defiant ethnicity

[king of nowhere]

gran-gran comment about spensa being the heir of alll of humankind made me think how spensa, and by extensione everyone else, would actually look.

the cover portrays her as mostly caucasian, but we can assume that once we reach the space age, the ethnicities are all going to mix up. it's already happening with todays' easy travel. So, probably all of humankind got a sort of average mixed ethnicity; I'm trying to figure out how that would look.

Skin tone should be some degree of tan, averaged between white and black and the various asian shades. Living underground would greatly lighten skin tone, but they would be genetically predisposed and would tan very fast once exposed to sunlight again.

Blond hairs would be exceedingly rare, as only some caucasians have them (I think?)

About one fifth of humankind has epicantic folds on their eyes; I have no idea how that may translate.

ultimately, I'm thinking indian or south asian is the closer equivalent we have for how humans would look in that future, at least as far as skin tone, but modified with some traits typical of black people. I can't really picture how that may look. Or how they could find realistic actors if they were to put it in a movie.

Edited April 20, 2019 by king of nowhere

[+Ark1002]

Huh. While I bet it's partially true, I disagree. As mentioned, there was a ship mostly made up of korean and chinese, showing that ethnicities still exist, to an extent.

[king of nowhere]

1 hour ago, Ark1002 said:

Huh. While I bet it's partially true, I disagree. As mentioned, there was a ship mostly made up of korean and chinese, showing that ethnicities still exist, to an extent.

oh, right. there was mention that bim was asian.

so, it seems the populations didn't mix all that much. perhaps we weren't in space for long enough

Edited April 20, 2019 by king of nowhere

[Minato™]

Perhaps the different clans that are present in skyward also follow different ethnicities which is why the same ethnicity can be preserved to a certain extent. Of course people would marry people outside of their clan too but its just a thought.

[Angsos]

We don't how long it's been, 200 years maybe, although I forget exactly when defending Elysium happens so probably not enough time has passed for ethnicities to disappear

[kiapet]

I'm pretty sure there are at least 3 distinct ethnic groups. You have the Chinese/Korean ship descendants, who are directly identified as an ethnicity. There also seems to be a strong Nordic strain, with people having blonde hair (as previously mentioned, rare even among white people) and a prevalence of Norse names/legends. Then you have Jorgen, who has "brown skin", black hair and a German name, Kimmalyn, who has Southern mannerisms and tan-brown skin with black hair, and Spin, whose only identifying marker is "brown hair". All of these could be any degree of mixed race. I particularly wonder if Spin's grandmother's claim that Spin is descended from everyone of Earth is symbolic or more literal.

[+Invocation]

15 minutes ago, kiapet said:

All of these could be any degree of mixed race. I particularly wonder if Spin's grandmother's claim that Spin is descended from everyone of Earth is symbolic or more literal.

I think it would be more literal, since they came from the flagship, and if they have any sense, the flagship crew would be made up of the best of all the ships in the entire armada/fleet/whatever term you want to use, leading to a much more mixed group of people than some other ships would have,

[Scion of the Mists]

9 hours ago, kiapet said:

I particularly wonder if Spin's grandmother's claim that Spin is descended from everyone of Earth is symbolic or more literal.

I would lean more toward symbolic (although it wouldn't surprise me if there's a high degree of mixing, just not 100%).  Her grandmother also claims that fictional characters (e.g. Beowulf) are her ancestors.  I think it's a way for her grandmother to reinforce ties to "Old Earth."  

[Angsos]

Or she could could just be saying it's all greek to her since every famous hero in ancient Greece was descended from one of their promiscuous gods.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Angsos
spelling

[Starborn42 she/her]

What do you guys think about Vicians ethnicity-? Morningtide has black hair, right? And in the fanart, her skin is somewhere in the middle of light and dark.