Questions tagged [fantasy-races]
For questions relating to peoples or sentient beings that are often found in the fantasy subgenre of fiction, such as elves, dwarves, etc. This can be about their physical characteristics, their societies, or something completely different.
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Could fire-breathing lifeforms achieve sapience
Fiery organisms are rare in nature, but looking at their intellect presents a troubling picture for worldbuilders
At the lower end we have humans, fairly intelligent organisms with only a basic ...
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Does a saber-toothed humanoid make sense as an animal?
The creature has the head and neck of a saber-toothed predator. It has long upper canines and kills with a strong downward swing of the head, hence its neck is strengthened to perform this task
Its ...
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How do tiny humanoids not fall over?
Gravity is around 9.8m/s^2 on Earth. Unfortunately, this figure means different things at different scales. We could put this figure in terms of height (1.6m) and reaction times (0.2s), which shoul ...
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What danger would a mummy pose if resurrected where they need to cover/protect its body?
Mummies are widely considered to be one of the most iconic undead monsters, but are often overshadowed by their vampire & zombie brethren.
Furthermore, while the vampire has a bevy of supernatural ...
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How do you determine age of a humanoid species comparative to humans?
In my book, there are humans and there are Shaye, a humanoid species that are a little like harpies but with other features that distinguish them. Comparitively to humans, they live far longer so the ...
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What would be the best melee weapon(s) to emphasize arboreal mobility?
I'm currently trying to come up with various different Melee weapon "load outs" for the creatures in my world, and have come up with a few different ones for certain situations already. The warriors ...
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Why could the militaristically superior dwarves who are the only ones with magic weapons be isolationist?
I want to have a world with dwarves who were gifted a magic language from their creator god (different one than the one who made humans) that they can use to inscribe magic onto weapons and other ...
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How can children dying increase fitness?
There are three true gods in the world: Order, Chaos and Nature. All of them patron a couple of humanoid races that carry their values. While Order and Chaos carry on their petty feud fought by their ...
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What sort of mount would a naga use and how? [closed]
Is there any sort of animal (living or extinct) that would be a practical mount for a naga? And how would they be able to ride it? Or is this not a workable idea at all and should I throw out the idea ...
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Fake Legendary Sword in Stone scams, how to make them believable and unpullable in a world of magic? [closed]
I should preface this by informing you that the story I'm writing is mostly comedy, but I'll try to incorporate reason and meaning behind the jokes.
I have a small joke written in my story where the ...
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How to justify a racist empire's use of other sentient species as shock troops? [closed]
I'm writing a novel where an empire is on the rise, with a lot of discrimination against other species, yet, for plot reasons they use shock troops that are of another species, elves. The empire use ...
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How can a vampire navigates a mirror maze? [closed]
Imagine a huge maze consists of mirrors on all sides, these are tempered glass coated with very reflective finishes. The ceiling is also made of tempered glass but it allows a certain wavelength of ...
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Genetic Compatibility Amongst Differing "Fantasy" Races
Okay, it's a staple amongst certain fantasy settings where you have different races of creatures and beings co-habiting, which leads to certain off-shoots of different races (the half-elf and half-orc ...
CommunityBot
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What could be the reasoning behind why Elves go into metamorphosis?
For my setting, I really want to push the non-human aspect of the other typical fantasy races. For Elves, I've been throwing the idea around that they go through a metamorphosis of sorts. I was ...
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Anatomically correct multiarmed humanoids
Humanoids with more than 2 pairs of arms weren't an unknown concept in human culture. From ancient mythology, there are the hundred-armed Hekatoncheires (who have their own thread here) and six-armed ...
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How would humans evolve if they began living underground? [closed]
So I am creating a world where some humans begin to live underground and in caves under mountains but I am struggling a bit with how they might evolve. My problem is that I don't want them to just be ...
