Worldbuilding Fantasy Species: Examples
I’ve seen some requests for examples w/r to the above. Please see below for an example of 2 species, each with 2 subspecies, who arrive in the same region at various points in time and create a society with a variety of ethnicities. These examples are things one would be able to create using knowledge from a standard Californian secondary school biology curriculum accompanied by standard material pulled from coursework found in most US university 1st year anthropology programs.
The setting for my example is a coastal region on an Earth-like sphere with a dry, Mediterranean type climate with mountains, hills, valleys and an ocean coastline (I live in Los Angeles in the United States).
Please note in my thinking how I focus much more on how environment informs culture (traditions, professions, calendars social roles), and much less on how the environment informs physical traits, unless I provide a clear justification. As we all know from basic secondary school evolutionary biology, changes in physical features via genetic mutation take many thousands if not tens of thousands of years, but creating cultural traditions to adapt to an environment can be done by a population much more rapidly.
Scenario A (Swimswims and Flapflaps)
2 sapient, different, reptilian species live in our region and possess physical traits that are function of different ways of living in the same space. We’re fudging things a little, but let’s say these species are in the same genus and are capable of communicating with each other to a high level of understanding - an accelerated version of how primates might communicate with each other.
Let us introduce two reptilian groups: Flapflaps (a subspecies of the Aireptile species) and Swimswims (a subspecies of the Watereptile species) (Names courtesy of Mod Rina). They will have different needs given climate and the region’s ecosystems + geography.
Movement: Swimming+crawling.
Distinct characteristics: The more indigenous population to the region. They’ve lived in this region for a much longer period of time, and thus have developed (over millennia) the necessary physical adaptations to live out in the open in a dry, windy climate relative to other amphibious reptiles. Also, they are capable of living saltwater environments.
Habitat: Their ancestral homes might be in coastal estuaries and saltwater swamps, which all have some level of water no matter the time of year (An important consideration during times of drought).
Calendar: Their culture’s calendar revolves around rainfall, particularly when changes in salinity become high or low, as well as the impact the salt concentration in the water has on their capacity to raise offspring in the swamps.
Culture: Awareness of rainfall and the health of waterway ecosystems is paramount to their survival.
Movement: Winged flight throughout most of the year.
Social Calendar: The period towards the end of the year has high, unpredictable winds. This is a festive time when adolescents compete in coming of age competitions to showcase their strength in flight. Rainy season immediately following the windy season is a period of rest and introspection.
Culture: The Flapflappian culture stresses cognizance of conditions that might lead to forest fires, including wind speed, heat and drought.
Habitat: Due to their reliance on air quality, infrared eyesight to spot prey from a distance and roosts for habitation, Flapflaps live mostly on hills, foothills and mountain tops.
Left to their own devices, Swimswims and Flapflaps have little cause to interact. They may live in the same place and affect the same ecosystem. However, because they dwell in different biomes, the cultures they create are largely shaped by the needs of how the region’s seasons impact each biome and the physical needs of each species.
Scenario B (Enter Swumswums and Flipflips):
Now let us imagine the arrivals of additional subspecies Flipflips and Swumswums.
Flipflips (Aireptile): Sexually compatible with Flapflaps, but from a more humid environment.
Swumswums (Watereptile): Sexually compatible with Swimswims, but from a more freshwater environment.
Note our new arrivals are not very compatible with our region’s climate relative to Swimswims or even Flapflaps. This suggests that they are not necessarily here by choice: they may be part of some more acute displacement/ migration event. They will be eager to adapt and survive, and their situation will be urgent given their relative lack of establishment/ locally accumulated resources.
Swumswum adaptations and interactions with Swimswims:
Settling in a more comfortable environment: Swumswums settle in the least saline, most humid waterways: coastal streams fed by snowmelt from the mountains.
Technology to expand their range/population: over time, maybe they construct artificial irrigation/ rain harvest sites further away from the coast. Perhaps they excel at farming crops in freshwater as well as engineering.
Cooperation over shared resources: The level of conflict they have with Swimswims will depend on how the waterways and water content are managed after Swumswums' arrival, but I like to imagine that their shared interest in maintaining the waterways results in mixed families with offspring possessing varying levels of tolerance to water salinity...
...And thus a 3rd community forms along the waterways: a midway point between the highly salty swamps and costal estuaries, and the seasonal snowmelt streams closer to the mountains. All 3 cultures will have a cultural calendar united by how the rains affect the waterways and mating season.
Flipflip adaptations and interactions with Flapflaps:
Settling in a more comfortable environment: Flipflips won’t find the foothills and mountains Flapflaps find so useful for flying and perching very comfortable because those areas are very dry. Thus, Flipflips may move towards the seaside lowlands where the humidity is constant throughout the year.
Being from a more humid environment, perhaps, as a rule, they don’t fly very far distances or use wind/ thermals for flight. (See gliding snakes for RL examples)
Technology/division of labor to gain resources: Maybe they use flight for short distances to capture prey or avoid enemies. Maybe they spend less time flying and more time cultivating prey/ livestock (Like large insects) that everyone else also consumes.
