How Brandon Sanderson Writes Fantasy Races | Writing & Worldbuilding 

I like that you point out the tendency to make a whole race into a monolith. There are stories and settings (like D&D, DragonLance, etc.) that try to avert this, but Sanderson has taken it to the next level, imo

Them when fantasy races are mentioned: Elves, dwarves, etc. Me: Leonin, Kor, Moonfolk, Vastaya, Yordle

Monolith Races is something I've had a problem with in both fantasy and Sci-fi stories. Like how there just the Klingon language and culture, and not regional dialects and variety, same with Vulcan, or Romulan, or Na'vi, or whatever. While it could be argued that They have unified to the point that only a single dominant language and culture remains, even that needs to be justified with some explanation and development, with hints to a past through the use of lone words, or cultural practices. Because invariably during these times, Humanity still has dozens of languages in active use that an alien translator would need to allow for. Envoy form is a bit of a cop out in some ways, playing into the 'just because,' trope a little, but even that has justifications baked into the lore should you care to look, which brings us right back to the ideas of needing to create a fully fleshed out culture for your fantasy races.

How does this video not have more views!?? This is the exact kind of stuff I love to listen to and research when I plot and build SUB

0:00 OP's confession to Brandon Sanderson 5:25 Actual video

The fact this video is so underrated is beyond me, i truly wish there was a spoiler section making video way longer cause you truly had something great. The arts were godlike, the creatures were badass af and the girls were super hot. Ive been studying Bran's lessons and had no idea his books were so original.

Speaking of monolith races, there's a sister trait to this in sci-fi (and to a lesser degree in fantasy) when a world (i.e. a planet) is treated as essentially a city. Think of Star Wars? Every planet the characters visit, they only ever visit one locale, or maybe two or three, but they're always connected directly by virtue of being neighbours or whatnot. It's so annoying.

Yep, Sanderson is great with his ability to create unique and nuanced races, each filled with distinct individuals. And just putting my own two cents towards another comment, the varied presentation of Sanderson artworks playing during the video doesn't bother me insofar as them "not syncing" with the particular race being discussed at any particular moment. Too me it isn't any different from the myriad RU-vid channels that cover all of the superhero genre of movies and streaming shows simply playing the trailers while they discuss news or leaks that happen to be the flavor of the moment.

I'd like to think Pratchett and Discworld played a role too. I don't think there's once developed character you can point to, and say "he/she is typical of that 'race'".

I feel like people forget there’s sub groups, like both the iron foot dwarves live on Granite mountain with the steeleg dwarves…while both being descendant from the ancient race of dwarves they also both have their own unique culture and different dialects of a dwarven language

Could you try to use images of the races while you are talking about them? it's confusing to see a Kendra while you talk about singers for example. Anyway, great video and very informative!!

Thank you for putting out content with races that are not traditionally seen in fantasy right now. There is a lot of the same stuff out there.

I basically took the StarCraft route with my alien races. A high class tech alien, an infantry based skill craft race and humans as the high power high mobility. Anyway, I have a way to retemplate them into a fantasy world. My infantry race is the more dwarven one, the high tech are the elves, and humans still focus on brute force. But I consider humans as the potential for orc profile. Keep in mind that my dwarves and elves don't look like dwarves and elves. I'll only share so much, but that's the vague and general gist.

I have noticed similar shifts in manga and anime. Demon Slayer has a particular way it portrays demons I find pretty refreshing. The Ancient Magus's Bride is accurate to its portrayal of the fey while still having its own spin on them. Then there is Land of the Lustrous which I hear is a trip. For me, I have a fondness for Inuyasha which features a lot a Japanese folklore. If you want to get into manga or anime, Inuyasha is a fairly good place to start, especially considering it has a satisfying ending. And also Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood which has a magic system with Sanderson sensibilities.

The problem I have is creating fantasy races. I want to approach it a different than how I create aliens. For aliens, I try to avoid anything that looks like a humanoid animal from earth or just a human with "x" color skin. However, for fantasy the races can be anything because magic. I have elves and fairies in my fantasy story, but I want some original races to. That's where I hit a roadblock because idk what would be unique enough to exist with the other races.

