What dislike means here, and how it scales with numbers.GremlinsScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-an-unfortunate-seasonal-confound-in-the-study-of-gremlin-cohabitation/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-an-unfortunate-seasonal-confound-in-the-study-of-gremlin-cohabitation/A replication of Merrow’s cohabitation study disagreed so violently with the original that the error took two days to find. It was seasonal.GremlinsScholarshipFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-dishonesty/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-dishonesty/Gremlins are not inherently dishonest. They are unusually comfortable with opportunism, and the distinction is lost on anyone whose tools have moved.GremlinsMisconceptionsPrejudicehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-eggs-and-the-persistent-myth-of-the-gremlin-mother/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-eggs-and-the-persistent-myth-of-the-gremlin-mother/Two parents tending a clutch of eggs persists because illustrators find it charming. Gremlin reproduction is nothing of the kind, and is not charming.GremlinsReproductionDevelopmentMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-landlords/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-landlords/Gremlins are said to make poor tenants, being untidy and prone to dismantling fixtures. The claim is unfair, and the record is more complicated.GremlinsCitiesMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-metabolism/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-metabolism/Gremlin stomachs are not bottomless, and the metabolism is merely rapid. What an adult actually consumes relative to body mass, and why the myth persists.GremlinsPhysiologyFoodMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-sleep/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-gremlin-sleep/Gremlins do sleep, and the claim that they do not appears to have originated with landlords. Their rest is fragmented across the day rather than absent.GremlinsPhysiologySleepMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-alleged-absence-of-gremlin-religion/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-alleged-absence-of-gremlin-religion/Gremlins have no common priesthood, ancestral cult or creation myth. It does not follow that they are irreligious, and the conclusion confuses two things.GremlinsReligionMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-persistent-fiction-of-the-gremlin-homeland/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-persistent-fiction-of-the-gremlin-homeland/There is no Gremlin homeland, which ought not require saying while schoolroom maps continue to print Ancient Gremlin Territories over convenient wilderness.GremlinsOriginsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-reliability-of-gremlin-witnesses/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/on-the-reliability-of-gremlin-witnesses/Contrary to stereotype, Gremlins are often exceptionally reliable observers, which matters here because several case histories rest on their accounts.GremlinsMemoryMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/the-examination-of-mr-tibb/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/the-examination-of-mr-tibb/A Gremlin student built so intricate a cheating machine that, once caught, he outperformed the whole class under oral examination, and Veyne gave him top marks.GremlinsEducationScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/27-may-east-ward-bellcross/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/27-may-east-ward-bellcross/Field notes: a Gremlin machinist claims that he can identify most common engines blindfolded, an assertion the author assumed to be exaggeration.GremlinsEngineeringFieldworkTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/7-may-east-ward/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/7-may-east-ward/A Gremlin hatchling less than a day old is brought into the clinic after a scatter went badly. There had been dozens of them that morning.GremlinsDevelopmentDeathTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/concerning-the-west-lecture-room/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/concerning-the-west-lecture-room/Veyne answers a colleague who tried to incubate Gremlin eggs under the lecture benches, praising his arithmetic and removing the eggs to a proper nursery.GremlinsReproductionEducationhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/from-the-east-ward-concerning-a-gremlin-funeral/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/gremlins/from-the-east-ward-concerning-a-gremlin-funeral/An account of a Gremlin funeral in the East Ward, and of why several Gremlins present objected to that word for what they had gathered to do.GremlinsDeathCitieshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-mammoths/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-mammoths/The mammoth is not enormous cattle. An account of its intelligence, sociality and memory, and of what the Aesir association actually consists of.AesirMammothsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-proportions-and-habits-of-the-aesir/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-proportions-and-habits-of-the-aesir/Size shapes the Aesir joint, heart, hand and tolerance of heat, but Human buildings, tools and impatience explain much that is blamed on Aesir bodies.AesirHumansPhysiologyLongevityMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-thermoregulation/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-thermoregulation/Large bodies conserve heat, and peripheral circulation constricts without compromising core temperature. The mechanism behind Aesir tolerance of cold.AesirPhysiologyColdhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-the-herding-of-mammoths/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-the-herding-of-mammoths/The phrase mammoth herding invites comparison with cattle and pack goats, and misleads in every particular. What Aesir herders do instead.AesirMammothshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-heart/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-heart/The Aesir heart