#fantasy race

[funkii-fox]

I created a “looksmaxxing chart” but based on fantasy races for fun

I REPEAT: THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. This is just a fun way to categorize yourself while also making fun of your own insecurities at the same time.

First, are you unattractive in the face or no? I would say in terms of conventional beauty standards, like if you’ve been made fun of for being ugly your whole life. Being average looking, or not actively being told you’re attractive doesn’t count as “unattractive” in this chart. I also want to stress that I mean in the face, not necessarily in your body, fashion, etc.

If you’re unattractive, you’re a goblinoid! Cave goblin, hobgoblin, orc, troll, bugbear, etc. The difference between these depends on your height.

Are you abnormally short and unattractive (rough combination)? You’re a cave goblin meant for life in the lairs under the Earth, to rarely see the light of day!

Are you unattractive and short, but not abnormally so? You’re a hobgoblin, meant to travel fields and pillage humans!

Unattractive and average height or tall? You’re an orc, troll, or bugbear. Choose depending on which you feel the most like!

If you’re attractive or average looking, you’re a humanoid! Human, dwarf, hobbit, etc. Again, the difference is how tall are you. Abnormally short: hobbit, short: dwarf, normal height or tall: human.

What about elves? You’re an elf if you’re effeminate for a man or hyperfem for a woman. The good thing is that elves come in all sizes though, so you can be any height!

[lowlevelkoboldadventures]

Kobolds are actually a tier 2 monster. Their tier one starter is the “cringelette.”

[x-atm099]

PC Species: Ayez

Inspiration: Aye-Aye

Core Trait: Darkvision, Natural Climber, Keen Senses

Society Trait: People who are raised in Ayez societies get real good at dodging explosions and tend to pick up a sense for them. Additionally, If raised in Ayez society you have Knowledge (Alchemy) as a bonus skill.

Thoughts on Design

Type: Humanoid

Small Size

Favorite Class: Alchemist

Root Language: Chaos

Despite their small size they are somewhat lanky in proportions.

Fingers are longer than you would expect.

Toes are longer than you would expect. Crocs are their favorite shoe cause they can poke their toes through the hole. The inventor of crocs has a statue in their capitol.

Eyes that are slightly too large

Eyes are always some hue of yellow/orange

Round ears that point forward a bit.

Typically darker skin tones but vitiligo is common. An Ayez without vitiligo was once considered a bad omen (but they grew past that superstition)

Typically gloomy looking, other species will say "resting ayez face" instead of "resting bitch face".

Lots of gothic aesthetics in their societies (Ayezic Architecture)

Get a bad rap due to their looks (not deserved)

Get a bad rap due to their alchemical experiments (deserved)

Celebrates their independence by observing "Boomz Day" every year where the Ayez will try to make the biggest explosions possible with the smallest material. Using a trebuchet they launch these into the air and make as much noise as possible

[strmode]

'Been thinkin' 'bout Elves

I'm still figuring out how exactly I'll fit them in my fantasy world.

Like- who created them? Where 'em from? It doesn't make sense there to be a Feywild in my world (plus I'm pretty sure tha's copyrighted.

[hotgirlmythology]

Oreads of volcanoes???? 🪨🪨🔥🪨🔥🔥🪨🪨

Oreads are, as previously said, quite slow-moving and pretty leisurely in how they approach their lives. Being a fae of a mountain is something that does not demand rapid adaptability. Contrary to this, an Oread of a volcano is more of a fiery sort. Even if it is a very slow volcano that only occasionally gloops out some magma every few years, this is more than any normal mountain's internal processes. The more active the magma upflows in the volcano are, the more physically and mentally vivid the Oread is. That is to say, their convictions are formed quicker, their movement is more reactive and responsive. Often, they are more aggressive too. It leaves them a little out of place among other Oreads, who tend to physically work at a much slower pace than any other life in the world. The fact that people seeing volcanoes tend to get a much more concerned and worried feeling than people seeing mountains also means that volcanic Oreads tend to be very intimidating and scary, depending on their presentation of course, but they often do leave people nervous and wrong-footed even if they are also leaving them besotted or warm and fuzzy inside. It makes for a very head-spinning experience for most people that meet them, and volcanic oreads with their quicker activity are also more capable of interaction with people, so they move through the world leaving befuddled and unnerved suitors in their wake.

