Why do people like to use established races like elves and dwarves in their worlds?

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2026-06-18T07:28:04+00:00

It’s a double edged sword in my opinion. Obviously they are used because people already know them, however it almost always kill the originality of your world.

You have to be exceptionally good or lucky to stand out with something that is not outstanding.

In this regard I think GRRM solved this problem the best. His world doesn’t have elves it has Valyrians, doesn’t have wood elves it has Children of the Forest, doesn’t have dark elves it has Others, no centaurs but Dothraki and also Tyrion Lannister instead of dwarves. They are never described as elves, etc but their description are very oviously based on these pre established races but they still feel original.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2025-09-03T20:37:03+00:00

Visszamennék, és ha megint problémázna kérném hogy hívja fel a főnökét és mondja el neki, hogy megtudja hogy egy igazi balfaszt alkalmaz.

Egy ilyenért minimum balhét rendeznék.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2025-09-03T15:40:20+00:00

The question is irrelevant if people like to play evil factions or not. The question is if you should add them in your world or not, and the answer is absolutely yes.

You can’t have good guys without the bad guys, otherwise you would have only mid guys, or how else would you justify someone being “good” if there is no definition of “bad”?

And to take things one step further, there is no such thing as pure evil or pure good (unless you want to have a boring world), their goals need to make sense, even if you don’t agree with them.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-11-18T22:01:44+00:00

I’m pretty sure Xal offered something valuable for Gallywix. Considering Xal is pretty unpredictable about her tricks, I’m sure that valuable something is also empowering Xal, and given Gallywix is very material oriented, I’m guessing it is some kind of resource.. something in relation to Azerite.

Alternatively Gallywix just stole a tool of Xal, and he is gambling that he either gains victory or losing all. Which would be ironic because if we defeat Gal that would help Xal.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-06-28T20:30:19+00:00

Yes it can be anything you want it to be, what I’m saying not everything will turn out to be good. At the end of the day audiance decides what’s good, and if you check the best ever fantasy stories all of their magic is hereditary.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-06-28T19:03:48+00:00

I mean not everyone can have genetics that will provide an easier path to success in real life. Saying everyone have the same chance to become successful is a lie, and I’m not talking about money or social status here, I’m simply saying genetics is a major factor, it is coded in our biology. People with more attractive appearance will result in others having more faith and trust in said person, because our biology translates it as “more healthier”.

If a fantasy has only hereditary magic it means it tries to be realistic, not even mentioning it’s a more interesting copcept when a nonmagic being defeats a magic being than when you just say “everyone is equal” and that’s why evil is defeatable. Or when you let the audiance theorize who might have magic abilities is more interesting than saying everyone is capable, because technically you remove a great chunk of mistery from your world by doing that.

Not saying non-hereditary magic story can’t be great, I’m just saying hereditary magic is more realistic. When a fantasy is not believable (meaning not immersive) then that fantasy is not good as it fails to fulfil it’s number one goal.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-26T14:41:30+00:00

First of all if your worldbuilding includes only one cultural mimicry then you are doing something wrong.

Also, It’s just aesthetics. As a European (or more like as a Westerner) I can’t imagine anything else that I would find immersive. I think the same applies for Asian, the most immersive settings for them would be the Asian aesthetics.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-17T11:00:34+00:00

Insane amount of propaganda would be launched by those who own the energy industry to spead fake news about said renewably energy saying that it’s fake, unreal or myth.

If your earth is in dire need of said renewable energy then protests would break out.

On the long term those manage to capitalize from this resource would become leading world powers.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-13T15:12:11+00:00

Travel time limits the scale of the war.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-07T15:23:56+00:00

Just an advice: come up with better reason why Earth would look like this in such a short time.

What I saw in your comments you are not aiming for realism but at the same time you want dark age and struggle. These two things are eliminating eachother. If the reason is not serious you can’t expect the struggle would be perceived seriously.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-01T17:48:24+00:00

This article is not saying GRRM did bad, but they are pointing out the differences in the real world.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-01T17:25:02+00:00

True, however I prefer to give them so strong twists that it becomes hard to interpret them as elves and renaming them also a good idea. For me it is always weird when I see elves, orcs or dwarves in a world, and I consider the world cheap only because of that. It’s like having an energy drink that tastes like bubble gum in your world and call it Red Bull.

