In a world, where elves, humans and dwarfs share the same evolutionary ancestor, what would be a legit reason for said ancestor to evolve into a cave/mountain dwelling midget with high intelligence and that still looks a bit like pic related?
Magical reasons like Gods fucking around with evolution are permitted, though i'd try to avoid that since i already did it to elves in my setting.
caves are short i guess?
>>48272764
Neanderthals were shorter than Homo Sapiens, yet they were said to possess significantly greater strength. People in frequently cold environments tend to be shorter on average, whereas people in hotter environments tend to be taller than average. Dwarves are usually depicted as having pale skin, which also ties in with spending little to no time in the sun, suited for being underground and in places where the sun does not appear very often.
So I guess just make them a clan of mountain dwelling Neanderthals. Ties in perfectly with lower than average height, high intelligence and above average strength, not to mention magnificent beards.
>>48272947
Except for Neaderthals probably being less intelligent than us, basically this. If for some reason, a tool-using group was pushed into living primarily in caves, something dwarf-like seems a plausible outcome of selection for best diggers. They'd be small (reducing the amount of work needed to excavate a good cave or tunnel), strong, and have either good night vision or else some other way of 'seeing' in the dark.
>The Delvers have their origins in humanoids that were trapped deep underground after an earlier cataclysm. They fought their way back up to the light, an effort of decades that made them skilled miners, tunnelers, and explorers.
>These diggers, with overdeveloped shoulders and arms, make exceedingly dangerous troops. Skilled at breaking rock, they can also crack the toughest armors.
>>48272947
Then how do you explain Scandinavia being on average taller than rest of the continent bar Netherlands (and some others, i can't remember) even though Scandinavia is cold as your mother is/was/will be when she found/finds out that you browse 4chan?
why shy away from doing that? it means you have precedent for the gods being fuckers, it would be logical that they create specific people for specific regions
>>48273093
Carl Bergmann's rule noted that animals with greater bulk and size tend to flourish in colder environments, simply because more cells = more heat. Bigger animals tend to have less surface area relevant to their size too, resulting in heat being less efficiently dissipated from the body, which probably explains why Scandinavians are so huge.
This doesn't necessarily mean that they become taller, however. Creatures tend to become more compact in colder environments, polar bears being an example of this. Those incredibly tall Africans tend to have elogated limbs, because having long limbs means they're less compact and are more able to efficiently dissipate heat from the body. I don't know enough about evolution and biology to explain it, but that's just some ideas.
I always thought that prehistoric dwarves maybe evolved to be ambush predators, they don't have the ability to chase down prey like humans do so I figured that they'd hide somewhere (possible underground like a trapdoor spider) then when something walked by jump on it and use their large upper-body strength to wrestle it into submission. As they became more advanced this was maybe replaced by becoming expert trappers.
>>48273006
Dwarves dig a lot, so have more metals to play with and are somewhat forced to make machines to make up for their limited workforce.
>>48273209
Dwarves are closer in shape to ball, which has the smallest surface size.
>>48274519
Well, there you have it. I think we've got a good explanation then.
>>48274265
This works well.
OP here - guess i'll have the dwarves have one more form between the Common Ancestor and Homo Midgetus(not the actual name) that live now.
Ambush predators like >>48274265 suggested would be that form, terrifying monsters who kill anything that gets close to caves. They'd dig for more food, and to create shelter and start making various use of stones and gems they uncover while digging.
After some time, they realize that stones are better for digging than bare hands and they would adapt in order to make best use of them.
The problem is... how to make them NOT look like hideous abominations and still make some sense, science-wise... guess i'll have to use "God messing around with evolution" thing again.
Well in real life, pygmies are a thing. I think I once heard one of the early human sub-species were pygmies. Not sure about that.
>Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Some studies suggest that it could be related to adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests.[9][10] This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance, and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.
>Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality. Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone compared to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and short stature.
A lot of this could overlap with a cave dwelling people. Maybe in your world there is a large and viably livable underworld/cave network a la the Underdark. Food resources might be scarce and anyways small height is an advantage in navigating/living in tight spaces so it's an evolutionary advantage to minimize body size. At the same time living in stone and a culture that probably adapted to stone masonry at the dawn of its civilization to expand demands strength to wield a hammer/chisel, climb, etc. As for why they are smart, again maybe the underworld is not very forgiving to lazy idiots that can't plan and cooperate. No sitting around in your twig hut all day occasionally killing a stray bird for easy food here. You eat limited supplies of moss and mushrooms, carefully keep track of underwater rivers, conservatively manage your resources in between harvesting cycles. Imagine the Indus Valley civilization underground.
>>48272764
High gravity homeworlds forcing them to assume a more compact and efficient package.
Also looking at the wiki I ran into these guys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taron_people
Not a lot of them, but it occurs to me if anyone ever wanted to dwarves REALLY differently you could maybe make them Himalayan mountain people like this, rather than cave people. Though maybe a mix of both works. Their culture could be more Tibetain inspired. I've long thought Tibetan or Himalayan mythology is an underappreciated pool for new fantasy aesthetics and ideas.
Look at this mutherfucker, if he doesnt scream fucking Dwarf, your blind.
Seriously, dwarves are just neanderthals that didn't go extinct.
And they were just as smart as we were. Sure their throats were not as evolved as ours and thus limited their vocabularies thus limiting their potential intelligence, but a simple change in their evolution and you get short stocky bearded fellows with a penchant for mountains and hills.
Besides, according to a recent finding on what neanderthals would sound like, Dwarves would be akin to those weird high pitched manchildren with sing song voices. And thats fucking hilarious.
