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Loads and Loads of Races: Difference between revisions
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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}}
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* All the characters in [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]'' are human, but the humans are split into an enormous number of "kinden" -- tribes who take on characteristics of a particular type of animal, usually an insect or other arthropod. Who can tell me which group of creatures has the greatest number of species...?
* The [[Cthulhu Mythos]] has [[wikipedia:Elements of the Cthulhu Mythos#Beings|a head-spinning number]] of types of aliens and other unpleasant things that [[Eldritch Abomination|want to drive you insane, then eat you]].
* Carna, the world of the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', ''used'' to have these, until most were wiped out (some by the Alerans/humans, the main protagonist race, but probably others that we don't know about that were destroyed by other races). As of the timeline of the novels, there are only five sentient races left (Alerans, Marat, Canim, Vord, and Icemen), though ironically they ''don't'' fit into the [[Five Races]] categorization.
* ''[[The Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' has dozens of races, each with multiple named characters.
* 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...
* ''[[Discworld]]'' started with humans, trolls, and elves -- although even this was explained in the context of Rincewind trying to work out why there were still dryads. Then gnomes and dwarfs got added in ''[[Discworld/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'', and gnolls in ''[[Discworld/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]''. Then ''[[Discworld/Reaper Man|Reaper Man]]'' added zombies, vampires, werewolves, weremen, bogeymen and banshees. Then ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]'' introduced [[The Fair Folk]], so the elves that had been vaguely mentioned previously had to be explained as [[Half Human Hybrids]]. ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay|Feet of Clay]]'' added golems, and ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'' added the Nac Mac Feegle (and the Igors, if they count as a race). ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'' included yeti. ''[[Discworld/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]'' introduced {{spoiler|orcs}} and featured the first mention of goblins, who would go on to play a major role in ''[[Discworld/Snuff|Snuff]]'' (as well as a throwaway reference to a "Medusa" in the Watch). (And ''[[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' had a brief mention of kvetches, but never really explained what they were beyond being covered in hair).
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* [[Greek Mythology]] has more non-human races than any other mythology. There's the cyclopes, centaurs, lamias, fauns/satyrs, gorgons, harpies, nymphs, titans, and gods. Plus a lot of one of a kind monsters such as the minotaur, Cerberus, Pegasus, etc.
** Includes the old mortals, who came before humans were created, and are never adequately explained.
* The Hindu canon rivals that of the Greeks, as one would expect of the world's oldest religion that is still practiced today. The list includes the vanara, garuda, naga, rakshasa, the saptas, pitrs, the gods themselves and their avatars. And those are just the most popular ones - there are literally hundreds of different beings in the Ramayana alone.
* [[Norse Mythology]] is another one. The list includes the aesir and vanir, the norns, jotnar (fire and ice versions), ljosalfar, svaltalfar, and dokkalfar, dvergar, vaettir, troll, nisse, valkyries, einherjar, mortal men and the dead.
* [[Japanese Mythology]] has dozens of races, most of them spirits, animal people, and sentient objects.
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* ''[[Rifts]]'' can't even bother to count them all. A good half-dozen or so are released per [[Sourcebook]] (on average), which range from Standard Fantasy Races (Elves, Dwarves, Dragons etc...), to a good score of [[Beast Man]]-types, living robots, aliens, and more. The game even allows you to play as a ''Humpback Whale'', if you desire. And that's the ones the game deigns to point out. Nearly every book will also note that many other races exist in such tiny numbers (usually less than a percent of any given state) that they don't necessarily count as a demographic, and lumped under the general term "D-Bees" (from "Dimensional Beings").
** Just as an example, they recently came out with a book called ''D-Bees of North America'', a book specifically designed to be nothing but playable alien races. Out of the 86 races in this book, 50 of them are expanded versions of popular races from other books. Yeah, 50 races from various books are considered a random sampling for this game.
* Every role-playing game set in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe has ended up allowing players access to dozens if not hundreds (literally) of races.
* ''[[Talislanta]]'' has several dozen bizarre species to choose from, and even its "human"-analogs aren't necessarily what you'd call normal. Plus, [[Slogans|no elves]].
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is very much this. Aside from humans there are: Orcs, Goblins, Minotaurs, Elves, Dwarves, Faeries, Merfolk, Treefolk, Mistfolk, Centaurs, Golems, Thrulls, Leonin, Giants, Aven, Nantuko, Cephalids, Vedalken, Loxodon, Viashino, Kithkin, Kitsune, Nezumi, Orochi, Soratami, Saprolings, Thallids, Myr, Phyrexians, Changelings, Slivers, Demons, Angels, Spirits, Dragons, Noggles, Elementals, Hags, Sphinxes, Devils, Werewolves, Vampires... since the game pulls creatures from about 50 DIFFERENT UNIVERSES, it's kind of justified.
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* Many MMORPGs:
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', as mentioned above. Increased the playable race count from eight on its initial release to twelve as of ''Cataclysm''.
** ''[[
** Honorable mention goes to ''[[Earth Eternal]]'', which started beta with '''22''' races, and ahalf dozen or so mentioned in the lore but not given form yet. Though it should be noted that [[Cosmetically Different Sides|the differences are cosmetic only]]; all 22 races play identically with nary a stat or ability difference.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]''. Justified, since Tamriel is an ethnically diverse empire, which means you have High Elves, the Dunmer (Dark Elves), Wood Elves, Argonians (Lizardmen), Khajiit (Catmen), Nords (Vikings), Bretons (French and British), Redguards (Arabs and Africans), Orcs, and Imperial Men (Greeks, Romans and sometimes Asians).
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** ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'' has 24 races at the moment, with great variation. In addition to the common humans, elves and dwarves, Crawl has a few quite exotic ones, such as [[Fair Folk|spriggans]], centaurs, mummies, merfolk, demonspawn and demigods.
** Many Angband variants, including [[Z Angband]].
* ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' features loads and loads of one-off NPCs with [[Funny Animal|animal]] or other demihuman features, along with a few named (or not-quite-named) major races. It almost gives [[Animal Crossing]] a run for its money. Only two major PCs are unequivocally normal humans.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has the [[Five Races]] as playable characters, but NPCs? Hoo, boy. There are at least a dozen NPC and enemy races, most of them added in the original game, ''Rise of The Zilart'', and ''Treasures of Aht Urghan''.
* The newer Ivalice games (''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' seem to be going in having a race for each of the 12 zodiac signs. ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' alone has Humes, Viera, Bangaa, Moogles, Seeqs, Nu Mou, Baknamy, Garif, Helgas, Rebe, Urutan-Yensa {{spoiler|and the god-like Occuria}}. Revenant Wings adds the Aegyl and Feol Viera offshoot, while Tactics A2 includes the winged Gria.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'', like most [[Furry Fandom|Furry Comics]], revels in this. Justified in being an interplanetary event set on supposedly neutral ground, but with [[Loads and Loads of Characters|the sheer number of characters as is...]]
* Although ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' started off with mainly human characters, in the recent "vacation arc" they started adding a crapload more.
* In ''[[Rice Boy]]'''s world, there tend to be well-defined civilisation-races like the frog-men of Spatch, the fish-men of Tenshells, the machine-men of the Iron Teeth, the Horned of the Stone Palm... and then there are people like Arctaur, with four closely-packed legs and a head like a cross between a broken donut and a power adapter. Many oneshot body types seem to once have been part of their own race, but estranged in space or the [[Last of His Kind]].
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* ''[[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.
* There's quite a few in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', at least 18 named ones apart from humans, and that's before you add in the uplifts (at least 3 so far) and the unnamed 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.
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