7 Tips How to Create a New Species for SFF Authors
As an author or storyteller, have you ever wondered where the Star Wars franchise, overly hairy, Chewbacca came from? Or who designed the magnificent Kraken creation from Clash of the Titans? What did you think about the amazing worms from Frank Herbert’s Dune? Did you find the lovely Borrowers made famous by author Mary Norton to be utterly fantastical?
It has always fascinated me how these characters came about out of someone’s imagination? Was it built from Lore, or needed on the author’s part? Who decided to put hair all over Chewbacca and why? Are the Borrowers human or not? Did the Kraken have tentacles? Why are the Dune Worms so big? Storytellers around the world are constantly generating new and fascinating monsters, creatures, or characters inside the world of fantasy. And what are the rules to follow when you make a new creature or character of another species?
Dune
Think about these top 7 areas:
- Environmental. Where does your new species hang out? Air-breathing? Aquatic? Below ground or above? This could be a difficult choice if you try to meld two species together such as Melusine, an immortal outcast, half woman, half serpent in The Wandering Unicorn author Manuel Mujica Lainez. While she manages to marry and have a life, she is forced into secrecy every Saturday when her curse is brought to fruition as her serpent body appears. Or perhaps it’s more of an aquatic world like.
- Size. Just how big do you want this species to be? A lot of ancient history in books reveals the ancient ones as giants. But if your setting is indoors, how big do your doorways have to be? Examples of giants are the Dune worms, as mentioned before. And the Dragons of Pern, by author Anne McCaffrey, have their own Weyrs built into the higher rock mountains. We can also see a size difference in the very intelligent but non-technological Flouwen, giant, colored jellyfish-like entities in the ammonia oceans of Eau from Rocheworld by Robert L. Forward. And then there’s The Borrowers from Mary Norton as mentioned before, the miniature human-like creatures who live unseen in houses and “borrow” items from those that live there.
- Good or Evil? The Ewoks are a fictional species of friendly small, furry, mammaloid, bipeds in the Star Wars franchise. Wargs in LOTR and the human/wolf blend of Wolf Mutts that hunt in the arena in Hunger Games both play vicious roles in their prescribed settings. The Angel Islington is not so angelic where he dwells in the sewers of London Below in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. And we all know about the mycorrhized spore called Thread, which voraciously consumes all organic material in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series.
The Borrowers
by Mary Norton
A sample from my own work where two assassins have a conversation.
Sam smoothed his mustache down to the corners twice before realizing he was doing it as he waited in the synth machine line. When he stepped up to request his black coffee, his ever-vigilant eyes kept watching on the Canid sitting at a nearby table. Retrieving the hot beverage from the replication, he sipped and stared.
Although Doha Spirito sat with his back to him, Sam knew that the creature felt him, even in this large communal room with twenty other people. The warrior’s pointed ears twitched, even as he bowed his furry head over some unrecognizable meat product. Doha Spirito was a complete surprise to Sam when they were introduced. Herman had nothing but praise for the beast and even called him a friend. Sam read all sorts of approval in the scientist’s posture and attitude. Yet from what Sam knew about Canid warriors they were rarely praised and never became a “friend”. Killing was their calling. The best of the best were sworn to lifelong guard duty with the Canid royal line. So, what would a Canid be doing here? Sam wondered if Doha Spirito was portraying a friendship to the new couple for some ulterior reason. Herman often misunderstood the reality of the situation around him with his nose too close to the science grindstone. Sam suppressed a grin. Hell, he would never forget the day he gave the “hair of the dog” to a hung-over forty-year-old friend. Trying to out-drink Sam in an impromptu challenge showed his greenness. But Herman never lacked the wits to seek out the truth.
Sam’s wife Elsa took to Herman right away. She scolded Sam about teasing the scientist; she liked him. That was enough for her and for Sam. Elsa never read a person wrong. Her opinion was golden.
But this Canid friend was another issue. Did the creature do something that let Herman justify the trust between them? Although the Canid warriors were known for their deep spirituality and their professional fighting skills, Sam heard rumors about the fighters entering a rage called the ‘wildness’, a crazed battle rage that could enhance the Canid strength and focus. He had never witnessed it. The possibility of true danger was all he ever understood about the species.
Doha Spirito lifted his large canine head and made a strange gesture over his food before spearing a chunk to put in his mouth. The beast chewed slowly, his left ear still twitching in Sam’s direction. Sam drew in a breath and stepped toward the mysterious figure. If he was truly a warrior of the reputed Canid warrior skills, Sam was not only interested, he wanted to know more.
“May I sit with you, Doha Spirito?” Sam inquired with his slight drawl.
Doha Spirito stopped chewing and looked up at the human. He swallowed his food after a second, and a short claw-tipped paw gestured to the bench on the other side of the table. “Welcome,” a raspy guttural response intoned.
Sam’s eyes widened. It was the first verbal response he encountered.
The Canid carefully folded over the small container lid on his meal and snapped it shut. Pushing it off to the side, he placed his paws onto the table, one on top of the other. His large eyes were wide open and waiting for the human.
The Wondering Unicorn
by Manuel Mujica Lainez
“I was curious as to how a Canid warrior ended up here on a newly discovered planet with a couple of exploring foreign species?”
Doha Spirito tilted his head to one side and studied Sam. He lifted his paws and cupped them together then turned them over, twice. The universal sign for friendship was clear.
