# Magical Human "Races," Physical Differences



## Devor (Sep 9, 2017)

Question:  How much is it appropriate to make different human races out of magic?

For instance, if a group of humans used magic over the course of centuries to adapt as a race to living in the dessert, or underground, the way that writers often do with terrain-type elves and other races, is that appropriate?  Or how far can we take it before it leads to issues with real world races?

Does anyone know any good examples of "magically changed" human societies?  Are any of you working with the idea?

Very related, there's a guy in ASOIAF with webbing on his fingers, which is a family trait and also really cool.  So it doesn't necessarily have to be culture-wide or terrain-centered.


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## Viorp (Sep 9, 2017)

Emm... what do you mean by "issues with real life races" ???

I think that going as far as you want is okay look as The Elder Scrolls.
Dunmer are dark cursed elves which turned gray.
The Flamer were turned into blind abominations trough magic.
Orcs also are Elves which prayed to some god of war devolving into a beastrace.

If I had to conect reallife races into magic I'd make white people adapt to cold mountains, asians to cold stepps and africans to hot and open terrain. Basically what evolution did on earth but copied by magic and maybe take to an extreme.


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## Devor (Sep 9, 2017)

Viorp said:


> Emm... what do you mean by "issues with real life races" ???
> 
> . . . .
> 
> If I had to conect reallife races into magic I'd make white people adapt to cold mountains, asians to cold stepps and africans to hot and open terrain. Basically what evolution did on earth but copied by magic and maybe take to an extreme.



I'm not sure what I meant, but I didn't mean it like that.  Just being awkward I guess.


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## FifthView (Sep 9, 2017)

I have occasionally been irritated when fantasy _cultures_ were too clearly drawn from stereotypes of existing Earth cultures. You know, when a desert society is obviously Arab, an arctic society is obviously Inuit, a jungle society is obviously built as an analogue of societies from African jungles or the Amazon.

At the same time, sometimes this works _great_, heh.

So I don't know the exact separation. Probably it has something to do with thinly veiling stereotypes, an accumulation of stereotypes. The same sort of thing could happen with fantasy races, especially when those races are tied to geography and climates. Y'know, maybe if the dark elves live in desert and savannah environments, the light skinned elves live in northern, temperate climes, etc. I don't know. Probably the issue would be greater if the cultures of these races are Earth stereotypes, in addition to whatever environmental factors are also on-the-nose borrowings from Earth history.


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## Orc Knight (Sep 9, 2017)

You could always put it into the sci-fi sense. Meta-humans and other types that have been genetically altered to fit certain environments. Just, magically formed to adept instead of playing with syringes. And, to politely tease, I'd love to be altered to fit for more desserts. All the cheesecake for me.


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## Viorp (Sep 9, 2017)

I think you have to draw from real cultures to make relistic fantasy ones.
The envirment shapes culture afterall, it's important to mix stuff up though.


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## Devor (Sep 9, 2017)

So what would be some good adaptations to make that still feel human?


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## Orc Knight (Sep 9, 2017)

You spoke of webbed hands from ASoIaF. Take it a step further, go a little fish or reptile person. Scales and other adaptions. Maybe more fur for cold places and mountains. Grown armor, claws and sharper teeth for warriors and soldiers depending on style. Flying adaptations like wings and the like. Really, any humanoid monster adaption is possible.


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## FifthView (Sep 9, 2017)

I'm fairly certain I don't understand your main concern. What prompted this? Did you have a specific idea for a magically adapted human race that worries you?

Maybe if you built on the idea of adapted animals. Say, your desert humans have some kind of hump, large lumps around their body, for storing water. Like a camel.

Then it's probably not going to be associated with human races so much as Earth animals.

Your arctic humans could possibly have more fat layers, thicker hair over their bodies...I don't know, heh.


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## FifthView (Sep 9, 2017)

Come to think of it, the example that just came to mind was Gerrold's The War Against the Chtorr—although it's sci-fi and a weird example.

Basic throughline is that some alien ecosystem is invading Earth. The initial arrival kills lots of humans and comes in the form of an illness. As the story develops, the environment changes, Chtorr species show up, the landscape and weather patterns change. It's like terraforming, but Chtorr-forming. Ultimately, some humans begin to alter too, developing small, thin pink hairs over their bodies. These hairs are super-sensitive to the environment but also, if I remember correctly, lead to those humans being able to interact/communicate with the large, killer worms—nerve impulses moving from those hairs to the same type of hairs on those worms.

So, it's kind of an environmental adaptation, but the environment is changing also, from an Earth environment to a Chtorr environment.


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## Devor (Sep 9, 2017)

FifthView said:


> I'm fairly certain I don't understand your main concern. What prompted this? Did you have a specific idea for a magically adapted human race that worries you?



I was just looking for an idea to play with and thought about magical human adaptations.  Then I thought about genetics and how it would start to be a big feature in race, muttered "crap," and apparently got a little weird about it for no particular reason.

If I do anything with it, it would probably end up defining differences within a single culture, so I almost wish I could forget mentioning race.


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## skip.knox (Sep 9, 2017)

I have created creatures in Altearth. Dragons were created magically, though they reproduced naturally.

A created being is also at the center of my WIP, _A Child of Great Promise_. It's been interesting to have her first find out that her parents don't exist, and then to find out she herself is the creation of a wizard. Major identity issues.

Most creatures, though, are entirely natural, even the ones with magical qualities to them.


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## Mythopoet (Sep 11, 2017)

Devor said:


> Does anyone know any good examples of "magically changed" human societies?  Are any of you working with the idea?



Because my world is actually a far, far, far future fantasy world, I have millions of years of evolution as well as tampering by outside forces to play around with. So I am definitely working with the idea of various types of "altered" humanoids. But I am avoiding the use of the very emotionally charged term "races" and borrowing the term "ab-humans" from William Hope Hodgson. (I guess the term is also used in Warhammer 40k, which I am not at all familiar with, but I got it from The Night Land, which definitely came first.) 

So I have ab-humans who evolved naturally to live in conditions with extreme cold and darkness. They are much shorter than humans, have very large eyes and a coat of very fine fur covering much of their body. The fur used to be thicker, but their current home is not as cold as where they lived a million years ago, so they have begun to loose it. They have the ability to store more body fat than humans and burn it for survival in extreme conditions. 

There are also "ab-humans" who evolved supernaturally, but making deals with alien beings to gain powers and abilities to help them survive various apocalyptic scenarios that have occurred over the past several million years and then passing those powers on to their descendants. 

There are also creatures that once were human, but have lost too much of their humanity to be considered even ab-human anymore. They no longer possess human souls or intelligence. This includes various species of giants and some bestial humanoids.


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