Thought it would be interesting to see what creatures and races people have invented for their fantasy stories, so please share as much as you'd like about them. Perhaps we can inspire each other! I'll start of course. In my fantasy world, there are no other races other than humans, there are however two kinds of monsters. One of them are humans who have changed permanently into something else (mutated you might say) and the other type is a sort of manifestation of people's fears, taboos, nightmares etc. One of the changed humans is called "Starvers" or "hollows". They look like extremely emaciated humans, yet retain reasonable strength and endurance, they also often show signs of self-inflicted wounds like a lot of scarring, missing fingers, nose, ears, even an arm. One "deformity" they all share though are missing eyes, torn out by the "person" him/herself (missing eyelid as well) and they have a very dark, almost black discoloring spreading out the empty eye sockets and have the same on their lips (which are often cracked) as well. The tongue is also black and the teeth rotten. They are "created" from people driven insane by disturbing visions and an increasing hunger for human flesh, the taboo of which further drives them to further madness, leading them to tear out their eyes to try and escape the visions and temptations. It's a long process and they will begin to refrain from eating as eating anything else will make them throw up. At one point the urge will become too great and they will seek out corpses to eat, or may even attack people. They have no language anymore, roam around alone hiding in dark places and usually only attack living humans when the starvation has become too great. Even when they do attack and feast they seem hesitant, as there's still a little shred of humanity in them. There's another, much rarer breed of these that aren't nearly as starved, still have their eyes and haven't inflicted self-injury. They people who willing and gladly resorted to cannibalism and found enjoyment in the disturbing visions they saw. So that's one of my monsters, let me see what you have!
Shifters in my story are essentially evil shape shifters who each have a symbiotic relation with a sentient parasitic organism (most likely from an extinct alien race). They infect their victim with the parasite. The creature siphons memories, knowledge, and a genetic blueprint from the target before returning to the shifter for a download of sorts which then allows the shifter to take on the convincing identity of the target in both mind and appearance. The parasites grant the shifters the power to change and ridiculously long life spans. They can reside both on or in a host. When shifter and parasite are parted they long to be reunited and share a very basic telepathic link. I have the occasional demon, zombie, dragon, witch, mutant, ghost, and ghoul where applicable of course. I can't speak much on the other monsters; too paranoid about what I consider potentially unique creative property (delusions of grandeur I'm sure) plus it would spoil the story a bit if I ever finished it and got a reader
In my stories I have these creatures called Shalan, or Shadows. They are dark creatures that are born from the darkness in a human soul. When someone dies, all the darkness seeps out and creates a sentient being. The power of the Shalan depends on the amount of darkness in the person. A normal person won't make a powerful on, but a murderer would. As they increase in lower, they become more intelligent and have more unique powers other than claw things to death. The most powerful Shalan are created when someone with a powerful soul dies, as opposed to the amount of darkness. These will retain their human personality, but it will be twisted and hellbent on revenge. Their powers are completely unique to the individual in this case. That's just a pretty decent basis for them. Also thanks for making this thread, I'm always excited to hear about monsters that people come up with
I believe I posted this is another thread, but I've taken a interesting route with my Violent Dead. By the way, this is for dark Fantasy/horror. Rather than explain, I'll just show. - And so the jeweler touched the ring and was made undone. The loud ring of a church bell sounded through the room, shattering all the glass cases. “What The Hell?” The Jeweler said as he covered his head, and a large figure appeared behind him. What the Hell indeed. I looked up to see what the figure was. A red-furred ape, taller than a doorway and covered in necrosis, grabbed the jeweler by the arms and folded him into a box. Bones snapped, flesh tore, and broken veins gushed blood. As this living, screaming man was used for origami, the Ape sang out in the voice of all-female choir. It matched my expectations of what angels would sound like, so I cried. - And that, is one of my monsters.
These aren't from my current WIP, but I like 'em a lot anyway. First the Jy-irr (or Jirr if you want to be more informal). Their species name translates in their language to 'dragon-children'. They have a basic humanoid form, but with scales instead of skin and a long tail that's tip doesn't quite reach the ground. I'm still considering if they have claws of some sort or not. Hair is more like a mane and tends to only grown to chin-length. There's also a tuft on the end of their tail. They're harder to injure than humans, but once hurt they don't bounce back nearly as well. A small cut often scars, and broken limbs never fully heal. Their teeth are more pointed, and they are more carnivorous than humans. It's possible for them to eat plants, but they don't get as much nutritional value out of it as humans. It's not unheard of for them to eat their meat raw. Culturally, they're nomads and are practically constantly at war with some other tribe. Half the time though, it's more of a 'beat the other guy up some, steal some stuff and leave' war than some 'wipe the other guy off the face of the earth' war. And if any other species tries to go to war with one tribe, the entire race will band together and fight for their brethren. At the start of my book, they would be near the end of a thousand-year banishment for almost wiping out the another race. They worship the dragons that banished them, looking up to them as their 'parent race'. My book would be about them moving away from that. They also their faces with signs showing what tribe and family they belong to by inserting color under their scales. It doesn't last too long, a few months, so they have to be refreshed often. It's how they know someone has been banished, their face is clear of marks. I've got a couple others but I don't feel like typing those up right now, so here's this one.
