Making good species/races - Or why do some created species rock while others suck balls?
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Think about all the things humans do as creatures to get along in modern societies and life in general, and why they do them.
Communication. Verbal communication, in particular, requires that big complex brain of ours and things like lips, tongue, teeth, vocal cords - that entire assembly from nose down to throat. Does this species use complex verbal communication in the form of language? Does their language sound more tonal or guttural or what? Maybe they don't rely a lot on verbal communication. Visual displays? Scents (there was a sci-fi race that communicated chiefly through this method, I wish I could remember which mythos they were from)? Telepathy?
Manipulation of tools. Humans have opposable thumbs, hands with a number of nerve-rich relatively-delicate digits on them for grasping, manipulation. Does this race have hands? If not, what do they have? Pseudopod-like tentacles? How does that work for an advanced, tool-using species? How do their tools look? What did their evolutionary process look like - one of the reasons we have hands is because our evolutionary ancestors likely did things like climb and navigate trees with branches.
Facial expressivity. How does this species do non-verbal communication, or express emotion? We have a bunch of smaller but remarkably precise musculature in our faces that allows us to do all these expressions (voluntarily and involuntarily). Maybe this species isn't big on faces and facetime, though. Or maybe they're expressive in a different way - color changing, like octopi and some other cephalopods?
Vision and senses in general. This goes back to how they evolved. Did they evolve in a dark place? Too dark for vision to matter, or just kind of dim?
Communication. Verbal communication, in particular, requires that big complex brain of ours and things like lips, tongue, teeth, vocal cords - that entire assembly from nose down to throat. Does this species use complex verbal communication in the form of language? Does their language sound more tonal or guttural or what? Maybe they don't rely a lot on verbal communication. Visual displays? Scents (there was a sci-fi race that communicated chiefly through this method, I wish I could remember which mythos they were from)? Telepathy?
Manipulation of tools. Humans have opposable thumbs, hands with a number of nerve-rich relatively-delicate digits on them for grasping, manipulation. Does this race have hands? If not, what do they have? Pseudopod-like tentacles? How does that work for an advanced, tool-using species? How do their tools look? What did their evolutionary process look like - one of the reasons we have hands is because our evolutionary ancestors likely did things like climb and navigate trees with branches.
Facial expressivity. How does this species do non-verbal communication, or express emotion? We have a bunch of smaller but remarkably precise musculature in our faces that allows us to do all these expressions (voluntarily and involuntarily). Maybe this species isn't big on faces and facetime, though. Or maybe they're expressive in a different way - color changing, like octopi and some other cephalopods?
Vision and senses in general. This goes back to how they evolved. Did they evolve in a dark place? Too dark for vision to matter, or just kind of dim?
Most aliens nowadays are fundamentally nothing more than human in ayy suits. I'll pay good money for a sci-fi novel/show about a race of sapient lobsterlike aliens, that communicate through skin colorization, trying to wrap their minds around human artifacts. The complete culture shock between the two species is compelling shit.
The Amnion from the Gap Series is probably the best representation I've seen of a truly alien mindset adjusting to exposure to humans.
Check out Blindsight by Peter Watts. First contact type story with a completely alien entity. Totally foreign biology, communication, and even concept of consciousness. It also delves into transhumanism, where members of the crew have been modified in one way or another i.e. brain partitioning, direct neural links to equipment, etc. Some pretty interesting concepts.
I'd say it's pretty much impossible for a wide-audience story. Most people who would like something more realistic generally accepts "space elfs" or whatever similar things are in general use, but quite a number of people in general might not want to put the effort into understanding crabs.
An important thing that I see a lot of fantasy/sci fi genre stuff doing is falling into a black and white mindset regarding the lore of their species. Sure, it’s easier when you have a ‘good’ race and an ‘evil’ race, but it’s not very fun for those of us who like proper worldbuilding.
When making a species and building their lore, don’t be afraid to make them morally grey. Give them selfish reasons for doing ‘good’ things and logical reasons for doing ‘bad’ things.
Quick example: Species A committed genocide in the past, but it was because Species B developed an extremely lethal airborne virus that would have wiped out A while turning B into asymptomatic carriers. So, because all of Species B were infected with the bio weapon, Species A had to either kill them all or die themselves.
To make it even more morally ambiguous, have the virus be created by an extremist group and released onto the populace without their knowledge. So while Species A is killing everyone, Species B thinks it is an unprovoked attack.
Real life isn’t black and white. Don’t limit your writing like that. Have fun with morality and flex those moral boundaries.
