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[Pathos]

So, yep, I've been wondering what mental images everyone else gets when they think of fantasy races. Including their culture etc. So, I figured I'd ask here to find out!

A couple of fantasy races: Elves ( high, low, wood, whatever), goblins, orcs, dwarves, HUMANS especially and any more odd ones you can think of.

For me, high elves are fair, beautiful and utterly cannibalistic, a crossover from DF's wood elves. They're cultured and refined but still eat the flesh of sentient beings and pass it off as being a part of their "culture", whilst they just like the taste. Wood elves are the same, except with less fair and beautiful and more feral and dirty.

Goblins are industrious, as are dwarves, but I can't get a good mental image of a goblin. Too much WoW / D&D sourcebooks create conflicting images.

Orcs are D&D-esque, in my head, but less evil and more just neutral / chaotic. Still barbaric and enjoy a good slaughter, though.

Humans are spread all over the spectrum, but are usually pigheaded and overzealous.

Now, come on, let's see what you have!

[Virex]

My immage of Goblins is mainly shaped by MTG. To me they're a bunch of mischivous, inventive brats. They'll build strange contraptions and tear stuff apart to learn how it works, but they also tend to do this to other peoples stuff and other peoples as well. Though not evil they have a general lack of morals and a hunger for 'fun'.

[RedKing]

I think my image of goblins is indelibly marked by Brian Froud. Actually, my images of *most* fantasy races is heavily influenced by Froud.

[Armok]

It varies from setting to setting, morphologicaly "elf" and "goblin" are treated more like phylums than species...

[Char13magne]

I always thought of Elves best defined by Terry Pratchett, but for those of you who havn't read his work (which is hilarious political satire in the form of fantasy), they are basically mysterious (almost ethereal) killers, with no regard for human (or any other sentient) life, and are often portrayed as sadists (This draws heavily from Nordic folklore). Other than that, my opinions generally match up with yours, and even that is pretty damn close to yours .

[RedKing]

Yeah, I liked Lords and Ladies. Nice changeup against the pansy froo-froo elves. The elves in my pet project world are a bit like his, though perhaps less innately malicious. They're an advanced hunter-gathererer society that was driven from their mild, fertile homeland by a genocidal war with humans and found refuge in a subarctic taiga. And pretty much kill trespassers on sight and are harboring one serious grudge.

[Char13magne]

Yeah, I liked Lords and Ladies. Nice changeup against the pansy froo-froo elves. The elves in my pet project world are a bit like his, though perhaps less innately malicious. They're an advanced hunter-gathererer society that was driven from their mild, fertile homeland by a genocidal war with humans and found refuge in a subarctic taiga. And pretty much kill trespassers on sight and are harboring one serious grudge.

Yeah, Lords and Ladies! That was it, thank you. Forgot the name of that particular Terry Pratchett, they're basically what I puncuate my Dostoevskys, Dumas, and the like with. (I particularly like Dumas, and Dostoevsky's The Idiot)

[MrWiggles]

My version of gnomes is shaped greatly by Gnomes a large out of print hard book book that was the inspiration for David the Gnome.



Dwarfs are stout drunkard industrious creatures. They live in underground cities and have a great network of clans that are also interrelated to their crafts. So much so that their craft is also there family. All jewelers are kin. So on.

Elves are bigoted elitist nigh immortal beings. They consider themselves and their tradition paramount superior to all others. They are excellent bowmen and live in the forest and are semi magical. They are also somewhat frail. They have a monarchy of some sort.

Goblins are assholes. Not evil, but just self centered, amoral beings that seek entreatment at any cost. They do anything really. They dont form armies or get in large bunches. They are very nomadic, though some find a town they call home.

Kobolds are large rats that can hold knives. Society is similar to rats. They live in family dens.

Orcs are large mostly sapient predators. They are canarvores. On their own accords they are hunter gathers living in nomadic tribes moving with their prey. Their prey is anything they can kill. So they can be trade caravans. They are also smart enough to be pressed into military service and trained to fight as one. It is not something they do on their own. They also super territorial and will fight other orc bands to protect their hunting grounds.

Hobgoblins are smart leaner orcs. They form civilizations, arms and can have a diverse cultures though they tend toward the evil side. Slavery is generally common with them.

