You simply cannot have Fantasy without including alternate races to our basic humans. I mean you can, and there are many, many successful fantasy films and novels that only include humans, but personally I love the demi-humans and mythical beasts.
Growing up I would watch things like The Lord of the Rings, Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts or I would read the Deltora Quest series (which could be my biggest influence into fantasy and I might do a blog post specifically on them), The Edge Chronicles, and Discworld. I would play games like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Baldur’s Gate. What do these all have in common? Well yes they are all Fantasy based, but the big part, or at least the part that spoke to me the most, was the fantastical races that inhabited the world. It was what got me into Warhammer, the sheer number of races and how varied and interesting they all were. I believe when I first was shown all the different armies, the one I picked was the Lizardmen for I was told “Well, basically they are dinosaurs riding dinosaurs” and I was instantly sold.
Now Tolkien, being the brilliant fellow that he was, pretty much defined Fantasy Races in The Lord of the Rings, thanks to the incredible detail that he built them from. Almost all instances of Elves are now seen as these sleek, beautiful and ancient humanoid creatures with pointed ears. Orcs didn’t even exist in fantasy before LOTR but think of how impactful and relevant they still are today. But who is to say that the races in your novel should be the same? The main benefit of keeping them the same is that they are already well-established races. If you keep dwarves as they are most often portrayed, it wont be surprising if they are short, bearded, gold-loving miners. It does not require you to do as much research or to spend as much time developing something from scratch. However, isn’t it all the more fun when you can twist and turn our expectations into something fresh and exciting? (and maybe I’m in the minority here but personally I love coming up with new fantasy races and writing their lore, history, nature, and all other aspects of their life).
Let’s take an easy example. Orcs from The Lord of the Rings are twisted, hunched, ugly creatures that love fighting. They are small and diminutive in stature, resorting to sheer numbers to win rather than their fighting style or strength. Now a variant from this are the Orcs from World of Warcraft or Warhammer. They share many similarities, like their love for fighting and sheer numbers, but their looks are vastly different. They are hulking, green monster-men, with giant muscles and toothy jaws, using their strength to overwhelm enemies. This is a simple variation that separates their orcs from LOTR’s.
What about Dragon Age, the hit RPG series from Bioware? They have elves, but these could not be any more different than the classic elf. Apart from pointed ears, these elves are not tall, nor as beautiful and are seen more as a slave race than these wizened seers.
Dragons I feel often get the most variety, perhaps due to the differences in real-world myths and legends. The Chinese Dragon is extremely different to the European Dragon, in terms of looks, intelligence and skills. Sometimes dragons are more monster like, hoarding gold and shooting out flames with ferocious roars. Other times, they are wise and can talk or even cast magic. Some are serpentine and live in the air or sea, while others have multiple limbs. Do they always breathe fire? What about water, ice or lightning? If they did, would you try and give a biological reasoning behind it or will it simply be “they cast magic”? I enjoy seeing the alternate variations and the lore or detail behind them, it brings new takes on an old vision.
When next writing a fantasy race, think of how you can make yours unique, to give a new talking point or even a new inspiration for fantasy writers. Who knows, the next Tolkien might already be out there...