This, so much. I'm playing in a friend's D&D setting at the moment where it's a desert continent, humans are Arabs, elves are Bedouin, and the dwarfs were basically the precursors (few in number now but extremely respected because they built grand cities, magical/technological marvels like cannons and airships and even laid down the scientific principles behind vancian magic - whereas humans and elves tend to be magic users because of innate talent in their blood). My dwarf PC is the only one in our group of mostly elves and beast races, he's like an axe-swinging, adventurer archaeologist battle wizard whose whole character arc is looking for his missing scientist elven wife who he loves with every fibre of his being. I originally made the whole character concept just to stick it to that elf/dwarf rivalry trope.
The saddest thing about all these Tolkien ripoffs is I think Tolkien out of everyone would probably want originality... the man made an entire fantasy world unlike anything anyone made before him, and people just clone it
I was writing an RPG story with a friend and my elf character became friend and even a teacher to her half-dwarf character... I kind of understand why so many stories I saw had those two races as foes(I never read or saw LOTR)...
And said rivalry wasn't even universal and at times was mainly one sided. Elrond and the elves of Rivendell seem to hold no problem with dwarves whatsoever and then there is Hollin (Eregion) and its friendship with Moria. Said friendship is actually important in the Lord of the Rings because it is partially responsible for the forging of the Rings and is the reason why the Doors of Durin exist in the first place.
@@IAmTheStig32 Well, you guys have accidentally made something reminiscent of WoW dwarves - one of the oldest races in the setting, affinity towards archaeology and research... The only thing is that in WoW the tech part is given to gnomes instead (yes, they are a separate race).
Generally, Dwarves and humans are about equally strong, but dwarves tend to be hardier. Additionally, dwarves tend to be the most technologically advanced for various justifications. Humans usually aren't quite as advanced as them, possibly because humans tend to be more "jacks of all, masters of null". Usually it's a matter of the specific skills learned, but Dwarves tend to be pretty reluctant to share their trade secrets with outsiders and humans don't usually try to steal the secrets for their own use, seemingly out of inability or apathy.
Me Alexander 1. You are comparing a race that is known for doing harder labor almost exclusively with a race that isn't known for any one thing. Take the average (fantasy) dwarf and the average human and have them trade blows. The dwarf will pack more of a punch due to sheer muscle. In a straight-up fight, a human would still probably win due to reach, but that assumes the Dwarves don't know how to deal with opponents that have been more blessed in that regard. Also, you don't compare the best of both worlds because the best of a race doesn't represent the average of the race. You pull a random Joe Shmoe and Grumpy out of the crowds and have them fight. 2. There's an old proverb, "Many skills is no skill at all." If you're okay at everything, then you aren't good at anything. Humans aren't good at anything. Sure, individual humans are good at one thing or another, but as a whole, the race fails to accomplish the same feats as the other races due to a lack of accumulated effort. As for you arguing "if humans did invest more then they would be", that's irrelevant. If humans grew wings they'd be able to fly. So what? You can't argue with what is essentially a "What if" proposal. The fact of the matter is humans DON'T specialize. Even if I were to play along with your scenario, if they were to start now, which couldn't happen because there is no way you'd convince the majority of the race to start specializing at this point if they haven't had a need to so far, but let's say they did: they'd be starting from square 1 while Dwarves are often depicted as being VERY progressed. There is too much of a gap for humanity to cover and technological progress doesn't slow down, meaning dwarves will only keep becoming more and more advanced, furthering that gap as humans take baby steps to learn the things dwarves already know.
God damn. Okay, yeah, no. Like hell I am going through over a half dozen comments. in reply on a TH-cam video. If this was Twitter? Sure. But if you're not able to keep your thoughts organized in one or two TH-cam comments tops, there is no way I can expect this to go well. Sorry, not even wasting the time trying to read that mess. Clean it up and get back to me, and then I'll read it. Til then, bye.
I was having some of those thoughts about Orcs a few years ago, when I was playing that Shadow of Mordor game. I was about to hack off some poor bastard's head, when he looked up, with orky tears in his eyes, and asked, "Why? Why kill Uruk?" That really spoke to me on a personal level. So instead of killing him, I just brainwashed him with my undead magic, taking away all his individuality and free will. I felt much better about myself after that.
Indeed, why kill any of the Uruks when you can simply brainwash them and force them to slaughter their brethren in a violent and bloody civil war! And when your followers have completed your mission of non-brainwashed Uruk genocide, you can reward their forced loyalty by crushing their skulls with magic!
We should tame them and keep them as pets. Let'em do work around the house and entertain guests. And then, if they act bad, you behead them a get a new one.
I felt a little sorry for an orc when one of them said to me with a sad/ proud voices (both of those therm I don't know) something like: "A glorious death in the name of Sauron, thank you Gravewalker..." Then I killed him and said "You're welcome !" XD
Should do that more often , in the anime grimgar o fantasy and ashes the unexpierienced party has to kill very humanised goblins to earn a living. They play cards, Yell desperate when they die, and fight fiercly for their survival, and have human emotions. It would be a good tool to make fantasy feel more gritty.
Paarthurnax is best girl for that entire game. There are many interesting characters, but nobody can beat out the dov sage that cemented his heel-face-turn
Okay, but, hear me out. What if we made a fantasy world... In SPACE!?! We'd have to rename the races, of course, but how hard is that? How about we call the elves "Vulcans" and the orcs "Klingons!"
Ryo Asuka You're missing out. War 40k takes inspiration from Tolkien and then twists it and contorts it into it's own thing. Then it takes that contorted mess and runs it through a meat grinder, lays it onto a bed of nails, then smashes it with a mallet.
N.M. Dimmick Lol!! Although I do sometimes like to just make a creature from scratch and I kinda sadly agree with that just because everyone jumps onto Vampires and Zombies, which is why I try to make them different if I ever use them, my zombies just go around mumbling and murdering without eating anything and no one that I really know of has done spider-based-vampires so Dibs.
Writers who actually did look at mythology for inspiration were authors like J.R.R Tolkien,C.S Lewis,and Lloyd Alexander. Tolkien from the Norse Sagas,Lewis from Greek and Roman mythology, and Alexander from the Mabinginogion(Welsh mythology).
Tolkein himself regretted writing the Orcs so evil, and he would probably be pissed that the Orcs were made more evil in the movies. Remember Tolkein himself fought in World War 1 and though the grim nature of it affected his writing he understood that the enemy soldiers were not evil but pawns of greater political forces. For instance, most of Tolkein's Orcs were actually farmers not soldiers. Mordor actually has some of the best farm land thanks to the ash from Mt. Doom and most Orcs spent their days tilling the fields and raising livestock. This is how Sauron fed his forces, they had plenty of food. That is why despite their superior physical strength Orcs are such bad fighters individually, they weren't professional soldiers they were civilians drafted and sent to fight with no training before hand. The Orcs in World of Warcraft are probably closer to what Tolkein had in mind than the Orcs in the movies.
I didn't know that. I always thought that Nurn (the fertile, southern region of Mordor) was tended to by human slaves, which was pretty much the interpretation Shadow of Mordor went with. I don't think Tolkien's Orcs were "physically superior". Only certain breeds of Uruk.
Yeah the warcraft series nailed the orcs really well. They are like real life nomads who were seen as barbaric by settled nations but they were not 'evil' just had unique values which caused a lot of conflicts.
the shadow of mordor games kind of addressed this with orc society having an actual structure with cooks and doctors and such, tho its made very clear they're enslaved by sauron and have a culture of brutaliuty
This is so not true! If you would have read the Silmarillion or the Children of Hurin you would know the horrible stories that came from the orcs. They held slaves and loved destruction and despair and killing. Could give you a thousand examples from the books but I'll make it short: Orcs were evil! In the Lord of the Rings, in the Silmarillion in the book of the Unfinished Tales... Get your facts straight. Oh and most elves were physically stronger than orcs and men.
The thing I appreciate most about this, as a Tolkien fan, is your reminding people that Tolkien's portrayal of famtasy races was much more complex and multifaceted than people realise. People just know the simplistic stereotypes from derivative works and attribute that to Tolkien.
Mitx - It just works That’s been a thing forever. When Lucifer was kicked out of heaven he went from “the most beautiful being” to “a hideous monstrosity”.
When I first saw this video, I was trying to think of a new race. I came up with a tall, lanky, skidd-ish, cave-dwelling people. I soon realized that I just made Smeagol with a growth spurt.
He did wound a goddamn Valar 7 times though Edit: Wait I completely got him and Fingolfin mixed up. Feanor was the one who created the 3 Silmarils and Fingolfin was the one who beat the shit out of Morgoth
Anime just makes everything into waifus they even ruined literal eldritch abominations like nyarlathotep the crawling chaos that spreads madness and despair everywhere it goes.
Tbf, the "fantasy" being discussed here is specifically medieval fantasy. Isekai especially is lazy when it comes to this but I guess the appeal isn't on the world building but on the fulfillment of a fantasy. Made in Abyss or the Dragon Dentist (and Berserk especially) are some of the ones I remember that's not a copy and paste but outside the medieval genre, there's a lot of creative worlds that's set in modern (their Urban fantasy is good) or far future and those are fantasy as well.
I just find them super shallow, like they are always flawless. If you look at Tolkien's elves, they were flawed by pride and other things, they had to go through a lot and they managed to be corrupted and manipulated and this would lead to the Kinslayings, the doom of Mandos, the creation of orcs, and the oath of Feänor, in fact I would go as far as to say that elves were one of the reasons for the first age to be so turbulent. The animes have decided to throw all of that in the trash. Tolkien's elves are anything but shallow, wich has got nothing to do with the elves in anime. And you have to think that all of this was done so 50 odd years later you could have the perfect and shallow elf cliché.
Regarding Tolkien's elves, the reason why most elves in "generic fantasy" (an oxymoron right?!) are usually SO smug and condescending rather than endearing and pleasant is because they forget the *the elves of Tolkien's Arda ARE jealous of men...* that's right they the elves envy their younger siblings, mankind. But why, why would such flawless, ageless beings be envious of short-lived mortals? Simple...any mistake an elf has ever made will always haunt them, forever they *can never live it down* nor can their fellow elves ever forget. (or forgive..) Another reason is becuase while an elf is immortal and ageless their works are not simple because they do not possess an elf's nature *everything they have ever worked for within Middle-earth, everything they've hoped to preserve will not last.* Knowing all this *the elves see men as lucky for their time is brief, they need not worry nor linger in this world forever bound by regerets* and can transcend the world leaving it behind forever. *Elves are forever bound to the world and love it greatly yet they know this world will not last,* one day it will end and with its destruction they perish with it. You would think all of this would make them melancholy and super depressed and while many of them can *seem cold and distant, do not mistake it for them actually being that way* an elf for a friend is a life long and beloved companion. *What gets an elf through all of the hardships, all of this eventuality is simple...sincere faith.* Faith in their comrades, faith in the younger races, faith in their friends be they elf, dwarf, or men...it matters little (or it should) to an elf weather your immortal or mortal if your an sincere person they in turn will be sincere to you. Any way...that's just my thoughts as to why elves have become SO...stale and boring...it's from a lack of faith and it's importance to the elves, that's *their defining trait is not perfection...but faith and hope personified.* p.s. Sorry for the run on sentences...and (possible) grammer mistakes.
Expanding upon your point of Elven envy, while Elves DO die, they are technically reincarnated. Those who don't reincarnate, their spirits are left to wander the world, and they can only transcend when the world ends. Humans and the rest of Men get to move on.
That and orcs were once elves, meaning that elves know they aren't better then humans. Also elves are envious of dwarves for their ability to fight magical corruption. They basically act superior as a front to hide their crippling insecurity.
Usually in some cases there not as that's the trope about Elves you can change that you don't need to follow it but some people expect that and for example umm the TES universe Elves are similarly to humans but they have higher magic power and there smarter then Humans but there near nazi level of racism will part of them
Just like the whites in Europe. You get the point. And no, in the real source, where elves come from, the EDDAS, like mentioned in the video, they are a superior race who are far from being extinct. The Elves in LOTR are leaving Middle Earth but they have a whole continent for themselves across the sea.
@@surtr9728 "For myself, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves." -Faramir
I'm _really_ sick of the trope of "dying ancient human-like race". Elves seem to occupy that a lot. The only time I found it particularly interesting outside of Tolkien was in Dragon Age. Also, it's kind of funny how orcs are now buff and green-skinned, when they were originally weak and came in a variety of colors.
Would you be opposed if I made the "dying ancient human-like race" ACTUALLY humans, right down to the ancient part? It begins when on earth in 2020, something arrived, a legion of magical creatures collectively called Nurn show up and declared war on humanity, a war with which due to the human's complete lack of knowledge of magic, we couldn't win. The humans were driven to extinction except for a tiny population of Americans stored up in an underground sanctuary known as The Terraplex, those Americans entered the Terraplex around 4,000 years before the start of the story. The vast Terraplex that has safeguarded humanity for millennia is beginning to fall apart, the nuclear reactor is about to start failing, and they're running out of spare parts and uranium. The concrete walls that have hidden the humans from the outside world are getting close to the time they start falling apart, the soil they grow their food in is beginning to go sterile, the government knows, the soldiers know, the farmers, the scientists, and even the children know, it is time. The time for hiding is done, the humans have been readying themselves for these last few centuries, doom is coming, the only way to stave it off is to leave the sanctuary and face it head on. It is time for mankind to leave the Terraplex. In order to do so, they must send an advance team, the best of the best, a team of champions enhanced beyond the limits of human ability with the most powerful science and magic at man's disposal. It is they who will be mankind's saviors. For the doom of the Nurn, *they* will leave their dying world. For mankind's only chance, the *Dreadknights* will march forth and forever change the Earth.
Yeah, I'm starting to post the chapters on my Patreon account, but you're going to have to pay a monthly fee in order to read it, I only have the prologue now, but I'm putting up chapter 1 very soon. EDIT: I apologize profusely to anyone reading this but I'm not doing Patreon.
i also take inspiration from classical mythology. For example; In a Fairy Tale world thing my friends and I are doing, we mix classical myths with fairy tale monsters. Say...Elves that work for Santa aren't just toy makers, they're also like the norse myths that are skilled trakcers and craftsmen. Or Dwarves not just being a bunch of short guys who sing 'Hi-Ho', they're skilled black smiths or very technologically advanced. heck, in the world of Grimmwoods (The fantasy setting my friends and I set up), they're basically the epicenter of tech. ...and no, since I am gonna guess you're gonna ask given this is a fairy tale world, no. The Seven Dwarves aren't Irish or Scottish, they're German. (Heck, the eldest one of the seven brothers is a gruff but understanding one named Adolph. (My great-grandpa is a Czech man named Adolph before you ask. I named him after him) with the others havingGerman names as well. Given I am basicing Grimmwoods as a sort of Alternate Earth, that kinda implies the various continents are similar but slightly different from most areas in the world).
I gotcha :P I never played Elder Scroll, I am more basing the Dwarves more on their Fairy Tale and Norse counterparts in terms of what they can do. (I actually research the myths)
One thing I hate even more than just making 57 types of elves is when a D&D Dungeon master thinks that they're really fucking clever and makes it so "Common" is not a language but instead every single human nation has it's own language BUT DOESN'T DO THE SAME FOR ELVISH OR ANY OTHER LANGUAGES. It's like saying "Ah yes all elves speak elvish all dwarves speak dwarven etc but for whatever reason humans are the only race that doesn't have a way to communicate with all the members of their race even though literally everyone else can."
But usually, elves or dwarfs are like two or three kingdoms at most and usually only one. Humans on the other hand are dozens of kingdoms. That said, having a universal language is generally good for trade and those things so "common" makes somewhat sense (but I don't like the name so I generally change it to the name of the current or past hegemony of humans).
HEY! Where are the immortal dragons that randomly decide to try and breed with humans somewhere in the protagonist's ancestry? And succeed, beyond all biological reasoning?
The best part is that its totally possible. Even with some cultural / technological / magical differences, you can take a simple thing (a spear, for exemple) and compare it between the cultures of the real world. It has as much different designs as there is slightly differents magic systems.
I’m thinking of a story where someone’s first meeting with one the wolf-like species gives her an impression that they are a group of prideful, honor-bound warriors. Then she meets other members and learns everyone else thought he was an uptight asshole.
I activate Maiden with Eyes of Blue! I special summon my Blue Eyes Mary Sue and attack your life points directly! K U N A I W I T H C H A I N also, you should watch the original series, that was pretty good.
Kitchen sink elf needs his own novel. Or series of novels; 1: The general life of Kitchen sink elf. 2: Kitchen sink elf and the haunted garbage disposal. 3: Kitchen sink elf meets Super Mario 4: Kitchen sink elf and the lonely housewife and so on.
