The beautiful thing about fantasy and sci-fi books is that there are no rules, and the shitty thing about fantasy and sci-fi books is that they’ve been around so long people think that there are. When we’re in the world of make believe, there are endless opportunities to create character designs unlike anything anyone has seen or done before, and we just… Don’t. Part of this is because people usually have an idea in mind when they start writing, and it’s often based on something they’ve seen before, and then part of it is marketability. After all, who will care about our main character if they’re not sexy? If their lips aren’t kissable? The desire to keep characters as humanoid as possible has led to ten million books about people with wings, and there’s so much out there! Fantasy is supposed to be fantastical! Fiction is supposed to be wacky! Not everyone has to look hot for the general public to relate and empathize with their story! Branch out, people!
I am, admittedly, not much of a fantasy / sci-fi writer, but I am a strong fantasy / sci-fi reader, and I’ve thought of a few ideas that I would love to see used more often, as well as some culture and technical additions. These are free for anyone to use for any reason, so if anything speaks to you, feel free to steal!
Horns
The only type of physical alteration that’s getting its own section, because I love it just that much.
We’re all very familiar with horns, I assume. But I’m talking about more than horns at the top of the head. I made a video about this online where I mentioned face horns, as in horns on the bridge of the nose or over the eyes, and I stand by that. Imagine horns like a bridge nose piercing or eyebrow piercing, or ones curling from in between the eyes. But of course, we can stretch out beyond this into horns on other parts of the body. The first thing I thought of was mini ram horns sprouting from each knuckle on a person’s hand, sort of like natural brass knuckles. Rams and sheep have the strong tendency to headbutt one another, and so whatever race of people have horns on their hands may also have a tendency to fight one another, over partners or political disputes. Dueling could be an important political arrangement, like something royals do to challenge one another to the throne, or it could be ritualistic, like something performers do to honor gods (thus making wrestlers a bit like shaman), or it could be something else entirely. Horns could become a display of a warrior’s prowess, if we create a rule that losers of duels must have their horns shaved down or chopped off.
Horns really can come from anywhere; imagine horns growing from the sides of a person’s hips. Imagine the cultural wear of that kind of nation, designed specifically to accentuate the hips, with horns carved on either side of their body like rococo dresses, the horns decorated with gold cuffs and chains. Longer horns are impractical, and so they become a symbol of wealth by the elite; the longer they are the less you can do on your own, which implies that you have an entire staff to do those things for you. Horns could grow from the collarbone, and awkwardly hook together when lovers kiss, like braces on pre-teen couples. They could come from the knees for mountain civilizations, to help them climb. The opportunities are endless, Lads.
Environmental Factors
Similar to the knee horns for climbing, fantasy civilizations in different terrains should have different physical traits! This is something that Avatar does really well, actually; look at the difference between the reef and forest Na’vi; the reef Na’vi have skin that’s more turquoise to match the water and webbed fingers to help them swim. Follow that model. People who live near water and rely on it for survival may evolve to have wider ribcages, to account for larger lungs so they can hold their breath longer, or might have a second membrane eyelid like alligators to help them see underwater. People who live in colder climates may have bulkier, more fat-heavy builds to account for the cold or scales over their faces to bring in more heat. One of the theories scientists have as to why human beings evolved to be on two feet was because it meant less of the sun was on their back, so in cold climates, maybe one civilization or another has begun evolving back so they could feel more of the sun, and are now significantly hunched over. I think most fantasy civilizations should go by the rule that, if they were to become real, they would be considered to have an uncanny and unnatural sort of feel to them. Sure, having people with wings or sparkling eyes or the like is beautiful, and I have nothing against them, but in a fantasy world, you expect me to believe that every humanoid individual happens to not only have the same notion about social beauty, but fit perfectly into that notion? It lacks creativity and fun.
Though it’s human thought and not natural evolution that’s making the changes, sci-fi can work the same way. Underwater civilizations can have what looks like raised veins under their skin, which transport oxygen through their bodies when they’re beneath the surface. Civilizations in the sky have to force their lungs to expand and contract through a complex medical device that replaces the skin, so you can physically see their lungs breathing and their heart pumping. Body horror is a really fun thing to play with.