To be honest, Giger has made some superb monsters, but he was a little obsessed with female genitalia. The alien monster is a moment of unbeatable magnificence. You need to get rid of eyes, because without eyes we have no link via the major human manor of communicating. My dog used to lower his eyes when I looked at him; he slept in my bed and was loved (do not read the wrong meaning into that), but when I looked at him, his eyes would drop, because evolutionary response. Without the eyes I would have no clue that he accepted me as his pack leader, it would just be guess work, and those teeth would look a hell of a lot scarier. They would have teeth, sharp, tearing, carnivore teeth. They would be strong, strength is scary. It is quite simple, a physical inferiority, and a lack of motive makes everything scary.
Originating from the 3rd planet in the Sol system of the Milky Way galaxy, Earth people, or 'Humans', are a sub-race of bipedal mammals, similar to primates in their physiology, but insects in their social organization. Prior to their discovery of space travel, the nearly 200 different human countries, and innumerable different cultures, engaged in a form of highly ritualized, and increasingly destructive perpetual warfare. Human tribes would regularly invade, enslave, or purge rival tribes, only to assume the victim tribe's belief systems and government structures, essentially becoming the tribe they had initially declared inferior. This endless cycle ensured that human technology and population progressed infinitely, while their societies and culture remained stagnant. Upon the initial discovery of the Ael homeworld, humans apparently believed that the planet was uninhabited, and sent an expedition to establish a colony immediately. Upon their arrival many of the humans perished, as they had not properly planned for the variation of temperature and gravity on the new planet. Initial Ael attempts to communicate proved futile, as human explorers regularly captured or consumed Aalish ambassadors. Scientists were forced to merely observe humans from a distance, and soon made a terrifying discovery. Humans expired after only eight decades, and upon death, their minds simply faded from existence. Their dangerously limited physiology, coupled with their brutal, warlike culture, had stunted their metaphysical development and understanding to less than nothing. Humans experienced transcendence only as a creeping fear in youth, and as an all-encompassing terror as they matured. As old age sapped their bodies, their thoughts and dreams stagnated, and upon death all mental activity was snuffed out completely, with little to no effort made by their young to preserve their ancestor's path through life. Human dead left nothing but a few feverish scribbles, or half formed fables, while their entire minds were left in their rotting corpses. Although some efforts have been made by Aelitarians to preserve pockets of humanity, they are a slowly dying, ill-evolved race. Even if the whole of their population could be preserved, there is no way to preserve their minds, as the variations between Ael and human mental processes are too vast. Any humans, preserved by capture or domestication by Ael environmentalists, are ultimately doomed to an untimely, and tortuous spiritual death.
Humans: Fear death above all else, survive by forming tightly regulated groups for Strength in Numbers, see anybody Outside The Group as being "less" than anybody Inside The Group, and see any deviation from The Group's standards – either from within or from without – as the first step to a death threat that they need to protect Their Group from. Billions of people have been murdered throughout human history by one group declaring "Their existence is a threat to Us, We need to kill Them first!" Very likely to describe groups in all-or-nothing terms because they have a hard time recognizing individual distinctions, and their storytellers create fictional races as simplistically as they see real-life groups. Most common Alignments: Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil (average: 85% Lawful, 65% Evil) Most common MyersBriggs types: ISFJ/ESFJ Hierarchy of Needs: Survival-Security-Relationships-Contribution-Specialness Vampires: Solitary predators, want to spend their eternal lives coming up with their own ways to fill their time, and see interaction with others as a waste of time that threatens their individuality. While very hard to negotiate with – if you have something they want, they'll just take it outright without giving you anything back – this does make you safe from their holding a grudge: if you are not a threat right now, then they won't care enough about you to be mad about something you did to hurt them before. Most common Alignments: Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil (average: 65% Chaotic, 90% Evil) Most common MyersBriggs types: ISTJ/ISTP Hierarchy of Needs: Survival-Specialness-Security-Relationships-Contribution Psoglavs: Far less afraid of death than are vampires, humans, orcs, and human-orcs, they see death as a sad thing, but not a fundamentally bad thing. They recognize that they are mortals, harbor no delusions of immortality – even vampires will eventually be killed by something if they live long enough – and they don't feel that they can afford to waste any time doing the same things over and over again, instead constantly trying to enjoy their lives by filling their time with New experiences, New ideas, and New people. The most prolific storytellers in the world, they perform improv rather than plotting specific scenarios ahead of time, and they pass down their favorite prompts for generating stories rather than saving the stories themselves. Most common Alignment: True Neutral (average: 55% Chaotic Evil) Most common MyersBriggs types: ENFP first, ESFP second Hierarchy of Needs: Relationships-Specialness-Contribution-Survival-Security Orcs: Just as afraid of death as are humans and vampires, but just as afraid of missing out on meeting New people as psoglavs and are just as obsessed with constantly doing New things rather than settling for more of the same, and alone among all of these species in skewing towards universal compassion over picking and choosing who "deserves" compassion and who does not. Where a human's extreme preference for authority is based on "I am obligated to do as I'm told if the other person has a higher place in The System than I do," an orc's moderate preference for