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I'm working on a setting with a lot of demihumans. Humans are the only race spread out across the planet, but they are not the dominant race. This is because humans build up disease and toxin immunities very easily and are resistant to infection, but they don't have a high fertility rate (I changed humans for this setting, so this comparison is between a human of this setting and an IRL human). They tend to live long lives and they can live pretty much anywhere, since they rarely die from infectious disease and they are not particularly likely to get a lethal infection from a wound, but they can't have a large number of children, so their numbers are relatively small, and they therefore can't establish dominance over other races. I'm looking to create a bunch of regional demihuman races, and I'm looking for ideas. I am interested in any ideas you guys have that can be made to fit into a society loosely based off of one of the following culture groups:
Nordic
Celtic
Chinese
Japanese
Southeast Asian
Indian
Polynesian
Latin American
Greek
Egyptian
French
Slavic
Roman or Italian
Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, or California
Iroqouis tribes
Sioux tribes
Apache tribes
Navajo tribes
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{puts in new 1000W bulbs in the Mikaze Signal and Set Signal, flips 'em on}
Not entirely sure I understand what you are asking here. Are you wondering what race would go well with these real-world cultures? I have done something similar, placing non-humans into many real-world cultures like the ones you listed, including homebrew non-human races.
The key with a lot of these, as I see it, is discarding the idea of racial alignments.
I could see Elves fitting nicely into quite a few of these:
Nordic Storm Elves (worship a Thor like deity and use berserkers) and Snow Elves (just because a bunch of Albino looking elves in furs with wolf sleds might be interesting...)
Japanese/ Chinese/ South East Asian inspired Bamboo Elves...
Indian, hmmm. Not sure. Could go gonzo and have an Orcish empire with a rigid caste system, famed for elephant cavalry.
Polynesian Dwarves, worshippers of Volcanic deities and sharks.
Latin American (I'm guessing Aztec/Mayan themed?) Halfings that build pyramids and engage in sacrifice. Llama trade caravans. Were-jaguar Halfling assassins with obsidian knives.
Greek/Egyptian, hmmmm, not sure why but I would keep these guys human.
I'd make the French and Celtic races an actual race of Half Elves, similar to the Dunedain/Numenorians of the LOTR.
Roman. Hobgoblins! Martial, disciplined hobgoblins. Gladiators and legions and road builders...
Native Americans (all the tribes you named): Goblins. Goblins would make awesome "native peoples". Totem carving goblins with war paint would be fun!
That's what I can think of right now. Try as I might, I can't come up with a good fit for Gnomes.
Not entirely sure I understand what you are asking here. Are you wondering what race would go well with these real-world cultures?
Yes, I'm asking what goes well or can be modified enough to make it go well.
The key with a lot of these, as I see it, is discarding the idea of racial alignments.
I discarded the whole idea of alignment.
I could see Elves fitting nicely into quite a few of these:
Nordic Storm Elves (worship a Thor like deity and use berserkers) and Snow Elves (just because a bunch of Albino looking elves in furs with wolf sleds might be interesting...)
Japanese/ Chinese/ South East Asian inspired Bamboo Elves...
Indian, hmmm. Not sure. Could go gonzo and have an Orcish empire with a rigid caste system, famed for elephant cavalry.
Polynesian Dwarves, worshippers of Volcanic deities and sharks.
Latin American (I'm guessing Aztec/Mayan themed?) Halfings that build pyramids and engage in sacrifice. Llama trade caravans. Were-jaguar Halfling assassins with obsidian knives.
Greek/Egyptian, hmmmm, not sure why but I would keep these guys human.
I'd make the French and Celtic races an actual race of Half Elves, similar to the Dunedain/Numenorians of the LOTR.
Roman. Hobgoblins! Martial, disciplined hobgoblins. Gladiators and legions and road builders...
Native Americans (all the tribes you named): Goblins. Goblins would make awesome "native peoples". Totem carving goblins with war paint would be fun!
