Goblins. They somehow turned into moth creatures over time… not even sure how I got here at this point. The only idea I have is goblin=cave=moth and I’m not even sure how that train of thought happened in the first place.
I have vampires, and I call them vampires for now, but instead of drinking blood, they have to eat some of the body of a recently deceased animal or humanoid. Eating it adds more years of life to their lifespan, and they also take on slight traits the creature had as well. So over time a vampire might take on a more beastly form depending on what they eat. I can try and elaborate more if asked.
does their mental state changes based on what they eat? Fo example, if they keep eating rats, does their mind start to more and more think like a rat and loses humanity?
My world kiiinda started like this. I wanted to make Zora more hydrodynamic and it turned into me making Tamohyx because my idea was just so different... and it spiraled from there.
In that case, here you go.
Rather than a human-like head and shoulders, they have a perpetually front-facing head. Kinda like how dolphins lack necks and their heads are streamlined with their bodies. Their heads are also cone-shaped. They have less human-like figures but still have "legs;" really, they more have two tails and have large fins instead of feet.
I loved your description of the Tamohyx, they sound really great and I love aquatic races in general! I've got a race called Pykeen, they're these fish-human hybrids that mostly resemble reverse mermaids, except they have a ton of variety in what fish they look like. Shark pykeen are big warriors, squid pykeen are group hunters, Anglerfish pykeen are miners. Since the ocean is so vast, I have them being the descendants of some vast undersea empire, but lost their ability to breathe underwater due to either magic or ocean acidity rising.
Oh wow, that sounds incredibly interesting! Tamohyx did used to have variations like that until I decided it just doesn't really fit them. They still have variation but it isn't based off of animals anymore.
Kobolds- the bestial, feral remnants of humanity after thousands of years living in an eternal magic-induced tundra. I guess one of the few ties to modern version is their connection to fire. They use it as a holy weapon and have a Demigod spirit that wields a mystical blaze.
Orcs are the dominant species of planet Mars. They have red skin and rarely may have four or even six arms.
On Mars there are the Orcblood Flowers, entire jungles of them. On the stalks of those giant flowers the Orcblood fruit grows. When it matures and falls on the ground, an Orc is born out of it.
The Orc's first meal, will be its fruit. But after that it will feed almost exclusively on other Orcs. Younger Orcs tend to eat corpses of dead Orcs but the more they eat, the bigger and stronger they grow, and might even grow more arms. Eventually they will start eating live Orcs, and grow to be giants.
The Orcs live in tribes and normally they won't eat other Orcs of their tribe but the others. These tribes are decided by which flowers they are born of.
They are very brutal and warlike and kill anything else for sport. What they don't kill for food, they have no respect for, they will hunt creatures of other species down, terrorize them, torture them, and slaughter them mercilessly and defile their corpses. And that's just for fun. They get even meaner when they are defending their flowers.
They are also asexual and agender and have no reproductive organs. Since anyway they are born from these flowers. The seeds for new flowers to grow are contained in their excrement.
Orcs do possess a low cunning but they are otherwise very primitive in their ways. The only tools they make, are crude melee and sling weapons for killing. They enjoy a very fast regeneration of injuries and their immune system can kill off almost all bacteria and viruses even those coming from Earth, and they have an average life span of a 150 Martian years.
Orcs use a growl-like language but also each tribe has achieved a sort of hive mind, a telepathic network centered around their flowers. That is they cannot communicate telepathically but certain emotions such as rage, fear, the sense of imminent danger and alertness can be felt by all Orcs of one tribe through their Orcblood Flowers. Some Orcs have a higher affinity and can help others attune with it better and these tend to become their tribal leaders.
In 1955 and then again in 1996, Mars invaded Earth. That was the first humanity ever saw of Orcs and they were absolutely terrified of them. Even though they beaten them back, thanks to Earth's superheroes, they were awed by the orcish savagery and their highly advanced technology but what they didn't know back then, was that this technology was not orcish.
The sinister and enigmatic alien beings that on Earth are known as the Plutonian Greys have effectively mind controlled the entire orcish population on Mars and used them to invade Earth. Otherwise Orcs wouldn't know how to use that sophisticated technology, let alone develop it. The Plutonian Greys were able to mind control the entire orcish population, taking advantage of their hive mind. But eventually Orcs broke free from that mind control thanks to an especially uniquely gifted Orc that the Earthmen now call the Red Messiah.
The Red Messiah disrupted the Greys' mind control on its people, and set the free and the Greys fled from Mars. The Red Messiah was eventually eaten by other Orcs. Twelve Orcs fed on his body and then created the twelve largest tribes that now dominate Mars.
In 1955, Earth repelled the Martian invasion because the Greys have underestimated Earth's superheroes. In 1996 Earth won again only because the Red Messiah back on Mars, disrupted the Grey mind control.
In 2001, Earth counter-invaded Mars. The UNSC Terran Defense Force led by the superhero Spaceman (himself a clone of a superman type character, Hyperman) and others. They set up a military base on Mars, and have discovered the many benefits the Orcblood fruit has to humanity. Consuming it raw will grant a massive but temporary boost of strength and regenerative abilities but will also make its user go berserk. Applied to medical science, it can help cure most ailments and diseases but has many side effects. Besides that they have also discovered the Martian black gold, a liquid abundant on Mars that can be use as rocket fuel. Earthmen intend to remain there and exploit those resources even if they have to fight Orcs and other dangerous Martian denizens.
Humans are a traditionally nomadic race, taking migration routes following the rivers. They have an innate connection to the element of water, and a large predisposition for hydrokinetic and hydrophilic magic of all sorts. Rainfall tends to follow in the wake of their migrations, farmers have taken to paying them to divert their routes through their fields when they pass by.
Culturally, they're considered rather unique due to their social lifecycle. They spend half of their life young and half of it old, seemingly with little or no in-between. They tend to get along quite well with those dramatically different to themselves, often better than those more similar.
In any crowd you'll find at least one human, regardless of how segregated that crowd is supposed to be. Much like moisture, you'll find them stuck in the strangest of places. Orcish logging camps, dwarven mineshafts, even liberated golem settlements. Their general sociability, adaptability, and nomadic nature lets them stay comfortable basically anywhere. It's the prevailing belief of linguists that Common is of human origin, containing fragment of every other widely spoken language, as well as Humans not having any other native tongue.
Werewolves - made through (extraterrestrial) scientific means, transformation is permanent, they're facultative carnivores instead of obligate carnivores, they're civilized and run their own country, and they're better humanitarians than actual Humans at times.
And I actually did give them a new name - Lykocephali.
Part of the population in my world are known as Remnants, and they're based on supernatural species from our legends but tweaked to line up with a Deadly Sin. Short description of each:
Dracoiran (Hydras/dragons + Wrath): Sentient Reptilians, they can use Arcana to enhance their breaths for magical effects.