One of the reasons I love Elder Scrolls lore so much is because it has all the generic aspects you would expect to find, and then goes in all kinds of different directions than you would think. A couple of examples: 1) The Orcs (Orsimer) are themselves elves, descended from those who were followers of the Aldmeri god Trinimac, who were transformed when he was defeated and corrupted by the Daedric Prince Boethiah, himself becoming the Daedric Prince Malacath. But far from being evil, they are more tribal and militaristic. A lot like the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, they strive for honor in battle (and so have a lot more in common with the Nords of old than first meets the eye). 2) The Dwarves are actually not dwarves in the typical sense but are, in reality, also elves (the Dwemer). Far from being excellent builders and smiths (typical), they are credited for having become more technologically advanced than any civilization before then or since. Unlike the conventional elves of fantasy (who are innately and strongly spiritual people), the Dwemer detested the existing deities (the Aedra and Daedra alike) and strove to fashion a god of their own making (the Numidium) so as to ascened to godhood themselves, and on the whole are somewhat similar to Paolini's elves in personality (who are basically just arrogant and condescending atheists). And they were exceedingly racist, even against other elves (going so far as to deceive, enslave, and blind nearly the entire Falmer population when they sought them out for refuge).
Well there's also the part when Topal the Pilot while discovering High Rock encounters what he calls "orcs" and its unknown if these were just goblins, an extinct race, or the actual Orsimer and their origins were just twisted. I choose to believe it was an extinct species that looks simular to modern Orsimer and just happened to also live in High Rock. Take that info as you wish even if it doesn't really matter.
I love how Elder Scrolls made elves actually interesting by making them properly different, and playing up their superiority complex to where it makes them near evil. Also how the different elf races were created by the gods individually.
vitor Mão de Vaca A lot of Altmer are old enough to remember Tiber Septim invading their homeland with a profane artefact (the Numidium) and slaughtering their people. That, on top of believing they are descended from the gods and are the only who kept the ways of said ancestors; making Tiber Septim again a blasphemer, along with his followers, saying man can be a god. The average Altmer probably believes and is motivated by these things; the Thalmor are more radical and secretive. TL;DR, they have deeper seated reasons than just wanting to be evil to do the things they do, and it’s a small cabal of tyrants really putting the hatred into action.
I thought Nords in Skyrim were Nazis 😂😂😂 Edit: TES is unique cuz they have so many different elves. Not just one edgy forever living nature loving elves
If you're gonna use existing races, at the very least do something new with them. Like The Elder Scrolls. They add a lot of interesting nuance to the orcs, not making them evil but rather making them a conservative warrior-society where everyone is expected to grow up into fighters and die in battle, and also adding a more unique spin to their origins. I myself am writing a fantasy novel where the most prevalent race are demons, and I try my best to offer a neat explanation about what they are and where they came from, and make it at least somewhat original. Of course, demons are one of the easier pre-existing races to make your own, considering how broad of a term it is.
Willcraft I agree, but I would also like to throw out the idea of low fantasy. Sometimes the key aspects of your world will stand out more if you make magic rare, and the heroes may not actually have access to magic.
I love what they did with the Dwarves, too. Rather than angry manlets, they turned them into egocentric, nihilistic, god-rejecting elves with the most technologically advanced society Tamriel ever witnessed.
Eberron. Dinosaur herding halflings. Orcs who are guardians of the world of the dead. Desert-dwelling scorpion warriors dark elves. And the list goes on... Oh, and if that wasn't enough, they even invented two new races. Warforges who are sentients constructs used as soldiers in an ancient war and Shifters, people descended from lycanthropes who can gain some animalistic powers and boons while using a mechanic somewhat similar to a barbarian's rage.
Tolkien didn't invent Elves, Dwarves, or Goblins. They all originated from various mythologies. Hobbits were the only race that was truly created by Tolkien and even then they're basically Gnomes.
yeah, but you think all those Tolkien wannabes studied mythologies? it's not bad to use pre existing concepts, but when literally everything is copy and paste, to how Lord of the Rings did it except maybe the names, it's just off putting, it's like half of the fantasy genre might be set in Middle Earth as well.
@@ginogatash4030 Which is why we have something called Lore everyone has different kinds of Lore and why things exist unless you just copy and patse and Humans actually used older stuff to write there stories the most prominent example will be the Gods as we either use the actual mythology or be inspired by that mythology to make that kind of God and many other Novels do the same thing I know what you were saying and I agreed to that but nearly everything has a since of complicity
@@ginogatash4030 I can agree as i read a Novel were the whole novel was basically nearly all of middle earth with slight changes good thing they had likable characters and a somewhat different story if they didn't the whole story would be just lord of the rings with different names of the characters
@@kingmaoh5566 I was talking more about copycat novels without cool characters and so on, but I think it's a problem for those too, as the heavily "inspired" setting cheapens the story to me, I mean, you've taken the time and care to write your characters and story, why not put some of that energy into making the world feel its own?
That has to be my favorite sci-fi fantasy series of all time! Although near the end Artemis' intelligence seemed to drop a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed the new take on fairies and the reasons that they "co-exist" with humans.
I wish they we're more creative when making races. Almost all of them look human with the exception of having pointy ears, bizzare eyes, unusual skin color, etc.
I don't like the idea of them being "races". Instead, let's make them separate intelligent species. This video gave me some ideas: - a reptilian people that is less intelligent, more impulsive, but with lightening fast reflexes that makes them excellent fighters - human ascetics that went into caves centuries ago and now resemble something completely different, with pale paper-like skin, and huge eyes. They're deeply spiritual and talented with magic, but incredibly delicate. - a large, hulking species based on gluttony. They're very strong and competitive, extremely hierarchical, and view kindness or empathy as weakness - fish people lol
@@FishDinners I have an idea bird people ostrich and emu looking things along with other birds but they are intelligent and adapted there feet and wings to better grasp things. Birds could be the dominant species and there could be highly militaristic and isolationist penguins in the pole wich have many resources but aren't super good at inventing things so they use slave labor and scientists from other species wich they get through trade of resources ice and in very limited numbers there rare metals and other resources and amphibians can be like the big slow ones you describe
@@FishDinners swans could be a leading species for most of the birds because swans are very strong and aggressive animals that have a good reputation the birds could also have extram classisme and specism. Penguins would be excluded frome this since they are across the ocean and largely isolationist because there constantly preparing for Avent to happen wich happened in the past. That event would be why other group's such as all birds (excluding penguins) came to together to form one government or in the reptiles case a few governments that cooperate. The penguins being isolated never had other species to come to get to together so with out the numbers they had to become very militaristic and stayed that way
afukcinbox lol2 You realise Turks are way older than you think right they are old as Chinese which they were constantly figthing. There is ancient Turk Mythology and writings and most altaic languages comes from there also the ethnics like Mongolians and Maghar. But confusion comes from Huns which word Turk first mention in ancient writings of Celestial Turks after huns most stuff before that comes from chinese history recordings.
afukcinbox lol2 Also They didnt worshiped wolves It was the symbols they worshiped tengri which old mongols got that religion from turks too and Tengri usually symbolised as Sun and Moon thats where color truquas which named after turks and name Celestial comes from. Also Moon in Islam used to be symbol of Turkic people not Islam but Islmaic countries stole that after Ottoman Empire so moon in turkish flag or Azerbaijan flag doesnt stand for Islam.
Hoàng Nguyên Actually that makes sense since Werewolf is an important creature in Turkic mythology and wolves are the symbol of Turks. And even Vlad himself wasnt Turk events happened in Ottoman Empire and he is the inspiration for vampire stories.
let me quote some part of The Experimental Log of The Crazy Lich The Elves, well-known for their beauty and longevity, lived inside the peaceful forest. They were pure, kind, and lived a simple and self-sufficient life. They typically lived in harmony with nature, but whenever this world is threatened by Evil, they would unhesitatingly rouse themselves for battle, and would fight to their last breath. Only the children would believe such a fairy tale! If there was a race of such innocence and purity, they would have been exterminated long time ago, by any big war evolved from the stray projectiles from the crossfire. damn I love this novel
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien Or enslave other races and think they the most superior race. Specially if they and all the races all have dwarfs technology, what would possibly go wrong.
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien Well if they got wiped out would depend on how common war is in their fantasy universe. If war is rare, and almost everyone strives for an easy life, or evil races stay with evil races away from the others, they would be able to live in their woodland utopia no sweat.
This is why I like Warhammer orcs. They aren't elves tortured and twisted into evil creatures but sentient fungi that just want to get into fights for the sake of fighting.
Same reason i enjoy Wood Elves. Oh sure, you might call them treehuggers...but i honestly want you to call them that again after you either got crushed by a tree , got skewered by several arrows out of the bushes or had to deal with a wardancer.
Lightscribe225 Hi, just to be sure, they ARE in fact plant/fungi based? Sorry, the idea of a sentient plant being just sounds cool to me. Pardon my noobness.
Stupid Character ideas: - Orc priest who taught love and kindness - Edgy Elf lady in heavy armor and war hammer - Young Dwarf assassin who doesn't like smithing - Human necromancer protagonist who uses zombies
Orc priest, Guldak Thompson (in his musings): Is it better to be born good or to overcome one's evil nature through great effort? Dark knight, Sileanii Mirabriel (edgy elf lady): You done pondering the mysteries of the world, "old man?" Priest Guldak: Old? Your 90 years my senior, Mirabriel! DK Mirabriel: Heh, yeah well the rest of our party is waiting down stairs at the inns lobby. Let's not keep'em waiting forever, besides I've got some strategies to go over and I'd like to have everyone present, that includes our main support castor! Priest Guldak: *Sighs* Very well...I will join you in a bit, just let me get my texts and supplies together. DK Mirabriel: Very good! See you down stairs, don't keep us waiting too long ok? **chuckles and heads down the hall connected to the main lobby stairs** *end scene* side note: The characters unusual last names (for typical fantasy races anyway) comes from the idea I had of that some of the humans that migrated to the little story's world were infact from our own Earth and that some of them were Christians and missionaries of the faith and of it's various denominations. They brought with them not just their religions but also their naming conventions, with some of the earliest non-human converts being whole villages or enclaves of orcs or other "goblin-kin!" Also a bit of backstory and history, Guldak's own great grandmother was a half-orc nun at a well known nunnery so his family has had long standing ties to the *neo-protestant-Catholic blended (that's a mouthful..)* church of their local regions.
Always hated this. I grew up deeply fascinated by creatures like dragons, lizard people, chimeras, goblins, and all sorts of monsters or weird aliens from film or games, but then I noticed in quite a lot of cases these things were either underused, in the minority of fiction, or both. Instead, elves and Dwarves are freakin' everywhere, and if that ain't enough so are things like 3-eyed or just recolored green human aliens. I... just don't get the appeal. You get to use your imagination, create an entirely different being and culture, and you... just make a short guy, or give someone pointy ears, or color them green? Ugh. Sometimes they're still made interesting by the story, but still it feels like a gigantic wasted opportunity.
All stories are written for a human audience, and elves and dwarves are basically just slightly modified humans, meaning you can easily use them in these stories, and still have them remain grounded and approachable.
A lot of these stories are written with these races explicitly to represent a trait, and so the race would be slightly modified human to show them as a facet of humanity. Classic example is Star Trek, with Klingons standing in for violence, Vulcans for logic, Ferrengi for greed, etc. Then by introducing your human characters to the embodiment of a quality, you can explore it by how they react to it, how the species acts, what are its strengths and weaknesses. Basically, these races are used for broad discussions of specific characteristics.
i see, i kinda know that feeling, most stories just uses humans and those human lookalike as their protagonist(and everyone else in the protagonist party) but keeps other interesting races as mooks(at least dragons are used as "bosses" in many works), as far games goes there's a lack of playable bird people, i mean they look pretty cool even if they can't fly.
I think the counter to this, in my opinion is that derivative fantasy races can still be dynamic and interesting, but also provide something familiar and identifiable. Being original is not the same as being good. I'll take a well-done Elvish race that still follows most of the Tolkien Tropes over a poorly done but creative race of sentient gerbils or octopi that don't create an interesting story. You might as well get peeved at everyone using the "hero's tale" or any number of cliches that come up over and over again in media. Cliche is not bad and tropes are not evil. Elves and Dwarves are useful precisely because they are familiar but still alien. Spigunians the race of sentient flowers requires a great deal of explanation, you must spend time either expositing about this new race you introduced even handled well that can be a challenge. But if an Orc appears in your story, anyone who knows fantasy has a picture in their mind of it already. Of course you can subvert those expectations in fact some of the best writing can come with playing with these tropes, you can make your orcs valiant rebels or heroic knights in service to the realm in the course of your story; allowing people to explore those preconcieved prejudices. You can write a story about an orc raised in that positive environment, but could you do it nearly so easily if instead of an orc it was a Fleebert or a Grundinash? Not without either lengthy exposition, or worse, making the creature an orc in all but name.
Kyle Phibbs miss the point there my dude. He wasnt arguing that using these races is bad more that using them and being cliche (to the point it's stereotypical) about it is lazy writing
Couldn't agree more. This is why I am annoyed at so many people commenting about Paolini's Inheritance cycle (Eragon) here. It did use some Elf, Human, and Dwarf tropes as well as McCaffreyesque Dragon tropes; but also added a few unique races (Spirits, were-cats, Urgals [which are an interesting twist on Orc tropes]). But as you said, tropes can work well for a story. Sure the elves were mostly annoying and arrogant, but that was kind of the point. Honestly, High Fantasy books rarely have a problem with overly generic race tropes because their focus is mostly on plot and characters. Fantasy games are bigger offenders, but then again classic races have certain advantages to them.
A good point, certainly. Though one has to be mindful of the sheer quantity of uses that a fantasy race/species concept sees, if it's already overly popular among an audience. The number of uses includes not only clichéd examples, but also authors who have already bucked the trend and subverted some cliché or convention. And maybe ten different authors have already played around with established clichés in similar ways, making their once-unique take suddenly less unique. Ergo, whatever an author does with a race like dwarves or elves, will be more of an uphill battle, since there particular concepts of fantasy races are far more crowded than others. Simply reimagining established popular races, often only piecemeal, ultimately leads to diminishing creative returns either way. Nevertheless, you're right that it's good to try.
See, I don't really know about that. A little uniqueness is certainly good, but a lot of it seems to me generally to be a bad sign. Humans aren't really changing. We're basically the same people we were a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand years ago, we have the same basic emotions, concerns, and needs. When I think of all the fiction that I enjoy most, while it also has things that set it apart, none of them tell particularly novel stories. They generally tell the same stories. We generally tell the same stories, over and over, because they're the stories that are meaningful and significant to us. And the entire value of reusing say, elves and dwarves, is that it serves as a shorthand to establish the fantastical in a way that's familiar. It's a shorthand that lets us bypass a lot of irrelevancy to get to the story we actually want to tell.
This sounds like it's calling out the Eragon series, and I'm HERE for it. At least until the orc part, because the author at least sort of tried with those.
Elliot G The "Smug Elf" suggesting that the dwarves go vegan literally happened in book two of that series. For extra smug points, she also told them to redistribute their wealth and become atheists...apparently she learned her immortal Elven wisdom on Reddit 😂
So you are saying that when coming up with different types of Elves we should use litterally everything but the kitchen si-- oh, we use that too? Sure, why not.
What about cross breeding between the races, despite how unrealistic their peaceful meeting is in the plot and of course also considered a crime against nature, while the main race (elves) love triangle themselves through the world nontheless, except orcs, who are way too ugly to be able to have relationships and therefore just spawn out of nowhere when they are needed to show of the awesome skills of the main protagonist? Is that a good idea?
NRX25 In d&d there are half-orcs. And the origins of half-orcs are rarely a happy story. And their lives are complicated when living with humans or orcs. So I'd recommend checking them out a bit.
To be fair, humans having children with divine beings happened frequently in myths, so human-elf intermingling is not completely out of the blue (some universes have elves and humans as the same species).
I personaly dont have problem with crossbreeding as long as the plot can contain that. its isnt new in fiction or myth- for example, D&D has half-elves, half-orcs and humanoid like monster races such as dragonborn or tiefling.
Nathan Phipps In Eragon there are other species apart from dwarfs, humans and elfs. Like Ra'zac and Lethrblakas, the grey folks, giants, and werecats, urgals and Shades. There are also two species of dragon-like creatures and some other ents like spirites and gods.
Nathan Phipps I love the inheritance cycle. Tho it's clichéd with elves and dwarves, it does have its own races and the story is still amazing. Not to mention the work Putin the ancient language.