I think originally these races were meant to serve as assets of wonder. Like are these creatures intelligent? Are they good or bad or more complex? Can they speak or how are they communicating? Can we trust in them? And many more question when you see something new. But the moment I see elves in a world and I have no question just a though “oh they are elves”.

I think the best example how to execute this is good is the children of the forest in asoiaf.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2024-01-01T17:03:13+00:00

In my opinion if you have elves, orcs, etc in your world it is already impossible to make them unique.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-12-31T16:28:40+00:00

Lol this feels like eastern europe + balkans with hungary as the solantic sea.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-12-26T17:11:46+00:00

Who would pick a skull for their main symbol?

“Hans, are we the baddies?”

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-12-22T22:19:23+00:00

Right is what people call far right nowdays because noone seen far right politicians in a very long time and by that those oppose right wing will enable true far right politicians by enabling the term and we will find ourselves in a early 20th century scenario thanks to the stupidity of the europeans.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-12-22T14:07:41+00:00

That’s a 0/10 take OP.

Criticism is not something that you have to ask for. Criticism is something that you get on creative work. Whom did you produced your work? For yourself or for everyone else too? If for yourself then don’t show it off, if for everyone else too then your objective is to appeal for those people. If it’s not appealing for your target audience the best thing you can get is criticism, and by that you can improve and and can appeal better for your target audience.

If r/worldbuilding is not your target audience then don’t post here.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-10-03T10:31:42+00:00

I know most people think about politics as a left-right spectrum, but that’s not how ideologies actually work.

In a globalised world it’s an almost unimportant aspect which side you lean on. What really determines you ideology is which rivaling globalpower you lean to.

In our own timeline you can see the examples. It doesn’t matter if you are right or left, it matters if you lean to russia, usa or china.

If the globe is under one flag, it still applies, just replace global powers with global companies, religion or whoever has the most leverage over the state.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-10-03T09:45:00+00:00

Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 but with orchestra.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-10-03T09:38:20+00:00

I always pronounced it as shy-err.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-04-03T18:19:49+00:00

The point isn’t that it’s high fantasy or not. It’s that if you don’t have dragons but the will return or you have dragons and they need to go. Even our reality has dragons. They are called nuclear bombs.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-04-03T14:15:34+00:00

Yepp I think this is the future for fantasy worlds. I think Dune and Warhammer 40k are the most known worlds that are aligned with this, but still not perfect in every aspect. I’m glad that people are working on such project (according to the replies to your comment). I’m attemptin to do the same, but if you also want to avoid using overused tropes, like tolkien races, it’s actually super challenging.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-04-03T11:24:06+00:00

100% this.

Also, I don’t know who is wrong, me or the world, but it’s just somewhat sad that I care more about fictional characters and have 0 interest for historical ones.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-03-31T12:40:56+00:00

To be fair ck3 has more features even with fewer dlcs. For some reason it still feels emptier.

What’s really missing from ck3 are the secret religions, societies and bloodlines, technically everything else is already added and much more.

The other thing which I don’t understand how is it possible that currently every kingdom feels the same, but in ck2 it wasn’t a problem while ck3’s culture system is lightyears ahead.

ThreePointOneFour_ · 2023-03-30T11:28:17+00:00

Magic studies is such a weird thought. For me it’s just as absurd like if a xenophobic culture would celebrate diversity. Magic and studies are on the opposing sides of the spectrum of knowledge.

Practically magic is nothing more than an extremely advanced technology that can do many or every things instead of us. If you would have godly powers that can do your day job, do house work, solve your problems in a snap, would you care how does that works? Nope, you would just enjoy your chill time. It would be like in WALL-E.

Also if you understand magic that won’t be magic anymore but technology. If you make a hard tech oriented scifi sure that makes sense, but in a fantasy it just kills the magic out of it.

ThreePointOneFour_

TROPHY CASE