Volcanic Oreads are hard to make, and do not last as long as normal oreads except in very exceptional cases. Nevertheless, Oreads endeavour to make a volcanic Oread when possible, as such beings are so vanishingly rare and incredibly impactful on the society around them in a way that normal Oreads just cannot be in comparison. The fact is that a volcanic Oread must be made in the same way as a normal Oread, but obviously in the body of the volcano there is no place that a mortal is likely to tread into to "activate" the Oread). A somewhat strange solution is therefore devised. The cave for the oread's sculpting must be built securely from any magma getting in, and also from any wind blowing through. Both of these can cause weathering, and for an occasion as momentous as the creation of a volcanic oread, the creators wish it to be perfectly done. Creating the oread's is well and good, but just as with a regular oread the actual activation of the body by an unknowing mortal's viewing can be exceptionally difficult. Mortals are unlikely to go up a volcano even if a very beautiful oread asks them to, and are even less likely to go poking around any caverns. But, they cannot just build a housing for the oread sculpture on the side of the volcano, as they will find it more difficult to control who goes to it. Someone with insufficient imagination, and who is not distracted enough, will not cause the change in the oread statue to allow it to live. Oreads are forced to compromise by building small shrines overhung by rocks, for protection against magma, to invite the curious eyes and feet of nearby travellers without the risk of calling them up from very far away. But how to get the traveller within sightseeing range? Well, although usually it's considered the height of rudeness to be so aggressive with it, an oread can use their great enchanting beauty to draw a mortal up the mountainside. Some mortals might do it willingly because they are so enamoured with oreads already. Oreads have even been known to promise a favour in exchange for the mortal doing it, which is no light bargain, the content of which must be agreed in advance. Oreads are extremely serious and direct people, and will always follow through with the favour they have promised; they are thus equally careful of the kind of people they will enter such a bargain with.

The hazard to a mortal of awakening a volcanic oread does not end with their success. They must then get back down the volcano, which stirs to life at the same time as the oread does, and can frequently erupt after a couple of hours. However, they will be escorted down by a cadre of grateful oreads as a result of their helpfulness, and descending a mountain in a hurry is made a great deal easier by a group of expert wandering geologists who were old before you were born. The "reflection" of the magic taken in by the volcanic oread, the part which gets lost in transition and hits the awakener, is also of a different nature than that of a normal oread's awakening. They are braver, more determined, quick to act and quicker to anger. But the most significant part is that unique gift of volcanic oreads: pre-tremors. Although many creatures can sense tremors or gases before an eruption, volcanic oreads can not only sense this, but also the flow of magma below the surface of where they walk, the pressure changes of air around them, even hundreds of metres from themselves, minute texture and taste shifts as gas composition changes. All of this obviously links them intimately with the grand life of their volcano, but when a mortal gets fed it it tends to result in severe disorientation to start with, which necessitates the oreads having to take turns supporting them down the mountain. But by the time the volcano does erupt, if the mortal can keep a sensible head on its shoulders and listen to the oreads that know about this sort of stuff, they should be able to roughly intuit if pyroclastic flows, mudslips, magma, ash clouds or flaming chunks of rapidly cooling rock are bearing down on them, and thus avoid the worst of a particularly violent eruption. The more violent the eruption, the more this ability is developed through necessity, in a manner similar to the oreads' week of accelerated learning capability immediately after creation, though a lot shorter. Some selfless and considerate Oreads (usually other volcanic oreads, who can travel very long distances to visit the creation of another of themselves) have been known to chase the unfortunate awakener, throwing rocks around them and attempting to hit them, if the eruption wasn't very significant and they feel it would be a waste for a mortal to have this awesome opportunity to develop their new magical sense and let it pass them by. The mortal who is on the receiving end of being assaulted by rocks and sculpted oread feet does not generally appreciate this gift, not even if the oread tries to tell them that it is for their self-development, because even if they can understand this they are still getting rocks thrown at them. But provided they make it back home, an awakener of a volcanic oread can look forward to a life as a weird sort of seer who can only see about 6 seconds ahead. It makes them peerless fighters, hunters, sailors, and anything else that involves paying very close attention to slight shifts in the surrounding physical world, which is why the choosing of a champion by a lady wreathed in fire has become somewhat of a motif in legends or pseudo-histories of kings in areas with high volcanic activity.

