Let's have a chat about wood elves, high elves, blood elves dark elves, low elves, grey elves, Santa's elves, not elves, those elves, these elves, instagram model elves, today's video is sponsored by elves, self elf books, the only thing we have to lose is our elves WHY. SO. MANY. ELVES >>> support this kind of educational content here www.patreon.com/hellofutureme
My fantasy world has so many elves (high, wood, water, sky, sand, dark, war, fire, frost, even rabbit elves) and most of them share a general ancient Greek-theme, but not all of them. Example: the rabbit elves are Asian-inspired and the sand elves are Egyptian (or Arabian, haven’t decided).
Man, a lot of this boils down to "Take things you think are cool, put them in your story, and think through the effects they would have over a timescale sufficient to your world." I dig it!
Still even when you proctice all the time that doesnt make you perfect it keeps you to a good level but thats about it spartans trained from age 7 to be perfect soldiers they were the best hoplites of their time and still they didnt domminate for long nor did they even survive
Yeah, it's not because of that. It's mainly those that were born in the first era when magic was more of a thing, that's why Elrond and Galadriel have these magical powers, well, Galadriel has the ring too, but you get the idea.
@@ascalon8001 Elrond has a ring as well, Vilya, which he received from Gil-Galad. Both Rivendell and Lorien are preserved by the powers of their respective rings.
@@BallsRollProjects i imagine any extremely long lived race though would have hundreds, maybe thousands of years to practise and perfect whatever it is that you are trying to do is something that is not humanly possible. therefore, it does make sense that older thing are better, not just because of practise, but because they have the time to modify and perfect what they are doing, rather than just learn and pass it on.
@@雷-t3j yes and no how good they can be on one thing is up to practise and techology a modern arrow and bow is 10 times better than a 1000 ad bow and arrow being good is also about efficiency (idk if my anwer is relatable to the topic or not i had done it some time ago)
ikr? You throw'em in the ocean and they dont drown, they just become water elves. You put two elves in a room and they'll have a civil war and one will become a dark elf guaranteed.
Make them small enough and that would actually make sense. Elves in British folklore are simply called fairies after all, and we normally have fairies in pop culture be tiny.
Yeah, this was the only point where I disagreed with the video. Being extremely long-lived would also bring cultural stagnation. Where you don't have the constant turnover of new generations growing up and questioning their parents' decisions and/or political systems -- you get the same old king doing things the same way he's done them for thousands of years. I would expect *some* cultural diversity and social drift though, so I'm with him on that. [BTW, yes I noticed your comment's three years old, but it's new to me. I just saw the video and your comment today.]
Writing a script like this must be hell. There's so much to cover, and it feels like it'd take hours to do any of it justice. Yet, here we are, and it's both enjoyable and useful for both writers and non-writers. Your final product is always impressively succinct and digestible, with legitimately useful recaps. Those traits, for me, are what set good content creators above the rest. Making that digestible content a legitimate pleasure to watch isn't far behind. All your hard work is worth it, and very much appreciated.
@@Altrantis You talking about WoW specifically? Because in the grand scheme of fantasy its not even close. Besides orcs and dwarves and tauren dont actually get two playable races in the same game. Or their own class, fucking elves.
@@Dwarfurious It's a comment about WoW, so yes. In The Elder Scrolls there's bunch of types of humans too. While they look like RL humans of different races, they have different racial bonuses, the elves aren't any different in this.
I'm a biologist from Argentina who also wants to be a writer. I started building the world for my first story and you've been REALLY helpful, but this video was specially good for me, as it involves my field in a very interesting way. Thank you!
Okay, so I'm a little late but, since you are a biologist, maybe tie in some real-world biology (burning glucose and fat as energy for spells, with overuse of magic bringing about symptoms of starvation).
One of my favorite races from a “world building” perspective are the Krogan from the Mass Effect franchise. Their home world is highly inhospitable. The Krogan themselves are strong, big, and durable. They breed obscenely quickly due to high mortality, but they also developed long natural lifespans and a highly combative culture that allow them to thrive with low resource availability. And despite being FAR behind the other races in terms of culture, technology, and education, they are arguably just as capable as other races intellectually. They’re kind of op, and that’s ironically why they just can’t win. Vicious competition for resources leads to a violent culture at the best of times, but when resources are abundant and mortality falls, the krogan quickly become an infestation, leading to exponentially rising competition as well as scale. They destroyed their home world in war long before developing space travel, and when granted access to the entire galaxy, they quickly became such an unstoppable force that their entire race had to be rendered barren just to stop them from conquering all of the other races. And even if they had, they likely would have wiped themselves out afterwards.
I could see an inhospitable planet making the Krogan tough, but large size would imply a lower gravity. A harsh environment would encourage them to be cooperative with each other, since the environment is more dangerous than their own members of a community.
@@frankwalder3608 I dont think they would work together, because they are larger and therefore need more resources to surview. We can see this in animals today that a smaller size make it esayer to hunt together because each member can get enogh food out of it. So if they were more coopertive it would mean that it would help them take down bigger animals or raid large setiment better, things a harsh planet might not be caple of soucstaning
I think that the “so many damn elves” problem is an interesting cultural concept. When considered from a realistic perspective it becomes almost a twisted trope. For instance, what if any race that’s vaguely elf-like (read as not-quite-human) is just called “_____ elves”. That’s a very common human cultural thing. We name other people, and that name sticks. So if a race calls themselves, I don’t know, Moon Children, or something, the humans might still call them Wood Elves. And since MOST of the time, the story is from the human perspective, they’d all be called ____ elves.
True. I mean there is a place called "Black Island" in the Pacific, named after it's inhabitants skin color. Also Lief Erikson, the first European on America had a habit of this. He called the icy place he landed on, Iceland. He also called some places Flat-Stone land, Forest land, and Wineland. Yeah, he wasn't exactly creative.
to be fair. in the original sources (norse myth and Tolkien if you want to include him) this wasn't unusual. Norse Dark elves were dwarves and in tolkien an oft interpetation of events states orcs were corrupted elves. similar and yet what TES is also incredibly unique and fascinating.
I mean yeah, in a pretty deep lore sense. But aesthetically they're not the "elf" trope we think of. Go back far enough and elves are technically incorporeal spirits; they're even related to Men. - Tim
@@HelloFutureMe true that. But at least dwarves were actually human hight. They just fought a lot of giants and so the humen compared them and came to the conclusion to call them dwarves. Which is...interesting
Not really for me, something tells me he might end up suffering from "My Precious World" syndrome, which is a flaw often seen in excellent world-builders. It would kill the fun of any group he tried to run if he did.
Storm Rose Potentially, although some of the On Writing videos more about character writing and general story arcs suggest that he’d pay a good amount of attention to the storyline of the campaign and the player characters backstories. That is a fair point though, and something I know I’ve constantly had to remind myself of is that I can’t write the entire story, players make choices and I explain consequences of those choices, and that’s what really writes the story. :)
His world and story would be amazing, but he’d likely be pissed by the amount of bs that players use while playing lol 😆 speaking from personal experience of course
Well I mean unless they're robotic or something, they can't really exist in pure vacuum. I know it's supposed to be a joke, but most of the time spaceship-faring civilizations still have air on those ships
@@maevixie7041 Well some aliens exist in a vacuum in some universes, for example the Givin in Star Wars. Wording like "not existing in a vacuum" can seem very discriminating if you use it out of context.
One thing, there are some indian tribes that have remained the same for hundreds of years. If you do not have contact with outsiders it is very likely your culture will stay static.
I think that is more a case of the environment staying the same and those tribes being small. It is much harder for a nation of say 30 million people to remain static than it is for a tribe of a few thousand.
Not just nomadic tribes either, but any isolated culture. You look at Japanese culture and warfare, and there evolution tends to be long periods of stagnation, broken up by suddenly leaps during periods of war with the mainland, but ultimately sticking to the same themes. Meanwhile in Europe you had a bunch of cultures in a constant state of conflict leading to the need to constantly adapt or die.
The most striking example of a seemingly static culture is actually ancient Egypt. An entire society rose, thrived, existed for two freakin millenia, and fell, all while keeping the same art, language, and architecture (except that one time with Akhenaten). It’s extremely fascinating
The Elves of the Tolkien Universe are AMAZING! And are my favorite race on the fantasy genre. Their history, their architecture, their language, their flaws and virtues, their tragedy, their fashion style, the important figures that shaped Middle Earth we known, their connection with the Valar, their shared story with the Dwarves, Humans and nature itself.
@@HelloFutureMe Yeah. Tolkien was the first author/writer to give shape about fantasy races. Games such as World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, Skyrim and even other books took inspiration from this. I have an open mind, each race have their own charm and history, depending on how the writers describe them. I am guilty to said that the elves from The Dragon Prince are the most creative so far? Elves from the Sun, Moon, Stars and Wind?
