Are elves/dwarves/orcs... just human clades in your world too — and is vampirization universal?

[Goodude]

In my world, “races” are all one species: regional/ecological human clades whose traits got mythologized and exaggerated — e.g., "elves," "dwarves," "halflings," "orcs," "fishfolk..." And the fantasy stereotypes are mostly folklore and outsider bias (even though some physical differences do objectively exist — such as “dwarves” are stronger and can consume ale as a staple food substitute). Also, vampirization isn’t a human-only perk. It’s a risky, quasi-medical transformation—basically an anti-death “vaccine” with heavy side effects — and any human clade can undergo it.

Has anyone else taken this route (collapsing classic “races” into humanity + making vampirization universal)? What world-level consequences did you explore—medicine, religion, law, warfare, family structures? Any pitfalls I should watch for or stories/settings you’d recommend that try something similar?

 

[pmmg]

Clade is an unusual word, I would not expect too many people to know it. An the question is unusually specific...I would not expect many have gone that same route as you so as to answer Yes, and comment on it.

There have been more than a few attempts in fiction to show all the races stemming from he same root DNA, and there have been many of stories that have taken vampires in many different directions. Some probably in the same way are yours. But I don't know how many here have taken such a route in their own fiction or to such a depth as you are asking.

But I can take a stab as answering some of it....

I would expect that all critters having shared DNA I would expect that there would be a lot of crossover as to which were effective medicines. Such that, what worked for elves has a high probability of working for dwarves. The rest, would be mostly social constructs, so it could be just about anything. I think anyway you choose to speculate it, its somewhat possible it could actually play out that way, with the caveat being, some natural structures would affect each in a similar way...family structure as an example. Unless they are spawning like fish (I am not sure why you included fish people), there would be a mother and father, and child structure that could not be denied.

I am not sure why I would not expect vampirism to affect all of these races. Vampire dwarves seem as likely as vampire humans. Vampires, however, seem to me to be one of those things, that if they show up in your town, there is a very small window to deal with them before they become a town wide problem. What it look like you are hinting at above, is that many would choose vampirism as a way of avoiding death. I think Religion and sunlight might have a little to say about that.

I think the net you have thrown is too narrow. I don't think you will find many who have gone down this route.

 

[Saigonnus]

I tend to believe that... like "elves" are long-lived humans who are good at magic and live in the forest... that "dwarves" are short humans who are good at mining and are resistant to magic... that kobolds are midget humans who are vaguely dog-like and live in small tribes.

Due to that belief, I feel there is sufficient diversity among humans that they are truly all I really need to write a story. Humans tend to vary between 3 1/2 feet tall (little people obviously), to well over seven feet tall in some rare occasion, they are adaptable to live in any climate or biome, they can use magic (or not), and can do anything any of the other "races" could do without an issue. Why have them at all? This isn't a rehashing of "the Hobbit", or a story based on a D&D campaign. If you don't have them, then you don't have to deal with the stereotypical naming conventions for elves; "Fairleaf, or Silverbranch" or dwarves "Stonefist, or Hammerhand". Those can just as easily be human surnames, and based off of their occupation. You also don't have to deal with how the various races deal with each other; or at the least, you can limit it to how one group of people interact with another group of people.

 

[Queshire]

Not all of the races in my setting come from the same root, but a lot of them do. They're a result of what amounts to magical genetic engineering during the Divine Era.

 

[ThinkerX]

In my world, “races” are all one species: regional/ecological human clades whose traits got mythologized and exaggerated — e.g., "elves," "dwarves," "halflings," "orcs," "fishfolk..." And the fantasy stereotypes are mostly folklore and outsider bias (even though some physical differences do objectively exist — such as “dwarves” are stronger and can consume ale as a staple food substitute). Also, vampirization isn’t a human-only perk. It’s a risky, quasi-medical transformation—basically an anti-death “vaccine” with heavy side effects — and any human clade can undergo it.

Has anyone else taken this route (collapsing classic “races” into humanity + making vampirization universal)? What world-level consequences did you explore—medicine, religion, law, warfare, family structures? Any pitfalls I should watch for or stories/settings you’d recommend that try something similar?

I'm not sure about 'clades,' but I did go to substantial effort to make the races 'distinct.' I asked myself, 'Is this race distinct enough from humans to justify including them?'

Start with the 'ancient aliens,' a nonhumanoid, naturally psychic race that terraformed multiple planets and imported members of primitive races to them as servants and test subjects. Humans were one such race, snatched from Earth between 1800-10,000 years ago.

