One of the things I've noticed over the past few dozen years of reading fantasy and science fiction is that non-human characters are quite a big deal. Star Trek and Star Wars are famous for having gazillions of aliens as major, if not main, characters. Spock and Chewbacca led the way for their respective franchises, but they most certainly aren't alone. Even Enterprise, the Star Trek prequel set before the Federation exists, had a Vulcan science officer and an alien (Denobulan) doctor onboard. Heck, Spock was the only alien on the Kirk-era Enterprise, at least on TV.
Fantasy. of course, is the realm of elves, dwarves, hobbits, and assorted other 'demi-human' characters. In game-related fantasy (such as the D&D novels that have been around since Dragonlance in 1984), the ranks of non-human characters have expanded well beyond Tolkien's 'standard' races. Tieflings, dragonborn, and dozens of other options have shown up over the years, becoming less and less human.
What's wrong with being human, though?
One of my favorite fantasy series is David Eddings' Belgariad. One of the things I like about it is that the characters are all human; there are no elves, dwarves, Vulcans, or anything else. Sure, the dryads are not quite human, but they certainly look human, and the only one who gets any real screen time is Princess Ce'Nedra, who is only part-dryad. Even the Ulgos, who are pretty darn close to looking and acting like dwarves (who are also religious zealots), are still human; they just look different because they were living underground for about five or so thousand years. Everyone's human, so the differences become cultural, not racial. Of course, the people are still viewed as being of different races, because that's how we think of ourselves. But they're all human.
The trend toward non-human characters began, of course, when Terry Brooks rewrote Lord of the Rings into Sword of Shannara. Oh, look...more elves, dwarves, gnomes and trolls. Suddenly, Tolkien was the fountain from which all modern fantasy sprung, and the majority of writers threw in elves, dwarves, and other non-humans. But there's a much longer history of fantastic fiction beyond Tolkien.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars involved a grand total of one human, John Carter. Everyone else is a Martian. The first book in the series, Princess introduced the Red and Green Martians; the Red, of course, are very much like humans in appearance, while no one is going to look at an eight-foot-tall, four-armed Green Martian and think 'he could pass for human.' Later books introduced the White, Black, and Yellow Martians, all of whom looked at least nominally human; the Greens were the outliers, not the norm. Robert E. Howard didn't include many non-humans as characters in his stories, at least not as protagonists. After all, one of the cardinal rules of writing is, 'write what you know.' Nobody knows what it's like to actually be an elf. Cosplay doesn't count.
I'm guilty of the 'demi-humans' in fantasy writing; the first story I ever wrote, back in high school, was a Tolkien-inspired (rip-off would be more like it) based on the D&D game. I couldn't publish it today without the wrath of Hasbro coming down on me like a ton of bricks. But it included lots and lots of non-human characters, because that's what I thought fantasy was all about. I never finished it; I wasn't aware of Heinlein's Rules yet.
I've considered rewriting it, minus the demi-humans, or at least with a lot fewer of them. I'm inclined to pull back from the 'aliens & elves' mentality and do what Eddings did: everyone's human, they're just different kinds of humans. The same applies to outer space adventure; sure, there's all kinds of speculation about whether or not we are 'alone' out there. Well, right now, we're alone. If there is anyone else out there, they haven't noticed us, and we haven't noticed them. For all intents and purposes, we're alone. So, what will the galaxy be like if it's inhabited only by humans? And how long will it take us to find out if there is someone else out there?
I thought of a few rationales for gaming in a humans-only world (or galaxy). Writing is easier; just don't write about non-human characters. But in a game such as D&D or Traveller, where elves and aliens are assumed to be part of the landscape, it becomes a bit trickier to get around them. Of course, you don't have to include them (and the original Traveller rules didn't include any stock aliens anyway). But it's harder to remove them from the game than to add them. However, here are a few ideas for a humanocentric game, where demi-humans and aliens are still the stuff of myth, literature and movies.
1. A fantasy world where humans were driven away from their ancestral homeland by devil-worshiping elves (no, not drow!). Thousand of years later, they have rediscovered this lost continent, only to find that the elves are still there, as evil as ever. The dwarves are under the mountains, and exhibit the absolute worst traits of every stereotypical dwarf ever imagined: greedy, taciturn, untrusting, and untrustworthy. No one in their right mind would trust any elf or dwarf, since their primary goal is to sacrifice humans to their gods.
2. A galaxy where humanity has expanded to the stars, but the predictions of alien life everywhere have proven to be sadly overstated. Even on worlds that are hospitable to human life, only animals have been discovered; no other form of intelligent life has surfaced.
3. A galaxy where the only intelligent life form discovered is a paranoid, xenophobic species that wants to wipe us out because of their fanaticism and warlike culture.
4. A fantasy world where the demi-humans existed, but have died out like the dinosaurs. Remnants of their cultures might still survive as archaeological treasures, but nothing else remains of them.
These are just a few spitballed ideas for writing or gaming in a world where humans are the only intelligent lifeforms. Because while it might be fun to pretend to be a gnome for a while, in the end, we're only human.
Of course, I broke that 'humans only' rule in my first fantasy novel, The Chronicles of Meterra: Arrival, available now on Amazon in both e-book and paperback formats. But it's still a good story, so take a look.
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