I just saw an interesting video about how fantasy races tend to be...uninteresting.
So stop me if you've heard this one. Have you heard the story about a race of long-lived and magically-adept people, barbaric and strong people, and short people who live underground and love mining and forging weapons/armor? You guessed right, it's the Tolkien trio of elves, orcs, and dwarves. I think every fantasy franchise is legally required to have these three, though slightly tweaked. In addition, you have the deceitful dark elves and the mischievous goblins everyone loves.
In addition to the Tolkien trio, there are three other super generic races: animal people (literally just cat people, wolf people, lizard people, etc), aliens, and constructs. These have been done to death, and yet I admit, I freakin' love animal people.
I love World of Warcraft's Tauren. Yes, they're literally cow people, but they have this wonderful Native American aesthetic. They're peaceful when left alone, but fierce when provoked (like basically anyone) and they have a wonderful shamanistic/animist tradition where the spirits of the world itself must be placated and respected. So there's a small amount of friction with their less life-affirming and more pollution-loving undead allies. Is this race the most creative thing ever? No. Are they a bit silly? Yes. Are they fun to play? Yes. Would the setting be worse without them? Also yes.
The Elder Scrolls' Khajiit and Argonians are amazing because despite their simple design, they have hidden depths galore. The Khajiit have whole mythology centered around the moons and the Argonians are basically the eyes and ears of magical Hist trees with all sorts of weird powers and a hidden agenda (they correctly anticipated demonic invasion to the point of quickly taking the battle to hell itself and they may or may not have wiped out interlopers in their territory through a mysterious plague. These guys do NOT want uninvited guests!)
Then there's Guild War's Charr. These are cat people who are essentially fantasy Klingons, I kid you not. They absolutely love war and engineering new and terrible ways of waging war and if you cross them, they will not hesitate to burn down you and everything you cherish to ashes. These edgiest of edgelords killed their own gods, which also tracks with the Klingons.
And as far as constructs go, I love D&D's Warforged in their original incarnation. These guys were specifically built to wage war, but the war went awry into outright cataclysm. So now, they're just people looking for work and maybe a purpose. Some still fight, but some turn their attentions to art or science or hell, maybe even kindergarten teachers. (And they say war is hell!) Like all robots in almost any setting, there's a huge amount of deep-seated distrust towards them, though it's justified here because there's a good chance the person who dislikes them got warcrimed by them.
I could list more, but you get the point - you can still make "generic" fantasy races that people go nuts over, you just either have to turn the dial to 11 or have some sort of distinguishing trait, usually religion, to make them feel distinct and well-developed.
For my own races, I'm trying to brainstorm a bit:
1) What's their hat? Every race has a hat - what do they normally do better than others? Are they better hunters or warriors or scientists or explorers or statesmen? What does their culture focus on and value?
2) What's their environment like? Do they love the heat and dislike the cold or vice versa? (This question matters. Farscape literally made it the core difference between the two bad guy races) Are they fond of the sea or the desert? Do they prefer the day or night?
3) What's their religion or philosophy? Do they crave death in battle? Or do they meditate and focus on cultivating inner calm? Who do they look to for guidance? Ancestor spirits, nature spirits, wormhole aliens, etc. Or I dunno, maybe some sort of Fatherly Sky Deity (far-fetched, I know)
4) What do they want? Both as individuals and as a society. Do they want riches? Independence from foreign occupation? Do they want to conquer the world? Or to be the first to reach the stars?
With that in mind, let me know if this would work:
The Bosun
They're a hardy, industrious people who first settled on the rocky shores of the northernmost continent ages ago. Their initial colony was almost wiped out in starvation and disease until they came upon a magical hidden outpost - a treasure trove of otherwise lost knowledge. With this, they were able to adapt and survive. Each adult citizen wears a magical talisman around their neck, each with different effects - be it resistance to disease or cold or conferring an enhanced ability to swim. Their dwellings are austere and practical - dull gray slabs with scant ornamentation though hexagonal and interlocking with their neighbors in mathematical precision.
Physically, they range from stocky and slightly short near the island's mountainous interior to tall and lanky near the coast. They seem like they would be natural sailors and explorers, but it's actually illegal to sail too far from the island's coast, though thankfully, they are allowed a stable corridor directly to the mainland. No one will say why they can't ply the seas like everyone else, and obvious fear grips them when outsiders press this question and their eyes are cast downwards, they become abnormally silent and their skin goes pale and clammy.
Their religion speaks of a nameless but great and powerful race long passed from this world which will one day return to reclaim their rightful rulership over this world and raise the Bosun up as their valued servants. They don't sit idly by and wait for this prophesy to happen on its own, but instead actively investigate ancient sites all over the world, consult with the world's finest historians about the largely unknown ancient past (always critical and argumentative, sometimes very nearly enraged about popular theories that certain current empires were founded directly by the gods themselves or by the mythic offspring of gods), and go through great lengths to find and hoard all magical artifacts, even those seemingly without any useful effects.
Bosun religion is widely regarded as untrue by the most esteemed scholars and antiquarians of other nations, the mad ravings of primitive cave-dwellers uncritically passed down from generation to generation by a people who require consolation for their nation's third-rate status - a nation lacking vast armies or wealth or even much magical affinity (for them, magic is nearly always in the form of magical items, not spellcasting) which would've been conquered long ago were it not for its inhospitable climate and the fact that both historical attempts at political union were unexpected failures - both expeditionary fleets were met with unseasonal storms and were unlucky enough to be smashed on the rocky shores. The cowardly Bosun surrounded and observed the beached sailors without pressing the attack or offering terms or even having the decency to provide humanitarian aid. Instead, they waited patiently for the sailors to be safely evacuated back to the mainland in a strategic withdrawal that was repeated once again in nearly identical conditions 87 years later.
The hat thing is hilarious the problem you're attempting to solve is the "planet of hats."
Quote from: the_antithesis on August 12, 2025, 02:49:47 AMThe hat thing is hilarious the problem you're attempting to solve is the "planet of hats."
The problem isn't so much hats themselves as it is nearly every store trying to sell three very specific types of hats.