Goblins/Hobgoblins were another: Both are humanoid. Goblins are short with green skin and roguish personalities, while hobgoblins are taller with reddish skin and a militant approach. Males outnumber females by 100 to 1, causing immense competition for mating rights. This competition creates a society where murder is acceptable and results in trouble with the neighbors. Both races are hatched, not born from clutches of leathery eggs. The 'egg-mates' form themselves into packs.

The ancient aliens pried into other dimensions, contacting strange entities removed from the material world. One such race of spirits became trapped in human bodies as a result of these experiments, bound into a cycle of reincarnation. These spirits modified their host bodies, imbuing them with greatly increased lifespans and heightened PSI ability. Elves. They take an alien view because they are aliens.

A Lovecraftian deity created the Rachasa y 'mixing' humans with a cat-like race to be used as instruments of terror. They rebelled, but remain dangerous, a race of predators.

Dwarves are short humans with longer lifespans and good night vision.

 

[Goodude]

I'm not sure about 'clades,' but I did go to substantial effort to make the races 'distinct.' I asked myself, 'Is this race distinct enough from humans to justify including them?'

Start with the 'ancient aliens,' a nonhumanoid, naturally psychic race that terraformed multiple planets and imported members of primitive races to them as servants and test subjects. Humans were one such race, snatched from Earth between 1800-10,000 years ago.

Goblins/Hobgoblins were another: Both are humanoid. Goblins are short with green skin and roguish personalities, while hobgoblins are taller with reddish skin and a militant approach. Males outnumber females by 100 to 1, causing immense competition for mating rights. This competition creates a society where murder is acceptable and results in trouble with the neighbors. Both races are hatched, not born from clutches of leathery eggs. The 'egg-mates' form themselves into packs.

The ancient aliens pried into other dimensions, contacting strange entities removed from the material world. One such race of spirits became trapped in human bodies as a result of these experiments, bound into a cycle of reincarnation. These spirits modified their host bodies, imbuing them with greatly increased lifespans and heightened PSI ability. Elves. They take an alien view because they are aliens.

A Lovecraftian deity created the Rachasa y 'mixing' humans with a cat-like race to be used as instruments of terror. They rebelled, but remain dangerous, a race of predators.

Dwarves are short humans with longer lifespans and good night vision.

I’m glad to see your setting is also a fantasy world built around interplanetary ecological interactions. In mine, I reinterpret vampires as the “Primordials” of a Lost Paradise: immigrants from a planet several AUs away that was scorched when their sun swelled into a red giant—400K years ago. All the stereotypically “vampiric” negatives stem from their never fully adapting to an alien world.

Over those 400 millenniums, a subtle process of “vampire selection” has made most indigenous humans’ appearance converge toward these alien newcomers. As a result, the more geographically peripheral a region is, the more ancient indigenous genes it retains—an extreme case being a human population on an isolated, mountainous continent that is even eusocial like ants.

To a fair-skinned citizen of a sixteenth-century, European-style kingdom, if one were to divide the world into “races,” then “elves” and “dwarves” would obviously be their cousins (they also share a religion btw), rather than a separate race.

 

[Goodude]

Clade is an unusual word, I would not expect too many people to know it. An the question is unusually specific...I would not expect many have gone that same route as you so as to answer Yes, and comment on it.

There have been more than a few attempts in fiction to show all the races stemming from he same root DNA, and there have been many of stories that have taken vampires in many different directions. Some probably in the same way are yours. But I don't know how many here have taken such a route in their own fiction or to such a depth as you are asking.

But I can take a stab as answering some of it....

I would expect that all critters having shared DNA I would expect that there would be a lot of crossover as to which were effective medicines. Such that, what worked for elves has a high probability of working for dwarves. The rest, would be mostly social constructs, so it could be just about anything. I think anyway you choose to speculate it, its somewhat possible it could actually play out that way, with the caveat being, some natural structures would affect each in a similar way...family structure as an example. Unless they are spawning like fish (I am not sure why you included fish people), there would be a mother and father, and child structure that could not be denied.

I am not sure why I would not expect vampirism to affect all of these races. Vampire dwarves seem as likely as vampire humans. Vampires, however, seem to me to be one of those things, that if they show up in your town, there is a very small window to deal with them before they become a town wide problem. What it look like you are hinting at above, is that many would choose vampirism as a way of avoiding death. I think Religion and sunlight might have a little to say about that.

I think the net you have thrown is too narrow. I don't think you will find many who have gone down this route.

“Fish people” don’t need to literally lay eggs, just as “dwarves” don’t need to actually have a 4:1 male–female ratio. Even “elves” don’t have to have pointy ears; maybe they just wear a certain ear ornament during a solstice festivitial, and a printmaker captured that look, which then stuck. My point is: in a world with medieval or early-modern technological background, any anthropology not based on direct observation is very likely to be wildly inaccurate…