Loads and Loads of Races: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

# You're designing an RPG. You want more customization options. Your classes are pretty much [[An Adventurer Is You|restricted to the standard bunch]], so you allow a bunch of races to be selected too.

# You've got a setting, and you decide to add some races besides the basic human. Given that you're going for a Mythic Fable-style setting, you decide to add as many as possible, since that allows each to wear a different [[Planet of Hats|Hat]].

 

The cutoff point for the purposes of examples for both types 1 and 2 is set somewhat arbitrarily at 8 races; the cutoff point for type 3 is set at the somewhat lower 4 NPC <ref>For the purposes of non-game settings, an NPC race is defined as a civilized race who has no characters above the level of [[Mentors|a mentor]] in importance.</ref> races.

 

These races will generally be further subdivided into [[Underground Monkey|every possible variation]].

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Bleach]]'' features, in addition to normal humans, the human-variant [[The Grim Reaper|Shinigami]], [[Our Ghosts Are Different|normal spirits]], [[The Heartless|Hollows]], and Quincies, in addition to the synthetic Modsouls and artificial human Nemu. Arrancar are Hollow-Shinigami hybrids, Visoreds are Shinigami-Hollow hybrids. Fulbringers are spiritually-aware humans that were 'infected' with Hollow spirit energy, but have their own abilities added to the mix. Sajin Komamura falls under [[Petting Zoo People]], although it's not clear if this counts as a race or a curse. The anime adds in the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Bounts]] and later on introduces the Tojo, prisoners of [[Hell]], for a movie tie-in.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has 4 basic races: Humans, [[Youkai]], Hellas race([[Ambiguously Brown|dark skinned]]) and [[Funny Animal|Animal]] [[Petting Zoo People|People]] from the [[Magical Land|Magic World]]. The human races are then subdivided in many different kinds ''and'' varying in all points of the [[Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism]].

* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'': Frieza's army is made up of members of countless different intergalactic races, the Other World is populated by the deceased members of even more races, and then there's all the different races introduced in ''[[Canon Discontinuity|GT]]''. Finally there's the races the series focuses on the most: humans, Saiyans, Namekians, Frieza's unnamed race, Majins, Kais, Ogres, and the humanoid animals that live on Earth alongside humans.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Edgar Rice Burroughs' [[wikipedia:John Carter (character)|John Carter/Barsoom]] series has a lot of races. John himself is human, but Mars has the Green Martians, Red Martians, Yellow Martians (Okarians), White Martians, Black Martians, Kaldanes, Rykors, and Hornads.

* Larry Niven's ''[[Known Space]]'' series has Humans, Kzinti, Puppeteers, Outsiders, Pierin, Kdatlyno, Trinocs, Bandersnatchi, Grogs and more. Those are only the contemporary races, the Thrint, Tnuctipun, Pak, Martians and others have gone (mostly) extinct. And then there are all the myriad humanoid subspecies on Ringworld...

* In ''[[Lacuna]]'', Saara implies this about the universe.

* The likely world record for Loads and Loads of Races almost certainly belongs to [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s [[Spellsinger]] series, in which literally ''every species'' of mammal, bird, amphibian, or turtle on Earth has an equivalent intelligent race. An unspecified number of insect (Plated Folk) and spider (Weaver) species likewise come in sentient as well as mundane varieties. [[Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!|Humans are also present]], as are numerous other intelligent races, some with a mythological basis (dragons, fairies, unicorns) and others made up from scratch. All told, that's got to be ''tens of thousands'' of races at a minimum, possibly over a million.

 

* ''[[Star Trek]]''. The humans, the Vulcans ([[Our Elves Are Better|space elves]]), the Romulans (the Vulcans' nastier cousins [So... Space Drow?]), the Klingons ([[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]s), the Borg ([[Bee People]]), the Cardassians ([[Planet of Hats|spies and assassins]]), and the Ferengi ([[Space Jews|interstellar merchants]]) are the most prominent ones. However there are a lot more that turn up only in individual episodes or plot arcs, and unimportant ones represented by a main character (Betazoids, Trill, Denobulans...)

* Where does one begin with ''[[Doctor Who]]'', world's [[Long Runners|longest running sci-fi television series]]? [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Time Lords]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|Daleks]], [[You Will Be Assimilated|Cybermen]], [[Proud Warrior Race|Sontarans]] and their enemies the Rutan Host, Ice Warriors, Zygons, Tereleptils, Silurians and Sea Devils, the Nestene Consciousness, Zarbi, Menoptera, Eternals, [[Physical God|Osirans]], Usurians, Monoids, Alpha Centaurians, Axons, Argolin, Foamasi, intelligent cacti from Zolfa Thura, Tractators, the Cheetah People, Haemovores and their giant cousins the Great Vampires, Tharils, [[Giant Enemy Crab|Macra]], [[Plant Aliens|Krynoids]], [[My Friends and Zoidberg|and even humans]]. ''Then'' the new series introduced Raxicoricofallapatorians (often mistakenly called the Slitheen), Ood, Judoon, Sycorax, Adipose, Pyrovillians, Saturnynians, Crafayis, Malmooth, Weeping Angels, the Silence, and many other background races and individuals. Don't even get ''started'' on the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] of which one race, Chelonians, have been mentioned in the new series...

