Creature Creation part 2: Original Species

Fueled by three cups of coffee, one monster energy drink and copious amounts of trail mix I am here and ready to get funky with this post! Let’s fucking do this!
For those of you that didn’t read my post yesterday, you should go do that…right now… seeing as this post is just a continuation of creature design. Yesterday I covered my method of fleshing out my own version of an already existing species and making it my own. I chose to do the Amanzile, which is my own version of the classic mermaid. Today I will tell you guys about one of my original species and how I went about creating them and their culture.
I really want to just jump right in because I am super excited to get started! Then again it could just be the caffeine…or the trail mix… probably the caffeine. Moving on!
I wanted a chance to explain my own made up species the Croendurians seeing as one of the main characters in the prelude story I will be posting here is from that race. I wanted to make a race of very human like creatures that had an almost Nordic feel to them, and were hearty and rough. These would be people that could live among the Draguns of my world and be fully capable of handling themselves in the rough living conditions in the mountains on the continent of Evrukin. I wanted them to be strong and kind of surly, in the way my moms side of my family is(they’re all heavy drinking Newfoundlanders).

Species Name: Croendur
Region: Evrukine
Culture: Very hearty culture. Most work with dragons for a living. Very family oriented. These people have become a melting pot of cultures all thrown in together and very few are “pure bred” to this day.
Appearance: Appear human. Usually slightly tanned, fair haired and green or blue eyed. Freckles. Like tanned Irish. Thicker skin, stronger bones and slightly longer life expectancy than average humans. Have a closer genetic relationship to the Anaki(giants) then humans. It has actually been theorised that they are the result of human/Anaki cross-breeding but tests have yet to be done seeing as many humans tend to avoid the Croendurians due to their bad yet unwarranted reputation. Croendurians can also grow up to 6’11, while most stay around an average height of 6’2-6’6″ for men and 6’0″-6’4″ for women. Also have been known to have longer canines, like that of a wild dog, seeing as their diet mostly consists of rough and dried meats.

So this species appears more like a different race of human then a different species entirely but to the people of Cealusterra(the world they reside in) they stand out like a sore thumb. I came up with these guys by accident while I was planning for my Draguns. Originally my character Marche( of Croendurian birth) was just a dude who came from the mountains and his mom was a Dragun vet. However, the more I developed my Draguns the more I realised that I needed the people living among them to be stronger then humans, maybe even a bit rougher around the edges. I didn’t want them to be elf like in appearance though because I already had elves in my world and I didn’t need another elf like species running amuck. I already knew  I was going to have giants in my world but I had already decided to call them the Anaki and have them come from my northern continent of Arkos, and I couldn’t have my Draguns living in such a cold climate. This meant I needed a humanoid species that had the sturdy build of a giant but closer to the size and appearance of a human. The more research I did into Draguns and giants and mythology the more I really ended up falling into Norse mythology and old Nordic cultures as well as a touch of the old Celtic cultures. For some reason I pictured these Dragun people to be very similar to an average sized Lord of the Rings meets Steampunk Dwarf. They’re habits and brash nature in the Hobbit book really appealed to me and i couldn’t help but think that if I could channel a bit of that as well in this race then I would be fucking golden as a midsummers day. Slowly but surely my race was coming together and starting to form itself.
The Croendurians would have thicker skin and bones to better equip them for a rough life in the mountains, many cliffs means more chances to hurt yourself in a fall. These people would also live off a diet of salted meats and raw root vegetables, and the occasional fish for a treat. This meant they were primarily carnivores, requiring them to have a stronger jaw and sharper teeth for tearing meat. Due to their Giant blood they do grow to be rather tall and that can often be a good indicator that you’re dealing with a Croendurian and not just a tanned human. Most of their differences from humans lies in their actual diet and their insides rather then their outer appearance.
Now although the Croedurians aren’t going to win any awards for amazing creature design they are the perfect, yet most simple, example of my creation process. It all starts out with just a dumb thought somewhere in the back of my head and that all leads to hours of research. Research. I cannot recommend this enough. It’s great motivation when it comes to actually designing your creatures features and even deciding on a culture. As I said in my last post, I even went into research marine biology for the creation of my mermaids. Research can be so inspirational and it’s a great way to explore the world around you.
From the research stage I move forward and do my summary profile (what you read above) and my ranting paragraphs about the species. I just go on and on about everything from the origins of the species, it’s evolution, why it has certain traits and even any weird habits they have (Croendurians have a strange thing for gold, yet all have an allergy to silver to varying degrees). These ranting paragraphs even help me develop things about the creature I never would have originally thought of unless I just shut my brain off and started to write.  Okay I lied, don’t turn your brain off. It’s actually at this point I’m recalling all the research I did and pulling it forward to help in the creatures more extended production.
After writing my summary and my rants I move on to drawing the creatures final designs. Croendurians are admittedly incredibly boring from a design stand point so posting an example of them won’t be too “oh wow they’re so crazy and weird looking” seeing as they are basically giant/human hybrids.
Imagine someone of South Asian background making babies with an stereotypical red head.

Boom! Croendurians appearance in a nut shells!
After I have their appearance, background, fun facts, and general “ness” figured out I am pretty much all set to throw them into the heat of the plot. I wanted to use the Croendurians as an example for this particular post seeing as, as previously stated, they’re basic as all hell. Humans that don’t go snap, crackle and pop and easily. Not everyone has to go to the extent that I go to and do hours of crazy research for facts about the species that will never come up in the story but I will say that once you have your species super fleshed out some things in your plot tend to write themselves.
Another reason why I picked the Croendurians?

This fucker. Marche, one of the main characters in Tales of Lost, a mentor to the main character and also the main character for the prelude story I’ll be posting on here. I wanted to mention his species seeing as they are brought up a lot in fire to the skies and I didn’t want to just toss you guys in there with this strange term being thrown around. Admittedly his skin is supposed to be a tad darker and so are his freckles but this is a pretty good example of his design otherwise.
So essentially I use the same process as when I modify an already existing creature it’s just that this time I really have to research a bunch of different myths, legends, cultures, races and even a bit of science (the tiniest bit, but it’s still there somewhere in regards to the species silver allergy).
I’m thinking two more weeks of this creative process bullshit then we get started of posting the story? If I lack anything to say for any of my blogs next week I’ll post up another creative writing blog.
Monday jump starts a new month of movies watching with a brand new theme so make sure to join me for that. It’s almost midnight so I am going to bring this all to a close. Have a great weekend everyone and remember to stay Tobly awesome!

Creative Writing Thursday: Creature Creation part 1

Sorry for the lack of consistent posting, I went to see the Live Welcome to Night Vale show last night. I’ve been having a life these past two weeks but no worries dear readers because that’s coming to an end seeing as I am now going to be returning to my hermit ways and getting back down to work. I actually ended up getting horribly sick right in the middle of all this free time and my friend pointed out that it seemed as though I got sick from the lack of work….Being unproductive literally makes me sick. I would make a Desert Bluffs reference but I’m afraid that might be too obscure and hipstery of me.
Seeing as this is Creative writing Thursday I really wanted to cover creature creation a little more in depth this week. I kind of touched on it a bit on my last creative Thursday post when I did a quick rant about how much I love world building (which I will eventually expand upon). Today I’m going to show you all an example of one of my creature creation templates and explain to you all in my process for it.
I’ll start off with the idea of modifying already existing creatures to suit your world/story seeing as this is the primary method I used for upcoming graphic novel series Tales of Lost (plug).

Species Name: Amanzile
Region: Qiya
Culture: Very hunter/ gatherer culture. Tribal, very secluded. Since being taken into captivity they have lost a sense of identity. They have also been known to be quite hostile towards humans when they feel threatened and seeing as they have been taken from their natural environments it’s understandable. What was left of their way of life is gone and they are now kept as signs of success among the wealthy. It’s considered very fashionable and exotic to have an Amanzile in your fish tank.
Appearance: They vary in fish species. Shark inspired, octopus, clown fish and more. Some are small, they can go anywhere from the 18 inches to 9 feet in length.  Very fish like in facial appearance as well. Gills to breath, don’t function on air at all. They are based heavily on our mythos of Mermaids but they have more of an ape like intelligence, think swimming gorillas but more fishy.

