• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!
What array of creatures are in your world? Are there any unique ones, or mostly traditional? What kinds of beasts? What kinds of beings? What kinds of spirits? Are there any special quirks/differences you give your creatures? Are wizards their own species, or just anyone who can use wizardry, or some combination? Are the creatures from the homeworld or other dimensions? Are there any cyborg or robot creatures, like cyborg wizards, god machines, unibots, etc? Are they mundane in origin, such as aliens in most sci-fi stories, or more supernatural in origin, like monsters in most fantasy stories? Are there any monstrous god-like beings? As an extension, do monsters have their own gods that they worship?
For an example, I once made a world where there was a vast array of themed realms each with their own type of monsters (Fire monsters, for instance, come from the fire realm, and have fiery powers and appearances)
I've also made worlds that use more traditional mythological beasts, as well as more alien ones.
 

Mad Swede

Auror
So far, the characters haven't met anything other than mundane ordinary creatures like cows, sheep etc. Sure, there are folk tales about things like dragons and ogres. And the Gods. But the characters haven't come across them...
 
So far, the characters haven't met anything other than mundane ordinary creatures like cows, sheep etc. Sure, there are folk tales about things like dragons and ogres. And the Gods. But the characters haven't come across them...
But do they exist in your world?
 

WooHooMan

Auror
I haven’t gotten much opportunity to explore the wildlife of my setting as the story takes place in a post-industrial city. People keep varies breeds of domestic pigs and large lizards as pets. Small monkeys and birds are common pests. I think there’s a line about rats so I guess those exists.

As far as people go: humans, goblins and gnolls of varies sub-races are the dominant people.
There are also atronachs - both material/elementals like embodiments of fire, coal, neon, etc. as well as immaterial/metaphysicals like embodiments of dreams, fear and other concepts. The material atronachs came from “below the world” while the metaphysical ones are from “above the world”. It’s mostly accepted that “spirits” are just atronachs and the mythology around spirits were just the result of ancient mortals not understanding atronachs.
There are also varies species of demons that immigrated from Hell into the mortal world. This includes intelligent demons like imps or ogres and more feral demons which are basically animals that wandered into the mortal plane.

There are also aliens from the “outer planes” but only one is seen in the story. Its name is $@% and is described as looking like a lamp and speaking in a series of beeps and whistles. The existence of these aliens aren’t widely known to people who live in the mortal world.

Gods aren’t really biologically distinct life forms. I know for certain at least eight of the gods were humans - had human parents, children, etc. - and two gods were basically an atronach of rain and an atronach of death before they ascended to godhood.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
In [birds] there really aren't "magical beasts;" there's sapient species, and then there's regular animals, which are based off of pleistocene/ice age critters (which is mostly like our own, but with extra things that you as an IRL person would know about). The broad groupings of intelligent species are humans, elves, phoenixes, dragons, cat folk, worms, and [magic-species]. I'm still hammering out the fine details for elves, but they're different enough from humans to be their own genus, naturally have the ability to use magic, and don't have 5 digits per hand/foot. Cat folk are essentially anthros, while worms are big ol worms that live underground and have a very different kind of intelligence/way of seeing things so most people don't bother with them. [Magic-species] are in a separate domain from everyone/thing else (perhaps even a clade higher than domain) and have the ability to shift into anything imaginable. So you might think unicorns are real, you go to hunt a unicorn, you find a "unicorn"...and you're never seen again, since you fell for the predator's trap. Luckily they're not able to stray very far from the northernmost latitudes, otherwise they'd be a much bigger problem. They (like the worms and cat folk, in some ways) are as believed to exist as any mythical creature you heard about from someone else in ye olden times.

In [monsters] there's gonna be...a lot of monsters/fantastical creatures/what have you. I'm focusing more on broad strokes of worldbuilding instead of the nitty-gritty as I'm working on editing [birds] to get it ready for submission, so I don't have big lists of things that exist, just design principles. "Magic" doesn't exist, there's alchemy and there's "fantastic" materials/compounds you can get from monsters. So you could make an elixer that heals a certain disease really good or a cup that neutralizes any poison that goes into it, but not a magic wand (and no one is shooting any fireballs).

