Harpies?

[Evilyn]

I haven't come across many harpies, and the few I've read about get little screen time. (Or is that page time?) I have seen fantasy cultures focused solely on war. If your harpies are developed beyond the "bloodthirsty barbarian" stereotype, don't worry about it.

I think you should push ahead. Doubt is normal.

I don't think this is true at all. The lack or dearth of males doesn't mean the harpies can't have a functioning, complex society. Thinking of any setting where one gender is the majority, I see other dynamics and conflicts coming to the forefront, like subordinate/superior, mentor/pupil, comrades-in-arms, outcasts, friendships, family, etc. You just have to put thought into what the group and individual goals are and what the hierarchy is like, and go from there.

The thing that makes me leery isn't their race but the "always at war" idea. That sort of thing tends toward "flat" very easily. I'd think they'd come up with sneakier ways of getting human flesh and, ahem, donors. It seems odd to fight and incur casualties in order to procreate even if you get a roast human sandwich out of it. Either the harpies don't die easily, the forest tribe sucks at fighting, or the queen lays a lot of eggs, otherwise the harpy death/birth rate wouldn't be sustainable.



Only speculating here, but I think the scarcity of harpies is more about which tradition they come from, and the fact that they're not sexy or romantic. I see more Norse and Celtic based stories than Greek, even though Greek myths seem to be better known. People like Greek gods well enough, but I don't an awful lot of Greek beasties and critters roaming about.

For the record, I'm a fan of creepy.

Thanks for the comments Ouroboros, I have decided to push on

I don't think I explained it very well when I said they are at constant war, its not an all out open battle. These tribes live in the forest, a very large one at that so the Harpies nests or whatever you want to refer them as, are spread out. They tend to stay hidden and then do night time raids on my forest tribe taking men. The Harpies are dying out though which is why their main priority is taking men to procreate with so that they rebuild their empire as such.

Evi

 

[InsanityStrickenWriter]

It definately would sound interesting to me. Sounds wonderfully sinister. Who's perspective are you going to be writing from? My hope would be that you'll write from the harpies' side, which would definately add a lot more of a unique element than writing from the human tribe, which is more, well, 'Oh dear, monsters, we must kill monsters.' Which has been done a lot. Well, probably not in that calm a manner.

Perhaps to make the harpies more relatable to the reader, (should you be basing the perspective from their side of things), you might want to start off the tale at a point in time where they're weak, (which I think you've already stated is the case), and that the reason why they're weak may very simply be that they have refused to kidnap and kill. Over time, their numbers have thinned, with no new births, and the human tribe has grown in the peace, (though possibly split into multiple factions). The harpies would essentially have no choice but to start kidnapping again, lest they want their society to die out. However, indulging one instinct encourages others, and perhaps it's not actually rebuilding the society, but corrupting it.

It could also be a possibility to, at least at first, have the kidnapping more subtle than night raids. After such a long time of peace, perhaps it wouldn't be far fetched to have some harpies living with the humans, perhaps in an ambassador sort of role. When the harpies decide to resume kidnapping, it would likely start off at a slow pace anyway, testing the waters and getting a feel for it. The ambassadors would be in excellent positions to carry out the occasional kidnapping. They may even have humans help them do it.

Lot's of potential, thought I'd offer what my thoughts on it would be

 

[Devor]

Thank you again for the comments, I was really struggling with this as I wanted to make them interesting but with you're help I think I have added a lot more to them.

Evi

Good luck with your story. Despite my remarks, I'll be happy to think you can pull it off.