As a new author, should I risk having a story focused around non-humans? Or one without any humans whatsoever? (Basically, are humans needed for an audience to feel sympathetic to the characters?)
None of my main characters are human at the moment - one's a (fairly weak) spirit trapped in a physical form, second's a shapeshifter (humanoid-ish form to a giant serpent thing with claws), third's a... elf-thing, but not really. The second two have human-ish values (although not twenty-first century human values) and are more-or-less comprable to humans, but the first is more alien than anything (or at least intended to be).
Also what about them (and society as a whole) having radically not twenty-first century values? As in not seeing all that much wrong with sacrificing an intelligent being, or with a caste system, or with colonialism and oppression of a native race. Could a character be portrayed as good, but still either having little to no problem with the way such a society operates, or not really caring/ thinking about it? The shapeshifter and the elf do still find things like honor, compassion and defending/ protecting ones friends/nation/people important, and do have strict moral codes (the elf especially), and even the spirit-thing keeps its word and kinda helps the other two (although otherwise it's pretty much amoral). (The shapeshifter's a bit selfish, too - basically, if you're not someone she owes a favor, a friend, or one of her people, she's not overly inclined to go out of her way for you or angst about your fate - she's also the one from the 'human' sacrifice culture). Should I revise the characters to make them more sympathetic, or leave them as-is?
Does anyone else have mostly or all non-human main characters? (Or dramatically not 21st century cultures?) How are you portraying them?
None of my main characters are human at the moment - one's a (fairly weak) spirit trapped in a physical form, second's a shapeshifter (humanoid-ish form to a giant serpent thing with claws), third's a... elf-thing, but not really. The second two have human-ish values (although not twenty-first century human values) and are more-or-less comprable to humans, but the first is more alien than anything (or at least intended to be).
Also what about them (and society as a whole) having radically not twenty-first century values? As in not seeing all that much wrong with sacrificing an intelligent being, or with a caste system, or with colonialism and oppression of a native race. Could a character be portrayed as good, but still either having little to no problem with the way such a society operates, or not really caring/ thinking about it? The shapeshifter and the elf do still find things like honor, compassion and defending/ protecting ones friends/nation/people important, and do have strict moral codes (the elf especially), and even the spirit-thing keeps its word and kinda helps the other two (although otherwise it's pretty much amoral). (The shapeshifter's a bit selfish, too - basically, if you're not someone she owes a favor, a friend, or one of her people, she's not overly inclined to go out of her way for you or angst about your fate - she's also the one from the 'human' sacrifice culture). Should I revise the characters to make them more sympathetic, or leave them as-is?
Does anyone else have mostly or all non-human main characters? (Or dramatically not 21st century cultures?) How are you portraying them?