is structurally adapted rather than merely enlarged, to a body whose mass and blood volume would strain an ordinary circulation.AesirPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-familial-character-of-aesir-mammoth-bonds/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-familial-character-of-aesir-mammoth-bonds/Traditional herders object to calling the herd family, and object again to any account that leaves the relationship out. What the bond actually is.AesirMammothshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/the-case-of-halvar-and-mett/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/the-case-of-halvar-and-mett/A single case, admitted with reluctance because it sits close to anecdote. Halvar Norr was three years old when Mett was assigned to his family.AesirMammothshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/a-digression-concerning-a-mammoth-a-magistrate-and-one-extremely-unhelpful-gremlin/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/a-digression-concerning-a-mammoth-a-magistrate-and-one-extremely-unhelpful-gremlin/An incident with no bearing on Aesir respiratory physiology, recorded because colleagues pretend that every anecdote must illustrate something.MammothsGremlinsTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-beds/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-beds/Why a guest bed built for Humans invalidated a night of sleep measurements, and what Aesir proportions ask of the furniture around them.AesirSleepFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-furniture/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-aesir-furniture/Aesir domestic furniture is built to proportions that make ordinary Human seating impractical, which complicates measuring hip and knee articulation.AesirPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-the-myth-of-the-slow-mind/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-and-the-myth-of-the-slow-mind/Aesir are large, speak deliberately and pause before answering, from which hurried people have concluded that they are slow-witted. They are not.AesirMisconceptionsPrejudicehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-languages-and-the-boundaries-assigned-to-them/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-aesir-languages-and-the-boundaries-assigned-to-them/Veyne traces the Aesir languages from Imperial Aesir to Tribal Western and Eastern, whose varieties shade into one another across camps and towns.AesirLanguageEmpirehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-supposed-immunity-of-the-aesir-to-cold/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-supposed-immunity-of-the-aesir-to-cold/Aesir feel cold less because they are large rather than because they are brave, a distinction that heroic verse has never found room for.AesirColdPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-supposedly-perfect-memory-of-mammoths/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/on-the-supposedly-perfect-memory-of-mammoths/Mammoth memory is excellent and not perfect, a distinction that has somehow become controversial. What Aesir accounts get right, and where they overreach.MammothsMemoryMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/the-refusal-at-esk-ford/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/the-refusal-at-esk-ford/Two young mammoths cross a ford alone and refuse it beside the older females, which shows how an aversion spreads without showing its cause.MammothsMemoryAesirFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/14-december-north-of-hradsk/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/14-december-north-of-hradsk/A young Aesir boy loses two fingers to the cold, having hidden the injury too long out of shame at having become cold at all.AesirColdTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/18-july-aesir-summer-camp/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/18-july-aesir-summer-camp/Field notes: an attempt to obtain baseline respiratory measurements from six adult Aesir herders, and the ways a calibrated tube can be misunderstood.AesirFieldworkTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/from-the-northern-road-concerning-an-old-mammoth/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/aesir/from-the-northern-road-concerning-an-old-mammoth/One of the oldest mammoths in a herding camp dies during the night, having belonged to the same Aesir family for nearly two centuries.MammothsAesirDeathTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-dwarven-constitution/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-dwarven-constitution/Dense bone, mineral needs and a long life shape the Dwarf, but his tolerance of bad air, his navigation and his law are learnt as much as inherited.DwarvesHumansPhysiologyLongevityMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-great-dwarven-empire-as-a-supposedly-unified-culture/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-great-dwarven-empire-as-a-supposedly-unified-culture/The Empire ruled much of the continent, which does not mean that anyone inside it agreed about anything. Shared law and script are not a shared culture.DwarvesEmpireInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-automatic-coronation-of-exceptional-examinees/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-automatic-coronation-of-exceptional-examinees/Each year the newspapers rediscover the story that an exceptional candidate is crowned by examination alone. The Final Examination does no such thing.DwarvesEducationInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-dwarvish-languages-living-and-inherited/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-dwarvish-languages-living-and-inherited/Veyne traces Dwarvish from Imperial Dwarven to the five living hold languages, and why every Dwarf still learns Imperial as a common tongue.DwarvesLanguageEmpirehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-destruction-of-durn-ossek-and-the-evidence-for-the-conqueror-worm/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-destruction-of-durn-ossek-and-the-evidence-for-the-conqueror-worm/Few survived Durn Ossek’s destruction in 1747, so Veyne sorts its