Creature Creation I - More than just scales and extra limbs

    Designing aliens, monsters, and all many of diverse beasts, critters, and beings can be a daunting task.  Indeed, the act of creation isn’t one to be taken lightly, because a poorly conceived anything in a story will quickly be noticed, dissected, and assaulted by your readers, players, or viewers.
    Are these monsters and aliens just metaphors for humanity?  There isn’t a single answer to that question, rather it is yes, it is no, and it is maybe.  In many cases (the elves, dwarves, halflings, and dragons in many of the more popular fantasy series) these creatures are metaphors for aspects of humanity.  Elves are arrogant, intelligent, naturists; dwarves represent our greed and lust, dragons are wise and ecclesiastical to the point of prophecy. 
    In other cases, like the Uruk’ha of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or the Draconians of Weis & Hickman’s Dragonlance, these creatures are inhumane.  They don’t just look like monsters, but their bloodlust, rage, and hate – without any compassion or love to temper it – are depicted as the worst parts of humanity. 
    Then you have the assortment of enigmatic creatures and races in all of fictiondom.  All you need to do is think of something from Star Wars, Star Trek, or any number of genre specific stories for an alien or monster that is perfectly human (Aside from whiskers, jowls, and the occasional tail).  That is, they are good and evil, capable of compassion and rage, greed and altruism, love and hate; these creatures are all mirrors of humanity, rather than metaphors of single human aspects.   
    It is these “humanesque” aliens and monsters that serve as the core of the speculative fiction megaverse.  But how do the greats – the Asimovs, Heinliens, Tolkiens, Bradleys, and Gavriels – create such creatures?  I suspect that they all have their own unique methodology – what person doesn’t? – But I also suspect that every unique methodology contains many similar elements to what I am starting to use.

    There is a multitude of questions you need to ask as you create new and interesting races for your stories.  Some questions might not need to be asked because you have answered them in your plot.  If your story about a simple page recovering a mighty sword takes place on an Earth-type planet, then we can safely assume that your monsters breathe oxygen.
    Or perhaps your story is about a dragon man hell-bent on saving his mate and child: well we know how those creatures reproduce, roughly. 
    Everything can be important, and no facet of your creations universe is useless.  Ecology, the form and function of the beast, the gravity, atmosphere, number of suns, moons, and stars can have an effect on your creations.  Would the werewolf be the same if Earth had two moons?  Could star-crossed lovers really be star-crossed if our atmosphere was too dense to see the stars?
    Creating brainless, savage monsters can be fun and easy, and usually a great test of one’s descriptive powers.  We as readers are far more interested if your beasts are vividly imagined and described.  Which one of the following do you like more:

The long-eared raawk ran out of the bushes, its forked tail ridged for balance, and began to bite Prince Valiant in the neck.
Or
The two half moons hung at their zeniths, streaks of silver and gold light filtering through the dense canopy of the forest.  The long-ears of the raawk were swept back as it slunk amongst the underbrush, its forked tail ridged.  Valiant watched from the centre of the clearing, waiting until suddenly the giant cat sprang, a trail of saliva in the air as it shot towards Valiant, toothy, gaping maw aimed for his jugular and a killing blow.

I just invented the raawk (with a little inspiration from other sources) and as you can see, it helps in one’s writing to be descriptive.  From the latter of the two exerpts, we know it is feline-like, has a lot of teeth, and drools like a dog, not to mention it is a cunning hunter.  Plus we now know this world has two moons and at least one very dense forest.  But do I need to say anything else about a raawk?  Probably not, feline-like is enough for me, as its breeding and social habits won’t ever matter.

    Of course, the creation of a sentient species adds an assortment of things to consider.  Aside from things like form, function, environment and ecology, we must think of them as man-like, at least to the extent that we assume they possess similar cognitive functions as we do.
    Are these people warlike or pacifists?  Are they open-minded explorers or close-minded xenophobes?  Bipedal, gelatinous, quadrupeds?  Hairy or bald?  Scales? How many eyes, arms, legs and ears?  Tentacles?
    All of that physical gobbly goop is easy to imagine, we did it when we were scared of the monster in our closet, and as adults I bet we can do it even better.  What will be a more difficult task is the more adult task of society and even more importantly, language.
    Language reflects society and culture.  The Inuit have more words for snow than sand, and the Japanese have a much more diverse language of social etiquette than Europeans.  When creating another race of people, you don’t always have to do what Tolkien did (He did, after all, create languages for his characters) but you must take into account your characters language, you’d be surprised how useful it is.
    Let us assume you are making a warrior clan of Northmen; big, bearded behemoths wielding axes and maces the size of small trees.  They live in small, matriarchal societies (women rule the hearth because men are always at war), there are at least a dozen words for females (all of them highly respectful) but even more telling, there are fifty words for war.  Lets look at some of these made-up words for a new people:

• Ruuv: a small clan war usually fought with non-lethal weapons to assert dominance.
• Ruuv pa: ceremonial clan fighting, similar to the Olympics.
• Croov: Honourable duel
• Vas Cetro: War of Attrition
• Vas Ruu: Mercenary war, used for paid combat.
• Sheb Va: A senseless war
• Sheb Va Cru: A war leader who has no tactical sensibility

That’s really just what I could come up with off the top of my head, but as you can see, this sort of language (and when used effectively, readers will begin to learn the dialect) illustrates that this clan is not composed of crude warmongers, but rather, men and women of strength and savage honour.
    Let’s continue looking at this warrior clan.  We’ll call them the Anad’Cad, Sons of the God Ojdnir and his lover Celestia of the Noble Stag.  They live on the perimeter of the Northern steppes and the Black Forests of Nir, where their women forage for berries and fish for large tlak salmon, and the men hunt the wilds for vrakbeast.  Everything is used, nothing is wasted. 
    Annually, the clans of the region meet at the Ok Ruuv Pa, or Stone of Ceremony.  It was said to be placed there by Ojdnir himself.  While this month long festival seems to be just a way to assert the dominance of one clan over another, it is actually more than that.
    Men and women meet, fall in love, and are married by the Shamans in Stag headdresses, craftsman exchange new methods, and news from across the land is shared. 
    How does courtship work amongst the Anad’Cad?  Women have the final say in all matters of love, and any man found to force himself on a woman is first castrated then set adrift on the great river Grooyt towards the Western Sea. 
    In situations where courtship progresses, the young man must offer an assortment of goods.  The bride’s family quickly rejects items of wealth, as they prefer items of prestige.  Vrakbeast horns, Peli eggs, and gems from the Underdeep are all considered proof of a man’s strength and valour, and are deemed worthy prizes to prove the value of a woman.

    I could go on and on about the Anad’Cad of the Black Forest of Nir.  I’ve yet to consider their dress, their stories, or how they treat outsiders.  But the Anad’Cad is at least half made now.
    I treat the process organically, describing one event in my mind, and then moving from there.  Once I decided they were warriors, a matriarchal society made sense.  Which meant women having power in the courtship made sense, etc etc.  I could have just as easily made it a patriarchal society with absentee males, but that doesn’t make much sense. 
    The best thing I can suggest is finding your own method, but when creating sentients, always wear your anthropologist’s hat.  Even if it is an impossibly strange species (the Gelatinous blobs of Ceti Alpha Nine perhaps) the anthropological method can be used to create some of the strangest things.