authority is based instead on "I am obligated to do as I am asked if the other person started their project more recently than I started mine." Most common Alignments: True Neutral, Lawful Neutral (average: 65% Lawful, 55% Good) Most common MyersBriggs types: ESTP first, ESFP second Hierarchy of Needs: Survival-Relationships-Contribution-Specialness-Security Human-Orcs: One of the only common pairings of distinct yet biologically compatible species, they share both species' fear of death and both species' desire for clear understandings of responsibility. The orc preference for slight selflessness and the human preference for moderate-strong selfishness form a slight preference in the human-orc for selfishness and for favoring the In-group over outsiders. However, the orc preference for disorder so vastly dominates the human preference for regulation that human-orcs don't define their preferred In-Groups in terms of perceived similarity, nor do they expect similarity to be enforced when differences appear. Likewise, the orc desire for disorder is still tempered by the human desire for order: while disorder does prevail, and a human-orc does not care for official chains of command in the way that a human does, she will nonetheless be more pragmatic than an orc about following through to the end. Her moderate-strong preference for authority will take the form: "I am obligated to do as I am asked if the other person is closer to finishing their project than I am to finishing mine." Most common Alignments: Lawful Neutral, True Neutral (average: 75% Lawful, 55% Evil) Most common MyersBriggs types: ESTP/ESFP Hierarchy of Needs: Survival-Relationships-Contribution-Security-Specialness Spoiler: If these descriptions made sense to you... Then you are probably a human "Vampires don't make friends" "Psoglavs tell stories" "Orcs are random" "Human-orcs are pragmatic" "Humans see 'Other' groups simplistically" These are not absolutes, despite the fact that humans many humans would think they are. These are the baselines against which exceptions are recognized as being exceptional. "Vampires making friends is like humans volunteering or donating to charity. Sure, it happens often enough that you hear about it a lot, you just never expect to actually see it for yourself." There are also counter-intuitively more exceptional members of each species than there are baseline-members, just by for how many different ways there are to be different from every baseline: some humans fear death, respect authority, desire group loyalty, but still care about the welfare of others not directly a part of their own lives.
The ravos(is only a placeholder name) is my take on the classic Forgotten Realms gibberlings. Here's is their appearance: Take a woman’s long, thick hair that has never been brushed or washed. Roll it in filth and grass. Then, throw it over a waist high hunch back ape with bowl curved jaws extending from the shoulders and upper chest instead of a neck and head. “Fornt” Bit curses, staring at shiny black eyes protruding from a thin brow under the lower jaw where the collar bone should be. She spits, disgusted. “I can taste their stink.” She notches an arrow. One ravos, larger than the others, stands straight on short bowed legs. It lips roll back, revealing a double row grin of shovel teeth and curved incisors. It roars, Bit’s bow twangs and Asylyn charges as if she’s racing the arrow.
I don't have monsters per se but I don't have any humans in my story, so there's about six dragon races to choose from. Khrizans, the focal species of my story, walk on two legs and have separate arms and wings. One of them, my antagonist, Zarakharn, is shown in my avatar with his pet cobra, Sartigar. They don't have many mountains convenient to their territory, so they must dig lairs underground themselves. They build small huts to serve as entrances to their holes. Market buildings are larger as they keep their wares on the ground level, with their extra stocks in the basement, while upper class residentials have both underground and aboveground levels, with a very wealthy dragon having as much as two to three aboveground stories and the emperor himself enjoying four stories, not including the towers and turrets that stand high above the palace. Khrizan cities, like all dragon cities, are mostly scattered about the landscape, with occasional cities neighboring each other but never touching. Though Khrizans have little use for roads between towns, there are some things that cannot be flown with, so they must be carted. This is where another race comes in. The Idrakagar are Khriza's neighbors across the mountain range that borders their two lands, the only mountains in Khriza. They are huge and lumbering compared to Khrizans and walk on all fours. They have mountains aplenty in their land, so they simply take up residence in the convenient caves and burrow where needed, fashioning doors over the cave entrances to keep out unwelcome guests. They are a very friend species however and are very hospitable to each other and foreigners. They can fly twice as far a Khrizan and pull several times the load. Enterprising Idrakagar often travel to Khriza to find employment transporting goods. There are whole communities of Idrakagar living on the outskirts of Khrizan towns (as urban areas are too cramped for Idrakagar to live) and they return to their homeland to spend their earnings. Idrakagar and Khrizan relations are exceptionally good. The Khrizans are also neighbors to another species, the Vrakardians. The Vrakardians are brown, raptor-like dragons with a velociraptorlike build, sharp beaks, and hard frills on their heads in place of horns. The Vrakardians are the most widely distributed species; they are made up of several tribes. The ones that don't live on islands or among other species live in the two lands neighboring Khriza, Ganadar and Kadresh. Kadresh and Khriza have a shared portion of land where Vrakardians and Khrizans live together, a peace offering from Khriza after they defeated Kadresh in a war the latter had started. The Vrakardians hail originally from an island not far from the continent of Aardagrin where my book takes place, called Dakresh. They discovered sailing, an art they claim to have been taught to them by their god, Quaru, and explored other lands, setting up colonies everywhere, even in far-off continents where other dragons and even other Vrakardians can barely conceive of. Anyway, those are three of my dragon species.
