The broken fae formula
Let’s say I asked you to design a new race of fae.
They live in a fantasy forest, full of all the wonders and horrors of our fairy tales.
They haven’t encountered humans very much.
What would you come up with?
Most people - consciously or otherwise - would say, “I’ll make them just like humans except more <insert traits>.”
Dwarves are like humans, only more industrious, proud and materialistic.
Elves are like humans, except more arrogant, aloof and isolationist.
These new fae are like humans, only they’re more… I don’t know… whimsical, mischievous and emotional.
Ah, but see, someone beat you to the punch. There’s already a race who are like humans only more whimsical, mischievous and emotional.
They’re called humans.
I asked for something different, but you gave me a distorted reflection of humanity.
Now, there’s no shame in that. Almost all aliens, AI, fae, eldritch beings and gods take humans as a template, then tweak a few parameters.
That’s the power of fiction - to hold up distorted mirrors to better see our reflections.
… right?
Sure, I guess.
Except I invite you to consider Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. It’s a long, potentially ongoing (the last book ended with a sense of finality; then again, so did the first) series describing humanity’s ascent to the stars in a violent, chaotic universe.
It does a better job capturing humanity’s humanity than most fiction.
And the aliens are proper alien. They don’t think like tweaked humans. Each is a product of their environment and physiology, seeing the universe in its own way.
Each species has its own “personality” and “goals”, even as individuals within those species differ.
The way each thinks makes sense, given who and what they are.
And they aren’t human. They aren’t even human-like.
How did he pull that off?
No idea - you’ll have to ask him.
But how I design non-human minds - and how I instantly saw the genius of his writing - was with the AMAM method.
“Like humans but X” is a broken way to create a species. It’ll do in a pinch, but you can do better. Especially since that’s barely any faster than using AMAM.
What is AMAM and how do you use it?
I explain it all in Call of the Gods: