Hey gang! Just wanted to share some observations and thoughts about the types of creatures you generally see in fantasy books.

It strikes me as very ironic that fantasy authors will go to great lengths to create strange, magical creatures to make their worlds seem more fantastic and exotic but when it comes time to work on the "normal" animals they demonstrate a shocking lack of originality. Almost every fantasy author uses the same basic animals as the normal fauna of their worlds: deer, wolves, rabbits, bears, foxes, squirrels, snakes etc. All of these are animals common to western Europe and North America. C. S. Lewis broke from this pattern a bit by throwing some exotic animals such as apes, cheetahs, and lions into Narnia, but even then the Talking Beasts that usually played the biggest roles were ones familiar to Western Society. If you really want some creative creatures, why not look and see what the Pro has already done and borrow some of them? I'm not demeaning the use of magical creatures in fantasy, I'm just saying that it's more than plausible that a world in which Dragons and Behemoths and Dufflepuds roam freely would have a greater variety of species than just what most Americans are familiar with. Wouldn't it be great fun to have your hero look up from the road he's traveling and see a sugar glider coasting over his head or for the villain to have a pet howler monkey? It just seems to me that if God gave us such a great variety of wildlife in our world, it's a bit silly that all fantasy books only use the same few species. I mean obviously, we're writing novels and not biological profiles, but still, there are other large mammals that live in forests and are good for food besides deer.

Another thought is about demystifying fantastic critters. I understand that in a lot of cases the fantastical creatures are rare, but for those that aren't why do the people that live around them still act like they are. For instance, if your world has a creature with the body of a horse, legs of a lion, and head of a tiger, would horses really have been domesticated as pack animals and mounts? I know, that may seem less fantastic and exotic to some, but I think that horse/lion/tiger-riders are a lot more fantasy feeling than a regular cavalry. What if one of your races suddenly discovered that your non-race dragons were really tasty? Would the deer population be able to sleep in safety?

I know there was something else I wanted to add, but I've had this post open for hours and I can't remember what it is, so I'm just going to post it and hope I remember the last thought later. Hope this helps!

That was really interesting, Seer! Thank you!

Very interesting, Seer!

Probably one thing to think about when it comes to adding in more exotic animals is the climate, though. You don't find monkeys running around in the forests of the U.S., after all. But I very much like the idea of having a greater variety of creatures, and your point about "demystifying" the fantastic creatures is excellent.

The thing is that there are exotic creatures from similar climates. There are temperate forests in Asia as well at about the same latitudes as some of our forests. So wildlife from there would probably be able to survive here. But seriously, pulling from the variety of critters in our own country would still be doing better than most.

Very interesting.

*leaves thread mulling over topic in mind*

That makes sense. Good point.

I am now very glad that I decided to keep the secretary birds of the western plains

This is very interesting, very interesting indeed. Thanks for your thought-provoking posts, Seer.

I would like to point out that I feel somewhat justified in using horses as means of transport. Horses are (or were) the worldwide choice for carrying humans. When you look at beasts of burdens, I can only think of camels that otherwise commonly carry humans. Plus, horses are fast thus good for traveling.

However, your point is well-taken. Perhaps we could take ordinary animals like monkeys, etc and give them unique cobha to our world

eru

Alpacas and llamas? But good point. Still, this *is* fantasy we're talking about, so I think it would be pretty easy to dream up an animal different from horses that can carry humans and are fast.

Seer, that was definitely a thought-provoking post. Animals like pandas would survive pretty well in a modified temperate climate. Which makes me consider how I can change my bear-like gorra to be more panda-like...

A very thought-provoking post! I haven't yet decided what sort of animals are in my world (though I need to) but this has given me some cool ideas of what to put in it.

Many fantasy stories have people riding lizards, dragons, wolves, and catamounts. Having some with apes and monkeys would be interesting.

Another way to diversify is to change up the roles between fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal. Granted, fish is harder to do unless you work with sea people, but instead of mice, why not have a kind of starling hopping through the walls and sneaking into the house to eat your grain and build nests. People could ride giant toads, watch out for burrowing stingrays as they cross the field, have bats come out at night that look like winged chameleons rather than winged mice, or have groundhogs that change color to stay hidden as the move about.

A fun one I plan on doing is having all mammals, birds, and fish be gryphon or mer type creatures, always a mix between at least two of those kinds. Woodpecker squirrels, hummingbird mice, and jay foxes.

I love this.

I'm addressing this by going a few steps backwards through the fossil chain, drawing from long extinct creatures and either using them directly or an unmodified version. Part of that is because I'm not aiming for a super-fantastical world. It's supposed to be relatively familiar since it's an off-set alternate universe of our world. It makes things really different to think about how humans would respond and culture would change because of these creatures.

For example, I have the titanaboa living in some of my swamps. It's an extinct 50 plus foot long snake that's between 4 and 5 feet wide. It can eat humans and sharks. Not something you usually see in a fantasy novel, but it existed in real life. It adds a good twist without having to mix any creatures together.

Or, reality is weirder and scarier than fantasy. Giant sloths, you know.

Now that is thought provoking, why not have giraffes and other such animals? I see your point. In Meridia I used a Burmathon a giant snake big enough to eat a human! Im sure they no longer exist a fiberglass replica was on display at a nature museum in Washington DC. I also used Spidras (spi-dra) short I. Giant spiders that release toxic fumes to paralyze and disorient their prey. I used giant scorpions much like the ones in Merlin and I used a Kirin. And I created the Swyrvel a Snake like creature with bat wings face and ears. The bite of one can cause torment anxiety regrets of the past etc.... eventually causing their victims to die from all of it.

Titanaboa is the snake I used but gave it a different name

Can I claim the giant toads?

All yours.

They would be excellent to ride into battle, because if frogs are prodded in their front ends too much, they bite the thing that is doing the prodding.

Giant Frogs!? Cool!

Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series The Stormlight Archive is a nice example of an author being creative with the types of animals on his world. The planet where the SA is set, Roshar, regularly experiences extremely violent storms called highstorms. As a result, most animals are more like crustaceans than mammals, with shells that can protect them from highstorms. So people have giant shell creatures pulling carts, little shelled creatures for pets, etc.

There's a hilarious scene in one book where a native Roshari protagonist is talking with a worldhopper who is originally from another planet:

I want nudibranch-riding merpeople. Just because.

For real though. Or maybe flying nautilus...never mind, I'm using that.

How do you make a slug giddyup though? You dig your heels in, and it just jiggles.

By putting slug food on a branch and holding it out in front like in cartoons.