Show n' Tell: who are your non-human sapient (sci-fi or fantasy) races?

[MisterGrey3000]

Hiya everybody! If you don't mind, I'll start us off!
In my science-fantasy comic, Temple Va'Ti , there exists the Beaufea:
Females:



Males:


They are a feathered, "hexapodal" eusocial instellar species that have co-existed with human beings for centuries. Much like the ants of earth, their people posses a natural caste system featuring members biologically built for specific task. However, on the human-controlled world of orobluma (where Temple Va'Ti takes place) this caste system has no bearing on their status in society.
They are a species with high sexual dimorphism; humans are practically androgynous in comparison. The pixie-esque males are usually under 5ft in height with flamboyant features, while females vary wildly in both size and appearance due to the roles they naturally occupy in the ancestral world's caste system- such as worker, soldier, hunter, etc.-.
A beaufea's atenae feathers, commonly cited as one of their most distinctive features, is primarily used for both picking up scents and releasing pleasant fragrances. Smells are important in beaufea society; so important in fact that a noticable portion of their native lingua franca consists of various scents. When interacting with foreign Beaufea, Humans who have learned to speak this tongue often use slightly broader body language than normal to make up for their inability to communicate emotion through smell.

There's obviously a lot more to talk about regarding these guys, but I'd rather it all be naturally revealed later down the line within the comic itself haha.
However, if you have anymore questions about the Beaufea feel free to ask.

[punkarsenic]

wow, youve thought so thoroughly about the Beaufea, and have some really nice designs there.

In There was a War, I have the Fomor - giants that live along the ancient Irish coast and are at war with the humans of Ireland and their gods.

the Fomor are diverse in body type, although there are patterns between regions and clans. the average Fomor is probably 10 foot tall - although the tallest known Fomor is closer to 20 foot.

the last two images are of Balor, the main character of TWAW. she's very small, at 6'6 or so, and lacks a lot of the typical Fomorian traits such as thick, blubbery skin, strong and solid bones, and large horns. she was also born with wings, which caused arguments among her family. some believe her island's Fomor originally were all winged and lighter, diving for fish instead of the typical Fomor nature of sinking to the bottom and harvesting shellfish, using nets, or chasing fish like seals. others, however, thought that Balor's 'deformity' was a curse, or that her mother (who theyd never met) was not Fomor.

the Fomor were always hardy creatures, but before the war with humans they also had thriving cultures of art and religion - especially in the south, where the Fomor were softer and the weather kinder. However, when the northern clans took over during the war, they homogenised the Fomor culture and purged it of anything the king, Indech, perceived as 'soft.' They still have a strong culture of stone carving, as they are largely cave dwelling, and some poems remain - most of them written by Indech, and about the war. they also take great pride in their hairstyles, which typically have significance such as identifying their clan or occupation. northern warrior Fomor have undercuts, usually long enough to sweep forward and cover their eyes - non-northerners started adopting the style as well, after the north took control.

the Fomor are almost entirely genderless. there are subtle cultural understandings of gender, but they are largely lost on the younger generations, and all Fomor are physically very similar. I wrote gendered words into the dialogue here and there - Balor calls her parent a 'father,' some other Fomor use he or she pronouns - largely on the basis of clarity, and while Balor is actually a girl, that's not an identity she was born with.

[MisterGrey3000]

Thank you punkarsenic!

Woah, you've also put a lot of thought into the Fomor; great work! haha
I love how diverse they are in biology and culture (the ones to the north kind of give off an elvish vibe).
Regarding the bit on gender, is it socially acceptable for them to choose their gender identities and the way they express them or are there still some lingering stigmas that create problems?

[punkarsenic]

thank you!

and not really, or not in ways that can be easily explained. most Fomor clans never had gender roles as we have; children would be raised by the community, and everyone would hunt and build. gender roles were a lot more subtle and closely related to religion - one of the first things to go in the new northern regime. so acknowledging and engaging with gender is looked down upon in general.

[MisterGrey3000]

You're welcome!
Also, That's pretty interesting.
So assuming that the humans in There was a War are somewhat similar to irl humans, does the narrowness and rigidity of our own gender constructs bother the Fomor in any significant way?

