fantasy races

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Humans do seem to be the dominant race in most fantasy settings. There's nothing wrong with any one setting being dominated by humans, but I just get tired of it after a while.


The Lorwyn/Shadowmoor setting in Magic: the Gathering has no humans at all, but it is a card game and novel setting, with no RP.

Narnia wasn't entirely a human-minority setting. There are times and places (Narnia before the Telmarines, the Giant-inhabited Northland, Bism, the entire Underrealm) where humans were rare or absent, but other countries were human-dominated or human-only (such as Archenland, Calormen, and the Lone Islands). After the events in Prince Caspian, one could argue that the remaining humans dominated Narnian society -- I don't think it was made clear how their population size compared to the other races.

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

Humans do seem to be the dominant race in most fantasy settings. There's nothing wrong with any one setting being dominated by humans, but I just get tired of it after a while.


The Lorwyn/Shadowmoor setting in Magic: the Gathering has no humans at all, but it is a card game and novel setting, with no RP.

Narnia wasn't entirely a human-minority setting. There are times and places (Narnia before the Telmarines, the Giant-inhabited Northland, Bism, the entire Underrealm) where humans were rare or absent, but other countries were human-dominated or human-only (such as Archenland, Calormen, and the Lone Islands). After the events in Prince Caspian, one could argue that the remaining humans dominated Narnian society -- I don't think it was made clear how their population size compared to the other races.

I know there are places and points in time when Narnia has more humans, but I think the books which most people are the most familiar with are the ones which mainly have things other than humans. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is also one of the few popular stories I know of which has humans as a minority.


I had a dream last night about a racial concept for a fantasy race. From what I can remember, the race was split into two subraces (perhaps divided by sex? I can't fully remember the dream.) One of the subraces was Nocturnal and only active at night; the other subrace was diurnal (I think that's the word) and only active during the day. Certain types of eclipses were cause for huge celebration because it was one of the few times that both subraces could be active simultaneously. The race was aware of their limitations, and, as a result, they tended to live/travel in pairs of one of the night-actives and one of the day-actives.

[JMason]

I go to folklore, Tolkien got most of his from Norse myth after all. I found using the "original" versions of common fantasy races makes them feel more unique than overused stereotypical versions.

Also look for less well known fantasy races, or turn monsters into something less scary. I have replaced elves in a setting with the Huldra, Halflings with Nisse, Dwarfs with the Norse Dwarfs (Dvergar), etc.

Another approach I take is to go to what I call "pre-folklore". That is, I look at the oldest forms of human imagination and derive ideas from that. From cave paintings I have men with the heads of bears or stags. From carvings and statues I have humans-like beings with disproportionate heads, eyes, hands, etc.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I had a dream last night about a racial concept for a fantasy race. From what I can remember, the race was split into two subraces (perhaps divided by sex? I can't fully remember the dream.) One of the subraces was Nocturnal and only active at night; the other subrace was diurnal (I think that's the word) and only active during the day. Certain types of eclipses were cause for huge celebration because it was one of the few times that both subraces could be active simultaneously. The race was aware of their limitations, and, as a result, they tended to live/travel in pairs of one of the night-actives and one of the day-actives.

To stat those up, you probably will need to create Strictly Diurnal as a new disadvantage. IIRC, there is no disadvantage that mirrors the Nocturnal disadvantage for the daytime.

How would these travelling pairs work, though? It is one thing to share your flat with your unseen Nocturnal buddy, whom you contact via email or written notes. It's another thing to lug his unconscious butt on a 20 mile hike day after day on your way to Point B.


I've occasionally dreamed of things that could make unusual fantasy races, though I don't often write down enough details to remember them properly, and I've never really bothered to turn any of them into something coherent, logical, or usable.

[tantric]

Bantu cultures regard people with odd birth circumstances as a kind of variant - twins, breech births, children whose upper teeth come in first, albinos, etc, are all believed to have species powers, usually bad. The general word for this is 'kigego' (hard 'g', plural is 'vigego').

From this you can easily come up with subraces - blind psychics, linked twins, etc

[aesir23]

There were a couple times in earth history when you had different species of humanoids interacting.

The most famous (and in many ways the most interesting, because it included modern humans) were the Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens in ice age europe.

This would be an interesting parallel for fantasy races: One strong hardy people, adapted for life in the cold north, one agile inventive race adaptable enough to leave the arid lands of their origins and spread out into the other's territory.

I've often wondered if this encounter is the source of much of our mythology about "the other".

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

To stat those up, you probably will need to create Strictly Diurnal as a new disadvantage. IIRC, there is no disadvantage that mirrors the Nocturnal disadvantage for the daytime.

How would these travelling pairs work, though? It is one thing to share your flat with your unseen Nocturnal buddy, whom you contact via email or written notes. It's another thing to lug his unconscious butt on a 20 mile hike day after day on your way to Point B.


I've occasionally dreamed of things that could make unusual fantasy races, though I don't often write down enough details to remember them properly, and I've never really bothered to turn any of them into something coherent, logical, or usable.

I'm not 100% sure about how the pairings would work. Obviously it would create some difficulties. If the day/night thing was based on gender, I'm unsure about how they could mate... well, willingly anyway... but I suppose that would tie into the pairings; your other half would be expected to watch out for you and make sure nothing bad or unwarranted happened to you while you were not active. I imagine that most of their culture would be based upon the concept of everything having a mirror of itself.

If the day/night thing were not based on gender, I'd have to come with something else to base it on. I suppose it could be completely random, but my idea is that there'd be roughly an equal amount of day dwellers and night dwellers.

You're right; I'd have to invent a new disadvantage for the race.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

If the day/night thing were not based on gender, I'd have to come with something else to base it on.

Everyone is born with an opposite time of day twin; the two of you live a shared life. If your day/night twin dies you're considered half a person and aren't expected to live long (being so vulnerable half the time.)

At least, that's how I'd do it.

I wonder how you'd write them up so that their played as a single character with two bodies and split personality. Perhaps Doesn't Sleep with Split personality and Dependent (sleeping helpless twin).

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by aesir23

Everyone is born with an opposite time of day twin; the two of you live a shared life. If your day/night twin dies you're considered half a person and aren't expected to live long (being so vulnerable half the time.)

At least, that's how I'd do it.

I wonder how you'd write them up so that their played as a single character with two bodies and split personality. Perhaps Doesn't Sleep with Split personality and Dependent (sleeping helpless twin).

I had considered that too. It's an interesting idea. I might have to sit down and sketch out a few rough drafts of the concept and see what I can come up with.

I could actually see such a race being a main character in a story; focus on the comradery of the twins and their struggle to survive a harsh world.

[Rasputin]

The idea that I'd take, something that was actually explored a bit in GURPS Fantasy Folk, is what this race actually represents. Elves are balanced Renaissance Men (or Übermenschen). Dwarves are extreme in one area. Orcs are aggressive. Thus, start with this, and work with it. For example, I like to have orcs as akin to Klingons -- they have to have these codes of honor or else they'd just kill each other.