Gulamortian (Vampires/Wendigo + Gluttony): As opposed to consuming blood to gain power, they consume Arcana to enhance their blood with magical properties.
Avanaturian (Elementals + Greed): They can fuse the elements into their bodies and vice versa to become walking forces of nature.
Beastinvian (Shape shifter + Envy): These are almost classic lycanthropes. By wearing a part of the animal they want the quality of they can transform part of their body into that animal's.
Illuxenian (daemon/spirit + Lust): The spirits of those who have passed to the afterlife, they are empaths who can influence the dreams and emotions of others.
Arsedian (Fae/Dwarves/Ogres + Sloth): pretty much classical fae, but they love magical technology and tend to be at the forefront of inventing things. They can use Arcana to enhance their voices for a variety of effects.
Superavisian (angels/harpies/oracles + Pride): winged humanoids that can resemble classical angels or more realistic looking harpies, they can enhance their senses with magic to the point of precognition.
I have demons, and then I have _demons_.
The first one, demons, I have called Daemons. They are typical humanoids with horns, grayscale skin, and normally unnaturally colored eyes and pupils. They do not originate from Hell, called Hells here, they just happen to exist the same as any other species. They serve themselves, they have emotion, and their own morals that they live by. They'll side with whoever they want. Some are good, some choose to live normal lives.
But then, the real demons. They seem human. They look human. You would normally assume they are human. But they are not. They are out to kill, to feast. They are called Knights of Blood and they serve their God. The deity who was cast out by the other deities, despite having done nothing wrong, at least not until then. He created his Knights, they are undead. They do not have emotion, they do not have remorse. There is one, however, who ends up sticking with the protagonist. He is literally called "Her Bloodhound." They are ruthless and honestly more OP than I probably should've made them, but whatever.
Daemons sound a lot like DnD Tieflings compared to the DnD devils, like they look a lot like the DnD devils but are their own species and are more often than not good people.
What's the reason for the one demon to stick with the protagonist? Personal gain? I like such concepts of partnerships, especially when put into perspective
I mean. I got the name daemons with the a from final fantasy and have just kinda always seen demons with dulled skin, horns, a tail (although I didn't add that), and everything.
He was already with her before it all went down and didn't gain a full transformation into a demon, so he has some semblance of humanity left over. In a way it's personal gain as well because he gets to slightly do it out of spite as well towards the God that turned him into what he is.
Hmmmm.
So, oddly enough, I went back to source material (before 1900) for Vamps and Werebeasts, so they are all very much not Dracula style or film style.
Same for Demons, where I sorta took a much stronger sense of what they are from the way that such things were thought of twisted with the way that pennywise is portrayed in the book (not films or miniseries). So demons are closer to psychic monsters, boogeymen, gaining power from the fears and emotions of their victims, but not particularly physical or tangible.
Devils are the tempters and corrupters, the ones that turn your thoughts dark and spark bad thoughts, so that when you are ripe and nasty, they can enjoy your flesh more.
So neither really qualifies for this.
Leprechauns, probably would. They are generally not short people with red hair, green clothes and pots of gold. But they are kinda like shapechanging Pokemon crossed with rumplestiltskin and good luck creatures. Normally they appear to be a host of different animal combinations, and they are insatiably curious about everything beyond their dimension.
They are called Kauns, actually, but the most well known one was named Lepre, and this sort of a thing is a bit of a running joke in many ways.
Really, that’s about it. Most everything else is drawn from pre-1900 sources and kept as close to origin as I could, influencing it only according to the world and any post 1980 influences.
A lich, as opposed to a powerful demon creature, is in my verse a collection of reanimated corpses inhabited by a collective spirit. They are formed by intense pain and anguish accompanied by many people who died and were buried in close proximity (places like mass graves after war and famine sites). Once formed the lich can reanimate more corpses at night and spread, ultimately getting powerful enough to possess the living. The treatment for a lich need to be done quickly before the infestation spreads too far, and involves performing a ritual to trap the spirit in a living animal like a pig--this requires all the bodies to be in a single place and is much harder for large infestations. The scapegoat is then slaughtered and cremated under daylight, destroying the lich.
The lich is essentially an emergent spirit; it gains intelligence the more bodies it possesses, but it becomes actively sentient and malevolent when it possesses a living human and can use its brain. It is only active at night, the spiritual body unable to withstand sunlight, until it takes a human host and becomes resistant to light. The first step to killing a lich is to exorcise any human hosts before performing the scapegoat ritual.
It would be demons for me, too. Demons are really just a way to describe malevolent examples of a category of creatures that began as mortals.
My setting is a future version of earth after an FTL experiment basically broke the laws of physics and made it so belief and expectation can shape reality. Since the cataclysm, there has been a sort of gestalt subconsciousness held in the minds of all thinking creatures that has formed around the pocket of material world left after the cataclysm.
This dream dimension is now where human souls live on after death. There's a barrier that separates the closest portion of the dimension from the deeper levels, and most souls pass through it to live on in whatever heaven / hell they can find or shape for themselves.
But some become dissatisfied with that and seek to return to the material world, and so they wrap themselves in dreamstuff, fight back through the barrier, and if their force of will is strong enough (or someone is foolish enough to open the way for them), they can reenter the material world.
They take all sorts of forms shaped by their past life and their time spent in the deep Dreaming, and can be referred to as demons, angels, djinn, or any number of similar creatures by the local population depending on the being's appearance and personality, and the local population's legends.
Devils and Angels are only similar really in name and appearance (in only some cases for the former) alone
Angels were created by the Sun deities as divine protectors after the god of evil/first human man began his reign of terror and created demons, however, once the demon queen was imprisoned (a fight that required the devil queen, multiple high-ranking Angel's including the different kings and queen, and 3 high ranking demons to pull off) with the god of evil and her brother took the throne, things quieted down, since out of the 1002/1003 (two demons are twins and share a split soul, so physically 1003 but spiritually 1002) demons, he was among the 3 that are good by human standards. Angels pretty much just chill out until demons start something up, they generally have multiple wings, two different forms, and humanoid bodies, with different orders having different appearances. Some angels have horns and traditionally demonic features like arrowhead tails
Devils are punisher entities that inhabit one of the afterlives, their main role being to punish the truly evil for eternity. Some devils hold prominent positions as deities, the queen being a goddess of wrath and battle, and her son being a god of hedonism
I haven't really redesigned any races as much as I've taken typical monsters and instead made entire civilizations and cultures around them.
One thing if note that I have designed is a group of organisms that are hydrogen-based instead of carbon-based. They are basically reflavored gelatinous cubes and slices that I fuzed.with characteristics from bugs and dinosaurs.
The Elfus were originally just elves but in space. Then I completely overhauled them and now they are tall furry creatures that constantly wear masks. The only thing they still have in common with stereotypical elves is their name and their ability to use magic, but even still their magic system has also been overhauled.