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Would hotels/motels/hostels serve a purpose when everyone has a magic bedroom they can teleport to? [closed]
In my modern fantasy novel, there is a species of people called the Torus. The Torus are blue-skinned humanoids who suffer from dyslexia and dyscalculia. This makes it difficult for them to perform ...
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What is the size of the largest possible flying animal? Realistically speaking?
I’d like to create fantasy creatures that can fly using their own realistic physiology without magic or any kind of supernatural power. Many references on the internet mention that popular dragons ...
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How to prevent theft in a society where everyone has hyperspace storage?
In my modern fantasy novel, there is a species of people called the Hammerts. The Hammerts are small orange humanoids who have issues running and jumping after they reach adulthood. To compensate for ...
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Would this winged human/angel be able to fly?
I take no credit for the image below. All artwork and information belongs to Blue-Hearts on DeviantArt:
(click on image for a higher resolution)
I'm personally very impressed at her level of detail ...
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What phonemes would a snouted animal (e.g. dog or cat) be able to pronounce?
Assuming human-style vocal cords, what phonemes would a snouted animal be able to produce? I'm looking at developing a conlang (or several) for a setting, and it has several humanoid species with ...
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Could a Dwarven Civilization Exist?
Could a Dwarven society as described by Tolkien mythology actually work? Dwarves for the purposes of this question are short, stout, bearded men and women who live primarily underground. They have a ...
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How would a creature with third-and-second-person vision be able to wield a firearm effectively?
My urban fantasy story, set at the turn of the milennium, has a species of humanoid beings called the untethered. The most distinctive thing about them is that they lack eyes of their own. Rather than ...
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How could a quadrupedal human evolve?
The creature is an ape-like quadruped very similar to humans. Their intelligence and feelings are the same as in regular humans. The head and torso are indistinguishable from a regular human. The arms ...
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Does the addition of dominant fantasy races change racism in humans?
Context: This takes place in an alternate reality earth; several fantasy races have existed since the Ladinian era of the break up of Pangea; meaning by the time humans evolved into homo-sapiens, they ...
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How would you prosecute crimes in a world where everyone regenerates from injuries?
The world is filled with trolls. Trolls regenerate from any damage other than fire or acid at a rate of about 10% per second, and so any injuries or torture you inflict will very quickly be removed. ...
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Will my Hydra sink into the bog?
Hydras in my world are much like a brontosaurus in form, but has three heads. Much like a hippo, hydras have incredibly dense bones, and sink rapidly in water. Hydras are almost exclusively swamp ...
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(Online) Sources for Traditional Lore to Base Creatures on
I'm currently working on a fantasy world with a medieval/mythological setting, and I'm trying to do a bunch of research for several non-human races (dwarves, mermaids, etc.).
However I don't want to ...
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Cultural identity in an Multi-cultural empire
I'm world-building for a universe. I just came up with Deals Best Kept, and I realized I wanted to have a bunch of fantasy races interact, be very culturally diverse and mixed, and also account for a ...
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What would my phylogenetic tree composed of sixteen Homo species look like?
In my world, there are sixteen human species (mammalian species from the Homo genus):
Common humans (no explanation is necessary);
Marine humans/Merfolk (they have a seal-like blubber, they have a ...
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What muscles would get sore if humans had wings and could fly?
I'm intrigued by the idea of humans with feathered wings as a 6th appendage, but with prolonged flight, if such a thing were actually possible for humans naturally as it is in my book, I'm not sure ...
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How to separate male and female members of a "lizard like" species
The Gaals are a satient humanoid race, of magic origin. They were created by the last of the dragons as a legacy of his race to the world. They are humanoid, but with no hair and scales all over their ...
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How would "barbie doll" anatomy work?
A fairly common trope in fantasy is "barbie doll anatomy". Effectively, a species completely lacks any visible orifices besides their mouth and nose. This brings up two major questions. ...
