Fantasy Worldbuilding: How to make awesome NON-HUMAN Species
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ต.ค. 2024
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I disagree about long lived races not getting attached to shorter lived ones. Humans get VERY attached to shorter lived animals, and keep pursuing more attachments once their beloved companions die. I think long lived races would be the same way.
Yep. People love their pets, which are short-lived beings. They love them so much that when they die, they mourn for like a week and then buy another one, lol
@@Atticus_Moore ...for some people, but for others, like myself, you mourn your lost friend for the rest of your life. I think relating to animals is the closest we'll ever get to what it would be like to relate to a fantasy race because unlike other humans, you have to learn not only a totally foreign way of thinking, but a body language that shares nothing with humanity's.
I'm going to need to do a full video on this one I think :) I think it depends on long lived versus immortal. My cat's life is about a fifth of mine, so it's long enough to have a meaningful relationship. And I certainly will deeply mourn her when she dies.
But if I was a true immortal being or if I lived for thousands of years, could one even form meaningful relationships? Can we form a meaningful relationship with a creature that lives for only one day for example?
Also, I don't know if I could bear to bury a thousand years worth of cats, never mind humans or, even worse, children.
@JustInTimeWorlds would be interesting. I just found your videos recently and started watching them. I struggle with worldbuilding quickly and effectively. But the questions you raised would be great questions that could be answered in a story. I would like to make a story with multiple races, which I usually shy away from, but I have a feeling that I should do multiple races. I'll have to look at your videos and see if you have any on fantasy races. Also, the anime Freiren has a long-lived elf race and normal human race that I think touches on some of the questions you raised. But I haven't watched it. But it is about losing human friends. The main character is an elf.
@StarlitSeafoam yeah using a pet analogy isn't the best, but the closest thing we have, maybe? If a fantasy race is short-lived and they are a loved one or friend or even partner, losing them would be more impactful. I imagine
The major non-human race I'm working with in my current story are the Drakalfar, the dragon-bound elves. I started building their culture from Viking history and mythology, then added two perspectives on top of that that ended up changing things quite a bit---their obsession with storytelling and their bond with the dragons they ride. This ranges from mundane things like every landholding family having a Drekiholl, a large building where their dragons live since most dragons couldn't fit in a normal house, to the dragon-bound elves being unable to use magic until they've bonded with a dragon partner and having an elaborate coming-of-age ceremony and quest surrounding making this bond. They actually believe that they're born with only half a soul, that they aren't a full person until they have a dragon partner.
Lovely mythology there 👍
Couldn't make it live, but thank you this was fantastic! Definitely picked my brain 👍
Always a pleasure :D
Love this video I have a few nonhuman races one of my favorites are Snow Elves, blue skinned, snow white hair, elves that dwell in snowy boreal forest. They used to be hunter gatherers, tamed snow white wolves & owls to aid in hunting. When they were hunters they venerated their creator, their lifestyle of nature gave them more magic than their innate elven spells. Snow Elven Druids could conjure snow storms, command artic animals, ect.
Eventually the Snow Elves wanted to progress and build large cities for their kind but others objected as this industrial lifestyle could cripple their connection to their creator and by extension their magic, making them vulnerable to humans and the other monsters in the world. Snow Elves split as a result some built large cities with populations in the millions while others remained Druids in groves to preserve their old ways and connection to their creator.
Loved the conversation & thank you for having it!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch you live, but I'm happy to see this video now 😃
7:33 I guess your mind is still working on your elephant race in the back 😆 a human Elephant could be an interesting hybrid. No idea how that would look, though 😅
You gave me a good thing to think about: Give the readers a pay-off for investing in learning such a new race. I have several new races in my worlds. I haven't thought about that yet. Thank you for reminding us to think about the pay-off.
I guess your cat wanted attention 😁
Thank you for a very interesting video/livestream!
My cats are attracted to the sound of my voice. Whenever I film or livestream, they all want loves and hugs and play.
@@JustInTimeWorlds awww! How cute!
I use nonhumans in my world and they are even the majority. They are based on other animals like tigers, lions, foxes, wolves, otters, polecats and birds (inspired by the Rito of The Legend of Zelda. I had wondered how to give them hands AND flight without going into 6 limb body plans unless I could make a biologically plausible explanation). I stuck to carnivore and omnivore species including humans so I don't need to deal with questions about eating your neighbours because they are your only food source which is completely ignored in Zootopia for the message "living together in harmony" (despite this setup leading to the starvation and mass death of predators) and directly addressed in Beastars. I am unsure if I will be adding reptiles like crocodiles, lizards or even dragons, aquatic apecies based on something like sharks (think of the Zora from The Legend of Zelda, but I'm not sure if I could explain easily how they grew arms and legs) or other sapient primates. I basically want a lot of them but I don't want to overload my planet with species that could possibly fight each other to extinction. I even considered adding something like elves, but as another version of humans and without the magic or century-long lifespans. Fantasy worlds trend to make a separation between humans and such "beastmen". However, the humans in the view of the other species wouldn't be too different from themselves because they are simply another sapient animal. All the species are formed by evolution. Humanoid wolves have shared wolf ancestors with the existing non sapient wolves, sapient tigers share ancestors wuth wild tigers, and so on. Humans still come from previous apes.