+Ignasi Martí Palet But still,the series is chock full of cliches. The elves are hilariously better than all the other races, magic, strength, skill, attractiveness, intelligence, even smithing. The dwarves aren't even the best at making stuff, the most common thing people give them! They're just the short losers that hide in the dirt. Urgals are basically just discount Orcs with horns, the shades(all *two* of them) are just magicy vampires. I notice you said "gods" plural when we only saw one "supposed" god for literally a paragraph of the whole series. As the stereotypical smug elves said, there are no gods, it's just the other races being stupid, and considering they're perfect, I guess they're right. Werecats were just kind of silly honestly, they had no depth and were pretty boring. Just more annoying cat people that only really show up in the last book and don't do much. I guess the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka, who are technically the same race as I recall, are somewhat original, even if they just seem like bug people. I honestly don't remember giants at all, and grey folk weren't even a thing. They just mentioned them and fans decided that must be what Angela was.
yea the inheritance cycle was honestly terrible. the protagonist was a complete mary sue, who had this wise old man who died, spoke magic words, was the last dragon rider, etc. a terrible fantasy series.
Zelda is so darn unique. Completely original races, like Gorons, Rito, Zora, Gerudo, Kokiri, Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Bulblins, and the Sheikah. Even the Hylians (which most people like to call elves) act more like humans than elves do.
@@elgatochurro While the fantasy races in Zelda are definitely really basic lorewise and power wise, there is no denying that they are unique to Zelda specifically. You won't see Gorons in another fantasy setting, but you can see Orcs in many more fantasy settings. EDIT: And while I am saying they are unique, I should clarify that they aren't necessarily better than other fantasy races that are shared across different settings.
One universe that put an interesting spin on elves is TES, actually - High elves are mad geniuses and could probably divide you by zero - Dark elves are nomadic, xenophobic and fanatic mess, mixed in with beautiful middle-east inspired culture - Wood elves are still tree huggers, but they are goddamn cannibals
TES also did a good job at making people sorry for the Orcs since they keep getting fucked over by the bretons. Instead of evil they are just isolationists.
Rotten Brain Not to mention that the supposed dwarves went instinct while experimenting with the powers of nirn... Its quite interesting but was there ever a backstory why there are bosmer, altmer und dunmer?
There was, but it seems to be just regular fantasy babble. Altmer shared different ancestors with men, so they viewed themselves as being closer to gods. Bosmers just evolved from altmers during thousands of years they were living in a forest. Dunmer are religious exiles, who were led from Summerset Isles by Veloth and settled in Morrowind. Their skin got darker after Azura cursed them for the betrayal of Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Orsimer were altmer as well, but Boethiah swallowed their god Trinimac and literally shat him out as Malacath, which also turned all his worshippers into orcs.
Well, their only difference from Altmers were a slightly shorter physique and the fact that they worship Daedra, so I forgot to mention the fact that they more or less changed after exile from Summerset.
Right there with you fuji, subbed and liked. Quicktip: if you guys want an underrated youtube channel to succeed, like ALL of that channel's videos (you know, if you actually like it or whatever...) and comment a bunch - youtube's algorithm picks up on social cues such as likes, subs, comments, and every social cue you send will make the channel rank higher. (At least I think that's how it works). Glad I stumbled into this channel, keep up the awesome work!
WriteRightRite actually I don't think that's how it works. As far as I know likes and comments are pointless. I think the only things that matter are rentention rate (keeping people watching your video). Length, consistency (while I don't think TH-cam monitors this it helps with the other stuff) and finally subs and views (more subs mean more potential views and views equal more watch time)
"Getting Sea Sick of Elves" Elves A sea-sick elf... Okay, I might actually use the idea that wood elves suffer from sea-sickness and claustrophobia while their city-elf brethren have overcome these primal fears from their long standing partnership with enterprising humans. The obligatory dwarf will actually be the most compassionate, understanding that not all races are suited to all environments and he too suffers from severe agoraphobia.
The worst thing about different 'races' in fanatsy is often time they perpetuate a kind of racism within thier own worlds. Everyone can be so simply defined by a bunch of stereotypes and character traits. Tolkien atleast tried to show how these stereotypical traits come about and how some don't fit into them at all but for so many writers it's crutch the betrays a shallow view of the world that stops me from believing in whatever world they created
World of Warcraft does it just nice... Even if realistically that universe must be filled to the brim with halfbreeds. So many different cultures, mostly implying several degrees of racism, but still understandable and open enough to be able to counter their ways.g
Elfs are the superior humanoid race in fantasy. All other races are deformed monsters like the Orcs, or useless nobodies like the Humans. We need to eliminate these ethnic minorities in order to purify and restore the Fatherland to it's former glory!
@@58209 well, if we talking about trolls, they are heavily inspired in aztecs as well (with extra mayan and incan if zandalari), not only caribbean. As I said, its not a racism-free universe, but all things considered, it does quite well.
This is actually good advice if you take it literally. As in actually make the wood elves tree hugging hippies, better yet make them stoned out all the time. Make Dark elves edge lords and goths, make Smug elves nazis. Exaggerate Dwarves even more and add in the kleptomaniac Kinde... I mean halflings we all know and love.
Lol, that's not far off from what I do when I make my DND worlds xD Step 1: Make a fantastic world full of unique and special races! Step 2: Add a healthy dose of bigotry and racism! Step 3: Sit back and revel in the chaos you've created! xD (also, add human characteristics to otherwise stereotypical evil races for additional moral conundrums to antagonize readers/players!)
They're intelligent elves that took a huge inspiration from real-life Ancient Greek technology. I also love how the Orsimer are clearly inspired by Tolkien's Orcs, but it's done in a way that pays respect to Tolkien's original depiction (The Orsimer are elves that were said to be corrupted after Trinimac was devoured by Boethiah, and became Malacath from Boethiah's refuse. Despite their conservative warrior-based culture, the Orsimer are renowned as some of the greatest smiths in Tamriel, rivalling even the Dwemer.).
Dark elf and forest elf could be “races” race means only small genetic differences between a species, what you’re talking about with orcs though, that’s not a different race, they would be an entirely different sentient species, not a different race.....
Tolkien kinda ruin idea of race so any different speices is the same level as another race but generally there Human Like so....there kinda a race but in a more stronger term with a larger genetic difference
@@Rainbowthewindsage Both countries deny the existance of the other while severely censoring media relevant to their neighbor. Yes the Korean peninsula as a whole is a fantasy world though more of a dystopian grimdark mess caused by a time loop in the 1980's.
My pitch: Every race is actually human. Someone with modern sensibilities wouldn't be able to tell the difference appearance-wise, but in the story, races are frequently described as human or non-human. They are literally dehumanizing alien peoples.
Theres a difference between race & species if we take examples from human history first contact would probably be extremely confusing because of linguistic and cultural differences not to mention that one group might not recognize the other as people. That's within the same species now imagine analyzing a totally alien species who's method of communication is completely different.
I kind of agree but not always. Definetly true with Tolkien races (I am still unable to see what makes dwarfs visually diferent from short humans), hell The Legend of Zelda played with this in the sense that there are elves and humans (visually, al least) in that world but both are refered to as hylians. That said sometimes races in fantasy are definetly diferent species (going back to TLoZ, even though they are called tribes and not races these are all diferent species except the all female gerudo, I mean one are non-gendered rock-people and the other ones are either humanoid fish or birdfolk). Some of these can be very unique and original, like the already mentioned gorons or the argonian from TES. I just wish that we could leave the word race behind and use the proper term of species since it would be more accurate (and of course, slam dwarf, elves and halflings/hobbits inside human, gnomes potentially could too but depending on their origin and due to their usually super-wacky appearance an argument could be made for them).
An isekai on Spacebattles took that route: the elves are basically a human subspecies that came to be from…well, it’s not the nicest way to say it, but they were originally a human druidic cult that delved so deep into nature magic that it changed them into their own race. In the fluff, dwarves were the same: they were humans who settled in a brutal northern continent and took to living underground. Their use of magic plus environmental pressures eventually made them into dwarves.
The amount of people who believe this is descriptive or a "shot" at the Elder Scrolls is ridiculous. Yes, they have orcs, dark elves, high elves, wood elves and dwarves. But what matters is how they're implemented. The orcs are oppressed and tribal, the dark elves are xenophobic and were slave owners (a lot), high elves, yes, as so many people have pointed out, do have Elf Nazis. But the Thalmor is an incredibly interesting political party. There's a ton of interesting lore behind that. Wood Elves are (or were) fucking cannibals. They're also by far the most interesting interpretation of wood elves in my opinion. Lastly, dwarves aren't even dwarves. They're just regular human size. They're also elves, like the orcs.
Ya I would not say that Elder Scrolls are a rip of of Tolkien although I would point out that he series started out much closer and over time added interesting lore
@Hans Hanzo you mean the beast FOLK right?^ i mean,the argonians themselfs are one of the,if not the most unique race of te TES series,their culture,lore and origin are completely diferent then any other race native to tamriel (basically every elf or human)
Lmfao. This was super funny and relatable. I've been trying to make my own fantasy races and I find the first and most simple thing to consider so that things fall in place is to ask yourself "Why are they still alive, and why are the others still alive" I like my races to have evolved differently based on their needs. So those better with magic didn't advance technology as much, those that are weaker, have shorter life spans, and therefore much larger populations. Etc. The biggest problem I see with people using traditional fantasy races, isn't that it's familiar. It's when they forget to give any reason as of why, or how those races are still around. Humans evolved because the dinos went bye bye and mammals became dominant, so the favorable traits changed over time. I find if you dont give at least a basic thought of what lead a race to exist, or why they didint get conquered by others, you've fucked up. Easiest way to do this though is just say world is divided, or people cant travel, allowing to evolve races in none conflicted biomes. If elves lived in the east and humans in the west and only after boats became better, that makes sense. But if humans and elves are neighbors, its more likely that one of the two would have become dominant and not both of them would evolve into these intelligent, prosperous races.
I dont understand why writers write of humans as uninteresting or weak... After all, just look at us: we survived countless of wars, especially two of the most horrific wars in recent history. We invented weapons that could blow up the world in a single press of a button. We have subjucates beasts much stronger than ourselves into acting in circuses. We have manipulated the minds of entire civilizations through plastic machines and radio waves. If anything, I feel human kind is the most overpowered of any fantasy races...
I write a story setting called trony,Humans are more "desirable" partners for other races because boning them is not overcomplexed and they have much more simple set up for tieing the knot. However, as a result in the setting half breeds happen,which are sometimes deformed to the point of killing the child would be mercy or come out still born. However,the race chance they do come out alive and not cripple,they will usually gain both good and bad traits from the parent species. Take note, the first species to bring humanity the taste of other races where the owls. Well,at least the first recorded case.
The idea is usually to make humans so weak in order to exaggerate the feats the main character (who is human) completes. Slaying 100 soldiers is fine, but if those soldiers are orcs with 500 times human strength, all of a sudden your main character is cooler!... even though the enemies strength seems instantly negated by the main character's presence.
Pachy The Pirate Pachy The Pirate I guess theres some truth in that... But is just that I feel that the "lone hero does everything" trope is getting abit stale over time. If anything, I feel if the main character, who is of a weak race pwning 100 orcs easily makes him feel out of place in the environment he's in. In my opinion, stories shouldn't be focused on the main character; the plot and world are much more important. But what I really like to see is humans using their deceitful cunning to manipulate events into defeating these 100 orcs rather than using brute force.
Carzeyday Okay... your pitch makes me feel that the humans are more like objects for fucking.. But interspecies relations are always interesting. I'was thinking of a setting where multicultural marriages are highly encouraged by the governments to patch up relations after the war. Only catch is humans and elves hate each other due to the atrocities commited on both sides, So, there is a socio-political rift between those who support and are against interspecies relationships, And then there are those who want to kill each other Its kinda inspired by the migrant crisis tho
Exactly. While a dwarf might be stubborn, his long experience with the uncertainty of reality might make him more willing to listen to advice. An elf might be less arrogant towards humans because of the same reason. I've never liked generalized traits for races that aren't biological.
Mate, a fair amount of biological traits seep into the cognitive process. Look at XYY men for example, men with naturally higher male hormone levels. They are greatly more aggressive [bear in mind aggression doesn't always have to be violent]. For an Orc, turn that up to eleven.
Correct, But that said, Seeing how Men and Women(On average) act differently, just from mostly a hormonal difference(Within the womb, and outside during puberty, The latter actually changing how your brain develops in many ways.), Which with men increases aggression, confidence, and risk taking behavior, while physically having better reflexes, and mentally being better at logically thinking, while worse at emotional maturity, and other. This is just from the same species, Let alone one with an entirely different set of DNA, Culture, and natural predators/Civilization. Now while I agree, having them be FORCED to have all the generic traits, Because of their race or gender of sex is lame. (As almost NO one is a full stereotype.) However these stereotypes do exist for a reason, But still, there will be many that think differently, Extremists, On both that agree with their own culture and religion(or lack of one) and differently. So saying that they "Shouldn't" act anything at all like their race would feel out of place, Unless it is shown by the world it is odd, and there would most likely be a reason to cause this abnormality in their thinking.
Most differences we see on Male and Female behavior despite the biological part are taught, not natural, we need to break this assumption quick because it has no space in modern society anymore, people vary greatly if they have space...
I really enjoy this sarcastic way of handling proper storytelling. The only issue I have with this series as of now is it that it stems heavly from a purely creative standpoint, which is awesome!, but not from a commercial standpoint. The masses arent as critical as the 1% that review and advertize as story, and even then the reviews are based off of what the masses want. No reviewed product is as good as its stated, because all the reviews are centered around money. Im loving this series and its that creative origin that made tbat love. Ive got ideas of my own for stories and all of the characters have flaws, issues, differences and circumstances that allow their traits to show. I just want to tell a story and I think the uninterest in money is a good start for originality.
I’m running a pathfinder campaign where the elves are actually a genocidal industrial empire. The story is that thousands of years prior, they were typical tree hugging tolkien elves. They revered the goddes of life and were allied by a tribe of human druids. However, The goddess of life made the human tribe here chosen people, transforming them into a new race with greater power over nature. The elves were enraged at this and renounced their faith towards the goddess. Over the coming ages, their rage grew until they declared war on the other races to prove that they were superior to all. They enslaved the halflings and gnomes, along with several races of fey, cause the humans to flee the continent, and drove the dwarves to extinction. Now, only an alliance of orcs, goblinoids, beast men, and the chosen of the goddess stand between the elves and domination of the continent.
"Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" by Rick Riordan. Riordan was inspired by his teacher who told him that "The Lord of the Rings" was modeled after Norse mythology. At least he read the sources of J.R.R Tolkien.
I doubt Riordan actually read the sources.. he most likely just went over wikipedia and don't even knows how to pronounce the names.. and obviously Even tho Fenrir and Jormungand are by lore the strongest along with Thor, Odin and Surtr, You can't have Fenrir be an actual major threat.. Nah he's just a big wolf, God forbid giving him a strength comparable to that of Gungnir or Mjöllnir despite that he was able to eat Odin armed with Gungnir while odin was mounted on his half brother.. Now Being able to do that to Odin would require being able to literraly swallow Gungnir without taking damage.. And there is absolutely no way a demi-god Valkyrie transformed into a lion even if she is Loki's daughter would be able to stand her ground against him..
Renard Dubois Tolkien loved mythology more than any other fantasy writer did. He wrote fantasy because he loved mythology. In fact,he wanted to create his own mythology(with all the Valar,hobbits,Elves,and Dwarves present in his epic stories). I'm sure Riordan really loves mythology. But he does not love it the way Tolkien does. In fact,people criticize "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" because of Riordan's inability to portray Norse mythology's fatalism which sets it apart from the Greco-Roman and Egyptian myths in his other books. Tolkien portrays this better in "The Lord of the Rings":The Elves are destined to leave Middle-earth,but they still fight Sauron. The Norse legend of Ragnarok also influenced Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor. They have no hope but they are still continuing their quest to destroy the One Ring. Tolkien was a scholar and a professor who loved reading ancient stories. Riordan was a school teacher.
Well it sure is hard to be even just as fatalistic as norse mythology.. Litteraly everything is about destiny and prophecies that always come true and most of the time, they come true because the ones interested try to change what was foretold.. But you can respect the main characters even if you keep the prophecies at bay.. And that's not what Riordan do.
We already have him he is called Samwise Gamgee The Brave Lord of Potatoes: Killer of Ungoliant, destroyer of the ring, bearer of 13 children and seven times reelected mayor of the shire. Samwise was an absolute Mad Lad!
@@feanorhighkingofthenoldor6614 "bearer of 13 children"...? Now I'm not a native speaker, but to me that sounds more like one of the fanfictions where he ends up with Frodo and (somehow) gets pregnant himself, rather than his wife bearing 13 children :D
@@feanorhighkingofthenoldor6614 I'd like to formally disagree with that - why does there have to be just ONE hero? Why can't they both be heroes that both would have inevitably failed without the other by their side? But I'm gonna refrain from writing an essay about it here, I'm sure you don't wanna read a comment that long.
I actually wish people would be more inspired by Tolkien's orcs instead of the green skinned tusked muscle men everyone uses nowadays ( Including the appearance of the orc in the vid :P )
I searched for the literal definition of "orcneas", but all I could find was that it meant ghoul. So I'll just write my Orcs as ghoulish, zombie elves.