@@HelloFutureMe The thought did strike me when you were talking about Tolkein's elves all being in forests was that while this is what we see in The Hobbit and LOTR, it isn't really the case (even Rivendell, while it has a lot of greenery, isn't really forest per se). Elves in the history of Middle-Earth had settled in a variety of biomes, but by the end of the Third Age, they'd abandoned or been driven out of most of them. Apart from sites with strong natural and magical defences like Rivendell and the Grey Havens, forests were their last holdouts because forests are the biome where elves are more comfortable than any of their potential enemies and rivals. Thinking on it more generally, in fact, such "relative advantage" could itself explain settings where races tend to cluster in certain biomes. If you have, for instance, elves being best suited to forests, humans to plains, and dwarfs to mountains, and they all fight with one another, than you're likely to naturally result in a situation where most elven territory is forest, most human territory is plains, and most dwarf territory is mountains, simply because those are the territories where they have the greatest advantage. And if they're at peace, a similar setup could also occur due to where those races prefer to live: even with complete freedom of movement, you could result in most elves living in forests and so on simply because those are their preferred biomes.
My favorite thing about Tolkien's elves is that they are all of the same species of elf, they are divided by comunity. The high elves tend to live in the mountains, and the grey elves follow a guy with grey in his name.
In my current writing project there are many alien species I have sketched out. There are shapeshifters, partial-shapeshifters, and humanoids who are based on fire or ice. Some also have differing limits of telepathy and telekinesis. World-building is so fun. That is one reason why I enjoy writing fiction.
Soullessly scrolling through Instagram feeds eating really buttery popcorn devouring bread stepping on bugs bowing down to bugs being unaware of bugs dogs apple juice orange juice grape juice sitting in front of a computer editing a list of cultural ideas I think I found where you decided to be silly on the idea list.
@@tristanwilliford9099 I tried to copy it letter for letter from the video (pausing when the whole thing was on-screen), but I may have made a typo and not caught it.
It's funny how in pretty much every story, humans can be just about any culture type. But in those same stories, all elves are more or less the same, all dwarves more or less the same, etc. So I agree! Someone give us a good story with unconventional racial cultures!
@@Fushishou I don't know how to simplify what this guy said further, but he said that we should aim for believability, and then because people often mistake that for "Oh yeah this town has exactly 8241 people in it", he stated that it meant consistency.
I feel like Elves deserve their own video. I mean, there are complex traits and tropes tied to each of them. If we're being simplistic about Elves though I've always interpreted them as a combination of three basic elf tropes. 1. The Fallen 2. The Fae 3. The Celestials. The Fallen refers to the idea of Elves having been in control of everything once (or having had a great empire) which no longer exists. Sort of in Tolkien, often appears when elves are separate from other people. The Fae refers to the Nature-y elements of the Elves, taken from the Celtic Fae. The Wood Elves spring mostly from this. The Celestial is this idea about being better than everybody else. More specifically the Perfect Otherworldly Aristocrats, this is mostly where we get high elves. Most elves are combinations of the three. Tolkien's Elves draw largely from the Fallen and the Celestial traits. Elves were once ancient rulers of the world, but have lost a lot of it and are much less powerful now. They're also ancient, beautiful, angelic beings (depending on the elf), who are wise and powerful, they're from a far off land of the Valar and ended up here on accident. Then you have the worst elves which are the post-post-Tolkein elves. I'm lookin' at you The Inheritance Cycle. The Inheritance Cycle and books like it recognize the Post-Tolkien elves who are more of a Fae-Celestial mix. They don't kill creatures and are very naturey, and they take that to the next extent, which is elves are perfect Vegetarians who know all the magic and are beautiful and have never ever done anything wrong. Which is kind of nothing like what Tolkien's elves actually are.
Ive read the Inheritance Cycle twice but its been ages so I might be wrong. But the elves in that story make mistakes. Meaning they have done things wrong. Also I think the explanation for them being vegetarians and 'naturey' is a pretty cool and unique one. Think its something like them being able to enter the minds of the animals and experience their pain and fear etc. It was also cool how when Eragon first meets the elves and hasnt developed the same abilities as them he has no issues eating meat and can't understand why they don't. But as his abilities develop he also becomes vegetarian if I remember correctly.
Small nit pick, Tolkien's elves did not end up on Middle Earth by accident. They grew super arrogant and banished/self-exiled themselves across a frozen wasteland to reach MiddleEarth
@@David-hx6hw You're correct I don't know why I wrote that they ended up here by accident. Technically yes, it was an accident, because they didn't technically intend to be banished...
@@steel2572 I don't by any means hate the inheritance cycle, but I do dislike the way they write Elves. They've got very little written about their wrongs except that they got in a war with the Dragons. The treatment of the Elves is very D&D elves which means they feel like Humans but better at magic and immortal. They don't feel otherworldly. Even the Elves origin is stolen from Tolkien except boring. They're from a far off island, but not literally heaven. It's basically elves but less celestial, without many of the fae influences either. In other words, humans with some more magic and longer lives. It can function in D&D, because they want you to be an elf. It does not work as well in fiction.
That is very interesting. Elves are my favorite race. I think the Tolkein elves could fit the Fae in addition to the other two groups. Elves do live in forests like Mirkwood and Lothlorien. The ones in Mirkwood are even called wood elves. Legolas is one of them. I think of wood elves can be a kind that is better than everyone else, like celestial elves. I think they would excel in being the best at environmentalism. They can be into caring for their forest home and the world in general. Lord of the Rings has a theme of environmentalism. The elves do help the environment by fighting against the bad guys. Legolas is the main example, because he went on the journey. There are other eves that help like Elrond and Galadral. When elves help to save Middle Earth, it is like wood elves caring for the environment. Tolkein was subtle about his themes. he didn't want to be too overt and allegorical. In World of Warcraft the night elves are like a cross between dark elves and wood elves. They are environmentalist too, and they are a lot more overt about it. The best example that comes to my mind is the Ashenvale zone. The night elves fight against orcs and other threats in order to protect the forest. They give Allience players a lot of quests to help with the environment. I have a lot of fun with these quests. I even get so carried away that I target small trees and use the hug emote on them.
Always happy to hear you explain things that we all intuitively know, but are too stupid to put our finger on it. Thanks, It's was a great listen. Keep up the good work
"No new Elves to create" I beg to differ. Divinity created a race of Elves that were distinctly elf-like, but also incredibly unique and have some pretty crazy world mechanics.
My favorite fanatsy race is the Higher Vampires form the Witcher universe, the way they balance between being a noble and caring friend to a primal apex predator is so interesting!
Great Video. Been building a Sci-FI D&d Mod with a few a mates and we all swore to write against type when conceiving races to avoid the planet of the hats syndrome. For instance, we have a race of recently liberated cyborg convicts, but instead of going for the easy murder kill bots most sci-fi does, we designed them as Buddist styled pacifists who run a trade empire. It was fun but gruelling work, especially considering the how mechanics in tabletops work, but it was really rewarding.
I love how in dune there is a conversation between an off worlder and a native of Arakis and they are speaking the same language but it's very clear that they are not understanding each other because of their cultural differences and it's so amazing!
Mass Effect is my absolute favorite when it comes to races, especially in the way it plays with the "planet of hats" trope. the Krogan are big bulky rage monsters, but the first Krogan you meet is Wrex who's actually way more thoughtful and intelligent than you'd expect. The Turians are all military by the book types with no emotion but the one you get to know is Garrus a loose with the rules police officer. He's also the best.
Im writing my own fantasy book at the moment and was thinking about all the different races, monsters and what not and realised it is extremely difficult to create a race/culture who doesn´t exist already in some way. Sooooo thanks for this video, helps alot. Keep up the good work
I have this problem as well. Of course, the best thing would be to not borrow from any pre-existing culture at all, fictional or real, but let's face it, that's not actually possible. The next best thing is to use cultures rarely seen in fiction as templates. There are so many cultural groups on this world to take inspiration from. Why not make your elves/aliens/whatever Polynesian, or Baltic, or Manchurian? That will at least set them apart from all the others, and in the process of researching you learn about cultures that most other people won't even have heard of.
This has actually really helped a lot with my writing. I'm trying to make a race of amphibians called the Gekut, and I think after watching this I might have found a good water sport for their culture.
I'm currently writing a book where the atypical fantasy races evolved with Humans on Earth. Like imagine 2019 but your teacher is an Elf, your best-friend is a gnome, and you're human. This video has given me so many ideas and tips to help me develop the themes I want to explore and realistically create my races. I've been watching your on-writing/worldbuilding videos for a while and you are honestly the best person on youtube giving writing advice right now. Thank you!
I will admit that I only half listened to this and the episodes about dragons, yet between them I felt a strange surge of inspiration. In honesty, that spark of surreal beauty helped me develop my elves even further so that they now resemble something that could have been written by lovecraft. They no longer even bear the name of "Elf", although the earthen myths are echoes of their true existence. I thank you for this.
I found this video extremely helpful. I am trying to start a story & I was really struggling with how I was going to portray a certain species and just hearing you talk about what not to do helps me clear out all the garbage ideas & come to a clearer vision of how I want things. I watch your videos a lot, they're really educational & entertaining!
