World Building #2: Under the Sea, Under the Sea

Since I've already decided that the races of the world are going to be tied to the five elements, let's take a closer look at each one.

Now, between the last post and this one, I've come to think that perhaps I want humans to be unaffiliated with any specific elements. Humanity as a whole is flexible, sure, but individual humans might not be.

To that end, I think I'll add a sixth race, some sort of people. or something that effect. Actually, you know what? Let's make them whale/dolphin/seal people. There aren't enough marine mammal themed races in the world. I'm not sure which marine mammal to base them off of, but I like the idea of a race that's closer to humans as a mammal than half-fish.

In fact, let's make all the races based off of humans. That's what they are anyway, right? Exaggerated versions of humans with funny ears or oddly colored skin? In most fantasy settings, humans are the young race, the newcomers while everyone else and their dog is part of an ancient civilization. Let's turn that on its head. Humanity is the oldest race and, in fact, are the mold in which all the other races are built from.

Let's say that first there were humans and then when humans came into contact with the ambient elemental magic of the world, some of them were transformed into the races there are now.

Or we could have a god do it. Or gods. Maybe some gods found humans to be insufficient as their worshippers and decided to mold them into something they liked. I'm not sure. I haven't even gotten to setting down religion yet, but perhaps the gods are individual manifestations of the various elements. Hmmm...

Either way, humans are the base and they're the most balanced. Humanity as a whole has an equal mixture of all the elements... or perhaps none of them. I'm thinking that all races have all the elements in them, but each of the races other than humans have an element that makes up the majority of their composition.

Anyway, where was I? Whalefolk? Sealfolk? Otterfolk? Marine mammalfolk or MMF let's call them for now. Of course, I'll have to match the culture to the element as well... before I was considering associating water with humans because of water's malleable nature. However, a more intelligent friend of mine brought up an interesting idea: Rome. As he put it:

"Rome. Finally, simply, ultimately. Rome. Rome flowed into the weakest parts. Cracked the stones. Where the other nations stood like stone, Rome would flow around. Rome would gladly take up ideas, so long as they worked. They flowed along the path of least resistance, in that sense. Rome was an empire built around a sea. One that they considered the center of their world. Mediterranean. Look at that name."

Really cool. Thanks, Godwinson, for the idea. Also thanks to July for bringing up selkies, the mythological seals who could shed their skin to become humans. So, let's go with that. A race of selkies who have established a coastal, and perhaps partially underwater, empire in the style of Rome. As an added bonus, a Roman theme would evoke the Greco-Roman feel Atlantis has always had.

This also makes the ocean more important, as its home to a powerful civilization. One thing that's always bothered me about fantasy maps is that they usually have much smaller oceans compared to Earth in favor of larger landmasses. I want a large sea in this world and the imperial selkies will have control over this vast territory. Of course, being marine mammals they'll naturally gravitate more to the coastline than to the open sea, but an imperious nation lording over the whole ocean tickles my fancy.

Well, that's the first race done and possibly the only original one. The other should be easy, given that they're normal fantasy races... with a twist, of course.

And yes, that's a picture of kpenguin trussed up as Namor. Don't know who Namor is? Then you're just not nerdy enough.