# Do you use your original creature or creatures from existing mythology?



## valiant12 (Jun 30, 2015)

Do you use sentient species different from humans in your stories? Do you use creatures that don't exist in real life in your stories. What kind of creatures do you use, traditional creatures from mythology like elves, goblins, dragons, vampires, etc. or creatures from your own imagination. Or you use a combination of both.


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## WooHooMan (Jun 30, 2015)

Non-humanoid but sentient creatures are usually as original as I'm capable of making them.
Humanoids tend to be from existing mythologies or fiction but often with some changes to fit into the setting better.  Like I wouldn't put straight-up Transylvanian vampires in a setting based on China.  Or werewolves in a tropical setting.


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## evolution_rex (Jun 30, 2015)

I typically don't enjoy making other sentient species, but if I do they're usually give them caveman-like attributes. I've always had this fictional family tree of creatures that's intelligence are comparable to apes and primates, which contain; Goblin, Hobgoblin, Bubgear, Troll, Ogre, Giant. Dragons are usually animalistic unless they have a supernatural aspect to them. I don't use elves but occasionally I will have 'super advanced' sentient species but it's typically Sylphs or an original species.

But it really depends on what story I'm doing. If it's more lighthearted, I enjoy putting a ton of sentient species. If I'm writing something serious, it's pretty much just going to center around humans.


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## Tom (Jun 30, 2015)

Apart from Fey and elves (and vampires in an urban fantasy), I don't really use other sentient species. I prefer to focus on humans.


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## thecoldembrace (Jun 30, 2015)

I created a large amount of sentient species/races for my world, with most having parts to play in the overarching story. I made sure to make my dwarfs as awesome as possible, but I also did the same with my trolls. Other races are my version of other things I have read about, such as my Wrot which I equate to being my Uruk-hai, (but not being Uruk-hai), my Dronn which are a hive minded psionic species which just devours. I also have various other things such as my Glassians, who take the place of the "pretty, noble," race.
My thing against having JUST humans in a story is this. EVERY reader is human. We know our species. We can fathom how another human might think. Other races/species are a way for readers to enter a world and adjust to seeing things from a different PoV. 


-Cold


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## X Equestris (Jun 30, 2015)

I typically focus on humans.  My world has spirits/demons, but I'm not sure I would call them sentient life.  Otherwise, the closest I've got to sentient life is a very small, primitive, goblin-like species that is very minor.  

As for other creatures, I try to put my own twist on traditional creatures.  My undead are preserved or recently deceased corpses possessed by demons.  My vampires are normal people who are possessed by demons, and the strength of the demon determines what happens to the recipient's body.  Stronger demons turn their hosts into almost bat-like creatures, while weaker ones retain their human shape with a few internal alterations that most people would never notice.  

My werewolves are the victims of a magic curse that alters those who trespass on certain ancient sites, and that curse can be transmitted through werewolf bites.  These werewolves are basically stuck in a form like a humanoid wolf.  And I'm working on implementing wendigoes that are cannibal humans whose bodies are altered by a particular type of demon.  Dragons are pretty much animals with an innate grasp on a few aspects of magic.  Their breath attacks are magic, and they use some magic to lower their weight so they can fly more easily.

I have a few largely original creatures, though most are pretty much animals.  The strix, inspired by Greco-Roman monsters of the same name, are giant birds sort of like owls that use blood magic to immobilize their prey, and have an electric breath attack to use if that fails.  They're particularly fond of humans.  I also have an amphibious creature, inspired by the frogfish, that camouflages itself as a rock along waterways and uses its lightning quick mouth to attack prey.  It also uses a bit of magic and poison.


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## Feo Takahari (Jul 1, 2015)

The first story I ever submitted had an orc with the serial numbers filed off, and I've written a couple things with aliens of some form. Everything else I've actually completed that wasn't fanfiction involved humans or ex-humans (dead bodies revived in deformed bodies, shapeshifters with human base forms, aspects of human personalities that fractured and become independent entities, etc.) I've tried various stories with unicorns and dragons and such, but nothing's ever come of them.


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## Tom (Jul 1, 2015)

I used to write stories with a lot of made-up sentient creatures (most of them variations on orcs, elves, and other fantasy staples), until I realized that humans are infinitely more interesting than any generic fantasy race. It's true--we are. We may not have horns or pointed ears or other odd physical characteristics, but we are the most complex and contradictory species in the world.

Everything that makes a fantasy race unique likely can and has been achieved by humans. We perform great feats of architecture and metalworking like the dwarves, nurture plants and develop bonds with animals as do the elves, create war and suffering to rival the orcs, and so much more. There's so much to explore within our own species, and when we transplant humans into a fantasy setting they can do and become virtually anything we can imagine. 

