Nonhuman Races for a Dark Fantasy Setting

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

We all know that "dark fantasy" settings can be made with races other than humans in it - unless people really have forgotten Warhammer Fantasy already.

But, I'm curious; what are the races you most naturally think work for a setting like that?

For myself...

Calibans: These are Gothic Mutants from the Ravenloft 3e setting, and essentially boil down to being able to play the deformed, inbred, child who grew up locked in the basement. Cursed in the womb by ancestral sins or black magic, they're deformed, hulking, powerful abominations.

Tiefling: Whether you envision them as humans marked by diabolic pacts or even lesser fiends that have tried to escape the Pit because life amongst mortals isn't as bad, they're natural fits.

Revenant: Whether you use them to showcase how even death is messed up here, or as a shining example of the power of hate & spite, they're classic for a reason.

Dhampir: Half-human, half-vampire does have the same sort of roots as half-human, half-demon, right?

Vryloka: Maybe overlaps with the Dhampir, but, hey, what's not Dark Fantasy about cursed nobles who sold their souls to a dark power to gain the powers of living vampires?

Shifters: These are basically "balanced for play" werebeasts. What's not to love?

Golems: I'm biased, but ever since I read mechanics for Flesh Golem PCs in Ravenloft AD&D, I've always thought that a "Frankenstein's Monster" type race was perfect for a Dark Fantasy setting. I don't know if these guys would be a Warforged reskin or something new, though.

Changeling, Hagspawn: I know, I know, Pathfinder's mechanics are shift, but fluff-wise this is actually a pretty damn good race for any dark or horror fantasy setting, in my opinion.

Hellbred: Fluffwise, these guys are kind of the lovechild of tieflings and revenants, but still, potential here, I feel.

Aranea: I'm not so certain about these guys. They're giant spiders turned wizards who turn into human form so they can interact with and manipulate other races.

[Unoriginal]

But, I'm curious; what are the races you most naturally think work for a setting like that?

All of them?

I don't think that dark fantasy should necessarily be geared around "thematically" dark species.

For dark fantasy, take anything, put it in a dark world, and see how it reacts.

[Dr. Cliché]

I think it's less about the type of race and more about what you do with them.

For example, you could easily play up Shifters as being quite silly and give them some 'doggy' traits (think of the werewolves in Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant). You could give them an urge to chase after carts/carriages/wagons, they could hate the word 'bath', if you come across any skeletons their first thought might be to try and steal a bone to eat etc.

What I'm trying to say is that if you want to have dark fantasy, you need to make sure that each of your races embodies that in some way.

As an example, Shifters could embody:
- Outcasts (they're not true werewolves, but they might also not be human enough to be tolerated in civilised society.)
- Fear of the Infected (even though Shifters cannot transmit lycanthropy, many people may not know that or are unwilling to take the risk.)
- Split personality or primal instincts (when shifted, they could either have different personalities or else act on bestial instincts. )
- Corruption (Shifters could lose a piece of their humanity each time they shift. At the same time, they may need to shift to protect themselves or their allies.)

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head, but hopefully you get the idea. Dark Fantasy isn't just about having evil-looking races, it's about the themes you explore with those races and the general feel/atmosphere of your world.

[Khrysaes]

While not in 5e. I liked the Troll-kin from 3.5 Iron Kingdoms.

Iron Kingdoms went to a different system after that, but it is a good "gritty" fantasy setting.

[Steampunkette]

Ultimately I think the most important question to ask about the setting is this:

Is this meant to be a game centered around monstrous individuals, or is this meant to be a game combatting monstrous individuals?

If you're planning to do a game where people are combatting monstrous individuals, the larger portion of your party should be human, or at least "Standard" races for the setting. Having an extreme minority of the party be monstrous individuals (Dhampir, Golems, Etc) works just fine for such a game, but more than 1 or 2 out of 5-6 characters pushes things a little awkwardly.

If the game is -about- Monstrous characters, in a sort of "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" or "Penny Dreadful" sort of style, then you should pull out the full monster team and have them trying to be helpful while being outcasts and misfits.

The latter story is much less likely to -feel- like Gothic Horror and will most likely come across as a more modern horror or action game.

[Honest Tiefling]

Folklore Changelings/Traditional Elves. What's not to love about child kidnapping weird folk who leave behind their unwanted people? Perhaps they grow up into beautiful creatures with a terrible flaw, a constant reminder of why their real parents didn't want them.

Through if I was going Dark Fantasy, I'd have the first go at character creation be human only. If you can play a tielfing, then you know they have free will. If you can't, then you don't know if they truly are souless puppets that only mimic people's behavior to fit in long enough to send everyone's souls to the hells or not.

Doppelgangers/Eberron Changelings need to be in this, because you can't know if they take after their human heritage or their aberrant heritage more. And what's not to love about replacing all of a character's loved ones with people who act like they love them even more then before, only to reveal that they have killed and feasted upon the original person? Don't worry, the new one adores everything about you and is an improvement over the last one! All you need to do is believe...

[Ralanr]

All of them?

I don't think that dark fantasy should necessarily be geared around "thematically" dark species.

For dark fantasy, take anything, put it in a dark world, and see how it reacts.