testimony and ruins into fact, legend and theory about the Conqueror Worm.DwarvesFolkloreFieldworkDeathMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-failure-to-reoccupy-durn-ossek/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-failure-to-reoccupy-durn-ossek/Six Dwarven commissions have sought to reclaim Durn Ossek, and every survey found the Worm left its foundation stone too unstable to excavate.DwarvesMiningEngineeringInstitutionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-conqueror-worm-and-the-evidence-of-its-solitude/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-conqueror-worm-and-the-evidence-of-its-solitude/Veyne separates the Conqueror Worm’s evidence from legend, weighs what such a creature implies, and asks why only one sighting exists.DwarvesFolkloreMiningMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-poverty-of-grendon/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-poverty-of-grendon/Grendon’s ore stayed underground because its mineral rights were governed by Dwarven law its own government declined to learn to read.DwarvesMiningInstitutionsLanguageMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-bone/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-bone/Dwarven bone is not Human bone made heavier. The microscopic architecture differs, which physicians assuming mineral density alone continue to miss.DwarvesPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-elevators/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-elevators/Dwarven mountain cities contain some of the finest lift mechanisms known, and their bearing on circulatory stress is smaller than this note intended.DwarvesEngineeringArchitecturehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-oxygen-tolerance/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-oxygen-tolerance/The phrase underground lungs is useless without being wrong. Subterranean populations tolerate elevated carbon dioxide unusually well, and here is why.DwarvesPhysiologyMininghttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-surface-architecture/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarven-surface-architecture/Dwarven houses above ground keep thick walls, narrow windows and deep foundations. Visitors are surprised, though cultures carry their habits with them.DwarvesArchitectureMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarves-and-mountains/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-dwarves-and-mountains/Every Dwarf lives inside a mountain, according to popular art, which leaves open the question of where painters believe the bread comes from.DwarvesArchitectureMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-dwarven-aversion-to-open-sky/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-dwarven-aversion-to-open-sky/Generations of subterranean life are said to have left Dwarves dependent upon ceilings. Entire agricultural regions above ground suggest otherwise.DwarvesAgricultureMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-stone-eating-habits-of-dwarves/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-alleged-stone-eating-habits-of-dwarves/Dwarves do not eat rocks. The myth derives from two genuine facts about mineral requirements and traditional foods, neither of which supports it.DwarvesFoodPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-inability-of-dwarves-to-become-lost-underground/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-inability-of-dwarves-to-become-lost-underground/Among the more flattering misconceptions Dwarves have allowed to stand is an innate sense of direction underground. What actually keeps them oriented.DwarvesMiningMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-inedibility-of-dwarven-bread/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-inedibility-of-dwarven-bread/Dwarven bread is edible to other peoples. The hard keeping loaves travellers meet are meant for broth, and the soft fresh loaves rarely leave the bakery.DwarvesFoodMisconceptionsTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-night-vision-of-dwarves/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/on-the-supposed-night-vision-of-dwarves/Dwarves do not see in complete darkness. The belief persists because visitors misread comfortable movement through near-blackness as an adaptation.DwarvesPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/11-february-outside-kher-vann/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/11-february-outside-kher-vann/An abandoned Dwarven surface settlement rather than a ruined one. The doors still hang properly, the wells are capped, and the distinction matters.DwarvesArchitectureTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/19-july-karad-tor/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/19-july-karad-tor/The old examination hall at Karad Tor, where young Dwarves still sit the Final Examination beneath imperial stonework carved when the Empire had borders.DwarvesEducationEmpireTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/21-september-northbound-rail-outside-karad-tor/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/21-september-northbound-rail-outside-karad-tor/Field notes: observations of Dwarven tolerance for prolonged vibration, interrupted by a dispute concerning two specimen cases in the luggage rack.DwarvesRailwaysEtiquetteTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/from-karad-vell-concerning-an-imperial-road/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/from-karad-vell-concerning-an-imperial-road/A portion of the old Imperial Road beneath Karad Vell, which the word road does not adequately describe, and what remains of the network it served.DwarvesEmpireArchitectureTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-evidence-below/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dwarven-history-and-institutions/the-evidence-below/Veyne joins a Dwarven inspection of a closed mine level, sees an inherited thread test catch what his anemometer missed, and withdraws his own advice.DwarvesHumansMiningFieldworkFolkloreScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-elves-and-the-consequences-of-a-long-life/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-elves-and-the-consequences-of-a-long-life/A