My orcs aren't green... They're tall, well built and with tusk-like teeth, though... But they are partly covered in fur and have a tail, *THEREFORE I'M ORIGINAL YOU CAN'T SAY ORTHERWISE*
@@jacket6213 huh. Mine are former humans who turned into pale, naked "zombies" that eventually regain their intelligence/sanity and evolve into all sorts of different elves.
To be fair - Greenskinned Orks originate from WarHammer and those are THE funniest Orks (or Orcs if we're talking Fantasy Battles) you could come across. Genetically engineered jovial murder machines with absolutely hilarious culture and no self-awareness of how horrible their situation is. And even if they were aware of it, they'd probably find it absolutely amazing. Enemies everywhere! No need to actually look for them!
That's exactly why i love the lore of Warcraft/WoW. Specifically their take on orcs. Instead of being "hurr durr, dumb evil brutes that want to murder everything" they are an originally peaceful species that was deceived by demons and turned into almost stereotypical orcs for just long enough to fullfill the goals of said demons. After that their world was ruined, so they had to escape to Azeroth, where they were met with extreme prejudice and xenophobia by humans, who only accepted the existence of nice-looking races. As the most capable of the rejects, the orcs formed the Horde, which, contrary to it's first impressions, is simply races not accepted by the Alliance trying to defend their lives together, regardless of how wildly different their worldviews are.
WOW just copies generic stereotypes. First orcs were generic bad guys who wanted to murder everyone then they were generic "misunderstood good guys" who were victims of evil humans... don't know where I have heard that one before
5 ปีที่แล้ว +13
Meh, I prefer the Warhammer orcs. Genetically engineered space fungi FTW
1:26 Elf approaches a duo of dwarves, happily feasting on beer and drumsticks, to ask them "Have you considered becoming vegan?" *This scene literally happened in the Inheritance Cycle.* For extra smugness points, that Elf also suggested that the Dwarves should become atheists and redistribute their wealth. I'm not making this up 😂
Dont forget the fairies (but spelled "faeries" to sound unique and edgy without knowing the etymology of the word) who are always bubbly and happy and unrealistically stupid and they all have the power of healing!! :-)
RIP Gabe the Dog, January 2000 - January 19 2017 In my fantasy world fairy's are insect like creatures who use magic to induce hallucinations to kill and use them as food. Also there demons.
I actually made a D&D Class if it was in the modern age. **Like my dad said “So elves and dwarves in suits in ties.”** It’s called *The Observer.* It can act like another class, a well known person, etc. They are a copycat class that have no real life of their own after becoming an observer. Me and my dad thought of a few weakness but we couldn’t think of a good weakness
At least Bethesda added unique cultures, politics, religions, history and customs to these races. But i hope that on their next franchise they invent some completely unique races.
They could make a new series with a well thought lore and beastfolk too. There is never enough beastfolk. Or add beastfolk that makes sense in the world of elder scrolls with new unique background. Or different Khajit races people will love it mostly.
Well, I think that one got better as it went on, even if it's beginnings were kind've derivative. There was still enough creativity to keep me interested.
Ech. It's derivative, but I think he does it pretty well. Don't expect Tolkien 2.0, he was like 16 when he wrote the first book. (but he can't even do a conlang properly what you have there is a *relex*)
This is why I love the Eberron setting, it defies traditional fantasy stereotypes and allows us to not be locked in rigid definitions of race and considers settings in a more modern light in comparison to medieval fantasy settings.
I feel like dragon age did an amazing job at using elements of tolkien but creating a brand new story, If you've played through the Trespasser DLC for Inquistion it'a amazing how they throw out everything we thought we knew about elven culture and then compare them to the Tevinter Imperium, the group that conquered and enslaved the Elves. And it's great how they added their own race as well that isn't just completely shoved to the sideline to make room for the Humans Dwarves and Elves, the Qunari have a really interesting culture that adds to the overall story and feel like they belong in the world, unlike over fantasy worls where they Tolkien's races, take out the halfings and then replace them with another small race, like the Gnomes in Sword of Shannara.
Unfortunately Warcraft/WoW couldn't really get away from the trend either: First, you have "The Holy Fantasy Trifecta" of: Orcs, Dwarves (no tech, just alcohol), and even two different flavors of Elves (Nature-Loving & Magic Addicts) Then there's (of course) us boring old Humans. And then there's everyone else: The Worgen (Who are literally *just* British Werewolves, and that's it), Tauren (Native American Minotaurs), Pandaren (We don't talk about those), Undead ("Innovative!"), Goblins (Money grubbing and everything) Gnomes (Puntable midgets with the Dwarves' knack for gadgets trope), & Trolls, mon. (Blue Jamaicans with pointy ears and a hunchback. 420/10) The only "truly original" race I think they did were the Draenei, at least of the playable ones... Still a good game/series, tho.
Warcraft's biggest divergence from classic fantasy is how it portrays these races differently from Tolkein-based fantasy, the Orcs are a proud and noble PEOPLE rather than blood-thirsty monsters and only acted as such when enslaved by the Burning Legion. Humans are both noble, relatable, but also extremely zealous and effectively fight a race war against the Horde because in the past the Orcs (whilst enslaved and corrupted by the Burning Legion) invaded Azeroth, despite the fact that they now moved to a different continent on Azeroth to try live in peace without causing trouble to the humans. Dwarves and Gnomes are directly tied to each other, as far as races in Warcraft there aren't two closer both culturally and personally, their capitals are right next to eachother and both Dwarves and Gnomes are in touch with their roots as Titan Constructs (Earthen and Mechagnomes), and Dwarves have 4 different clans of note, 3 of which had a civil war together, each with notably different personalities, one of them breaking the traditional "Dwarf living underground with the forge" trope entirely. Tauren, well everyone loves Tauren, and it's nice to see a Minotaur race not being some mindless monsterous brutes but instead a relatively peaceful race. Goblins are again a nice break from the traditional fantasy dumb tribal goblins and Warcraft's goblins have an interesting rivalry with the Gnomes. The Forsaken are interesting in that they aren't the classic mindless zombies but instead have quite a lot of lore and story to them that I don't have space to type into this comment. Everyone loves Trolls, that's a given, and their cultures are extremely interesting, with the varying troll Tribes, the Loa they worship, their voodoo magic and the shadow hunters, not to mention the Zandalari Trolls from which they stem, with their glorious Temple City of Gold Zandalar: th-cam.com/video/AiMD2h8xv9c/w-d-xo.html Bar the High Elves, the whole elven race in WoW is done in a fairly interesting manner with them having stemmed for Trolls originally and how Elves adapt so drastically to their enviroments, the struggle with addiction of the Blood Elves and later the Nightborne, their visual design and architecture breaks away from traditional elven fantasy in a fair few areas, Night Elf skin and their slightly savage nature that we see occasionally (especially in Warcraft 3), their magic addiction with the Blood Elves, and the whole of the Nightborne stuff. Obviously the High Elves (and to an extent subsequently the Blood Elves) are the traditional fantasy elves with their culture, visuals, and architecture. Pandaren have an interesting enough culture and yes they get a lot of shit for being chubby pandas, from a lore point they're quite interesting, from the visual of their characters they are a bit too cartoonish for most people's tastes. Worgen aren't very original I'll agree there, they're the classic Victorian England Werewolf trope that became quite big around Cataclysm's release (when they were added). Draenei are probably one of their least original races actually, as they're a blatent reference to Tieflings from D&D in both appearance, accent, and cultural styles, only notable difference in their appearance is just how wide the Draenei males are, but Draenei females are carbon copies of female Tieflings. Again though their differences from other games or literature comes from their culture and their obsession with the light, the betrayal of Archimonde and Kil'jaeden and their connection into the Burning Legion (although the Draenei being tied to Demons is another reference to Tieflings).
Remember these traits
Elf: Faster and good with bows
Orcs: Slower and super strong
Dwarfs: Have the best armor and weapons
Humans: Perfectly balanced
You dont mind if I steal this but change it around?
Yeah too many rules to follow with fantasy.
Ubermensch Hans66 beat me to it
Humans: Perfectly balanced (but also uninteresting)
@@TheHansJailbird nuts you stole my comment.👌
I love how High Elves are just a little bit taller than the rest
Well... They are, *High* Elves?
the only real high thing is the egos some people give them.
@@twiinArmageddons I thought that meant they took drugs
@@acebalistic1358 ah yes skyrim memes.....high elves on skooma lmao xD
I’m surprised they didn’t make “low elves” that are just humans
Now i want to actually write a story where everything is competent but there are kitchen sink elves and nobody treats it like anything abnormal.
extremelyhappysimmer post it in here when it’s done. I could use a good sink elf story.
Kitchensink elves vs dwarfs with axe-tanks
If you can pull it off, do it!
Don't forget the toilet paper elves!
Or the fridge elves...
@@CR-kr9cs it think they mean Harry potter
“Tolkien obviously stole from the marvel universe.” That’s it I found my senior quote.
The sad part is theres people who believe that
@@xzenitramx666 Really? He existed before Marvel
@@darklordthomaspie6293 yeah theres people in instagram and twitter who think that, is sad.
@@xzenitramx666 maybe they're joking? At least most of them have to be
Did you graduate yet? Did you use it?
You know what's even more lazy than just putting dwarves and elves because of Tolkien? Is putting a dwarf X elf rivarly because of Tolkien.
This, so much. I'm playing in a friend's D&D setting at the moment where it's a desert continent, humans are Arabs, elves are Bedouin, and the dwarfs were basically the precursors (few in number now but extremely respected because they built grand cities, magical/technological marvels like cannons and airships and even laid down the scientific principles behind vancian magic - whereas humans and elves tend to be magic users because of innate talent in their blood). My dwarf PC is the only one in our group of mostly elves and beast races, he's like an axe-swinging, adventurer archaeologist battle wizard whose whole character arc is looking for his missing scientist elven wife who he loves with every fibre of his being. I originally made the whole character concept just to stick it to that elf/dwarf rivalry trope.
The saddest thing about all these Tolkien ripoffs is I think Tolkien out of everyone would probably want originality... the man made an entire fantasy world unlike anything anyone made before him, and people just clone it
I was writing an RPG story with a friend and my elf character became friend and even a teacher to her half-dwarf character...
I kind of understand why so many stories I saw had those two races as foes(I never read or saw LOTR)...
And said rivalry wasn't even universal and at times was mainly one sided. Elrond and the elves of Rivendell seem to hold no problem with dwarves whatsoever and then there is Hollin (Eregion) and its friendship with Moria. Said friendship is actually important in the Lord of the Rings because it is partially responsible for the forging of the Rings and is the reason why the Doors of Durin exist in the first place.
@@IAmTheStig32 Well, you guys have accidentally made something reminiscent of WoW dwarves - one of the oldest races in the setting, affinity towards archaeology and research... The only thing is that in WoW the tech part is given to gnomes instead (yes, they are a separate race).
You forgot humans. They're always "balanced" and "varied in every way" and "adaptable," but all the other races aren't for some reason?
Or Option B, I.e. cartoonishly evil, ignorant, and ineffective while still somehow completely dominating the setting
Me Alexander
Dwarfs are typically stronger than humans. They're small but pack a punch.
Generally, Dwarves and humans are about equally strong, but dwarves tend to be hardier. Additionally, dwarves tend to be the most technologically advanced for various justifications. Humans usually aren't quite as advanced as them, possibly because humans tend to be more "jacks of all, masters of null". Usually it's a matter of the specific skills learned, but Dwarves tend to be pretty reluctant to share their trade secrets with outsiders and humans don't usually try to steal the secrets for their own use, seemingly out of inability or apathy.
Me Alexander
1. You are comparing a race that is known for doing harder labor almost exclusively with a race that isn't known for any one thing. Take the average (fantasy) dwarf and the average human and have them trade blows. The dwarf will pack more of a punch due to sheer muscle. In a straight-up fight, a human would still probably win due to reach, but that assumes the Dwarves don't know how to deal with opponents that have been more blessed in that regard. Also, you don't compare the best of both worlds because the best of a race doesn't represent the average of the race. You pull a random Joe Shmoe and Grumpy out of the crowds and have them fight.
2. There's an old proverb, "Many skills is no skill at all." If you're okay at everything, then you aren't good at anything. Humans aren't good at anything. Sure, individual humans are good at one thing or another, but as a whole, the race fails to accomplish the same feats as the other races due to a lack of accumulated effort. As for you arguing "if humans did invest more then they would be", that's irrelevant. If humans grew wings they'd be able to fly. So what? You can't argue with what is essentially a "What if" proposal. The fact of the matter is humans DON'T specialize. Even if I were to play along with your scenario, if they were to start now, which couldn't happen because there is no way you'd convince the majority of the race to start specializing at this point if they haven't had a need to so far, but let's say they did: they'd be starting from square 1 while Dwarves are often depicted as being VERY progressed. There is too much of a gap for humanity to cover and technological progress doesn't slow down, meaning dwarves will only keep becoming more and more advanced, furthering that gap as humans take baby steps to learn the things dwarves already know.
God damn. Okay, yeah, no. Like hell I am going through over a half dozen comments. in reply on a TH-cam video. If this was Twitter? Sure. But if you're not able to keep your thoughts organized in one or two TH-cam comments tops, there is no way I can expect this to go well. Sorry, not even wasting the time trying to read that mess. Clean it up and get back to me, and then I'll read it. Til then, bye.
I was having some of those thoughts about Orcs a few years ago, when I was playing that Shadow of Mordor game. I was about to hack off some poor bastard's head, when he looked up, with orky tears in his eyes, and asked, "Why? Why kill Uruk?" That really spoke to me on a personal level. So instead of killing him, I just brainwashed him with my undead magic, taking away all his individuality and free will. I felt much better about myself after that.
Indeed, why kill any of the Uruks when you can simply brainwash them and force them to slaughter their brethren in a violent and bloody civil war! And when your followers have completed your mission of non-brainwashed Uruk genocide, you can reward their forced loyalty by crushing their skulls with magic!
. . .
We should tame them and keep them as pets. Let'em do work around the house and entertain guests. And then, if they act bad, you behead them a get a new one.
I felt a little sorry for an orc when one of them said to me with a sad/ proud voices (both of those therm I don't know) something like:
"A glorious death in the name of Sauron, thank you Gravewalker..."
Then I killed him and said
"You're welcome !"
XD
Should do that more often , in the anime grimgar o fantasy and ashes the unexpierienced party has to kill very humanised goblins to earn a living. They play cards, Yell desperate when they die, and fight fiercly for their survival, and have human emotions. It would be a good tool to make fantasy feel more gritty.
“Is it better to be born good, or to overcome inherent evil through great effort?” -Paarthurnax
Paarthurnax is best girl for that entire game. There are many interesting characters, but nobody can beat out the dov sage that cemented his heel-face-turn
@@shikiaura Paarthurnax best waifu
"One sure mark of a fool is to dismiss anything that falls outside his realm of experience as being impossible" - Farengar Secret-Fire
Fuck the Blades. You want Paarthunax dead? Come up here and fight us.
Ahhh, a man of culture.
Okay, but, hear me out. What if we made a fantasy world... In SPACE!?! We'd have to rename the races, of course, but how hard is that? How about we call the elves "Vulcans" and the orcs "Klingons!"
star wars is space fantasy like what your saying
We could call the Dark-Elves "Romulans" and dwarves "squats" !
And goblins Ferengi!
Fantasy in space? Nah. Fantasy in the world of microbes sounds better... (Did I just give someone an idea? No? Okay)
*Virus wins!*
Ryo Asuka You're missing out. War 40k takes inspiration from Tolkien and then twists it and contorts it into it's own thing. Then it takes that contorted mess and runs it through a meat grinder, lays it onto a bed of nails, then smashes it with a mallet.
Pffffft, who would want to look at mythology for inspiration? It's not like those stories have lasted through the centuries or anything.
N.M. Dimmick Lol!!
Although I do sometimes like to just make a creature from scratch and I kinda sadly agree with that just because everyone jumps onto Vampires and Zombies, which is why I try to make them different if I ever use them, my zombies just go around mumbling and murdering without eating anything and no one that I really know of has done spider-based-vampires so Dibs.
Hello, I'm from Texas, and yes, I am racist
Damn Elves.
Sherrif
-'Skyrim belongs to the Nords!'-
I'm sorry if I make no sense
A snow elf once told mee they were there before the nords. But, then I killed his brother and moved on.
Writers who actually did look at mythology for inspiration were authors like J.R.R Tolkien,C.S Lewis,and Lloyd Alexander. Tolkien from the Norse Sagas,Lewis from Greek and Roman mythology, and Alexander from the Mabinginogion(Welsh mythology).
New Book: *The Rise of The Kitchen Sink Elves*
And it sarcastically follows this advice and the message is "Stop doing this"
"Go Back to the Kitchen".
I thought high elves would have weed with them.