That's what I can think of right now. Try as I might, I can't come up with a good fit for Gnomes.
I dunno. Using Goblins for another race, especially one my ancestors committed genocide against, seems somewhat, well, not proper. I have the same issue with Orcs, sans genocide. For the rest, it just doesn't seem to fit.
I do mean post-columbian when I refer to Latin America. Sorry for not making that clear. Hispanic elements are one of the dominant cultural themes I use.
Might be a little cliche, but I feel like 'Egyptians' should be powerful beast-headed folk that use humans as chattel and slaves.
As for the Greeks, they had no shortage of mythical demihumans in their legends, most of which already have analogues in game that with a little scaling down, would serve as suitable races. I'm thinking cyclopses, minotaurs, centaurs, satyrs, gorgons, etc.
Actually, if you can snag a copy, take a look at the Runner's Companion from Shadowrun 4e (or just check out the Shadowrun wiki). They had racial variants for all the demihumans from all around the world like the Wakyambi (African elves) and the Kokuroburi (Japanese dwarves) As far as I can tell they mostly draw from real world (figuratively speaking) inspiration, so maybe that's what you're looking for?
I'm sorry you don't like them. Maybe I misunderstood what you were looking for. I am kind of glad that you don't like them since I think I am going to import the idea of Storm Elves into my own Homebrew...
Although, if you have discarded the whole idea of alignment, I don't see why making goblins like indigenous American peoples would be particularly icky.
It probably wouldn't help to know that while your ancestors were committing genocide, mine were on the losing side*, and that I say it's OK? Cause, I am OK with it, as long as you weren't to portray them as evil. :)
*My mother is entirely Native American (Seneca), and her parents were raised on a reservation. My father's family are poor Irish that came over after the English did their best to commit genocide across the pond.
Ah, that's what I figured, but I didn't want to say anything in case I was completely wrong. Anywho, here's a few of my suggestions:
Nordic -- dwarves. Yes, people usually go for the scottish accent, but dwarves are more scandinavian. That's where Tolkien got his inspiration for his dwarves (all the names in the Hobbit are nordic dwarf names). I have my dwarves based off nordic stuff in my setting.
Celtic -- Elves if you want to go a bit stereotype-y. My setting has elves and plant-people (progenitor race of the elves) that are based on celtic stuff.
Chinese -- I have anthropomorphic animal races in my setting, and for this I chose a subrace of bears (yes, pandas), and a subrace of my cat people (tigers). If you don't (which wouldn't surprise me), you could go with orcs, or even elves. I have always thought elves felt kinda asian to me. (No, that is not a jab at the description of almond-shaped eyes for elves)
Japanese -- If you include quite a few of the ARG races (and not just aasimar, tieflings, and the genie-blooded), you could go with kitsune and tengu, as they are of Japanese origin. If not, then I say elves and half-elves would be good for reasons stated previously.
Southeast Asian -- There was an image I liked in one of the old 3rd edition D&D books, and it had a half-orc dressed in the stereotype Vietnamese clothing. So, orcs perhapes?
Indian -- I take it you mean from India with this one. Again, going with my setting, my tiger people would fit this one. But, maybe you could go with halflings? That would definitely be different.
Polynesian -- My gnomes are based slightly on this (with their naming conventions). Merfolk could definitely fit in with this. My orcs are kinda based on native Hawaii, as they live in volcanic areas.
Latin American -- You could go the Elder Scrolls route and use lizardfolk/kobolds/nagaji for them. The pre-Columbus natives of this area had snake gods. My setting, I use my jaguar subrace of my cat people.
Greek -- My gnomes I base off Sparta, culturally. Very war-like culture.
Egyptian -- Gnolls would work for this, as they are the closest thing to a jackal for already included Paizo races. It's what I went with.
French -- Ratfolk, if you include them? I could make a bad joke and suggest Grippli, but that would probably be in bad taste. Why ratfolk? Old cartoon influences. If you don't include ratfolk, then I am not really sure.
