Hi all! So it took far too long for me to realise this but I severely mixed up my use of "Neolithic" and "Paleolithic" when referring to the time periods - the Neolithic began in 11-10,000 BCE. So whenever I refer to the Neolithic here I actually mean the Paleolithic that began 2.5 Million years ago and lasted until the Neolithic began. I sincerely apologise for my mistake, I should have known better and taken better care of my facts at the time - especially since its a major topic of the video. And Thankyou to those of you in the comments for the rightful corrections :)

I think early people's migration would have been something "dam it, too many people are using this area, guess we'll move further north"

As a man from 50,000 years ago I can confirm this is exactly like how it was back in the good ol days

Really excited to see what’s in store for this new Humanoid species, I hope nothing bad happens to them.

good to know I'm not the only person to learn a little about pre history, think "this would be a cool setting" and fall down a reasearch rabit hole

Speaking as a game designer (not a historic expert, just someone who studies human decision making), I think the "drive" that brought people into Europe has a pretty simple explanation.

You're a nomadic hunter-gatherer. You're encountering [problem]. You try to fix [problem] the usual way - Moving on in your route. But [problem] still seems to be following you around. It's pervasive, and worsening. You know this because your elders remember, and speak of, a time where [problem] was still happening, but wasn't as bad. And their elders, when they were young, had even less [problem].

So you have [problem], and some indications that [problem] is getting worse, and threatening your tribe. So, you try something a little desperate - You go farther than usual. You try to explore, try to find new hunting grounds, a new home, a new route. It's exhausting and scary, but turns out, you're able to find new places, with new problems, that are more solvable with some clever thinking and innovation.

Congratulations, you're in [new place]! What is the place? Doesn't matter! It's better than [old place]. And you will tell this story to your young ones when you are elder, and they will know that [old place] wasn't as good as [new place], and when they grow, and the generations tick on, there will be stories about how your generation solved [problem] by going from [old place] to [new place]. And when they face a new problem some day, one solution will be available in their oral histories - Leave Old Place. Find New Place. Leave Problem behind you.

Doesn't matter what the problem is. Doesn't matter what old place is, or what new place is - This is migration in a nutshell. The problem could be a lack of game, farm land becoming barren, chronic droughts, stories of gold in distant hills. When humans run into a problem they can't solve, they'll take a new place without that problem and with as many solvable problems as you can throw at them over just sitting and doing nothing. We are pattern-seekers, and problem-solvers.


To cap this off, another worldbuilding channel (Biblaridion) recently coined a term I find to be VERY enlightening about human nature.

"Obligate Sapience".

This is coined as a distinction from "Facultative Sapience", where a species can learn new behaviors and invent new tools, but do not NEED to, and thus do so far less often. Think crows, octopi, dolphins, etcetera. Humans, on the other hand, are defined as a species that lacks the ability to "opt out" of sapient behaviors - we H A V E to invent. We H A V E to learn. We H A V E to change. We cannot do otherwise, or we die. We cannot simply depend on what we have - We need NEW things. It is a compulsion born out of evolutionary necessity. Funnily enough, though, our immense capacity to learn allows us to learn our way out of said compulsion, in theory.

I quite like the theory - You can read Obligate Sapience as a sort of deficiency of non-sapient options, much how an obligate carnivore can't subsist very well off of vegetation even if it wants or needs to. That doesn't mean a lion is incapable or disabled, just that they are defined by certain constraints. Such, then, is the same with humans.

At least according to this framing/theory, which I happen to like very much.

I must warn you, I'm...

Immortal title drop

I was in the middle of doing research for my own comic when I stumbled upon this channel. Your content is nothing short of amazing! This is an era that deserves a lot more attention than it gets in pop culture. Most often, the fact that civilization exists is treated as a given, almost as of people intrinsically knew how to farm or make swords. It took generations of trial, error and hard work. I am certain that Immortal will stand as a wonderful tribute to our ancestors. I look forward to reading this!

Found your Tumblr blog first and came here from there, and it's really fun to se the how all your post there somewath relates

Would be neat to have a character that Tala meets during the modern period taking care of a cloned Mammoth calf.

I can imagine the imortal in the story getting annoyed when someone messes up a certain time period because they just didn't know

Irish elk are great!
One of our favorite megafauna!

Got em in Ta Mando AND other worlds of our own!

13:50 YouTube picks up on "like this video" and the like button flashes.

Have you ever considered using dialect in your writing? Dialect can be a powerful tool to help writers bring the characters they have created to life.

So glad you included the Irish Elk. They're a fascinating creature and my favourite megafauna (although I am a bit biased).
My favourite anecdote about them is the actual theory that they went extinct because their antlers became too large and they kept getting caught in trees.
It's hard to do their sheer size justice in pictures but you're welcome any time in the Natural History Museum in Dublin where you can come face-to-face with a whole collection of Irish Elk fossils. Although it's more like face-to-legs. You'd have to crane your neck to see their faces. :D

Holy shit I just realized when I pause the video there's a little "View key concept" button that brings up articles on what you're talking about. That is such a cool feature.

Pleistocene like Ply as in Plywood, Stow as in Stow-away and Scene as in This Aint a Scene Its A GodDayum Arms Race. Ply Stow Scene.

Irish Elk are bae

As an european archaeology student I'm intrigued. If you need help with research i have some good sites ^^