Wait, shouldn't harvest be the last anthology?
I hear no one in particular ask, well, my dear strawman, farming, you see, is a never-ending cycle of harvesting, waiting winter out, replanting, tending, harvesting and so on and so forth, so really, I can start and end wherever the hell I want.




LORE BYTE!
Mutations, Byte #2, Size Variances:
technically speaking, the mutations that cause Gigantism and Micromorphism are two different genetic abnormalities, but as their effects are mirror opposites of one another, they are often grouped together by common society.
The range of sizes exhibited by both mutations is quite broad, and although no official limits exist, due to an impressive series of consecutive record breakers a few decades ago, there is a generally agreed upon ‘average’ limit, for Micros, anywhere between a few feet shorter than normal and the size of a mouse, and for Macros, between a few feet taller than normal and the size of a large church.
Due to the fact that similar genetic conditions exist in the outside world, but seemingly not in The World Within, multiple theories abound on the origin of these mutations, the most popular being: Magical Gigantism is the same condition as Mundane Gigantism and the same is true for Micromorphism and Dwarfism, the natural magical energies of The World Within simply enhance the effects and make them more stable, allowing for more extreme ranges in height at less impact to the health of the afflicted.
And: Both magical and mundane conditions exist, the natural background magicks allow for increased stability in those afflicted by the mundane conditions, but they are separate, however, with magic being woven into every living thing and the vast array of races that can be effected, isolating the genomes to prove this theory has been, difficult…
Recently, a new movement has begun to spread in the scientific community, advocating changing the name ‘Gigantism’ into ‘Macromorphism’ in order to avoid confusing it with a similar, if less magically severe condition found in the outside world that shares the name, opponents of this movement tend to be the same scientists who back the ‘mundane genetic abnormalities enhanced by background magic’ theory.
One of the major differences between the two conditions is that of growth, while infants with Magical Gigantism are born at a normal size for their race, they grow at an exceptional rate, while those afflicted with Micromorphism are often born at the size they will remain at their whole lives, leading to many mothers to be blind-sided by their own pregnancy, as the fetuses size was too small for them to notice.
Interestingly, Micromorphism is far more common than Magical Gigantism, however, due to the reduced size of those afflicted, they unfortunately don’t tend to survive long, as such, although more ‘Micros’ are born over ‘Macros’ the adult population numbers are much more equal, although modern advances in medicine and societal behaviour in general has started to tip this balance.
Finally, it should be noted that despite the end results being similar, the Exponential Growth mutation, which causes one to exponentially increase in size when consuming large quantities of food, is NOT related to Gigantism.

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