In general I really don't like things like centaurs, pegasi, "humans but [minor thing]" in my stories because they either require such huge logical leaps to have them be feasible (you need hollow bones to fly, but a horse needs thicc, strong bones to be able to run...) or they're just not very interesting? To me at least. An elf would need to be more than just a magic twink to be worth writing about, otherwise what would an elf do that a human couldn't? Or some other species? I also see them fall into "monocultures" (all dwarves live in mountains and dig holes and have scottish accents, all elves live in the woods and are vegans and good with bows) a lot, or are just lifting from some real-world culture wholecloth (orcs behave like [insert Uncultured Culture here], tauren are just various plains native Americans). And a world like what's available in dnd just...that's way too many options. There's literal unkillable gods and there's Rats But Just Big. It's paralyzing to have that many options and (to me) it's hard to have a cohesive world with so many radically different things in it. I need to draw a line somewhere, and since I'm so big into biology, choosing what is and isn't possible for the different lifeforms is where I usually start.
 
What array of creatures are in your world?
My world is mostly walled off civilisations and fortified settlements surrounded by wild territory teeming with dangers, so I'm keeping the options open for almost anything, especially given how monsters work.

Are there any unique ones, or mostly traditional?
I'd mostly (hopefully) unique takes on traditional things, with some more obscure stuff added in.

What kinds of beasts?
On the main continent there's "dire" versions of most things, in fact what we would call the normal kinds are diminished by domestication in-universe. In the same sense that most of our dog breeds irl are significantly smaller than wolves. In my world people have "civilized" animals that live inside fortifications, and the wild versions are basically huge monsters to them. Aside those there are also things like griffins, manticores and a slew of draconic species separate from straight up dragons themselves.

What kinds of beings?
Not sure what this means exactly. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and such ? If so yes. Vampirism is a...transmissible spell ? The 1st one was a wizard who altered himself and part of his experimentations involved how magically infused substances work. Basically mixing blood with a vampire makes you a vampire for a similar reason to why an alchemist can make a regrowth salve with regenerating plant bits or troll blood. Lycanthropy I'm not sure yet but probably a mix of the same kind of wild magic that created beast people and a divine curse. Zombies is necromancy, but there a several ways to do necromancy.

What kinds of spirits?
Spirits are embodiments of either small or fleeting concepts. The former are more consistent but weaker, like a River Spirit. The latter usually stay dormant and weakened but have bursts of activity and power spikes, like a Spirit of Fear in the ruins of an overrun village, it will just roam aimlessly most of the time, and be active when someone visits its haunted grounds, where it will manifest their fears and feed on them.

Are there any special quirks/differences you give your creatures?
Well a lot of them are twisted to fit with how monsters work in the setting.

Are wizards their own species, or just anyone who can use wizardry, or some combination?
Anyone can learn magic in theory. In practice, since most magic is based on Knowledge, anyone unable to access, or barred access to, advanced education is just not becoming a mage. There are races with some inherent magical traits though. Elves obviously. The Nweyd were created by a god and are flesh & blood that can do things flesh & blood shouldn't really be able to do. Drakkaros aren't "supernatural" on an individual basis, but they're a subspecies of human who all grow to around 2m tall and all have naturally high musclemass. There's a "race" called the Raksa who are members of other races magically infused with the raw essence of binded Spirits while in their mothers' wombs. This makes them "demispirit" like the child of a mortal and a god is a "demigod", so aside looking unusual they also have inherent magical powers.

Are the creatures from the homeworld or other dimensions?
Yes.
All creatures that are straight up monsters, and not just big animals and the like, are physical manifestations of something people imagine. The shadows that lurk in their hearts of men can come out into the real world basically. This is because the source of all magic is another dimension (of sorts) called The Dreaming, a shapeless realm that imitates the shapes of thoughts, beliefs, ideas, concepts, etc. And power from the Dreaming seeps into the Material World. This is what my setting's "mana" is, but it also causes all magical plants, minerals, animals, etc. Spirits and monsters are also formed from it.

Are there any cyborg or robot creatures, like cyborg wizards, god machines, unibots, etc?
No.