I have since come up with a few more species that I would like to use, and I've been getting a lot of ideas recently for certain biomechanical quirks Dragons: Far more free-spirited than even vampires, dragons are nonetheless among the most caring and compassionate people in the world, but they want to be able to find their own ways of taking care of other people instead of being told how to do it. They tend to see personal attachment as a distraction against caring for the greater good of the world as a whole, and they tend to prefer that their gifts to the world speak for themselves. Dragons tend to see the number of years in a person's life as one of the least important parts of the person's life to invest in, but they recognize that other people do want to live for long times more than dragons do, and the vast majority of dragons (far more than for humans) would never dream of deliberately causing the death of another person "for the greater good" unless the person was in the act of threatening other people. Most Common Alignments: Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral (85% Chaotic, 75% Good) Most Common Types: INTJ, INTP Hierarchy of Needs: Specialness-Contribution-Security-Survival-Relationships Minotaurs: More compassionate than even dragons and just as reserved in how they express their compassion, minotaurs nonetheless place far more emphasis on measuring the needs of other people in terms of the number of years that the person lives, and they are far more willing to be told how best to lengthen a person's life than a dragon would be (rather than insisting on making all decisions themselves). Far less interested than dragons in coming up with their own ideas for how to take care of other people, minotaurs are more willing to drop their current courses of action when somebody else comes up with something new to experiment with. Most Common Alignment: Neutral Good (55% Lawful, 85% Good) Most Common Types: ISTP, ISTJ Hierarchy of Needs: Contribution-Survival-Specialness-Security-Relationships Gorgons: Sharing the zeal of a dragon or a minotaur to make the world a better place for everybody else, gorgons are far more similar to dragons than to minotaurs in seeing the number of years in a person's life as one of the least important measures of the person's quality of life (rather than one of the most important measures). Where gorgons differ from both, however, is in how much their lives revolve around being subjected to external control: while neither as outgoing nor as intimate as psoglavs, gorgons nonetheless want to make personal connections with others to a degree that would exhaust both dragons and minotaurs; gorgons want everything planned out in advance with as much transparency as possible so that everybody involved knows what their part is in the larger whole; and gorgons are extremely comfortable with people telling each other what to do "for the greater good." Most Common Alignments: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral / Neutral Good (75% Good) Most Common Types: ENFJ, INFJ and ENTJ Hierarchy of Needs: Security-Contribution-Relationships-Specialness-Survival And lest anybody think I am "going soft" on my world by only making "Good" species (or hating on humans by making everybody else better than we are), Goblins: very similar to vampires, 100 goblins are nowhere near as destructive as 100 humans because goblins do not care about dividing the world into an Us and a Them who cannot be allowed to coexist, but a single goblin is far more selfish than a single human: wanting to make all of his own decisions his way, no matter who else gets hurt, and taking it very personally when anybody tries to tell him what to do. Goblins, however, are far more willing to say "Live free or die" than vampires, and would rather enjoy the surprises that come with genuine friends (who respect the goblin's need to never be controlled) than live alone forever doing the same thing over and over. Most Common Alignments: Chaotic Evil (80% Chaotic Evil) Most Common Types: ISFP, ESFP Hierarchy of Needs: Specialness-Survival-Relationships-Security-Contribution Spoiler: Same disclaimer as last time... If these absolutist descriptions made sense to you, then you are probably a human It is possible to find a human and a goblin such that the goblin in the more selfless, it is possible to find a minotaur and a gorgon such that the minotaur is the more social and emotionally available, and it is possible to find a dragon and a goblin such that the dragon is the more spontaneous. It's just exceedingly rare. Now for biology: Humans are among the best long-distance runners on the planet, and for the longest time I thought that humans were the best distance runners, and I thought that walking on two legs was the most important factor. Humans (bipedal apes) are better at distance running than gorillas (quadrupedal apes), and we domesticated quadrupedal wolves (far more speed, almost as much stamina) because they were able to keep up with us when we hunted by running our prey to exhaustion, so I fell in love with the idea that psoglavs (bipedal wolves) would be even better at distance running than we are. I have since learned that this is woefully incomplete: the absolute greatest long-distance runner on the planet is the four-legged pronghorn (most closely related to the giraffe and the okapi, but looks far more like an