thousand years explains less about Elves than supposed: an enduring frame, faithful repair, fallible memory and scarce births set them apart.ElvesHumansPhysiologyLongevityMemoryhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-ageing/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-ageing/Elves live about a thousand years and spend remarkably little of it looking old. What their ageing does instead of accumulating damage.ElvesLongevityPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-resistance-to-disease/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-resistance-to-disease/Elves are not immune to disease. Their immune systems differ from Human ones sufficiently that the distinction has been repeatedly exaggerated into myth.ElvesPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-wound-healing/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-wound-healing/The reputation is deserved and the mechanism misunderstood: the early inflammatory stages proceed at Human rates, and the Elven advantage lies elsewhere.ElvesPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-supposed-fragility-of-elves/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-supposed-fragility-of-elves/Elves are called delicate, which is an aesthetic judgement mistaken for anatomy. A slender build and lighter bone are not the same as fragility.ElvesPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-age-and-the-human-inability-to-believe-it/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-age-and-the-human-inability-to-believe-it/Humans assume that a person of nine hundred years must look it, an assumption explicable only because Humans have spent so little time being nine hundred.ElvesHumansLongevityMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-alleged-renewal-of-the-elven-body/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-alleged-renewal-of-the-elven-body/Elves are said to replace the substance of their bodies periodically, shedding age in some hidden renewal. A more sophisticated absurdity than most.ElvesLongevityMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-memory/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-memory/Elves do not remember everything. An Elf who attended the coronation is simply a better source than a historian with three contradictory letters.ElvesMemoryMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-agriculture-which-is-not-agriculture/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-agriculture-which-is-not-agriculture/Human ethnographers call traditional Elven communities primitive agricultural societies, a phrase that manages to be inaccurate in three separate ways.ElvesAgricultureMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-popular-belief-that-traditional-elves-refuse-to-harm-plants/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-popular-belief-that-traditional-elves-refuse-to-harm-plants/Traditional Elven cultures do not hold that vegetation must never be damaged. If they did, they could not walk through grass or gather food.ElvesAgricultureMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-supposed-estrangement-of-the-elves/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-supposed-estrangement-of-the-elves/Traditional and integrated Elves are not estranged by rule; Veyne separates the real disputes from the myth, and a pumping-station quarrel from bloodshed.ElvesInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-gardening/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-gardening/An Elf may tend a patch of forest for decades while insisting that he has planted nothing, cultivated nothing and altered nothing. What he means by it.ElvesAgriculturehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-bureaucracy/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-bureaucracy/A people who live ten centuries keep excellent records, and the excellence is not always to the benefit of anyone applying for access to them.ElvesInstitutionsLongevityhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-patience/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-elven-patience/Elves are described as patient, which is only partly true. What sixty years of waiting on a legal dispute indicates about temporal perception.ElvesLongevityhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-alleged-superiority-of-elven-wine/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-alleged-superiority-of-elven-wine/Elven wine is not intrinsically superior to Human wine, a conclusion reached through three blinded tastings and reported here with some reluctance.ElvesFoodScholarshipMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-common-elven-tongues/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-the-common-elven-tongues/Veyne describes Early and Modern Common Elven, why most Elves speak both, and why Common Elven has always been a compromise among tribal dialects.ElvesLanguagehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-hospitality/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/on-traditional-elven-hospitality/Traditional Elven hospitality is generous, sincere, and founded upon assumptions about what constitutes food that are not universally shared. A warning.ElvesEtiquetteFoodFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/2-october-southern-elven-grove/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/2-october-southern-elven-grove/Field notes: an investigation of traditional Elven medicine produced a methodological problem when the author appears to have insulted a shrub.ElvesAgricultureFieldworkTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/3-april-belleren/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/3-april-belleren/Seraiel introduces an old friend of seventy-one years’ acquaintance. The woman is ninety-six, and the author nearly laughed before understanding.ElvesHumansLongevityTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/from-belleren-concerning-an-elf-who-had-outlived-a-street/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/elven-life-and-culture/from-belleren-concerning-an-elf-who-had-outlived-a-street/Supper