Is it even possible to create a "Unique Race" in fiction, specifically fantasy?

[Dramatic Flare]

The Sload from The Elder Scrolls don't seem to make me think of anything else.
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Sload

Sloads have been one of the baddies in Dungeons and Dragons for years....
which makes me believe it was stolen from some written back in the day. Damn near everything else was too.

Anyway, it is possible but difficult to create a species of fantasy creatures completely outside all preexisting stereotypes and genres. This is less because all stereotypes are used, so much as people have had a long time to think about this stuff already and most of the obvious stuff has been used, a lot dating back to the old Greek and Celtic mythologies. There are fantasy races in every mode of transportation, code of conduct, realm of elements and damn near every substance too. The question, then, is what are you trying to shoot for? absolutely weird is distinctly possible, but it's going to throw off your players/readers/watchers/whatever, and that has to be really well done to be done well at all. I can think of several off the top of my head, but people wouldn't by necessity like it.

For example, let's start with the obvious changes to physiology. Animal parts in all types have already been used, for wings to boar faces to the lower body of a goat or horse. Let's do something else, let's reorganize the major parts. What if the "head" or sensory organs were moved around. Heads tend to be at the front or top in our minds because you want to see what's coming to kill you as soon as possible. What if the race is a herbivore with eyes near the top a nose, but the brain is contained in the rib cage and the mouth is actually around the pelvis, to be better near it's food source? That would be weird.
But would people go for it? That is an entirely different question. Mouths near the groin, as we're used to it, isn't something people may like.

 

[Mnemophage]

Yep.

Addendum: cliche is what it is, but do not make the mistake of constructing your world simply to escape it. Writers are so prolific, and there are so very many of us; ideas are going to overlap and there's nothing that can be done about that. Instead of trying to find that one pinprick of thought that no one has yet explored, focus on building a cohesive and immersive world regardless of the set stereotypes.

After all, that tiny spot of forgotten originality may well have been left alone for good reason. I could write a story involving ambulatory martinis who rattle around the multiverse, seeking to launch themselves down a sentient creature's throat and control them from within, but creating an epic, genre-defining storyline with that base premise is all but impossible. Clearly, I'll need more martinis.

Ultimately, it's the unique voice of the writer that makes a story memorable. Terry Pratchett is an excellent example: he works within established fantasy tropes, and has some clear troubles with story structure, especially in his early works. However, his writing style is so distinct and intrinsically entertaining that it almost doesn't matter, and if his deficiencies are noticeable, they are also forgiven.

 

[FalloutJack]

Sorry, I've been hording all the originality for myself. My bad.

 

[Archereus]

I believe it is possible but it would be hard as hell. Thats my two bits, it will need to be something mega well thought through.

 

[Lilani]

I think the races are less important than the characters themselves. I mean think about it: did you like Gimli and Legolas in LotR because they were a dwarf and an elf, or did you like them because their characters were so fun and distinct?

Sure, different races can add a sense of diversity, size, or history to the world, but in the end it's the characters that breathe life into it. Not their race.

Nope.

Everything is taken.

Nothing is original anymore.

A soceity of beings with the top half of a shark and the bottom half of a monster-truck.


Pwnt.

As a great Engineer once said...nope.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Is a general rule, the answer is no. Fictional races, regardless of genre, tend to be built upon the foundation of taking some part of the human condition and expanding it into a major component of an entire group.

Examples:

Klingons (Star Trek): Based upon any of the historical warrior societies except this culture extends to an entire species. Those who do not conform to the ideal are outcasts and are presumably rare.

Elves (D&D): Based upon a combination of various animist religions and various artistic pursuites.

Dwarves (Most examples): Industry, technology and hard work.

Vorcha (Mass Effect): Based upon various transient displaced societies.

The basic reason for doing such a thing is that it gives the audience a means by which to identify with characters. TO create something "unique" would be to create a society based upon concepts wholly alien to the human condition. Since it is very nearly impossible to even identify a such a concept much less express it coherently, creating something entirely unique would be a monumental challenge.

 

[ShatterPalm]

Oh totally dude. I've got four running. albeit they're all humanoid in design, but there aren't many things that I would consider "human" about them other than their appearance.
The idea is just to get an idea for something in your head, flesh it out a bit, and make a culture around them.

