Fantasy race ideas?

I'm working on a fantasy novel where the protagonist travels from one world to another through the use of "gates" (haven't come up with a better name for them yet). So, yeah, I need some ideas for unique races. Surely you guys can provide some creative material.

inb4 slug people

How about 'conduit' or 'egress' as a name for the gates?

what sort of things are you going for?

Perhaps a race made of pure thought?
Perhaps a parasitic race, a sort of bacterial infection which relies on a host for a 'middle state'?

Just a few alternatives off the top of my head, I've never been a fan of 'people who sort of look like this other species just a little, but are basically just a cool/ugly looking person' thing.

Originally Posted by Timur Amir

Perhaps a race made of pure thought?
Perhaps a parasitic race, a sort of bacterial infection which relies on a host for a 'middle state'?

So.. ancients and goa'uld. Lol.

Originally Posted by Gen. Chris

Astria Porta
Chappa 'ai

....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also known as Stargate...

Mine is different in the sense that it doesn't exist physically. the gates are like.. magical portals that you access through meditation.

Originally Posted by Eneru112

So.. ancients and goa'uld. Lol.

There are almost no original ideas at this point in time; far too many people have lived over far too large a span of time with creative minds to make it so that something 100% original would be there. So really, if you can't choose a race with something similar already existing in ANY work, than this might be difficult.

Astria Porta
Chappa 'ai

....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also known as Stargate...

As said before, what are you going for? Spiritual, fantasy beings or some kind of biologically-viable alien creatures?

One idea could be to have like sentient liquid creatures, who lure prey by appearing as harmless bodies of water and become harder and more sticky in order to grab and devour it.

Originally Posted by Dr. Croccer

As said before, what are you going for? Spiritual, fantasy beings or some kind of biologically-viable alien creatures?

One idea could be to have like sentient liquid creatures, who lure prey by appearing as harmless bodies of water and become harder and more sticky in order to grab and devour it.

I'm going for not-too-fancy humanoid creatures that are more or less biologically viable. At the same time there must be something unique about them. Here's an example:

Brown skinned humanoids with goat-like horns. Larger in size than most men.
They have an ability to change the elements of their skin. They can become hard as rock, or they can make their skin spiky and proceed to devastate the enemy (spiky punch.. ouch). They are basically resistant to everything.

I know they seem overpowered, but their inferior brain more than makes up for it. They're not dumb, it's just that they are so paranoid and individualistic to the point where they live in very small tribes, incapable of raising cities and creating an actual civilisation.

How about a race of Lycanthropes?

1. Humans that are invisible except for their genitalia
2. Talking horses with exceptionally large, magic genitalia
3. Walking, talking genitalia

Something to do with genitalia is your best bet.

really depends on the mood of your story. Is it supposed to plausible, fantastical, comedic, gory, subversive, psychotic...? Your best bet is to think about cultures, stereotypes and whirl them around a little.

What biological function allows their skin to do these things?

Originally Posted by the_mango55

What biological function allows their skin to do these things?

It's fantasy, I ain't gotta explain it lol. All you need to know is that they have control over their exterior skin. Basically it works like a non-magical empowerment, there's various "spells" that they are naturally born with and learn how to cast from their peers.

Originally Posted by Påsan

How about monsters? Do you need monsters? Us Scandinavians have the best minds for coming up with monsters

Sure!

inb4 giant slugs

Originally Posted by the_mango55

How about plant like beings that have no mouths or ability to speak or eat.

They don't really have organs but they can think via a highly evolved full body nervous system.

Can they move around? do they have hands or something that would allow them to create tools? Quite an interesting concept though. They would have like, magic proficiency to make up for the lack of.. well, too many things to list.

EDIT: Note that magic works differently in my world(s). Basically you are born into a "caste" or "school", sometimes there's sub-schools that you can join.
Most men are born into the Arcane caste, which is basically wizardry. Sub-schools are often local variations of the common arcane arts.
However, there's also the Crimson caste, which is basically blood magic. A forbidden art practiced by various secretive clans in the north. each clan has it's own sub-school which they practice exclusively.

