I just want to say that I really appreciate your fantasy worldbuilding, especially when it comes to fantasy races/species/peoples and one day would love to explore fantasy worldbuilding. Do have a questions
1.) Firstly I love how you put each group of fantasy people into a different classification, such as “faery” and “human”, as well as the fact that “humans” aren’t just basically regular humans like in real life or most common fantasy settings. Do have a question, how come you decided to have elves as a type of human instead of a type of fae/faery? Always thought elves were a type of fae/faery when looking up to folklore, mythology and fairy tales as well as certain similarities.
2.) What is the lifespan and age stage for each fantasy race/species/peoples, including humans, fae/faery and pixies?
3.) What makes each fantasy race/people unique or interesting in your world compared to other fantasy settings.
4.) When it comes to world-building and choosing fantasy races/peoples for your world, what would say is the reasonable number of fantasy races/peoples why? Is there such thing as too little or too much?
Thank you for taking the time to read them
Thank you! I'm really happy that my art and worldbuilding has interested you so much! ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノNow, to answer your questions:
That's related to how Nijezdo was first conceived. Originally, the Lost Locket was a fantasy Earth that (through the discovery of the Americas) created different Human races, Fae, and Magic. The reason why specifically Elves are Human and not Fae is because of the fact that 1) stereotypical elves look way too human and 2) I had/have a story where an Orc and an Elf have a kid, and in my mind they need to be at least a little related to one another (species-wise, not Sweet-Home-Alabama-wise).
When the Lost Locket became it's own world and universe, the relatedness between the 5 Human races (Humes, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and Gnomes) stayed, and (through lots of symbolism and figuring out what exactly I wanted) decided to have two other neutral species to make Nijezdo feel more fantasy-esc without compromising my own writing style. Which is why the other 2 species also has 5 races each (Fae having Centaurs, Merfolk, Trolls, Goblins, and Harpies. And Pixies having Terram, Vita, Mortem, Solis, and Lunae Pixies). This is the shortest answer I could give to this question, as this world has been about a decade in the making.
Lifespans on Nijezdo are about 50 years longer than normal human lifespans, give or take. Mostly due to Magic, but there have been some stories of people living up to 400 years old. This is rare though. This also means that childhood tends to be a bit longer, and maturity a bit slower, but not by much. There really isn't a noticeable difference between the species when it comes to age progression. The different stages however, can be quite drastic.
Mostly how the Magic is intrinsic to each race. In most fantasy series magic is either something you learn, and anybody can access it, or it's something only a select few people. Due to blood, or a pact, or what have you. I decided that it would be a mix of both on Nijezdo, and how it works makes how each race reacts quite different. Human Magic is put in everyday life; Elves heal, Orcs are technically psychic, Dwarves are cognoscente, Gnomes control nature, and Humes are a jack of all Human Magic trades, but masters of none. Leaving Humans to need to work together the most. Almost every single Human country has all 5 races living together.
Fae are far more individualistic; leading them to keep to their own race (while still creating different countries even in that). They are far less magically indentured then their Human counterparts, but it still changes how they interact with the world. Centaurs are able to run faster than anything living or inanimate, and have a special connection to their Spirit animal (the animal that their other half is), leading most Centaur countries being animal and speed-centric. Merfolk can control aspects of water, and have a siren song, leading most Merfolk to live near water (also because they start out as their aquatic form, before they gain legs), and have a reverence towards song. Trolls are the strongest things living or inanimate, and, like Merfolk, have siren music, if you will, leading a lot of intermarrying of Trolls and Merfolk, and Troll homes being very sturdy. Goblins can camouflage better than octopi, and can teleport, having most of there cities hidden or integrated into other societies. And Harpy are not only one of the only consistent flyers, but also can control weather, and produce any kind of venom from their beaks. Not only are most of their cities impossible to get to without wings, but their homes almost always tend to be oasis in deserts that they created.
Pixies are a little harder to define, since very very few of them can speak the words of Humans or Fae, and due to that, their Magic is hard to know. They live with Humans and Fae as trusted luck charms, and humming companions.
And this is the stuff only relating to Magic, I also tended to try and make each race distinct as possible, from both each other, and from what most people think when they think of those races (Elves have overly huge ears, that help with sexual dimorphism since they're pretty androgynous, Fae all have cat-like faces [except Harpies, because they're bird people], all Orcs have horns, male Trolls have antlers, etc.).
Depending on how realistic you want your fantasy to be, but I would say, yeah, there can be too much. DnD is a pretty good example (in my opinion) of way too many races to live on a single world, and worst of all, there is no differences between, say, a dwarf that lived in the cold North, where the sun could disappear for months at a time, and a dwarf that lives in a desert. Mostly because each DnD race all come from a single country, or area, and thus have no differences culturally between each other. It doesn't make any sense logistically, and it give players and DMs (possibly) way too many factors at play. DnD gets away with it because it's a game, and people like choices, but for a story you're creating, you do need to at least try and limit how many types of different people live on your world OR make your world massive. Even in the Lost Locket, where I have 15 different races running around, 1 species tends to work together to the point that the different races have more become different breeds, and another species that's so small that their cities tend to just exist in the big people cities with little to no issues. Most of the separation comes from country rather than race, and I would say that's the more realistic take on it...
However, this is also fantasy that we're talking about, it doesn't have to make sense to the real world, but it does need to make sense in the confines of the world you created. If you want, you can have 100 different species running around, causing a ruckus, and most people wouldn't care, it really just depends on how close you want to follow real-world rules, and if it makes sense to the world you're making.
This is fantasy after all, make it fantastical.
Anyway, I hope that was.... at least a little cohesive?? I'm not the best at putting my thoughts into written words (outside of actually writing stories), so I hope this didn't sound like the ramblings of a madwoman, lol.
