Mini-Stacks #3: The Rise of the Pig-Men

Pigs, Midwits, /swa/, Worldbuilding

It is time for the third installation of Mini-Stacks… The last two have done quite good! But before I start, I have to spend some time promoting iFunny’s very own board on Soyjak Party!

https://soyjak.party/swa/index.html

I was sort of expecting, but not hoping, that this board would be DOA, but I’m surprised that it still gets some good attention. Do you use 4cuck? DON’T!!! Come to Soyjak Party and post on /swa/ instead, where you know you’ll be surrounded by iFunny oldsoicacas! 4cuck is for-cucks! /swa/ is for SWAGGERS WITH ATTITUDE!!

The Coming of the Pigmen

Isn’t it strange how in so much media, the “anti-race” to humans or their equivalent, is porcine? I lead this with a picture of Ganon, the demon king from the Legend of Zelda. Not only is Ganon a giant pig-man, but the monsters in pretty much every Zelda game are comprised mostly of pigmen — Moblins and Bokoblins. In Minecraft, the underworld is inhabited by a race of Pigmen and Zombie Pigmen. In The Elder Scrolls and D&D, Orcs were originally portrayed with more piglike features that were gradually toned down as the “stock fantasy Orc” crystallized.

Left: Orcs from early editions of D&D. Right: Orcs from TES: Morrowind and TES: Oblivion

Orcs are also regularly referred to in The Elder Scrolls as having piglike qualities.

Tolkien’s Orcs are never directly described as pig-like as far as I know. You see the reputation of “pigmen” with demons in more traditional material as well, but demons are portrayed as chimeras of various animals, so I don’t think it is evidence of anything.

Pigs are demonized in Judaism, Islam, and possibly to a lesser extent in some of the polytheistic religions of the Levant. It has also historically been viewed negatively by the Scots and the Scythians. The hatred of Pork by the Mahometan ironically bolstered the love of pork among the Spaniards and Italians. I was surprised when I went to Italy and noticed much more pork-based dishes than in Italian-American cuisine.

I believe that, within every man, there is an anxious anticipation for the coming of the race of pig-men… And this is what subconsciously inspires us to write Orcs and Goblins as pig-people. Pigs are like us in many ways — so much so that we actually use pig organs as standins for human organs in studies, and there are several ongoing attempts to make pig organs compatible for human transplant as they are already quite similar in size, shape, and function. More importantly, pigs are mentally in a good position to evolve into an intelligent, civilizational species. This is because, first of all, they are highly intelligent. They are omnivores, like us, and opportunistic feeders, so in the wild they have to have some more wit than other farm animals who simply graze. Secondly, pigs are social animals, like humans and other primates. Thirdly, pigs are probably capable of making the jump towards carnivorism like humans did due to our similar anatomies and pigs already being omnivorous. And lastly, and I think most importantly, pigs are extremely successful invasive species. It’s incredible, really, how domesticated pigs somehow transmogrify back into wild boars during a single lifetime off of the farm.

A Razorback Hog — not a boar. Razorbacks are descended from Domesticated Pigs! And yet, it is fully covered in fur, its snout has extended, and it has big tusks!

The initial introduction of pigs to the Americas was devastating to local wildlife, and the “boars” (in reality, mostly wild hog) of America are still a very problematic invasive species. Pigs are smart, but they have a strain of ambition and hardiness that is more typical of a carnivorous species. But, they can grow to large numbers due to their wide variety of food choices. I have heard some suspect that a similar process happened in Europe, twice. First with the Neolithic expansion, and then again under the Indo-European expansion. It’s very concerning to see a species expand so successfully, it is what we humans did even before we evolved our modern level of intelligence. Keep a close eye on feral hogs, okay?