Slavic -- I use my polar bear race for this, but dwarves could work well for Slavic, IMO.
Roman or Italian -- My gnomes incorporate Roman stuff as well.
Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, or California -- Again, I use my bear race for this, but went with Grizzly bears. As for a Paizo race... Elves, maybe? As mentioned earlier in this thread, elves make a good enough substitute for humans with a lot of these.
Iroqouis tribes -- Again, bear race used in my setting (black bears). Also, I use my race of canid people for this as well (foxes, which are different than the kitsune). But again, possibly elves, or halflings?
Sioux tribes -- The plains tribes I use my wolf people for. I have halflings that live in flatlands as well. So, possibly use halflings here?
Apache tribes -- Again, possibly halflings would work?
Navajo tribes -- The rocky deserts of the American Southwest... I have a nation of dwarves that live in similar landscape. Which is pretty different from the nordic/slavic ones I suggested earlier.
Of course, not all of my suggestions would work. You can substitute some with gnomes, since my gnomes are not the typical trickster illusionist gnomes that are default in Pathfinder. But, many of the suggestions I gave were based on what I used for my own setting. I also have a canine subrace based on African Wild Dogs, that are my african tribe expy. My world doesn't include humans any longer. They used to exist, but were killed off many many years ago when they started a 400 year long war that ended badly for them. But that is neither here nor there.
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{puts in new 1000W bulbs in the Mikaze Signal and Set Signal, flips 'em on}
OH YEAH
But just adding to what everyone's suggested so far:
I wouldn't want to replace humans within real world cultural analogues completely since it could lead to unfortunate places pretty quick, but if looking for good non-human races to fit into those cultures or to have related cultures...
Egypt - Aasimar feel like they would fit in perfectly in a stratified caste system building off Egypt, with the Pharaonic bloodlines coming from that pool. Adds a new meaning to the ruler's role as a living embodiment of the divine and a link to the will of the gods. I'd be tempted to make them actually LG or straddling the line beetween that and LN and then cranking up the values dissonance as far as possible, until it becomes easy to have a slip into evil should the privilege of their station be abused.
Native American(specifically plains tribes) - I've always loved the idea of centaur tribes living right alongside human ones in analogous societies. It just clicks thematically for me. Bonus points if the centaur's have naturally occuring mane-like mohawks.(cribbing my own setting for that one :) ) Tribes like this could probably control vast expanses of territory, given their greater ease of movement across great distances.
Indian and Khmer - Definitely integrate nagas(and various variants and offspring, like the nagaji and reflavored Kobold Press-style lamias) and vishkanya would have to be integrated into the human societies as their own castes(probably with vishkanya generally being on the outs). These are common choices for analogues of those cultures, but they're so rarely fully explored that I'd love to see a setting go all the way with it. Bonus points if such a culture manages to revere lillends and mariliths equally.
Celtic - Orcs, specifically pulling from the aesthetics, ferocity, and relatively egalitarian attitudes of the Celts. And because woad would look good on green. Bonus points if there's an orcish Boudicca figure. And she wins. Blizzard orcs, of course. Not Tolkien orcs.
For Japanese, the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror offers supplements for Kappa, Henge, Tengu. And though still in development the Kaidan GM's guide will add Kitsune and Korobokuru to those. More than just racial adjustments and favored class options, all Kaidan racial supplements include IC backstory, size/age tables, religions practiced, traits, feats, equipment, racial inspired class archetypes and a racial paragon class for each race. All racial concepts based closely with authentic Japanese folklore.
For Southeast Asia, naga or some kind of snake tailed serpent folk would be most appropriate, based on ancient shrines and religious practices.
Polynesian - menehune are gnome/halfling/brownie like neolithic laborers in Hawaii, weresharks also figure prominently in Hawaiian folklore.
India - rakshasa (tiger, elephant, all types).
Thanks, guys. I like the mythological ideas best. I'll hopefull go into some analysis tomorrow.