If you are constructing aliens, then the degree of uniformity is one of the factors that can make them alien. Hence I have to disagree with the final point. The point just has to be intentional.

I really agree, ngl, I didnt know what to think going in on this. But I absolutely abhor this idea that EVERY SINGLE LAST INDIVIDUAL OF A NON MIND LINKED/HIVEMIND RACE would all have the same beliefs, ideas, etc. The reason human history is rife with conflict is that even on the individual level, we are different from each other. Every culture has at least a subculture, and possibly even more derivatives at that! You wouldn't so much as need a governing or ruling body or authorial hierarchy if everyone was the same and agreed on all fronts.

5:32 I'm tired of dumb giants, give me smart giants GODDAMMIT. And they dont even need to be that humongus, something like 8ft or 6m is pretty good!! The only story ive seen do this was Gantz, well, FnH has too if you count the Gods as one.

I think, in order to have memorable and worthwhile non-human people in your world, you need to drill deeply into their origins. Play the Why Game relentlessly. Why were they created? (Or, if they evolved, what ecological niche did they fill and what pressures led to them developing intelligence?) What resources are available for them to exploit, and how does that affect their physical forms? How do those bodies affect their thinking? How social are they, and how are they social? (Sapient hermit crab people aren't going to interact the way social apes do.) What led this culture to hold these values? Are those values changing? Why? Importantly, you have to keep in mind these are *people.* People are, first, organisms (or monsters). Their autopilot behaviors will be dictated by whatever helps them baseline survive. But they also have needs and values beyond survival. Some of them probably seek power (how do they get it and what do they want to accomplish with it?), while others have artistic inclinations. The interplay of survival, power games, creative expression, and beliefs about the world will give rise to individuals' personalities, and the collective personality we call culture. Every single individual and every single group has different experiences, therefore they will have markedly different beliefs and concerns, and thus, personalities. You should be able to point to any event or behavior and explain, back to the eco/psych level, what's going on. If you want existing races in your story, you can take their known traits and work backwards. You may create a really unique take that way. Personally, I'd rather put that effort toward something new that can be fully attributed to me. I think this is what Brandon Sanderson does, and it's why his people species are so memorable. They have depth, they're there for a reason, and they use the resources of their world creatively.

Here is my approach to fantasy races, Just take all the trope fantasy races and use their cultures as a basis for human cultures in my setting and give something "unique" to the humans in your setting appearance wise. For my fantasy setting, my humans resemble fantasy elves more than real humans but all have human wants, needs, desires, and lifespans unless magically augmented, so it keeps them relatable whilst also feeling unique. Legend of Zelda already does this, notice how practically all the hylians and gerudo have pointy ears (last time I checked I think, but my point still stands just make pointy eared humans and diverse cultures to add some pizzaz to your setting). This will make the actual non-human (or in my case non-elvish?) fantasy races more unique in my setting. I like NOPE's monster and jelly fish and the mist born kandra so I created a species of sapient immortal jellyfish with psionic and shape-shifting abilities. They are sorta like the Ancients of this setting, aliens from another world like some lovecraftian alien species. Then I got reptilian-mammalian humanoid creatures reminiscent of gorgonospids, they lay eggs but also produce milk in their six flat nipples, they are carnivores and the northern members of their species are furry whilst the southern variants are more scaly.

I, for once, would actually like to see more of inteligent fantasy races in Sanderson's work (I know there are a few in Stormlight but I haven't started that one yet). Beside Roshar, Scadrial is the only place that has non-humans, and all those non-humans were created from humans. Having multiple planets and having each one populated by humans is a bit silly imo. I'm not saying that Brandon shouls write a book about a sentient gas cloud, but I AM saying that he could easily write a book with a non-human as a protagonist, or hell even a novel set on a planet with no humans. Cuz honestly, the notion that we can only relate to human characters is a myth. If there is a writer who could understand that, it would be Sanderson.

Particualrly, i think seperating the races into smaller 'factions' helps stop them from becoming monoliths. Like the Kandra are sepedarsd by the generations, that way each faction can have infighting, political intrigue, and even power over another factions. Even in human cities, people hold power oflver other people.