Who needs fantasy races?


Disclaimer: This is purely my opinion! More power to you if you want to use fantasy races. I'm just passionately anthrocentric.


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## WooHooMan (Jul 1, 2015)

Tom Nimenai said:


> I used to write stories with a lot of made-up sentient creatures (most of them variations on orcs, elves, and other fantasy staples), until I realized that humans are infinitely more interesting than any generic fantasy race. It's true--we are. We may not have horns or pointed ears or other odd physical characteristics, but we are the most complex and contradictory species in the world.
> 
> Everything that makes a fantasy race unique likely can and has been achieved by humans. We perform great feats of architecture and metalworking like the dwarves, nurture plants and develop bonds with animals as do the elves, create war and suffering to rival the orcs, and so much more. There's so much to explore within our own species, and when we transplant humans into a fantasy setting they can do and become virtually anything we can imagine.
> 
> ...



What sucks about humans in fantasy is that we tend to be the jack of all, masters of none.  And that's kind of dull.
One of the many, many things I dig about the Elder Scrolls setting is that humans tend to be the warrior (or at least, militaristic and imperial) races more often than elves, orcs, dwarves or beasts.  But then they mostly suck at magic and aren't particularly good with crafting or whatever.

I think the real appeal of using other species is that they all have automatic traits.  If you need a "pretty noble" people, you can just say "elves" and the reader will get it.  If you need big, monstrous humanoids, just say "trolls" and the reader gets it.  
Even when writers give their own twist on these archetypes, it's usually for the sake of subverting expectations or playing with interpretations.

I'm generally not down with creating new species though.  Personally, when I'm reading a fantasy book and I hear about "the Grobnars" or whatever, I'm like "well, what's a Grobnar" and the book is like "they're big, savage humanoids with sharp teeth and a militarist and tribal culture".  When that happens, I get kind of annoyed that the writer didn't just call them Orcs.  I hear "Orcs" and I immediately think "big and strong tribal warrior guys who may or may not be evil."  It saves both the reader and the writer a lot of trouble.
I mean, what are you going to do when you only use humans but you need a group of big, ugly warriors?  Is there a not-racist way to go about this?

I don't know.  That's my defense of cliche fantasy races and my argument against creating your own fantasy races.


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## Snowpoint (Jul 1, 2015)

My current works are mostly human, a couple variations on shape-shifting, very few monster or non-humans.

My Alchemist setting does have people crafting monsters in their labs. the ending might have a Manticore.


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## Miskatonic (Jul 1, 2015)

I use both. I'm sure some ideas I think are original have been used in video games, or comics or whatever since inventing fantasy creatures, even just artists wanting something different to draw, is pretty common.


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## Miskatonic (Jul 1, 2015)

Snowpoint said:


> My current works are mostly human, a couple variations on shape-shifting, very few monster or non-humans.
> 
> My Alchemist setting does have people crafting monsters in their labs. the ending might have a Manticore.



I like the alchemy idea, give more detail as you develop it.

I borrowed from Lumley's amazing Necroscope series by using the idea of flesh vats and changing it a bit. Basically large pits full of rudimentary flesh and blood used to create undead constructs via magic.

A very convenient method of creating soldiers, especially when these blasphemous laboratories are within close proximity to old battlefields with tens of thousands of skeletal remains just waiting to be adorned with new flesh.


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## TWErvin2 (Jul 1, 2015)

I use creatures from mythology. While based on myth (doing research) they have their own twists or uniqueness for my post-apocalyptic world, especially when there is 'conflicting' information/legends on them.

I've had everything from Svartalfar to a Sphinx.


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## evolution_rex (Jul 1, 2015)

My problem with a lot of mythological creatures outside of the basic list is that some of them have names that would sound very odd coming out of an english speaker's mouth. If I've got a European setting, then African or South American mythological creatures can't fit properly even though I'm really interested in the creature only because of it's name. But I can't rename it because then no one would realize what it's suppose to be.


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## Saigonnus (Jul 1, 2015)

I have used the traditional critters in stories, but I tend to change them to suit my needs. The principal race in my WIP are basically humans that were corrupted by the goddess's subverted magic.  They are larger, stronger and rarely use metal weaponry, this is mostly due to the fact that they don't have many resources or skill to craft them. Their creators were magicians, so basically they have the ability of using wood to make nearly any sort of weaponry, and enchant them.

I recall a story I wrote about a kobold... It was lots of fun. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Warrioress (Jul 2, 2015)

I generally don't mind the run of the mill elves, orcs etc,  but sometimes when elves always seem elegant and imperious and orcs rough and mean I get a little frustrated.  Reading about a race/being I've never encountered before really gets me excited. 

