Exchange of Realities

One of the greatest advantages of writing or gaming in speculative fiction is the fact that we’re not limited to things that necessarily fit our definition of human. Instead, we get everything from demi-humans like the Tolkienesque races and once-humans (White-Wolf is full of them) through nonhuman things (magically endowed animals, for instance) trying to become human and animal-like things with vaguely human tendencies to creatures that range from uncomfortably alien to downright incomprehensible. We’ll call them the Others for now, for concision’s sake.

The primary difficulty in creating these sorts of Others is twofold. First, they need to be different enough from humans to actually be worth treating as something else; this is particularly difficult with once-humans and demi-humans, as it can be harder to figure out where their mindsets diverge from the human mold. (This is also one of the reasons why some people are frustrated by standard animal fiction; many of the characters are less animals and more “humans in fur coats”, which brings up the question of why they need to be animals in the first place.) The second is keeping them from being so incomprehensible that the audience lacks any point of reference from which to understand or sympathize with the nonhuman Other; granted, this isn’t quite as important when what you’re dealing with is elder gods who make people’s brains explode by being who they are, but it still matters when dealing with intelligent nonhuman types like dragons, or more comprehensible gods.

Needless to say, this series is going to take a while.

Note that the ones in these sections are going to need to be answered several times: for you-the-writer, for the Other as viewed by humans (and/or other types of Other; you’ll want as complete a picture of this as possible) in your world, and for humans (and/or other types of Other) as viewed by the Other in your world.

How is the Other in question Other? Are the differences physiological, metaphysical, or mental?

On the flip side, how is it not Other? Does it have any points of similarity to humanity as you know it?

Is your Other unique, or are there others of its kind? (For the three parts to this question, you’ll need answers for what you-as-writer know, what it believes, and what whoever’s around it believes.)

How do these similarities and differences affect its interactions with other cultures/species/entities?

You don’t have to have all the answers yet, of course, but you should have the most noticeable differences. These can be almost anything. Little differences like longevity, affinity with magic, or even just dominant senses that aren’t sight; more major ones like a human-but-not body type, a mindset that in some way conflicts with the “standard”, or abilities like inherent shapeshifting; major, connection-breaking things like lack of any apparent sort of language, a predator-prey relationship with humans and/or other Others, hive-minds; just plain alienating ones like existence in four dimensions, incomprehensible mindsets—basically, if you think you can write it, it’s fair game.

This is the skeleton of your Other; you’re going to be adding to this as you go. Some people declare their Others finished at this point, but that’s just asking for trouble; it creates monolithic societies, usually with some sort of internal contradiction, and in general results in boring, stereotypical creations that make no sense whatsoever and jar against suspension of disbelief. Trust me, you don’t want that.

Over the next few days, we’re going to find out about the different kinds of Others, then figure out how to flesh out the ones in front of us. Stay tuned, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you’re having Other issues!