General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
Filters (None)
Believe it or not, the diminutive but rough dwarf is the closest of all the humanoids to be biologically realistic. How? Let's look up Homo neandertalensis, the stereotypical caveman, in comparis...
So I've got a fantasy race of people with four arms. Their second pair is able to reach behind them like how our arms are able to reach in front of us, and so could work with things behind their ba...
In my setting elves can see very well in the dark. I've suggested tapetum lucidim but that would make their vision less clear so would larger pupils make it easier to see in low light areas?
So I got this species of vampire-creatures (no conversion of other species, just mating and reproducing in typical mammalian fashion) that subsist entirely on blood. I'm using a bit of magic to imp...
In a magical world there is a tribe of people divided into termite-like castes. They live in the wilderness, far from most regular humans. They are effectively human; fully conscious and conscien...
Assuming Homo Erectus deviated at some point in history, to become Homo Aquarus, would their taste buds have developed different due to the nature of the foodstuff available to them? Of course, th...
Let's use the sea turtle and the terrapin as an example, need I say more? I used terrapin because like the mermaid which is half fish and half girl so a terrapin would serve as an excellent example...
Question: I'm trying to determine how large (geographically) my city will have to be to accommodate for 1 million people. I have a city that was basically formed by the gods to be fertile land wit...
This character is an elf-human hybrid, who can travel long distances at high speeds with little rest. She can run at top speed (what we call sprinting) without stopping to rest, sleep or eat for th...
The hero saves the captured giant, and as a reward, the giant presents the hero with a magic ring... However, the ring is made for giant fingers, so the hero decides to wear it as an armband instea...
During the Ming dynasty, China was frequently attacked by centaurs from north. In order to ward off the invaders, the emperor of China wanted to build a long stretch of barrier along the mountain r...
I must admit this legendary or mythical creature is really fascinating and I am talking about the half fish half woman. I know most fish have the ability to control buoyancy as they can easily mov...
I'm making a genus of elves, native to an African-like continent and I want them to have green hair that they put together to make grass like dreadlocks. Could they pull this off or are they goin...
Pixie, no bigger than a tennis ball, has coexisted along side human for as long as history can remember, note that the pixie were never treated as pet, however slavery and smuggling activities are ...
There are a number of humanoid creatures in fantasy that we more or less take for granted. Humans are almost a necessity for us to be able to relate to the story and they interact with dwarves, elv...
The tomte is a creature from scandinavian mythology. It's pretty small, humanoid and has clothes and a beard. They live on farms and in houses where they help out with farmwork and other labour, th...
In popular mythology, wearing a garlic wreath is a good defense against vampires. Silver kills werewolves. But why? How could garlic, a spice whose only offense is plain stink, deter an attracti...
Anatomy wise, how could growing legs or having your legs melded together to form a large fin happen in a matter of hours? How could the change work in reverse? I want this to be able to work with...
Satyrs are creatures from Greek mythology said to resemble a human with the ears, horns and lower half of a goat. They are known for throwing wild parties, heavily drinking and a fondness for music...
Now the first question is"”which elf? Santa's elves? Shoemaking elves? Keebler's cookie-making elves? Tolkien's elves? The Dökkálfar (dark elves) and Ljósálfar (light elves) of the origina...
So here's the deal: In a D&D-fantasy-style world, the continent of Archaon is inhabited by a wide variety of elves, whose physical characteristics vary based on their dwellings. The forest elv...
I recently came by the many questions of scaling creatures and the square-cube law in real world physics right here, and it piqued my interest a bit to make this question. Think of it as an exercis...
TL;DR - I want my angelic race to have the ability to speak in a way in which up to three sentences are communicated at the same time. (Assume English for the sake of simplicity. I want physiolo...
As a series of anatomically correct myths, here we have the griffin. Is there a realistic way that griffins could evolve? Using Earth or near-Earth biology, how close could I get to the classic gri...