You're thinking about the drug elves.
tolken elves but high instead of smug is just the best thing I can imagine
Mai'q
Helmet Boi Obviously Yes.
that's wood elves you're looking for
Tolkein himself regretted writing the Orcs so evil, and he would probably be pissed that the Orcs were made more evil in the movies. Remember Tolkein himself fought in World War 1 and though the grim nature of it affected his writing he understood that the enemy soldiers were not evil but pawns of greater political forces. For instance, most of Tolkein's Orcs were actually farmers not soldiers. Mordor actually has some of the best farm land thanks to the ash from Mt. Doom and most Orcs spent their days tilling the fields and raising livestock. This is how Sauron fed his forces, they had plenty of food. That is why despite their superior physical strength Orcs are such bad fighters individually, they weren't professional soldiers they were civilians drafted and sent to fight with no training before hand. The Orcs in World of Warcraft are probably closer to what Tolkein had in mind than the Orcs in the movies.
I didn't know that. I always thought that Nurn (the fertile, southern region of Mordor) was tended to by human slaves, which was pretty much the interpretation Shadow of Mordor went with.
I don't think Tolkien's Orcs were "physically superior". Only certain breeds of Uruk.
Yeah the warcraft series nailed the orcs really well. They are like real life nomads who were seen as barbaric by settled nations but they were not 'evil' just had unique values which caused a lot of conflicts.
the shadow of mordor games kind of addressed this with orc society having an actual structure with cooks and doctors and such, tho its made very clear they're enslaved by sauron and have a culture of brutaliuty
"Tolkein himself regretted writing the Orcs so evil"
I can not find a source on that.
This is so not true! If you would have read the Silmarillion or the Children of Hurin you would know the horrible stories that came from the orcs. They held slaves and loved destruction and despair and killing. Could give you a thousand examples from the books but I'll make it short: Orcs were evil! In the Lord of the Rings, in the Silmarillion in the book of the Unfinished Tales... Get your facts straight. Oh and most elves were physically stronger than orcs and men.
The thing I appreciate most about this, as a Tolkien fan, is your reminding people that Tolkien's portrayal of famtasy races was much more complex and multifaceted than people realise. People just know the simplistic stereotypes from derivative works and attribute that to Tolkien.
Tomorrow We Live Nice profile pictures buddy :)
He was simplistic though
Do you have a favorite source which talks about the themes Tolkien used in his races? I'd like to explore that topic.
He still made the baddies ugly and the good guys pretty, though. The stereotypes started with him.
Mitx - It just works
That’s been a thing forever. When Lucifer was kicked out of heaven he went from “the most beautiful being” to “a hideous monstrosity”.
When I first saw this video, I was trying to think of a new race. I came up with a tall, lanky, skidd-ish, cave-dwelling people. I soon realized that I just made Smeagol with a growth spurt.
Oh my, how did that go? XD
Falmer, but with less enslavement mixed with genocidal fury.
@@spacehitler4537 fooking dwemer
Bethesda Addict Why does your profile pic fit perfectly with your comment?
What the fack
I like the Silmarillion reference "Feanor is a nice guy"
@@jamesmerrick8198
Feanor did nothing wrong & if you say otherwise you die
He did wound a goddamn Valar 7 times though
Edit: Wait I completely got him and Fingolfin mixed up. Feanor was the one who created the 3 Silmarils and Fingolfin was the one who beat the shit out of Morgoth
@@an18yearoldmongolianguy that would be Fingolfin, it gets confusing when every elf starts with F
@@jamesmerrick8198 Fingon, Fingolfin, Finrod, Finarfin, Felagund, Finwë, Ingwë, Indis, Idril, Inglor, Glorfindel, Gorthol, Gil-galad, Galadriel, Olwë, Elwë, Elúchil, Ereinion, Eärendil, Elwing, Elrond, Elros, Elu, Eöl, Erendis, Maedhros, Maeglin, Maglor, Mablung, Minyatur, Aredhel, Adanedhel, Agarwaen, Amrod, Amras, Angrod, Aegnor, Ar-Feiniel, Argon, Turgon, Thingol, Turambar, Tuor, Thalion, Túrin, Húrin, Huor, Bëor, Beleg, Beren, Celegorm, Caranthir, Curufin, Mormegil, Celeborn, Cirdan, Celebrimbor, Cúthalion, Celebrindal, Dior, Daeron, Saeros, Singollo, Nimloth, Nimrodel, Neithan, Noldoran, the list goes on...
And the fun thing is, quite a few of these names refer to the same person.
@@christofromuald703 If you say otherwise, we kinslay you!
I feel like anime has listened to this too many times that it has become mandatory to get a degree from this dude
Anime just makes everything into waifus they even ruined literal eldritch abominations like
nyarlathotep the crawling chaos that spreads madness and despair everywhere it goes.
@@gregoreisenhorn6601 (」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！(」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！
Admit it, Nyaruko is meta enough to be funny again.
@@VandroiyIII SILENCE YOU WASTE OF OXYGEN.
Tbf, the "fantasy" being discussed here is specifically medieval fantasy. Isekai especially is lazy when it comes to this but I guess the appeal isn't on the world building but on the fulfillment of a fantasy. Made in Abyss or the Dragon Dentist (and Berserk especially) are some of the ones I remember that's not a copy and paste but outside the medieval genre, there's a lot of creative worlds that's set in modern (their Urban fantasy is good) or far future and those are fantasy as well.
I just find them super shallow, like they are always flawless. If you look at Tolkien's elves, they were flawed by pride and other things, they had to go through a lot and they managed to be corrupted and manipulated and this would lead to the Kinslayings, the doom of Mandos, the creation of orcs, and the oath of Feänor, in fact I would go as far as to say that elves were one of the reasons for the first age to be so turbulent. The animes have decided to throw all of that in the trash. Tolkien's elves are anything but shallow, wich has got nothing to do with the elves in anime. And you have to think that all of this was done so 50 odd years later you could have the perfect and shallow elf cliché.
Regarding Tolkien's elves, the reason why most elves in "generic fantasy" (an oxymoron right?!) are usually SO smug and condescending rather than endearing and pleasant is because they forget the *the elves of Tolkien's Arda ARE jealous of men...* that's right they the elves envy their younger siblings, mankind. But why, why would such flawless, ageless beings be envious of short-lived mortals? Simple...any mistake an elf has ever made will always haunt them, forever they *can never live it down* nor can their fellow elves ever forget. (or forgive..) Another reason is becuase while an elf is immortal and ageless their works are not simple because they do not possess an elf's nature *everything they have ever worked for within Middle-earth, everything they've hoped to preserve will not last.* Knowing all this *the elves see men as lucky for their time is brief, they need not worry nor linger in this world forever bound by regerets* and can transcend the world leaving it behind forever. *Elves are forever bound to the world and love it greatly yet they know this world will not last,* one day it will end and with its destruction they perish with it. You would think all of this would make them melancholy and super depressed and while many of them can *seem cold and distant, do not mistake it for them actually being that way* an elf for a friend is a life long and beloved companion. *What gets an elf through all of the hardships, all of this eventuality is simple...sincere faith.* Faith in their comrades, faith in the younger races, faith in their friends be they elf, dwarf, or men...it matters little (or it should) to an elf weather your immortal or mortal if your an sincere person they in turn will be sincere to you. Any way...that's just my thoughts as to why elves have become SO...stale and boring...it's from a lack of faith and it's importance to the elves, that's *their defining trait is not perfection...but faith and hope personified.*
p.s. Sorry for the run on sentences...and (possible) grammer mistakes.
Expanding upon your point of Elven envy, while Elves DO die, they are technically reincarnated. Those who don't reincarnate, their spirits are left to wander the world, and they can only transcend when the world ends. Humans and the rest of Men get to move on.
Wow, that's actually really cool!
Omg I love this explanation. Its super interesting, I wish elves would have stuff like this in movies :(
@@exppenguin
Around elves watch yourselves
That and orcs were once elves, meaning that elves know they aren't better then humans. Also elves are envious of dwarves for their ability to fight magical corruption. They basically act superior as a front to hide their crippling insecurity.
"there is only one race the human race"
"what about nascar"
And NASCAR ELVES?
I dont get this joke
@@sandraplattsphoneaccount7799 what about the NASCAR LIZARDS
JC111414 m
@@JC111414 he's referencing this vine:
th-cam.com/video/a8Xktc-ugQI/w-d-xo.html
Aren’t elves usually either culturally or technologically stagnant or both and on the brink of extinction
Usually in some cases there not as that's the trope about Elves you can change that you don't need to follow it but some people expect that and for example umm the TES universe Elves are similarly to humans but they have higher magic power and there smarter then Humans but there near nazi level of racism will part of them
That's the wood elves the high & dark elves are either an aristocratic clusterfuck or genocidal assholes.
Just like the whites in Europe. You get the point.
And no, in the real source, where elves come from, the EDDAS, like mentioned in the video, they are a superior race who are far from being extinct. The Elves in LOTR are leaving Middle Earth but they have a whole continent for themselves across the sea.
@@surtr9728
"For myself, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves." -Faramir
And are racist and extremely narcissist
I'm _really_ sick of the trope of "dying ancient human-like race". Elves seem to occupy that a lot. The only time I found it particularly interesting outside of Tolkien was in Dragon Age.
Also, it's kind of funny how orcs are now buff and green-skinned, when they were originally weak and came in a variety of colors.
Would you be opposed if I made the "dying ancient human-like race" ACTUALLY humans, right down to the ancient part?
It begins when on earth in 2020, something arrived, a legion of magical creatures collectively called Nurn show up and declared war on humanity, a war with which due to the human's complete lack of knowledge of magic, we couldn't win. The humans were driven to extinction except for a tiny population of Americans stored up in an underground sanctuary known as The Terraplex, those Americans entered the Terraplex around 4,000 years before the start of the story.
The vast Terraplex that has safeguarded humanity for millennia is beginning to fall apart, the nuclear reactor is about to start failing, and they're running out of spare parts and uranium. The concrete walls that have hidden the humans from the outside world are getting close to the time they start falling apart, the soil they grow their food in is beginning to go sterile, the government knows, the soldiers know, the farmers, the scientists, and even the children know, it is time.
The time for hiding is done, the humans have been readying themselves for these last few centuries, doom is coming, the only way to stave it off is to leave the sanctuary and face it head on. It is time for mankind to leave the Terraplex.
In order to do so, they must send an advance team, the best of the best, a team of champions enhanced beyond the limits of human ability with the most powerful science and magic at man's disposal. It is they who will be mankind's saviors.
For the doom of the Nurn, *they* will leave their dying world.
For mankind's only chance, the *Dreadknights* will march forth and forever change the Earth.
J.M. Obyx
Dude! Please send me a link when it's done. This sounds awesome!
Yeah, I'm starting to post the chapters on my Patreon account, but you're going to have to pay a monthly fee in order to read it, I only have the prologue now, but I'm putting up chapter 1 very soon.
EDIT: I apologize profusely to anyone reading this but I'm not doing Patreon.
J.M. Obyx
Thanks! :D
Dragon Age!!! So great!
See, you don't need to make your own things everytime. You just need to make your own world and story.
This channel is gold.
Autumn Lockey no Platinum
Pooop Shenron No it's both
Goldinum
Mabye its neither, and its actually Lovetriangleium.
High quality diamond who stands solid the tests of time.
Im not copying Tolkien
Im not copying D&D
I just mix them
i also take inspiration from classical mythology. For example; In a Fairy Tale world thing my friends and I are doing, we mix classical myths with fairy tale monsters. Say...Elves that work for Santa aren't just toy makers, they're also like the norse myths that are skilled trakcers and craftsmen.
Or Dwarves not just being a bunch of short guys who sing 'Hi-Ho', they're skilled black smiths or very technologically advanced. heck, in the world of Grimmwoods (The fantasy setting my friends and I set up), they're basically the epicenter of tech.
...and no, since I am gonna guess you're gonna ask given this is a fairy tale world, no. The Seven Dwarves aren't Irish or Scottish, they're German. (Heck, the eldest one of the seven brothers is a gruff but understanding one named Adolph. (My great-grandpa is a Czech man named Adolph before you ask. I named him after him) with the others havingGerman names as well. Given I am basicing Grimmwoods as a sort of Alternate Earth, that kinda implies the various continents are similar but slightly different from most areas in the world).
thats pretty good idea actually
The Dwarves you're describing sound a lot like the Dwemer from TES.
I gotcha :P I never played Elder Scroll, I am more basing the Dwarves more on their Fairy Tale and Norse counterparts in terms of what they can do. (I actually research the myths)
Sounds good!
One thing I hate even more than just making 57 types of elves is when a D&D Dungeon master thinks that they're really fucking clever and makes it so "Common" is not a language but instead every single human nation has it's own language BUT DOESN'T DO THE SAME FOR ELVISH OR ANY OTHER LANGUAGES. It's like saying "Ah yes all elves speak elvish all dwarves speak dwarven etc but for whatever reason humans are the only race that doesn't have a way to communicate with all the members of their race even though literally everyone else can."
But usually, elves or dwarfs are like two or three kingdoms at most and usually only one. Humans on the other hand are dozens of kingdoms. That said, having a universal language is generally good for trade and those things so "common" makes somewhat sense (but I don't like the name so I generally change it to the name of the current or past hegemony of humans).
HEY! Where are the immortal dragons that randomly decide to try and breed with humans somewhere in the protagonist's ancestry? And succeed, beyond all biological reasoning?
*"And succeed, beyond all biological reasoning?"*
P'shaw, they're dragons. Their arrogance is so great, it let's them transcend all logic.
But imagine how awsome a short story about human-dragon relationship could be. If done right, it could be hilarious. Hmmm, I should look into it.
And then later backfires because some people just like genocide!
Prase Domácí chuck tingle probably beat you to it
well shrek already did a donkey-dragon relationship so i don't know how you plan on beating that, mate ;)
Two elves walk into a bar. And thus the bar elf subrace was created.
One of their traits is that they can cast Create Food and Water once per day.
Headcannon: every fantasy similar to tolkien, including isekai share the same universe, unless its fundamentally different overall.
The best part is that its totally possible.
Even with some cultural / technological / magical differences, you can take a simple thing (a spear, for exemple) and compare it between the cultures of the real world.
It has as much different designs as there is slightly differents magic systems.
I’m thinking of a story where someone’s first meeting with one the wolf-like species gives her an impression that they are a group of prideful, honor-bound warriors. Then she meets other members and learns everyone else thought he was an uptight asshole.
I summon Blue Eyes Blonde Haired Elf! And attack your life points directly!
Never watched Yu-Gi-Oh...
Sushi Salad
(In Brooklyn accent) YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAPCARD! RAGNAROK: THE END OF TIME. It destroys your Blue-Eyes Blond Elf.
I activate Maiden with Eyes of Blue! I special summon my Blue Eyes Mary Sue and attack your life points directly!
K U N A I W I T H C H A I N also, you should watch the original series, that was pretty good.
I activate pointless trap
once played the game ends and nobody wins.
WHAT IS THIS?!?
I chain MST to negate
Kitchen sink elf needs his own novel. Or series of novels;
1: The general life of Kitchen sink elf.
2: Kitchen sink elf and the haunted garbage disposal.
3: Kitchen sink elf meets Super Mario
4: Kitchen sink elf and the lonely housewife
and so on.
*"3: Kitchen sink elf meets Super Mario"*
The crossover team-up we never knew we wanted.
5: Kitchen sink elf and the Battle of Unnumbered Hairballs.
Kitchen sink elves porn parody
We can call it Kitchen sink elf and the Longest pipe
Ásgrímur Hartmannsson I will make that. I will.
One of the reasons I love Elder Scrolls lore so much is because it has all the generic aspects you would expect to find, and then goes in all kinds of different directions than you would think.
A couple of examples:
1) The Orcs (Orsimer) are themselves elves, descended from those who were followers of the Aldmeri god Trinimac, who were transformed when he was defeated and corrupted by the Daedric Prince Boethiah, himself becoming the Daedric Prince Malacath. But far from being evil, they are more tribal and militaristic. A lot like the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, they strive for honor in battle (and so have a lot more in common with the Nords of old than first meets the eye).
2) The Dwarves are actually not dwarves in the typical sense but are, in reality, also elves (the Dwemer). Far from being excellent builders and smiths (typical), they are credited for having become more technologically advanced than any civilization before then or since. Unlike the conventional elves of fantasy (who are innately and strongly spiritual people), the Dwemer detested the existing deities (the Aedra and Daedra alike) and strove to fashion a god of their own making (the Numidium) so as to ascened to godhood themselves, and on the whole are somewhat similar to Paolini's elves in personality (who are basically just arrogant and condescending atheists). And they were exceedingly racist, even against other elves (going so far as to deceive, enslave, and blind nearly the entire Falmer population when they sought them out for refuge).
Well there's also the part when Topal the Pilot while discovering High Rock encounters what he calls "orcs" and its unknown if these were just goblins, an extinct race, or the actual Orsimer and their origins were just twisted. I choose to believe it was an extinct species that looks simular to modern Orsimer and just happened to also live in High Rock. Take that info as you wish even if it doesn't really matter.