* The board game ''Cosmic Encounter'' is all about this, with each alien race breaking the rules in a different way. The original game had 15 races, and nine(!) expansion sets bringing the total eventually up to a whopping 75(!). One of the later publishers was planning an expansion with yet another 35(!) but went out of business before the release.

** The current edition from ''Fantasy Flight'' has released two expansions so far, bring the grand total to a staggering 90 alien races.

** ''40K'' only has about seven main races (Humans, [[Our Elves Are Better|Space Elves]], [[Our Orcs Are Different|Space Orks]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|Killer]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Undead Cyborgs]], [[Hive Mind]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Bug Aliens]], [[The Greys]], and [[Demonic Invaders|crazy]] [[Phantasy Spelling|daemons]]) but each has a ton of sub-organizations, groups, and factions. For example, "humans" alone covers the [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]], the [[Super Soldier|Space Marines]], [[State Sec|the Inquisition]] (itself divided into Ordos Malleus, Hereticus and Xenos to deal with daemons, witches and aliens respectively), the [[Amazon Brigade|Sisters of Battle]] and the [[Face Heel Turn|Chaos Space Marines]]. The fluff also mentions a lot of other races, many of whom have been wiped out by [[Designated Hero|the good guys.]]

** ''Warhammer Fantasy'' has no less than 14 (German Humans, French/British Humans, [[Our Elves Are Better|High Elves]], [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Dwarves]], Chaos Humans, Dark Elves, chaos dwarves, wood elves, lizardmen, ratmen, ogres, mummies, vampires, goblins, [[Our Orcs Are Different|orcs]]).

** ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' has 21 different types of team, inlcuding 3 kinds of human (standard, Norse, and Amazon), 4 kinds of elf (dark, wood, wealthy high and poor high), 3 kinds of chaos (standard, dwarf, and Nurgle), and 4 kinds of undead (standard, necromancer, vampire, and mummy).

* ''[[Xevoz]]'' starts out with six races (humans, [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|bugs]], robots, [[Monster Mash|the undead,]] [[Beast Man|Beast Men]] and [[Energy Beings]]) and adds two more (Living Gods and Dragons) with the release of Wave 4, its last wave.

** For sheer diversity, ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' stands out, with dozens of races and subraces scattered across the setting. Then there's ''[[Planescape]]'' and ''[[Spelljammer]]'', which by their very nature as bridges between settings allow for practically any race or subrace to be played and then some (''Planescape'' had such options as intelligent squirrels native to Yggdrasil), more to emphasize the dazzling effect, that is Type 3.

** ''[[Eberron]]'', too, has a lot of races. Plus the setting literally says that everything that has a place in ''Dungeons and Dragons'' has a place in ''Eberron'', which at least theoretically means every splatbook is valid.

* ''[[Harkovast]]'' features the Darsai, the Tsung-Dao, the Nymus, the Ano-Chee, the Junlocks, the Golta and a whole host of others who have been named but have yet to appear.

* ''[[The Mansion of E]]'' has numerous species living in the vast underground complex beneath the titular structure; their ancestors were gathered there as exhibits in a zoo by another now-vanished species.

* In the ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' storyline "Dan in the MUD" [http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2005-06-16 this is lampshaded] when the jinn lists countless races to choose from to play as.

* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' has plenty, based as it is on D&D, but it also has a surprisingly broad distribution among the actual characters. Even discounting random monsters, there have been at least ''three'' named characters for each of the following: human (Roy, Haley, Elan), elf/dark elf (Vaarsuvius, Lirian, Zz'dtri), dwarf (Durkon, Hilgya, Kraagor), halfling (Belkar, Serini, Hank), half-orc (Thog, Therkla, Bozzok), kobold (Yikyik, Kilkil, the Oracle), lizardfolk (Gannji, Enor, Malack), goblinoid (Redcloak, Jirix, Right-Eye)—plus the occasional sylph (Celia), gnome (Leeky), catfolk, weird frog person, ogre, etc.

* In ''[[Ugly Americans]]'', New York alone seems to be home to hundreds, if not thousands, of races. Many are introduced for a quick gag, only to be fleshed out with their own histories and customs later on.

* The original ''[[My Little Pony]]'' cartoon. Earth Ponies, Pegasus Ponies, Unicorn Ponies, Sea Ponies, Flutter Ponies, Bushwoolies, Grundles, Furbobs, Stonebacks, Flories, Crab Nasties, and more.

* ''Thundercats'' , in both incarnations, has more races than you'd think would ''fit'' on one planet. Various animal-people are only the beginning.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]