fantasy species (part 1)
just some things i'd like to do with classic standard fantasy species:
elves
i've loved elves since childhood and am super tired of the rampant "it's cool to hate elves" zeitgeist in fantasy culture since the 2010s... maybe earlier?
- heights vary within human standards but also above it. elves can be kinda short, they can be extremely tall.
- elves aren't 'slender' by default. sizes and shapes vary as much as humans. maybe even more because like... elves.
- do not look like humans with pointy ears. very noticeably not human. something to make them look alien: enormous irises like da2 elves?, strange body anatomy ratios?, sculpted-looking faces? there's so much that can be done. (oh also skintones range all over the place. personally i'd like to stretch beyond human tones into things like metallic shimmers, powdery overlays of random colours, various textures and gradients, all sorts of stuff)
- long-lived. patient to a fault, at least by shorter-lived species standards.
- androgynous: as in there wouldn't be much visual variance based on gender ideas and stuff. let's assume they've been exposed to/taken up understandings of gender that we humans have/experiment with/let's just talk about it in human terms: elves generally would lean more what we'd call 'feminine' aesthetically, regardless of gender expression or anything, BUt obviously there are exceptions. Culturally? gender binary is silly and blurry as hell.
- nature-oriented in that practicality and sustainability would be tantamount to most elf cultures. reducing your footprint. i'm not thinking 'omg trees are great', i'm more thinking 'let's make sure our agriculture and infastructure lasts with minimal waste/impact on surrounding land. would not be into expansion. contained civilizations. long-lived = thinking about and planning for the future.
- extremely practical. practicality is a virtue.
- aesthetics are important
- delighted and intrigued with ingenuity. i originally was going to write this point to be about human creativity and ingenuity, but i think it'd just make it something valued in general.
- i feel like elves should be beautiful. like, that can veer into terrifying, upsetting, unnerving, as well as more warm positive beauty, but yeah. like... like an art installation... like an elf might not be appealing to you specifically but there's no denying the artfulness of them, y'know?
elf-dwarve-relations
- no animosity towards each other, species-wise.
- ideas of tension between them arose from humans assuming these two species are opposite of each other and thus MUST hate each other.
- they'd appreciate each others' ability to plan/think/see long-term.