How-To make an Alien Race

A Lesson by C. D. Jensen

Here I will help you discover how to make a race of none Terran origin, from Terran Cultures.

The age old problem of making an Alien Race that's not Human in a Green Suit.
One of my greatest issues was making races. Most often they were either British Blue Men, or Japanese Klingons. I just didn't have the understanding of how to make an alien race. So here's some good starter tips.

1. When Starting a race the name isn't necassary, until later, unless the race is based off the name.
2. Not All Aliens are Bipeds, 4-peds, or even mammals. Most often people make aliens very similar looking to humans. Not all Aliens are going to be even close to any Terran Creature.
3. When Developing a race start with what I call the basic need to knows:

Appearance
Abilities
Language
Morals

3.1. Knowing these things can help you develop the name of the race, the morals, the government, and the way they act. All from this. Confused I'll give some examples.

Appearance:
Allows you to know if they where clothing, which ties in with morals. If they are a race of reptiles, it's unlikely the females would dress differently from the males. Ex. No Mammary Glands.
Abilities:
When you know if they have telepathy or an extended endurance, this can give appearance differences and behavioral differences. If the race is telepathic, would they have vocal cords or a mouth that allows spoken language. If they had extended endurance would they be more prone to violence, or use transportation less.
Language:
Knowing a few words is really all that's necessary. You don't need to write a whole dictionary, just a few words to understand how there name would sound. Ex.
Male = Kuuvok
Female = Z'aala
This could give you an idea of the way they treat genders, if female is more soft it may mean they think of females as soft. Also the language could be considered a mix of Germanic and Aboriginal(Tribal Peoples, is what I mean) Language. This could give you some inspiration as too what the cultures are like.
Morals
Morals are necessary to build an entire culture. If you have a culture even as barbaric as Cannibalism. There still are morals that shape why, they are cannibals.
Ex. The Maori were Cannibalistic because they believed the devouring of their foes made them more powerful.

Now that we have that down, we can build the rest of our race.

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How-To make an Alien Race

By C. D. Jensen

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Added on June 16, 2013
Last Updated on June 16, 2013

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C. D. Jensen

Henderson, NV

About

I'm 18, and working on becoming a programmer. I love music, computers, video games, reading, and writing. I am a self-employed IT and I am looking for steadier work.

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