Are they mundane in origin, such as aliens in most sci-fi stories, or more supernatural in origin, like monsters in most fantasy stories?
Supernatural, as detailed 2 questions above.

Are there any monstrous god-like beings?
Not monstrous per se but there is a kind of fairy creature that the people call Eldri, or Great Fae, which could not unreasonably be considered gods. To give an idea, there's an in-universe mystery concerning the sudden disappearance of Archsage Njall, a wizard of legend widely believed to be the most powerful mage to ever live. One of the main characters met an Eldri when he was a kid and she casually tells him she's the one who made him disappear, because the Archsage found her annoying and told her to leave him alone. So she made him be alone.

As an extension, do monsters have their own gods that they worship?
Sort of. The monsters with enough of a mind to "worship" anything just revere their strongest. It usually doesn't do much but sometimes enough individuals revere the same "alpha monster" enough to make it more powerful. But no monster is actually a capital D Deity like those that priests can get Divine Magic from.
 
Tyrant-soars:
T-rexes existed and have been discovered by archeologists in this world, so one person, upon seeing these creatures shortly after they popped into existence, took one look and called them tyrant-soars. They have the head of a T-Rex with four wings.

That's it. No body. The wings aren't leathery pterodactyl wings either; they are fibrous bundles that are packed smoothly together, enough to be aerodynamic, and they can split up into tendrils used for grasping and digestion. They chew with their mouths, and the food goes out the bottoms of their necks. They descend to the ground and slurp up the rest through the hollow tendril wings.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
So, Smughitter takes place in a typical fantasy setting, with elves and dwarves and orcs, and pretty much everything you could name. But the actual story is about the huge number of different creatures from the fairy otherworld, including sprites, hobs, asrai, puca, boggarts, nymphs, and like a dozen other things. We'll see an elf, but no "elven kingdom," because the story is about the sprites and their magics and how they fit in or not. It's a tightly constructed setting in a really big world.
 
What kinds of beings?
Not sure what this means exactly. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and such ? If so yes. Vampirism is a...transmissible spell ? The 1st one was a wizard who altered himself and part of his experimentations involved how magically infused substances work. Basically mixing blood with a vampire makes you a vampire for a similar reason to why an alchemist can make a regrowth salve with regenerating plant bits or troll blood. Lycanthropy I'm not sure yet but probably a mix of the same kind of wild magic that created beast people and a divine curse. Zombies is necromancy, but there a several ways to do necromancy.
That, and species other than humans such as elves and dwarves.
 
What array of creatures are in your world?
My world is mostly walled off civilisations and fortified settlements surrounded by wild territory teeming with dangers, so I'm keeping the options open for almost anything, especially given how monsters work.

Are there any unique ones, or mostly traditional?
I'd mostly (hopefully) unique takes on traditional things, with some more obscure stuff added in.

What kinds of beasts?
On the main continent there's "dire" versions of most things, in fact what we would call the normal kinds are diminished by domestication in-universe. In the same sense that most of our dog breeds irl are significantly smaller than wolves. In my world people have "civilized" animals that live inside fortifications, and the wild versions are basically huge monsters to them. Aside those there are also things like griffins, manticores and a slew of draconic species separate from straight up dragons themselves.

What kinds of beings?
Not sure what this means exactly. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and such ? If so yes. Vampirism is a...transmissible spell ? The 1st one was a wizard who altered himself and part of his experimentations involved how magically infused substances work. Basically mixing blood with a vampire makes you a vampire for a similar reason to why an alchemist can make a regrowth salve with regenerating plant bits or troll blood. Lycanthropy I'm not sure yet but probably a mix of the same kind of wild magic that created beast people and a divine curse. Zombies is necromancy, but there a several ways to do necromancy.

What kinds of spirits?
Spirits are embodiments of either small or fleeting concepts. The former are more consistent but weaker, like a River Spirit. The latter usually stay dormant and weakened but have bursts of activity and power spikes, like a Spirit of Fear in the ruins of an overrun village, it will just roam aimlessly most of the time, and be active when someone visits its haunted grounds, where it will manifest their fears and feed on them.

Are there any special quirks/differences you give your creatures?
Well a lot of them are twisted to fit with how monsters work in the setting.