Sam believed the simple explanation, to a point. He’d watched the Canid with Herman and with the scientist’s wife, Jor. The three of them were evidently close associates, in some manner. Sam’s teeth captured the corner of his lip pulling on his mustache while he thought it over.
“I understand you are friends with Herman and his wife, but there must be other reasons?” Sam pushed a little further, his eyes became a little more intense in his regard.
Doha Spirito leaned back, curious what exactly the older gentleman looked for. He had not seen any dishonest behaviors in Herman’s acquaintance. In fact, Doha Spirito detected only positive impressions of him. But now he recognized a deeper layer, one of subtlety, and possible deception that could only be gained through actual experience. Doha Spirito examined the man’s face, neck, and hands, the exposed areas of skin that could show personal details. Yes, there on his left hand, the index finger, was an ingrained callous, what they called a specialist callous found on the tip. It was created from continual practice with older metal-based weapons often called hand arms. His knuckles also showed wear and tear of multiple tiny scarring nicks. Evidence of knife work if you looked closely. On his neckline was a razor-thin line over two inches long that just missed his jugular, a sword, or a long blade. This man had a past.
Sam felt exposed. Those large canine eyes seemed to uncover all of him, past deeds, both good and bad. He resisted the sudden urge to rub his neck. His hand closed, involuntarily, forming a loose fist, to try and hide his shooting callus. Without touching the hardened skin, he sensed those eyes upon it.
Doha Spirito leaned forward slightly, grinning when he noticed the motion. He still recognized the man as morally good but there was an issue. Perhaps Sam’s past haunted him more than it should. Spirito knew something about the cost of taking a life. Maybe if they understood each other better?
Doha Spirito lifted his left paw up to seemingly wipe his muzzle but very gently lifted the hairline to reveal a one-inch scar on his under skin. When Sam noticed it, his eyes narrowed to see its jagged edge. It was a blade wound and pretty nasty in its position. He looked away deliberating. The position, and depth, were serious. It was a wound that spoke of a violent opponent, one full of deceit. The fact that Doha Spirito showed it to him told him the Canid was not only dangerous but trusting him with that knowledge.
Harry Potter
The Philosopher's Stone
by J.K. Rowling
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- Communication. Is the creature telepathic like the TreeCats in A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber or also characters in the Honorverse series by the same author? Then there is Cerúlia, a queen who can communicate with animals in the aptly named A Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff. Or the physic ability Perrin gradually learns as he communicates with wolves in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. So many of these are with animals. Then there are the daemons in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
- Food source. Hagrid fed Norbert, his newborn Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, a bucket of brandy mixed with chicken blood, per the ever-impressive J K Rowling recipe in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Jabba the Hut was said to regularly consume mass quantities of live frogs per the Star Wars franchise. That rich Spice from Frank Herbert’s Dune is giant worm secretion. Really makes you want to eat Spice, right?
- Weapons or defense? Who doesn’t remember Nick Fury’s surprise when Goose, the cat in Captain Marvel’s ship, reveals he is a Flerken from the Marvel Franchise? And then there’s Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Franchise), displaying his long reach of death. J. R. R. Tolkien’s LOTR series created the Ents, a tree species that lived very long lives but deliberated obsessively. Or there are creatures such as Star Trek Franchise Borg Collective, the cybernetic organisms, or cyborgs, that link in a collective mind and transform individuals into drones, as the collective seeks perfection.
- Kryptonite or flaw. Hagrid’s Fluffy in the Harry Potter Franchise could be calmed and put to sleep by music. In Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card the Formics, or buggers, were similar to ants with a Hive Queen, male drones, and workers. Ender destroys the planet to kill the hive. The Trolloc, a crossing of human and animal stock portrayed in The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, cannot swim, are carnivorous and often fill with blood lust during a battle, are normally violent, and less intelligent than humans. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein took out the legs to disable the Arachnid “bugs”.
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
Here I introduce one of my characters.
Folkera, the seven-foot-tall Lokan female, affectionately known as Folki to her close friends, stood a few steps within the ship’s hull out of direct sunlight. Projecting numerous dark purple tentacle limbs from the large round segmented body, a true water creature, her hypersensitive skin had to avoid the dry heat. Higher levels of rapid dehydration dried her body and caused her speech peculiarity. Although her unique species could transition for extended periods, her adaptation for facilitated diffusion could only function so effectively, because her skin began to oxidize the minute she left the water.
Folki slid into the three-meter water tank and relief soaked into every pore of her dry skin. It felt glorious as her cells instantly absorbed the liquid like a sponge. She soothed herself by repeating words her mother spoke, so often, “Warm water soaks the soul”.
Her large, round eyes remained open beneath the fluid, and the cilia near her eyelids fluttered with the light current circulating. She blinked to clear tiny bubbles drifting in the oxygen-rich liquid.
It was not the waters of her home pools, but it did regen her fluid levels sufficiently. Just an hour’s dip in the morning and evening refreshed her form. When she relaxed, her invertebrate form spread out in the water and resembled a thick blanket left too long in a tub. She squeezed out some of the captured air to sink lower. Her two lower tentacles swayed slowly, left and right, to keep her floating, while the others drifted.
There you have it. Seven top tips. I hope you enjoyed this article. Please subscribe to my website if you want to be notified when I’ll be publishing or to get free samples of my work. Also, see my Patreon sign-up for exclusive access to additional articles and sneak peeks of my WIP chapter by chapter.
JL Nich, SFF Author
