Stock Fantasy Races

[Mindfire]

(the fact that we can attribute the quote 'Not another ****ing elf.' to C. S. Lewis makes me very happy)

Actually, it wasn't Lewis. It was another fellow, Hugo Dyson, a fellow member of the Inklings who was at a meeting with Lewis and others where Tolkien was doing a reading from his work. The quote appears in CS Lewis's biography, but was not spoken by the man himself.

 

[Shockley]

I've heard Dyson quoted as doing the rolling part, but I've always heard the other quote (expletive and all) attributed to Lewis. I'll have to delve further into this.

 

[Nameback]

While I can understand some readers or authors who would prefer fantasy races that aren't stock, I think it's silly to consider "stock" races less worthy or less interesting.

Think about it this way: no sci-fi author would ask, "are readers going to lose interest in my book if I use faster-than-light travel? I mean, FTL has just been done so many times--it's such a 'stock' sci-fi trope." And certainly no literary author would ask if they shouldn't write about human beings, because so many books have already been written about them.

Elves, or orcs, or dwarves, or dragons are no more inherently limited than human beings or original races. Any character can be multi-dimensional, interesting, and truthful--whether human, elf, orc, or otherwise.

 

[Feo Takahari]

While I can understand some readers or authors who would prefer fantasy races that aren't stock, I think it's silly to consider "stock" races less worthy or less interesting.

Think about it this way: no sci-fi author would ask, "are readers going to lose interest in my book if I use faster-than-light travel? I mean, FTL has just been done so many times--it's such a 'stock' sci-fi trope." And certainly no literary author would ask if they shouldn't write about human beings, because so many books have already been written about them.

Elves, or orcs, or dwarves, or dragons are no more inherently limited than human beings or original races. Any character can be multi-dimensional, interesting, and truthful--whether human, elf, orc, or otherwise.

I guess what bugs me so much about these races is that characters' membership in these races so often gets in the way of their being multi-dimensional. Or, as The Order of the Stick summed it up:

Cleric: Does he have any distinguishing features?
Haley: Well...he's short.
Celia: He has a beard.
Haley: He wears heavy armor.
Cleric: Ummm, OK... how about any unusual personality traits?
Haley: He likes beer.
Celia: He has an accent.
Haley: He worships Thor.
Celia: And hates trees!
Cleric: Can you tell me anything about him that differentiates him from every other dwarf?

Mind you, Durkon's forgivable, insofar as he has a personality beyond "dwarfey." But a lot of dwarves never get beyond the axe and the Scottish accent, and that means there are fewer things you can do with them. If you're sufficiently lazy, the same can apply with elves, orcs, dragons, goblins, etc. (Of course, you could argue this is a symptom rather than a disease--in theory, there's nothing stopping you from making your half-human half-scorpions or your three-headed fishmen all pretty much the same--but I've noticed that authors who put in the effort to make a new species, provided they're not using that species solely for cannon fodder, tend to at least have one member of that species who has a full personality.)

 

[Devor]

Mind you, Durkon's forgivable, insofar as he has a personality beyond "dwarfey."

Does he? I love Durkan, but I'm up to date with OOTS, and he is pretty much just a dwarf cleric.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Does he? I love Durkan, but I'm up to date with OOTS, and he is pretty much just a dwarf cleric.

At the point when I stopped reading, he had a sort of interesting conflict between his lawful inclinations and his devotion to a god who wasn't always lawful. I also liked the bit where he finds out he'll return home "posthumously" and is actually happy he'll get an honorable burial. He wasn't an especially interesting character, but he at least had more to him than most dwarves. (I'm easier to please than I sometimes come off--you just need to give me a little to latch onto.)

(Apparently he's a vampire now or something? I don't really care about OOTS at this point.)

 

[wilderb33st]

I would not say that "stock races" would crush a readers interest. I, personally, have used quite a lot in my world, however I have also created a fair amount of my own races!

 

[Varamyrr]

If you feel comfortable using 'stock' fantasy races, then by all means use them. It's your story after all! I'd just give them a little twist.