antelope), so either 1) a two-legged pronghorn would be even better at distance running than that, or 2) the number of legs that a runner uses isn't as important as I thought. Having found a lot of information online about the mechanics of long-distance running, I've now decided that what makes psoglavs amazing runners is: Mostly hairless, sweaty: A human can beat a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon, but on a cool day, a horse can beat a human in a 20-mile race: their speed gives them a head start at the beginning, and on a cool day, 20 miles isn't enough distance for our endurance to make up for in the end. On a hot day, however, a human can win even at just the 20-mile distance, because we can cool off more efficiently by having far more sweat glands to release heat and far less hair to hold it in. In my world, psoglavs have hair more like humans than like wolves: almost all of it on the head, very little of it below the neck. Feet: The classic image of the psoglav is of having horses' hooves instead of either humans' or dogs' feet, but the plantar arch of the human foot gives us a springiness when we're running that makes us more energy-efficient. In my world, psoglavs have feet instead of hooves. Tendons: The ostrich is far better at endurance running than we are, but they have next to no muscle on their legs. Having all of their leg muscle at the top and having a lot more tendon every where else makes ostrich legs a lot lighter than human legs and a lot springier (see the previous note about the plantar arch). I'm thinking that the average psoglav leg has about the same amount of muscle as the average human leg, but that the average psoglav leg is about 1/3 longer than the average human leg. Proportionately, the psoglav's leg muscle is only 3/4 as long as a human's leg muscle, and this makes quite a bit more room for springy tendons. Square-Cube Law: When a person doubles in size in all three dimensions, they become 8 times as heavy because their 3-dimensional volume increases as a cubic function (doubled height x doubled width x doubled depth) but only 4 times as strong because the 2-dimensional cross-sectional thickness of their muscles only increases as a square function (doubled width x doubled depth). Likewise, "tripling in size" would make a person feel three times as heavy because they're 27 times as heavy but only 9 times as strong. It turns out that this same principle applies to temperature regulation: if a person "doubles in size," then they have 8 times as much biomass generating heat, but only 4 times as much skin letting it out. If psoglavs are going to be long-distance runners who stand taller than humans, then the square-cube law is going to hurt them in overheating more than in carrying their own weight. What I'm thinking is: psoglavs are 4/3 as tall as humans, but not thicker. Having the same thickness as a human but 4/3 the height and limb length makes them feel 3/4 as thick, and magnifying only one dimension doesn't hurt the volume to surface area ratio as badly as it would it you magnified all three. Psoglavs would actually produce less proportionate heat than a human because their legs are proportionately less muscular, adding a lot more surface area without adding as much volume. The problem with this being that if you make something longer, but not thicker, then you make it easier to break. Psoglavs can run faster than we can for longer than we can, but they also get hurt a lot more easily than humans do, and compared to other animals, humans are fragile enough to begin with. Lungs: There is also one sneaky trick that birds use to feed their crazy metabolisms: their lungs are a four-stroke engine instead of a two-stroke engine. Human lungs work in two steps: When you breathe in, you fill your lungs with air that's 21% oxygen, 1% carbon dioxide. Blood going to the rest of the body carries this 21:1 mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide, dropping off the oxygen that your body needs and picking up the carbon dioxide that your body creates as waste. As one batch of blood leaves with 21:1 oxygen:carbon, another batch comes back having been turned into 16% oxygen, 6% carbon dioxide. When you breathe out, you empty your lungs of most of the 16% oxygen, 6% carbon dioxide air that your blood has dropped off, but not all of it. At this stage, any blood coming back into the lungs cannot drop off carbon dioxide and pick up oxygen because the air in the lungs has the same 16:6 ratio that the blood already has. Any blood leaving the lungs when you exhale has a little bit less oxygen than you want, and a lot more carbon dioxide. Birds, on the other hand, have two sets of air sacs: one before the lungs, one after. When a bird inhales, it moves fresh air from the mouth to the first air sacs, and at the same time, it moves used air from the lungs to the second air sacs. When a bird exhales, it pushes the fresh air from the first air sacs into the lungs, and it moves the used air from the second air sacs out of the mouth. At both stages: blood leaving the lungs picks up oxygen close to the first air sacs, and blood coming from the body drops off carbon dioxide close to the second air sacs. This system takes up a lot more space, but again, psoglavs are quite a bit taller than humans. Ears: This is actually a side of thermoregulation that wolves do better than humans (despite humans having