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How would organisms adapt to survive darkness beasts? [expansion to my old question]
[This is an expanded/refined version of my old question:
How would animals adapt to darkness-made beasts? ]
Premise:
'Beasts'/Seraphins are other-worldly intangible beings (you can't touch them, but ...
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Most effective castle fortifications against fantasy/medieval airborne attack?
Edit: This question has been reopened!
Medieval castles are mostly designed towards delaying or obstructing ground attackers. The only real threat a castle faces from above, at least from humans, ...
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What protection would autotrophic zoophytes construct? [closed]
The mireworts are a species of small (piglet sized) motile (snail paced) autotrophs that have a high degree of intelligence and sociality. They gain energy solely through photosynthesis, and consume ...
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What cutlery would rotifer monsters use?
The rotifer monsters are monstrous rotifers with a roughly human level of intellect. They are roughly 7 metres in length and 2 metres in diameter. They possess the power to manipulate gravity, ...
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Would my giants still have a functioning appendix?
In my world, there is a species from the Homo genus named Homo gigas. They are commonly called giants.
They are as massive as polar bears, and they never stop growing like kangaroos.
They have seal-...
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Sonic weapons vs Faeries: Can we survive The Cloud of Blades & Bombs?
The faeries of my world are nightmare fuel.
They 5-7 cm insects that have two legs and four upper grasping limbs. Paired with this, they have the flight characteristics of humming birds, making them ...
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Is there any reason centaurs can't fit their own horseshoes?
Since the invention of hard road surfaces, a centaur would need to wear metal shoes like any other horse-like creature.
Can you see any barrier to a suitably qualified centaur
(a) being a ...
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Would a satyr wear horseshoes?
Would a satyr wear horseshoes?
Horseshoes were invented because stone roads were bad for a horse’s hooves. I’m not sure if a satyr would want to nail horseshoes (goatshoes?) to their hooves, or if ...
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Non-Magic, Real-Life Fairies?
Garden Fairies exist...
But not in the way we thought.
A strange form of life borrowing traits from insects and plants with a human-like appearance.
This is a reality-check, is what I am about to ...
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Could sophonts that evolved in colder climates keep cool in the tropics with simple technology? [closed]
On an Earth-like planet, we have a functionally human-like creature which evolved to dwell comfortably in its world's boreal forests. As humans have done, it will likely have a desire to explore its ...
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What would make winged centaurs a reasonable fighting force? [closed]
Within my world of Astarious, I have a race known as the Pegtauri, winged centaurs, who for a time were feared raiders on villages near the mountains that separated their plains from the rest of ...
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Growth rates of fantasy humanoids
There are a number of humanoid creatures in fantasy that we more or less take for granted. Humans are almost a necessity for us to be able to relate to the story and they interact with dwarves, elves, ...
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What could be a compelling reason for an incestuous race to diversify into clans? [closed]
I'm writing a litRPG novel and have created an incestuous race called Purus (a temporary name). Purus are a long-lived race that can live for up to 1000 years. They possess unique magical powers, ...
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How would a city be structured if the inhabitants did not have houses? [closed]
Some sapient species, unlike humans, do not see the need to erect housing or beds to sleep in. They still have access to the art of construction for other purposes such as storerooms, forts, and ...
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How would different antler styles impact balance in humanoids? [closed]
I’m designing a feylike race where more dominant females develop antlers to display their place in the hierarchy. However, I haven’t decided exactly how they’re going to sit yet or if the style that I’...
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How can my puny naked apes possibly become the dominant species? [closed]
I have been building my fantasy world for the last fifteen years. The world has satirical elements. In particular the world is ruled by puny naked upright apes. I am having difficulty justifying this ...
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How would my fantasy race keep blood in ceremonial pots without it getting gross?
There’s a group I’m designing that believe blood to be sacred, and at 7 they begin keeping it for rituals and such.
The amount of blood is about a drop per day and is kept in a (glazed) clay pot that ...
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