DragonOfTheAerie
Vala
Here to share a conundrum i have been struggling with for some time, and to hopefully spark some discussion.
Many fantasy stories include various non-human races/humanoid species, such as elves, dwarves, goblins, fae, etc. My work in progress includes several such humanoid species, but they of my own invention, not based in mythology. One race has feathered wings and dwells in flying cities , one has bright, multi-colored skin and lives for tens of thousands of years, one has gills, hairless skin like a dolphin's and lives underwater, and there are several others. I enjoy coming up with these different races and developing their cultures and views of the world. However...
My main characters are all human. (At the start of the story, anyway. Later on the nonhumans take a much larger role.) There's nothing wrong with this, but I'm not happy with the fact that there are humans. This is a fantasy world. Why must there be humans? I've always been puzzled that in every fantasy story with imaginary nonhuman races, there are also humans living alongside. My world has no connection to ours and is, other than the humans, free of creatures found on earth. It makes sense that there wouldn't be any humans, only the imaginary races i've created. The humans don't seem to fit in with the rest of the races. My races are each basically like humans with something added (wings, gills, ability to use photosynthesis...) while the humans are just humans, with no special qualities to distinguish them. Why should they qualify as a race?
This question doesn't seem to bother other writers, but it bothers me. I'm not about to make my human characters nonhumans--this would derail the plot, and anyway, my characters barely tolerate changes in hair color let alone species. Perhaps humans are the evolutionary ancestor of the races--but this raises questions, such as, why do they still exist? Perhaps they're the result of cross-breeding between races--but this is a clumsy explanation that doesn't make much sense.
Part of the main premise of the story is that civilization was largely wiped out, and many of the races i mentioned above went extinct. A few held on just barely, but the society they had once occupied was replaced by a new society in which humans were slaves to another race (unrelated to the others, not sure yet what they are exactly--it's complicated) and treated like dirt basically. So, did this ruling race somehow "create" the ideal slave? Did they remove the races' unique characteristics to make them easier to control? Does that sound like i'm trying to make excuses so i don't have to write nonhuman main characters? (I sort of am.)
Also, why must there be humans in any fantasy story in general? Wouldn't a story from the POV of an elf or dragon be interesting?
So...thoughts?
Many fantasy stories include various non-human races/humanoid species, such as elves, dwarves, goblins, fae, etc. My work in progress includes several such humanoid species, but they of my own invention, not based in mythology. One race has feathered wings and dwells in flying cities , one has bright, multi-colored skin and lives for tens of thousands of years, one has gills, hairless skin like a dolphin's and lives underwater, and there are several others. I enjoy coming up with these different races and developing their cultures and views of the world. However...
My main characters are all human. (At the start of the story, anyway. Later on the nonhumans take a much larger role.) There's nothing wrong with this, but I'm not happy with the fact that there are humans. This is a fantasy world. Why must there be humans? I've always been puzzled that in every fantasy story with imaginary nonhuman races, there are also humans living alongside. My world has no connection to ours and is, other than the humans, free of creatures found on earth. It makes sense that there wouldn't be any humans, only the imaginary races i've created. The humans don't seem to fit in with the rest of the races. My races are each basically like humans with something added (wings, gills, ability to use photosynthesis...) while the humans are just humans, with no special qualities to distinguish them. Why should they qualify as a race?
This question doesn't seem to bother other writers, but it bothers me. I'm not about to make my human characters nonhumans--this would derail the plot, and anyway, my characters barely tolerate changes in hair color let alone species. Perhaps humans are the evolutionary ancestor of the races--but this raises questions, such as, why do they still exist? Perhaps they're the result of cross-breeding between races--but this is a clumsy explanation that doesn't make much sense.
Part of the main premise of the story is that civilization was largely wiped out, and many of the races i mentioned above went extinct. A few held on just barely, but the society they had once occupied was replaced by a new society in which humans were slaves to another race (unrelated to the others, not sure yet what they are exactly--it's complicated) and treated like dirt basically. So, did this ruling race somehow "create" the ideal slave? Did they remove the races' unique characteristics to make them easier to control? Does that sound like i'm trying to make excuses so i don't have to write nonhuman main characters? (I sort of am.)
Also, why must there be humans in any fantasy story in general? Wouldn't a story from the POV of an elf or dragon be interesting?
So...thoughts?