You could tell the same basic story like that to monkeys, but it wouldn't be as epic to humans. The monkeys would probably like it better though. Giving non human traits to hero's changes their relatability. Some hero's are demigods, others are just really talented people. Hero's of a different race would be somewhere in between. But that makes them less relatable than talented humans.
I disagree, and there are plenty of myths from plenty of cultures to back me up. Billions of people have been relating to the Monkey King from the epic 'Journey to the West', for centuries. How many people relate strongly to even "light" comedic characters like Bugs Bunny or Snoopy or Scooby Doo, even in modern times, but have difficulty relating to people from other cultures?
Neonivek: As far as night creatures go (atleast some of them): I've been considering lately the idea that perhaps most truly
undead beings (as a term or label) are the agents of Entropy itself, or maybe some awful intelligence and will of Nothingness (an eternal and absolute Nothingness that wants only to be "born"), reaching out from beyond the death of Time itself, and well past the final effects of Entropy.
This Power (...anti-power?) might work it's way into the bodies and souls of the recently deceased, and gradually corrupt and replace what was there with it's essence, turning what was once alive into unnatural ghoulish beings driven by a pure bottomless hatred for everything they encounter.
Although their immediate and primary goal would be to snuff out all life, everywhere, whatever Power it is that fuels the Undead, the Power that brought them back and gave them their twisted, mocking, semblance of life, would exist in opposition to anything alive, energetic, or even dynamic.
It wouldn't completely destroy or entirely replace what that being once was, but would instead possess and irrevocably dominate that essence, filling the dead things with a serene, unbreakable wish and need for--to actively work towards--the utter destruction of 'Life, the Universe, and Everything', and to eliminate the means and foundations for things like Life and Energy to even exist; whether that "living thing" is a dwarf, a germ, a dragon, blood cells, a fire elemental, a blade of grass, a serial killer, a computer, an eldritch abomination from beyond the stars, a star itself, the Devil, a catchy tune, whatever.
Undead beings would retain complete, if abstract, knowledge of who they once were. They would be able to access their knowledge, memories, and native intellect to achieve their overriding destructive purpose, and also to avoid detection, but they would be soulless things from which morality (including "blue&orange" varieties), ethics, even basic instinctual purpose and balance within Nature, have been removed and entirely excised, and then replaced with pure, polarized loathing, making them utter enemies of everyone, opposed to and existing outside of, any concept of a "D&D Alignment" as in good, evil, law, chaos, balance, or even madness.
That would add an interesting element to political interactions, as even the most bitter enemies, the worst most unhinged psychopaths and lunatics, the most diabolical of fiends, and even beings with utterly alien minds, would always have one insidious and powerful, potentially very intelligent, subtle, and endlessly patient,
enemy of everyone and everything, working tirelessly, sleeplessly; not to impose rule, work vengeances, or to
win anything, but to simply and finally incinerate, obliterate, erase every Universe, every speck of Reality.
Not every death would create such a horror. Some beings, upon dying, would be able to fight the effect, resist the corruption for a time, or even ignore and fully overcome it. Allowing the dead to still have an important place in the lives of those around them--building headstones and monuments to them, the survival and growth of their family, respecting their works and desires, and even just good, strong memories of them--would all help keep the Nothing Power from overtaking them. Those who devoted themselves to the furthering and improving of Life, in it's various aspects, might join with other such souls, to form Spirits of the Forest/Spirits of Life, and the like, or occasionally return as undying protectors and other benevolent beings.
Some would go on to other states of being, and/or planes of existence, and maybe some might even achieve divinity and immortality, moving beyond the cycles of life and death to reach godhood, but the Nothing Power would be formidable, and some of the spirits who rose to higher levels of being beyond death would find themselves eventually crashing back down again, and it would be these greater souls who almost, but not quite, escaped the reach of the Nothing's corruption, that would eventually become some of the most powerful and dangerous forms of undead.
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Topic: Considering Races' Roles (Read 17385 times)