more sweat glands and less hair): when a creature with large ears gets too hot, more blood pumps into the ears where the extra surface area lets more of the heat escape, and when the creature gets cold, the blood vessels in the ear constrict to prevent heat from escaping. Wolves and rabbits have much larger ears than humans do, and so would psoglavs. However, if the psoglavs are going to be the Fragile Speedsters of my universe, then the minotaurs are going to be the Mighty Glaciers (for reasons which will become even funnier later): Minotaurs are even taller than psoglavs (150% human height instead of 133%), but are proportionately thicker than humans (instead of proportionately scrawnier) so as not to be hurt as badly by the square-cube law. 3 times as thick in both horizontal directions (twice as proportionately thick), minotaurs are 3 x 3 = 9 times as strong as humans. Being 3x3 times as thick x 1.5 times as tall = 13.5 times as heavy, they are only 2/3 as strong as humans relative to their weight, but they are also 9/1.5 = 6 times as strong as humans relative to their height. Where the square-cube law does not hurt the minotaur's strength, however, the law greatly hurts their ability to cool off: increasing the two smaller dimensions of a creature's size (thickness) more than the larger dimension (height) hurts the surface area to volume ratio even worse than increasing everything according to the same proportion. Minotaurs have 13.5 times as much mass generating heat at a human, but nowhere near 13.5 times the surface area releasing the heat (especially since they don't have the gigantic ears that a psoglav does). On the one hand, minotaurs are able to live comfortably in chillier areas than species like humans and psoglavs are. On the other hand, they have to live in chillier areas because they would be so much more uncomfortable in the heat than anybody else would (especially if I decide later on that they have a lot more fur on their skin than humans or psoglavs, therefore a lot less room on their skin for sweat glands. That part, I'm still going back and forth on, but right now, I'm leaning towards more fur for minotaurs rather than less)
I have always liked the idea of humans being the most dangerous creature in the galaxy, but I am working on a fantasy. The villain is not a living being, but rather the manifestation of mortal suffering: of plague, famine, war, and death. The creature came into being as a result of the collective consciousness of man (or of all creatures, but man is the most influential in the metaphysical realm) of his condition. It is, of course, immortal... ...And because having four horsemen of the apocalypse is strictly better than one, this malevolent entity has been able to separate itself into smaller parts. Four separate beings with distinct personalities and predilections. I really liked that story arc in the Highlander series, ok?
The Vjylnaboi (Also known as Old Mr. Vjylnaboi) Only mentioned in old songs and the ramblings of assumed madmen, the Vjylnaboi is a mysterious being whose origins are unknown, and whose motives unclear. Most regard it as the stuff of legends and folklore, although multiple sources mention it frequently enough to be considered more than mere superstition. It is not known if the Vjylnaboi is a singular entity, or if there excists more than one. Also, it is not known if the being is of flesh-and-blood, a spirit of the land itself, or something else entirely. Amidst all this ambiguity, the accounts of those that have come face to face with it have always shared some critical elements: - It has always been encountered deep within the forests, in marshlands, or at riverbanks. - It always manifests as a seemingly innocent old man wearing a hat of straw. - It is solely encountered by those traveling alone, never by a company. - It is always sitting upon a fallen tree or rock, facing away from those that spot it, seemingly content and in deep thoughts. - If approached with respect and politeness, a very pleasant conversation will ensue. Those that approach will later tell accounts of their mind being bewitched, and being led even deeper into the forests, where the old man invites them into his house. They will recount having feasted inside for a week, drinking ale and eating like princes. Upon homecoming, however, they will find out that only a day has apparantly passed. It is believed that those that approach it with arrogance or mockery, too, are led deeper into the forests and bogs. They are never heard from again. This is unattested for, however.
I'm not entirely sure if saying that to his face would lead to you drinking yourself to a stupor in a magical house, or suffocating in a deepwood bog somewhere, although I lean towards the former. "You've been kind, Archer, therefore enter ye may. Come on now, not so shy.."
In my story i have three races; human, beast and skeleton. The beast fight humans and some are also used by humans with magical powers to carryout their evil work. The skeleton race is a world beneath the human which are connected in some ways. i have different monsters but this is a description of the ones i called Drugamoras... Drugamoras are men like- creature which exist in different forms, strongly built physique with mighty arms, some of them are hunch backs with spines looking like that of a hedgehog. They are creatures created only for one purpose, war.
