Fantasy Races in Space, an Index

[Husky_Khan]

Elves, Orcs, Dwarfs and the like. They tend to be pretty strong fantasy staples and that has bled into science fiction. Of course there is some discussion on what constitutes a space elf or what have you and it'll hopefully foment some interesting discussion on who should be included and who shouldn't. With elves specifically there is also the concept of the various flavors of elves (so called High Elves and Dark Elves for example... but another common variation is Wood Elf which could be fitted to a lot of nature loving species out there). And some allegories are much clearer then others, such as in regards to Eldar and Dark Eldar or Ogryns from Warhammer as opposed to Minbari from Babylon 5 and the Navi from Avatar.

Either way... lets get to list making and indexing and explanations as to why this or that may fall under a certain fantasy race classification... but in a scifi setting. And of course, there are a lot of fantasy races with analogues out there, not just elves, dwarfs and orcs. Ogres. Halflings/Hobbits. Lizardmen!!! etc...

 

[S'task]

Star Trek species almost all have Fantasy race counterparts and even track to some very specific subtypes. One could very easily transfer the races in Trek into a fantasy world and they wouldn't change all that much.

Human Analogues

Humans - High Men​

Bajorians - Oppressed religious people​

Andorians - Proud Warrior Race​

Cardassians - Tyrannical Ordered Society​

Elves

Vulcans - Religious High Elves​

Betazoid - Decadent High Elves​

Trill - Mysterious Elder High Elves​

Romulans - Religious Dark Elves​

Vorta - Mastermind Dark Elves​

Dwarves

Tellerites - Belligerent engineers​

Orcs

Klingons - Proud Warrior Race​

Jem Hadar - Engineered warrior race​

Kazon - Barbarian Raider​

Others

Ferengi - Goblins - Merchant scammer​

Founders - Changlings​

Borg - Undead Horde​

 

[Husky_Khan]

I won't go into as deep of detail even though the Lord of the Rings allusions in Babylon 5 are pretty clear in some respects.

But we all know the Minbari are the Space Elves of the Babylon 5 settings. And the Earth Alliance and its allies make for convenient Humans and Hobbits in the parable! And even an Isengard one as well. Omega Destroyers are the Uruk Hai of Space Opera settings! With the Shadows as the Mordor replacement I wouldn't be so hazardous to state the Centauri or Narn or any of the other races are fantasy race analogues, though there are other fantasy realm parallels there (rebellious states and decaying empires) but the Drakh certainly fit the mold of the Goblinoids even though they showed up late in the series.

 

[Deleted member]

Phase World technically drops the "equivalent" and goes actually to elves and so on in science-fiction... Yes, I just had to bring that up.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Phase World technically drops the "equivalent" and goes actually to elves and so on in science-fiction... Yes, I just had to bring that up.

Phase World one of those RPG settings? Just asking... because it'd kind of beg the point if people cite Shadowrun Elves as being Elves... or Spelljammer ones.

 

[Deleted member]

Phase World one of those RPG settings? Just asking... because it'd kind of beg the point if people cite Shadowrun Elves as being Elves... or Spelljammer ones.

Yes, but unlike Spelljammer Phase World had a nominally full-up real science fiction universe across the "three galaxies"... Granted, it was just a relatively small set of Rifts tie-ins books.

 

[Deleted member]

I will just add that to this day I don’t really understand why I bought Rifts books, but they could be fun at times.

 

[Husky_Khan]

In a similar vein with Babylon 5 and the strong allegory of the Lord of the Rings infused throughout JMS's work there'd be:

Elves
Minbari: Seems self explanatory.

Dwarfs
Drazi: Considering the Drazis own cities are built highly defensibly and they're a militaristic society with strong traditional beliefs. They're prideful in regards to honor and honesty, aggressive, courageous and belligerent but also very loyal to their friends and allies and loved ones. They also enjoy drinking! With that said, there is a counter in how much they enjoy the outdoors.

Halflings
Brakiri: Militarily weak. Excel in business. Jovial attitudes.

Gnomes
Vree: Also excel in business but organized into guilds. Technologically advanced. Big on science. Pranksters and possess strong senses of particular "humor."

Other
Shadows/Drakh - Fallen Maiar/Mordor
Vorlons- Maiar
Earth Alliance/Earth Civil War - Saruman/Scouring of the Shire

Centauri and Narn. There's fantasy tropes here but not really a racial one. But the perennial rivalry between the two species could echo the fantasy tropes of Goblinoids vs. Dwarves for example.

 

[King Krávoka]

None of them at all, ever. Reductive character niches are not ""fantasy" races".

 

[ATP]

Abh from Crest of the Stars are engineered humans - but could count as space High Elves.

 

[S'task]

Abh from Crest of the Stars are engineered humans - but could count as space High Elves.

Given the primary Abh character in the series looks like this:

Yeah, they can safely be categorized into "Space High Elves". And yes, I know the pointed ears are not common on Abh, they're a marker of a specific family, but Lafiel is pretty much the Abh viewpoint character for the series so she kinda defines them.

 

[ATP]

Given the primary Abh character in the series looks like this:

Yeah, they can safely be categorized into "Space High Elves". And yes, I know the pointed ears are not common on Abh, they're a marker of a specific family, but Lafiel is pretty much the Abh viewpoint character for the series so she kinda defines them.

Indeed,especially that they had High Elves attitude to humans - treat them well,but also let them live in their own worlds using their own laws.
When all human factions must teach conqered nations their values.

 

[Bassoe]

Spoiler: explanation

 

[Zachowon]

Warhammer 40k

Humans:
Imperium of Man
Chaos humans

Elves:
Dark Eldar
Eldar
Harlequins
Ynnari

Orcs:
ORKZ

Dwarves:
Leagues of Votann



Other:
Necrons - Undead
Tyanids - living horde
Tau - Time traveller's (?)
Chaos - demons