Worldsmiths | Fantasy World-Building Resource Book

How to create your own fantasy creature

This has been suggested :)

So, when you think of fantasy creatures you might think about any creature from mythology or folktales, but sometimes you want to create your own fantasy creatures. You don't want to be cliche, you want to be original!

While I can't give you any general "how to", I can tell you how I do it and maybe you can take something from that. These are some things I consider or think about when I want to come up with a fantasy creature.

These are in no particular order. You don't have to do these in order. You may need to choose to do one or another, or even combine two of them depending on what you're trying to create.

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SIMILARITIES

Often a fantasy creature resembles an animal in our world.

Let's say your village peoples have livestock. But you don't want to use plain old sheep or cows. What do you do?

I call it keeping, adding, and subtracting (and you might find this useful when coming up with creatures for other reasons). 

Let's imagine you want something that is the equivalent to a sheep in our world.

Keeping:

What makes a sheep, a sheep? It's wool. You look at something fluffy with wool. You might think it resembles a sheep. If you think that, you can understand that this fantasy creature must be the sheep in this fantasy world.

Adding and subtracting:

Now, add something to a sheep that isn't normally on a sheep. How about a long neck? How about a long dog-like snout? Change the sheep so that others can tell that it's a sheep, but not really. How about you make the sheep really ball-like and round. What would happen to it's legs? Are they short or abnormally long?

Once you're satisfied with your changes, now you can name it.

You can name it something that sounds like "sheep" or you can call it Pantaloon. And I do have a fantasy sheep-like creature called a Pantaloon ;)

CLIMATE

You also may need to consider the climate.

Depending on the climate of your story or particular scene, creatures that can exist in that climate will have to have different body types from different species. Let's say you have a magical desert that exists underwater.

Your creature may need to swim AND be compatible in a desert.

What creatures live in the desert? What creatures live in the ocean? Something that immediately comes to mind is a lobster-scorpion hybrid. The reason is because both are kind of similar in body structure, so you don't have to try to mash two very different creatures together.

You could mash two very different creatures if you want to though. I mean, duh, fantasy creature. It can be anything. That's why coming up with your own fantasy creature is so awesome. You can have a camel-dolphin hybrid if you wanted. Instead of a hump, the camel has a fin. Stretch your imagination.

And use keeping, adding and subtracting.

PURPOSE

You also may need to come up with the appearance of a fantasy creature based on what purpose you need them for.

Taking from my own experience, I needed a magical flying creature but I sure as heck did not want to use a dragon because I wanted to create my own fantasy creature.

So, I took the similarities of a dragon.

They have great big wings, they look like dinosaurs, often breathing fire, scales, and sometimes they have spikes down their backs.

Keep. Add and subtract. 

Okay? Here we go.

I keep: great big wings, they look like dinosaurs, and they have spikes down their backs

I subtract: often breathing fire, and scales

I keep: often breathing an element

I add: breathing magic

I also add: made of magic

So now I have creatures with great big wings, that look like dinosaurs, and they have spikes down their backs. They breathe magic and are made of magic. They don't have scales.

And then I name it.

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Overall, I would recommend either drawing (and it doesn't matter if you suck, you don't have to show it to anyone), or going on to Google Images and gathering pictures that resemble what you have in mind.

Make a folder for each creature (or how ever you would like to organize the pics). I have a folder for some of my creatures. I look up photos of animals that they look like. Also, there are some pretty imaginative talented people out there whose drawings you can borrow for your reference.

Borrow. Don't steal.

I know this is all structured out, but in the end,

just have fun :)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me :D

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Q&A

How do you choose what to subtract or add? 

Go with your imaginative gut and experiment. The beauty of this is that you can always change it if you don't like it.  

(other questions may be added)