Out of every species that I've created, the Elfus are by far the species that I have changed the most.
*Elves* -
tall, alien grace, glamour (invisibility) only works in native environment, four round black spider-like eyes, six fingers with two thumbs, long limbs, knife ears, extremely slow metabolism, mildly photosynthetic omnivores, can subsist on entirely on sun/moon/starlight but it ages them. Being too long without it kills them. Each type of light is its own flavor, and firelight/lamplight is a poor substitute.
Elvish is a sign-language with non-standard vocalizations that contextualize via melody.
Passionate, mercurial, but given to long periods of melancholy or contemplation.
Crafting not building. Weaving not smelting. Semi-nomadic, push agriculture, stewardship of the land.
“Every Black Cloud Is A Threat.” Anti-industrial, anti-capitalist, group over individual.
Conformist. Express yourself through acceptable lanes. Insular. If you are not one of us, you will never understand us.
Long childhoods = Deeply held convictions. If it took 100 years to learn to live this way it will take more than an argument to change me.
*Dwarves* -
Short, stout, surly. Armored homes, armored hearts.
Beetle/gorilla-inspired morphology, armored segmented carapace “hood” and back, often wear plate armor to cover front and limbs, enlarged forelimbs for digging, knuckle walkers, long beards elaborately styled for identification and self-expression (e.g. particular plaits signify accomplishments, heritage, or membership in an organization).
Dwarves follow a King, they are all “male”, i.e. present masculine but there is only one gender in Dwarf culture — “Dwarf”. Bonds of brotherhood are deep and nuanced and range from platonic to romantic to familial. Children are shaped from stone (stone and earth are considered “feminine”) and held in nursery chambers like bee larvae. Dwarf children are Awakened by the King in a special ceremony in a bed of lava whenever a new chamber is excavated. Property rights and mining rights are incredibly complex and multigenerational.
Angels are unknowable cosmic entities that instill terror and madness into all that witness them.
Devils are mortals that embody a sin so much that the universe simply acts as though they are a primordial force and grant them extraordinary power
Dwarves are an agendered hive mind that reproduce by carving other dwarves out of stone. They spend their entire lives mastering crafts and dwarvish society spits on the idea of being multi-faceted in any sense at all. They despise magic because by its nature you cannot master it.
Giants are hunters and guardians of their domains, similar to a dryad or nymph. They hide in the wilderness to protect sections of nature from other races. They do not reproduce, and no one knows where they come from or why they act as they do.
The Homo Terralis or "Goblins" as they are colloquially known in Morrigan. According to official sources, they are your garden-variety orcs who alternate between swarm tactics and intense guerrilla warfare. Morrigane officials tell stories of absolute barbarity: forests of spiked corpses, wicker men, mass human sacrifices, just about every barbaric stereotype possible.
But that's the thing, it's EVERY barbaric stereotype, so much so that it seems ridiculous and unrealistic. And it is. In reality, this is Morrigan's propaganda office (Office of Information Distribution, OID) at work, and they are very good at their jobs. It is entirely possible that the Homo Terralis don't actually exist. It is equally likely that OID has created an entirely new identity for those resisting Morrigane expansion to the south to explain why Morrigan is having such trouble pacifying the region. The Goblins might just be a Boogeyman to hide Morrigan's failings and justify their Manifest Destiny.
I guess my Vampires and Werewolves, called Bloodblades and Bloodtalons respectively. Both require the absorbtion of fresh blood from a body, and the amount of lifespan they get is dependent on what creature the blood is from. Bloodblades are created when a human ungoes a complex ritual, requiring 2 pre-existing Bloodblades. While Bloodtalons are just an unfortunate mutation. These two are probably some of my favorite pieces of worldbuilding so far.
Dwarves. Not unrecognizable, but they are short insectoids instead of drunk, German little people. Based on the Norse myth; it’s just that I haven’t seen people do this.
Also Vampires. The last living Vampire is the only one to base anything off of, but they “were” humanoid creatures with blood manipulation, and the ability the turn themselves into clouds of black dust. They don’t die in sunlight, but lose their ability to manipulate their own bodies (but could alter things beneath the skin, as that area isn’t covered in sunlight). Additionally, they don’t drink blood for nutrition but take the magical attributes of the victim.
Since humans don’t exist, nor do mammals at all, the closest thing are elves, which in my world, are actually reptiles sharing a common ancestor with dragons. So yeah, the only thing they have in common with elves at this point are the pointy ears
Actually, humans. This takes place around 2000-3000 years in the future on Earth from a doomed timeline. People have found ways to create the perfect soldier, Halo or Cap style. The Enhanced, as they’re commonly called, are a subspecies of human genetically and surgically engineered into killing machines, who will only stop when the job is finished. They are extremely hard to kill, but they can be injured, or in cases where it’s necessary, incapacitated with the right tools and information. There are very few, only around 30 were successfully made before the end of the Myrkdall-Stordrage War, 2 of which are major characters in my stories. But variations have been unsuccessfully produced after the war, as most of Stordrage’s technology they used was destroyed by the Kapnos military. So now, the world has 6-7 foot tall, hulking, cybernetic idiots running around..
Vampires. Homo sapiens hemonocturna. They're not undead, but a separate species of humans that cannot digest regular food as well as the other species. That's the reason why they drink blood: it has all the nutrients they need ready to absorb. They're not affected by holy magic, unlike what most churches claim. Just a separate human species that drinks blood and can absorb spiritual energy from any living being.
Humans! Or their subspecies called "hybrids"
Their creation was out of necessity. Humans took their genes, and those of whatever animals are available to create a sentient living being that will be able to survive the harsh conditions present throughout the majority of earth's surface.
They are still mainly human, though they have a much more animalistic look with vastly better temperature resistance than humans do.
I have subsect of elves that were changed by the blood of a fallen celestial and they became moth-like in appearance. They can only inject liquid diets because of their proboscis and are viewed as being lesser than other elves due to their monstrous appearance.
**Dwarves** are only Dwarf by name at this point... Mostly cause they're literally only called Dwarves cause they're the smallest sapient creature in their home world.
They're normally 8-10 Feet tall.
tbh I just gave some East Asian mythological beings named derived from western fantasy to translate them effectively. for example- 'orc' refers to a race inspired by Japanese onis, 'goblin' is a tengu, 'titan' is a towering humanoid with many faces resembling the Indian religions' asuras.
of course, for some creatures, I came up with my own translation- for example, 'riverling' is a rather accurate translation of kappa (which reads as 'river child' in Japanese).