with Seraiel Therin, who is eight hundred and twelve, followed by a walk through a district that has changed rather more than she has.ElvesLongevityCitiesTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-characteristics-of-humans/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-characteristics-of-humans/Human anatomy is the scale of comparison, not nature’s pattern: Humans are adaptable, warn early of bad air, and must relearn everything each generation.HumansPhysiologyReproductionMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-human-languages-and-the-evidence-of-their-kinship/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-human-languages-and-the-evidence-of-their-kinship/Veyne surveys the four living Human languages and their ancestors, and why Imperial Dwarven holds most of the record that would prove their kinship.HumansLanguageScholarshipMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-convenient-misremembering-of-the-first-southern-war/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-convenient-misremembering-of-the-first-southern-war/Corrects a revisionist account of the First Southern War, from Sudermark’s annexation of Drenne to the unification of Calder.HumansMisconceptionsScholarshipPrejudiceMemoryLongevityhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-persistence-of-a-war-in-the-census/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-persistence-of-a-war-in-the-census/Three census offices give one war three casualty figures, because each counts a different thing and only one of them counts the dead.LongevityDeathHumansDwarvesElvesScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-geographical-distribution-of-approval/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-geographical-distribution-of-approval/A committee confines a national survey of lung disease to its own district, and its composition explains that better than any objection to the figures.HumansInstitutionsScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-boundaries-beneath-the-roads/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-boundaries-beneath-the-roads/The three Caldric dialect boundaries cross easy ground and converge on Tarnis, following borders that left the maps seventy years ago.HumansLanguageFieldworkMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-keeper-of-the-interval/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-keeper-of-the-interval/The Sudermarkish word for chancellor means keeper of the interval, and the interval was the adjournment its keeper learned to prolong.HumansLanguageInstitutionsMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-witnesses-at-rook-s-weir/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-witnesses-at-rook-s-weir/Six Dwarven and Elven witnesses to an invasion of a hundred and fourteen years ago, checked against the authorised Human account and against each other.MemoryLongevityHumansDwarvesElvesScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/2-january-southern-rail/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/2-january-southern-rail/A man dies in the carriage ahead, and the author is asked whether he is a physician. He said yes, which was true enough for the purpose.HumansDeathRailwaysTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-men-available-for-service/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/on-the-men-available-for-service/Answering a bureaucrat who mocked his lack of wartime experience, Veyne argues the war’s muster figures and concedes his one real error.HumansInstitutionsScholarshipMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-definition-of-a-mule/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-definition-of-a-mule/A form whose two halves come from two different armies lets a quartermaster issue a horse and certify that no horse was issued.InstitutionsTravelFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-language-in-which-the-question-was-asked/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/humans/the-language-in-which-the-question-was-asked/A clerk asks a householder whether she understands Sudermarkish, and her answer deletes the language she is raising her child in.HumansLanguagePrejudiceInstitutionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-classification-of-sapient-peoples-and-the-history-of-its-abuses/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-classification-of-sapient-peoples-and-the-history-of-its-abuses/How the Drau, Ogres, Kobolds and Apemen were named to suit whoever wanted their land or labour, and the terms scholars and Veyne now prefer.DrauApemenKoboldsOgresPrejudiceScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-professor-ardell-s-proposed-taxonomy/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-professor-ardell-s-proposed-taxonomy/A reply to Professor Ardell’s monograph on cognitive limits, which the author had intended to let exhaust itself quietly and found that he could not.ScholarshipPrejudicehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-apemen-and-the-errors-of-a-human-standard/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-apemen-and-the-errors-of-a-human-standard/Because Apemen resemble Humans they are judged by a Human standard, and their gait, hands, gestures and signs all suffer for it.ApemenHumansPhysiologyLanguageMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-characteristic-faculties-of-the-kobolds/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-characteristic-faculties-of-the-kobolds/Kobold glare, scent, grip and ventilation explain what visitors call crudeness, and likeness to rats or Dwarves settles nothing about descent.KoboldsDwarvesPhysiologyEngineeringMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-constitution-and-conduct-of-ogres/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-constitution-and-conduct-of-ogres/Foremen and genealogists misread Ogre mass, hands, skin and custom, and Ogre violence needs plain description rather than a theory of mindlessness.OgresAesirPhysiologyEtiquetteMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-the-drau/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-the-drau/Drau