I love mythological creatures and dragons but if anything that isn't post-apocalyptic  or even that sometime, uses undead/living skeletons/zombies I get bored. In my opinion I think they are over used. 

In my story so far I have kept to humans mainly but used mythological creatures too,  but I plan to use beings of my own creation in the future, xcreating new creatures really sparks my imagination.


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## Saigonnus (Jul 2, 2015)

Warrioress said:


> I generally don't mind the run of the mill elves, orcs etc,  but sometimes when elves always seem elegant and imperious and orcs rough and mean I get a little frustrated.  Reading about a race/being I've never encountered before really gets me excited.



I agree. Elves and Orcs portrayed like those super common stereotypes are boring in my opinion too. I am playing with an early gunpowder era story where human perceive Orcs as barbarians, unintelligent and whatnot, but they are not; which the dwarvish main character comes to realize when they rescue him from being hanged. The leader is scarred from a human land grab against his village, but educated and clever when it comes to defending the last bastion of free Orcs in the region. 

I do like new races too, but it really depends on what sort it is. If it is undead, supernatural, it isn't likely to hold my interest for long. It is really difficult to find races though that aren't at least somewhat humanlike in attitude whatever they happen to look like, a curse of the human condition I think. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## skip.knox (Jul 2, 2015)

I go with the Standard Set, but I have a good reason for doing so. Mine is an alternate earth, with the same timeline but with variations. So, pretty much every monster out of European folklore is available to me. I do feel free to modify as I wish.

For example, gnomes are a peculiarly obsequious people. They avoid conflict of all types, including war, so they tend to look for protectors. While they arrived in Altearth with the dwarves, they soon attached themselves to humans, with somewhat mixed results. They wind up being something like serfs, though it's voluntary. At least, initially. 

With respect to other folks' approaches, this lets me look at how a pacific, though not pacifist (they'll fight if they can't run) people would organize themselves, how their economy would work, how they would relate to other peoples, what would constitute deviance, and so on, in a way that simply would not work with humans.

With elves, I posit that they have a deep spirituality but no religion. They are mystics, believing each individual must go on a spiritual quest at some point in their lives. Also, they don't build cities. And no, they aren't especially attached to forests. My elves are essentially individualism extended as far as I can stretch it. 

Doing this lets my humans be human. Yes, individual humans can be pacific or spiritual or whatever, but as a culture that's not us. That's my argument for having other races. 

Also, they're there, so I gotta do *something* with them!


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## Yifan (Jul 3, 2015)

I don't use elves or dwarves, instead I use elf-like and dwarve-like humans. The only sentient species other than human that I use is undead. And I am planning to add fevre-dream-style vampires into my setting.
As for the creatures that I use: dinosaurs-like creatures, chocobo, dragons and sea monsters. The main reason that I don't go far into inventing creatures is that I feel awkward without the aid of good quality arts.


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## Warrioress (Jul 3, 2015)

Saigonnus said:


> I agree. Elves and Orcs portrayed like those super common stereotypes are boring in my opinion too. I am playing with an early gunpowder era story where human perceive Orcs as barbarians, unintelligent and whatnot, but they are not; which the dwarvish main character comes to realize when they rescue him from being hanged. The leader is scarred from a human land grab against his village, but educated and clever when it comes to defending the last bastion of free Orcs in the region.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk



I like the sound of that, really delving into them a actual sentient beings instead of good guys bad guys black and white. That type of thing keeps my interest.


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## Bropocalypse (Jul 18, 2015)

I use either, neither, or both at once, depending on what I feel.
It can be fun to explore, refine, and reinvent the standard fantasy stock of races, to put new twists on what is commonly depicted or to deconstruct it. It's also fun to invent things from scratch. To make a people from nothing, wind them up, see where they go. "I made that." You can go somewhere in between, using motifs of an old idea but needing to use a new name when your changes deviate so far as to render them a new species. Or you can invent something new and give them the same name as an old idea, to save a reader time. This is helpful when a shape evolves independently of what you expected, and you end up with an old idea with a wholly new origin.




WooHooMan said:


> I mean, what are you going to do when you only use humans but you need a group of big, ugly warriors?  Is there a not-racist way to go about this?



I should certainly hope so. There's no _necessary _reason to invent a race for the sake of a group for the sake of a behavior. Within a single larger ethnicity you can have subgroups: Let's imagine two stereotypical depictions of English people: Posh Oxfordians and Cockney Soccer Hooligans. Neither of those two things are (necessarily) what any single member of them might choose to associate with, but each has a grouping and a subculture within that larger group, and a set of behaviors you might expect to see from either. Of course, each member is absolutely free to subvert your expectations, and there's nothing to say that any given member is likewise definitely going to follow your expectations. But, as a _whole,_ you might notice a trend of behaviors in them due to their subcultural influences.


