Hola! I was wondering what fantasy races people like to see in their Litrpg? I myself am a fan of the standard races like elves and dwarves, but I was wondering if others preferred to see more diversity and originality in races. The thing I like about the standard ones is that they are familiar and I know what to expect, but I do like to see writers approach them in their own way. Not big differences, but maybe a bit modernized? One thing I dislike though is when all characters of the same race are basically the same. Like drunken dwarves who talk with a Scottish accent. xD
In the story I'm working on at the moment, there are a plethora of races. I like to go wide with mine, shooting for a huge, inclusive potential selection of character types for the players to play. Human (of course) Normal Human Changeling (Super rare - cannot be chosen at character creation) Orc Swamp Orc Mountain Orc Half Orc Elf High Elf Wood Elf Shadow Elf Half Elf Dwarf Hill Dwarf Underhill Dwarf Felynx (Catfolk) Kaddiska Ahz'lahan Jah'gawar (with the rare Paw'nathar variant) Shere'khan Wolven (Wolf-people) Quickling (Like halflings or hobbits with some tweaks) Gnome Troll Goblin Revenant (Undead) Minotaur Jirah (The children of elven spirits) Devlin (An imp-like species) Urgo (Massive stone half-giants) The ones that don't currently have variants will, at some point. Either that, or I'll cut the variants down. I'm not sure which way I'm going to go. There's a bit of a conceit about dwarves in that world, too, which is that "role players who select dwarven characters often take advantage of the game's audio filters to give their avatars a Scottish accent," as sort of a nod to how dwarves are often written and portrayed in video games. But NPC dwarves aren't all thick-accented like those.
There's not much, but I personally would love to see more mythical races from early human culture. The stuff that is primordial and borders on superstition (but not paranormal). Demigods. Nephilim. Jinn. Beowulf (whatever race it is). I'm trying to draw on some elements of ancient fantasy in my own writing. Just a bit. I love Tolkien and Elves, but when you say elf and people think of Orlando Bloom... you lose some of the mystique, the sense of the alien unknown, that little shiver even if it's not horror. I know it's a trope, but I love to see gods show up in books. There's no predefined fantasy god stereotype beyond the extreme all good and all evil caricatures, so they are usually interesting to read.
I'd like to see more of the more unusual suspects - we have a long thread on centaurs on another post. Some of the problem with using common species like trolls or elves is, like said, everyone has a pretty set idea of them and while you can use this as a shortcut, if you try to do something off-brand with them you risk making readers confused or worse, feeling cheated/upset.
What about Taurcens? You know, where its a horse head and a man's body. Speed of a man, intelligence of a horse?
In my world I've introduced: Human Elves - Many subraces, some available at creation, some can be unlocked in game Gnomes - A few subraces Goblins Dwarves Half-Races (Any mix of any of the standard races above) Ghosts Gargoyles (Unlocked in Game) Para-Races (start life as a standard race - usually human, and are changed. or awakened into their supernatural nature.. gain access to new powers, but at the cost of innate human magic): - Vampires (Two varieties) - Weres (Wolves, Rats, Ravens, Coyotes, Spiders have been seen/heard about so far) - Fae (talked about but not yet seen) - Mummies
Great topic! I love the idea of different races...or should it be species? I vote race though simply because of RP convention. The real question is though is what races can you use? Can you have Blood Elves, Night Elves, or other known races? Like Orc's for example, didn't they begin life in the Hobbit? It's questions like these that clog up my writing process lol
Personally, I love diversity in books as far as race/species go, but only if it matters. If it's just pointless window-dressing (Oh, I'm an elf because hot!) then I'd rather they just be human. If it doesn't matter beyond green skin or pointy ears and has no world building and culture to go with it, just stick with humans. Don't tease me with the possibility of an interesting race and then give me a human with one small feature that makes zero impact on them. I want to see at least a little background and interesting traits; bonus if it's not just the 'typical' boring stuff like 'oh and elves hate orcs because EVIL'. Give me Orcs that aren't evil, but just aggressive and proud. Give me elves that are arrogant, but not 'perfection'. Give me elves with flaws and fears and problems, not just blissful perfect immortals frolicking in the trees or something. Now, I totally understand that people have certain expectations for certain races. I don't even mind them being filled so long as it's done thoughtfully and built upon. If your Goblins are all evil, tell me why they're evil. Have it be more than just "Well, Goblins are naturally evil" or something thin like that. You can use the bones the tropes give you, but put some meat on them for me.