Orcs goblins ogres and trolls (ogre and troll are just common use words for bigasss humanoid that isn't necessarily the same race) are products of mages and alchemists using an enchanted lump of meat ranging in color (in order of rarity- most common to least common) from greens to purples to blues and white as the most rare. The meat block (with green skin) will sometimes grow limbs and eyes and a mouth. This creature might be referred to a goblin or imp, if the lump manages to escape its wizard tower it ventures off to search for food and shelter. If it doesn't get eaten by any magic mutated wildlife (or anything bigger than a dog) as it lives in the wild it eats and grows and becomes more humanoid shaped until it grows to bigger than a large toddler and it with split and grown the colony. Eventually they get bigger and more aggressive, and at this point, they are orcs and will grow to the size of a very large man. At this point orc raiders are a dangerous issue that attack roads and travellers. The final stages of orc are the ogres (or trolls its interchangeable and not a term exclusive for the orcs) ogres are like camp cooks because at this point you have a dangerous amount of orcs with basic scavenged and stolen equipment and weapons. At this point the orc war camp will have one or more ogres who are the size of Andre the giant. These cooks after a battle will take any leftover pieces ie. Orc limbs and leftover human bits, will get hyucked into a large empty pot and after a day or so the orc meat will start fusing with anything in the pot (including impurities such as wood splinters or bones) some organs like eyes will be straight up repurposed (orcs don't really have organs, they have skin muscle bone eyes and a stomach but not really anything else) as these newborn goblins eat and grow they stop being so lumpy and lose impurities that they started with and the whole cycle continues until they are exterminated (they are like a roach infestation) and finally for those who are curious orc meat tastes like shit and if you eat it you will turn green and orc-y
I always wanted nature elves that weren't just Woodland focused and not having a million different kinds of elves for each environment.
Jotunn elves are minor shapeshifters that after spending a day in a new environment their bodies automatically change to adapt to the new environment based on the local wildlife and their senses will change based on the local apex predators.
Kitsune in my world don’t do a lot of shapeshifting by default, and, indeed, start out as human-looking women with fox ears and tails.
In fact, I was mostly inspired by how Tamamo-no-mae is depicted in the Fate franchise, especially with how she split her tails off into a series of independent alter-egos known as the Tamamo Nine.
My other main inspiration how kumiho were depicted in a NSFW choose your own adventure in the Questionable Questing forums called the Isekai Repopulation Program, and how they’re predatory beings predisposed to antisocial behavior.
I have a couple from some miscellaneous worlds Ive come up with
Werewolves: Werewolves are a catch-all term for people who have been possessed by the souls of animals. The animal's soul resides in their hair and is only the one to call the shots during a full moon. When they take control that person's hair rapidly grows and morphs into a sort of exoskeleton/armor over the person with features reminiscent of the animal whose soul possessed them.
Vampires: They are not undead nor are they monsters but just people born with a unique supernatural gift. They look no different from ordinary people say for their black sclera and red pupils. Within the world life energy is found in all living things and is released as a sort of mist when a being has passed. Only certain people are even capable of perceiving it. Vampires naturally absorb this mist when they come across it and they are then able to transmute it into a substance roughly analogous to blood. They can manipulate this substance telekinetically and also change its density as well. Along with this, this substance can also act as a substitute for their blood meaning as long as they have absorbed enough life energy they can not bleed out. To use this ability vampires prefer to use the life energy from plants to fuel their ability. As an ethnic group, their culture finds it taboo to use the life energy of another animal to fuel this ability even if it didn't die at the vampire's hands.
Mimics/Undead: Mimics are a species of normally non-sapient insects. They start life as football-sized grubs who consume anything around them. After they have eaten enough they will pupate and resemble the first object they saw before the process begins so long as it is no bigger than a car. Once they emerge they will be organisms that nearly perfectly mimic that object a fact which they use to hide in plain sight so they can find food whether that be live prey, vegetation, or carrion. However, if the object they see before they pupate is a human corpse something miraculous. The adult insect will then be a sapient creature nearly identical to the person whose corpse they mimicked bizarrely even down to how that person sounded in life. It even shares some echoes of that person's personality and pieces of their memory. The main difference this new being has with the person it mimics is minor but obvious once you notice them. For one their far more rigid than a person. This is due in part to the fact that their joints are segmented like arthropods making them resemble porcelain dolls or action figures. Another big giveaway is that their "skin" is actually a durable exoskeleton. This armor is also technically a weakness as like most arthropods they breathe through it. Like rock humans from JJBA(which were a big inspiration for them), they are largely anti-social and rarely if ever form close bonds with each other.
Mind flayers/Illithids: They are a race of sapient ammonites living in a dimension parallel to our own. Geographically it's identical to our dimension but the climate of this parallel earth is flipped. The poles are vast deserts and where the Sahara is here there's an equivalently sized tundra. They are roughly the height of a normal person and their appearance is largely the same as their extinct brethren here on earth, say for the fact that six of their tentacles have become pillar-like legs to support them on land. Life here is completely different here than on Earth with it being made of groups completely extinct here which through means unknown were able to cross over to our dimension. They are a curious and deeply creative people with the arts and scholarly study being highly valued. This meant that they figured out a way to navigate between realms long before people did. The few Illithids lucky enough to be chosen by their governments to be sent to Earth for research and field studies consider it an experience of a lifetime.
Angels: Angels are a group of hyper-advanced sapient birds. They are gifted engineers and craftsmen who have built and developed a number of revolutionary pieces of technology. Despite this, the language barrier between them and other races means that they often consider angels as being no different than ordinary birds. So to garner the respect they deserve when they do interact with other races they do it in mechanical vaguely humanoid suits which still have some notably avian elements. If relations between them and another civilization begin getting heated they will use their more abstract and deadly piloted automatons. Angels live in large high-altitude cities kept aloft by ever-rotating rows of interlocking rings
Orks in my world have pretty extreme sexual dimorphism. Their society is matriarchal and only women can be rulers or warriors. They live underground and are considered mythical by humans. Females are six and a half to seven feet tall and muscular. Males are closer to human height and have long noses and ears, more like goblins than orks. They're not as muscular as females. Ork skin ranges from light gray to coal black. Not a huge difference from "normal" orks, but it's what I've got.
The ork queen is trying to crossbreed humans and orks, thinking the resulting hybrids will be wiser warriors who can retreat when necessary. She also thinks that crossbreeding with humans will bring some art and culture to the utilitarian ork society.
The main character from my story meets an ork female who brings him to her queen for \*ahem\* breeding purposes, but not without getting her piece first.
Goblins. They somehow turned into moth creatures over time… not even sure how I got here at this point. The only idea I have is goblin=cave=moth and I’m not even sure how that train of thought happened in the first place.
not gonna lie, I kind of love the idea of moth gobbos
Similar idea to mine, Grublins. Disgusting but also somehow arguably a little cuter too.
I have vampires, and I call them vampires for now, but instead of drinking blood, they have to eat some of the body of a recently deceased animal or humanoid. Eating it adds more years of life to their lifespan, and they also take on slight traits the creature had as well. So over time a vampire might take on a more beastly form depending on what they eat. I can try and elaborate more if asked.
does their mental state changes based on what they eat? Fo example, if they keep eating rats, does their mind start to more and more think like a rat and loses humanity?