Take my Shadow-kiites (pronounced kite, despite the second i) for example. They're a race a massive boar-like beasts. They're huge, and serated horns, barbed claws, spines running down their back, red, silver, and gold eyes, and access to warp spells and magic in general. That's their beast form. They can also shape shift, because controlling their beast form is too difficult for most shadows. In their human forms, they have no shadows, pale skin, small portruding horns, overly large pupils, and the lords (a recognized nobility) have birthmark/tatoo the runs across part of their body, and is entirely unique from one lord to the next.

Now I will admit that when it comes to what they look like, you're options are limited, but creating a unique fantasy species isn't that hard. It just takes a little thought.

 

[kickyourass]

Of course it's possible, just not alot of people do it. I mean take mass effect, can you honestly tell me you've seen ANYTHING like any of those alien races before Mass Effect? Fntasy is a bit different but it can be done if you put your mind to it.

Ahem. Mass Effect reminded me of Star Trek pretty much every time something other than human came up. Sure, its story was interesting (at least the first one's was).

I would never, ever look at Mass Effect and call most any part of it original.

Shooter RPG? Combination of two genres, master of neither.
Story? Robots serve even more ancient robots that control a few biological badasses. OK, story is good but it came from somewhere.
Characters? Again, good but not really original either.

It's incredibly hard for something completely original to come up. You can trace pretty much everything to an ancient religion of some sort.

Goody for you you noticed that something was similar to something else, what do you want, a cookie? Sorry, but you don't get points for noticing something obvious like one Sci-Fi story being similar to another Sci-Fi story.

BUt this could lead to an interesting conversation if we were talking about plot lines, we're are not, we're talking about races, and I don't know what Star Trek you've been watching but I never saw anything that reminded me of a Turian or a Quarian.

 

[Crazy_Dude]

The Draenei in WoW were pretty unique. You just have to get the right balance between fantasy and farce.

But on the topic of your race, how does their biology dictate their actions?

Mixing a goat a smurf and Davy Jones is unique?

Also see The Protoss from Starcraft. Its even made by Blizzard themselves the same guys who came up with the Draenei.

Thumbs up for being Original Blizzard....

 

[Sejs Cube]

It's a fallacious argument.

Everything can be simplified down, yes. That doesn't mean it's unoriginal.

Humans: hairless brainy chimps. Oops, fuck, guess we're a knockoff and there's a ton of other things out there like us. Oh no wait.

 

[kickyourass]

Of course it's possible, just not alot of people do it. I mean take mass effect, can you honestly tell me you've seen ANYTHING like any of those alien races before Mass Effect? Fntasy is a bit different but it can be done if you put your mind to it.

Ahem. Mass Effect reminded me of Star Trek pretty much every time something other than human came up. Sure, its story was interesting (at least the first one's was).

I would never, ever look at Mass Effect and call most any part of it original.

Shooter RPG? Combination of two genres, master of neither.
Story? Robots serve even more ancient robots that control a few biological badasses. OK, story is good but it came from somewhere.
Characters? Again, good but not really original either.

It's incredibly hard for something completely original to come up. You can trace pretty much everything to an ancient religion of some sort.

Goody for you you noticed that something was similar to something else, what do you want, a cookie? Sorry, but you don't get points for noticing something obvious like one Sci-Fi story being similar to another Sci-Fi story.

BUt this could lead to an interesting conversation if we were talking about plot lines, we're are not, we're talking about races, and I don't know what Star Trek you've been watching but I never saw anything that reminded me of a Turian or a Quarian.

I was merely mentioning my observations. I can't see how someone could look at a lot of the races in Mass Effect and not be reminded of something from Star Trek. I didn't mean to be an ass (although looking back I guess I was a bit), and you didn't have to have a temper tantrum.

Oh, and I'll get my own fucking cookie, thank you very much.

I should probably apologize too, you'd think by now I would've learned not to go on the Internet when I have low blood sugar.

 

[Rednog]

There is plenty of really out there races in fiction/fantasy.
Hell animorphs was like what 15+ years ago and had interesting races like

Or go look up some of the insane stuff in the World of Darkness.