Space Elves and Space Dwarves and Abhumans

Occasionally genres may clash in Star wars but I do have to hand it to George Lucas, he never included any Space Elves and Space Dwarves.  That's a big thing with me.  I love Dwarves and I love Elves but let's face it, they're fantasy races.  Sci-fi is a different genre entirely.  Elves and Dwarves as a sci-fi race makes about as much sense as pigs in space.


So why do I bring this up?  Warpath is about to be released and Space Dwarves are a central part of the game's theme.  Yea the models are cool looking and yes the sculpts appear to be very high quality but the fact remains that Dwarves in space are silly as all hell.

One of the things I can also compliment GW for is the Tau.  Yes I hate them but only because they shoot my nids to little bits.  In truth I find them the most refreshing sci-fi race in wargaming.  In theme they borrow almost nothing from Fantasy.  Sure they may be a very subtle parody of Asian cultures written by people who know very little about them but at least they are the most original thing in sci-fi wargaming background I've seen in years.
I also give them credit for killing off their Space Dwarves and not having any real plans to bring them back.  Now if only they can do the same to their Space Elves.  Any race that's been dying for thousands of years but still isn't dead isn't really dying.  They're just being moody.

GW's Space Ogres and Hobbits are different (but not by much).  They have taken the line that these are actually humans who have evolved into nearly a different race.  I call this 90% silly and absurd but 10% scientific accurate.  According to the GW fluff timeline humans first left Terra and traveled to the stars 30,000 years prior to the current timeline.  It may have been an accident of GW fluff writers but that's almost as much time separating some Northern Europeans from their African ancestors.  

Evolution is a bit more complicated than that simple generalization but not by much.  If 45,000 years and a geographic change was all it took to turn a black African into a blond blue-eyed Swede then I can see 30,000 years and severe environmental change being enough time and stress to change "Terra" humans into "abhuman" Ogryn and Ratlings.