>I'm tired of cliches
>I'm tired of cliche subverting
Let's try and make fantasy races different but still recognisable.
>Key traits of classic race
>Build the 'different' description around them
For example:
Elves, cute knife-eared longliving magic tree-huggers.
This race has well-developed ears, big eyes and is quite fluffy. In ancient times they were the only sentient race to walk the world. They reached great heights in magitech and created other races, bringing sentience to existing species or creating new ones from scratch. Then, The Big Ecology Fuckup happened and brought Elven race to decline, while other races conquered the world and rooted in their niches.
Surviving elves are:
1)Wood elves - Greenpeace paranoids, and they do have a reason to be afraid of techology. They seek for ways of being "One With Nature", teach other druidism and act like proud world saviours (it's unclear for other races from what do they save the world).
2)Dark elves - "HOW DARE OUR CREATIONS TREAT US LIKE EQUALS WE'LL BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THESE UNTERMENSH REEE" Torture, racism, edgy armor and slavery.
3)High Elves, cautiously recovering and using old technology to MAKE ELVES GR8 AGAIN
How they may look like:
>>47127203
>tired of cliches
>still jumps to elves
>still jumps to the big three elf sub-races right out of his 5e PHB
You've already failed on every level.
>>47127346
'kay. Next one: Dwarves.
Underground craftsmen, fierce warriors who like a good drink and honor their oaths and grudges.
Antmen. They live underground, spend eternities in the hive and have all the time in the world to hone their craft and war skills.
Their beards are necklaces with chains of varying material hanging down, and materials it is made of tells stories to those who know how to decipher them.
Instead of being only female like real-life ants they are 50/50 male/female for shits and giggles.
>>47127203
Didn't really get far with your grand and noble goal here, did you champ?
>Guys, what if
>Guys
>Listen, guys
>What if we took the generic three elf subraces, and
>Get this guys
>Make them into cats
>>47127203
>well-developed ears, big eyes and is quite fluffy
This is the only difference you've achieved from bog-standard dnd elves. To a certain definition of "well-developed ears" and "big eyes", those aren't even different.
You wound up with 'fluffy elves that used to have tech', which is an attempt. Try calling them catfolk or some shit that isn't elves.
I always thought elves should fight with quarterstaffs and spears because they have no metallurgy.
Also, those living underground are pale and require aboveground thralls to feed them
>>47127203
So.. fantasy races from the Malazan setting?
I find that on the topic of cliche, fiction enthusiasts tend to fall into one of two camps:
>Every attempt to subvert cliches seems forced and only serves to remind me constantly of the cliche it tries desperately not to be
or
>Cliches are unavoidable and while some tweaking can be done, everyone will always say "Well that's just X with Y painted over it,"
In my opinion, the only cure for the cliche is to forget it or accept it.
I don't know if this counts but...
Kobold's =minions from dispicable me
Gnolls= murderhoboing that guys
Orcs=mongols
Beholders= Donald Trump
>>47127341
>Elven race to decline
Stop here. Keep this out of your Elven lore and your setting automatically becomes unique-ish.
>>47127203
Listen, ignore cliches.
Figure out what is important to you for a race to have in order for it to be a race called x, then build a civilization for that race.
Then build a different one for that same race.
Then do it again.
Now do it for all races you want in your setting.
Now figure out how those neighboring civilizations interact.
Now let centuries go by.
Let the different cultures organically adapt.
Now, ask one member of the race all about his life.
Now you have a hint of what an x race is like.
>This race has well-developed ears, big eyes and is quite fluffy.
pic related
>>47127203
>Let's try and make fantasy races different but still recognisable.
How about you go back to the sources that inspired them and build from there, instead of working off of what recent fiction writers decided?
For example, consider Elves - Elves did not originally refer exclusively to tall, pointy-eared peoples, but to a whole category of magical species.
"Dark Elves" were synonymous with "Dwarfs" in Norse mythology.
So you could have a race of Dwarfs which are short, dark-skinned, wielders of powerful magick, live underneath mountains, are prone of mischief and yet are also considered a race of Elves.
You can do this with a lot of different fantasy creatures.
For example, did you know Leprechaunsoriginally wore red?
>>47127203
neloth can i have some of ur canis root tea
>>47131092
>For example, did you know Leprechaunsoriginally wore red?
That's some dangerous thinking, buddy. We don't take kindly to that sort of nonsense around here.
>>47129845
I don't really know how the Malazan races are recognizable fantasy races. They're recognizable in setting, sure, but what on earth is a Forkrul Assail in generic fantasy races? Beyond eldritch horror, I mean. I guess Jaghut are orky, and T'lan Imass are undead (but really they're just nihilist Native Americans).
>>47130990
How about we invert this?
The world is pretty young - say, only 500 years old. This is long enough for the shorter-lived races like humans and orcs to have established their societies, have a sustainable age distribution across the population, and for all the awkwardness with the first-generation (who, being created as adults, didn't get a childhood) and their child-rearing and such to settle down.
On the other hand, even the oldest Elves are only halfway through their natural lifespan. Elves might be more naturally talented at nearly anything than other races, but they still haven't formed widespread civilisations yet. Too many of them are still travelling the world in tiny groups, or living amongst other races, or spending years being as hedonistic as possible because they have centuries still to go.
There's still weird tensions between the oldest and youngest Elves, the tendency of such a long-lived race towards gerontocracy being limited by their population being too widespread and too unevenly distributed. There's also problems because a lot of Elves haven't got the whole parenting thing down, and Elvish generations are really weird because a 20-year old Elf might be 2nd generation or 12th generation.
So, instead of being on decline, Elves look like they might rule the world one day if they can ever get their shit together.
>>47131675
Jaghut aren't really orky in anything save appearance, though. Completely different themes.
Tiste Andii and Tiste Liosan are all fairly tame and in keeping with 'classic' dark and high elves. Tiste Edur are largely different from other 'grey elves' seen in fantasy, and K'chain Che'malle are literally just dinosaur people. Fairly interesting dinosaur people but dinosaur people nonetheless.
But yeah, Forkrul Assail are whacky as fuck and they don't have any equivalent in typical fantasy.
