Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

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Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by language-taster »

I feel like I'm one of the few users of this website to have created non-human conpeople as the focus of his conworld. Does anybody else have conpeople who are of a different species? If so, what are they like (in appearance and mindset/intelligence)?
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Micamo
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Micamo »

My main conpeople aren't human, for varying definitions of "main." They're relatively low in population and confined to a small portion of the world, but they're the "main" people in the sense that I spend most of my conworlding/conlanging effort focused on them, and most of the conworlding effort I put into other species/cultures is mostly in their interactions with them.

Anyway, they're shapeshifting dragons with a quadrapedal dragon form and a humanoid (but not quite human) form. I prefer to handle their differences from humans on a case-by-case basis, so a quick summary that gets everything is impossible. But the most salient differences are:

1. They're obligate carnivores, and very ancient ones. They've been big-game, apex predators for a long time, and evolved as such. Humans, in contrast, evolved as opportunistic, omnivorous scavengers. They're less inclined cautiousness, but are also not as susceptible to intimidation and are less likely to back down from a threat, as well as being more naturally curious. They also have many instincts related to hunting and eating that humans simply don't have. Even more privileged females (see below) get irritated if they don't get to rip apart an elk or seal every so often.

2. A radically different sexual dynamic due to sexual selection: In earlier days, males competed with each other to provide a female with the most in food and shinies. Whoever brought the most to a female earned the right to mate with her. This does happen among human females to an extent, it's biologically baked-into dragons in a way that it isn't with humans. While such direct competition is no longer practiced, its mark remains on their psychology: all female dragons are, in a way, "gold diggers." This also lead to the roles of females being dominant and idle and using prospective male mates to do all of their work for them. This also means polyandry is the prototypical structure among dragons: A male is expected not to sleep with a rival female, but a female is free to sleep with rival males. (Subject to a caveat of mate-sharing between females, usually between sisters, cousins, or other close relatives.)

3. Being flighted, they have a totally different, fully three-dimensional perception of space. Unfortunately other than how this affects their architecture (who needs ground-accessible entrances?) I've not yet worked out what visible effects this has on their culture.

4. As for appearance, they're much shorter than humans (only 4 ft tall or so on average) in their humanoid form, and have a freakish monochrome skin that is more of a grey than what we humans call "white skin." They do tan, but upon doing so they turn a darker shade of grey rather than brown. Their pupils are catlike, vertical slits and their entire eye is composed of an iris, lacking a visible sclera, coming in the colors of yellow, green, grey, and purple. They lack breasts, instead feeding their young (which hatch from eggs, btw) through regurgitation like birds. As for their dragon-form features... I can never decide on what I want to do with this. Horns? Fangs? Spikes? All three?
Last edited by Micamo on 18 Dec 2011 06:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Chagen »

All of them are human/95% human. I only human concultures, I hate anything non-human, never got why other like them.
Nūdenku waga honji ma naku honyasi ne ika-ika ichamase!
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Honyasi zō honyasi ma naidasu.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Trailsend »

language-taster wrote:I feel like I'm one of the few users of this website to have created non-human conpeople as the focus of his conworld. Does anybody else have conpeople who are of a different species? If so, what are they like (in appearance and mindset/intelligence)?
I think a good number of us feature non-humans in our primary conprojects. Pirka and Ollock (in addition to Micamo) do, off the top of my head. (Actually, not sure about Ollock; his language was originally spoken by air spirits, but I think it's used by humans now?)

My main project is a species of shapeshifters who can naturally take either a human(ish) or wolf(ish) shape. Their senses of smell and hearing are substantially more advanced than those of humans, but their sense of sight is less developed. One of the most interesting things about them intelligence-wise is that smell, not sight as for humans, is their primary sense for cognition. We actually had a fun conversation today over IRC about the impact that has on the language.

My secondary project involves a species of humanoid mustelids from a different continent in the same conworld, but so far there isn't anything quite as interesting going on there as what I have going with the shapeshifters.


Chagen wrote:All of them are human/95% human. I only human concultures, I hate anything non-human, never got why other like them.
well my conpeople don't like you either so NYAH
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by cybrxkhan »

I usually do homo sapiens and nothing else, although in my earlier days of conworlding when I did do some sci-fi I did, obviously, do some alien races - the most developed non-humans of which included Orc-like... things, eagle-men, and sentient flowering plants. When I also dabbled in cliched fantasy back then, I had your typical blobs of elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, demon people, etc. etc. But my most developed were the plant people. They basically were two sub-species of intelligent plants that had a mutual symbiotic relationship, where one functioned as "legs" and one functioned as the "upper body". Depending on which culture and time period from, a plant person could be partnered with either the same gender or the opposite gender (they were male and female in the original conception of the idea), they could be partnered for life or (with improving technology) separated during different intervals of life, they could be "married" or not (even though they can't reproduce), they could be partnered at different times between birth and young age, etc. etc. etc. They also had a great sense of humor.