Let us now consider the habit of volcanoes to stop working, or to erupt once and then never again. This makes the creation of a volcanic oread, on the face of it, a bit strange. Oreads can live for millions of years (hypothetically, because none of them have been around that long!) so why would they bother making volcanic oreads when they are unlikely to make a hundred thousand? Well, it's mostly because Oreads as a group are not even a hundred thousand years old. Recall that the fae are the youngest "group" of sentient beings in the world, having been created shortly after the growth of settled culture among humans. Despite having knowledge that most could not dream of due to their link with the natural world, and the capacity for personal wisdom and knowledge beyond most life, their societal knowledge of their own heritage is somewhat limited and their understanding of the nature which they embody can also be sorely lacking in some areas. So, one day, perhaps once all oreads in the world are millions of years old, they will be unable to make another volcanic oread, for they wish not to see them go dark as the volcano ceases to act as such, and become a somewhat depressed example of a normal oread unless the volcano roars into life once more. Certain volcanic oreads have been hatching plans to make sure this can be done: a secret kept among the volcanic oreads alone is that of magmatic oreads. When the mad god made provisions for volcanic oreads, considering them a higher and more marvellous expression of the awe the creatures on the ground felt for mountains, it didn't really consider what the implications might be if a greater fascination was developed for the magma than for the mountain. Thus, certain volcanic oreads arising at a time of particularly vigorous magma flows or tectonic events can end up coming out as what are termed internally "magmatic oreads", oreads that are physically terrifying to be around for most people and whose hair looks as if it's on fire all the time. They are linked so intimately with not only the magma flowing through their volcano, but also the tides of magma that hold up the skeleton of the world. Such resonance allows them, with practice, to nudge it around a bit. An oread whose volcano is about to die may be saved from a well-timed nudge by a magmatic oread. However, the timing and conditions for their creation is so difficult to get right that there are only six in the world, and they are difficult to get hold of. Four of their awakeners died in the eruption, one was blinded by a glob of lava that flew across his eyes and thus became the capable of seeing further than he could have imagined, and the last swore to make war against the sky and win herself a kingdom far away from the constant sensation of the world shifting beneath her feet over the magma sea. Sometimes, the gifts of Oreads are too much for even the most eager recipients.

[daydreamingstrawberry]

A race for my fantasy world, anything I should add? || First Post on here! :D || I will try and post more of my art and make more || OCs & Commisions welcome

[hotgirlmythology]

The powder rats

In fantasy land, there are many creatures great and small who are magical. Some of these magical creatures are really very small. The powder rats are an example of magic creatures who are incredibly small, and are still around mostly because they are good at avoiding discovery (although they are known of in some particular areas). Powder rats came about as a fluke of one of the True Gods' intentions to create a form of life that lived under the feet of, and lived off the produce of, the elves (this was before humans got made), as a sort of damper on them. However, these powder rats, while clever, were a bit too clever for their own good, and being an animal that was already needing to heat itself a great deal made its metabolism stupendously high. The initial population therefore declined rapidly to an almost non-existent state, leaving the larger individuals, who didn't need to waste so much energy keeping themselves warm and so had enough to fuel their brains. The "normal" rats were actually created entirely separately, making the traditional story among powder rats of the stupid rats just being others among themselves who changed to be stupider incorrect.

Powder rats are almost as paranoid as elves, except that instead of being deathly afraid of each other, other powder rats are by and large the only things they aren't afraid of. Most animals bigger than themselves are a source of some fear for them, and so they tend to stay out of sight even more than normal rats. Powder rats, being fairly long lived as rats go, and very clever, and with the collected memories of their fellows dying very frequently, are pretty scared of death. Powder rat groups take great pains to organise themselves so that the chance of death is roughly equalled out between everyone, because it is an immediate and powerful threat such that positions which cause less risk of death are coveted above anything else, and a long existence has taught powder rats that in such a precarious existence as theirs, their groups, at least, must remain reliable. Necessity has an unfortunate habit of elbowing its way in, though, and powder rats must maintain a cadre of "immune" members, who do not go into danger as much, in order to maintain certain knowledge that would otherwise be easily lost if it was stored in the rank-and-file. The selection process for these roles is necessarily rigorous, for no rat should be able to argue that it is indeed right for this one to be protected rather than another. Living a long time is a good marker of ability, but not a wholly reliable one, and unless the individual also dies a very long while later, they may not be able to learn, memorise, add to and pass on their set of knowledge to the next person before they are killed. The White Rat helps with this.