I'm using species instead of race because these are too different to biologically reproduce with each other. To me, using the word race would imply these are all the same species and a human and dog person could "get it on" and make a dog-human hybrid and that's too complex of a Pandora's Box for me to keep track of. Therefore, hybrids don't exist for the most part and any that are born like ligers are infertile. The only exception to my rule of "halfbreeds" is a set of species/subspecies in a different region of the continent (outside of my main great valley) that would resemble the kemonomimi often seen in Japanese anime, humans with ears and tails of other animals and maybe having non visible traits like sensitive noses and a wider range of hearing (they have 2 ears, not 4 in case you were wondering 😂). I haven't decided on how it happened but some people online have suggested using a retrovirus to transfer genes. I'm not sure how romantic and even sexual relationships between species would work since I imagine especially humans may get squeemish with seeing different, unfamiliar practices, instincts and biology of different animals. (Luckily, I don't need to deal with duck corkscrews. Nature took some of its own muchrooms making some animal parts. 🍄). I even questioned if I should include or exclude mammaries on birds and reptiles since they don't have them in real life, and I wanted to have biological explanations in my world. My nonhumans retain features from the animals they are based on such as digitigrade feet, the ability to fly for birds, sensitive noises, low sight sight, being able to pounce up trees quickly for big cats, only being able to see different colours from humans, the ability to run on all four if desired, etc. as well as habits and instincts such as grooming with the tongue for felines. However, some could be very offputting to humans and other animals unfamiliar with the practice such as 'marking' things (in the feline and canine way), which could be discouraged or outright banned in certain polities.
In my region, various nonhuman species have migrated into the region and seen societies form, expand and collapse over millenia and various ages with humans being a very recent arrival to the region within the last few centuries before trade was cut due to revolutions and the rise of a totalitarian empire blocking the coast and main path in and out (The region is now landlocked). There is no singular culture or polity for each species. Each species may have many separate countries, tribes and empires that they are common in. Much like how there are mixed countries like the USA and ethnostates like Japan, some factions, cultures and polities could be made of many species or dominated and controlled by a singular species or subspecies. Being the same species doesn't mean a faction is an ally. A faction of foxes may ally with a faction of tigers to fight another faction of foxes. Having a kingdom where the king is the same species as the commoners doesn't guarantee trust or loyalty while a king from a different species may be tolerated or even venerated if he's a good leader. Humans have around 200 countries on Earth so i don't see why it can't be the same for each specues in many fantasy worlds (and in scifi where each species is some empire that encompasses all members of the species and they all have the same culture and beliefs). There is no dominant "wolf empire" or "lion kingdom" or "human republic". They would need actual names to differentiate themselves from the maybe hundreds to thousands of fractured empires, kingdoms, republics and other polities and factions in the region and across the planet. These sapient soecies also exist alongside nonsapient versions in my world so it's not unheard of to see sapient wolves protecting livestock from a pack of nonsapient wolves since they would be competition, like how humans have sometimes gotten into conflict with other apes such as when they steal food. It's also not unheard of to see sapient animals taking nonsapient animals as pets since while they may look similar, they are not the exact same species (similar or shared ancestors, different gentic lineages). This would be like how some people in real life make bonds or even keep other primates. I actually wonder if these nonhumans would see the distinction of Earth humans into 'races' and ethnicities such as Japanese, Anglo, Latin, Germanic, Arab, Hebrew, Assyrian or Zulu as any different from the local variants of their own species which may begin to show different fur patterns and other features with time due to specialization and evolution in a certain area (like how our skin colours were adapted for different climate conditions or different groups of other real animals diverge genetically when they diverge geographically).
I had also tried to think of how these different species could affect the infrastructure and objects around them. How would instincts affect architecture? Would feline dominated areas have climbing spaces for recreation or quick travel between floors? How would seeing in different colour spectrums or even in the ultraviolet range affect clothing, crest, banner and army camo designs? What would that look like to different species? How would different tails, ears and muzzles be accomodated in clothing, armour, furniture and machinery like cars and landships? Would tails stick out of clothing or be tucked inside? Would tails and ears stick out of armour completely, have armoured sections for them or be enclosed completely for maximum protection? Would they even have shoes since paws are already adapted to the outside world? Would they depict their gods as other species if they know that there are other sapient species that are descended from the animals they would base their gods on? Would a bird species in a mountain society have space for aerial vehicles used by nonavians like airstrips or airship docking ports? A lot of these questions I would have to answer in my world simply for the sake of my curiosity (I'm not writing any stories for publication, this is more of a sandbox world).
Another thing to keep in mind is if the abilities of certain species may make them preferred for certain tasks. This could be stealth and ease climbing/jumping for felines, or surveillance/patrolling/reconnaissance for avians since having someone who could fly over enemy positions without getting hit while carrying messages or taking note of enemy locations and units could be a serious help for any army in a war, especially if they don't have the resources or logistics to acquire and maintain flying vehicles.