[spadesart]

SPIRE has a ton of nonhuman races :'v

the vampires are the main focus, they stick together in "clans" (smallest one is around 30 people and the largest is around 200) almost all the time, so there's "camps" where they live set up all over the place. the central one that the comic focuses on is the largest group that resides in the houses and buildings that surround a huge lab, which is where their leader and the people that she employs to help her live.

the original source of the vampires came from a botched attempt to create a vaccine(?) that would extend human life/make them almost immortal around 700 years before the comic starts. it was a really primitive first attempt that used a lot of sketchy substances like other species' dna on top of a bunch of other garbage. their leader was the head of the research for it and decided to test it on herself when it seemed to work perfectly on smaller subjects. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
after more vampires started surfacing, humans began to call the original one their "queen" and they just rolled with it as a joke, there's not really any kind of monarchy in place.

the vampires themselves have glowing red eyes with slitted pupils, and they see better in darker light than in bright light (the brighter it gets, the less they'll be able to see). they have 4 fangs instead of the regular 2, the top set is for feeding and can inject a combination depressant, paralyzing, and anesthetic venom in response to the feeling of puncturing something (so if someone has a habit of chewing on things like furniture or toys to relieve stress they're gonna get nasty), and the bottom set has the venom that'll turn people combined with an anesthetic and paralyzing venom. if you get bitten by the top set and survive you probably won't remember much since it drugs you up to the point where you're almost completely unaware of what's going on. they also have long pointed ears made to make up for any loss of vision during daytime, they can move up and down and twist around like a cat's ears.

vampires won't die from starvation, they'll go into bloodlust first, where their thought and memory functions are almost entirely blocked and they'll mindlessly seek out the closest living thing they can drink from (they'll almost always kill them since they're completely unable to control themselves during this. a mild form of this happens while they're feeding but it's easier to break out of). after that they'll go into a state of suspended animation until they're force fed.

At around 40 years of being turned their hair will start to change color, the effect itself comes from one of the types of dna that was included in the original serum. it doesn't have any effect on them other than being a mark of age. it'll be among red, teal, blue, or purple. most of them hate it and try to dye their hair, but it usually doesn't hold it too well. the lightness of the color depends on the original hair color, blond or red hair will be a brighter color and brown to black will get progressively darker. after 90 years of being turned their hair will start to turn white. it'll still be slightly tinted by the second hair color but it's almost unnoticeable. a hair color change can be forced by going through excessive stress.

they have enhanced strength and durability, and have accelerated healing. they can stay out in the sunlight for about 30 minutes before they start to burn.
they also have the ability to hypnotize people through eye contact, a lot of them find it really difficult to do while others have an enhanced version of the power. their leader offers those people the job "interrogations expert" where they'll sift through memories of any important prisoners for information on incoming attacks or any other related issues. they're usually feared by humans and given scary campfire names. the job itself is really strenuous on the individual since they're not made to be using the power constantly. most of them walk away with some form of intense anxiety or depression or a combination of them.

when a vampire sires someone, the two become emotionally connected where they can sense when the other one is around and pick up on emotions. if the other person is a walking panic button (i.e. william) it can cause a lot of stress on you. sires are usually inclined to protect the person they turned and come off as kind of clingy at first.

gggggggggggggg i was gonna write on the other species but theres so much and i have to get ready for work :v

[indagold]

There are a lot of non human characters in my comic Welcome Back. I'll list the 4 main ones that appear most often.

Somnritians are one race of strange dream creatures that once "healed" humans of bad emotions but lost their way, became hermits who live in caves and resorted to becoming alien abductors; stealing humans for weird ceremonies like one would steal a wild animal for a pet. They treat humans like they would a puppy dog and if they didn't keep to strict traditions would dress them in bows and flowers.

Blethes are another dream race related to the Somnritians who are less dream like, more like hallucinations and their powers consists of eating thoughts and memories. They are almost completely female aside for some genderless/multiple gendered few and males which are a complete rarity. They too once worked with the Somnritians to heal humans but due their king's general incompetence, caused riot among humans leading to their exile to the caves.