Redfall Xenos im pretty sure Malacath implies that the Trinimac myth is true to an extent in the lord of souls novels
@@notevenironicallyfunny204 So does that mean it is likely the "orcs" Topal saw were just an extinct species that looo similar to Orsimer?
Redfall Xenos I dont know man. Maybe Topal was just wrong, lots of that going on in elder scrolls lore
Never thought of the Dwemer as Nazi-like. Maybe because I don't read into the lore much lol
I love how Elder Scrolls made elves actually interesting by making them properly different, and playing up their superiority complex to where it makes them near evil. Also how the different elf races were created by the gods individually.
''near'' evil? i dare to say that the thalmor (and the aldmeri dominion as a whole) are borderline nazis in the TES universe
vitor Mão de Vaca A lot of Altmer are old enough to remember Tiber Septim invading their homeland with a profane artefact (the Numidium) and slaughtering their people. That, on top of believing they are descended from the gods and are the only who kept the ways of said ancestors; making Tiber Septim again a blasphemer, along with his followers, saying man can be a god. The average Altmer probably believes and is motivated by these things; the Thalmor are more radical and secretive. TL;DR, they have deeper seated reasons than just wanting to be evil to do the things they do, and it’s a small cabal of tyrants really putting the hatred into action.
I thought Nords in Skyrim were Nazis 😂😂😂
Edit: TES is unique cuz they have so many different elves. Not just one edgy forever living nature loving elves
@@melitasia Technically Everyone is racist in the TES Universe except like maybe the Argonians
And Orcs and some other Human races
If you're gonna use existing races, at the very least do something new with them. Like The Elder Scrolls. They add a lot of interesting nuance to the orcs, not making them evil but rather making them a conservative warrior-society where everyone is expected to grow up into fighters and die in battle, and also adding a more unique spin to their origins.
I myself am writing a fantasy novel where the most prevalent race are demons, and I try my best to offer a neat explanation about what they are and where they came from, and make it at least somewhat original. Of course, demons are one of the easier pre-existing races to make your own, considering how broad of a term it is.
Willcraft I agree, but I would also like to throw out the idea of low fantasy. Sometimes the key aspects of your world will stand out more if you make magic rare, and the heroes may not actually have access to magic.
Willcraft is your book released and what is its name ?
I love what they did with the Dwarves, too. Rather than angry manlets, they turned them into egocentric, nihilistic, god-rejecting elves with the most technologically advanced society Tamriel ever witnessed.
Willcraft well now I would like to read that
Eberron.
Dinosaur herding halflings.
Orcs who are guardians of the world of the dead.
Desert-dwelling scorpion warriors dark elves.
And the list goes on...
Oh, and if that wasn't enough, they even invented two new races.
Warforges who are sentients constructs used as soldiers in an ancient war and Shifters, people descended from lycanthropes who can gain some animalistic powers and boons while using a mechanic somewhat similar to a barbarian's rage.
Tolkien didn't invent Elves, Dwarves, or Goblins. They all originated from various mythologies. Hobbits were the only race that was truly created by Tolkien and even then they're basically Gnomes.
yeah, but you think all those Tolkien wannabes studied mythologies? it's not bad to use pre existing concepts, but when literally everything is copy and paste, to how Lord of the Rings did it except maybe the names, it's just off putting, it's like half of the fantasy genre might be set in Middle Earth as well.
@@ginogatash4030 Which is why we have something called Lore everyone has different kinds of Lore and why things exist unless you just copy and patse and Humans actually used older stuff to write there stories the most prominent example will be the Gods as we either use the actual mythology or be inspired by that mythology to make that kind of God and many other Novels do the same thing I know what you were saying and I agreed to that but nearly everything has a since of complicity
@@kingmaoh5566 actual Tolkien copycats don't have anything complex that's for sure
@@ginogatash4030 I can agree as i read a Novel were the whole novel was basically nearly all of middle earth with slight changes good thing they had likable characters and a somewhat different story if they didn't the whole story would be just lord of the rings with different names of the characters
@@kingmaoh5566 I was talking more about copycat novels without cool characters and so on, but I think it's a problem for those too, as the heavily "inspired" setting cheapens the story to me, I mean, you've taken the time and care to write your characters and story, why not put some of that energy into making the world feel its own?
I think the greatest use of fantasy races in the weirdest way was the Artemis Fowl series. It was so utterly strange that it was captivating.
That has to be my favorite sci-fi fantasy series of all time! Although near the end Artemis' intelligence seemed to drop a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed the new take on fairies and the reasons that they "co-exist" with humans.
YES.
Also, Holly Short is hot as hell. In both her original and graphic-novel version. >.>
Dreigonix UH OH PERV ALERT
@@queenlunacrystal5343 It's not sci-fi. It's epitome of fantasy, come now.
@@DreigonixWHOA
I wish they we're more creative when making races. Almost all of them look human with the exception of having pointy ears, bizzare eyes, unusual skin color, etc.
I don't like the idea of them being "races". Instead, let's make them separate intelligent species. This video gave me some ideas:
- a reptilian people that is less intelligent, more impulsive, but with lightening fast reflexes that makes them excellent fighters
- human ascetics that went into caves centuries ago and now resemble something completely different, with pale paper-like skin, and huge eyes. They're deeply spiritual and talented with magic, but incredibly delicate.
- a large, hulking species based on gluttony. They're very strong and competitive, extremely hierarchical, and view kindness or empathy as weakness
- fish people lol
@@FishDinners No need for any long descriptions just *F I S H P E O P LE*
@@FishDinners You add fish people so you could launch them?
@@FishDinners I have an idea bird people ostrich and emu looking things along with other birds but they are intelligent and adapted there feet and wings to better grasp things. Birds could be the dominant species and there could be highly militaristic and isolationist penguins in the pole wich have many resources but aren't super good at inventing things so they use slave labor and scientists from other species wich they get through trade of resources ice and in very limited numbers there rare metals and other resources and amphibians can be like the big slow ones you describe
@@FishDinners swans could be a leading species for most of the birds because swans are very strong and aggressive animals that have a good reputation the birds could also have extram classisme and specism. Penguins would be excluded frome this since they are across the ocean and largely isolationist because there constantly preparing for Avent to happen wich happened in the past. That event would be why other group's such as all birds (excluding penguins) came to together to form one government or in the reptiles case a few governments that cooperate. The penguins being isolated never had other species to come to get to together so with out the numbers they had to become very militaristic and stayed that way
I'm taking every single bit of advice from this to write my new novel "Elven Nazis."
Hoàng Nguyên and what would turks be?
afukcinbox lol2 You realise Turks are way older than you think right they are old as Chinese which they were constantly figthing. There is ancient Turk Mythology and writings and most altaic languages comes from there also the ethnics like Mongolians and Maghar. But confusion comes from Huns which word Turk first mention in ancient writings of Celestial Turks after huns most stuff before that comes from chinese history recordings.
afukcinbox lol2 Also They didnt worshiped wolves It was the symbols they worshiped tengri which old mongols got that religion from turks too and Tengri usually symbolised as Sun and Moon thats where color truquas which named after turks and name Celestial comes from. Also Moon in Islam used to be symbol of Turkic people not Islam but Islmaic countries stole that after Ottoman Empire so moon in turkish flag or Azerbaijan flag doesnt stand for Islam.
Hoàng Nguyên Actually that makes sense since Werewolf is an important creature in Turkic mythology and wolves are the symbol of Turks. And even Vlad himself wasnt Turk events happened in Ottoman Empire and he is the inspiration for vampire stories.
Thalmor
let me quote some part of The Experimental Log of The Crazy Lich
The Elves, well-known for their beauty and longevity, lived inside the peaceful forest. They were pure, kind, and lived a simple and self-sufficient life. They typically lived in harmony with nature, but whenever this world is threatened by Evil, they would unhesitatingly rouse themselves for battle, and would fight to their last breath.
Only the children would believe such a fairy tale! If there was a race of such innocence and purity, they would have been exterminated long time ago, by any big war evolved from the stray projectiles from the crossfire.
damn I love this novel
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien Of course elves are always peaceful! Look at Feanor!
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien Or enslave other races and think they the most superior race. Specially if they and all the races all have dwarfs technology, what would possibly go wrong.
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien I've read that novel. it was shit.
にゃあエイリアンMeowAlien Well if they got wiped out would depend on how common war is in their fantasy universe. If war is rare, and almost everyone strives for an easy life, or evil races stay with evil races away from the others, they would be able to live in their woodland utopia no sweat.
Alvin Lin You need learn about more fantasies.
This is why I like Warhammer orcs. They aren't elves tortured and twisted into evil creatures but sentient fungi that just want to get into fights for the sake of fighting.
Same reason i enjoy Wood Elves. Oh sure, you might call them treehuggers...but i honestly want you to call them that again after you either got crushed by a tree , got skewered by several arrows out of the bushes or had to deal with a wardancer.
I'm more fond of them because purple makes them hidden because enough of them believe it does.
Lightscribe225 Hi, just to be sure, they ARE in fact plant/fungi based?
Sorry, the idea of a sentient plant being just sounds cool to me.
Pardon my noobness.
Yes, Warhammer Greenskins grow out of mushrooms and are genderless. Look it up.
They didn’t start out as plants, it’s a newish bend on the lore. But acceptable and explains a lot.
Stupid Character ideas:
- Orc priest who taught love and kindness
- Edgy Elf lady in heavy armor and war hammer
- Young Dwarf assassin who doesn't like smithing
- Human necromancer protagonist who uses zombies
Orc priest, Guldak Thompson (in his musings): Is it better to be born good or to overcome one's evil nature through great effort?
Dark knight, Sileanii Mirabriel (edgy elf lady): You done pondering the mysteries of the world, "old man?"
Priest Guldak: Old? Your 90 years my senior, Mirabriel!
DK Mirabriel: Heh, yeah well the rest of our party is waiting down stairs at the inns lobby. Let's not keep'em waiting forever, besides I've got some strategies to go over and I'd like to have everyone present, that includes our main support castor!
Priest Guldak: *Sighs* Very well...I will join you in a bit, just let me get my texts and supplies together.
DK Mirabriel: Very good! See you down stairs, don't keep us waiting too long ok? **chuckles and heads down the hall connected to the main lobby stairs**
*end scene*
side note: The characters unusual last names (for typical fantasy races anyway) comes from the idea I had of that some of the humans that migrated to the little story's world were infact from our own Earth and that some of them were Christians and missionaries of the faith and of it's various denominations. They brought with them not just their religions but also their naming conventions, with some of the earliest non-human converts being whole villages or enclaves of orcs or other "goblin-kin!" Also a bit of backstory and history, Guldak's own great grandmother was a half-orc nun at a well known nunnery so his family has had long standing ties to the *neo-protestant-Catholic blended (that's a mouthful..)* church of their local regions.
It's not a bad idea to have a human "white" necromancer
You can do that all in WOW, tho I haven't played in a while so idk if dwarves can be rouges and if orcs can be priests.
i need more S U B V E R S I O N broether
@@rezandrarizkyirianto-1933 bones are white... it makes sense, you want a cohesive look to your army right?
Always hated this. I grew up deeply fascinated by creatures like dragons, lizard people, chimeras, goblins, and all sorts of monsters or weird aliens from film or games, but then I noticed in quite a lot of cases these things were either underused, in the minority of fiction, or both. Instead, elves and Dwarves are freakin' everywhere, and if that ain't enough so are things like 3-eyed or just recolored green human aliens. I... just don't get the appeal. You get to use your imagination, create an entirely different being and culture, and you... just make a short guy, or give someone pointy ears, or color them green? Ugh. Sometimes they're still made interesting by the story, but still it feels like a gigantic wasted opportunity.
I love dragons
jgunner280 You should read about the “Argonians” and creatures from “Black Marsh”, they’re both from the “Elder Scrolls” series.
All stories are written for a human audience, and elves and dwarves are basically just slightly modified humans, meaning you can easily use them in these stories, and still have them remain grounded and approachable.
A lot of these stories are written with these races explicitly to represent a trait, and so the race would be slightly modified human to show them as a facet of humanity. Classic example is Star Trek, with Klingons standing in for violence, Vulcans for logic, Ferrengi for greed, etc.
Then by introducing your human characters to the embodiment of a quality, you can explore it by how they react to it, how the species acts, what are its strengths and weaknesses.
Basically, these races are used for broad discussions of specific characteristics.
i see, i kinda know that feeling, most stories just uses humans and those human lookalike as their protagonist(and everyone else in the protagonist party) but keeps other interesting races as mooks(at least dragons are used as "bosses" in many works), as far games goes there's a lack of playable bird people, i mean they look pretty cool even if they can't fly.
Watching this really reminds me how much Tolkien accomplished and how much influence he really has over today’s society
I think the counter to this, in my opinion is that derivative fantasy races can still be dynamic and interesting, but also provide something familiar and identifiable.
Being original is not the same as being good. I'll take a well-done Elvish race that still follows most of the Tolkien Tropes over a poorly done but creative race of sentient gerbils or octopi that don't create an interesting story.
You might as well get peeved at everyone using the "hero's tale" or any number of cliches that come up over and over again in media. Cliche is not bad and tropes are not evil. Elves and Dwarves are useful precisely because they are familiar but still alien. Spigunians the race of sentient flowers requires a great deal of explanation, you must spend time either expositing about this new race you introduced even handled well that can be a challenge.
But if an Orc appears in your story, anyone who knows fantasy has a picture in their mind of it already. Of course you can subvert those expectations in fact some of the best writing can come with playing with these tropes, you can make your orcs valiant rebels or heroic knights in service to the realm in the course of your story; allowing people to explore those preconcieved prejudices. You can write a story about an orc raised in that positive environment, but could you do it nearly so easily if instead of an orc it was a Fleebert or a Grundinash? Not without either lengthy exposition, or worse, making the creature an orc in all but name.
Kyle Phibbs
miss the point there my dude. He wasnt arguing that using these races is bad more that using them and being cliche (to the point it's stereotypical) about it is lazy writing
Couldn't agree more. This is why I am annoyed at so many people commenting about Paolini's Inheritance cycle (Eragon) here. It did use some Elf, Human, and Dwarf tropes as well as McCaffreyesque Dragon tropes; but also added a few unique races (Spirits, were-cats, Urgals [which are an interesting twist on Orc tropes]). But as you said, tropes can work well for a story. Sure the elves were mostly annoying and arrogant, but that was kind of the point.
Honestly, High Fantasy books rarely have a problem with overly generic race tropes because their focus is mostly on plot and characters. Fantasy games are bigger offenders, but then again classic races have certain advantages to them.
The simplest way to put that is tropes are tools. You SHOULD use them. It's how you use them that can be good or bad.
A good point, certainly. Though one has to be mindful of the sheer quantity of uses that a fantasy race/species concept sees, if it's already overly popular among an audience. The number of uses includes not only clichéd examples, but also authors who have already bucked the trend and subverted some cliché or convention. And maybe ten different authors have already played around with established clichés in similar ways, making their once-unique take suddenly less unique.
Ergo, whatever an author does with a race like dwarves or elves, will be more of an uphill battle, since there particular concepts of fantasy races are far more crowded than others. Simply reimagining established popular races, often only piecemeal, ultimately leads to diminishing creative returns either way. Nevertheless, you're right that it's good to try.
See, I don't really know about that. A little uniqueness is certainly good, but a lot of it seems to me generally to be a bad sign.
Humans aren't really changing. We're basically the same people we were a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand years ago, we have the same basic emotions, concerns, and needs.
When I think of all the fiction that I enjoy most, while it also has things that set it apart, none of them tell particularly novel stories. They generally tell the same stories. We generally tell the same stories, over and over, because they're the stories that are meaningful and significant to us.
And the entire value of reusing say, elves and dwarves, is that it serves as a shorthand to establish the fantastical in a way that's familiar. It's a shorthand that lets us bypass a lot of irrelevancy to get to the story we actually want to tell.
This sounds like it's calling out the Eragon series, and I'm HERE for it. At least until the orc part, because the author at least sort of tried with those.
Elliot G The "Smug Elf" suggesting that the dwarves go vegan literally happened in book two of that series. For extra smug points, she also told them to redistribute their wealth and become atheists...apparently she learned her immortal Elven wisdom on Reddit 😂
Good lord she sounds annoying.
So you are saying that when coming up with different types of Elves we should use litterally everything but the kitchen si-- oh, we use that too? Sure, why not.
What about cross breeding between the races, despite how unrealistic their peaceful meeting is in the plot and of course also considered a crime against nature, while the main race (elves) love triangle themselves through the world nontheless, except orcs, who are way too ugly to be able to have relationships and therefore just spawn out of nowhere when they are needed to show of the awesome skills of the main protagonist?
Is that a good idea?
NRX25 In d&d there are half-orcs. And the origins of half-orcs are rarely a happy story. And their lives are complicated when living with humans or orcs. So I'd recommend checking them out a bit.
