#halflings

[thestuffedalligator]

Goblins and halflings are the same species at different points of the year.

In late summer, goblins begin to develop a compulsive need to eat in order to build up fat reserves for the season ahead. By the time fall comes around they’ve turned into halflings, and they stay that way through most of the winter. By late winter, with resources running low, they begin to turn back into goblins again, and the cycle begins anew.

[animentality]

[oldschoolfrp]

Four hobbits far from home (Benoît Dufour, Dragon Radieux 16, July 1988)

[anonbeadraws]

group figure commission for Lillian of the Stoneturners, what a crew! com info here

[giantkillerjack]

I like to imagine Gandalf has some sort of magical crystal ball that tells him the probability of different events.

- Like, when he wanted to help Thorin and Company take their home back from a dragon, he first spent weeks with his crystal ball spinning different probability scenarios, such as:

Gandalf: Okay. What if Thorin goes to fight Smaug with a small army of Dwarves? Likelihood of success?

Magic 8 Ball: 0%

Gandalf: What if he has a gigantic army of Dwarves?

Magic 8 Ball: 0.000001% chance of success

Gandalf: Hrrrmm... what if I unite all the forces of Middle Earth to stand side by side against the dragon?

Magic 8 Ball: 0%

Gandalf: How is it lower now?!??

[Weeks Later]

Gandalf, increasingly frazzled: okay okay. What if I accompany Thorin and 12 Dwarves on the quest?

Magic 8 Ball: .... 0.2% [the highest so far]

Gandalf, getting desperate: fine... how about me, Thorin, 12 Dwarves, and uhhhhh..... a Hobbit?

Magic 8 Ball: 60%

Gandalf: I'm sorry WHAT

----

Decades later, when the events of the trilogy are about to begin and force Middle Earth to face an even greater challenge than a dragon in a mountain, immediately Gandalf is just like,

"Oh we are gonna need at LEAST two hobbits for this one . . . "

[prokopetz]

Concept: Tolkienesque high fantasy setting where hobbits/halfings are the implausibly long-lived ones. Think about it: stable, slow-growing communities in spite of everybody having a huge family, high young adult populations but few visible children, museums stuffed with forgotten magical artifacts – it all adds up if the little fuckers live for thousands of years!

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

How would you depict the proportions of both very big and very small humanoids?

In animals, small creatures tend to have proportionally bigger eyes heads and thinner limbs, while larger creatures have proportionally smaller eyes and heads, and much thicker limbs to support heavier bodies.

How would those translate to tiny humanoids like pixies or goblins, or enormous humanoids like giants, ogres or trolls? For the latter the best I could think of was something resembling the Monsterverse version of Godzilla, with a very tiny head and huge, thick legs.

that is a pretty good rule of thumb for vertebrates!

there are limitations to it, I think. for the head size, as an example, you'd still want it to be proportionally capable of holding a brain that suits the humanoid in question, and a mouth that can eat whatever food that large body needs. and for a smaller humanoid, the head can't be so big that the body fails to support it.

you can look to hominids like homo habilis and homo floresiensis for an example of smaller humanoids, to see how the proportions change. it's not a very extreme change at that size, to be fair, but there's a difference. a more extreme example would be like, a big work horse compared to a smaller pony, or small dog breeds vs big dog breeds.

but here's a sketch of some humanoid figures at different sizes:

(image description: sketch of four humanoids in ascending sizes. To the left, there's a humanoid roughly the height of a normal human's knee, then one that comes roughly to the height of a normal human waist. the third figure is a normal human, and the final figure is about one and half times the height of a normal human. end description)