You get the idea.

Originally Posted by Eneru112

Can they move around? do they have hands or something that would allow them to create tools? Quite an interesting concept though. They would have like, magic proficiency to make up for the lack of.. well, too many things to list.

Yeah they can move around like a normal humanoid, perhaps a little slower.

They have totally different senses than us also. They don't have a sense of smell or taste and their senses of sight (basically just "see" light or dark shapes), sound (they detect vibrations) and touch (they can kind of feel but don't have nerves like ours) are rudimentary, but they have other highly developed senses like ability to detect electric and magnetic signatures and even subtle changes in gravity.

How about monsters? Do you need monsters? Us Scandinavians have the best minds for coming up with monsters

Originally Posted by Påsan

How about monsters? Do you need monsters? Us Scandinavians have the best minds for coming up with monsters

I wonder if the reasons are the vodka or winter depressions.

How about plant like beings that have no mouths or ability to speak or eat.

They don't really have organs but they can think via a highly evolved full body nervous system.

Well, I am going to be a bit heretical here, in that I will not propose a new race, but rather new cultures. Modern High Fantasy literature has stagnated because it still depends on races that that fill certain cultural and behavioural cliches in a Medieval setting. Examples like the "ancient Elves with magical bow skills who are few in number and live in forests", or the "Dwarf miners who drink a lot, wear heavy armour and wield axes". Perhaps, instead of searching for a new race, you could use another human/Elven/Dwarven realm that has a different culture from the generic fantasy Human/Elven/Dwarven realm, inspired from another historical time period than Middle Ages, like the Hellenistic ages, the Sengoku Jidai or Victorian Era England (Throwing random examples here).

Originally Posted by Sanguinary Guardian

Well, I am going to be a bit heretical here, in that I will not propose a new race, but rather new cultures. Modern High Fantasy literature has stagnated because it still depends on races that that fill certain cultural and behavioural cliches in a Medieval setting. Examples like the "ancient Elves with magical bow skills who are few in number and live in forests", or the "Dwarf miners who drink a lot, wear heavy armour and wield axes". Perhaps, instead of searching for a new race, you could use another human/Elven/Dwarven realm that has a different culture from the generic fantasy Human/Elven/Dwarven realm, inspired from another historical time period than Middle Ages, like the Hellenistic ages, the Sengoku Jidai or Victorian Era England (Throwing random examples here).

I have had a few ideas over the years, but I always just scrap them. I once had this weird idea.. mongol elves lol. They would live in the steppes and ride horses and whatnot, there would be many tribes that would later unite under one banner like in real life mongolia. Dunno, copying popular real life cultures just doesn't really work. You can copy ancient macedonians or assyrians, sure, but more popular ones like scandinavia are done to death, and east asian ones are always a bit awkward. Mongol elves just don't work.

A few RL cultures that I think would work well in a fantasy setting: South-east asian, assyrian (dwemer), germanic tribals (there was this one tribe in LoTR that fought with Rohan, don't remember it's name), renaissance spain if it's light-hearted, moors/berbers.

RL cultures that would only be awkward: north, south and mesoamerican, mongolian, east asian, indian.

I once had an idea for dwarves. short, thin asians that lived on mountains. their culture was a mix of chinese, mongolian and russian. Their language was based off bulgarian. This would only really work if you don't name them dwarves lol, for they're anything but.

I then decided to stop being a tryhard and went with the flow. Either use elves the way they're used in pretty much every work of finction (a few minor changes are permitted) or do not include them at all.

Originally Posted by Eneru112

I have had a few ideas over the years, but I always just scrap them. I once had this weird idea.. mongol elves lol. They would live in the steppes and ride horses and whatnot,

Already done.

But yes, there's a lot to be done with different cultures. I'd go with making different dwarves. Elves are overdone, imo.