Depending on which universe you look at, interracial breeding might not even be possible physically.
I dunno man, None of Hentai Talk about that shit when girl Get Orgy with Orges either.
To be fair, humans having children with divine beings happened frequently in myths, so human-elf intermingling is not completely out of the blue (some universes have elves and humans as the same species).
I personaly dont have problem with crossbreeding as long as the plot can contain that. its isnt new in fiction or myth- for example, D&D has half-elves, half-orcs and humanoid like monster races such as dragonborn or tiefling.
Wow, looks like the writer of Eragon had finally released his formula for success!
Nathan Phipps In Eragon there are other species apart from dwarfs, humans and elfs. Like Ra'zac and Lethrblakas, the grey folks, giants, and werecats, urgals and Shades. There are also two species of dragon-like creatures and some other ents like spirites and gods.
Nathan Phipps I love the inheritance cycle. Tho it's clichéd with elves and dwarves, it does have its own races and the story is still amazing. Not to mention the work Putin the ancient language.
the inheritance cycle had quite a bit of the things that strayed from the norm.
+Ignasi Martí Palet
But still,the series is chock full of cliches. The elves are hilariously better than all the other races, magic, strength, skill, attractiveness, intelligence, even smithing. The dwarves aren't even the best at making stuff, the most common thing people give them! They're just the short losers that hide in the dirt. Urgals are basically just discount Orcs with horns, the shades(all *two* of them) are just magicy vampires. I notice you said "gods" plural when we only saw one "supposed" god for literally a paragraph of the whole series. As the stereotypical smug elves said, there are no gods, it's just the other races being stupid, and considering they're perfect, I guess they're right. Werecats were just kind of silly honestly, they had no depth and were pretty boring. Just more annoying cat people that only really show up in the last book and don't do much. I guess the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka, who are technically the same race as I recall, are somewhat original, even if they just seem like bug people. I honestly don't remember giants at all, and grey folk weren't even a thing. They just mentioned them and fans decided that must be what Angela was.
yea the inheritance cycle was honestly terrible. the protagonist was a complete mary sue, who had this wise old man who died, spoke magic words, was the last dragon rider, etc. a terrible fantasy series.
Zelda is so darn unique.
Completely original races, like Gorons, Rito, Zora, Gerudo, Kokiri, Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Bulblins, and the Sheikah. Even the Hylians (which most people like to call elves) act more like humans than elves do.
I love zelda's races, you have:
Rock people
Fish people
Bird people
And *WOMEN*
@@agustindebortoli7686 LMAOOOOO
That is one way of looking at it for sure
@@agustindebortoli7686you mean tanned tomboys/Amazons, the best fantasy race?
Uhhh hate to break it to you but outside unique names those aren't really... Unique
There's not much lore wise to them.
@@elgatochurro While the fantasy races in Zelda are definitely really basic lorewise and power wise, there is no denying that they are unique to Zelda specifically. You won't see Gorons in another fantasy setting, but you can see Orcs in many more fantasy settings.
EDIT: And while I am saying they are unique, I should clarify that they aren't necessarily better than other fantasy races that are shared across different settings.
*Aldmeri Dominion intensifies*
Damn elves.
@O K Damn faithless Imperials.
@O K We'll show these faithless dogs who this land belongs too.
@O K Nah!! Skyrim belongs to the Snow Elves!!
Skyrim might belong to the Nords, but everything within it belongs to us Khajiit ;)
One universe that put an interesting spin on elves is TES, actually
- High elves are mad geniuses and could probably divide you by zero
- Dark elves are nomadic, xenophobic and fanatic mess, mixed in with beautiful middle-east inspired culture
- Wood elves are still tree huggers, but they are goddamn cannibals
TES also did a good job at making people sorry for the Orcs since they keep getting fucked over by the bretons. Instead of evil they are just isolationists.
Rotten Brain Not to mention that the supposed dwarves went instinct while experimenting with the powers of nirn... Its quite interesting
but was there ever a backstory why there are bosmer, altmer und dunmer?
There was, but it seems to be just regular fantasy babble. Altmer shared different ancestors with men, so they viewed themselves as being closer to gods. Bosmers just evolved from altmers during thousands of years they were living in a forest. Dunmer are religious exiles, who were led from Summerset Isles by Veloth and settled in Morrowind. Their skin got darker after Azura cursed them for the betrayal of Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Orsimer were altmer as well, but Boethiah swallowed their god Trinimac and literally shat him out as Malacath, which also turned all his worshippers into orcs.
Well, their only difference from Altmers were a slightly shorter physique and the fact that they worship Daedra, so I forgot to mention the fact that they more or less changed after exile from Summerset.
What's cool about the dwarves is that they weren't actually Tolkien dwarves. They were another race of genius elves.
Right there with you fuji, subbed and liked.
Quicktip: if you guys want an underrated youtube channel to succeed, like ALL of that channel's videos (you know, if you actually like it or whatever...) and comment a bunch - youtube's algorithm picks up on social cues such as likes, subs, comments, and every social cue you send will make the channel rank higher. (At least I think that's how it works).
Glad I stumbled into this channel, keep up the awesome work!
That is basically verbatim how it works, actually. Not because I think so or something, but because that's the only way it *could* work.
I rarely like or dislike videos but I do comment a lot because I'm kinda insecure and want everyone else to know how brilliant I am.
WriteRightRite actually I don't think that's how it works. As far as I know likes and comments are pointless. I think the only things that matter are rentention rate (keeping people watching your video). Length, consistency (while I don't think TH-cam monitors this it helps with the other stuff) and finally subs and views (more subs mean more potential views and views equal more watch time)
WriteRightRite r
This is why I like Gary Gygax. He steals Tolkien’s races and adds his own, like dragons and demons.
*WAIT*
Wait? For what? I don't get it...
@@حَسن-م3ه9ظ Dungeons and Dragons.
@@milicadiy i know that, but what's the joke? That Gary isn't original?
@@حَسن-م3ه9ظ I suppose so, but if that's the case, I believe it's a bit shortsighted.
@@milicadiy "Adds his own, like dragons and demons"
Smaug and Balrog: Are we a joke to you?
I believe that was what OP was getting at.
That moment when all races in your fantasy story are based off of flowers...
Seriously, no one has thought of this-why?
What you not seen Alice In Wonderland. This was an entire scene in that movie.
Julia Lopez well, I did
before **Flowey** came
I don't care if it's a game, a book, or a movie. WE NEED THIS.
That's such a nice idea though.
I might steal this...
"Getting Sea Sick of Elves" Elves
A sea-sick elf...
Okay, I might actually use the idea that wood elves suffer from sea-sickness and claustrophobia while their city-elf brethren have overcome these primal fears from their long standing partnership with enterprising humans.
The obligatory dwarf will actually be the most compassionate, understanding that not all races are suited to all environments and he too suffers from severe agoraphobia.
don't forget the kitchen sink elves who are used mainly for cheap labor for the restaurant industry.
Ugh you didn't bring up the hybrid/interracial love issues :(
The worst thing about different 'races' in fanatsy is often time they perpetuate a kind of racism within thier own worlds. Everyone can be so simply defined by a bunch of stereotypes and character traits. Tolkien atleast tried to show how these stereotypical traits come about and how some don't fit into them at all but for so many writers it's crutch the betrays a shallow view of the world that stops me from believing in whatever world they created
World of Warcraft does it just nice...
Even if realistically that universe must be filled to the brim with halfbreeds. So many different cultures, mostly implying several degrees of racism, but still understandable and open enough to be able to counter their ways.g
Elfs are the superior humanoid race in fantasy. All other races are deformed monsters like the Orcs, or useless nobodies like the Humans. We need to eliminate these ethnic minorities in order to purify and restore the Fatherland to it's former glory!
@@alejandronieto4212 are we talking about the same world of Warcraft that made an entire race that's just Caribbean stereotypes?
@@58209 well, if we talking about trolls, they are heavily inspired in aztecs as well (with extra mayan and incan if zandalari), not only caribbean. As I said, its not a racism-free universe, but all things considered, it does quite well.
@@58209 mech powered magic beer thing
This is actually good advice if you take it literally. As in actually make the wood elves tree hugging hippies, better yet make them stoned out all the time. Make Dark elves edge lords and goths, make Smug elves nazis. Exaggerate Dwarves even more and add in the kleptomaniac Kinde... I mean halflings we all know and love.
Lord Jub-Jub I need this story in my life omg
CrussoFang the closest I've ever found was the game Overlord.
Lol, that's not far off from what I do when I make my DND worlds xD
Step 1: Make a fantastic world full of unique and special races!
Step 2: Add a healthy dose of bigotry and racism!
Step 3: Sit back and revel in the chaos you've created! xD
(also, add human characteristics to otherwise stereotypical evil races for additional moral conundrums to antagonize readers/players!)
...I'd read a story about the war between the Dwarves and the stoned Elves.
so you'd read a story about dwarves then? :p
"Don't worry! No one calls anyone else a racist in the internet!"
I love the dwarves (or dwemer) in Elder Scrolls. Not short, long bearded Miners but intelligent elves with high technology
They're intelligent elves that took a huge inspiration from real-life Ancient Greek technology. I also love how the Orsimer are clearly inspired by Tolkien's Orcs, but it's done in a way that pays respect to Tolkien's original depiction (The Orsimer are elves that were said to be corrupted after Trinimac was devoured by Boethiah, and became Malacath from Boethiah's refuse. Despite their conservative warrior-based culture, the Orsimer are renowned as some of the greatest smiths in Tamriel, rivalling even the Dwemer.).
Intelligent, long-bearded elves with high technology underground
Dark elf and forest elf could be “races” race means only small genetic differences between a species, what you’re talking about with orcs though, that’s not a different race, they would be an entirely different sentient species, not a different race.....
Tolkien kinda ruin idea of race so any different speices is the same level as another race but generally there Human Like so....there kinda a race but in a more stronger term with a larger genetic difference
Genetically speaking dark elves should be extremely pale from lack of sun exposure like Eöl from the Silmarillion
Personally I identify as a Kitchen Sink Elf
How about you?
a kitchen sink to you
is not a kitchen sink to me
OK friend?
I'm described as a fish elf. I'm totally worthless
I'm more along the lines of Getting Sea Sick of Elves myself.
I know a lot of people find this dull, but I'm more of a vanilla elf.
I'm more of a smug elf
"I'm sure their centuries old wisdom will come across as endearing and not condescending"
Ironic statement all things considered
The whole point of this channel is sarcasm, what are you on about?
who will live in this marvelous fantasy world?
*shows map of korean peninsula*
North Korea is the Bestest fantasy setting of all time!
@@yipyap6161 I laugh at this but at one point during worldbuilding I did have a fantasy dictatorship setting.
@@Rainbowthewindsage
Both countries deny the existance of the other while severely censoring media relevant to their neighbor.
Yes the Korean peninsula as a whole is a fantasy world though more of a dystopian grimdark mess caused by a time loop in the 1980's.
My pitch: Every race is actually human. Someone with modern sensibilities wouldn't be able to tell the difference appearance-wise, but in the story, races are frequently described as human or non-human. They are literally dehumanizing alien peoples.
Theres a difference between race & species if we take examples from human history first contact would probably be extremely confusing because of linguistic and cultural differences not to mention that one group might not recognize the other as people.
That's within the same species now imagine analyzing a totally alien species who's method of communication is completely different.
I kind of agree but not always. Definetly true with Tolkien races (I am still unable to see what makes dwarfs visually diferent from short humans), hell The Legend of Zelda played with this in the sense that there are elves and humans (visually, al least) in that world but both are refered to as hylians. That said sometimes races in fantasy are definetly diferent species (going back to TLoZ, even though they are called tribes and not races these are all diferent species except the all female gerudo, I mean one are non-gendered rock-people and the other ones are either humanoid fish or birdfolk). Some of these can be very unique and original, like the already mentioned gorons or the argonian from TES. I just wish that we could leave the word race behind and use the proper term of species since it would be more accurate (and of course, slam dwarf, elves and halflings/hobbits inside human, gnomes potentially could too but depending on their origin and due to their usually super-wacky appearance an argument could be made for them).
An isekai on Spacebattles took that route: the elves are basically a human subspecies that came to be from…well, it’s not the nicest way to say it, but they were originally a human druidic cult that delved so deep into nature magic that it changed them into their own race.
In the fluff, dwarves were the same: they were humans who settled in a brutal northern continent and took to living underground. Their use of magic plus environmental pressures eventually made them into dwarves.
@@KrimzonFlygon1 I'm sorry but do you have the name of that story, im now really interested
@@fallenlegend2763 I Went to Another World But Got Sent Back With My Party.
Seems like a dead fic, though, unfortunately.
Should have made the high elves junkies
That Nazi Elves part... I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Thank you for this series.
The amount of people who believe this is descriptive or a "shot" at the Elder Scrolls is ridiculous. Yes, they have orcs, dark elves, high elves, wood elves and dwarves. But what matters is how they're implemented. The orcs are oppressed and tribal, the dark elves are xenophobic and were slave owners (a lot), high elves, yes, as so many people have pointed out, do have Elf Nazis. But the Thalmor is an incredibly interesting political party. There's a ton of interesting lore behind that. Wood Elves are (or were) fucking cannibals. They're also by far the most interesting interpretation of wood elves in my opinion. Lastly, dwarves aren't even dwarves. They're just regular human size. They're also elves, like the orcs.
Ya I would not say that Elder Scrolls are a rip of of Tolkien although I would point out that he series started out much closer and over time added interesting lore
@Hans Hanzo you mean the beast FOLK right?^
i mean,the argonians themselfs are one of the,if not the most unique race of te TES series,their culture,lore and origin are completely diferent then any other race native to tamriel (basically every elf or human)
the*
Then there are khajiits, who are basically cute furries.
Lmfao. This was super funny and relatable.
I've been trying to make my own fantasy races and I find the first and most simple thing to consider so that things fall in place is to ask yourself "Why are they still alive, and why are the others still alive"
I like my races to have evolved differently based on their needs. So those better with magic didn't advance technology as much, those that are weaker, have shorter life spans, and therefore much larger populations. Etc.
The biggest problem I see with people using traditional fantasy races, isn't that it's familiar. It's when they forget to give any reason as of why, or how those races are still around.
Humans evolved because the dinos went bye bye and mammals became dominant, so the favorable traits changed over time.
I find if you dont give at least a basic thought of what lead a race to exist, or why they didint get conquered by others, you've fucked up.
Easiest way to do this though is just say world is divided, or people cant travel, allowing to evolve races in none conflicted biomes.
If elves lived in the east and humans in the west and only after boats became better, that makes sense. But if humans and elves are neighbors, its more likely that one of the two would have become dominant and not both of them would evolve into these intelligent, prosperous races.
I dont understand why writers write of humans as uninteresting or weak... After all, just look at us: we survived countless of wars, especially two of the most horrific wars in recent history. We invented weapons that could blow up the world in a single press of a button. We have subjucates beasts much stronger than ourselves into acting in circuses. We have manipulated the minds of entire civilizations through plastic machines and radio waves.
If anything, I feel human kind is the most overpowered of any fantasy races...
I write a story setting called trony,Humans are more "desirable" partners for other races because boning them is not overcomplexed and they have much more simple set up for tieing the knot. However, as a result in the setting half breeds happen,which are sometimes deformed to the point of killing the child would be mercy or come out still born. However,the race chance they do come out alive and not cripple,they will usually gain both good and bad traits from the parent species.
Take note, the first species to bring humanity the taste of other races where the owls. Well,at least the first recorded case.
Dragon Age: Nooooooooooooooootiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiceeeeeeeeeeeee meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The idea is usually to make humans so weak in order to exaggerate the feats the main character (who is human) completes. Slaying 100 soldiers is fine, but if those soldiers are orcs with 500 times human strength, all of a sudden your main character is cooler!... even though the enemies strength seems instantly negated by the main character's presence.
Pachy The Pirate Pachy The Pirate I guess theres some truth in that... But is just that I feel that the "lone hero does everything" trope is getting abit stale over time. If anything, I feel if the main character, who is of a weak race pwning 100 orcs easily makes him feel out of place in the environment he's in.
In my opinion, stories shouldn't be focused on the main character; the plot and world are much more important.
But what I really like to see is humans using their deceitful cunning to manipulate events into defeating these 100 orcs rather than using brute force.
Carzeyday Okay... your pitch makes me feel that the humans are more like objects for fucking..
But interspecies relations are always interesting. I'was thinking of a setting where multicultural marriages are highly encouraged by the governments to patch up relations after the war. Only catch is humans and elves hate each other due to the atrocities commited on both sides, So, there is a socio-political rift between those who support and are against interspecies relationships, And then there are those who want to kill each other
Its kinda inspired by the migrant crisis tho
If your characters acts and behaviors are defined by their race, then you've made a bad race and a bad character. That is usually how I view it.