Permanent settlements and land ownership: Struggling with the cooler temperatures of the coast, maybe they start looking for warmth. Happily, this is FakeLosAngeles. One Flipflip finds an underground hot-spring (Yes, these exist in LA), and this becomes their real starting point. Land ownership, particularly land ownership for livestock and linked to the water rights of hot-springs sources throughout the region become crucial for their community.
Cooperation: Over time, hot springs are also discovered in the mountains where groups of Flapflaps live, and the little mountain hamlets where Flipflips can provide resources become essential for Flapflaps, especially in the winter, when cold, rain, wind and snow can threaten the health of vulnerable populations like the elderly, chronically ill and young.
Tolerance to diversity and accomodation: Mixed families of Flipflips and Flapflaps form. Flipflippian culture is often characterized by their appreciation for commerce and hospitality. Their rituals emphasize these values as well as a willingness to care for those needing accommodation. The culture of Flapflaps, which prizes distinct physical abilities related to aerial maneuvers and fire-fighting, may have struggled in this regard in the past.
Newcomers like the Swumswums and Flipflips are contributing to the region with their skills, and helping make the region more habitable both for themselves and for marginalized members of the native population (Flapflaps and Swimswims), as well as "Flipflaps" and "Swimswums" who may find the region’s more extreme environments challenging to thrive in.
This is not an argument that newcomers to a region improve that region more than their indigenous counterparts. Rather indigenous counterparts often have lifestyles so well suited to their environment and if I’m bringing in less well adjusted groups and I want interactions to be mutually beneficial and productive, having the new arrivals contribute to the indigenous societies seems a natural way to encourage the groups to mix.
The Point of this Flap-flapping Exercise:
We now have a region with two species, Aireptiles and Watereptiles, each with two distinct subspecies--Flapflaps and Flipflips, Swimswims and Swumswums, but also mixed groups of the subspecies — Flipflaps and Flapflips, Swimswums and Swumswims. Each individual member of each species possesses a rich, fully formed cultural background, family history and social role, all of which are informed the interaction of the species’ needs with the region’s climate, environment and migration history.
External physical appearances are up to the author - provided they make sense on a basic biological level, but one can easily picture a diverse collection of 3-4 groups for both flying and swimming sapient reptiles of various appearances chilling in FakeLosAngeles.
Note: You’ll notice I am pointedly not using the term “race” here. As many readers of our blog know, race as we understand it is a distinctly modern, human social construct that links physical appearance with intrinsic traits and lineage. In other words, it’s a convenient sociopolitical concept that is very real in its impact, but is ultimately something that is only as real as how people and their societies decide to use it. I haven’t progressed far enough in this world-building exercise to decide if “race” is “real” for my suspiciously Pokemon-like reptile groups.
Notes on Social Representation While World-Building
Societies and social roles tend to revolve around the production of offspring, propagation of lineage, distribution of property/ power , etc. In my scenario, the mating of Aireptiles and Watereptiles will not produce live offspring, though both species are sapient and can communicate with each other.
I like to be cognizant of the existence marginalized groups: disabled individuals, LGBTQ individuals when I world-build, as well as the possibility of mixed families. Thus when I world-build, I’ll be thinking of what social roles given the parameters of the cultures (informed by my environment above) do not necessarily require the production of live offspring or may require some form of accommodation for social roles.
This is easy to imagine if I use IRL examples. Many large, social, reptilian species IRL are known to take great care of their young. Let’s say that some LGBTQ+ or mixed Air/Water couples, despite their lack of capacity to produce live offspring, might help raise children in their families or raise children of their own who are abandoned or orphaned.
Another example: an able bodied aro-ace reptilian may find their place in a role that is less compatible with romantic/ sexual partnership and offspring. Imagine a Flapflappian sentry/ smoke jumper for forest fires, or a Swumswummian instructor for a form of dangerous underwater repair for flood levees that takes years of experience to master. A disabled individual may similarly hold vital roles: a blind masseuse for Aireptile wings, a storyteller or musician during a cultural periods of rest--you get the idea.
IRL, many societies do create some social roles for at least a few marginalized groups, but they will not do this for every marginalized group given a variety of limits. Similarly, cultures do not necessarily maintain or expand the prominence of such roles as they alter over time, even if the society+region becomes more capable of supporting a more diverse group of individuals. The whys are many and varied, but I try to read up on history to make sure my logic is consistent. I can feel however I want on about an issue, but I try to make sure my understanding of the problem is grounded in fact as much as possible: that is simply my preference. Thus, how much of a utopia v. dystopia the author creates is a YMMV issue to me as long as it is believable. There are very different versions of my story that end in war, genocide, colonization, etc. I just prefer mine - and feel the facts are sufficient to present this option to the audience.
The main point: A writer can always create preferred traits and physical attributes to assign to a race, ethnicity or culture. Similarly, a writer can always create social roles characters from varying backgrounds can fill or not fill, even in an imaginary non-human fantasy culture. However, it’s also up to the writer to create the logic of the world these characters and populations inhabit to justify these choices, even if one’s characters and populations are a bunch of sapient, anthropomorphic reptiles. The writer’s understanding of the variety of disciplines utilized above will heavily inform how to do this.
The TLDR: If you want to write fantasy with original non-human species, leaving aside your interest in literature, an interest in biology, ecology, anthropology and world history will greatly assist your world-building efforts.