Even more fun, imagine civilizations halfway through the process of evolution, with notches on their back that could be wings in a few hundred years, or legs where the skin is sewn together, but not quite a tail yet. Not to endorse suffering, but there is so much opportunity for it in the harsh evolutionary reality.
Animal Attributes
Gills. Spines. Claws. Literally what can’t you do with animal attributes. Imagine two different groups of people always being irritated because everybody gets them confused based on their spots (cheetahs and jaguars) or races with split tongues having their own very specific brand of cultural food (snakes) or their torso being made of a hollow SHELL (I should not have to tell you what animal I’m referencing here). There are thousands of years of animal behavior studies, amongst themselves and amongst other species, why wouldn’t you play with the practical effects of it? Fangs give people a lisp. Realistically, split tongues would too. People with wings, if you do choose to go that route, probably have back pain. Let’s say you base a civilization off of penguins, with webbed feet, slicked down feathers across the sides of their face and down the sides of their arms (just for shits and giggles), with their backs much darker in color than their stomachs. For the hell of it, they also have beaks. They court one another with ancestral jewelry and precious stones, and they refuse to share these stones with other kingdoms, which naturally springs some hatred between communities. Let’s say you base your civilization off of butterflies, brightly colored and shimmering skin, long antennae, curling tongues. They live somewhere tropical, so their coloring reflects that, although a common myth about the group states that they’re toxic; the air they breathe out is deadly gas, their blood kills plants if it falls on them, and if any part of their body is consumed, it kills you instantly. Turns out they’re just a culture of poisoners, who constantly consume poison for religious reasons and have built an immunity that other people and animals have not.
It is also your choice to decide whether these attributes are created by evolution, like we talked about earlier, or cultural beauty standards, which we will talk about now.
Cultural Changes
Culture and societal beauty standards have a massive effect on the way people look. There’s the ones we tend to know about, like small feet and long necks and the like, but this is fiction we’re talking about, so we can go a little crazier. Head to toe tattoos to make you an entirely different color. For fun, let’s say that it’s custom to tattoo your entire body the color of your aura, and the rest of the community makes large assumptions about your character and values off of it that aren't great, but it also holds a complex, tender sort of love for your community and your beliefs. Let’s say that you have to stitch on some attributes of the animal on your family’s crest, like lark wings on your back or badger claws on your fingers. Or a tail. I'm picturing something a tad crude and useless; the animal body parts are not enlarged to be the proper scale or genuinely connected to the body. Imagine what a pacifist daughter, or a character afraid of lizards, would do if they were told they must staple a salamander tail to their backside as soon as they turn eighteen.
Let’s say it’s custom to have really long legs, so they break and extend your legs over and over again, to your own personal detriment, or women are supposed to have incredibly long nails, to the point where their hands become almost unusable, to show wealth and how well their spouse takes care of them.
To be clear, I have no real dislike for cultural beauty standards and regulations, even though everything I’ve said thus far has been kind of against them. I just think struggle is more interesting to write about, but let me give you a few others that are more positive!
Since we’ve mentioned tattoos, let’s say that every child is tattooed with the constellations across the night sky on the day / night of their birth, to display the unity between the child and the universe and to show that they are eternally connected to one another. Or on a person’s wedding day, each family member gifts the bride and groom a feather, and they have to then wear all of those feathers in their hair from that day onward, unless the couple breaks up; the more feathers shows a larger family, and the more worn-down the feathers are, the longer the couple has been in love and together.
The belief that every physical attribute or special addition has to be plot-relevant is what got us in this wings-only mess in the first place. Not everything has to be useful, it can sometimes just work to extend the world and add context to a character’s belief and personality, even if it’s in the smallest way. And it’s fun! I might do more installments of this, I’ve got so many ideas. Again, you are free to use any of these if they strike your fancy, as well as build off of or extract whatever you like. I hope you found this at least somewhat interesting! Happy Writing!
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