trader jim
SOC-14 1K
just for discussion....just how many "minor" races are there in Traveller...and i mean "canon"...??? 
legit minor races
- Thread starter trader jim
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There is an early statement in one of the CT books to the effect that there are around 100 minor non-human races in the Imperium and about 400 in all of Charted Space (I can't remember where offhand).Originally posted by trader jim:
just for discussion....just how many "minor" races are there in Traveller...and i mean "canon"...???
OTOH, Traveller authors thed to introduce minor races, both human and non-human, at the drop of a hat, so that limit may not be 'realistic'.
Hans
You can do a google search for alien races in Traveller and get a pretty comprehensive list. The OTU pretty much describes 65-67 minor human races, 38-40 of which have been mentioned or detailed. (This is at the time period of late MT. Things may have changed.) Among other races, I'd say that canon mentions at least fifty different races, but as for details, you'd have to dig around a lot. Still, the alien lists I've mentioned make a great starting point, as some of them have sources annotated for their information.
Hope this helps,
Flynn
Hope this helps,
Flynn
daryen
SOC-14 1K
Here are two lists of Traveller aliens. The first is done by subsector. The second is done alphabetically in three groups.
The second has 81 races listed in the Minor Non-Human races section and 31 listed in the Minor Human races section. Both seem to be from at least the late MT timeframe. There seems to have been a LOT of races added in JTAS and TD.
BTW, that 46 number is the number of minor human races created by the Ancients. There are others that were created via other means (e.g. Jonkereen and Nexies).
The second has 81 races listed in the Minor Non-Human races section and 31 listed in the Minor Human races section. Both seem to be from at least the late MT timeframe. There seems to have been a LOT of races added in JTAS and TD.
BTW, that 46 number is the number of minor human races created by the Ancients. There are others that were created via other means (e.g. Jonkereen and Nexies).
I am obviously wrong on the numbers I had quoted. I was going by memory, and that plays tricks with me sometimes. 
Still, the number of human races differs from source to source, though not be much. Something to keep in mind when placing them in your TU, if you're using the canonical universe for inspiration.
Thanks for posting the list links,
Flynn
Still, the number of human races differs from source to source, though not be much. Something to keep in mind when placing them in your TU, if you're using the canonical universe for inspiration.
Thanks for posting the list links,
Flynn
trader jim
SOC-14 1K
Wow...great lists...it gonna take me awhile to read these...thanks...inpressive!!! 
No, the 46 are those that have survived until the Classic Era. The Ancients spread samples of Homo sapiens antiquitus (name is of my own coinage; I use it for the humans of Earth around -300,000) to about a hundred worlds. Some they tinkered with, some they left alone. In both cases further evolution took place in the 300,000 years after the Final War. About half of them no longer exist in the Classic Era.
Jonkereen and Nexxies are not minor human races. They are geneered races (The term Variant Human Races has been suggested, but is not canonical).
"Minor Human Race: A human society planted by the Ancients during the period before -300,000 and which developed separately from other human-inhabited worlds until it was eventually contacted by a star-faring society. Thus the Sword Worlders [...] are not a minor human race because they were not planted by the Ancients, although they did evolve their own societies while separated from the mainstream of human society. Likewise geneered races like the Jonkereen are not minor human races." [Regency sourcebook, p. 79.]
Hans
Father Fletch
SOC-12
Jame...as many as you need...you are the GM...even Marc and Loren have said that answering all the questions about the OTU would be not only impossible, but counter productive...there needs to be some mysteries left to discover...a bogeyman or two still lurking in the depths of space...perhaps even in the depths of J-space!
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-he-he-he-he-wheeze...sputter...choke...gasp (thud)
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-he-he-he-he-wheeze...sputter...choke...gasp (thud)
Cleon the Mad
SOC-12
No, the 46 are those that have survived until the Classic Era. The Ancients spread samples of Homo sapiens antiquitus (name is of my own coinage; I use it for the humans of Earth around -300,000) to about a hundred worlds. Some they tinkered with, some they left alone. In both cases further evolution took place in the 300,000 years after the Final War. About half of them no longer exist in the Classic Era.
