Thread "Need help fleshing out some fantasy races." in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 8:08AM, Aug. 25, 2021

I've been working some races for my setting, which is kind of a take of the Isekai anime/manga, following the formula of modern day human is wisked away to a high fantasy world, only usually there is some kind of twist to the setting. That twist here is the races have the names of common fantasy races and a bit of their traits but they are actually stylized furry beings. There is other details like in frozen regions the magic used is fire based, in hot desert lands common magic used there is water, society is more renaissance Italy instead of Medieval England, and the industrial era is just beginning.

I written up a very rough layout of their appearance, some basic information and how they generally see other races. This is a prototype so it is very raw.

I'm looking for input, advice, tips for fine tuning.

- The Races. -

ELF:

Appearance: Tall Rabbit like beings with long limbs and strong legs.
General Information: Beings who usually live in nature and have strong magical abilities and live a long time. They often are in commune with nature, usually within borrows dug into tall hills, hollowed out trees or in a pinch a hut.
Relations:
Blighted – Bastards who sold their souls to the devils, why should I pity them for their ancestors' misdeeds?
Dwarf – Only thing they are good for is being meat shields and making worthless babuls.
Runt – They are living music boxes that you can sent in to beat up rats, quiet convenient!
Goblin – They say they are equal to the rest of us? Why? They are not natural, why treat them as if they were.
Human – Despite the bad blood, they seemly will join us when the world is about to burn.
Orc – Smelly barbarians. The only thing they can do is club each other for our amusement.
Outsider – Curious beings, coming from another time and another space. Might be fun play things if they weren't so stuck up.

BLIGHTED:
Appearance: Lean bodied, cheetah faced, with long tails that end in a trail of long fur.
General Information: Long, long time ago the Elf and the Blighted shared a common ancestor until the Blighted had, according many accounts, made a deal with some kind of evil entity, only to have it go sour and they were enslaved for a long time underground. Other accounts say the elves sold the blighted as slaves to the entity in exchange for long life.
Relations:
Elf – Miserable sundwellers who just frolic and play without a care in the world while we work off their dept they forced upon my ancestors.
Dwarf – Interesting crafters, wonderful tools of war, too bad they don't know how to fight. If not for their mannerisms they would have been welcomed into the Blighted society.
Runt – Ugh, annoying creatures that only can serve as messengers, and nothing else.
Goblin – Poor creatures, created to be slaves, treated as adventurer fodder for the longest time and now is seen as sub-monsters.
Human – They breed like caged rabbits, and are everywhere. They often take elves' side as they see us as the bad guy. Well, bugger to them.
Orc – Brutes who spent their time fighting over limited resources, they could had pools their resources and focused on their real enemies.
Outsider – They cry about their old homes, they cry about being treated unfairly, they cry about not being called “human”. They sure do cry a lot.

DWARF

Appearance: Squat, Bovine like features they are barely four feet tall, that's if you ignore their horns.
General Information: They built their societies within massive mountains, the reasons are lost to time
Relations:
Elf – Aloof teetotalers, they think living in crap and dirty makes them above everyone else.
Blighted – They would be okay to hang around if they weren't so damn mopey! Well that and the magic they dabble in is very scary.
Runt – Only good for parties, otherwise they have not much other use.
Goblin – If only they focus more their wonderful tools would last longer than an hour on the battlefield, also their chemicals are great in a battle.
Human – Can't tell them apart, their politics is vexing and seemingly petty and their beer is very weak.
Orc – They are our brothers in arms in the adventuring life.
Outsider – The Human's pet, that's the only thing they are good for.

RUNT:
Appearance: Meerkat like in appearance, they have pretty sharp claws that help make up for their short bodies.
General Information: Coming from a cluster of islands off of the main lands, they tend to favor cheer, song and art. They do hide the fact they will tear off somebody's face
Their society is very tightly knit and structured colonies, with jobs assigned when they reach a certain age from the elders. These jobs can range from guards, to smiths, to tanners and farmers, those who don't “fit” into their society is often branded adventurers and sent out to gather information, treasures and artifacts for the colony.
Relations:
Elf – A balanced and beautiful race, their work is marvelous.
Blighted – A long and storied history is great seeds for our stories to bring back home.
Dwarf – Wonderful workers and fantasy warriors, very skilled at business too.
Goblin – Tough buggers, they make wonderful things, even if they fall apart it still pretty great.
Human – They are great costumers, they are so many versions of them everywhere.
Orc – No one sees beyond the battle scars, they have a mobile culture and an art to their battles.
Outsider - Bloody jerks.

GOBLIN:
Appearance: Rat like beings, despite being short they have long arms and large hands.
General Information: Creatures that was originally created by scholars as slaves and cannon fodder to be used in wars or protecting locations. Until a while ago they were considered mindless creatures, until a group of Goblins showed they have intelligence, reasoning and are sapient
Relations:
Elf – They created us, yet they mistreat us. They are bad parents, uhh, proto-parents? However that works they are naughty.
Blighted – Gotten the bad end of a deal, kind of like us.
Dwarf – They think they make weapons and armor, well ours can turn a Runt into a bronze death dealing monster, until it falls apart or explodes. Also their beer is weak.
Runt – Oh gods and devils do they ever shut up!?
Human – Annoying dogheads! They treated us as stuff, we're not stuff.
Orc – Dirty people, but they are nice to us and do buy a lot of our bombs and flame oils.
Outsider – It's like somebody took the bad-ness of Elves and the smug jerk-dom of humans and put it into these aliens. Why did our ancestors use them as… Toys… We may never know why.