Are wizards their own species, or just anyone who can use wizardry, or some combination?
Anyone can learn magic in theory. In practice, since most magic is based on Knowledge, anyone unable to access, or barred access to, advanced education is just not becoming a mage. There are races with some inherent magical traits though. Elves obviously. The Nweyd were created by a god and are flesh & blood that can do things flesh & blood shouldn't really be able to do. Drakkaros aren't "supernatural" on an individual basis, but they're a subspecies of human who all grow to around 2m tall and all have naturally high musclemass. There's a "race" called the Raksa who are members of other races magically infused with the raw essence of binded Spirits while in their mothers' wombs. This makes them "demispirit" like the child of a mortal and a god is a "demigod", so aside looking unusual they also have inherent magical powers.

Are the creatures from the homeworld or other dimensions?
Yes.
All creatures that are straight up monsters, and not just big animals and the like, are physical manifestations of something people imagine. The shadows that lurk in their hearts of men can come out into the real world basically. This is because the source of all magic is another dimension (of sorts) called The Dreaming, a shapeless realm that imitates the shapes of thoughts, beliefs, ideas, concepts, etc. And power from the Dreaming seeps into the Material World. This is what my setting's "mana" is, but it also causes all magical plants, minerals, animals, etc. Spirits and monsters are also formed from it.

Are there any cyborg or robot creatures, like cyborg wizards, god machines, unibots, etc?
No.

Are they mundane in origin, such as aliens in most sci-fi stories, or more supernatural in origin, like monsters in most fantasy stories?
Supernatural, as detailed 2 questions above.

Are there any monstrous god-like beings?
Not monstrous per se but there is a kind of fairy creature that the people call Eldri, or Great Fae, which could not unreasonably be considered gods. To give an idea, there's an in-universe mystery concerning the sudden disappearance of Archsage Njall, a wizard of legend widely believed to be the most powerful mage to ever live. One of the main characters met an Eldri when he was a kid and she casually tells him she's the one who made him disappear, because the Archsage found her annoying and told her to leave him alone. So she made him be alone.

As an extension, do monsters have their own gods that they worship?
Sort of. The monsters with enough of a mind to "worship" anything just revere their strongest. It usually doesn't do much but sometimes enough individuals revere the same "alpha monster" enough to make it more powerful. But no monster is actually a capital D Deity like those that priests can get Divine Magic from.
I love the way you formatted this, and how you answered every single question.
 
In the first book of the series I'm working on the characters meet Pegausi (is that plural for Pegasus?) and Unicorns (both of which they believed to only be creatures of legends), as well as trolls and goblin. And then there are humanoid races of Neathians (think dwarves) and Alturians (an almost immortal race).
In book to they meet a Dragon, a blue skinned human (they never did figure out the name of his race), a Sanguin (evil "unicorn"), a Thibbit (my own creation), Elves, a Celestian (winged humanoid), and Merfolk.
 
I write sci-fi rather than fantasy but am enjoying some creatures invented for a sequel I've almost finished.

A vaguely humanoid race (utterly psychopathic by our standards) has much in common with mantids but only four limbs. Three metres tall with hard exo-skeletons - mainly green but with blue patterns that flow over their faces and thoraxes as their emotions change. They use hunting creatures at need - which are like rat-wolves but the size of horses. I paste below a passage when one of our heroes encounters them:


With that thought a sense of urgency struck him.

He was very exposed on the ramp and Xyks could be watching from anywhere.

Several minutes of concentrated effort got him nearly halfway to the top but he had to pause again to catch his breath. It seemed the harder he exerted himself the more deeply he sucked the bad air into his lungs – and the worse it affected him.

And the gravity was like chains attached to his limbs stretching all the way to the centre of the planet. He had to carry them every step.

He forced himself to go again. There seemed to be a bit of wind the higher he got and the baritone howl of air moving through and around the hive-like structures was further evidence of how different this world was from the Earth which, with all its faults, suddenly seemed like a lush green paradise.

All the hours he’d wasted inside…

All the time he could have been out in the wilderness, walking, breathing, immersing himself in the beauty of nature…

The howl got louder as he trudged toward the opening at the top of the ramp – and then it changed – became an ululating warning – the unholy baying of some terrible creature in pain.