When making a species and building their lore, don’t be afraid to make them morally grey. Give them selfish reasons for doing ‘good’ things and logical reasons for doing ‘bad’ things.
Quick example: Species A committed genocide in the past, but it was because Species B developed an extremely lethal airborne virus that would have wiped out A while turning B into asymptomatic carriers. So, because all of Species B were infected with the bio weapon, Species A had to either kill them all or die themselves.
To make it even more morally ambiguous, have the virus be created by an extremist group and released onto the populace without their knowledge. So while Species A is killing everyone, Species B thinks it is an unprovoked attack.
Real life isn’t black and white. Don’t limit your writing like that. Have fun with morality and flex those moral boundaries.
Leonard Helplessness
kiwifarms.net
If you're making a sci-fi species, one suggestion I have would be to try taking a species you know about (such as humans), changing a single significant and possibly-unexpected variable, then playing out the consequences of that change. I've seen this plainly done many times, often with huge success.
For instance, look at one of the species in the Mass Effect video game series: the Krogans. As a species, they share a great many similarities with humans: They're two-legged, have opposable thumbs, are intelligent, capable of speech, reproduce sexually, and so on. However, one particular thing about their origin is different: While humans emerged as extremely capable predators on a largely unsuspecting planet, Krogan emerged as a cattle-like prey species on an incredibly fucking hostile planet.
This was the principal reason for their physiology being so fucking powerful and resilient, because everything was constantly trying to fucking eat them and they needed to be able to flee, fight, and survive. This also led to them having an absurdly high birth rate and maturation rate, because the ability to breed like rabbits was one of the only things that preserved them as a species. They eventually conquered their world after their technology advanced to the point of firearms, then their natural aggression, coupled with a species that was suddenly multiplying out of control, led to them wrecking their entire planet with nuclear wars. Then they were uplifted by aliens and wrecked all kinds of shit across the galaxy.
Practically that entire species design and background was based on the simple concept of an intelligent prey species, rather than an intelligent predator species like humans. I could cite other examples later, if you want. Try that, though: Just change one little thing about humans and let all the consequences radiate outward into something radically different.
For instance, look at one of the species in the Mass Effect video game series: the Krogans. As a species, they share a great many similarities with humans: They're two-legged, have opposable thumbs, are intelligent, capable of speech, reproduce sexually, and so on. However, one particular thing about their origin is different: While humans emerged as extremely capable predators on a largely unsuspecting planet, Krogan emerged as a cattle-like prey species on an incredibly fucking hostile planet.
This was the principal reason for their physiology being so fucking powerful and resilient, because everything was constantly trying to fucking eat them and they needed to be able to flee, fight, and survive. This also led to them having an absurdly high birth rate and maturation rate, because the ability to breed like rabbits was one of the only things that preserved them as a species. They eventually conquered their world after their technology advanced to the point of firearms, then their natural aggression, coupled with a species that was suddenly multiplying out of control, led to them wrecking their entire planet with nuclear wars. Then they were uplifted by aliens and wrecked all kinds of shit across the galaxy.
Practically that entire species design and background was based on the simple concept of an intelligent prey species, rather than an intelligent predator species like humans. I could cite other examples later, if you want. Try that, though: Just change one little thing about humans and let all the consequences radiate outward into something radically different.
Going on the subject of Mass Effect and earlier mentioned hive mind, the concept of the Geth (at least with communication) is pretty neat. As a singular entity, they are rather ineffective, though multiple Geth can operate a singular platform and have greater intelligence, and will even split from the main collective when it comes to certain idealogies.
Simple ideas with unique aspects. You generally don't want mountains of exposition to explain every single race you introduce, but you don't want them to be basic either. They also have to fit into the world and have some exceptions to the normal traits of some species to exaggerate the difference between them and others.
DoNotReadTheFinePrint
kiwifarms.net
Try writing up some biology first if you want to go as un-human as possible. Doesn't need to be in deep but it helps, since a lot of cultural norms evolved from biological necessities or where created in part to explain those.
A good example are clothes. People started to wear furs and hides of other animals for protection against various natural hazards like weather or to avoid injuries from thorns and the like since our skin can be quite fragile. Out of this need for protection evolved the cultural norm of wearing clothes on a regular basis.
A good example are clothes. People started to wear furs and hides of other animals for protection against various natural hazards like weather or to avoid injuries from thorns and the like since our skin can be quite fragile. Out of this need for protection evolved the cultural norm of wearing clothes on a regular basis.
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