What you see above is an example of the summary profiles I write for all my creatures when I’m first toying with their concept. These are just a few questions that I use to really get my brain moving and thinking of how these creatures are going to look and feel and what they’re going to be like. From this point I usually go into an unedited rant where I take what I know about the creature from it’s summary profile and extrapolate on it. These rants are only ever meant for my eyes only so I they’re usually really rough and casual with little regard to spelling or grammar at all.
Example: So these people are like fish, right? You remember that documentary you saw about the mermaids being real and shit? Yeah well they’re like that but more diverse in shape and such. I like the idea of them having these almost ape/fish appearances and being more animal then anything, yeah that’s cool….
Not gonna lie I just went over it and corrected a few of the spelling mistakes. That’s just a small portion of the way I talk to myself when writing. Not everyone is going to know what “That documentary you saw about the mermaids” refers to, but it’s a good queue for my own memory to grab onto when I am going back over and drawing the final design for the creature.
Okay so going back over to the summary profile, let me explain to you all a bit more in depth about what I have written up there.
Species Name
The Amanzile. I’m going to be honest with you all when I say that I can’t find the notes I had with the exact translation of what words I combined to make this species name. It’s a combination of two words in Swahili, one of which being the name of a river….I wish I could find that god damn piece of paper. All the names of my creatures have an origin that makes sense to me and that I’ve put a lot of thought into. The reason why I chose to have the name inspired by Swahili has to do with the location of these creatures.
Region
Qiya is my answer to an African continent. The name is based on a word related to the etymology of Africa. I really wanted my Amanzile to reside near a continent that was warm and would allow such a large diversity of the species to live off it’s coast. I also wanted each continent to have, at the very least, one creature that was native to it’s area and the Amanzile fit perfectly with the waters surrounding Qiya.
Culture
Quite a few creatures in my world have very well formed and human based cultures, the Amanzile though are more animal than human so I wanted to keep their culture simple. Nothing extravagant beyond the basics of hunting for fish and looking for shells on the ocean floors. I watch a lot of documentaries and there were two that really inspired the culture of these creatures. One of which spoke of nomadic tribes with no contact with the outside and how they had developed their own way of life without the influence of those of us from the rest of society. One tribe in particular was deeply hurt when they tried to make contact with the outside world and now no one can get near their coasts without getting spears or arrows sent their way. The other documentary I watched was about feral children, especially a case involving a young girl named Jeanie(spelling? I’m terrible with names). The way this girl would act with her handlers interested me and I found myself really provoked by the way children like her developed. This idea of a species that had this sort of hostility after having suffered betrayal and cruelty(much like the people from the first documentary) at the hands of humans, but stayed at this same sort of feral development that any human would undergo if raised in a wild sort of predicament really jump started me. Of course it’s evolved since then and taken on a far more wild and less human approach to the Amanzile but I still have to credit those two docs for sending me in the right direction. I always feel sad when writing for the Amanzile though because at the point in time that my comic picks up most of them have been either killed or taken into captivity. They’re one of my favourite creatures I’ve created, and just like some animals in our world, they face extinction.
Appearance
I wanted God damn Mermaids!
I didn’t want Ariel mermaids though, I wanted to try and design a mermaid that made sense. One that might actually exist if given the correct conditions to thrive. Whilst reading up on marine biology(which I discovered I really enjoy but have very little brain power for) I heard of a documentary that covered what it might be like if mermaids were real. I highly recommend it for any fantasy fans out there. All I could think was ‘There they are! That’s the Amanzile!’, well almost. Of course I would modify their design and add in different types just to add more of a fantasy-esque flair onto them but the mockumentary version was pretty damn close to what I had been thinking.

The documentary is called “Mermaid: A Body Found” and it’s a good bit of fun. I won’t go to far into the biology of these things because then I would honestly take way from the mockumentary. Seriously though, give it a watch. It’s a great example of creature creation.

Point being to all this, I do put a lot of research into my creature creations. I spent many hours reading through mermaid descriptions from around the world and the different legends behind mermaids in my process of building up the Amanzile. I researched fish breeds to draw inspiration from and even watched a few documentaries for inspiration. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
Want to know about the best part with these guys? I might not even include them in the main plot! They may just end up being a side note in the grand scheme of things, but you know what? I have them now if I ever want or need them. They’re fleshed out and designed and ready to go for any plot that may require their assistance.
Wow, I talk a lot…so sorry. I want to cover my creation process for my original species but I fear that’ll just make this entry one long drone so I’ll tell you guys what! Instead of an angry rant tomorrow I’ll upload “Creation Creation part 2! Original species”.
If you all have any questions regarding the Amanzile or the mentioned continent of Qiya feel free to ask, until tomorrow though guys, stay tobly awesome!