My fantasy graphic novel will consist of many different races, many of which are humanoid, while select others are not. Tidelings: The race of the central main character of the story, they are sapient deep ocean hunters, who live nomadically inside of the carcasses of Progenitors, the giant underwater beasts they hunt for sustenance. The Tidelings are incredibly powerful and fast for their small size, to the point it seems like cheating. Their cyan-colored skin is smooth and strong, providing excellent protection and is very aquadynamic, while their musculature and skeletal structure evolved to suit the currents and compression of the abyss. For natural weaponry, the race sports webbed claws on both their hands and feet, and a powerful spiked tail that they can control with precision. Aside from survival, hunting is also an art to the Tidelings, and is integrated into their entire lifestyle, although many still find other purposes in their existence. Despite their unparalleled strength and tenacity, tidelings are far outnumbered by the other races in the world, mostly due to their natural birth limit and short lifespan. For unknown reasons, during childbirth, a Tideling mother will always perish, regardless of age or well being, and the Tideling lifespan never exceeds more than 7 years, with full maturity being reached around the age of 3. These two factors have kept their numbers low, with accidental death setting the numbers even lower. Their main source of food being the Progenitors, they hunt them in groups, or more rarely, alone, with a single carcass usually being able to feed a tribe of twenty for up to a full lifespan. When the prey is slain, the Tidelings hollow out the titanic body of it's innards, then build their homes inside using the bones and cartilege. There they thrive, until the meat, which is constantly preserved by the salt and water pressure of the surrounding ocean water, is completely consumed, after which they begin a new hunt... I'll probably post up more races later, this is a fun thread though! You all have some amazing ideas
People have all these nice and imaginative creatures while I still just play around with humans, pre-existing mythical creatures, and ordinary animals. Let me see... I have humans, ascended humans, and various types of divine spirits in human and beast form. Humans The dominant race. They were once a more advanced and powerful race that reached every corner of the world and was skilled in every aspect, and most individuals were naturally gifted with the ability to use divine arts (aka magic) as if it were just another sense. However, with these abilities, they often warred with each other for resources and power, greatly hindering their growth. Then, the "Wise Ones," a more advance race, saw potential in the humans, and gave them guidance and shared their knowledge. Civilizations grew and flourished throughout the lands as a result, but this golden age did not last long until they returned to their old ways. They even turned around and bit the hand that fed them, and they were ultimately smote into the dark ages for their foolishness and hubris. Ever since their downfall, divine arts (aka magic) have become a lost art to them, and most of the handful that can still use it only have limited capabilities, relying chiefly on ancient relics to cast spells and channel their supernatural abilities. Despite the setback, they remain the de facto rulers of the world due to their prolific nature, even if their world returned to the level of the early middle ages. Ascendants A tribe of ascended humans with knowledge of advanced technology and divine arts. They were once the same as their fellows but slowly diverged over the course of thousands of years. They are considered the peak of human evolution and at the boundary of ascending into the next plane of existence. While they share most of the same physical characteristics as the rest of humanity, they have extremely powerful bodies, long life, and immunity to all disease and illnesses, and they are masters of the divine arts. However, they are also very slow to reproduce, and mothers have much control over their gestation period. Children reach adolescence in the same amount of time as normal humans, but then level off after. As a result, their population is less than one percent of normal humans. Despite their godlike powers, they prefer to remain reclusive, opting to take a passive role in the world. They only occasionally descend from their floating city hidden in the stratosphere to resolve catastrophes and share some of their knowledge. This has led some to call them the Wise Ones and worship them as gods, but at the same time, it has also led some to covet their secrets. Those that coveted their secrets eventually instigated a war that devastated their already low numbers, and ultimately, they decided to permanently retire from the affairs of the world to focus solely on their advancement. Divine Spirits The Ascendants defended their home city and kept the human forces at bay for hundreds of years, but the war of attrition was costing them dearly. Their powers were great, but they were too passive and could not keep up with the sheer numbers besieging their islands. In order to resolve their crisis, they focused their remaining strength on creating a new army to offset their dwindling numbers. Using the totality of their remaining resources, they ushered into existence sentient weapons of war that were ever closer to the transcendence that they desired. These weapons initially possessed physical forms resembling their creators, but their ruthlessness and devastating powers only served to fill their enemies with dread. Like enhanced version of their masters, they possessed a body immune to conventional infirmities and physical harm, countless abilities, and ageless immortality. They could fall to battle, but they needed no physical nourishment and could be replaced almost immediately. They needed no training but had the potential to grow further. They each had unique personalities and total autonomy, but they were bound to loyalty to their masters upon birth. They were the perfect soldiers to turn the tide of war in favor of the Ascendants, and the humans called them Divine Spirits for their unnaturally flawless beauty, seemingly incorporeal form, and godlike powers. The success of the first generation gave birth to subsequent generations that saw the rise of Divine Spirits modeled after all sorts of lifeforms. Many of the more powerful ones could even take human form if they so desired, and soon, they greatly outnumbered their creators. At the end of the war, the Ascendants scattered the Divine Spirits throughout the world in order for them to observe the humans and prevent another tragedy from occurring. Many chose to hibernate until they are needed again while some assimilate themselves into society to enjoy more peaceful days.
Race Name: Gnalak (Gnalaks plural) Physical description: Gnalaks are six to eight feet tall with squarish heads, curved horns and ox ears. They have white eyes surrounded by black markings. They have large core muscles and poisonous spurs on their pinkies and claws on all other fingers and toes. They have orange skin with scales and high musculature. Racial Description: The Gnalaks live in Nagres a area surrounded by sea, mountains and desert. The Gnalak society is a meritocracy where they are ruled by the most capable. This mindset of only the strong survive has permeated every level of their society. Gnalaks do not have family besides their mate they are raised by the community so familial ties will not bring them down. Gnalaks economy is based off of monster hunting, taming, and domestication. They believe that complacency is weakness so they never obey or compromise. Sorry that this is all but theres just so much I didn't know how to include it all without bullet points, If you want to learn more go to https://www.worldanvil.com/w/xania-xarok-dragontwin/a/gnalaks-a-racial-and-biological-summary-article
I need help coming up with a name but basically they’re giant caterpillars with snail shells and two arms that are bigger than the rest. They always manage to worm their way into positions of power.
