So today, since I'm finished with the world's creatures I'm going to explain the people of the world. The world has 5 races, humans, elves, fae, vampires, and revenants. There is a lot of things to cover for each race. So I'll probably do one a day for this whole week.
Starting with my character's race (cause favoritism). My character is a fae, starting off with physical characteristics. From mythology across the world I've gathered that they are often portrayed as small creatures of varying age. In more recent media they are portrayed with wings, though originally they flew without them through magical means. Often they are associated with elemental magic. I'm going to use some of these attributes. I don't want them to be cookie cutter stereotypes so the details will be what I'll really flush out.
Appearance:-short (average height is 4.8ft)
Appearance is influenced by magic, because fae evolved from humans when humans first discovered magic and tried to use it directly. Fae are closely linked to magic because of this. The more magic a character has the more it will influence their appearance.
-I want them to have short pointed ears (because fantasy tropes)
-Skin color varies, paler skin tones carry hints of purple and green, with darker tones appearing pink or orangy
-hair color and eye color can be anything, a characters wings and magic will influence their hair and eye color.
-they have mainly human features anatomy wise, lacking reproductive organs through.
-male wings, similarly to peacocks, are very aesthetic, shiny, and colorful
-female wings are very rugged, appear darker, and are duller in color.
-some fae don't have wings, these fae will have especially weak magic and won't be able to fly without the use of magic.
-wingless fae will be abandoned at birth, most die.
-wing sizing varies with magic capacity, though the size only minimally influences flight.
-age to appearance
-are born at the size of a toddler (around 2)
-at 10 appear 6
-at 20 appear 8
-at 30 appear 10
-at 40 appear 12
-at 50 appear 14
-at 100 appear 20
-at 500 appear 25
-at 1000 appear 30
-at 2000 appear 35
-at 3000 appear 40
-at 4000 appear 45
-at 5000 appear 50
-at 6000 appear 60
Fae wings start to deteriorate at around 5000, losing the ability to reproduce with their wings. Most fae will reproduce or die in battle before they reach 2000. At most they can live to about 6000 so that's where I set the cap. I wanted fae to be able to live longer than elves, though their culture encourages dying before their prime ends. I felt like it would work well if they aged faster in their early years then it slowed in later years. This similar to humans who in their younger years are developing quickly then it slows with age. However with fae it's at a much more extreme point.
When it comes to reproduction, if they did reproduce like normal humans A: they wouldn't have enough differences from humans. B: the fae population would be huge due to the long life spans. So, I made the reproduction system painful, debilitating, and a one time deal. To reproduce a fae will rip off their wings, and cover them in the sap of a certain type of tree. After, they roast the wings, and plant and seal them in the same tree they got the sap from. The fae will then usually inform someone where the tree is and disappear to die. Often their familiar will guard the tree until they die. After a year the tree will split open revealing the child or in some cases children. If any of the children are born wingless they are left to die. If not they are taken in by a teacher to be taught everything the mentor knows.
Now we're done with physical appearance and attributes. I found a website while researching race creation and it has a pretty good list of things to develop. I've crossed out ones that have already been done.
History- Religion
- Society structures of hierarchies
- Common attitudes
- Language
- Opinions about other races
- Laws or rules
- Culture
The history of the fae was developed already by my friend. Who's also working on this story with me, so I'm not going to worry about that. I might make references to it when explaining how certain things were influenced by it.
I'm out of time for today so I'll continue this tomorrow. Starting probably with societal structures.