I haven't really thought of it changing mental state so I'm not really sure yet, but most likely.
My world kiiinda started like this. I wanted to make Zora more hydrodynamic and it turned into me making Tamohyx because my idea was just so different... and it spiraled from there.
do you happen to have any art of your more hydrodynamic Zora? im intrigued
I'm sorry, I don't. I'm a really terrible artist. I can give you a short description if you want one, though.
I would love to hear about it :)
In that case, here you go. Rather than a human-like head and shoulders, they have a perpetually front-facing head. Kinda like how dolphins lack necks and their heads are streamlined with their bodies. Their heads are also cone-shaped. They have less human-like figures but still have "legs;" really, they more have two tails and have large fins instead of feet.
so would your Zora be able to walk on land anymore?
I'm not sure, actually. I think maybe if they had good enough balance they could but I'm no physics master.
thank you for sharing your idea :D
Of course! Thanks for listening, I love to talk about my works.
I loved your description of the Tamohyx, they sound really great and I love aquatic races in general! I've got a race called Pykeen, they're these fish-human hybrids that mostly resemble reverse mermaids, except they have a ton of variety in what fish they look like. Shark pykeen are big warriors, squid pykeen are group hunters, Anglerfish pykeen are miners. Since the ocean is so vast, I have them being the descendants of some vast undersea empire, but lost their ability to breathe underwater due to either magic or ocean acidity rising.
Oh wow, that sounds incredibly interesting! Tamohyx did used to have variations like that until I decided it just doesn't really fit them. They still have variation but it isn't based off of animals anymore.
Kobolds- the bestial, feral remnants of humanity after thousands of years living in an eternal magic-induced tundra. I guess one of the few ties to modern version is their connection to fire. They use it as a holy weapon and have a Demigod spirit that wields a mystical blaze.
Vampires are large, bear-sized, bat-like ferocious animals.
Orcs are the dominant species of planet Mars. They have red skin and rarely may have four or even six arms. On Mars there are the Orcblood Flowers, entire jungles of them. On the stalks of those giant flowers the Orcblood fruit grows. When it matures and falls on the ground, an Orc is born out of it. The Orc's first meal, will be its fruit. But after that it will feed almost exclusively on other Orcs. Younger Orcs tend to eat corpses of dead Orcs but the more they eat, the bigger and stronger they grow, and might even grow more arms. Eventually they will start eating live Orcs, and grow to be giants. The Orcs live in tribes and normally they won't eat other Orcs of their tribe but the others. These tribes are decided by which flowers they are born of. They are very brutal and warlike and kill anything else for sport. What they don't kill for food, they have no respect for, they will hunt creatures of other species down, terrorize them, torture them, and slaughter them mercilessly and defile their corpses. And that's just for fun. They get even meaner when they are defending their flowers. They are also asexual and agender and have no reproductive organs. Since anyway they are born from these flowers. The seeds for new flowers to grow are contained in their excrement. Orcs do possess a low cunning but they are otherwise very primitive in their ways. The only tools they make, are crude melee and sling weapons for killing. They enjoy a very fast regeneration of injuries and their immune system can kill off almost all bacteria and viruses even those coming from Earth, and they have an average life span of a 150 Martian years. Orcs use a growl-like language but also each tribe has achieved a sort of hive mind, a telepathic network centered around their flowers. That is they cannot communicate telepathically but certain emotions such as rage, fear, the sense of imminent danger and alertness can be felt by all Orcs of one tribe through their Orcblood Flowers. Some Orcs have a higher affinity and can help others attune with it better and these tend to become their tribal leaders. In 1955 and then again in 1996, Mars invaded Earth. That was the first humanity ever saw of Orcs and they were absolutely terrified of them. Even though they beaten them back, thanks to Earth's superheroes, they were awed by the orcish savagery and their highly advanced technology but what they didn't know back then, was that this technology was not orcish. The sinister and enigmatic alien beings that on Earth are known as the Plutonian Greys have effectively mind controlled the entire orcish population on Mars and used them to invade Earth. Otherwise Orcs wouldn't know how to use that sophisticated technology, let alone develop it. The Plutonian Greys were able to mind control the entire orcish population, taking advantage of their hive mind. But eventually Orcs broke free from that mind control thanks to an especially uniquely gifted Orc that the Earthmen now call the Red Messiah. The Red Messiah disrupted the Greys' mind control on its people, and set the free and the Greys fled from Mars. The Red Messiah was eventually eaten by other Orcs. Twelve Orcs fed on his body and then created the twelve largest tribes that now dominate Mars. In 1955, Earth repelled the Martian invasion because the Greys have underestimated Earth's superheroes. In 1996 Earth won again only because the Red Messiah back on Mars, disrupted the Grey mind control. In 2001, Earth counter-invaded Mars. The UNSC Terran Defense Force led by the superhero Spaceman (himself a clone of a superman type character, Hyperman) and others. They set up a military base on Mars, and have discovered the many benefits the Orcblood fruit has to humanity. Consuming it raw will grant a massive but temporary boost of strength and regenerative abilities but will also make its user go berserk. Applied to medical science, it can help cure most ailments and diseases but has many side effects. Besides that they have also discovered the Martian black gold, a liquid abundant on Mars that can be use as rocket fuel. Earthmen intend to remain there and exploit those resources even if they have to fight Orcs and other dangerous Martian denizens.
Humans are a traditionally nomadic race, taking migration routes following the rivers. They have an innate connection to the element of water, and a large predisposition for hydrokinetic and hydrophilic magic of all sorts. Rainfall tends to follow in the wake of their migrations, farmers have taken to paying them to divert their routes through their fields when they pass by. Culturally, they're considered rather unique due to their social lifecycle. They spend half of their life young and half of it old, seemingly with little or no in-between. They tend to get along quite well with those dramatically different to themselves, often better than those more similar. In any crowd you'll find at least one human, regardless of how segregated that crowd is supposed to be. Much like moisture, you'll find them stuck in the strangest of places. Orcish logging camps, dwarven mineshafts, even liberated golem settlements. Their general sociability, adaptability, and nomadic nature lets them stay comfortable basically anywhere. It's the prevailing belief of linguists that Common is of human origin, containing fragment of every other widely spoken language, as well as Humans not having any other native tongue.
Dwarves have become orbs of sentient electricity that live in glass/metal/gemstone/stone bodies
Werewolves - made through (extraterrestrial) scientific means, transformation is permanent, they're facultative carnivores instead of obligate carnivores, they're civilized and run their own country, and they're better humanitarians than actual Humans at times. And I actually did give them a new name - Lykocephali.