Humans are the run of the gambit. They are everything and anything. From evil to good, from great craftsmen to dire warriors, from poets to whores.

Orges are dumb large omnivore scavengers. They have no culture, and generally are solitary.

I dont like half species. Either they are alien and different from one another (the different races) or they aren't. I'm sorta willing to go with cross breeds who are infertile.

[Char13magne]

My version of gnomes is shaped greatly by Gnomes a large out of print hard book book that was the inspiration for David the Gnome.

I wouldn't say out of print, I saw it in Borders just the other day, but maybe it was some new re-vamped re-print. (Ha-ha, two re's in a row!)

[MrWiggles]

The last time I bought a copy it was out of print for like 10 years or something like that. I'm glad it getting reprinted.

[Char13magne]

The last time I bought a copy it was out of print for like 10 years or something like that. I'm glad it getting reprinted.

Me too, it is indeed rather humorous.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Humans:  Medieval French, basically.  Centralised, feudal, fond of heavy cavalry.

Elves:  Somewhat smaller than humans, more wild and less "civilised".

Dwarves:  Short, underground-dwelling, stoic and honourable.

Goblins:  To quote Thomas Hobbes, "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short".  Basically animals.

Orcs:  Basically anything that's big, strong, and pig-faced.

Gnomes:  Itinerant scholars, if that makes any sense.  Not necessarily the technological sort, just studious.

Trolls:  Brutes who try to shake down people crossing bridges.

[Labs]

Kobolds for me will always look like the dog lizards from DnD.
 

[Djohaal]

For some reason my mental image of kobolds is similar to a marowak but without the bone helm (a "common" metallc, wearable helm instead), a tiny kinfe and a hairy body similar to some rat thing.

[Aqizzar]

I've never had very strong mental images of the character of fantasy races, short of however they're presented in any given franchise.  Dwarf Fortress though has changed my mind a little, if only because I've probably gotten closer to it than any particular setting.

Humans: As a student of human history, it's hard not to think of humans as infinitely variable, but the way they appear in DF inspired me a bit.  I see them as a smooth mix of British, Germanic, and Arabian styling (if only because DF humans wear turbans so often).  A little bit Monty Python, but with a High Medieval religious austerity.  And lots of horses and mauls and just some weird touches, like tanned fish hides.  Picture a guy in platemail covered in silks, skins, and iconography, wielding a giant mallet or a whip and buckler, riding an Appaloosa.

Dwarves: Likewise, I'm informed more by DF than anything, although their limited portrayal in Tolkein's books, especially The Hobbit, to me paints a slightly different picture than the usual Always-Lawful-Stone stock idea.  To me, the Three Commandments of Dwarvehood are: Do what needs doing, do it right, and don't complain about it.  And all the same, they're kinda dumb and thickheaded, even in the more Steampunk portrayals.  Unscrupulous, not at all friendly, utterly pragmatic, impervious to tragedy right up until they snap completely, and concerned first and always for the Dwarves.

Elves: I draw more on the Vulcans for Elves.  Wise, mighty, and proud of it although they'd never admit it. They've been around forever and stuck their more-knowledgeable-than-thou fingers in every pie, like a whole Illuminati race, if they ever bothered to do anything besides observe and make dramatic last stands.  But they can screw up, and screw up spectacularly when they do.  They're the cause of and solution to all the world's big metaphysical problems.

Goblins, Orcs, Bugbears, Hobogoblins, etc: Basically more human than human.  Humanity is the scrappy underdog of the "good" fantasy races; corruptible, numerous, and more intelligent than perceptive.  The greenskins (if they be green at all, which I'm not adherent to) are all the bad parts of humanity magnified.  They build ugly cities with ugly machinery and ugly animals, breed like disease, and rule underworld nations away from the sunlight.  Trolls are the comic relief, and I love the old-school bridgemonger concept more than any other treatment.

There's other races too I guess, but this is more about the "standard" ones.  One of my favorite parts of Planescape: Torment, a whole franchise about turning fantasy on its ear, was the little enclaves of sentient undead and cranium rats and minor demons.  The Cantinas and Monster Towns are my favorite locations when they show up, because they give due justice to the "other" fantasy creatures that usually spend their short lives as narrative speedbumps, and portray them as rowdy but negotiable working stiffs, my kind of people.