As for artificial species, I had imagined that if I added magic to my world (right now there is no magic and everything is technological), a near to moderate future scenario could see the magic used to create a sort of magically based AI to put into machines like military drones to make them smart and able to react and adapt to their conditions since they may be unlikely to be able to create a technological AI like in traditional scifi settings. These would basically be magitech golems with a magical sentience and a technological body.
As for your comment on not making lions live in prides, I had imagined that sapient lion prides could be something like their version of tribes in my world. Like when a male finds one or more females who accept him, they start their own tribes with a name based on qualities they look up to or whatever else they decide with a new standard, banner or crest depending on how they plan to represent themselves to others, with the most powerful becoming kingdoms or even empires. I had thought of doing this with other species where their closer groups could have features seen in their real life and nonsapient counterparts.
With your use of elephant people, I actually started wondering how elephants would evolve hands from their large round feet if they became humanoid. I recently asked myself something similar about ungulated like horses with how the hooves would turn into hands and what conditions would necessitate and cause that change. It became more complicated with how they could even run on all four as I had desired for the other species if their limbs had become so different.
I watched a video about why dragons are bad from a channel called Pointy Hat and he suggested dragons that instead of hoarding gold or other shiny objects like that, they hoarded people became more powerful with more people in their hoard. They may hoard different types like mages or warriors. They would then choose a successor from among the hoard to become the next dragon. This made me think of a dragon making an army of its hoard and going on to make its own country. Imagine a dragon like this founding a kingdom and that kingdom survives into the modern day and then you have a modern military marching in parades with the dragon watching nearby as the current king. 👑 🐉
That’s certainly a fascinating image 😎😁
Thanks for a other amazing stream. I feel a lot of longer lived races would have some feelings for shorter lived races, the degree to which depends. Just as hoe there's folks who fall in love with people who they know will die within a decade or so theres gonna be folks who fall in love regardless. Though i do think it'd lead to serious issues. If an elf falls in love with a human i think its take two responses.
For men it'd be: "Bruv i know we need more bodies but aint this a bit wierd?"
For female elves I'd imagine it being worse because the male relatives would be asking: "boo what you doing? You're gonna outlive your kids, it doesn't matter how rich this boy is you are gonna be widow and it'll leave a hole that can't be filled."
Ive explored this once in a game i dmed and the second i brought up that dilemma the player themselves experienced a crisis and devoted their character ro finding a way so extend their human beloved's lifespan. That was a fun part of the game, the player in question puts our hit and miss characters but in that game they pulled through.
Point is i think it should be explored, the idea that you fall in love with someone, they're your equal but you know you will outlive them. It leads to great actions when the persons in charge have their head in the game
I'm going to need to do a full video on this one I think :) I think it depends on long lived versus immortal. My cat's life is about a fifth of mine, so it's long enough to have a meaningful relationship. But a mayflay's life is one day. It's not long enough to have a meaningful life. So it depends on what we mean we say long lived, I think.
I love Tolkien's work, but every game these days copying the Tolkien races is so annoying to me. One of the first things I started with in my TTRPG is trying to make original and unique to gameplay races. But to keep it grounded each one is loosely inspired by a real-world culture, and a real-world animal. (Each from a different animal kingdom., except for one.) Also while its hard I'm trying to base each culture in a field of art (like music, fashion, or sculpture) and a field of science. (like astronomy, medicine, or geology)
Unfortunately, every other fantasy setting uses dwarves and elves. Tolkien did it so well that everyone wanted to imitate him. However, there are those who stand out and write elves and dwarves well. In my opinion Paolini did a great job with these over used races in his Inheritance Cycle series.
@@BartimaeusAurelius I like the elves and dwarves depicted in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor as everything in that world is more or less based on their original fiendish folktales. But that's because they are sourced from the same lore and such that Tolkien had to work with, not directly pulled from Tolkien.
But in basically everything else I have ever seen, even in other MtG worlds, they are just derivative, changing a few aspects at best. And it's not like they just borrow elves, or dwarves... but if they lift one Tolkien race, they almost certainly have a whole slew of 10-20 creatures hardly any different from how Tolkien depicted them.
Even worse, they lift Tolkien's races, but none of his themes or history. I hate that. Why are the elves so wise and smug? Who knows, they just are... If you're going to imitate Tolkien, try to get a handle on how he used thematic elements with his races, don't just copy his homework.
What do you think of the idea of someone being a mix of dwarf and elf and normally that's highly frowned upon but this one can use Magic in Magic means your blessed by the Gods to be with respect so now you this new social norms fighting each other
All mixed races have an interesting element to them for sure. There's always themes of discrimination to play with there.
I'm working on my first fantasy story and I was thinking combining mythical races in my attempt to be more original. Goblins who "dwarf-like", fairies who are slightly taller than humans but have "elf-like" characteristics. Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Rather than strive to be unique in physical implementation, aim for unique cultures and thematic elements. Especially if you draw from our mythology, almost all physical implementations have been done, but that doesn't mean that new implementations shouldn't be done. They can still be unique and flavorsome if you integrate them well with your fantasy setting and write them to play strong thematic roles in the story.