Man Like Creatures

[Jesterofchaos]

I am curious how many man like creatures people have in their current story.

In my story I have Human, Neanderthal, Skurloc- Also known as beasts of war. Legend has it that they are descendants of fallen angels from Lucifer’s army. They have thick leathery skin, pointed ears, with large pronounced canine teeth.
Female Skurloc- Unlike the males they are extremely attractive and resemble human females except for their pointed ears and pronounced canine teeth which are much smaller than the males. They are known throughout the continent of Antarctica for their sexual prowess. It is said their tears have magical powers.
Dorian- Reptilian humanoids they are between 7-10 feet tall. Their skin is thick and scaly. They are very territorial and do not trust outsiders. They are believed to be the original inhabitants of Antarctica and were the ones who built all the ancient roads and cities before the Atlanteans arrived.

Can there ever be too many?

 

[ThinkerX]

Can there ever be too many?

Yes. Too many races tend to confuse the reader. The 'Rule of Three' is a good standard.

Tolkien had good/bad humans, plus three main good races: dwarves, elves, and hobbits. On the evil side, he had orcs and trolls. Plus, there were a few critters like balrogs, ents, and whatnot.

In my worlds, humans dominate. Goblins and hobgoblins are aliens; the former sneaky, the latter militant. They are closely related enough to mix. Males outnumber females by 100 to 1 in both races.

Elves were humans who were possessed by exiled etheric spirits. The ancestors of the Dwarves were once human, before being changed. The ones doing the changing were the 'ancient aliens,' who were also responsible for relocating these races and others. These aliens also genetically imbued select folks with vastly increased PSI ability (wizards).

The Rachasa are cat people with a fair dollop of human ancestry. Their origins and original purpose were Lovecraftian. Extremely dangerous.

 

[Jesterofchaos]

I really like the backstory you have for the different races in your story. I find it very interesting that there are so many creative people that have there own take and how using similar concepts come up with something so different.

 

[pmmg]

I have many races in my story, and many more hidden in long ago histories, but only few are active on the page. I think, if I could go back to the beginning and do it all over again, I would have left it to just a human story, but I didn't so.... they abound.

Most prominent in my story are the Morkind (humans), Allarie (Similar to Elves) and the Groll (Similar to Orcs). But there are also many many more. Which would probably bore in an forum post, but add a bit of depth and richness if reading the tale. None of the races get along well with the others, and many times, not even with themselves.

In my earlier writing years, I was a little too eager to stuff on page. Now older me has to live with it

 

[Jesterofchaos]

When I was coming up with my story I went with four major races. The Humans and Neanderthals live mostly in the 12 known kingdoms. The Skurloc live mostly in the Hinterland that makes up the majority of the continent. Many are hired as mercenaries and assassins by warring kingdoms. The Dorian are the keepers of secrets and hidden knowledge.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Can there ever be too many?

I think this very much depend on how original you are being. If you're going with the default fantasy races, then go wild and have fun. People know elves and dwarfs and orcs and halflings and what have you. You can drop all of them in your story without too much issue.

Once you start being original, you need to be more careful. People don't know their Blorgs from their Mnurks for instance, which makes it hard to know which are the evil, pretty ones and which are the sneaky, neutral ones...

And then of course there's the question about uniqueness. If you have 15 different races, then you'll be very hard pressed to make them unique and original to the reader. You'd basically end with 15 different types of humans, where they're all just stereotypes without depth. If you have 2 or three, then you can dig into their differences a lot more and add much more nuance. You can also more easily have 3 or four different members of each race to show how they're not a single humogenous blob of people.

 

[ThinkerX]

I think this very much depend on how original you are being. If you're going with the default fantasy races, then go wild and have fun. People know elves and dwarfs and orcs and halflings and what have you. You can drop all of them in your story without too much issue.

Once you start being original, you need to be more careful. People don't know their Blorgs from their Mnurks for instance, which makes it hard to know which are the evil, pretty ones and which are the sneaky, neutral ones...

And then of course there's the question about uniqueness. If you have 15 different races, then you'll be very hard pressed to make them unique and original to the reader. You'd basically end with 15 different types of humans, where they're all just stereotypes without depth. If you have 2 or three, then you can dig into their differences a lot more and add much more nuance. You can also more easily have 3 or four different members of each race to show how they're not a single humogenous blob of people.

Avoiding these issues was a major concern for me.

One of the questions I asked was, 'Is this race distinct enough from humans to justify its inclusion?'

Dwarves almost didn't make the cut - they are basically short humans with good night vision and slightly longer lifespans.

The alien nature of the elves' souls grants them innate PSI ability, a disdain for coin, and a dislike for written words - they prefer memories stored in crystals.

The male/female ratio among goblins and hobgoblins, coupled with the males' desire to impress females to breed, results in societies where attacking the neighbors and bloody internal contests are the norm. Goblins seek to impress with clever devices and (stolen) goods, while hobgoblins seek to impress via martial prowess. Goblins are natural rogues, but a life of crime is anathema to the hobgoblin honor code. Members of both races often abandon these contests to take up monastic lives.

Rachasa view themselves as hunters first and everything else second or maybe third. While some dwell among other races, most lead a tribal existence.

 

[Gurkhal]

Only humans for me. That may change in the future but for now its only humans.

 

[xena]

Can there ever be too many?

It depends on how you introduce them. If you mention too many at once without much detail, people might forget them.

 

[Greg Szulgit]

I don't have a novel; I just world-build and run some RPGs in the setting. However, when I was building the phylogeny, I wanted to consider why so many creatures have humanoid faces and basic forms. This was a major factor is writing the deep history.

 

[minta]

I have humans, witches and vampires, though the last two are just supernatural variations of humans, so technically it's all human.

 

[Gurkhal]

Given that I'm considering to change from the 19th century to a more classical medieval approach I might include non-humans in the future. The big question for me is what they can bring to the table that humans can't?

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Given that I'm considering to change from the 19th century to a more classical medieval approach I might include non-humans in the future. The big question for me is what they can bring to the table that humans can't?

I have several human like races in my story and they all bring unique things to the table that make them 'more than human'
Sometimes it's an appearance thing, sometimes it's something more subtle, but often times it's both.
The fun part of designing human-likes is at the end of the day, they're still just characters. You can write them traditionally or non traditionally if you want.
You can also decide how un-human you want them to be, in appearance or otherwise.

The Elves are four x-blood-elves with x being the four classical elements, they each bring something to the table that humans cannot.

I have a few more anthromorphic races in my story and they bring unique things to the table that the standard humans can't.