The White Rat is essentially a god for the powder rats. While not a True God, it is a very old Usurper God, one of the first to come about, for the rats never had the grace period of the two favourite species of the gods, being elves and humans, to ask things of them, even of the mad god. They were hidden away by their creator, who was afraid of reprimands for introducing such a spanner into the workings of the world, yet felt that destroying such creations would be bad. The White Rat was the product of endless generations of rats (who of course live and die much faster than humans and elves) developing ideas about what happened after death, and before life, considering that they were perpetually aware of pre- and post-life events in that they happen all around them all the time. Eventually, one rat arose who by chance lived longer than most, and by chance had ideas which resonated with many rats, about a rat's place in the world and how a rat should live. It is somewhat ironic that the average powder rat is a great deal more thoughtful than the average human. A human has the luxury to accept death and become suddenly contemplative in the leadup towards it. A powder rat usually dies very quickly and painfully. They are therefore prone to thinking somberly. The White Rat is an exemplar of this. It is venerated among powder rats not for cunning, nor for strength, nor virility or abundance of food. Powder rats pray to the White Rat to show them the way to live in the most satisfactory way they can. It is, if you will, a god of philosophy. Powered by the prayer of powder rats in every land (for they spread out greatly since the Mad God left), the White Rat lives for ever, and with its unique perspective as a result, it can see past the furious, unintelligent scrambles that powder rats in the most inhospitable places might otherwise succumb to, and provide its constant guidance. This makes it an unusual deity, because it is not prayed to with the expectation of magical help, and its sole actual domain of influence is having ideas and communicating with powder rats. It's quite good at both, though. Powder rats quite commonly come into contact with the White Rat at some point in their lives when they ask it a question.

Why are Powder Rats called this? After all, there is not much about them that suggests such a name. However, powder rats are called this because of their manufacture of gunpowder (although powder rats called it flashpowder because of what they use it for). The ability of powder rats to penetrate small, concealed places makes them excellent at finding places to store flashpowder, and at digging holes in which to plant it, for getting into places. The powder also serves them as a fairly good indigestion curative, a lighter and in traps. Flashpowder is what has allowed powder rats to blow holes in granaries with stone walls and floors, much to the horror of the villagers whose grain is subsequently stolen (if it isn't set on fire, which is why flashpowder is generally only used by specially trained rats, and is made by another specially trained rat. Wherever powder rats go, they must take their knowledge of flashpowder with them, because they don't have the luxury afforded normal rats of being able to grow a population on mean scraps. They need decent food, and fairly fresh too. It does mean that powder rats need to pick their targets carefully, because somewhere that is too well-guarded might cause them to be caught, but an unfilled storehouse is a waste of time.

The passage of history through the memories of powder rats is only piecemeal, and is either what they need to survive in the local area or significant cataclysmic events that might be suggested to them by the White Rat's hints and advice. However, like the other sentient mortal species, powder rats like to tell their warnings and advice in story form, and so there is an oral tradition among them even if most of them haven't quite got allegories or myths right yet, because neither of them are useful to powder rats, although they are starting to have the idea of them, here and there, in some of the large cities of the world. Cities, engorged on the fat of trade, can host many groups of powder rats, and some of them distinguish themselves from others along lines of shared history - real or imagined, in which case myths are useful to them at last.