Thank you Tim! I always have a hard time getting motivated to get back into my writing projects. Whether I'm stuck on a concept, thought, or just demotivated/ Tired. your OWAW series never fails to get me back into the swing of it for at least a little bit, even when the topic on hand wasn't what i was lost on, So thank you. Without your art, I wouldn't have half of the little bit i do have completed. I also wouldn't have My favorite Dragon/species concept if it wasn't for engaging with this community so thank you guys down here as well
My favorite race is probably the Ogier from Wheel of Time; they are basically an amalgam of elf, dwarf and ogre, with a culture and world view that's rather unique. In sci-fi, I don't think you can go far beyond the mass effect games in how it developed alien races, and how they all interacted with each other and humanity.
I think the Planet of Hats trope is an artifact of a lot of older Sci Fi. Lots of old Star Trek really plays into the "all Klingons are warriors" thing till they come across as unable to function, and old Star Wars novels really played into the "All Hutts are crime bosses, all Bothans are spies" thing. But a lot of authors have been working to combat that. Star Trek shows that Klingon society struggles with all this warrior obsession, and Star Wars introduces honest Hutts and other species that break stereotypes. And Mass Effect's Krogan are especially good at showing the Proud Warrior Race as something more.
I just wanted to stop looking like copies of Tolkien's races for anything. In Brazil, I saw a lot of this happen. For example, there was a rpg from Greek mythology that had a version of the elves.
@@zeonthefox Maybe this is not the best example, but here in Brazil we do struggle with an overdose of LoTR's rip-offs. Really, there's a lot of writers who don't even try to hide the source of their inspiration (by "inspiration" I mean the same as Tolkien stories, but changing names).
@@connormcneill7773 From my experience, I doubt they were like nymphs. I often see people trying to put elves and wizards and even orcs in EVERY SINGLE STORY they create.
I have a race in my book called the Nativa. They are a lot like a combination of the Parshendi and Spren from Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive." They are beings who embody specific elements or concepts, some being rarer than others. The elemental Nativa live in places that they can definitely live in. So, fire nativa live in more humid climates like deserts or volcanoes. Water nativa live near rivers and seas, some even living in the water. And earth nativa usually live in underground settlements. Each has their own cultures but most of them believe that they are the true higher species because of their species being so connected to the elements that make up their world.
Dwarfurious but they weren’t even dwarves from the beginning they called themselves Dwemer, meaning “deep elves” in Aldmeri, the only ones who called them dwarves were the common people who didn’t know much about as they for the most part stayed underground and the giants they fought a lot called them dwarves because to the giants these Dwemer were tiny.
When it comes to the whole "environmental pressures" bit, sometimes it can be interesting to put a species at odds with their environment. I've got a fantasy setting themed in part around an ancient divine war that left the planet mostly flooded with just islands and archipelagos and stuff. One of the species, amphibious humanoids well adapted to an aquatic environment, has many of its cultures based around being maritime nomads and sailing around the oceans on giant ships the size of villages or towns. Which is unfortunate for them, as salt is mildly toxic to them in more than trace amounts, and they're now surrounded by the stuff in the form of saltwater. They don't, like, burst into flames or anything, it's more like a horrible sunburn. But it's sort of a cruel irony that they're well adapted to the water, but if they go for a swim it would be horribly painful and they could easily die after long enough. They have to spend much of their time wrapped up under thick clothes, with filtration masks, and so on.
I think the ponies of Equestria are a really good example of very inhuman yet realistic species, particularly in their response to biological pressures. The fact that they don't have thumbs but do have magic (and the fact that they are of three tribes with three different kinds of magic), means that they approach the world in a very different way than we do. The pegasi's ability to regulate the weather, along with earth ponies' ability to promote plant growth, are key to their ability to keep their species fed, not to mention that having magic means that they primarily use magic, especially unicorn spells and telekinesis, to do things we would invent tools to do. And because they rely so heavily on their ability to control the weather and regulate plant and animal growth to feed themselves and protect themselves from the environment, they freak out at the idea of weather that controls itself or plants and animals that grow without pony intervention. A very good example of taking a species completely different from humans as their starting point and then figuring out how that species would develop in response to biological pressures. Also, the interaction of the three tribes is a good example of how to have multiple races that don't become natural enemies: each of them ends up being able to help the others. Earth pony magic lets them promote and regulate plant growth, so they can sustain much larger populations per acre and the other tribes need them to provide food. Similarly, pegasi can control the weather, which lets them protect the other two tribes from environmental threats and give earth ponies the ideal environment for their crops. And unicorn spells and telekinesis lets them make tools, clothes, houses, and anything else that involves fine detail work with a facility the other tribes cannot match. So each tribe has things the other two tribes need, and they can only attain their full racial potential working together.
I can think of another book with perpetual sunlight... Something about shades, a bad guy turning good, and the faint echo of a battle cry permanently emanating from a time long past, *whispering* "Machiculations..."
I made a race of fox-alien people who grew up on a very cold, mountainous planet. Game was scarce, and members of each tribe had to range very far away in order to bring things back. They developed a psionic ability that let them sense and track down animals that hid from them, and that grew into a massive collective psionic network that let the individual members stay in touch on long journeys as well as helping gather food. Considering what I've learned in this video... before, I was considering that the race would be mostly agricultural based, considering he difficulty of finding game, but perhaps other tribes developed an underground culture? Thank you for this video
I write as a hobby, and I love every chance I get to improve my work, which is why your input is invaluable to me. Thank you very much. I have a framework for some human cultures and alien races in a couple of books I'm working on, and this video simultaneously made me realise how bare bones were they, and how I can come to make them something believable and awesome in the context of the story. Again, thank you!
1:32 I always assumed elves are better at everything because they live long enough to really master what they do. Legolas has been alive for likely thousands of years, and he's had most of that time to practice archery. I like to think that elves are required to have at least a hundred or so years of training before they can actually go to war. This still doesn't totally explain why elves are "perfect" but it does help explain some of it. (At least to me)
Got your book from Kindle. I am going blind and cannot read from a paperback any more.. I have been enjoying the book and am learning from it. Thank your for all of your hard work with the videos and book.
I imagine the Elites in the HALO franchise evolving from a species that used their complex mouths to grab coconut or melon like plants that grow on vines off the sides of cliffs. If you’re rock climbing having 2 thumbs and a mouth like theirs could be handy for transporting food. IDK if there’s a lore explanation for the overly complex jaw.
Thank you so much for creating this series, I've recently started writing my own fantasy novel and your worldbuilding series has been helping me so, SO much!
The craziest thing is that Tolkien in all of his writing never actually mentions pointed ears except when describing Hobbits - in one of his letters, he even says that there isn’t a single biological difference between men and elves; it’s all ‘spiritual‘. It seems that a lot of writers looked at the surface level of what he wrote and copied that, without looking into it further(bit to be fair to them most of his stuff outside of the LotR and Hobbit wasn’t made available until the late 70s and onward...). I wish more would ‘copy’ Tolkien’s elves in terms of their general personality and history, with all that being older and powerful meaning that when elves mess up, they really mess up and are more or less to blame for probably a solid 40% of the world’s problems (looking at you, Feänor & co). I want muh tragic myth elves
This was actually really helpful. I kept thinking about the five fantasy races I had thought of and thinking about how their designs would give to certain biological traits led to how they would be used to survive which led to an environment forming in my head and it was really helpful.
One excellent example of a universal pressure is Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives series, where almost all of the natural flora has the ability to hide inside shells and most fauna are crabs (some fauna also have a symbiotic relationship with semi-physical creatures called spren that allows them to defy gravity too). All of this is in response to the frequent "highstorms" that wrack the planet.
Where it gets even more interesting is with non-anthro creatures. You have to redesign almost everything for them. I have a story like that with dragons. With them climbing stairs is hard so most buldings don't have them. Streets are wide so that they can spread their wings. There are also many sudden drops to help dragons fly. Most buildings with more than 1 floor have landing pats. Their dexterity is naturally poor so they usually only have outside doors. Writing is considered a skill that only 15% of the population has but 95% can read. Dragons are violent creatures by nature and so fighting is a very important part of their society. Children are playfighting constantly and there are many areas around town. The central arena is the largest building in the capital and can seat 40% of the entire population at once. Because of their violent nature healing also is incredibly common. There are professional healers which is a long study and hard work and they are only slightly more common than real doctors. But casual healers who can heal off basic wounds are 20% of the population. Dragons also have no natural enemies whatsoever but are held in check by their very low reproduction rate. Females can only reproduce for a 3 month window every 10 years. They have a slightly longer lifespan with 100 being the average and most couples having 2 families. Multiple births are very rare and dragons also mature slightly slower with most not leaving the nest until 25. This combined with their naturally violent nature and inclination for fighting each other keeps their population in constant. Their power also allowed them to conquer a large region and keep it under control even though they actually are a strong minority. Dragons only are 13% of the population. Because they are naturally violent and have magic gender isn't a thing with them and both genders are completely equal. They mostly eat meat so rely heavily on imports. They have a very strong code of honor to keep their violent nature in check. Murder is very severely punished and killing another dragon during a fighting competition is considered to bring permanent shame to your own name. The Colosseum has a list of those that were executed for that crime so their shame lives on forever. Even killing one accidentally usually is punished very harshly. The border for the amount of injury acceptable is usually what a casual healer can do. If they need to see a professional you've gone too far. Dragons come from the mountains so their cities usually are up against mountains and build in step or at least very vertical. They have a lot of outdoor activities though like shops, festivals, demonstrations and other things. Dragons usually don't like being inside and like to fly. Obviously their cities are entirely made of stone which makes them very expensive. Most dragons have a very small home and do most of their things outside. They are ruled by a council of 4; a minister of economics, a minister of politics, a minister of social affairs and a minister of the army. The much larger non-dragon population though is not treated super gently. A lot of the best jobs are exclusively to dragons and dragons rule by force. Appearance though does matter to dragons a lot and many wear metal accessories of some kind. Clothing though is very rare because their anatomy makes it very hard to make and put on/off. Only really used for formal occasions by very high status dragons. Most dragons however prefer painting themselves which is far more common. Since they don't wear clothes make-up is applied to their whole body. Some very basic with just lines but some having intriquite patterns.