Exactly. While a dwarf might be stubborn, his long experience with the uncertainty of reality might make him more willing to listen to advice. An elf might be less arrogant towards humans because of the same reason. I've never liked generalized traits for races that aren't biological.
Mate, a fair amount of biological traits seep into the cognitive process. Look at XYY men for example, men with naturally higher male hormone levels. They are greatly more aggressive [bear in mind aggression doesn't always have to be violent]. For an Orc, turn that up to eleven.
XYY men don't have more male hormones or look more manly. Please don't speak about things you have no knowledge. Genetics don't work like that.
Correct, But that said, Seeing how Men and Women(On average) act differently, just from mostly a hormonal difference(Within the womb, and outside during puberty, The latter actually changing how your brain develops in many ways.), Which with men increases aggression, confidence, and risk taking behavior, while physically having better reflexes, and mentally being better at logically thinking, while worse at emotional maturity, and other.
This is just from the same species, Let alone one with an entirely different set of DNA, Culture, and natural predators/Civilization. Now while I agree, having them be FORCED to have all the generic traits, Because of their race or gender of sex is lame. (As almost NO one is a full stereotype.) However these stereotypes do exist for a reason, But still, there will be many that think differently, Extremists, On both that agree with their own culture and religion(or lack of one) and differently.
So saying that they "Shouldn't" act anything at all like their race would feel out of place, Unless it is shown by the world it is odd, and there would most likely be a reason to cause this abnormality in their thinking.
Most differences we see on Male and Female behavior despite the biological part are taught, not natural, we need to break this assumption quick because it has no space in modern society anymore, people vary greatly if they have space...
I really enjoy this sarcastic way of handling proper storytelling. The only issue I have with this series as of now is it that it stems heavly from a purely creative standpoint, which is awesome!, but not from a commercial standpoint. The masses arent as critical as the 1% that review and advertize as story, and even then the reviews are based off of what the masses want. No reviewed product is as good as its stated, because all the reviews are centered around money. Im loving this series and its that creative origin that made tbat love. Ive got ideas of my own for stories and all of the characters have flaws, issues, differences and circumstances that allow their traits to show. I just want to tell a story and I think the uninterest in money is a good start for originality.
I think that he also address the economical point after all most of the plots that he talks about are made for commercial gain
I’m running a pathfinder campaign where the elves are actually a genocidal industrial empire. The story is that thousands of years prior, they were typical tree hugging tolkien elves. They revered the goddes of life and were allied by a tribe of human druids. However, The goddess of life made the human tribe here chosen people, transforming them into a new race with greater power over nature. The elves were enraged at this and renounced their faith towards the goddess. Over the coming ages, their rage grew until they declared war on the other races to prove that they were superior to all. They enslaved the halflings and gnomes, along with several races of fey, cause the humans to flee the continent, and drove the dwarves to extinction. Now, only an alliance of orcs, goblinoids, beast men, and the chosen of the goddess stand between the elves and domination of the continent.
Great campaign I imagine this is a world where high & dark elves allied to destroy the wood elves making them a terrifying power.
I want to read this.
Damn that's pretty cool man
I like that in mass effect they made the space elves all big titted blue honeys with psychic powers and the best of them having freckles
“My weakness is not jewelry this time.”
"Ethereal, Beautiful, and impossibly smug." *cough* Hearths father Mr. Alderman *cough*
"Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" by Rick Riordan. Riordan was inspired by his teacher who told him that "The Lord of the Rings" was modeled after Norse mythology. At least he read the sources of J.R.R Tolkien.
Joaquin Mejia True, true.
I doubt Riordan actually read the sources.. he most likely just went over wikipedia and don't even knows how to pronounce the names..
and obviously Even tho Fenrir and Jormungand are by lore the strongest along with Thor, Odin and Surtr, You can't have Fenrir be an actual major threat.. Nah he's just a big wolf, God forbid giving him a strength comparable to that of Gungnir or Mjöllnir despite that he was able to eat Odin armed with Gungnir while odin was mounted on his half brother.. Now Being able to do that to Odin would require being able to literraly swallow Gungnir without taking damage.. And there is absolutely no way a demi-god Valkyrie transformed into a lion even if she is Loki's daughter would be able to stand her ground against him..
Renard Dubois Tolkien loved mythology more than any other fantasy writer did. He wrote fantasy because he loved mythology. In fact,he wanted to create his own mythology(with all the Valar,hobbits,Elves,and Dwarves present in his epic stories).
I'm sure Riordan really loves mythology. But he does not love it the way Tolkien does. In fact,people criticize "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard" because of Riordan's inability to portray Norse mythology's fatalism which sets it apart from the Greco-Roman and Egyptian myths in his other books. Tolkien portrays this better in "The Lord of the Rings":The Elves are destined to leave Middle-earth,but they still fight Sauron. The Norse legend of Ragnarok also influenced Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor. They have no hope but they are still continuing their quest to destroy the One Ring.
Tolkien was a scholar and a professor who loved reading ancient stories. Riordan was a school teacher.
Well it sure is hard to be even just as fatalistic as norse mythology.. Litteraly everything is about destiny and prophecies that always come true and most of the time, they come true because the ones interested try to change what was foretold..
But you can respect the main characters even if you keep the prophecies at bay..
And that's not what Riordan do.
“I can’t see any historical references at all”
That got me
This is why I like making a Halfling Paladin. No one expects a cheery short guy to fit the :metal: smiley from Something Awful.
We already have him he is called
Samwise Gamgee The Brave Lord of Potatoes:
Killer of Ungoliant, destroyer of the ring, bearer of 13 children and seven times reelected mayor of the shire.
Samwise was an absolute Mad Lad!
@@feanorhighkingofthenoldor6614 "bearer of 13 children"...? Now I'm not a native speaker, but to me that sounds more like one of the fanfictions where he ends up with Frodo and (somehow) gets pregnant himself, rather than his wife bearing 13 children :D
@@baguettegott3409
Lol no Samwise wouldn't stoop so low.
Frodo is shit Samwise was the real hero
@@feanorhighkingofthenoldor6614 I'd like to formally disagree with that - why does there have to be just ONE hero? Why can't they both be heroes that both would have inevitably failed without the other by their side?
But I'm gonna refrain from writing an essay about it here, I'm sure you don't wanna read a comment that long.
@Son 0f Jack Lol Yea....a dwarf without a beard....*remembers halfling with a beard*
Good advice on what not to do.
Its the point.
I'm interested in learning more about The Kitchen Sink Elves
They're an ancient race of lost plumbers who got stuck under the kitchen sink.
@@gregoreisenhorn6601 Like Mario?
@@Bacony_Cakes he isn't stuck,he is saving princess for 69420-th time already
What about the fridge elves?
Remember the rule number one,if it looks ugly,them its evil
To summarise: Copy Tolkien!
Badly
@@anzaia2164 Is it even possible to do so well?
I actually wish people would be more inspired by Tolkien's orcs instead of the green skinned tusked muscle men everyone uses nowadays ( Including the appearance of the orc in the vid :P )
I searched for the literal definition of "orcneas", but all I could find was that it meant ghoul. So I'll just write my Orcs as ghoulish, zombie elves.
My orcs aren't green...
They're tall, well built and with tusk-like teeth, though... But they are partly covered in fur and have a tail, *THEREFORE I'M ORIGINAL YOU CAN'T SAY ORTHERWISE*
@@jacket6213 huh. Mine are former humans who turned into pale, naked "zombies" that eventually regain their intelligence/sanity and evolve into all sorts of different elves.
To be fair - Greenskinned Orks originate from WarHammer and those are THE funniest Orks (or Orcs if we're talking Fantasy Battles) you could come across. Genetically engineered jovial murder machines with absolutely hilarious culture and no self-awareness of how horrible their situation is. And even if they were aware of it, they'd probably find it absolutely amazing. Enemies everywhere! No need to actually look for them!
Cockney accents, extreme violence & jokes that's an orc.
Tribal pacifists aren't orcs those are just stupid green elves
That's exactly why i love the lore of Warcraft/WoW. Specifically their take on orcs. Instead of being "hurr durr, dumb evil brutes that want to murder everything" they are an originally peaceful species that was deceived by demons and turned into almost stereotypical orcs for just long enough to fullfill the goals of said demons. After that their world was ruined, so they had to escape to Azeroth, where they were met with extreme prejudice and xenophobia by humans, who only accepted the existence of nice-looking races. As the most capable of the rejects, the orcs formed the Horde, which, contrary to it's first impressions, is simply races not accepted by the Alliance trying to defend their lives together, regardless of how wildly different their worldviews are.
Also, Illidan is an Elf and isn't flawless.
WOW just copies generic stereotypes. First orcs were generic bad guys who wanted to murder everyone then they were generic "misunderstood good guys" who were victims of evil humans... don't know where I have heard that one before
Meh, I prefer the Warhammer orcs.
Genetically engineered space fungi FTW
Elvin Ostrup FUCKING FINALLY SOMEONE BROUGHT UP WARHAMMER
@
GREEN IS DA' BEST!
WAAAAAGHHHHHH!!!!!
Says “just rip off Tolkien”, then I say “Well actually.” Shows Gandalf holding the Edda, then I say “Oh, that’s the joke.”
Rule 1: Rip off Toelkin
To be honest he ripped off existing myths
Toel's kin?*
Rule 2: Rip off Blizzard
1:26 Elf approaches a duo of dwarves, happily feasting on beer and drumsticks, to ask them "Have you considered becoming vegan?" *This scene literally happened in the Inheritance Cycle.* For extra smugness points, that Elf also suggested that the Dwarves should become atheists and redistribute their wealth. I'm not making this up 😂
Fantastic analysis (and expose, for that matter)
I love the idea of a totalitarian regime of immortal elves
ALDMERI DOMINION INTENSIFY
Dont forget the fairies (but spelled "faeries" to sound unique and edgy without knowing the etymology of the word) who are always bubbly and happy and unrealistically stupid and they all have the power of healing!! :-)
RIP Gabe the Dog, January 2000 - January 19 2017 In my fantasy world fairy's are insect like creatures who use magic to induce hallucinations to kill and use them as food. Also there demons.
RIP Gabe the Dog, January 2000 - January 19 2017
Damn son, I think I found a new fetish.
Ah, yes, the fae. Known for kidnapping children and drowning travelers (and those are the benevolent kind).
The Mortal Instruments have an interesting twist on them. Making them half Angel and half Demon. They cannot lie but are VERY manipulative and sly
In my bizarre story, I had Fairies be the only true humans. Also, they're school teachers.
Fëanor is s really nice guy is possibly the most hilarious thing I’ve seen all day
"Tolkien obviously stole from the Marvel Universe"
I actually made a D&D Class if it was in the modern age. **Like my dad said “So elves and dwarves in suits in ties.”** It’s called *The Observer.* It can act like another class, a well known person, etc. They are a copycat class that have no real life of their own after becoming an observer. Me and my dad thought of a few weakness but we couldn’t think of a good weakness
"Keep adding more elves until there isn't any room for more!"
Elder Scrolls! Where are you?
At least Bethesda added unique cultures, politics, religions, history and customs to these races.
But i hope that on their next franchise they invent some completely unique races.
Lisko Mies elders scrolls six now with playable sloads
metal greymon ALMOST THERE.
bloody werebears
They could make a new series with a well thought lore and beastfolk too. There is never enough beastfolk. Or add beastfolk that makes sense in the world of elder scrolls with new unique background. Or different Khajit races people will love it mostly.
And now imagin that some one take these lesons seriously. XD
Wait, you're not supposed to?
FireDragis Someone did. His name was Eric Paoloni and he created the shameless LOTR/Star Wars ripoff called Eragon.
Are you speeking about film or book?
Well, I think that one got better as it went on, even if it's beginnings were kind've derivative. There was still enough creativity to keep me interested.
Ech. It's derivative, but I think he does it pretty well. Don't expect Tolkien 2.0, he was like 16 when he wrote the first book.
(but he can't even do a conlang properly what you have there is a *relex*)
This is why I love the Eberron setting, it defies traditional fantasy stereotypes and allows us to not be locked in rigid definitions of race and considers settings in a more modern light in comparison to medieval fantasy settings.
This is why I love what the Witcher books and games did with it, they included so many creatures that you’d never find elsewhere
Eragon i am watching you!
I feel like dragon age did an amazing job at using elements of tolkien but creating a brand new story, If you've played through the Trespasser DLC for Inquistion it'a amazing how they throw out everything we thought we knew about elven culture and then compare them to the Tevinter Imperium, the group that conquered and enslaved the Elves. And it's great how they added their own race as well that isn't just completely shoved to the sideline to make room for the Humans Dwarves and Elves, the Qunari have a really interesting culture that adds to the overall story and feel like they belong in the world, unlike over fantasy worls where they Tolkien's races, take out the halfings and then replace them with another small race, like the Gnomes in Sword of Shannara.
Love Elves? Let's add more of them! WoW in a nutshell....
I like WoW
In WoW the BloodElves/High elves are depicted as Crack Addicts.
Unfortunately Warcraft/WoW couldn't really get away from the trend either:
First, you have "The Holy Fantasy Trifecta" of: Orcs, Dwarves (no tech, just alcohol), and even two different flavors of Elves (Nature-Loving & Magic Addicts)
Then there's (of course) us boring old Humans.
And then there's everyone else:
The Worgen (Who are literally *just* British Werewolves, and that's it),
Tauren (Native American Minotaurs),
Pandaren (We don't talk about those),
Undead ("Innovative!"),
Goblins (Money grubbing and everything)
Gnomes (Puntable midgets with the Dwarves' knack for gadgets trope),
& Trolls, mon. (Blue Jamaicans with pointy ears and a hunchback. 420/10)
The only "truly original" race I think they did were the Draenei, at least of the playable ones...
Still a good game/series, tho.
ThatGenericPyro [A TH-cam Channel] you forgot about the best race
tuskarr
ThatGenericPyro [A TH-cam Channel] also trolls are great fight me
Warcraft's biggest divergence from classic fantasy is how it portrays these races differently from Tolkein-based fantasy, the Orcs are a proud and noble PEOPLE rather than blood-thirsty monsters and only acted as such when enslaved by the Burning Legion.
Humans are both noble, relatable, but also extremely zealous and effectively fight a race war against the Horde because in the past the Orcs (whilst enslaved and corrupted by the Burning Legion) invaded Azeroth, despite the fact that they now moved to a different continent on Azeroth to try live in peace without causing trouble to the humans.
Dwarves and Gnomes are directly tied to each other, as far as races in Warcraft there aren't two closer both culturally and personally, their capitals are right next to eachother and both Dwarves and Gnomes are in touch with their roots as Titan Constructs (Earthen and Mechagnomes), and Dwarves have 4 different clans of note, 3 of which had a civil war together, each with notably different personalities, one of them breaking the traditional "Dwarf living underground with the forge" trope entirely.
Tauren, well everyone loves Tauren, and it's nice to see a Minotaur race not being some mindless monsterous brutes but instead a relatively peaceful race.
Goblins are again a nice break from the traditional fantasy dumb tribal goblins and Warcraft's goblins have an interesting rivalry with the Gnomes.
The Forsaken are interesting in that they aren't the classic mindless zombies but instead have quite a lot of lore and story to them that I don't have space to type into this comment.
Everyone loves Trolls, that's a given, and their cultures are extremely interesting, with the varying troll Tribes, the Loa they worship, their voodoo magic and the shadow hunters, not to mention the Zandalari Trolls from which they stem, with their glorious Temple City of Gold Zandalar: th-cam.com/video/AiMD2h8xv9c/w-d-xo.html
Bar the High Elves, the whole elven race in WoW is done in a fairly interesting manner with them having stemmed for Trolls originally and how Elves adapt so drastically to their enviroments, the struggle with addiction of the Blood Elves and later the Nightborne, their visual design and architecture breaks away from traditional elven fantasy in a fair few areas, Night Elf skin and their slightly savage nature that we see occasionally (especially in Warcraft 3), their magic addiction with the Blood Elves, and the whole of the Nightborne stuff. Obviously the High Elves (and to an extent subsequently the Blood Elves) are the traditional fantasy elves with their culture, visuals, and architecture.
Pandaren have an interesting enough culture and yes they get a lot of shit for being chubby pandas, from a lore point they're quite interesting, from the visual of their characters they are a bit too cartoonish for most people's tastes.
Worgen aren't very original I'll agree there, they're the classic Victorian England Werewolf trope that became quite big around Cataclysm's release (when they were added).
Draenei are probably one of their least original races actually, as they're a blatent reference to Tieflings from D&D in both appearance, accent, and cultural styles, only notable difference in their appearance is just how wide the Draenei males are, but Draenei females are carbon copies of female Tieflings. Again though their differences from other games or literature comes from their culture and their obsession with the light, the betrayal of Archimonde and Kil'jaeden and their connection into the Burning Legion (although the Draenei being tied to Demons is another reference to Tieflings).
1:33 basically the admeri dominion from skyrim.