Creating Creatures? Here’s a Few Tips
Creating your own creatures? Flora and fauna are an essential part of worldbuilding for any writer creating their own universe. There’s a lot to consider, and of course you need that suspension of disbelief to keep your reader invested. Things that make no sense will be jarring, so you need to have an in-universe explanation for things. So, here’s five tips for creature creation. At least, it’ll give you a few things to consider.
Creature Creation Tip One: Nighttime, Day time
Animals can be active during the night (nocturnal), daytime (diurnal) or in early morning and evening (crepuscular). Why does it matter? Usually, it’s about food. Either their food is more readily available at that time of day, or the animals that eat them are less active. It’s a bit of evolutionary give and take.
Ectothermic, or ‘cold-blooded’ animals may be more active in the day when it is warm, basking in the sunshine to raise their body temperature. Rabbits are crepuscular, as it is easier to feed and hide from predators during that time. A lot of herbivores are more active in the daytime, while carnivores tend to hunt at night. If your creature is based on a real-world one, it’s worth looking up details like this and apply it to the world you’re creating. If large, dangerous predators prowl at night, most prey species will probably want to be hidden away safely in a den when it gets dark.
Creature Creation Tip Two: Water, water everywhere
One thing that is common to almost all living things, at least, the multicellular ones, is the need for water. We all need it, but some species can survive without it much longer than others. Fish, as a rule, don’t last more than a minute or two out of the water. While desert living mammals such as camels can conserve their body fluid for weeks if necessary. Most species can’t drink sea water as the salt content is too high.
Amphibians and aquatic animals will need to have better access to water than camels or gerbils. A water dragon (the mythical kind) would be the same. So, think about the environment your creature lives in and how important water access is, or what strategies they might employ to conserve water and stay hydrated. Same goes for you, when you’re writing! Drink your water.
Creature Creation Tip Three: Social Life
Animals vary massively in terms of social structure. A lot of animals are solitary, living alone and only coming together for mating season. Bears, as an example, live alone. Which is great, if you’re an introvert. Many predators will live in small family units, hunting together co-operatively or on their own.
Other species can have large and complex social structures. A lot of prey species will live in large herds, employing the safety in numbers strategy. As well as the ‘those who fall behind, are left behind’ strategy. Yeah… it’s how it goes in nature.
This means that animals will respond differently when encountering another of their species. It can also impact how easily an animal can be trained or domesticated. Powerful predators that live solitary lives may not be easy to tame and train, like bears or dragons. I like the way polar bears are depicted in His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.
In Lyra’s world, the bears can speak and reason, they’re known for their craftsmanship. But they are different from humans, and they know it. They have a king, but most of the time the bears go off and live their own lives, only coming together when needed. They don’t work for humans, but as we see with Iorek Byrnison, if you earn a bear’s respect, they will defend you.
Creature Creation Tip Four: Food and Resources
When inserting living things into your world, you need to think about food. What do they eat? Are they herbivores, carnivores or omnivores? Can they only eat one very specific type of fruit that only grows in one place?
You also need to think about whether the species is hunted itself. Does it provide good meat, eggs, milk? Are the horns magical? Do the hides make good leather for protection? Is there a reason for the people of the world to hunt these animals or domesticate them? What purpose do they serve?
Pretty much all domestic animals were kept for a purpose. Livestock for food, dogs to protect and manage herds and settlements. Cats domesticated themselves but they were good at keeping mice and rats at bay. Horses for transport. If the species is domesticated, think about why and how this benefits or harms society.
Creature Creation Tip Five: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
The most important thing, that ties everything together, is the environment. What I mean by that, is that all living species have adaptations to survive their native environment. Polar animals put on thick layers of fat under the skin and have thick fur coats to cope with the cold. Desert species can cope with very limited water supplies.
A lot of people have strong opinions on the Theory of Evolution. Remember a scientific theory has been proven by scientific evidence. It’s not a question, a theory is confirmed. The evidence for evolution is everywhere in our world. Evolution happens over millions of years, but how species evolved and changed was largely dictated by the environment.
Availability of food and water, temperature, landscape and climate all must be accounted for when deciding what animals live in an area of your world. If winters are harsh, do a lot of species hibernate, hidden away in caves until the spring arrives? If it’s a thick rainforest, most animals will be arboreal, living in the trees. This means they’d be good at climbing and jumping, to get around.
It’s also worth considering what happens if a species is forced to live in an environment they’re not suited to. Can they adapt and cope, or are they going to struggle? Will they survive? For example, if we look at two crab species found on the Atlantic coast of the USA. The Atlantic blue crab and the horseshoe crab. Due to increasing temperatures in the water, the horseshoe crab population is declining, while the Atlantic blue crab is thriving in the warmer ocean. For more information, check out my videos on the Mirelurks of Fallout.
Thanks for reading!
I hope you found these five tips for creature creation useful, if you are populating your own fictional world. I will have more soon! Just remember, that animals have adapted to their environment, the climate and the kinds of food and water available to them. It’s all about survival and having access to what they need to survive.
Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to be updated whenever a new post goes live. I’ve also got blogs for gaming revies and book reviews, which I will link below. I talk about lore and science in games on YouTube, specifically in Fallout, so you can check that out there. Follow me on my social media channels for regular updates on my writing journey. See you next time!
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