skin, heat, sight and tracking have each been exaggerated or misread, and their resemblance to the Elves proves no common descent.DrauElvesPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-apeman-sign-language/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-apeman-sign-language/The objection that trained Apemen merely imitate their instructors survives because its adherents refuse to watch Apemen when the instructors leave.ApemenLanguagePrejudiceScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-ogre-politeness/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-ogre-politeness/Ogres are said to have no manners. Their manners are calibrated to a society in which being struck during a disagreement is considerably less theoretical.OgresEtiquettePrejudiceMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-myth-that-ogres-cannot-plan/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/on-the-myth-that-ogres-cannot-plan/Ogre violence is said to preclude long-term planning, which would persuade if raiding parties did not demonstrate coordinated movement across distances.OgresPrejudiceMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/22-september-western-drau-territory/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/22-september-western-drau-territory/A Drau guide shows the author a burial place where there are no graves: the dead are laid in shallow stone chambers and allowed to return to the land.DrauDeathTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/6-march-lower-kobold-warrens/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/6-march-lower-kobold-warrens/Field notes: a survey of Kobold thoracic proportions, abandoned when the measuring tape disappeared and the search for it produced an explanation.KoboldsFieldworkTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/9-november-western-ogre-territory/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/9-november-western-ogre-territory/Field notes: cranial measurements from an Ogre warrior named Brakk, who agreed willingly and was patient throughout. The difficulty lay elsewhere.OgresFieldworkTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/from-the-western-drau-territory-concerning-a-school/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/other-sapient-races/from-the-western-drau-territory-concerning-a-school/There is a school here, which matters because maps produced in the capital continue to label this region unadministered wilderness.DrauEducationPrejudiceTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/on-the-architecture-of-a-city-built-for-several-definitions-of-a-person/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/on-the-architecture-of-a-city-built-for-several-definitions-of-a-person/Veyrholm has been occupied long enough that its streets constitute a record of racial anatomy, which its architects cannot have intended to contribute.ArchitectureCitiesPhysiologyhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-drau-guide-and-a-human-soldier/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-drau-guide-and-a-human-soldier/A Human military escort and two Drau guides, and a corporal whose exaggerated politeness did more damage than plain rudeness would have managed.DrauHumansPrejudiceEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-dwarf-a-gremlin-and-a-boiler/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-dwarf-a-gremlin-and-a-boiler/A Dwarven foreman and a Gremlin machinist disagree about a boiler. Supervisors would call it insubordination, and everyone involved calls it maintenance.DwarvesGremlinsEngineeringEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-gremlin-in-an-elven-household/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-gremlin-in-an-elven-household/An Elven family employs a Gremlin cook. Traditional Elven food customs and Gremlin appetite are poorly matched in theory, and were reconciled in practice.GremlinsElvesFoodEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-human-child-and-an-aesir-veteran/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-human-child-and-an-aesir-veteran/A Human child stares at an elderly Aesir veteran whose arm ends below the elbow, and his mother’s repeated instruction to stop makes matters worse.HumansAesirEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-mixed-mining-crew/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/a-mixed-mining-crew/Several days underground with Humans, Dwarves and two Aesir labourers, where the social division of the work was not what the author expected to find.HumansDwarvesAesirMininghttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/aesir-courtesy-in-a-human-dining-room/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/aesir-courtesy-in-a-human-dining-room/An Aesir officer instructed in advance not to alarm the Human guests, and the heroic and entirely visible effort of complying with that instruction.AesirHumansEtiquetteFoodhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/an-elf-at-a-dwarven-funeral/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/an-elf-at-a-dwarven-funeral/An Elf is asked to speak at a Dwarven funeral, which was unusual enough to attract attention before anyone had heard what he intended to say.ElvesDwarvesDeathEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/an-ogre-at-a-market-stall/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/an-ogre-at-a-market-stall/An Ogre merchant and an Elven vendor argue over cloth while the surrounding Humans wait for violence. The dispute concerned colour.OgresElvesPrejudiceEtiquettehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/the-water-below-merebridge/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/the-water-below-merebridge/Veyne mediates between Merebridge and its Ashwater rulers over a drainage pump, arguing both sides down and misjudging the dying alders himself.AgricultureElvesHumansInstitutionsTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/the-fields-below-the-white-stair/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/mixed-race-society/the-fields-below-the-white-stair/At Dunscar, on land fought over for generations, Veyne takes on an Istrava ban on ploughing and a