Point?
It strikes me that my imaginary fanbase probably doesn’t know what I’m thinking to the letter. I’ve decided to create a post to at least help with that. I currently have three major races:
~Urallians,
~Zalamath,
~Europans,
and each of them has a point. Each of them was created for a purpose. They weren’t simply created to make a point, but I did have these in mind while creating them.
The Urallians, who are effectively humans, are my attempt at creating a “realistic” fantasy, without elves and dragons and magic. This has worked so far. I think I have a plausible and believable history that could take place in a plausible and believable alternate Earth. The Urallians have a kind of myth-esque background, what with the Exodus and all, and it gets steadily more and more realistic until faux-present day. Urallia has trading partners and a few prosperous tourist centers, as well as a good lumber industry and a lot of fishing. I’ve designed it on up until they can interact with the Zalamath, so they’re quite developed.
The Zalamath are basically my go at a realistic SF race, much like the Urallians. They are a lot less developed than the Urallians, however, and there’s no way I can even begin to write a language for them, because I only have one larynx (stupid human biology), but I’ve put quite a lot of thought into their history, and I think it’s coming along quite well.
The Europans are totally different. The Europans are created out of my beef with humanoid aliens. Something that I have never understood about a lot of SF (or Sci-Fi, because they’re different) is that the aliens are ALWAYS humanoid and always think in similar ways to humans. The Europans are the exact opposite of that. They are so utterly alien that humans have no possible way of thinking like them. They are effectively a blob, internal organs contained therein, attached to an alterable number of tentacles, each with an appendage. The blob is also attached to a head. They inhabit the ocean underneath the crust of Europa, and therefore have gills. However, they don’t have opposable thumbs, mouths, or cities. They have no social structure, and only come together on incredibly important occasions. However, they are by no means primitive, with formidable mecahnical forces near the equator of Europa. They are very contemplative, and, as they eat algae through a hole on the front of their bodies, they have nothing to for their entire lives but think. This does not bother them in the least; they have no capacity for boredom. Their reproduction process is entirely anonymous, and they get no satisfaction from it. In fact, if I could describe their entire race in one word, it would be “cold.”
In any case, I have a few “developing” races that have similar points, but I won’t share them, in case they never see the light of day.
“Stupid human biology.” Heh.