Hans</font>[/QUOTE]One thing I've often wondered is what specific species of genus Homo was actually collected by the ancients. Okay, when Traveller was written, it was "archaic Homo sapiens", but I do believe...and someone with more knowledge then myself (which is probably many if not most of you) please correct me, but based on current belief, from circa 200,000 to 300,000 BCE we have Neanderthals and Heidelberg Man (I think his species is Homo Heidelbergus (sp error probably)?). Maybe even Homo erectus still milling about. Anyway...IMTU I have been considering a mix of Neanderthal and Heidelberg man...but anyway, I was wondering if canon has been updated to keep with current scientific belief, or is still using "archaic Homo sapiens"...or what hominid(s) others are using for their TU.
Father Fletch
SOC-12
The initial occupation of Eurasia by hominids appears to postdate such an antiquity, and it is generally inferred that the first Eurasian hominids were dispersals from an African source, perhaps between 1.5 and one million years ago. Homo erectus was first and, for a long time, best known from fossil finds in Southeast and East Asia. The fossil occurrences there range in age from approximately 1.6 million to 250,000 years. Although initial hominid occupation in Europe was probably at least as early, no human skeletal remains are known from the most ancient times, and those that have been found—dated to between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago—do not represent H. erectus but rather a form of H. sapiens that has been labeled “archaic.”
"Human Evolution" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved January 29, 2003, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=127615>
"Human Evolution" Encyclopædia Britannica Retrieved January 29, 2003, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=127615>
trader jim
SOC-14 1K
reading these posts make me wonder if we humans are just a "minor" race or species....just looking at the Newer Public television or discovery channel SPECIALS make you think!....The Brotherhood of Man???...yes its true..we are all related...which brings up a whole host of questions which we cant discuss here!!!!
daryen
SOC-14 1K
OK, I stand corrected about the "Minor Human Races" issue. I guess I just lumped them together in my own mind.
And, having double checked those lists again, be aware that those lists include races listed by the old Judge's Guild and other de-canonized sources. There aren't very many, as most races seemed to have been added via JTAS and TD, but there are a few.
This doesn't make the lists any less useful, it just means that the numbers I mentioned before should be slightly lower.
And, having double checked those lists again, be aware that those lists include races listed by the old Judge's Guild and other de-canonized sources. There aren't very many, as most races seemed to have been added via JTAS and TD, but there are a few.
This doesn't make the lists any less useful, it just means that the numbers I mentioned before should be slightly lower.
Originally posted by Cleon the Mad:
As far as I have been able to determine, the view that at least one hominid species on Earth had evolved into an early version of Homo sapiens as early as 300,000 years ago is still very much a possibility. Bear in mind that there is really no way to prove this one way or the other. All paleontologists have to base their theories on are fossils. That's one big difference between our universe and the Traveller Universe: In the TU they have a large number of populations all descended from that hominid that are still interfertile. It seems to me that this couldn't be true unless the latest common ancestor had already evolved into Homo sapiens by the time they were separated. And this would remain the case even if all paleontologists on our Earth tomoorow agreed that Homo sapiens didn't evolve until, say, 150,000 years ago. In the TU they would simply be mistaken, every one of them.
Hans
I wonder if Humaniti, the upcoming SJG product will deal with extinct Ancient Human civilizations? Clearly, the Humans around the time of the Ancients had access to some pretty high tech. And, if we call the ancients the Droyne, then that closes some of the fun. For me the Ancients, with the capital "A" refers to all the civilizations around the time of -300,000...
trader jim
SOC-14 1K
no...i am tellin ya CLEO the Stupid IS NOT part of the HUMAN RACE!!!!......He is not even part of a Minor Race or subspecies!!!!
Liam Devlin
SOC-14 5K
_________________________________________________Originally posted by trader jim:
no...i am tellin ya CLEO the Stupid IS NOT part of the HUMAN RACE!!!!......He is not even part of a Minor Race or subspecies!!!!
Next ye'll be saying he's a clone/body double, or a pseudobiological robot...(ala Dulinor the Black & that whippersnapper Lucan the really really bad attitude kid, of the *late* Emperor Strephon)if 'n yer not careful TJ..