This video was in depth and definitely helps my poor "obsessed with creating races out of a phrase in a commercial" heart, but when I saw you mention The Dragon Prince I screamed for joy
great work as always, Tim! I just got the book a couple days ago and can't wait to sink into it. I love worldbuilding, but it often overwhelms me. I love the way you break it down and the examples you use, it's genuinely helpful.
"Well you have the humanoid fly people with a metallic exoskeleton, the shapeshifting carnivore plants and maybe some reptilians, who live in a volcanic desert, who knows. And then there are humans."
@@blackbloom8552 In real life, humans have absolutely godlike endurance and regeneration compared to other animals, having the ability to sweat (which is actually extremely rare among animals), thus allowing them to cool themselves down while moving, as well as heal injuries much, much faster than other animals at the cost of creating a scar (other animals regenerate much slower than humans but do not get scars).
Philippe Gabriel we are literally the only animal like this, not that I think about. We are like the only true jack of all trades creature on this planet. We can live literally anywheres on this planet given time
I've been trying to write fantasy and this has been incredibly helpful. So far what I've been doing is kind of drafting all my ideas, races, creatures, world, etc. And then reviewing these points, and revisiting everything with a refreshed perspective, trying to catch my own accidentally tropes I fall into.
The part about planets with only one environment remindet me of an Stargate SG1 episode, where they went through the gate and thought they strandet on an ice-planet, where infact they where in the Antarctic 😅
I'm loving this video! Obviously I will watch it again to absorb the rest of the info that often goes over my head afer just a one single sitting. Also, thank you very much for highlighting some texts in yellow when you are reading it out loud. For folks like me for who English is their second language you can often talk really fast, and reading it with you (literarily in this case) really does help me to get the job of understanding you done even better. I've said it countless times before but I'm just going to say it again: thank you very much for this great channel! You have no idea how helpful you are to me with all the things I see here.
Listened to you on speakers for the first time. The whistling sounds really punch through, and makes it hard to feel relaxed to. I've never noticed this on headphones.
I just love how Tolkien elves, like any other, have their most prominent feature being their ears, and yet their most significant sense is sight. It gets to the point where it's almost counterintuitive, shouldn't they be good at... y'know... hearing instead? Then the ears would make more sense..
@Hello Future Me, I've got a book I've been trying to write for some time, and it involves an alien race of giant, winged, snake people who all have elemental powers and are divided into different groups based on which element they control. Before anyone compares this to ATLA, I've been working on this since before ATLA was even a thing, and unlike that world, ALL members of the race have elemental power, and their culture is quite different as well.
Bright could have actually been so so good, and I mean, it could still be so so good. But the worldbuilding and the culture... it just needs so much work. And I genuinely enjoyed a good amount of the characters as well. It would make a good (albeit expensive) TV show.
![On Worldbuilding: How an Empire Falls? [ Game of Thrones l Avatar l Byzantine ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jAKfs0TaOR4/mqdefault.jpg)
![On Worldbuilding: How an Empire Falls? [ Game of Thrones l Avatar l Byzantine ]](/img/tr.png)
![On Worldbuilding: Religions [ polytheistic l Avatar TLA l Game of Thrones l Cthulhu ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wz2H1t5XvP8/mqdefault.jpg)
![On Worldbuilding: How Class Systems Work [ Avatar | Dune | Tolkien | Feudalism ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8tjvul5e1y4/mqdefault.jpg)
Let's have a chat about wood elves, high elves, blood elves dark elves, low elves, grey elves, Santa's elves, not elves, those elves, these elves, instagram model elves, today's video is sponsored by elves, self elf books, the only thing we have to lose is our elves WHY. SO. MANY. ELVES
>>> support this kind of educational content here www.patreon.com/hellofutureme
*Timmy is an average kid, that no one understands.*
HelloFutureMe You forgot the awesome Discos Elves mate!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
schoolboysidious MOM AND DAD AND VICKY ALWAYS GIVING HIM COMMANDS
My fantasy world has so many elves (high, wood, water, sky, sand, dark, war, fire, frost, even rabbit elves) and most of them share a general ancient Greek-theme, but not all of them. Example: the rabbit elves are Asian-inspired and the sand elves are Egyptian (or Arabian, haven’t decided).
And Night Elves
Man, a lot of this boils down to "Take things you think are cool, put them in your story, and think through the effects they would have over a timescale sufficient to your world." I dig it!
Most accurate summary I think I've seen
I mean, honestly, that's it.
~ Tim
detail and consistency. as long as you have those all you need are the ability to write well and have an idea that people will find interest in.
That sentence basically sums up the entirety of the On World Building videos.
This seems like something that would just be obvious... but surprisingly is not often done.
0:50 - Realism
3:57 - Where to Start?
6:03 - Biological Pressures
9:07 - Culture
12:32 - Planet of Hats
15:27 - Universal Pressures
17:00 - Race and Theme
up
Pin this tim
Thank you for this!
Can we get a pin here?
God bless you
Alexander Cuenin Thank you
How do they get food, how do they bang, and how they not die?
Supermarket, I don't, avoid Area 51 raid
supermarket, once in a rare moon, spider senses like spiderman.
This is why you aren't a species
Some would suggest:
Area 51 raid, Area 51 raid, Area 51 raid
Supermarket all three
Is it sad that I relate so much to this?
I always figured older elves were better at things because they'd had so much more time to practice.
Still even when you proctice all the time that doesnt make you perfect it keeps you to a good level but thats about it spartans trained from age 7 to be perfect soldiers they were the best hoplites of their time and still they didnt domminate for long nor did they even survive
Yeah, it's not because of that. It's mainly those that were born in the first era when magic was more of a thing, that's why Elrond and Galadriel have these magical powers, well, Galadriel has the ring too, but you get the idea.
@@ascalon8001 Elrond has a ring as well, Vilya, which he received from Gil-Galad. Both Rivendell and Lorien are preserved by the powers of their respective rings.
@@BallsRollProjects i imagine any extremely long lived race though would have hundreds, maybe thousands of years to practise and perfect whatever it is that you are trying to do is something that is not humanly possible. therefore, it does make sense that older thing are better, not just because of practise, but because they have the time to modify and perfect what they are doing, rather than just learn and pass it on.
@@雷-t3j yes and no how good they can be on one thing is up to practise and techology a modern arrow and bow is 10 times better than a 1000 ad bow and arrow being good is also about efficiency (idk if my anwer is relatable to the topic or not i had done it some time ago)
Eleves are like ants it seems. Go 50 miles away and there a completely different species.
i was thinking of rabbits/bunnies: no one can get them out of their heads, and they multiply fast
ikr? You throw'em in the ocean and they dont drown, they just become water elves. You put two elves in a room and they'll have a civil war and one will become a dark elf guaranteed.
This needs to be in some book. It sounds too much like it is from a story.
lol!!
Make them small enough and that would actually make sense. Elves in British folklore are simply called fairies after all, and we normally have fairies in pop culture be tiny.
I love how Tolkien idolized the Elves, but also pointed how their resistance to change forced them out of the ever-evolving world of men and hobbits.
Also the kinslayings
@@AJ-tr5mlFeanor be like:bitches get stitches
Yeah, this was the only point where I disagreed with the video. Being extremely long-lived would also bring cultural stagnation. Where you don't have the constant turnover of new generations growing up and questioning their parents' decisions and/or political systems -- you get the same old king doing things the same way he's done them for thousands of years. I would expect *some* cultural diversity and social drift though, so I'm with him on that.
[BTW, yes I noticed your comment's three years old, but it's new to me. I just saw the video and your comment today.]
kind of mirrors how he was stuck in the past and hated modern civilisation, when you think about it
Writing a script like this must be hell. There's so much to cover, and it feels like it'd take hours to do any of it justice. Yet, here we are, and it's both enjoyable and useful for both writers and non-writers.
Your final product is always impressively succinct and digestible, with legitimately useful recaps. Those traits, for me, are what set good content creators above the rest. Making that digestible content a legitimate pleasure to watch isn't far behind.
All your hard work is worth it, and very much appreciated.
I agree conpletely
I would even be willing to pay some money for a download of his writing videos in addition to the book.
Johanna Geisel that would be really awesome. I would totally use this
It's why we get so many crap ones. They are shallow.
"Climate, Predators, Competition, Everything changing when the Fire Nation attacks" I just spat tea.
[Iroh voice] What a waste of tea!
