Introduction

This week, we’re moving from language creation to talking about fantasy creatures. Today, we’re just going to go over some of the typical fantasy creatures and what you ought to be considering for them. Mainly, this week’s post is going to be focusing on bigger creatures like dragons and sea monsters. It won’t be a long post, but I’ll discuss some things I think people overlook a lot when they populate their world with these monolithic creatures.

Problems Presented by Large Creatures

First off, most fantasy novels featuring dragons, giants, sea monsters, and their ilk never take the time to consider some very important factors. Given the size of these creatures, we’ve got a few issues: living space, temperament, and food.

With living space, you’ve got some leeway because if your world is vast and has lots of forests, mountains, and ocean that isn’t being ruined by mankind, then these larger creatures will be fine in this arena. But, it is something to think about. A dragon is by no means a small beast, and it’s going to need lots of room to fly, hunt, and live.

On the temperament side of things, you also have leeway. For creatures similar to humanity in their varied temperaments, such as giants, trolls, or other similar creatures, you may not need a particular environment to satisfy them temperamentally. But if your dragons prefer their privacy and really don’t like humans, you’re going to have a problem if they live near or on human territory. On the flip side, if dragons just adore humans and can’t stand trolls or giants, they might not be so happy living in the mountains or forests away from humans. These sorts of considerations have to be made.

Finally, food! This is the biggest one that nearly every fantasy novel with these creatures ignores. They have to eat something. They’re not going to survive on air, not with those big frames. So what are they going to eat? If they can’t get enough food from hunting big game, then they’re going to spend all their time hunting. A few measly deer from the woods or even a nice cow or two from the local village won’t sustain these creatures. They’re simply too large biologically for this to work, so you’ll have to find a way this can work if you want these guys in your world. Without that, it just isn’t going to make much sense. Granted, readers have been taught to just accept their existence, so you may get away with it on some level, but laziness doesn’t pay, and some subset of avid fantasy readers will notice.

Considerations

Now that you understand the problems, you should be able to figure out where to start for considerations. Take those three main problem areas and start asking yourself how you’ll solve them. Start thinking about what kind of personality your different large creatures have. It’s important that you don’t just throw generic fantasy creatures into your world to give it the flavor of fantasy. Doing that will end with your world feeling flat and unmemorable. So have fun with it. What makes your fantasy creatures unique, and how does that play into considering their needs in the environment around them?

Conclusion

That’s it for this week, everyone! I did promise it would be short. Next time, we’re going to talk a little bit about creating your own creatures. This can be a ton of fun, so I hope you’ll join me for it. See you there!