HUMAN:
Appearance: A large collection of various canine like beings across the world that come in various shapes and colors, ranging from dog looking people from the far west to the foxes of the frozen north and the wolf-like tribes of the burning southern lands.
General Information: All lands have a human of one form or another, they are the most common race on the planet.
Relations:
Elf – Beautiful creatures, sadly they are animals of the forest.
Blighted – Evil beings, they are hard to trust and I must always keep an eye on them when they are near by.
Dwarf – They are great fighters, make cool cities and make great booze.
Runt – Fun at taverns and good distractions in fights.
Goblin – Ha! Cute! Can we take him home with us?
Orc – Good warriors, they have good tales and often are smarter than others believe. I feel better with as an ally, and honored with them as a foe.
Outsider – Annoying, that's a good word for them. They bring stuff from their world we can't recreate, they won't follow our rules. The only thing they have going for them is they're exotic.

ORC:
Appearance: Pig like beings with tusks jutting from their lower jaw, due to their life style they tend to be very muscular, even the smaller and shorter among them are wiry and lean.
General Information: Coming from the southern lands they are use to intense heat, lack of water and harsh environments it had lead them to be bred to survive, along with these and for generations of war lead them to focus on strength and quick wits but neglected other factors such practicing magic, and for the longest time forgoing education beyond tales passed down from the elders to children.
Relations:
Elf – They sold their own people to some kind of monster, do you think they are trust worthy?
Blighted – Seems like they wallow in misery and suffering, if only they direct their attention to making their surroundings better.
Dwarf – They make good cities, shame they are trapped under mountains instead in the open.
Runt – Scary buggers, they seem two faced, one is fun loving drunks and the other a horrifying monster.
Goblin – For something considered filthy they are little neat freaks, I once found one washing and sharpening my ax during some down time.
Human – What's to say, there is so many of them and they tend to keep the world running.
Outsider – Weird beings from another world who spend more time trying to assert themselves as top dogs instead of finding their own place in the world.

OUTSIDER:
Appearance: Fur-less being, they have much of the characteristics of the other sapient races but seemingly alien in their features. They have much diversity as humans.
General Information: Beings coming from another reality, they bring strange technologies with them, which is often coveted by various factions, organizations and ruling parties.
Other than this fact the Outsider by themselves is often seen as worthless, they tend to be weaker than others, less magically talented, especially new comers, they tend to be stubborn and stand-offish with the other races which often leads to problems with authority outside of Outsider communities.
Relations:
Elf – Leaf eating tree hugging cookie makers, well at least they are the most reasonable on this world.
Blighted – How can they be related to the rabbits? They are cheetahs! This doesn't make sense. It is also very annoying their society seems to be in perpetual Morrissey concert.
Dwarf – Cows, they are just shortstack cow people. They do make good stuff though, but very greedy. Plus they don't have beards, they can't be real dwarfs if they don't have beards!
Runt – Yappy cheerful little scrappies, they are surprisingly fast and seem to hit hard for their size.
Goblin – Disgusting rats! They did horrible things to our people, and now they want to be treated as equals, bah!
Human – They're dogs! Woof woof! How dare they take our species name sake!
Orc – Bunch of brain dead monsters, just walls of meat that barely understand which end of the stick to hit things with.

Posted at 4:08PM, Aug. 26, 2021

Seems like you already have them pretty well fleshed out

Posted at 8:08PM, Aug. 26, 2021

I really hadn't thought about it, I guess they are.

I guess I'm too use to modern fantasy where every sub-sub-race has three novels worth of lore.

Thank you.

Posted at 9:08PM, Aug. 26, 2021

You almost have them laid out as chess pieces. Some of it seemed balanced to the tone of a video game's balancing system. Who works well with others and don't. Make like an octagon of each race and see how they relate to each other visually. Draw lines between them. Each line describe the relationship. The 2 races that get along very well with each other should be next to each other. The 2 that will never get along should be opposite of each other on the octagon. 2 should be able to work with other races but never trust them completely. And 2 can't really work with 2 races but will maybe use them for personal, business or political gain like weapons, Information or tech for trade.

I don't know. That's what I get from reading your setting. It all sounds very cool to see how they will interact with each other. Is there a war happening? Is it peace time? Are treaties about to be formed or broken? Which point of view are you planning to tell this tale? Is it one person or many? (You sure you are not making a video game? Just kidding. I can't wait to read it if you're making it.)

Posted at 2:08AM, Aug. 27, 2021

Very detailed and you put a lot of thought into it. Don't need to add anything, I think it's time to see how it works in practice. Write the stories and see how it comes together.

Posted at 9:08AM, Aug. 27, 2021

Thank you everyone, you are too kind.

Just a bit of trivia I made these races for an original tabletop role playing game system, and when I showed the list to places like rpg pub and rpgnet I really didn't get any interest in the idea, which kind of killed any motivation to work on a very complex and balanced system.

Honestly it seems more fitting for a short comic really.