I know you’re not supposed to cry over spilled tea… but it’s just so sad!
"So many DAMNED Elves!!!" - Tim 7/20/2019, and every World of Warcraft player since 8/14/2018
We need that on a t-shirt.
To be fair, there's also a whole bunch of types of humans and trolls and several types of orcs and tauren and dwarves.
Hell i've been saying that since like 2000
@@Altrantis You talking about WoW specifically? Because in the grand scheme of fantasy its not even close. Besides orcs and dwarves and tauren dont actually get two playable races in the same game. Or their own class, fucking elves.
@@Dwarfurious It's a comment about WoW, so yes. In The Elder Scrolls there's bunch of types of humans too. While they look like RL humans of different races, they have different racial bonuses, the elves aren't any different in this.
I'm a biologist from Argentina who also wants to be a writer. I started building the world for my first story and you've been REALLY helpful, but this video was specially good for me, as it involves my field in a very interesting way. Thank you!
Ivan Caro best of luck!
I feel you. Me too.
Que lindo encontrarse a otro argentino acá. De futuro escritor a otro, mucha suerte man.
Flaco ¿que estás escribiendo?, estoy interesado
Okay, so I'm a little late but, since you are a biologist, maybe tie in some real-world biology (burning glucose and fat as energy for spells, with overuse of magic bringing about symptoms of starvation).
One of my favorite races from a “world building” perspective are the Krogan from the Mass Effect franchise.
Their home world is highly inhospitable. The Krogan themselves are strong, big, and durable. They breed obscenely quickly due to high mortality, but they also developed long natural lifespans and a highly combative culture that allow them to thrive with low resource availability. And despite being FAR behind the other races in terms of culture, technology, and education, they are arguably just as capable as other races intellectually.
They’re kind of op, and that’s ironically why they just can’t win. Vicious competition for resources leads to a violent culture at the best of times, but when resources are abundant and mortality falls, the krogan quickly become an infestation, leading to exponentially rising competition as well as scale. They destroyed their home world in war long before developing space travel, and when granted access to the entire galaxy, they quickly became such an unstoppable force that their entire race had to be rendered barren just to stop them from conquering all of the other races. And even if they had, they likely would have wiped themselves out afterwards.
Also they have four testicles. Very important fact there.
Now that I think of it, these guys are basically like cancer! XD Still awesome though!
I could see an inhospitable planet making the Krogan tough, but large size would imply a lower gravity. A harsh environment would encourage them to be cooperative with each other, since the environment is more dangerous than their own members of a community.
@@gelatinouscube2342 you just unintentionally baited the Jojo fandom. Please don't do it again if you value your sanity.
@@frankwalder3608 I dont think they would work together, because they are larger and therefore need more resources to surview. We can see this in animals today that a smaller size make it esayer to hunt together because each member can get enogh food out of it. So if they were more coopertive it would mean that it would help them take down bigger animals or raid large setiment better, things a harsh planet might not be caple of soucstaning
I think that the “so many damn elves” problem is an interesting cultural concept. When considered from a realistic perspective it becomes almost a twisted trope.
For instance, what if any race that’s vaguely elf-like (read as not-quite-human) is just called “_____ elves”. That’s a very common human cultural thing. We name other people, and that name sticks.
So if a race calls themselves, I don’t know, Moon Children, or something, the humans might still call them Wood Elves.
And since MOST of the time, the story is from the human perspective, they’d all be called ____ elves.
True. I mean there is a place called "Black Island" in the Pacific, named after it's inhabitants skin color. Also Lief Erikson, the first European on America had a habit of this. He called the icy place he landed on, Iceland. He also called some places Flat-Stone land, Forest land, and Wineland. Yeah, he wasn't exactly creative.
Oooh thet would actually work for the world I’m makeing
This line cracked me up xD
Well the orcs and dwarves in TES are actually elves too...
to be fair. in the original sources (norse myth and Tolkien if you want to include him) this wasn't unusual. Norse Dark elves were dwarves and in tolkien an oft interpetation of events states orcs were corrupted elves. similar and yet what TES is also incredibly unique and fascinating.
@@TGPDrunknHick You are right. The Orcs are just corrupted elves. Damn the Daedra for that
I mean yeah, in a pretty deep lore sense. But aesthetically they're not the "elf" trope we think of. Go back far enough and elves are technically incorporeal spirits; they're even related to Men.
- Tim
@@HelloFutureMe true that. But at least dwarves were actually human hight. They just fought a lot of giants and so the humen compared them and came to the conclusion to call them dwarves.
Which is...interesting
In TES even cat people are elves...
Sees the title- "Oh boy I hope we hear about the brilliant, in-depth, non-problematic worldbuilding of Bright!"
Lindsey Ellis is allll over that:
th-cam.com/video/gLOxQxMnEz8/w-d-xo.html
I feel like Tim would be a really good D&D DM.
Yes
Or any other RPG system, for that matter
Not really for me, something tells me he might end up suffering from "My Precious World" syndrome, which is a flaw often seen in excellent world-builders. It would kill the fun of any group he tried to run if he did.
Storm Rose Potentially, although some of the On Writing videos more about character writing and general story arcs suggest that he’d pay a good amount of attention to the storyline of the campaign and the player characters backstories. That is a fair point though, and something I know I’ve constantly had to remind myself of is that I can’t write the entire story, players make choices and I explain consequences of those choices, and that’s what really writes the story. :)
His world and story would be amazing, but he’d likely be pissed by the amount of bs that players use while playing lol 😆 speaking from personal experience of course
"They do not exist in a vaccum" is an... interesting wording in context of science fiction races. ^^
Well I mean unless they're robotic or something, they can't really exist in pure vacuum. I know it's supposed to be a joke, but most of the time spaceship-faring civilizations still have air on those ships
I see what you did there
@@maevixie7041 Well some aliens exist in a vacuum in some universes, for example the Givin in Star Wars. Wording like "not existing in a vacuum" can seem very discriminating if you use it out of context.
@@maevixie7041 those funny Star Wars Space Whales from Star Wars Rebels
One thing, there are some indian tribes that have remained the same for hundreds of years. If you do not have contact with outsiders it is very likely your culture will stay static.
I think that is more a case of the environment staying the same and those tribes being small. It is much harder for a nation of say 30 million people to remain static than it is for a tribe of a few thousand.
How do we know they've remained the same if we aren't contacting them?
@@tangent94 we spy on them from the bushes like Mrs Voorhees
Not just nomadic tribes either, but any isolated culture.
You look at Japanese culture and warfare, and there evolution tends to be long periods of stagnation, broken up by suddenly leaps during periods of war with the mainland, but ultimately sticking to the same themes.
Meanwhile in Europe you had a bunch of cultures in a constant state of conflict leading to the need to constantly adapt or die.
The most striking example of a seemingly static culture is actually ancient Egypt. An entire society rose, thrived, existed for two freakin millenia, and fell, all while keeping the same art, language, and architecture (except that one time with Akhenaten). It’s extremely fascinating
"Today we're gonna talk about race"
*comment section on fire*
"Nonono, not like that"
Love this kinda joke.
The Elves of the Tolkien Universe are AMAZING! And are my favorite race on the fantasy genre. Their history, their architecture, their language, their flaws and virtues, their tragedy, their fashion style, the important figures that shaped Middle Earth we known, their connection with the Valar, their shared story with the Dwarves, Humans and nature itself.
There's so much to them it's hard for someone who isn't super into Tolkien to really yknow, get it?
~ Tim
@@HelloFutureMe Yeah. Tolkien was the first author/writer to give shape about fantasy races. Games such as World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, Skyrim and even other books took inspiration from this. I have an open mind, each race have their own charm and history, depending on how the writers describe them.
I am guilty to said that the elves from The Dragon Prince are the most creative so far? Elves from the Sun, Moon, Stars and Wind?
It's Elves with a V, you heathen.
/s
@@HelloFutureMe The thought did strike me when you were talking about Tolkein's elves all being in forests was that while this is what we see in The Hobbit and LOTR, it isn't really the case (even Rivendell, while it has a lot of greenery, isn't really forest per se). Elves in the history of Middle-Earth had settled in a variety of biomes, but by the end of the Third Age, they'd abandoned or been driven out of most of them. Apart from sites with strong natural and magical defences like Rivendell and the Grey Havens, forests were their last holdouts because forests are the biome where elves are more comfortable than any of their potential enemies and rivals.
Thinking on it more generally, in fact, such "relative advantage" could itself explain settings where races tend to cluster in certain biomes. If you have, for instance, elves being best suited to forests, humans to plains, and dwarfs to mountains, and they all fight with one another, than you're likely to naturally result in a situation where most elven territory is forest, most human territory is plains, and most dwarf territory is mountains, simply because those are the territories where they have the greatest advantage. And if they're at peace, a similar setup could also occur due to where those races prefer to live: even with complete freedom of movement, you could result in most elves living in forests and so on simply because those are their preferred biomes.
My favorite thing about Tolkien's elves is that they are all of the same species of elf, they are divided by comunity. The high elves tend to live in the mountains, and the grey elves follow a guy with grey in his name.
In my current writing project there are many alien species I have sketched out. There are shapeshifters, partial-shapeshifters, and humanoids who are based on fire or ice.
