# Weighing an all human world vs distinct different races.



## Wiggles2021 (Feb 14, 2012)

When i first sat down and wrote out the time line for my first book, i wrote it as having all humans across the board. Sure, some were different pygmintations, and had different characteristics, but im wondering if i should move that a couple of steps down the evolutionary chain and actually have the different regions be populated by different sub-species that evolved from humans. Thought?


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## Queshire (Feb 14, 2012)

either way works, what you're really talking about is different cultures. One advantage of using different races is that it increases the reader's suspenscion of difbelief greater then just different cultures of humans, thus allowing you to have more outlandish cultures then if you were just limited to baseline humans.


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## sashamerideth (Feb 15, 2012)

One important thing to consider, what effect will the different subspecies have on the story? Evolutionary, one would eventually wipe out the others, either through interbreeding or hunting to extinction.


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## Aegrus (Feb 15, 2012)

sashamerideth said:


> One important thing to consider, what effect will the different subspecies have on the story? Evolutionary, one would eventually wipe out the others, either through interbreeding or hunting to extinction.



Perhaps, but it would take so long that it one group's eventual extinction could easily be inconsequential to the story.  I mean, neither white people nor black people are in danger of dieing out.  We're not different species, but the same conditions apply.  The races in our world now will continue to exist for thousands of more years at least, assuming the sun doesn't blow up and kill us all before then.


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## Devor (Feb 15, 2012)

Wiggles2021 said:


> When i first sat down and wrote out the time line for my first book, i wrote it as having all humans across the board. Sure, some were different pygmintations, and had different characteristics, but im wondering if i should move that a couple of steps down the evolutionary chain and actually have the different regions be populated by different sub-species that evolved from humans. Thought?



In my opinion, it's not a simple switch.

I think the significant thing about adding a new race is understanding how their distinct special features would affect their culture and society.  What does it do to an elf that he lives a thousand years?  Or a dwarf to live underground?  Or an orc to be filled with dumb savagery?  Those are the standard races, let's say, and of course you can do just about anything you want.  But swapping from a human kingdom to a non-human race is about _wanting those inhuman differences_ for your story.

I don't think anyone can really suggest to you which path to take.  At least not without looking heavily through your ideas.


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## Sheilawisz (Feb 15, 2012)

In my opinion, for Fantasy stories it's always better to have many different races, species, sub-species or whatever than having only humans in your worlds- You can have fun creating your own races or species instead of elves, orcs and so on, and give each of them a culture and style of their own =)


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## SlimShady (Feb 15, 2012)

You can get more creative with different races, but to be honest it doesn't really matter.  But, creating an entirely different race is actually probably pretty hard.  If you think you have it in you then go ahead and create until your hearts content.  However, you can get bogged down in trying to create something unique that you never get around to finishing the story.


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## Evilyn (Feb 16, 2012)

I agree with Sheliawisz on this one, I originally had mostly humans in my WIP but I have slowly turned some tribes into different races and it really didn't take that much to do it. Once you have already created one race with a culture set it place you can just flesh it out by adding a few non human traits to their appearence. I still have kept a fair amount of just human tribes as I think it's nice to have a few but I do believe fantasy is better with the odd mythical creature or created race running around 

Evi


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## Wiggles2021 (Feb 17, 2012)

Well, the way it stands now is with the humans being created by a diety, but they have had about six hundred years to evolve since certain events made the diety...uninvolved. So the way i had it planned out was the differnt cultures evolved to fit there lands, the northernmen became big and overly strong, hardened to the snowy elements, the western 'desert people' are able to process water to last days in there body, but at the end of the day, they are all still close enough to human that they can intermarry without weird genetic issues.....sometimes i just need to bounce other peoples opinions so i can solidify what im trying to say. Thanks everybody!


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## sashamerideth (Feb 17, 2012)

Wiggles2021 said:
			
		

> Well, the way it stands now is with the humans being created by a diety, but they have had about six hundred years to evolve since certain events made the diety...uninvolved. So the way i had it planned out was the differnt cultures evolved to fit there lands, the northernmen became big and overly strong, hardened to the snowy elements, the western 'desert people' are able to process water to last days in there body, but at the end of the day, they are all still close enough to human that they can intermarry without weird genetic issues.....sometimes i just need to bounce other peoples opinions so i can solidify what im trying to say. Thanks everybody!



Six hundred years is a very shortt time for that kind of evolution, couple hundred thousand years maybe, not a few hundred.


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## Wiggles2021 (Feb 17, 2012)

Well, the concept is that when the 'diety' left, he transfered his essence into the earth, so even though he isnt a controlling factor, the earth still has magic and kind of subtly shapes events to fit in with some version of fate. So the magically charged earth could be an explaining factor for the increased evolution.


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