Powder rats are able to communicate with things, in a way. Despite most sentient creatures disliking rats a great deal, when the situation calls for it some groups of powder rats have developed pictogram languages for communicating with one another and with other species that can read. These can be very useful, but because of how old powder rats are as a species and the great variety and distance between their groups, some of these "languages" are a lot more complex than others, given they are mostly developed over generations rather than by one bright mind. While images for material things are generally identical, given they just draw the thing, representations of metaphysical concepts or activities can be difficult to depict and the chosen doodles of rats from different places can mean very different things. Syntax of statements is an unfamiliar concept to most, and grammar is not something that anyone cares about at all. While rats can understand big-speak (how sentient bigger creatures generally talk, with words) with practice, they find it difficult to understand as most humanoids do not have whiskers to twitch, nor do they twitch any part of their body while talking, in fact. They particularly dislike elves, almost all of which unconsciously maintain a poker face while talking so as not to betray any dangerous emotional vulnerabilities to their fellows. The powder rats see this as intentionally rude and deceptive, given how important it is in their own mode of communication. That is assuming they can even get over their fear of bigger creatures long enough to actually talk to them, which is rare and requires a particularly curious rat to chance it.

What sort of societies do powder rats have? Our only principle so far is that powder rat groups are highly egalitarian. Pregnant and severely wounded rats are obviously excluded from having to go out scavenging by as they would likely die for no reason and for no gain. The powder-maker and powder-firer are given exceptional protection due to their necessity to ensure access to food for the group even in winter. The powder-maker is generally the more senior of the two as powder firing is dangerous work and more suitable for a younger rat. The powder-maker also serves as the equivalent of a surgeon and wise sage, while the powder-firer is in charge of keeping track of everybody and organising day to day work. The spiritual head of every group is of course the White Rat itself. Some groups that find themselves in very small places are likewise very small, not having the capacity for a protected caste of rats, and in some cases might not even have the capacity for powder-making at all. The White Rat does, though, and even though it was never great at making flash powder nor does it think about it overmuch now, its use by generations of rats has made the White Rat very good at explaining the generalities of it to desperate groups. Even if its contributions might not be very useful in the asker's current climate or situation, and it does not have the benefit of experience seen in the dedicated powder-makers. Although, if they are in such a small area, they probably don't need it. "Normal" groups of powder rats, that is to say, all those which live outside of the largest settlements, generally live slightly outside the boundaries of settlements. They are big rats, and generally wish for a somewhat more constant home than normal rats, as they become attached to their sturdily-built nests and reinforced burrows, which makes them poor candidates for fitting in alongside houses as their normal rat counterparts do (although they are fully capable of gnawing holes out if they so wish).

In large groups that form in large settlements, powder rats usually inhabit structures in the town or city, whether half-abandoned buildings or sewers. The settlement is just too large to move between places efficiently if they were to be living outside of it. It is also important that every rat group has a powder-firer in such situations, and a good one too, for messing it up could lead to a much bigger fire than in a rural area. But, the powder rat groups are correspondingly bigger from the greater concentrations of calorie-dense food in the cities, so they can afford to have rats given special dispensation against the risks of death. Some groups may also have a recording rat, whose job it is to keep track of everything that happens and pass it onto the next recorder. For powder rats, who live a maximum of about 7 years but generally die at 3 or 4, a continuity of knowledge is essential for the health of the group in such a variable place as a town or city (particularly given the habit of these to spring up and fall apart pretty quickly in Fantasy Land, given the existence of beings with the innate capabilities to do so, see magicians, demons, fae, owners of mystic weaponry and such). So a recorder is important to know the warning signs and safe places to go if a group of powder rats does need to run, or if they are attacked.

Can powder rats become magicians? Yes. Are they good at magic? Not really. Powder rats have very small brains which are already being overcooked by the demands of a great deal of thought. Although brain size is by no means the determinant of intelligence, the fact is that powder rat brains are about 10% the size of a humanoid's, which does hamper them from doing anything more than what they already do. Powder rats similarly don't have much opportunity for imagination, power-hungriness and sequestration, which are often prerequisites for becoming a self-taught magician. So powder rats have not produced any magicians to date, except for the White Rat (as deities are technically magicians by the definition of the term), but as previously stated the White Rat can't actually work magic upon the world to change it physically in the moment, because the powder rats only ask for answers or advice. Turning the White Rat into a deity in the "common" vein of crafting its supplicants physical blessings would likely lead to it being a lot more inconsistent, and it persists because that powder rats, wherever they might be, need a point of consistency. The White Rat provides.

[see-evil-hear-evil-speak-evil]

I always imagine orcs with british accents