Brinespawn. A long while before my story started an event turned every magic user and those around them into non-sentient amphibious fish monsters that inhabit the coast, sewers, and generally anywhere damp. Most of them are quadrupeds, though certain ones are bipedal. Appearances range from crustacean to fish. They appear to be incapable of reproducing and are highly territorial. The largest, believed to have been the strongest mages, seem to prefer isolation, while the smaller ones (those caught in the radius of the transformation) roam in packs, though seemingly in service of the larger creatures. As magic was passed down genetically. first appearing in a Persian-like culture that then used their sole access to, mages essentially formed the nobility of a multi-continent spanning empire. When the shift happened, the frontier spaces, and several areas that were in open rebellion at the time, only had a few mages around, meaning that they were largely fine, if now fully separated from the empire. The more closely governed places were not so lucky. The Imperial Capital was completely abandoned due to being a massive hive of the creatures. Some attempts have been made to reclaim it, but there's just too many of them. Otherwise, it's just humans.
My big baddies are the Drorm. They are a demonic-type race with several different types. I'll spare you the lengthy explanations and just tell you about my favorite one. The Raskguthan: About the size of a small horse, it resembled a rat crossed with a scorpion. It had a long, narrow head with slitted eyes, heavy, coarse fur, and a naked tail with a nasty looking stinger on the end. The belly was covered in tough black plates, and the paws armed with wicked claws. Fangs poked out of its mouth. Wish I could take a snapshot of my sketch to share, but I'm at work and don't have my phone. Let's just say if you don't like rats or bugs, you reallly wouldn't like this guy.
In FireKind there are half a dozen core races, but there is also blood alchemy going on, so we're getting hybrids of these races. There are four main elemental races in the middle world, each having power over one of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Then there are two more mysterious others for above and below (heaven and hell). FireKind (dragons) are the main characters, they are masters of fire. They come from the stars, their fire is star fire, and they skry the stars too. Their divinity is a serpent star goddess from the constellation Draco. When a drackon takes their 'final flight' they go home to the star goddess to be immolated in her fire. ClayBorn (giants) are masters of earth, and born straight out of it. They do not die but are returned to the earth when their time is over. Their divinity is the Earth Mother. Their powers include geomancy and manipulating power lines in the earth. AerClann (sylphs / elves) are masters of air. They are cool, inquisitive and logical. They have no religion as such, but pursue science in the form of alchemy, seeking to discover the secrets of life and creation through it. They can build in the sky, and travel using 'wind wards' created by controlling air elementals. SeaKin (sea serpents) are masters of water. Powerfully emotional and mysterious beings that have remained hidden and submerged for a thousand years since the great flood. The Formless Ones are angelic or celestial beings of pure spirit. These were the first beings to walk upon earth, but over millennia they became bored of being confined and sought to explore other higher realms of being. So they shed their bodies and ascended to travel the heavens. The Hidden Ones are demonic titanic creatures trapped deep within the earth. They were created when the angels cast off their bodies and abandoned them, burying them deep underground (in what we would call a hell). They are formed of pure rage, instinct, violence and hatred. Their original physical forms ultimately became molten rock.
I myself have always been fascinated by creatures fluid in form like changlings or dopplegangers. One creature I've introduced is call Astrals. These are things similar in form to a wisp but larger, brighter, and fully self aware. Astrals are beings of a higher plain of existence and thus rarely are seen in the presence of mortals. Their main quality is immortality and massive magical affinity since they are akin to magic incarnate. They have the ability to change for, and take on any shape they desire with practice though their mind works so alien to mortals that they'd never be mistaken for one if they did so. Alot of my writing revolves around a change in perspective for most races. I believe that every race should have a fundamental mental difference to humans that set them apart and make certain things near impossible to translate. An example is orcs that have no place for dishonor. Their lives revolve around this faucet and everything they do stems from it. If they seen someone disrespecting a being deserving of honor than that correlates to violence. Elves have thought that span lifetimes and thus (to humans) seem to never let a subject drop but that's simply because an elf needs years to contemplate responses. Dwarves work in dirt and soot and don't understand the trapping of war and hate as a good worker is nothing to waste is such failings Another race I've made (no name yet) is the shadow creatures. Similar to another poster, they are of varying strength but have no true form. Their only common distinguishing feature is burnin coal red eyes and oily Smokey bodies. They attack and move like smoke and rarely confine themselves to a specific form unless they have atained sentience. They move more like massless blobs but are incredibly fast and deadly. They simply form in the shadow world and take form when magic seeps in and mixes with the raw energy within. See in my book magic is not a single entity. Each realm has it's own magic and that energy usually conflicts with the main magical energy is catastrophic ways when mixed except in the few cases like the shadows where instead the mix causes unnatural existences to spirng up.