Elves come close to the realistic depiction of fairy folk. They are completely eccentric and morally ambiguous at best, psychopathic at worst. They usually use their cute exteriors to hide their demented motives and unlike Blethes are all male. Think of them as a more fucked up Smurfs.

Lastly are the shadow people. There really isn't much to say about them outside of their enigmatic nature, aggressive personality, appearing in random places and their need to drown people. They resemble sleep paralysis hallucinations.

[punkarsenic]

the Fomor are largely rather ignorant of human nature, but yeah, they frown on the humans' understanding of gender, and by extension gender in general, because of their disdain for humans and all their 'petty culture.'

when humans and Fomor do cross, like Balor and Cath, the main characters, gender causes definite confusions. all Fomor look, to humans, pretty masculine, so for a while Cath's not sure what gender Balor is. Well, neither is Balor, to be honest - and Balor will eventually learn Gaelic, in which gender will really confuse her verbally. Cath's struggled herself with her people's gender roles though, as a trans butch lesbian, so theres not a whole load of conflict when explaining them to Balor.

[MisterGrey3000]

Ah okay okay, awesome stuff.
I love how thoroughly you thought this through!
Thanks for answering my questions and keep up the good work.

[MisterGrey3000]

Dang, I love that shadow person example.
They really do look like something that you'd see in a sleep paralysis episode. shivers

[AmysGames]

Fittingly enough, a non-human character just showed up in my fantasy comic!

First off, there are magical creatures in this comic's world known as the Wari. They're basically magical animals, coming in an assortment of shapes and sizes. Because of their magic power and generally vicious nature, they're considered highly dangerous and are avoided at all costs. Most of them aren't sapient, though a select few of the more powerful ones are—including one of the main characters of the comic.

There's also a peculiar race of beings described as being half human, and half Wari. These beings, known as the Myindo, possess both a more animal-like appearance and, most importantly, magic.

Unlike the Wari, the Myindo are generally not violent. Despite this, humans still consider them to be very dangerous, and because of this, there is a (largely corrupt) special task force that specifically hunts down and captures both Wari and Myindo remorselessly. As such, the Myindo are very reclusive, living in secret villages hidden deep in nature where they can only hope for their safety.

That all said, the fact that my human lead is encountering a Myindo is a strange occurrence, indeed... (And that's about all I can say because the rest of the comic isn't out yet :P)

[Birdwrong]

This is just a quick comment to say that shadow person design is PRETTY TERRIFYING. You've got me intrigued!!!!

[OneHappyChap]

Have an android in my latest novel for this month's writers camp!

Android Affection | Tapas

Summary: After his parents were murdered by the hands of three Assistants—intelligent, empathetic androids that have replaced most humans in the workplace—23-year-old Ian Starke swore to himself that he would never make the mistake of trusting another machine.

During a night of drinking his sorrows away, Ian gets involved in a street fight soon stopped by Gilbert—a newbie cop who also happens to be an Assistant. As Gilbert lets the other party leave, Ian assumes his arrest is imminent. However, his new acquaintance seems to have other plans in mind. For when Gilbert finally releases him: he treats Ian to breakfast instead of locking him behind bars.

Little could Ian predict that agreeing to pancakes would get him dragged into adventures he’d never thought possible as he and Gilbert learn put their differences aside and work together to solve a case close to Ian’s heart.

[danitasibert]

In my comic Maximum Chaos, there are various species that are not human that live in the country of Famousland (where the main characters are from, its like a fantasy hollywood-esque world), they actually live along side humans pretty well!
Many of these other species moved there to get better lives for themselves/ families (they migrated)
In the world of Aphenia its a mixture of mythology and fantasy creatures (along with made up creatures in future chapters) that lives with Humans!
As the story goes on the main characters meet with so many more creatures that inhabit their world, i just want to naturally show it as is progresses. ^_^

(below are some different examples from the comic itself!)

[LortiaMJB]

I have this weird thing with owls. XD But they tend to hit well with my readers. :3