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## SeverinR (Jul 21, 2015)

Take something known and make it yours. (deja-vu) Go deeper, figure out why they are the way they are in the world.
Why are they in the world? Why are they not in power? Make sure they aren't world dominance powerful.  Make them believable, make them your flavor of the mythos.


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## Lennan (Jul 22, 2015)

As my story is weaved heavily with Celt mythology, I use existing creatures not only from Celt mythology but other mythologies as well. For example I use a group of Talos, giant men of bronze, which derives from Greek mythology in the climax. Hey it's fantasy and there are very few rules regarding creatures and besides the Greeks encountered the Keltoi (their name for the Celts) in 6th century BC.


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## ChasingSuns (Jul 23, 2015)

For me it depends on which of my stories it is. In my current one, I have some known mythological creatures, but also create my own. It all depends on the story really. If I come up with a really cool original creature or humanoid species, I will see if it works for something that I wanna write. Although if I do use known mythological beings, I definitely try to put my own spin on them just so that I can make it new and interesting for the reader.


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## Kobun (Jul 23, 2015)

All my current WIPs are placed on earth so I use mythological creatures, though I usually try to go deep cut. In works I've done in original worlds I've used my own creations. The old fantasy standbys are wonderful, but if you're trying to set up a world that feels unknown and mysterious you could potentially hamstring yourself with races people already bear expectations for.


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## Sonichen (Jul 23, 2015)

I use several publications including the Manga 500 series and another book with fantasy clip art as a starting point, then start modifying it with Adobe Photoshop CS5 extended. The personality of the character kind of just comes into your head as you are working on it.


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## AlexanderMiracoure (Jul 26, 2015)

Personally, I have a mixture of both. Three major races reside within the world openly, and trade among one another, all of which are common within fantasy: Elves, Dwarves, and Men. However, each of these three races has separate sub-races, each of which is set apart by either geography, cultural divides, or both. For example: there are three major kinds of men, the Sounthrons, the Westerners, and the Easterners, all of which live far apart from one another (on entirely different continents) and speak entirely different languages and practice entirely different customs. However, the Easterners are fully divided into two major cultural groups by the culture of the individuals, the south-easterners being nomadic while the north-easterners settlers, each of these groups is even more divided, and so on. Other races are divided by war, such as the two major empires of the elves, which were seperate so long they grew physically and culturally different. So I guess that I can say that among my species taken from typical fantasy I have that which is my own.
More so, I have created my own races, namely the tree spirits and many different kinds of set-alone creatures, such as Maerinthar (moss giants, essentially) and Rugoraks (Psuedodrakes, small, slimy, bulbous eyed, winged, lizard like things that served as spies for yet another characteral race, the orcs). 
About the orcs --> They are technically taken from other fantasies, yet unlike the usual view of them even they have their own cultures and beliefs that I've fully made up, attempting to channel the Urgals of Paolini yet keeping them my own.
So yeah, there's that


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## HowlingWriter (Aug 3, 2015)

A bit of both really. Original creatures, and creatures partially based on real world animals. That also includes Dragons, Goblins (though they don't appear too often), the undead, giant spiders even. All kinds of sea creatures too. Taking inspiration from real world animals and adding a twist to them can create all new kinds of creatures.


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## Mythopoet (Aug 3, 2015)

I get ideas and inspiration from mythical creatures. I like to use the familiar nature of the mythology as a foundation, and develop the creatures from there in my own way.


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## The Stranger (Aug 21, 2015)

me personally, i like to use both my originally conceived races and a few i have appropriated from mythology. the key with using races from other mythologies is to give them your own spin and style them in a way that you find interesting. for instance, while i left some races, particularly the Dwarves, fairly unchanged from their original forms, i decided to go a different direction with my orcs, giving them a more Chinese look and culture, still keeping their warlike tendencies, but putting them more in the way of Sun Tzu rather than their more traditional barbarianism.


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## MeanMachine (Aug 25, 2015)

Seeing as my WIP is mostly an homage/affectionate parody of RPGs, both tabletop and videogames, the creatures in it are stuff that has been seen before, Wyverns, Dragons, Zombies, living trees, chimeras, suped-up versions of Real World animals, ect.

 Some subspecies will have original names, and what they do and look like will not necessarily all come out of a D&D bestiary, but it'll deffinitely feel familiar and/or seen-before if you've played any number of fantasy RPGs. That's what I want, anyway.


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