Some also have differing limits of telepathy and telekinesis.
World-building is so fun. That is one reason why I enjoy writing fiction.
Soullessly scrolling through Instagram feeds
eating really buttery popcorn
devouring bread
stepping on bugs
bowing down to bugs
being unaware of bugs
dogs
apple juice
orange juice
grape juice
sitting in front of a computer editing a list of cultural ideas
I think I found where you decided to be silly on the idea list.
Was it orange juice? I think it was orange juice.
@@tristanwilliford9099 I tried to copy it letter for letter from the video (pausing when the whole thing was on-screen), but I may have made a typo and not caught it.
@FlySpyGuy I see. :)
ironically enough, dogs were an important part of most human cultures
@FlySpyGuy as a bug i don't love that 😒
Now I want to read a story about gruff, miner Elves, posh, elegant, tree-hugging Dwarfs and noble, brave and industrious Orcs.
Yes, please!!
It's funny how in pretty much every story, humans can be just about any culture type. But in those same stories, all elves are more or less the same, all dwarves more or less the same, etc.
So I agree! Someone give us a good story with unconventional racial cultures!
Play Skyrim and you'll kind of get like 2/3 of those things
Challenge Accepted.
Omg that’s exactly what I wanted! I’d love to see craftsman Orcs and savage predator elves
So people should aim for belivability which comes if almost everything is consistent.
I don't know how you managed to refine that concise interpretation from such a verbose video, but I like it.
Yes
That's not concise, it says nothing at all. "If I come to the correct conclusion, the math works." WOW, great summary /s
@@Fushishou how would you concisely summarize what you took away from this video in one sentence then?
@@Fushishou I don't know how to simplify what this guy said further, but he said that we should aim for believability, and then because people often mistake that for "Oh yeah this town has exactly 8241 people in it", he stated that it meant consistency.
You joke, but I will watch a 67 part series of this
Kamilah Max
Ditto!
Same
Same
I feel like Elves deserve their own video. I mean, there are complex traits and tropes tied to each of them. If we're being simplistic about Elves though I've always interpreted them as a combination of three basic elf tropes. 1. The Fallen 2. The Fae 3. The Celestials.
The Fallen refers to the idea of Elves having been in control of everything once (or having had a great empire) which no longer exists. Sort of in Tolkien, often appears when elves are separate from other people.
The Fae refers to the Nature-y elements of the Elves, taken from the Celtic Fae. The Wood Elves spring mostly from this.
The Celestial is this idea about being better than everybody else. More specifically the Perfect Otherworldly Aristocrats, this is mostly where we get high elves.
Most elves are combinations of the three. Tolkien's Elves draw largely from the Fallen and the Celestial traits. Elves were once ancient rulers of the world, but have lost a lot of it and are much less powerful now. They're also ancient, beautiful, angelic beings (depending on the elf), who are wise and powerful, they're from a far off land of the Valar and ended up here on accident.
Then you have the worst elves which are the post-post-Tolkein elves. I'm lookin' at you The Inheritance Cycle. The Inheritance Cycle and books like it recognize the Post-Tolkien elves who are more of a Fae-Celestial mix. They don't kill creatures and are very naturey, and they take that to the next extent, which is elves are perfect Vegetarians who know all the magic and are beautiful and have never ever done anything wrong. Which is kind of nothing like what Tolkien's elves actually are.
Ive read the Inheritance Cycle twice but its been ages so I might be wrong. But the elves in that story make mistakes. Meaning they have done things wrong. Also I think the explanation for them being vegetarians and 'naturey' is a pretty cool and unique one. Think its something like them being able to enter the minds of the animals and experience their pain and fear etc. It was also cool how when Eragon first meets the elves and hasnt developed the same abilities as them he has no issues eating meat and can't understand why they don't. But as his abilities develop he also becomes vegetarian if I remember correctly.
Small nit pick, Tolkien's elves did not end up on Middle Earth by accident. They grew super arrogant and banished/self-exiled themselves across a frozen wasteland to reach MiddleEarth
@@David-hx6hw You're correct I don't know why I wrote that they ended up here by accident. Technically yes, it was an accident, because they didn't technically intend to be banished...
@@steel2572 I don't by any means hate the inheritance cycle, but I do dislike the way they write Elves. They've got very little written about their wrongs except that they got in a war with the Dragons. The treatment of the Elves is very D&D elves which means they feel like Humans but better at magic and immortal. They don't feel otherworldly. Even the Elves origin is stolen from Tolkien except boring. They're from a far off island, but not literally heaven. It's basically elves but less celestial, without many of the fae influences either. In other words, humans with some more magic and longer lives.
It can function in D&D, because they want you to be an elf. It does not work as well in fiction.
That is very interesting. Elves are my favorite race. I think the Tolkein elves could fit the Fae in addition to the other two groups. Elves do live in forests like Mirkwood and Lothlorien. The ones in Mirkwood are even called wood elves. Legolas is one of them. I think of wood elves can be a kind that is better than everyone else, like celestial elves. I think they would excel in being the best at environmentalism. They can be into caring for their forest home and the world in general. Lord of the Rings has a theme of environmentalism. The elves do help the environment by fighting against the bad guys. Legolas is the main example, because he went on the journey. There are other eves that help like Elrond and Galadral. When elves help to save Middle Earth, it is like wood elves caring for the environment. Tolkein was subtle about his themes. he didn't want to be too overt and allegorical. In World of Warcraft the night elves are like a cross between dark elves and wood elves. They are environmentalist too, and they are a lot more overt about it. The best example that comes to my mind is the Ashenvale zone. The night elves fight against orcs and other threats in order to protect the forest. They give Allience players a lot of quests to help with the environment. I have a lot of fun with these quests. I even get so carried away that I target small trees and use the hug emote on them.
Always happy to hear you explain things that we all intuitively know, but are too stupid to put our finger on it. Thanks, It's was a great listen. Keep up the good work
"No new Elves to create"
I beg to differ. Divinity created a race of Elves that were distinctly elf-like, but also incredibly unique and have some pretty crazy world mechanics.
Like eating corpses to learn the deceased's memories? 😅
My favorite fanatsy race is the Higher Vampires form the Witcher universe, the way they balance between being a noble and caring friend to a primal apex predator is so interesting!
Great Video. Been building a Sci-FI D&d Mod with a few a mates and we all swore to write against type when conceiving races to avoid the planet of the hats syndrome. For instance, we have a race of recently liberated cyborg convicts, but instead of going for the easy murder kill bots most sci-fi does, we designed them as Buddist styled pacifists who run a trade empire. It was fun but gruelling work, especially considering the how mechanics in tabletops work, but it was really rewarding.
Our Grand Leader Mishka has ascended to a higher plane, she is now our Celestial Leader
Was it a girl?!
@@joaofarias9986 I don't think so.
@@joaofarias9986 Mishka is the endearing version of the name Mikhail.
Who?
@@elpretender1357 Supreme Leader Mishka. Hello Future Me's cat, who passed away a few weeks ago.
I love how in dune there is a conversation between an off worlder and a native of Arakis and they are speaking the same language but it's very clear that they are not understanding each other because of their cultural differences and it's so amazing!
Dude, you can NEVER have too many elves. Also, congratulations. I didn't think you'd be able to fit the necessary Avatar reference.
Dude, you can NEVER have too many elves. (2)
There are already too many elves. Seriously, it feels like they're everywhere...kinda like roaches... or rats.
Of course in the Elder Scrolls, even the dwarves are actually elves! (Orcs too, but so are Tolkien's orcs.)
I am elves
@@Aethuviel Dwarves are elves in Norse mythology too
Mass Effect is my absolute favorite when it comes to races, especially in the way it plays with the "planet of hats" trope. the Krogan are big bulky rage monsters, but the first Krogan you meet is Wrex who's actually way more thoughtful and intelligent than you'd expect. The Turians are all military by the book types with no emotion but the one you get to know is Garrus a loose with the rules police officer. He's also the best.
Calibrating raptor best raptor
Its this channel that has rly got me into mythical writing, thank u for that.
“Everything changing when the fire nation attacked”😂
Im writing my own fantasy book at the moment and was thinking about all the different races, monsters and what not and realised it is extremely difficult to create a race/culture who doesn´t exist already in some way. Sooooo thanks for this video, helps alot. Keep up the good work
Crankerization so true :( been trying to cook up something totally new
I have this problem as well. Of course, the best thing would be to not borrow from any pre-existing culture at all, fictional or real, but let's face it, that's not actually possible. The next best thing is to use cultures rarely seen in fiction as templates. There are so many cultural groups on this world to take inspiration from. Why not make your elves/aliens/whatever Polynesian, or Baltic, or Manchurian? That will at least set them apart from all the others, and in the process of researching you learn about cultures that most other people won't even have heard of.
I just suck ass at naming, I'm amazing with lore
This has actually really helped a lot with my writing. I'm trying to make a race of amphibians called the Gekut, and I think after watching this I might have found a good water sport for their culture.
Gosh I know nothing but I'm already so invested in your race. Amphibian races and things are hard to come by. 💜 Here's some support from a year later
I'm using a place called World Anvil to help me with things like this.