Basically this. You can have races that are specifically designed to be in dark fantasies, but any race can more or less work in a dark fantasy setting if you can kinda twist their reactions and concepts there.

Hell, pixies work by virtue of being a slave race or as beings that are hunted for their magical properties.

[Waterdeep Merch]

One of my most-played homebrew settings is considered fairly dark, and it includes every major playable race except gnomes, who are mostly believed to be extinct. This is because of extreme xenophobia and racism that permeates the setting.

Tieflings, for example, aren't actually related to fiends here. They're a natural race, same as humans, elves, or dwarves, with three distinct cultures based on their nation of origin. Despite this, the other races, and humans in particular, view them much as they do in other settings. They're born of demon blood, evil incarnate, corrupters walking the face of the earth. It's bad enough they exist at all, it's inexcusable that they despoil entire countries.

Due to this, there no longer exists a sovereign tiefling country. The most powerful human empire fought a nasty war against them, and tieflings are now second-class citizens in their own homeland. They suffer regular purges and a rewritten history by their conquerors. Their native tongue has been all but destroyed, called 'infernal' by everyone else, and their culture only exists in resistance cells that are all dead or dying.

For their part, if you go back far enough, tieflings were extreme xenophobes that brutally wiped out everyone who looked different in and around their borders. They, the elves, and the orcs were most responsible for the gnomish genocide. Between their vast hate for one another, a bit of common wisdom happens to be false- that tieflings and humans cannot intermingle and conceive children together. The few cases of half-tieflings in history were either assumed to be humans corrupted by demons thanks to the tieflings or full-blooded tieflings that were mutilated by humans.

The greatest hero of the tiefling nations, who's actions much prevented the humans from massacring the tieflings during the great war, was actually such a half-tiefling. His supposed disappearance happened when he discovered that there was a god trying to manipulate humanity and tieflings into wiping each other out, which he stopped, before realizing that his tiefling allies weren't any better than the humans and using his victories to conduct purges of their own. He became a god shortly thereafter, and spent centuries trying to find a way to end the madness that gripped the heart of his world.

[The Vanishing Hitchhiker]

You can dress up anything to fit in a "dark" setting; that's why clowns are an accepted staple of the horror genre.

One of the games I'm in is sort of a war/politics-themed kitchen sink homebrew. In this setting, dragonmarks are a feature of the evil empire, with all of the caste/guild dressing but (as far as I can tell, unless it's part of the propaganda) none of the cosmic destiny stuff—it was all the result of eugenics. Dragonborn were sort of an alpha test for the final product, and are part of the empire's laborer class. So my character, as a dragonmarked dragonborn, has exiled herself from the empire to become a mercenary...in barbaric backwaters where she's been arrested before for being one of those imperial dragon thingies. Her full background hasn't really become relevant yet since the party is dealing with lower-level threats like undead plague invasions, vampire-impersonating doppelgangers, and witch-hunting cultists...

Huh. That game's a lot more gothic-themed than I thought. Our group's been relatively lighthearted so far. I guess my point is it's all in how you treat the subject matter.

[Jendekit]

As many have said, it's not what races are there it's how those races are portrayed.

In a setting that I never got to run, studied arcane magic (wizards, bards, etc.) and divine magic were not a thing. For a 5e conversion, the only casters would be Wild Magic Sorcerers and Warlocks. This resulted in magic being seen as something to be feared, and more than that, any magic beastie other than wyverns and drakes were individually created by a magic user, typically through blood or sacrifice.

Unicorns in this setting were the result of a witch (general term for magic user) being bred by a stallion. Unicorns would, upon being fully grown, hunt down people and either kill them (if male or not a virgin) or rape them (if a virgin).

[Ralanr]

As many have said, it's not what races are there it's how those races are portrayed.

In a setting that I never got to run, studied arcane magic (wizards, bards, etc.) and divine magic were not a thing. For a 5e conversion, the only casters would be Wild Magic Sorcerers and Warlocks. This resulted in magic being seen as something to be feared, and more than that, any magic beastie other than wyverns and drakes were individually created by a magic user, typically through blood or sacrifice.

Unicorns in this setting were the result of a witch (general term for magic user) being bred by a stallion. Unicorns would, upon being fully grown, hunt down people and either kill them (if male or not a virgin) or rape them (if a virgin).

Well...that's an image.

[Vogonjeltz]

We all know that "dark fantasy" settings can be made with races other than humans in it - unless people really have forgotten Warhammer Fantasy already.

But, I'm curious; what are the races you most naturally think work for a setting like that?

Based on the definition herein, anything horror-based involving the supernatural. However, it would have to be the supernatural from the perspective of whatever the "norm" is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fantasy

Do you mean a setting where the majority/plurality of the group is made up of say, Elves (or whatever) instead of Humans?

Sure, you could do that; but presumably whatever elements are horrific would have to be horrific from the perspective of if you were an Elf. Given their long life spans, I'd imagine any basic body-horror might be extra awful for an Elf. i.e. Loss of limbs, or psychological trauma from war.

Ooh, or even worse, mental deterioration from say, repeated concussions. An elf might find themselves confused and unable to even understand their situation for hundreds of years.