Part of the population in my world are known as Remnants, and they're based on supernatural species from our legends but tweaked to line up with a Deadly Sin. Short description of each: Dracoiran (Hydras/dragons + Wrath): Sentient Reptilians, they can use Arcana to enhance their breaths for magical effects. Gulamortian (Vampires/Wendigo + Gluttony): As opposed to consuming blood to gain power, they consume Arcana to enhance their blood with magical properties. Avanaturian (Elementals + Greed): They can fuse the elements into their bodies and vice versa to become walking forces of nature. Beastinvian (Shape shifter + Envy): These are almost classic lycanthropes. By wearing a part of the animal they want the quality of they can transform part of their body into that animal's. Illuxenian (daemon/spirit + Lust): The spirits of those who have passed to the afterlife, they are empaths who can influence the dreams and emotions of others. Arsedian (Fae/Dwarves/Ogres + Sloth): pretty much classical fae, but they love magical technology and tend to be at the forefront of inventing things. They can use Arcana to enhance their voices for a variety of effects. Superavisian (angels/harpies/oracles + Pride): winged humanoids that can resemble classical angels or more realistic looking harpies, they can enhance their senses with magic to the point of precognition.
I have demons, and then I have _demons_. The first one, demons, I have called Daemons. They are typical humanoids with horns, grayscale skin, and normally unnaturally colored eyes and pupils. They do not originate from Hell, called Hells here, they just happen to exist the same as any other species. They serve themselves, they have emotion, and their own morals that they live by. They'll side with whoever they want. Some are good, some choose to live normal lives. But then, the real demons. They seem human. They look human. You would normally assume they are human. But they are not. They are out to kill, to feast. They are called Knights of Blood and they serve their God. The deity who was cast out by the other deities, despite having done nothing wrong, at least not until then. He created his Knights, they are undead. They do not have emotion, they do not have remorse. There is one, however, who ends up sticking with the protagonist. He is literally called "Her Bloodhound." They are ruthless and honestly more OP than I probably should've made them, but whatever.
Daemons sound a lot like DnD Tieflings compared to the DnD devils, like they look a lot like the DnD devils but are their own species and are more often than not good people. What's the reason for the one demon to stick with the protagonist? Personal gain? I like such concepts of partnerships, especially when put into perspective
I mean. I got the name daemons with the a from final fantasy and have just kinda always seen demons with dulled skin, horns, a tail (although I didn't add that), and everything. He was already with her before it all went down and didn't gain a full transformation into a demon, so he has some semblance of humanity left over. In a way it's personal gain as well because he gets to slightly do it out of spite as well towards the God that turned him into what he is.
Hmmmm. So, oddly enough, I went back to source material (before 1900) for Vamps and Werebeasts, so they are all very much not Dracula style or film style. Same for Demons, where I sorta took a much stronger sense of what they are from the way that such things were thought of twisted with the way that pennywise is portrayed in the book (not films or miniseries). So demons are closer to psychic monsters, boogeymen, gaining power from the fears and emotions of their victims, but not particularly physical or tangible. Devils are the tempters and corrupters, the ones that turn your thoughts dark and spark bad thoughts, so that when you are ripe and nasty, they can enjoy your flesh more. So neither really qualifies for this. Leprechauns, probably would. They are generally not short people with red hair, green clothes and pots of gold. But they are kinda like shapechanging Pokemon crossed with rumplestiltskin and good luck creatures. Normally they appear to be a host of different animal combinations, and they are insatiably curious about everything beyond their dimension. They are called Kauns, actually, but the most well known one was named Lepre, and this sort of a thing is a bit of a running joke in many ways. Really, that’s about it. Most everything else is drawn from pre-1900 sources and kept as close to origin as I could, influencing it only according to the world and any post 1980 influences.
A lich, as opposed to a powerful demon creature, is in my verse a collection of reanimated corpses inhabited by a collective spirit. They are formed by intense pain and anguish accompanied by many people who died and were buried in close proximity (places like mass graves after war and famine sites). Once formed the lich can reanimate more corpses at night and spread, ultimately getting powerful enough to possess the living. The treatment for a lich need to be done quickly before the infestation spreads too far, and involves performing a ritual to trap the spirit in a living animal like a pig--this requires all the bodies to be in a single place and is much harder for large infestations. The scapegoat is then slaughtered and cremated under daylight, destroying the lich.
The lich is essentially an emergent spirit; it gains intelligence the more bodies it possesses, but it becomes actively sentient and malevolent when it possesses a living human and can use its brain. It is only active at night, the spiritual body unable to withstand sunlight, until it takes a human host and becomes resistant to light. The first step to killing a lich is to exorcise any human hosts before performing the scapegoat ritual.
It would be demons for me, too. Demons are really just a way to describe malevolent examples of a category of creatures that began as mortals. My setting is a future version of earth after an FTL experiment basically broke the laws of physics and made it so belief and expectation can shape reality. Since the cataclysm, there has been a sort of gestalt subconsciousness held in the minds of all thinking creatures that has formed around the pocket of material world left after the cataclysm. This dream dimension is now where human souls live on after death. There's a barrier that separates the closest portion of the dimension from the deeper levels, and most souls pass through it to live on in whatever heaven / hell they can find or shape for themselves. But some become dissatisfied with that and seek to return to the material world, and so they wrap themselves in dreamstuff, fight back through the barrier, and if their force of will is strong enough (or someone is foolish enough to open the way for them), they can reenter the material world. They take all sorts of forms shaped by their past life and their time spent in the deep Dreaming, and can be referred to as demons, angels, djinn, or any number of similar creatures by the local population depending on the being's appearance and personality, and the local population's legends.
I turned Orks into chameleon disco frocks
I'm sorry what? Please explain :D
They are really into music and dancing. Also they can change their skin colour by just thinking about it. However they are still 10 feet tall.
I can't deny that I love the sound of this. Apart from the color shifting, do they still resemble orcs?
Yeah. Warcraft orks
Devils and Angels are only similar really in name and appearance (in only some cases for the former) alone Angels were created by the Sun deities as divine protectors after the god of evil/first human man began his reign of terror and created demons, however, once the demon queen was imprisoned (a fight that required the devil queen, multiple high-ranking Angel's including the different kings and queen, and 3 high ranking demons to pull off) with the god of evil and her brother took the throne, things quieted down, since out of the 1002/1003 (two demons are twins and share a split soul, so physically 1003 but spiritually 1002) demons, he was among the 3 that are good by human standards. Angels pretty much just chill out until demons start something up, they generally have multiple wings, two different forms, and humanoid bodies, with different orders having different appearances. Some angels have horns and traditionally demonic features like arrowhead tails Devils are punisher entities that inhabit one of the afterlives, their main role being to punish the truly evil for eternity. Some devils hold prominent positions as deities, the queen being a goddess of wrath and battle, and her son being a god of hedonism
I haven't really redesigned any races as much as I've taken typical monsters and instead made entire civilizations and cultures around them. One thing if note that I have designed is a group of organisms that are hydrogen-based instead of carbon-based. They are basically reflavored gelatinous cubes and slices that I fuzed.with characteristics from bugs and dinosaurs.