World anvil is awesome. Using it myself.
So do I. It's fantastic.
is it free?
@@stevenpip7339 Yep!
Sandhiren Pillay I wish that so many of their features weren’t locked behind premium membership
I'm currently writing a book where the atypical fantasy races evolved with Humans on Earth. Like imagine 2019 but your teacher is an Elf, your best-friend is a gnome, and you're human. This video has given me so many ideas and tips to help me develop the themes I want to explore and realistically create my races. I've been watching your on-writing/worldbuilding videos for a while and you are honestly the best person on youtube giving writing advice right now. Thank you!
Pray for Mishka!
NO NO NO
PRAY TO MISHKA! FELINE GOD OF GODS
In Mishka we trust!
I will admit that I only half listened to this and the episodes about dragons, yet between them I felt a strange surge of inspiration. In honesty, that spark of surreal beauty helped me develop my elves even further so that they now resemble something that could have been written by lovecraft. They no longer even bear the name of "Elf", although the earthen myths are echoes of their true existence.
I thank you for this.
I like the elves joke. It’s hilarious. I also like how the guy at Terrible Writing Advice did it.
“Getting Sea Sick of Elves” XD
I found this video extremely helpful. I am trying to start a story & I was really struggling with how I was going to portray a certain species and just hearing you talk about what not to do helps me clear out all the garbage ideas & come to a clearer vision of how I want things. I watch your videos a lot, they're really educational & entertaining!
Thank you Tim!
I always have a hard time getting motivated to get back into my writing projects. Whether I'm stuck on a concept, thought, or just demotivated/ Tired. your OWAW series never fails to get me back into the swing of it for at least a little bit, even when the topic on hand wasn't what i was lost on, So thank you. Without your art, I wouldn't have half of the little bit i do have completed.
I also wouldn't have My favorite Dragon/species concept if it wasn't for engaging with this community so thank you guys down here as well
He is good at that. Also, he helped me get back to work on the lore sections of my beastiary with this video.
My favorite race is probably the Ogier from Wheel of Time; they are basically an amalgam of elf, dwarf and ogre, with a culture and world view that's rather unique.
In sci-fi, I don't think you can go far beyond the mass effect games in how it developed alien races, and how they all interacted with each other and humanity.
I think the Planet of Hats trope is an artifact of a lot of older Sci Fi. Lots of old Star Trek really plays into the "all Klingons are warriors" thing till they come across as unable to function, and old Star Wars novels really played into the "All Hutts are crime bosses, all Bothans are spies" thing. But a lot of authors have been working to combat that. Star Trek shows that Klingon society struggles with all this warrior obsession, and Star Wars introduces honest Hutts and other species that break stereotypes. And Mass Effect's Krogan are especially good at showing the Proud Warrior Race as something more.
The most important thing is of course that...
KHAJIIT HAS WARES IF YOU HAVE COIN
"These sands are cold, but Khajiit feels warmth from your presence."
I just wanted to stop looking like copies of Tolkien's races for anything. In Brazil, I saw a lot of this happen. For example, there was a rpg from Greek mythology that had a version of the elves.
Tolkien's didnt invent elves, dwarves, orks ect they actually come from Norse mythology all Tolkien did is change the names and made them popular
@@zeonthefox doesn't take away from the fact that everyone copying them makes me wish a patent licence was placed on them
@@zeonthefox Maybe this is not the best example, but here in Brazil we do struggle with an overdose of LoTR's rip-offs. Really, there's a lot of writers who don't even try to hide the source of their inspiration (by "inspiration" I mean the same as Tolkien stories, but changing names).
@@connormcneill7773 From my experience, I doubt they were like nymphs. I often see people trying to put elves and wizards and even orcs in EVERY SINGLE STORY they create.
@@zeonthefox totally right in fact dwarfs are based in dark elves and the tolkien elves are a mix of british fairies and nordics elves
I bought your book last week. Haven't had time to sit down and read yet. However I read the first paragraph and instantly knew I would enjoy this.
I am actually in the process of creating fantasy races with my friends. This helped a lot. I need to show them.
Man, this video made me appreciate the different cape classifications in Worm even more than I already did.
I have a race in my book called the Nativa. They are a lot like a combination of the Parshendi and Spren from Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive." They are beings who embody specific elements or concepts, some being rarer than others. The elemental Nativa live in places that they can definitely live in. So, fire nativa live in more humid climates like deserts or volcanoes. Water nativa live near rivers and seas, some even living in the water. And earth nativa usually live in underground settlements. Each has their own cultures but most of them believe that they are the true higher species because of their species being so connected to the elements that make up their world.
"Why so many damn elves."
As an Orc, i fully understand that frustation.
I just wanted to point out that in elder scrolls, orcs and dwarves are also elves (with the -mer ending on their 'real' names).
Which i still frankly find super offense. The dwarves probably extincted themselves just to get out of that arrangement.
Dwarfurious but they weren’t even dwarves from the beginning they called themselves Dwemer, meaning “deep elves” in Aldmeri, the only ones who called them dwarves were the common people who didn’t know much about as they for the most part stayed underground and the giants they fought a lot called them dwarves because to the giants these Dwemer were tiny.
And the Kajiit and Falmer are sort of elves
@@evagel1548 yup, Falmer are literally corrupted snow elves. The Dwemer fed them some toxic mushroom or something.
Not so sure about the Kahjit tho.
@@evagel1548 khajit aren't, they were always in Tamriel, even before the Altmer arrive
I'm currently writing a fantasy series that is pretty much all humans, and this was still very helpful and gave me a lot to think about. Thanks.
When it comes to the whole "environmental pressures" bit, sometimes it can be interesting to put a species at odds with their environment.
I've got a fantasy setting themed in part around an ancient divine war that left the planet mostly flooded with just islands and archipelagos and stuff. One of the species, amphibious humanoids well adapted to an aquatic environment, has many of its cultures based around being maritime nomads and sailing around the oceans on giant ships the size of villages or towns. Which is unfortunate for them, as salt is mildly toxic to them in more than trace amounts, and they're now surrounded by the stuff in the form of saltwater. They don't, like, burst into flames or anything, it's more like a horrible sunburn. But it's sort of a cruel irony that they're well adapted to the water, but if they go for a swim it would be horribly painful and they could easily die after long enough. They have to spend much of their time wrapped up under thick clothes, with filtration masks, and so on.
I really like this!
I think the ponies of Equestria are a really good example of very inhuman yet realistic species, particularly in their response to biological pressures. The fact that they don't have thumbs but do have magic (and the fact that they are of three tribes with three different kinds of magic), means that they approach the world in a very different way than we do. The pegasi's ability to regulate the weather, along with earth ponies' ability to promote plant growth, are key to their ability to keep their species fed, not to mention that having magic means that they primarily use magic, especially unicorn spells and telekinesis, to do things we would invent tools to do. And because they rely so heavily on their ability to control the weather and regulate plant and animal growth to feed themselves and protect themselves from the environment, they freak out at the idea of weather that controls itself or plants and animals that grow without pony intervention. A very good example of taking a species completely different from humans as their starting point and then figuring out how that species would develop in response to biological pressures.
Also, the interaction of the three tribes is a good example of how to have multiple races that don't become natural enemies: each of them ends up being able to help the others. Earth pony magic lets them promote and regulate plant growth, so they can sustain much larger populations per acre and the other tribes need them to provide food. Similarly, pegasi can control the weather, which lets them protect the other two tribes from environmental threats and give earth ponies the ideal environment for their crops. And unicorn spells and telekinesis lets them make tools, clothes, houses, and anything else that involves fine detail work with a facility the other tribes cannot match. So each tribe has things the other two tribes need, and they can only attain their full racial potential working together.
0:07 Now that's a lot of folk!
So many DAMNED folks!
I can think of another book with perpetual sunlight... Something about shades, a bad guy turning good, and the faint echo of a battle cry permanently emanating from a time long past, *whispering* "Machiculations..."
Was it written by Shad?
@The Bandog Shadow of The Conquerer by Shad M. Brooks
"whispering" tbh he's been better about not screaming but I still have to wear my headphones loose watching his vids just in case lmao
SHAD!
All hail the mighty Shad! May his cry echo through the ages!
"Seen any Elves? HAHAHAHAHA!"
Random Nords in Morrowind.
Have you heard of the high elves? Hrr! Agh! Blarghlarghl! Ngh.
@@vitriolicAmaranth Why I read it in borat voice in my head?)
I made a race of fox-alien people who grew up on a very cold, mountainous planet. Game was scarce, and members of each tribe had to range very far away in order to bring things back. They developed a psionic ability that let them sense and track down animals that hid from them, and that grew into a massive collective psionic network that let the individual members stay in touch on long journeys as well as helping gather food.
Considering what I've learned in this video... before, I was considering that the race would be mostly agricultural based, considering he difficulty of finding game, but perhaps other tribes developed an underground culture?
Thank you for this video
You know, that's a riddle I would love to see a video on: "Why are there so many DAMN Elves?!"
I write as a hobby, and I love every chance I get to improve my work, which is why your input is invaluable to me. Thank you very much.
