Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ten-foot tall Neanderthals


The Moldvay BX book says that Neanderthals are led by 10' tall male and female Neanderthals, that are not actually Neanderthals - they're from a similar, larger race.  And they're chosen to be the leaders by the Neanderthals themselves!  I'm going to call them Uberthals.  I'm thinking that the Uberthals must live apart in the wilds, then the Neanderthal clan sends some envoys out to where the Uberthals are hanging out in the big and tall shop, and the envoys appeal to them with gifts and honeyed words to send a pair of Uberthals to come and be their new leaders.  Or something.  It's such a throwaway line, yet implies so much about the Neanderthal world.

Does anyone with a wider grasp of pulp literature know from whence came the idea of 10' tall super-sized Neanderthals leading the regular-sized Neanderthals?  Another reason why I think of Moldvay BX as the beloved edition.
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7 comments:

  1. Theodric the ObscureJuly 27, 2011 at 12:30 AM

    Uberthals sound a lot like ogres...which, paradoxically, "hate Neanderthals and will attack them on sight." Unless it is individual, outcast Ogres who take up the rule of Neanderthals, and take out their hatred as cruel rulers of the Neanderthals that adopt them. Maybe Ogres hate Neanderthals because they take in their outcasts and elevate them to chieftains! Yeah, this sounds in keeping with Neanderthal intelligence.

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  2. AnthonyJuly 27, 2011 at 8:43 AM

    Borrowing an idea from REH and other Pulp writers, maybe the Neanderthals represent the degenerate end of an earlier, separate "human race" being displaced by current humans (the PCs civilization), and the "Uberthals" are "throwbacks" to the earlier, undecayed type. ("Bran Mac Morn" had this relationship to the Picts he ruled.)

    Or maybe, to play with your idea of them being a separate race from the Neanderthals, they are a form of "nephelim," representing an ancient mating of Neanderthal with some sort of divine beings, thus creating an offshoot race. In addition to their great size (and, I presume, greater physical power), perhaps they also have some sort of minor clerical power, such as the laying on of hands for healing or the blessing of crops, something that would make them objects of awe or veneration for the "average" Neanderthal.

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  3. JohnJuly 27, 2011 at 9:16 AM

    I didn't make the "Uberthals" a separate race, it's right there in the Moldvay text. Like I said, it's a weird, throwaway line that seems to imply a lot about the Neanderthal world.

    Both the ideas of Nephilim or outcast Ogres are better than I would have come up.

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  4. BlUsKrEEmJuly 27, 2011 at 11:12 AM

    Huh, never noticed that one, good catch.

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  5. AlJuly 27, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    I'd guess he was drawing off legends of prehistoric giants such as the nephilim, who if they really existed would have done so at the time of the neanderthal.

    I hear stories, locally here in western NY about folks finding 8'+ tall skeletons while digging out basements, etc.

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  6. AnonymousJuly 27, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    "...Neanderthals, they are a form of "nephelim," representing an ancient mating of Neanderthal with some sort of divine beings,..."

    Good one. My first instinct was the "giants in the earth" which some would have as the divine forefathers of folks like Goliath. Just received my ancient copies of Moldvay/Marsh/Cook B/X to splice and hybridize my Labyrinth Lord and AEC pdfs. I agree--the old books possess real magic.

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  7. Brutorz BillJuly 27, 2011 at 10:35 PM

    Never noticed that before. Pretty wild!

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