Now I'm mainly doing human-like, although on my main conworld I'm trying to somehow resurrect the flowering plant people and have them inhabit the non-human inhabited islands as some sort of primitive tribes. Right now I'm still working on the details of making them more realistic, so they might end up as some weird animals with really, really heavy camoflauge or skin that is akin to that of actual plants or something.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Ànradh »

Well the antagonist for the first 'book' is human (a few small differences; they'd still be called human if they existed on Earth) and I think the protagonist now will be as well, since I'm having some issues with the species' believability...
The species I'm working with now are nocturnal, amphibious, herbivorous giants that resemble common depictions of trolls or ogres. They have reduced (and shrinking) tusks, excellent hearing, poor (terrible isn't strong enough a word) eyesight and short fighting spurs on the blades of their hands. The majority of the society is Bronze Age with matriarchal family structures living in territories held by influential patriarchs. They are noted for having developed the earliest form of writing in my conworld and, despite their great size, as being awful slave or soldier material due to being highly-strung and aggressive.
Edit: Just to add that what makes my humans 'different': longer limbs, ability to voluntarily raise their hair, long canines. The climates they evolved in also mean they're all dark(er) skinned. I haven't decided what ethnic groups they'll be from yet because I don't know enough about the selection pressures involved, but I'm hoping for a mix of African, Indonesian and Middle Eastern types to fit the aesthetic I have in my head.
Last edited by Ànradh on 20 Dec 2011 20:29, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Curlyjimsam »

My people are about as close to humans as horses are to donkeys - they can interbreed with humans, but the offspring will be infertile. I think it's quite common to have a species who are basically humans with small differences - although my world is perhaps unusual in that both the conspecies and "real" humans exist in the same universe.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Valoski »

My species are humanoid, but they have heightened, and more senses than normal humans.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by thaen »

Well, first of all, my conworld is for a book I am writing. The main races are animals like you would find on earth. The main types are large reptilians, big cats, some aves, and a few species of canines. They differ in being "dumb" (non-sentient, and are the size that they are on earth) and... normal (sentient, and around human-sized). But so far I have created about 7 unique races (mostly sentient).
These are the races I invented:
Krwx
Snipes
Hyk-dahls
Daelthai
"Demons"
"Fallen"
Marduks
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by eldin raigmore »

Depends on the conlang.
In Arpien they're all human.
In Adpihi they're mostly human.
In Reptigan the humans are quite important, but there are also non-Terrestrial-derived intelligent space-faring (or nearly space-faring) species, and there are artificial intelligences. Which one is most important probably depends on time and place.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Cordoma »

The most fun I ever had with a conculture was my race of sticks. Yes, that's right: sticks. I shit you not.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Ralph »

Mine are basically the same as humans, but because my conworld is supposed to be a) not-earth and b) as realistic as I can make it, they're not actually humans, but some other species that has evolved to be much the same. Given I like to dabble in biology a bit, I've been trying to work out a few minor differences in physiology, although nothing too major. One thing I did decide was to make women on average taller than men. Some of the internal organs are probably arranged slightly differently too.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by valiums »

Cordoma wrote:The most fun I ever had with a conculture was my race of sticks. Yes, that's right: sticks. I shit you not.
I want to know more about this.



Anyways, my main conpeople are 90% human. There's stuff happening with magic, but it doesn't change a whole lot.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Ilaeriu »

Theres a good eight or nine "races" in my conworld, with one of them being human. I guess you could call them the "main" race, since the period of history I'm fleshing out right now has one of the human empires in control of much of the world. After humans, the next closest race biologically would be the Namū, who are bipedal, average at 8 feet tall and covered in dark brown fur. Their faces are bat-like and the live mainly in forests. I haven't thought about interbreeding, but since they are somewhat closely related genetically I suppose there could be mixed offspring but it would probably be unpredictable and unstable. The rest of the races are in totally different classes (I guess the biological term would be phyla?) e.g. tripedal, reptilian, etc.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Ilargi »

My conpeople are plain old homo sapiens.
valiums wrote:
Cordoma wrote:The most fun I ever had with a conculture was my race of sticks. Yes, that's right: sticks. I shit you not.
I want to know more about this.
[+1]
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Avjunza »

Ilargi wrote:
valiums wrote:
Cordoma wrote:The most fun I ever had with a conculture was my race of sticks. Yes, that's right: sticks. I shit you not.
I want to know more about this.
[+1]
+2
Image
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by thaen »

Avjunza wrote:
Ilargi wrote:
valiums wrote:
Cordoma wrote:The most fun I ever had with a conculture was my race of sticks. Yes, that's right: sticks. I shit you not.
I want to know more about this.
[+1]
+2
[+1] [+1] [+1]
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:con: Øð!
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I am the Great Rabbit. Fear me, O Crabs!
Spoiler:
ı θ ð ʃ ɲ ŋ ʔ ɛ ə ø ʑ ɕ ʷ ʲ ⁿ
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by zelos »

In my world I have hundreds of sapient creatures. they are all of course anthropomorphic because I want people to be able to identify themselves with the creatures even if they are based on various animals through history of earth.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by prettydragoon »

My conworld, Rireinu, has only one sapient species. (One native species, I should say. They have FTL travel and interstellar trade.) They look superficially quite human, but their biology has some interesting quirks.
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Re: Are your main conpeople human or of a different species?

Post by Chagen »

If you wanted to get super-precise, Techarians are actually a seperate species from us humans, but only barely.

Otherwise, the only-non humans of my world are Demons, Angels, and Beastmen....who are all 90% human anyway.
Nūdenku waga honji ma naku honyasi ne ika-ika ichamase!
female-appearance=despite boy-voice=PAT hold boy-youth=TOP very be.cute-3PL
Honyasi zō honyasi ma naidasu.
boy-youth=AGT boy-youth=PAT love.romantically-3S
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