I have a framework for some human cultures and alien races in a couple of books I'm working on, and this video simultaneously made me realise how bare bones were they, and how I can come to make them something believable and awesome in the context of the story. Again, thank you!
Got your book this week I'm really enjoying it good work!
"Today we're going to talk about race" _flames and screaming intensify_ was one of the best openings I have seen
1:32
I always assumed elves are better at everything because they live long enough to really master what they do. Legolas has been alive for likely thousands of years, and he's had most of that time to practice archery. I like to think that elves are required to have at least a hundred or so years of training before they can actually go to war.
This still doesn't totally explain why elves are "perfect" but it does help explain some of it. (At least to me)
Got your book from Kindle. I am going blind and cannot read from a paperback any more.. I have been enjoying the book and am learning from it. Thank your for all of your hard work with the videos and book.
I imagine the Elites in the HALO franchise evolving from a species that used their complex mouths to grab coconut or melon like plants that grow on vines off the sides of cliffs. If you’re rock climbing having 2 thumbs and a mouth like theirs could be handy for transporting food.
IDK if there’s a lore explanation for the overly complex jaw.
I finally got your book!
The aliens in the three body problem are a great example of universal pressure
Thank you so much for creating this series, I've recently started writing my own fantasy novel and your worldbuilding series has been helping me so, SO much!
"And we can't talk about constructing alien and fantasy cultures--"
*ad plays*
Damn I guess we can't then....
You have given voice to my own gripes; THERE ARE TOO MANY DAMNED ELVES!! Awesome video outside of that too. :D
The craziest thing is that Tolkien in all of his writing never actually mentions pointed ears except when describing Hobbits - in one of his letters, he even says that there isn’t a single biological difference between men and elves; it’s all ‘spiritual‘.
It seems that a lot of writers looked at the surface level of what he wrote and copied that, without looking into it further(bit to be fair to them most of his stuff outside of the LotR and Hobbit wasn’t made available until the late 70s and onward...). I wish more would ‘copy’ Tolkien’s elves in terms of their general personality and history, with all that being older and powerful meaning that when elves mess up, they really mess up and are more or less to blame for probably a solid 40% of the world’s problems (looking at you, Feänor & co).
I want muh tragic myth elves
YES
Maybe pointed ears were added so audiences could visually tell who where elves and who wasn't
This was actually really helpful. I kept thinking about the five fantasy races I had thought of and thinking about how their designs would give to certain biological traits led to how they would be used to survive which led to an environment forming in my head and it was really helpful.
this youtubers voice makes me feel comfortable
One excellent example of a universal pressure is Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives series, where almost all of the natural flora has the ability to hide inside shells and most fauna are crabs (some fauna also have a symbiotic relationship with semi-physical creatures called spren that allows them to defy gravity too). All of this is in response to the frequent "highstorms" that wrack the planet.
Where it gets even more interesting is with non-anthro creatures. You have to redesign almost everything for them. I have a story like that with dragons. With them climbing stairs is hard so most buldings don't have them. Streets are wide so that they can spread their wings. There are also many sudden drops to help dragons fly. Most buildings with more than 1 floor have landing pats. Their dexterity is naturally poor so they usually only have outside doors. Writing is considered a skill that only 15% of the population has but 95% can read. Dragons are violent creatures by nature and so fighting is a very important part of their society. Children are playfighting constantly and there are many areas around town. The central arena is the largest building in the capital and can seat 40% of the entire population at once.
Because of their violent nature healing also is incredibly common. There are professional healers which is a long study and hard work and they are only slightly more common than real doctors. But casual healers who can heal off basic wounds are 20% of the population.
Dragons also have no natural enemies whatsoever but are held in check by their very low reproduction rate. Females can only reproduce for a 3 month window every 10 years. They have a slightly longer lifespan with 100 being the average and most couples having 2 families. Multiple births are very rare and dragons also mature slightly slower with most not leaving the nest until 25. This combined with their naturally violent nature and inclination for fighting each other keeps their population in constant. Their power also allowed them to conquer a large region and keep it under control even though they actually are a strong minority. Dragons only are 13% of the population. Because they are naturally violent and have magic gender isn't a thing with them and both genders are completely equal. They mostly eat meat so rely heavily on imports.
They have a very strong code of honor to keep their violent nature in check. Murder is very severely punished and killing another dragon during a fighting competition is considered to bring permanent shame to your own name. The Colosseum has a list of those that were executed for that crime so their shame lives on forever. Even killing one accidentally usually is punished very harshly. The border for the amount of injury acceptable is usually what a casual healer can do. If they need to see a professional you've gone too far.
Dragons come from the mountains so their cities usually are up against mountains and build in step or at least very vertical. They have a lot of outdoor activities though like shops, festivals, demonstrations and other things. Dragons usually don't like being inside and like to fly. Obviously their cities are entirely made of stone which makes them very expensive. Most dragons have a very small home and do most of their things outside. They are ruled by a council of 4; a minister of economics, a minister of politics, a minister of social affairs and a minister of the army. The much larger non-dragon population though is not treated super gently. A lot of the best jobs are exclusively to dragons and dragons rule by force.
Appearance though does matter to dragons a lot and many wear metal accessories of some kind. Clothing though is very rare because their anatomy makes it very hard to make and put on/off. Only really used for formal occasions by very high status dragons. Most dragons however prefer painting themselves which is far more common. Since they don't wear clothes make-up is applied to their whole body. Some very basic with just lines but some having intriquite patterns.
This is really cool.
Love the idea of a dragon landing pad. Makes sense.
This video was in depth and definitely helps my poor "obsessed with creating races out of a phrase in a commercial" heart, but when I saw you mention The Dragon Prince I screamed for joy
Ey I saw that Guild Wars art on the monitor. Very nice!
I actually have a copy of volume one of your book and I am looking forward to the arrival of volume two.
I've already seen this video a million times, but curious to see your take.
great work as always, Tim! I just got the book a couple days ago and can't wait to sink into it. I love worldbuilding, but it often overwhelms me. I love the way you break it down and the examples you use, it's genuinely helpful.
This came out just when I needed it!
Im writting a fantasy book with different kind of races. So thank you for you're help
Every time I watch this I lose my gd mind when seeing the harpy. It's incredible.
"What are your fantasy races like?"
Do you want the first few pages or should I just send you the google doc? XD
"Well you have the humanoid fly people with a metallic exoskeleton, the shapeshifting carnivore plants and maybe some reptilians, who live in a volcanic desert, who knows.
And then there are humans."
@@blackbloom8552 In my world, humans are THE seafaring people. They are good at spreading.
@@blackbloom8552 In real life, humans have absolutely godlike endurance and regeneration compared to other animals, having the ability to sweat (which is actually extremely rare among animals), thus allowing them to cool themselves down while moving, as well as heal injuries much, much faster than other animals at the cost of creating a scar (other animals regenerate much slower than humans but do not get scars).
Ethan Madore godlike regeneration? I dunno man, lizards are out here growing back limbs. Sweating is amazing though
Philippe Gabriel we are literally the only animal like this, not that I think about. We are like the only true jack of all trades creature on this planet. We can live literally anywheres on this planet given time
now I want a video about the cultural influence of grape juice 🤔🤔
I've been trying to write fantasy and this has been incredibly helpful.
So far what I've been doing is kind of drafting all my ideas, races, creatures, world, etc.
And then reviewing these points, and revisiting everything with a refreshed perspective, trying to catch my own accidentally tropes I fall into.
Great video man. I love that point about races exceeding their biological constraints to expand culturally.
The part about planets with only one environment remindet me of an Stargate SG1 episode, where they went through the gate and thought they strandet on an ice-planet, where infact they where in the Antarctic 😅
Roshar really is the master class in this (as Brandon usually is the god-tier worldbuilder).
I'm loving this video! Obviously I will watch it again to absorb the rest of the info that often goes over my head afer just a one single sitting.
Also, thank you very much for highlighting some texts in yellow when you are reading it out loud. For folks like me for who English is their second language you can often talk really fast, and reading it with you (literarily in this case) really does help me to get the job of understanding you done even better.
I've said it countless times before but I'm just going to say it again: thank you very much for this great channel! You have no idea how helpful you are to me with all the things I see here.
Not gonna lie, I’m low key disappointed that we’re not getting a 67 part series on cultural world building
Listened to you on speakers for the first time. The whistling sounds really punch through, and makes it hard to feel relaxed to. I've never noticed this on headphones.
I just love how Tolkien elves, like any other, have their most prominent feature being their ears, and yet their most significant sense is sight. It gets to the point where it's almost counterintuitive, shouldn't they be good at... y'know... hearing instead? Then the ears would make more sense..
@Hello Future Me, I've got a book I've been trying to write for some time, and it involves an alien race of giant, winged, snake people who all have elemental powers and are divided into different groups based on which element they control. Before anyone compares this to ATLA, I've been working on this since before ATLA was even a thing, and unlike that world, ALL members of the race have elemental power, and their culture is quite different as well.
Now this is what I needed in my life
Bright could have actually been so so good, and I mean, it could still be so so good. But the worldbuilding and the culture... it just needs so much work. And I genuinely enjoyed a good amount of the characters as well. It would make a good (albeit expensive) TV show.