Inspired by this question and my comment on one of the answers. If the earth were flung out of the solar system, it would rapidly become far too cold for any unprotected life to survive on the s...
In my world, a species of vertically challenged humanoids spreads out from their island homelands to the wider world, entering the interspecies race for global dominance. Now, this species of human...
It is difficult to find statistics for the ratio of Lego men and women in the general population but from a non-scientific survey, I get the impression that Lego men vastly outnumber Lego women. Ye...
Specifically, half of Earth's gravity. Let's assume that all other factors are equal to Earth. At a glance, it seems like the answer might simply be "double", but at the same time it seems as thou...
On a real world Earth, the seasonal changes in temperature of continents create high-pressure areas during winter in that hemisphere, and low-pressure areas during summer in that hemisphere. Shou...
So this is a small map of all the continents on the small planet of Parsas Decem. As far as most of the rivers go, I've got it figured out. What I'm wondering is, can salt water flowing in from t...
I have a planetary system that consists of two close stars: A Sun-like star - small but bright A much larger, but much darker star (about 5-10 times larger) A habitable planet orbiting both of th...
Inspired by this answer and the mention of a hyperbolic plane, I've been imagining a world based on that geometry. The closest real-world example of such a geometry I can come up with is hard cora...
On one of the continents in one of my fantasy worlds, I have a kingdom. The kingdom is comprised of two different geographical regions, a steppeland area in the kingdom's north and a desert region ...
Exposition One of the biggest Problems my Renaissance city with 2.7 million inhabitants is facing is how two get food from outside the city fast enough to the populous before being spoiled. The ...
I would like a realistic evolutionary path for non-hominid humanoids, but evolution is extremely complex and varied, so I will narrow the question to examining how evolution might occur in felines ...
How do steampunk civilizations get lifting gas? Inspired by the above question I was tempted to suggest collecting the gases rising from public toilets. I know that human gaseous emissions contai...
I am writing a novel about what it will be like on earth 500 or so years before the death of our Sun. The Sun is heating up gradually and one day that will negatively affect life on Earth. I know t...
Can an organism have several types of oxygen carriers in its blood? Note that I am not asking how the creature could have evolved, that is too much sci-fy, genetically engineering or Deus Ex Mach...
This question pertains to the videogame The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. In this game, the bell from the Clock Town clock tower can be heard from pretty much anywhere in the world at certain tim...
I'd like to have a forest with trees that are "normal" except that as they grow a big, hollow bulge forms in their trunks about halfway up, giving them a shape something like this, with a relativel...
This question has been asked in similar forms on this site already with some good answers like here: What Color Can the Sky Be? How could the sky be orange in a breathable atmosphere? What woul...
2 informational references for Alcubierre fields can be found at the end of this question. Warp-lanes aren't a novelty in science-fiction. Space ships can use a specific route to go through a Gala...
I've been poking around similar posts, but none seem to contain the information I'm looking for. I'll try to keep it brief. In the year 20XX, some powerful organizations are trying to "land" an as...
I wanted to create a scene where two god-like characters are talking or fighting on a planet or fragment of planet to which they've teleported that's about to be obliterated by a black hole. The c...
In many forms of media, when a person is bitten by a vampire have a look of calmness and pleasure on their face. Do vampires inject some sort of venom that causes feelings of pleasure or another ex...
My story has a race exactly like humans, except they grow to be on average 9 feet tall. One of characters belongs to this race, but she is considered a dwarf to her people. This causes her to live ...
I already read Can a planet survive a supernova? but that just addresses some kind of planet-remnant remaining in orbit. Parameters: Binary system. One component is a Sun-like G-type star with ...
So, I find almost every video game funny. I mean, in the big picture, how many theoretical physicists did you see toppling interdimensional empires, punching elder gods in the scrotum, and killing ...
Premise and research I am simply trying to find a reproducible framework for use with creature-design. In my research I have found the larger an animal is, the more likely that animal is to break ...