China Mieville did a great race job in his Bas Lag trilogy

I think Game of Thrones is and will continue to be more influential than anything Brandon has or will make

Races i know; Pokemon Mutant and magic wolves Wolves *insert list of all biological spieces* Wyerns dragons Fluffy beings And theres pixie badcat, shes a cat, but we count her as a different species out of fear.

I like your thoughts, but TBH the fact that the images you show don’t match what you say is kinda irritating.

Honestly, I have no idea who this Sanderson guy is. Never heard of him nor know of any of the works you mention. Can't see how he can be as good as you claim and still be some unknown.

So variants on changelings ogres and fae? Certainly not completely Tolkien but not particularly original either. Definitely good to develop unique cultures and differences though.

Ngl I expected a video about koloss marathon or something

hmmm this is puzzling, these races you listed do not sound that original to me, or maybe we have a different concept of original, plus i do agree with your point that there's no historical reference, but that's if we consider the race as a whole, if you separate their culture and appearance, we can easily see historical references from their culture, then build up the race in a fitting way, like the spy goo, they're especially a ninja clan (although it was disproven they actually exist), whose sole purpose was to serve their masters in spy missions, sometimes even infiltrating other clans, while the master keep the clan village safe; why did i go on this tangent you may ask? it was to prove that you can easily construct any given race, by reversing the common thought process, at least this is what I understood from the video.

Where is the Mark on caladins forehead? (3:46)

The problem I see is that writers just change the names but at the end are simply talking about the same races we already had or simply fell in a rabbit hole like Brandon Sanderson bringing just a non appealing trash, the main goal is to tell a story in an UNDERSTADABLE and a READABLE way, the more you dig the more you bury yourself, just an example Elves and how they evolved through the times, from their origin in nord mythology up today, is something about them that people simply not only likes but somehow make people feels a connection with a familiar and understandable concept, then as soon as we use key words like elves, dwarves, dragons, ogres, etc. you simply give an understandable concept without need to explain more just by saying one word, the problem nowadays is a genrational problem, as the archetypes: the Prophet, the Nomad, the Hero, and the Artist suggest, then we do have a generation that rejects everything, that tries to destroy the past with the dream to create a future, we saw how society collapses after reaching a super comfort state, when spoiled kids that knows nothing about life gives for granted everything, like when Rome reached her pick in grown and abundance and become more and more full of degeneration to fell and collapse not soon after, when you see this extreme rejection and denial, if you are a real writer that know about history and many other topics and have some knowledge and no just a clown trying to pull rabits from a hat, when you see humanity fighting against not only nature but their own nature mean humanity lose their identity and become DELUSIONAL, but of course reality will bring humanity back to their senses. I will say that being academic about writing doesn't work, like when you talk about rules, principles or to fit in the 3 acts format, that just simply destroys everything, just sit and start writing and tell us a story, a story you yourself would take the time to read, as simple as that, you can speak another 11 minutes or make a hundred videos but one thing I am certain and can warranty you is that centuries after Brandon Sanderson die Elves will remain, Elves will remain in the folklore and myths written in the books of people for centuries to come. Elves will keep evolving and adapting to the times, while we mortals become dust in our graves.

One this that always bothers me about fantasy races is that they just make them “human with a twist”. Elves are just tall humans with pointy ears and Dwarves/halflings are just short humans. Nothing unique just humans with a twist

8 minutes into this video and I've still learned nothing about how to create my own fantasy race. Next.

I think monolith races are a very realistic take on fantasy races. Why? Well if we look at how humans treat each other, we see things like nationality, skin colour and language puts us into monoliths. Describing someone as "french" rather than "european" for example. If there were such a thing as dwarves and elves, i would expect them to identify MUCH more with their own race, than humans and elves, and as a result, would take pride in their culture as a it is different from other races. The result being, that you get a monolith race, which primary identifier, is what they are. Ofcause, you would still have individuals, and outliers within the race, but as a whole, it would be monolithic. A dwarf that takes pride in archery? I think not... An elf that wields an axe? No, that's just wrong... Really, the biggest issue with the monolith races, is not how they are portrayed, but rather, how HUMANS are not portrayed in the same way. Because like the dwarves and elves, we absolutely would be a monolith race. That's the real problem, that makes it unrealistic.