It seemed to be coming from several directions and Cam looked around wildly for its source.

Then he saw movement in the distance. It looked tiny but he knew it must be monstrous – grey and moving like a giant rat in little hops and scurries. It seemed to look directly at him then raised its head and howled – a new note – a summons.

The howl was blended with others joining in and Cam forced himself to move. The creature was five hundred metres away but bounded towards him, making light of the gravity.

Cam was sobbing with desperation as he gauged the distance above to the doorway – more than fifty metres, an impossible journey.

He glanced back to see more of the creatures converging in the wake of the leader, like a pack of greyhounds, with Cam as the hare. They covered the ground in terrible speed, now only two hundred metres from the bottom of the ramp.

He was almost down to hands and knees, dragging himself upwards, even the last of his adrenalin gone. He heard the shrieking and grunting of the animals flying towards him and imagined their jaws closing.

His eyes were blurred with tears and the breath burned in his chest as he drove himself on – metres to go and the baying deafening.

He collapsed just over the threshold of the door – unable to move another inch and his mind frozen with horror. He could feel the hot pulsing of their breath and couldn’t understand why he’d not been torn to shreds.

He rolled onto his back to see a sight more vile and hideous than he could ever have imagined. Three of the creatures were clustered in the doorway like Cerberus – snapping and lunging at him, rivers of drool dripping from their nightmare fangs. Baying in frustration.

Because even in the extremity of his danger, Cam perceived immediately that they would not cross the threshold.

He edged further away as their eyes blazed with the promise of death and the howling increased in volume and rage.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
None as of yet but I am considering Ice Age megafauna and such to be included. Possibly Norse dragons as well. The kind with less fire and more poison anad acid.
 
My dragons are intelligent and powerful beings, who have their own personalities and motivations, just like anyone else. They travel between dimensions, can shapeshift, and all have a unique magical 'breath'. For example, fire breath or bubblegum or frogs. Even though dragons are scaly, they can still grow hair. I have a dragon character with bushy eyebrows and a beard with two mustaches (yes, TWO mustaches). Otherwise, they are mostly standard winged, four-limbed snake-like creatures.
My unicorns are disembodied horns that attach themselves to various hosts. The most common type of unicorns are unihorses, but the coolest kind is unigorillacorns, which are a hybrid between unicorns, gorillas, and cornstalks.
 

TJPoldervaart

Minstrel
In one of the novels I'm working on, I decided to use some of the more 'traditional' fantasy races (dwarves and goblins), but use them in what I thought would be a fun new way. The novel is set in a booming industrialist city with many different races intermingling. The dwarves, for instance, have the long lives, conservative manners, and straightforward thinking that we're used to in other literature. However, in this city, they use this not to mine, but to become the elite class and bureaucrats of the city.

The other novel I'm working on will have only humans as a true intelligent race, but the magic in the world has created some varieties of beings that used to be human, but aren't any longer.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I have the Shadows of Man, which are demons in the general shape of humans. When they possess people, the host can be killed, but the Shadow leaks out of the corpse and if possible seep into or through stone, which is a method of purging bits of “humanity” or “soul” from the pure Shadow, and when it’s finished, it’s back and ready to take another body. The backstory, short version, is that they were bred from demons and human souls with the express purpose of wiping out humanity.

There are lots of other things in the world, but in Eve of Snows, that is the beast of note.
 
There are also atronachs - both material/elementals like embodiments of fire, coal, neon, etc. as well as immaterial/metaphysicals like embodiments of dreams, fear and other concepts. The material atronachs came from “below the world” while the metaphysical ones are from “above the world”. It’s mostly accepted that “spirits” are just atronachs and the mythology around spirits were just the result of ancient mortals not understanding atronachs.

Is the term "atronach" something out of mythology/folklore or did it originate in the Elder Scrolls? I'm asking because nearly all the search results I get when I look up the term are related to Elder Scrolls. The only ones that weren't were a type of robot in Star Wars and a band that had the term atronach in it. I like the sound of the name and it seems like a concept that would work in my setting, but I need to be careful about using other people's IP.
 
Top