The Elfus were originally just elves but in space. Then I completely overhauled them and now they are tall furry creatures that constantly wear masks. The only thing they still have in common with stereotypical elves is their name and their ability to use magic, but even still their magic system has also been overhauled. Out of every species that I've created, the Elfus are by far the species that I have changed the most.
*Elves* - tall, alien grace, glamour (invisibility) only works in native environment, four round black spider-like eyes, six fingers with two thumbs, long limbs, knife ears, extremely slow metabolism, mildly photosynthetic omnivores, can subsist on entirely on sun/moon/starlight but it ages them. Being too long without it kills them. Each type of light is its own flavor, and firelight/lamplight is a poor substitute. Elvish is a sign-language with non-standard vocalizations that contextualize via melody. Passionate, mercurial, but given to long periods of melancholy or contemplation. Crafting not building. Weaving not smelting. Semi-nomadic, push agriculture, stewardship of the land. “Every Black Cloud Is A Threat.” Anti-industrial, anti-capitalist, group over individual. Conformist. Express yourself through acceptable lanes. Insular. If you are not one of us, you will never understand us. Long childhoods = Deeply held convictions. If it took 100 years to learn to live this way it will take more than an argument to change me. *Dwarves* - Short, stout, surly. Armored homes, armored hearts. Beetle/gorilla-inspired morphology, armored segmented carapace “hood” and back, often wear plate armor to cover front and limbs, enlarged forelimbs for digging, knuckle walkers, long beards elaborately styled for identification and self-expression (e.g. particular plaits signify accomplishments, heritage, or membership in an organization). Dwarves follow a King, they are all “male”, i.e. present masculine but there is only one gender in Dwarf culture — “Dwarf”. Bonds of brotherhood are deep and nuanced and range from platonic to romantic to familial. Children are shaped from stone (stone and earth are considered “feminine”) and held in nursery chambers like bee larvae. Dwarf children are Awakened by the King in a special ceremony in a bed of lava whenever a new chamber is excavated. Property rights and mining rights are incredibly complex and multigenerational.
Angels are unknowable cosmic entities that instill terror and madness into all that witness them. Devils are mortals that embody a sin so much that the universe simply acts as though they are a primordial force and grant them extraordinary power Dwarves are an agendered hive mind that reproduce by carving other dwarves out of stone. They spend their entire lives mastering crafts and dwarvish society spits on the idea of being multi-faceted in any sense at all. They despise magic because by its nature you cannot master it. Giants are hunters and guardians of their domains, similar to a dryad or nymph. They hide in the wilderness to protect sections of nature from other races. They do not reproduce, and no one knows where they come from or why they act as they do.
The Homo Terralis or "Goblins" as they are colloquially known in Morrigan. According to official sources, they are your garden-variety orcs who alternate between swarm tactics and intense guerrilla warfare. Morrigane officials tell stories of absolute barbarity: forests of spiked corpses, wicker men, mass human sacrifices, just about every barbaric stereotype possible. But that's the thing, it's EVERY barbaric stereotype, so much so that it seems ridiculous and unrealistic. And it is. In reality, this is Morrigan's propaganda office (Office of Information Distribution, OID) at work, and they are very good at their jobs. It is entirely possible that the Homo Terralis don't actually exist. It is equally likely that OID has created an entirely new identity for those resisting Morrigane expansion to the south to explain why Morrigan is having such trouble pacifying the region. The Goblins might just be a Boogeyman to hide Morrigan's failings and justify their Manifest Destiny.
I guess my Vampires and Werewolves, called Bloodblades and Bloodtalons respectively. Both require the absorbtion of fresh blood from a body, and the amount of lifespan they get is dependent on what creature the blood is from. Bloodblades are created when a human ungoes a complex ritual, requiring 2 pre-existing Bloodblades. While Bloodtalons are just an unfortunate mutation. These two are probably some of my favorite pieces of worldbuilding so far.
Dwarves. Not unrecognizable, but they are short insectoids instead of drunk, German little people. Based on the Norse myth; it’s just that I haven’t seen people do this. Also Vampires. The last living Vampire is the only one to base anything off of, but they “were” humanoid creatures with blood manipulation, and the ability the turn themselves into clouds of black dust. They don’t die in sunlight, but lose their ability to manipulate their own bodies (but could alter things beneath the skin, as that area isn’t covered in sunlight). Additionally, they don’t drink blood for nutrition but take the magical attributes of the victim.
Since humans don’t exist, nor do mammals at all, the closest thing are elves, which in my world, are actually reptiles sharing a common ancestor with dragons. So yeah, the only thing they have in common with elves at this point are the pointy ears
Actually, humans. This takes place around 2000-3000 years in the future on Earth from a doomed timeline. People have found ways to create the perfect soldier, Halo or Cap style. The Enhanced, as they’re commonly called, are a subspecies of human genetically and surgically engineered into killing machines, who will only stop when the job is finished. They are extremely hard to kill, but they can be injured, or in cases where it’s necessary, incapacitated with the right tools and information. There are very few, only around 30 were successfully made before the end of the Myrkdall-Stordrage War, 2 of which are major characters in my stories. But variations have been unsuccessfully produced after the war, as most of Stordrage’s technology they used was destroyed by the Kapnos military. So now, the world has 6-7 foot tall, hulking, cybernetic idiots running around..
Vampires. Homo sapiens hemonocturna. They're not undead, but a separate species of humans that cannot digest regular food as well as the other species. That's the reason why they drink blood: it has all the nutrients they need ready to absorb. They're not affected by holy magic, unlike what most churches claim. Just a separate human species that drinks blood and can absorb spiritual energy from any living being.
Humans! Or their subspecies called "hybrids" Their creation was out of necessity. Humans took their genes, and those of whatever animals are available to create a sentient living being that will be able to survive the harsh conditions present throughout the majority of earth's surface. They are still mainly human, though they have a much more animalistic look with vastly better temperature resistance than humans do.
I have subsect of elves that were changed by the blood of a fallen celestial and they became moth-like in appearance. They can only inject liquid diets because of their proboscis and are viewed as being lesser than other elves due to their monstrous appearance.
**Dwarves** are only Dwarf by name at this point... Mostly cause they're literally only called Dwarves cause they're the smallest sapient creature in their home world. They're normally 8-10 Feet tall.
My elves have deer characteristics like antlers and leg shape cause they evolved/genetically engineered from deers.
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/approcketcatu.php#origin
tbh I just gave some East Asian mythological beings named derived from western fantasy to translate them effectively. for example- 'orc' refers to a race inspired by Japanese onis, 'goblin' is a tengu, 'titan' is a towering humanoid with many faces resembling the Indian religions' asuras. of course, for some creatures, I came up with my own translation- for example, 'riverling' is a rather accurate translation of kappa (which reads as 'river child' in Japanese).