Human committee’s deeds, and errs himself.AgricultureElvesHumansInstitutionsPrejudiceTravelhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-the-supposed-language-of-dragons/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-the-supposed-language-of-dragons/Dragons signal through sound, posture and scent too bound to circumstance to count as language, and their ordinary cries are not spells.FolkloreLanguageMagicMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-the-supposed-universality-of-draconic-speech/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-the-supposed-universality-of-draconic-speech/Few Dragons can speak, though the few acquire languages readily; the obstacle is cognitive, as a halting talk with a fluent Dragon shows.FolkloreLanguageMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/the-culvert-at-merewick/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/the-culvert-at-merewick/An afternoon at Merewick lost to a culvert, and what a Dragon’s objection to eleven inches of displaced water shows about recognition.MemoryEngineeringEtiquetteMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-dragons/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/on-dragons/The Dragon has suffered terribly from literature. A very large flying reptile capable of speech and combustion is remarkable without the added philosophy.FolkloreMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/an-unscheduled-interview-above-draycott/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/an-unscheduled-interview-above-draycott/A Dragon blocks the road above Draycott, and Veyne cannot place him among the hostile, friendly, or indifferent even after he saves their lives.TravelFieldworkRailwaysLanguagehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/impediments-upon-the-north-road/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/dragons/impediments-upon-the-north-road/A juvenile Dragon moves a milestone and fells firs across the road, and Veyne cannot say whether it is malice, play, or an interest in a talking man.TravelFieldworkLanguagehttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-magic-and-the-things-it-does-not-do/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-magic-and-the-things-it-does-not-do/The difficulty in writing about magic is that everyone believes himself already familiar with it, having heard the stories. What it does not do.MagicMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-runic-restoration-of-the-dead/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-runic-restoration-of-the-dead/No subject in practical thaumaturgy is more burdened by bad terminology than the resurrection rune, a name that invites precisely the wrong image.MagicRunecarvingDeathhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/three-cases-of-runic-restoration/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/three-cases-of-runic-restoration/Three men restored by full-body runic array, interviewed in person. All three were Human, and all three worked where violent death was a hazard of trade.MagicRunecarvingDeathHumanshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-ghosts/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-ghosts/The author has no objection to ghosts, a statement quoted so selectively that it requires elaboration. What the evidence for apparitions supports.MagicDeathScholarshiphttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-prophecy/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-prophecy/Verified precognition exists and is no longer seriously disputed. The subject is improved greatly by refusing to discuss it with prophets.MagicMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-the-supposed-aversion-of-magic-to-machinery/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/magic-and-thaumaturgy/on-the-supposed-aversion-of-magic-to-machinery/Romantics insist that enchantment weakens near steam engines and dynamos. The notion is aesthetically pleasing and unsupported by any measurement.MagicEngineeringMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/concerning-professor-hest-s-review/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/concerning-professor-hest-s-review/Veyne concedes one of Hest’s criticisms of his book on Elven senescence, then shows the rest attack a second edition the third already corrects.ScholarshipElveshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-rail-travel-and-the-supposed-weakening-of-the-constitution/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-rail-travel-and-the-supposed-weakening-of-the-constitution/Travel above forty miles per hour was once argued to shift the organs backward within the body. The railways have existed long enough to settle it.RailwaysPhysiologyMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-steam-carriages/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-steam-carriages/The respiratory effects of urban industrialisation are relevant to this volume. Steam carriages are not, and the author wishes the record to show it.EngineeringCitieshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-the-preservation-of-specimens/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/on-the-preservation-of-specimens/Improvements in long-term anatomical preservation, preceded by a warning about storing preservative fluid in a bottle previously used for spirits.ScholarshipFieldworkhttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/the-universal-restorative-at-wendlebury-bridge/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/the-universal-restorative-at-wendlebury-bridge/Veyne blind-tests a travelling alchemist’s Universal Restorative beside a broken bridge, and the seller concedes everything while admitting nothing.TravelFieldworkMisconceptionshttps://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/in-which-mr-quill-relieves-me-of-a-considerable-burden/https://alistair-veyne.randomwhateverstuff.com/method-controversy-and-quackery/in-which-mr-quill-relieves-me-of-a-considerable-burden/Veyne meets Septimus Quill again, now extracting worry through a breath condenser, and tests the machine on himself against a pair of bellows.TravelFieldworkMisconceptions