I have a real soft spot for centaurs <3 I agree with @Jay that the races should matter. I'd also kinda like there to be an explanation how they came about, like the whole creation myth and stuff. Otherwise I can't help wondering... why this race and not that. And they kinda have to belong to the same set as well, so if a story has humans and dwarves and vampires, and only those three races, it sounds really weird.
You don't really get a say in it considering the nature of biology— the very fact there are such things as "half elves" and "half orcs" and "half goblins" firmly proves that these are races, not species. What I always wondered about is why half-folk are always half-human. When was the last time you saw a half-elf half-ogre?
Well, technically that's not true. Different species can interbreed if they're close enough and from the same genus. For example. horses and donkeys are different species but can create mules. Lions and tigers are different species but can create ligers (or tigons depending on which parent is which). Coywolves are crosses between wolves and coyotes. So technically speaking if humans, elves, and orcs are all in the genus "homo" than they could potentially have hybrids. Homo orcus anyway? Granted, that leaves some interesting possibilities such as defects, side effects of the genetics (such as ligers having growth issues), and sterility due to being hybrids. That could potentially make for some interesting worldbuilding, although admittedly not all hybrids are sterile. Panthera hybrids and coywolves are normally fertile, for example.
Ummm are you saying I'm not hot. I'll have you know my Elfness is full of the hot. Okay but seriously I agree. I will say that with current MMOs race only matters in our mind and to our faction. I do agree with you, as you know, that race should be more. It will be interesting to see how different writers address this. I'm still worried about legalities though. because why not stress about something that I can't just google?
YES! I may not have a say but I still choose lol my choice is just "right". I hadn't even thought about the halfsies. Though there could be a complicated theory about how magic makes them possible, I think you are correct that the simplest theory is the best! plus i'm right! lol Thank you!
From Stack Exchange: Insert Standard "I Am Not A Lawyer" Disclaimer here. Writing about ideas or mythical races is, generally speaking, quite alright. They are not copy-right/trademarked because they are ideas/in common usage. It's not directly related to writing, but it is in a similar creative space - Games Workshop have quite a history and reputation for retaining a rather rabid legal department who will bully and harass anything they see as encroaching on their "Intellectual Property" on 'brands' that they own. The most infamous of these were their Space Marine suits. They would send anyone and everyone breaches if they were using the words "Space Marine" in any commercial sense (Games Workshop Proves It Would Rather Bully Authors Than Be A Culture Participant) However, this backfired on them when a court ruled that they couldn't enforce trademark on terms or ideas such as Space Marine, High Elves etc and they have been busy rebranding their products ever since (i.e. Space Marines have now become Adeptus Astartes - which they always where, mind you, but were commonly referred to as Space Marines. The Imperial Guard became the Astra Militarum. High Elves became Asur and then Aelfs, Orcs becam Orruks etc). TL;DR version: Using concepts such as elves, mages, clerics and adventurers etc isn't impeding on any IP. If your cleric was a Cleric of Lathander, your elves were Eladrin and the capital city was Ankh-Morpork etc IS directly impeding IP and you will be liable.
Well, I'm sure, but the hotness is only a side-effect of elfness! And correct. Elves were around long before Tolkien's ideas about them (although the Fair Folk weren't often as lovely and pure. They were scary and vicious and you damn well appeased them so says the person of Celtic heritage. You do not screw with those from under the Mounds!). There have been legends about dwarves and centaurs and lots of other common fantasy races for centuries before Tolkien or Lewis breathed a word about them. So normally unless you're 100% copying another work to the letter, you don't have to worry. Granted, doing that is dull but the point is, no one is going to kick in the door if your elves are tall, golden-haired, beautiful long-lived forest dwellers that are much wiser than humans. Although I might groan loudly and roll myself because that's been done to death.
Right...so my blood elves should not be a decimated people with an addiction to magic? Darn. what else could a blood elf be? and of course my elves are eternal. all the best ones are. though the rest is up for question lol And I'll take that side effect of elfness anytime!
And there are still legends about elves. It's possible that some new elvish folklore to be passed around in future tales has yet to be created. I mentioned it in a status update a few days ago, but I wasn't really kidding:
I'm Irish/Scottish. I don't know that I believe, but you know...I still won't walk in a faerie ring or risk pissing off the Good Folk. 'Cause you never know and my grandparents didn't raise no fool.
