Originally Posted by
JoeJ
Yes, and not just a race of hats. All races that aren't human need to be, in some sense, races of hats (although they don't necessarily have to be evil hats; that's a different question entirely). Any non-human group needs to have some identifiable trait that sets them apart from humans, because non-human races exist specifically to allow stories that you can't tell with humans only. The differences between, for example, any human and any elf need to be greater than the differences between any two humans. If they aren't, then that race (or species, or whatever you call it) has no narrative reason to exist; they should be replaced with a human culture.