Thoughts on Race and Writing

I have always loved this setting of yours. It's so dense. You could chew it and chew it and keep finding new flavors. :9

And here I am on the opposite side, with one of my main alien species having no race as we know it and no prejudice between the races they *do* have (yeah, NOW. But before the Reformation, it was a different tale).

Then my oldest surviving fantasy world, which doesn't really have a name but I tend to call Zyalihn's Multiverse (because it takes place in many universes and my favorite character there is Zyalihn), I have lots of different creatures. Here are the most notable:

1. The Gods. They come in different "races" which are determined by their energy color and the powers associated with that color of energy. Gods made of white light are flashy and fast. The properties of white energy is the ability to overpower other matter and energy. Red energy's properties are disruption of matter and energy (like diverting it from its usual course). Blue energy works *with* matter and energy, gently coaxing its will on them. Orange energy worked via emotions (in fact, it was made *of* emotions). Gods made of green energy could see through The Illusion and shape it with their minds. And no one understood the properties of black energy except that it was mysterious; but it wasn't evil. In fact, the most evil villains in the story were of different races; Mordith was made of red energy, Epimethius was made of green energy, Mordith's father Lucifer was also made of red energy, and Mordith's mother was, I suppose, technically made of orange energy, but she was of a sub-race of orange gods called the Gjayde race, who were made out of fear and hatred; they took on a form that was terrifying to behold. But there were good Gods of all different colors; even one of the Gjayde defected to the side of good.

2. The Dahdjay. These were made by the Gods, and could technically be called Lesser Gods. They're made of a combo of white and blue energies... which would make them hybrids, but for the fact that the different "races" of Gods can't normally interbreed. Anyway, the Dahdjay were made to serve Kell, the God of Innocence and Innocents, but at least one of them defected to the side of evil.

3. The Darhahdjay. Made by Mordith, the first generation of these were made by injecting red energy into a Dahdjay. Normally, red energy is poisonous to beings made of white energy, but this worked because blue energy counteracts the poison. Then Mordith created new personalities, burying the old personalities. When the side of good figured out how to reverse this transformation, Mordith made a second generation of Darhadjay with the same mix of energies, but from scratch. At least one of these, Zyahlihn, defected to the side of good.

4. Demons. Demons are about what you'd expect them to be form-wise, except that they come in thousands of species, some very human or elvin looking, and none of them truly evil. In fact, most are no more good or evil than humans. I have several stories with good Demons in them, in starring roles.

5. Daemons. Beings of flesh that can magically take forms other than flesh. (Those who turn to fire are fire daemons, those who turn to stone are stone daemons or gargoyles, etc.) They, too, can be either good, evil, or neutral. They're native to the 23rd dimension, and come in thousands of species.

6. Dragons. Dragons come in thousands of species, too, some sentient and others not. Native to the planet Orion, a magical planet of rock and metal the size of Jupiter but with a gravity no more than Earth. Dragons are most notable for a genetic quirk that allows them to create viable hybrids with any other creature in existence. Some Demons have this ability, too, but *all* dragons have it. So put some dragon DNA in the mix and you can combine any mix of animals you want, even an octopus with a porcupine or a phoenix with an earthworm. Two other notable species, the bipedal humanoid Draconic species called Greks, and the bipedal but *not* humanoid Draconic race the Gresheanths, are both of Dragon ancestry.

And Mordith wasn't even actually evil, just driven insane by his parents. He had started out good, but his evil parents tried making him evil and failed, so they drove him insane instead. Literally insane.

I really want to just wallow in your and fayanora's settings. I've approached a lot of the posts in this discussion with trepidation, because while a lot of important things have been said so much has been so fraught, but this one is just richly creative and lovely.

Cool! Racial issues are still pretty hazy on my world. There's only two sentient species, the humans (descended from a failed colony) and the pteranthropans*/winged ones/pterries. The pteranthropans have long been oppressed by humans, frequently enslaved in the past. Nowadays, they have, nominally, equal rights. However, they are still constantly losing breeding grounds (they are amphibious in nature and require protected areas to lay their eggs) to human development and/or pollution (polluted waters are, of course, unsuitable for their larvae). Frequent conflicts arise between the humans and the pteranthropans over usage of those areas. The fact that the human population is growing while, due to the loss of breeding grounds, the pteranthropan population is falling certainly doesn't help matters.

Also, the pteranthropans tend not to atheism. Indeed, they tend towards a general individualism, being less tribalistic than humans. This, too, raises suspicion in many humans, and has lead to the common belief that they are soulless. Ironically, their religious fundamentalists rarely have any problem with evolution, and use it to justify human superiority - humans did not evolve on their planet (having arrived from Earth in the distant past), while pteranthropans have a clear evolutionary ancestry and close relatives. They accept evolution for all but humans and other Earth life, believing those to have been recent creations by the gods, while pteranthropans, being obvious products of evolution, are "obviously" without souls ...

However, intra-human conflicts are a lot less clear. I do know that the Sanle, the historically dominant culture in West Odira, were dark-skinned, while the Kasshi themselves had a medium skin tone, with hair that tended towards strawberry blonde or red, with a few blonds and brunets, smallish height, and very little body hair. They're the only culture that I have a fairly clear idea of physical appearance, however.

Oh, and the Krayans, whose continent was later colonized by Odirans, and were, for the most part**, exploited, are fairly light-skinned group.

*Name derived from their pseudo-Linnean name Pteranthropus kalpanensis "Winged people from Kalpan"

**There are a few exceptions. The People's Monarchy of Zobar, for example, was established by Princess Waleth, from the Kasshi Empire. She had been given the position of Lady Protector when the Kasshi established a protectorate over the territory. However, she soon became engrossed in their culture and came to see her self as a Zobarian. When, after the Global War, the Kasshi began to demand more out of their colonies, Lady Protector Princess Waleth proclaimed herself, with the support of her Native Advisors, Queen of Zobar, renouncing her link with the imperial family. She and her advisors, both native and immigrant, worked to modernize Zobar, and build up a stable parliamentary-monarchical system. Zobar remains one of the shining jewels of Kraya, and Waleth, after her death, was succeeded by a native as monarch (they have an elective monarchy)

An example of the common belief that pteranthropans are soulless:

The Kalpanian creation myth did not contain a direct creation by the gods. It's a cyclic worldview, the old world died, became cold and lifeless, and the last gods sacrificed themselves to create a new world. New gods were born from drops of blood from the Sacrificed God. As a new sun came into existence, warming up the world, the land itself brought forth life, plants and animals emerged from the ground. Among these creations were two groups of "clever beasts". One of these encountered the Skull of the Sacrificed God. They touched it, and became human, possessing souls, and fell on their knees, worshiping the Skull*. The other group of "clever beasts" did not find the Skull, and did not, therefore, acquire souls, and remained but clever beasts, the pteranthropans.

*The Skull was said to have been thrown into the air by one of the new gods when they encountered humans, and were enraged when the humans would not transfer their worship from the Skull to the living gods. The Skull became the lesser of their two moons.

Oh, and a question

Kerredani humans figured out that male darrow elves make the best wet-nurses, Male darrow elves lactate?

(I wondered this, too! ^_^ )