The main thing stopping pigs from evolving into Pigmen, is their trotters. They need hands, like we have. If someone were to graft paws onto them, I fear what would happen. I believe a race of pigmen would arise within the following 10,000 years. And I think they may be vicious…

The Midwit Question

Everyone with an IQ between 100 and 115 forced to wear this shirt

There has been a lot of accusations of “midwittery” lately. Everyone that someone doesn’t like is not “retarded”. Instead, they’re a “midwit”. I think some people don’t even know what this means, they think it is something more along the lines of “pseudo-intellectual” or has to do with someone’s personality. No, a midwit is someone with above average but not significantly above average IQ. There isn’t really an exact definition of “midwit”, I’ve seen some day it ends as high as 130 (2 Standard Deviations in IQ) but most people think it starts around 100-110 and ends around 115-120. I would personally say it ends around 115, or 1 standard deviation above the average IQ, and also conveniently around the point where men begin to outnumber women at a given IQ level.

We tend to think of “midwits” as socially liberal, conformist, and extroverted, being just smart enough to know they are not the smartest which causes them to desperately harp expert opinion. Midwits are not intelligent enough to be eminent scientists or philosophers, and much of the decline in academia is due to the fact that a midwit can easily get a PhD in most fields with an expected amount of hard work.

The “High-wit” on the other hand is viewed as less agreeable, less conformist, and more capable of higher thought and individual contemplation which makes his opinions valuable. There is an assumption that the reason left-wingers are intelligent is only because their average is skewed up by “midwits”.

The problem is… Other than the truthnuke that midwits shouldn’t be the primary recipients of PhDs, this is all not very true. I will link to three articles which will help here:

Midwit Theory: State of the Research

TL;DR: Turns out that differences in political views don’t follow a very strong parabolic curve, and it’s actually possible that “midwits” are more conservative while the extremes are Liberal.

Can you only talk to people within X IQ of your own?

TL;DR: Ideas that the highly intelligent are socially stunted, be it due to “autism” or “inability to relate” to others, are not strongly backed. Intelligent people are more socially successful and this is probably not some sort of parabolic curve.

P.S. if you’ve seen evidence that after a certain point, IQ becomes associated with neuroticism and autism, there is a good chance that study was using MENSA as a proxy for high IQ people. MENSA is probably not representative, a lot of MENSAns are kind of odd.

So, the notions about midwits being “longhoused liberals” who ruin our society (when compared to the “cognitive elite”) are not backed. They’re not especially liberal or socially in-tune compared to people of higher IQ. I think that midwits are less “I just downvoted your comment”, more “how’s it going man”. You see them every day, they probably comprise a decently sized slice of your friends, and you might be one yourself. It’s a very difficult pill to swallow, that smart liberals are actually smart and just choose to believe stupid things. Being very intelligent makes it very easy to justify believing in wrong things, that’s why lawyers tend to be intelligent. Also, being intelligent does not mean you are enthusiastic about everything. A genius physics PhD who doesn’t pay attention to politics will defer to consensus on politics in the same way a midwit would, and the consensus of the environment that he is most likely to be in (collegiate, urban) would be a liberal consensus.

Worldbuilding

I’m still working on my worldbuilding project, but I have to get better at using my drawing pad. I’m decent at drawing on paper but I don’t like using pencil, which is why I got the tablet. But it’s just sort of hard to get things to look like they were drawn naturally on a computer. I want to include a drawing for every entry I release. The first one is going to be the childhood of Hudar, the hero of the sagas. It will center around a childhood quest he went on, and everything else will center around his adult years and his journey with the “Flamen Dialis” so to speak.

The Kugkulews will be split up into various tribes with real world influences, but as I said in the original post will be divided mainly into three meta-groups. I will probably base these cultures off of various European tribes and nations. Their religion is sort of a fusion of the cult of Sol and the Zoroastrian religion, focused primarily around the “Invincible Sun” Dis, the Twice-Beyond to give him the Chaldean title.

Here is some sketches of Hudar. As a child, quite typical Greek wear. Greek Petasos and tunic. I already fucked up the mouth so I didn’t feel like drawing legs. You see, I’m not that good of an artist but I’m trying to improve. I’m actually pretty good at landscapes and animals, just bad at anatomy and I’m stylistically confused when it comes to faces.

And here is Hudar as an adult. I don’t know what sort of armor I’d like him to wear. Scale mail is my favorite aesthetically but it’s a huge bitch to draw. Mutton chops are the beard style of choice for all adult male Kugkulews.

. As I hinted at… Kugkulews use base 60 number system. Other things… I’ll probably expand on their culture as I write.