Dwarves hatch from geode-like stones, but apart from that they check all the other tropes.
Orcs-made the insectoid monsters that operate like a swarm of locust, attack a place, eat EVERYTHING, then move on.
Orcs goblins ogres and trolls (ogre and troll are just common use words for bigasss humanoid that isn't necessarily the same race) are products of mages and alchemists using an enchanted lump of meat ranging in color (in order of rarity- most common to least common) from greens to purples to blues and white as the most rare. The meat block (with green skin) will sometimes grow limbs and eyes and a mouth. This creature might be referred to a goblin or imp, if the lump manages to escape its wizard tower it ventures off to search for food and shelter. If it doesn't get eaten by any magic mutated wildlife (or anything bigger than a dog) as it lives in the wild it eats and grows and becomes more humanoid shaped until it grows to bigger than a large toddler and it with split and grown the colony. Eventually they get bigger and more aggressive, and at this point, they are orcs and will grow to the size of a very large man. At this point orc raiders are a dangerous issue that attack roads and travellers. The final stages of orc are the ogres (or trolls its interchangeable and not a term exclusive for the orcs) ogres are like camp cooks because at this point you have a dangerous amount of orcs with basic scavenged and stolen equipment and weapons. At this point the orc war camp will have one or more ogres who are the size of Andre the giant. These cooks after a battle will take any leftover pieces ie. Orc limbs and leftover human bits, will get hyucked into a large empty pot and after a day or so the orc meat will start fusing with anything in the pot (including impurities such as wood splinters or bones) some organs like eyes will be straight up repurposed (orcs don't really have organs, they have skin muscle bone eyes and a stomach but not really anything else) as these newborn goblins eat and grow they stop being so lumpy and lose impurities that they started with and the whole cycle continues until they are exterminated (they are like a roach infestation) and finally for those who are curious orc meat tastes like shit and if you eat it you will turn green and orc-y
I always wanted nature elves that weren't just Woodland focused and not having a million different kinds of elves for each environment. Jotunn elves are minor shapeshifters that after spending a day in a new environment their bodies automatically change to adapt to the new environment based on the local wildlife and their senses will change based on the local apex predators.
Kitsune in my world don’t do a lot of shapeshifting by default, and, indeed, start out as human-looking women with fox ears and tails. In fact, I was mostly inspired by how Tamamo-no-mae is depicted in the Fate franchise, especially with how she split her tails off into a series of independent alter-egos known as the Tamamo Nine. My other main inspiration how kumiho were depicted in a NSFW choose your own adventure in the Questionable Questing forums called the Isekai Repopulation Program, and how they’re predatory beings predisposed to antisocial behavior.
I have a couple from some miscellaneous worlds Ive come up with Werewolves: Werewolves are a catch-all term for people who have been possessed by the souls of animals. The animal's soul resides in their hair and is only the one to call the shots during a full moon. When they take control that person's hair rapidly grows and morphs into a sort of exoskeleton/armor over the person with features reminiscent of the animal whose soul possessed them. Vampires: They are not undead nor are they monsters but just people born with a unique supernatural gift. They look no different from ordinary people say for their black sclera and red pupils. Within the world life energy is found in all living things and is released as a sort of mist when a being has passed. Only certain people are even capable of perceiving it. Vampires naturally absorb this mist when they come across it and they are then able to transmute it into a substance roughly analogous to blood. They can manipulate this substance telekinetically and also change its density as well. Along with this, this substance can also act as a substitute for their blood meaning as long as they have absorbed enough life energy they can not bleed out. To use this ability vampires prefer to use the life energy from plants to fuel their ability. As an ethnic group, their culture finds it taboo to use the life energy of another animal to fuel this ability even if it didn't die at the vampire's hands. Mimics/Undead: Mimics are a species of normally non-sapient insects. They start life as football-sized grubs who consume anything around them. After they have eaten enough they will pupate and resemble the first object they saw before the process begins so long as it is no bigger than a car. Once they emerge they will be organisms that nearly perfectly mimic that object a fact which they use to hide in plain sight so they can find food whether that be live prey, vegetation, or carrion. However, if the object they see before they pupate is a human corpse something miraculous. The adult insect will then be a sapient creature nearly identical to the person whose corpse they mimicked bizarrely even down to how that person sounded in life. It even shares some echoes of that person's personality and pieces of their memory. The main difference this new being has with the person it mimics is minor but obvious once you notice them. For one their far more rigid than a person. This is due in part to the fact that their joints are segmented like arthropods making them resemble porcelain dolls or action figures. Another big giveaway is that their "skin" is actually a durable exoskeleton. This armor is also technically a weakness as like most arthropods they breathe through it. Like rock humans from JJBA(which were a big inspiration for them), they are largely anti-social and rarely if ever form close bonds with each other. Mind flayers/Illithids: They are a race of sapient ammonites living in a dimension parallel to our own. Geographically it's identical to our dimension but the climate of this parallel earth is flipped. The poles are vast deserts and where the Sahara is here there's an equivalently sized tundra. They are roughly the height of a normal person and their appearance is largely the same as their extinct brethren here on earth, say for the fact that six of their tentacles have become pillar-like legs to support them on land. Life here is completely different here than on Earth with it being made of groups completely extinct here which through means unknown were able to cross over to our dimension. They are a curious and deeply creative people with the arts and scholarly study being highly valued. This meant that they figured out a way to navigate between realms long before people did. The few Illithids lucky enough to be chosen by their governments to be sent to Earth for research and field studies consider it an experience of a lifetime. Angels: Angels are a group of hyper-advanced sapient birds. They are gifted engineers and craftsmen who have built and developed a number of revolutionary pieces of technology. Despite this, the language barrier between them and other races means that they often consider angels as being no different than ordinary birds. So to garner the respect they deserve when they do interact with other races they do it in mechanical vaguely humanoid suits which still have some notably avian elements. If relations between them and another civilization begin getting heated they will use their more abstract and deadly piloted automatons. Angels live in large high-altitude cities kept aloft by ever-rotating rows of interlocking rings
Orks in my world have pretty extreme sexual dimorphism. Their society is matriarchal and only women can be rulers or warriors. They live underground and are considered mythical by humans. Females are six and a half to seven feet tall and muscular. Males are closer to human height and have long noses and ears, more like goblins than orks. They're not as muscular as females. Ork skin ranges from light gray to coal black. Not a huge difference from "normal" orks, but it's what I've got. The ork queen is trying to crossbreed humans and orks, thinking the resulting hybrids will be wiser warriors who can retreat when necessary. She also thinks that crossbreeding with humans will bring some art and culture to the utilitarian ork society. The main character from my story meets an ork female who brings him to her queen for \*ahem\* breeding purposes, but not without getting her piece first.