A family portrait: Scà duins
Atheil and Aneri
Creating the Scà duin – Part 2
Hey all! I’ve brought Aneri back and joining him is Atheil. Aneri and Atheil are going to assist me in creating the physical description of the Scà duins. This may or may not be as long as Aneri’s post on naming, but I guess we’ll find out. To start, we (me, Aneri and Atheil) are going to explain how I got the idea for what the Scà duin look like.
As a fantasy writer, I try to create unique creatures, races and the like. This usually involves manipulating, editing, and even merging. I have to think a bit wacky. But sometimes, ideas walk right up to me and yell;
“Hey you! Yeah, make me!â€
That’s almost how the Scà duin happened. For a while I’ve had a race if mind that look similar to Africans and could be mistaken for another of my races. I’ve been playing with this idea and when I made the word “Scà duin†I knew I had to make them (As a side note: Scà duin means shadow people).
Now, I didn’t want to simply throw in a race like Africans. Like I said before, I like to be unique. This is where the idea jumped in my face and instead of saying “Sorry, I slipped, give me a moment and I’ll be off.†It maddeningly yelled; “Have you any idea how I’ve been try to get your attention?!†To clarify; the idea that fell on me came from a picture I saw a long time ago and I saved it simply because I thought it was pretty cool. Before showing it to you though (I like to make entrances) let me offer this question: what if someone was to cross these?
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African Woman
Pronghorn Antelope
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Ah, see where I’m going with this? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. The point is; fantasy writers don’t have to think logically! We can grab a turkey, some pineapple, and maybe even a cloud and make something out of it (guess what’s coming from me next*). Of course, it can be hard to describe our creations to fellow a human, but we’re writers and can worry about that during revision. Continuing:
What you get with the above crossbreed is something like this: (depending on what your imagination did)
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A female Scà duin
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Personally, this is a bit too antelopian for me. I want to keep the human facial structure and don’t want them to be covered in fur. It’s not what I have in mind. That’s where the original and inspiring picture comes in.
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A male Scà duin
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I don’t really want the Scà duin to have horns, so imagine the picture without them. This picture is the closest to what I have in mind for the Scà duin (I really like the idea of them having hoofed feet). They’ll be wearing more clothes then shown in either of these images (they don’t live in a hot climate) and will certainly being undergoing a bit more polishing, but this is them. These are my Scà duin.
Try browsing through any image folders you have, or doing a quick search online. You’d be amazed at the pictures you can find. For me, images are a great way of being inspired. I’ve founded cities, created clothing styles, and even (as I just showed you) made races off of images. The key is getting inspired, but staying original. My race may look dangerously close to that final picture, but when I’m done with them they’ll be their own.
So, that’s what the Scà duin look like and how I discovered that fact. Obviously Aneri and Atheil didn’t help out much, but they were here for the ride. I should shortly be posting a written description of the Scà duins (specifically Aneil and Atheil) so be on the watch for it.
* Oh, I’m going to make something! Just watch me. Cloud of pineapple-y turkey, here I come!