Tales from the Shadows

[Quor]

I'm of the mind that it's one of a few explanations for the races of the world as we know them:

1 - natural evolutionary drift. If we take Emet in the MSQ at his word, he's lived "a thousand thousand" of our lifetimes. Maybe he was exaggerating (he is Emet after all) but assuming he wasn't using hyperbole, and assuming an average age of 50 years among the "civilized" races of the world, that's 50x1000x1000=50,000,000. 50 million years of existence. Even just assuming an average age of 30 that's still 30 million years. That's a long time for life to develop. Whether it developed "naturally" from primordial muck or was a result of creations made by the Ancients that now had souls of their own and were living free on the world is a point of debate, but the fact remains that the modern races possibly had the time to evolve normally from whatever ancestors came before them.

2 - full-on creation magic at work. The modern races were made as they are now via the Ancients themselves. The races may have been seeded as a means of "farming" them for the eventual sacrifice to Zodiark, given enough sapience to be worthy of a soul but without the "completion" that came with being an Ancient. The racial variation that exists could have been practical (Hrothgar/Ronso are larger and furry, more adapted to cold climates than the comparatively smaller Lalafell/Dwarves) or it could have been something of an aesthetic thing; after all, if you're going to make an entire race of sapient beings as a venerated Ancient master of creation magic, you may as well go all the way and make them physiologically distinct. What's the point of doing a good job when you can also do a good job and create beauty in the process? It may as well have been a combination of the two, i.e. giving racial distinction to keep things different and interesting while also addressing the environments that each race was expected to inhabit. The small stature of the Plainsfolk and Dunesfolk serve as cover against larger predators and help mitigate the effects of various forms of harsh weather. Small height means less materials needed for clothing or housing to protect from the elements as well as an easier time of hiding in small gullys and valleys to avoid being eaten.

3 - Zodiark did it. As Alleluia noted, when he "refreshed" the life of the star, the other sapient races came into being. The way they are now may be a result of Zodiark making them this way, or else it may just be natural evolutionary drift. Whether the purpose of these races was to be sacrificed to Zodiark is unknown; all we know for sure is that the Ancient Ascian's of the Thirteen had planned to sacrifice all of this life in order to bring about the resurrection of their fallen brethren. Whether or not Zodiark had a hand in planting this idea is not known, and there's nothing to support it, so every possibility exists that Zodiark created these races as a part of his grand plan to refresh the life of the star. This opens up the disturbing possibility that Zodiark created these races for a reason; perhaps they were a core part of the balance that Zodiark was creating and trying to maintain. If that's the case, then elimination of these races via a large-scale sacrifice would ultimately be disastrous for the star, and serve as a tragic undertone to the entire Ascian plan. If the removal of said races disrupts the balance of the star, things could very well collapse back in on themselves, only this time there won't be a race of willing aether-rich nigh-immortals to sacrifice to Zodiark in order to make things right again.

[RenewalXVII]

1 - natural evolutionary drift. If we take Emet in the MSQ at his word, he's lived "a thousand thousand" of our lifetimes. Maybe he was exaggerating (he is Emet after all) but assuming he wasn't using hyperbole, and assuming an average age of 50 years among the "civilized" races of the world, that's 50x1000x1000=50,000,000. 50 million years of existence. Even just assuming an average age of 30 that's still 30 million years. That's a long time for life to develop. Whether it developed "naturally" from primordial muck or was a result of creations made by the Ancients that now had souls of their own and were living free on the world is a point of debate, but the fact remains that the modern races possibly had the time to evolve normally from whatever ancestors came before them.

I believe the Sundering was established to have taken place about 12,000 years ago, a bit before the First Umbral Era. Emet-Selch's statement was almost certainly hyperbole, making mock of how brief the modern races' lifetimes are compared to an Ancient's.

[Anonymoose]

Emet-Selch's statement was almost certainly hyperbole

When he said the thousand-thousand lifetimes thing, my first reaction was to count up how many lifetimes I could conceivably fit into 12,000 years and then I sent a friend of mine a tell that just said, "Absolute drama king." I'm glad other people had similar reactions, lol.

[Iscah]

When he said the thousand-thousand lifetimes thing, my first reaction was to count up how many lifetimes I could conceivably fit into 12,000 years and then I sent a friend of mine a tell that just said, "Absolute drama king." I'm glad other people had similar reactions, lol.

I remember reading that a "thousand thousand" is used in Japanese as an unspecific-but-big number. So it's more like saying "countless" than giving a statistic.

[Anonymoose]

I remember reading that a "thousand thousand" is used in Japanese as an unspecific-but-big number. So it's more like saying "countless" than giving a statistic.

It's the character for ten thousand (万); it can mean "myriad" or "beyond counting" or "all".

For example, in the Fatal Frame series there is an HP-Restore item called 万葉丸 (10,000-leaf Pills) which is kind of just a dismissive hand-wave anyone will understand; you're magically healed because ALL THE HERBS. Every time I see a [10,000] in something localized from JP, my mind reflectively checks whether that's legit or an accident, lol.

The Japanese script decided to have Emet-Selch instead say, "I've lived among your kind longer than anyone else!" FR matched JP, DE matched EN.