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Feelings on non-human characters in omo?


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i'm writing a story with alien characters who have some unconventional biology. it's pretty similar to human biology but different nonetheless, so i was wondering what y'alls opinions are on non-human characters in omorashi stories! does it weird you out or are you super into it? does it make a story too confusing/inaccessible? if you've written this kind of thing, how did you approach it? (also thanks everyone who posted on my other topic about plot vs no plot it was very helpful!) 

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As someone who's written both Khajiit (who have at least 20 different forms, of which only half are reasonably humanoid) and Argonians (who are known to spontaneously and repeatedly change sex and shape) my advice is that if you're gonna do non-humans, keep them anthropomorphic. The only reason you shouldn't is if you're writing feral furry stuff, but that's a bit of a niche in a niche already.

Otherwise it's easier not only for you to write but for people to read and understand if the characters have human qualities, both physical and otherwise. You have a lot less explaining to do if you're dealing with upright-walking bipeds that have two arms with fingered hands and opposable thumbs on them, a neck with a head on it, and a body containing more or less what you'd expect from a human.

For example, the Khajiit main character in my ongoing Skyrim story is of the Suthay variety - essentially your typical bipedal cat-person, perhaps standing around five feet tall (or less; I can't know for sure) with digitigrade feet and four fingers and a thumb on each hand. That way, nobody really needs to do much thinking about how her body works. Unless your character is outlandish enough for there to be a reason to assume otherwise, you can rely on the assumption that they work like a human and would probably act and respond like a human would - in this example, the Khajiit in question can reasonably be assumed to act like a human with fur and a tail.

The farther you get from humans, though, the more explaining you have to do and the more readers have to remember about the characters to know what they do and how. If that same Khajiit were a Senche-raht, for instance, suddenly she's more comparable to a feral lion than a human, which means there's extra information you need to remember and can't just reliably assume based on what you know about people being people. She wouldn't walk upright or have thumbs, for example, so you'd need to remember that whenever she walked anywhere or grabbed anything. She'd interact with things and people differently than a human would, so you'd need to remember that too.

And the more you have to remember, the worse it is for both you and the reader. Especially if you're writing a longer series over a longer period of time - you'll forget information established earlier on, as will the audience, so if you stick to anthropomorphic characters there's a lot less room for confusion and error. Instead of needing to remember how a character's body works, you can rely on the assumption that it works mostly like a human one and the few things that would be different are notable enough to be easily committed to memory.

All that said, I personally don't care for aliens at all but there's always a need for more good omo content of things other than humans. It's part of why I do what I do the way I do it.

Edited by Sake (see edit history)
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As someone who has written monster girls before, there’s a lot of untapped potential. With something like my interpretations of dragons, that simply leads to a bigger bladder, but logical deviations from human anatomy spice it up. A centaur can’t hold herself because her hands are nowhere near where they’d need to be, a lamia would need to pee standing up because her parts have to be on her front.

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On 6/30/2019 at 10:56 PM, Sake said:

As someone who's written both Khajiit (who have at least 20 different forms, of which only half are reasonably humanoid) and Argonians (who are known to spontaneously and repeatedly change sex and shape) my advice is that if you're gonna do non-humans, keep them anthropomorphic. The only reason you shouldn't is if you're writing feral furry stuff, but that's a bit of a niche in a niche already.

Otherwise it's easier not only for you to write but for people to read and understand if the characters have human qualities, both physical and otherwise. You have a lot less explaining to do if you're dealing with upright-walking bipeds that have two arms with fingered hands and opposable thumbs on them, a neck with a head on it, and a body containing more or less what you'd expect from a human.

For example, the Khajiit main character in my ongoing Skyrim story is of the Suthay variety - essentially your typical bipedal cat-person, perhaps standing around five feet tall (or less; I can't know for sure) with digitigrade feet and four fingers and a thumb on each hand. That way, nobody really needs to do much thinking about how her body works. Unless your character is outlandish enough for there to be a reason to assume otherwise, you can rely on the assumption that they work like a human and would probably act and respond like a human would - in this example, the Khajiit in question can reasonably be assumed to act like a human with fur and a tail.

The farther you get from humans, though, the more explaining you have to do and the more readers have to remember about the characters to know what they do and how. If that same Khajiit were a Senche-raht, for instance, suddenly she's more comparable to a feral lion than a human, which means there's extra information you need to remember and can't just reliably assume based on what you know about people being people. She wouldn't walk upright or have thumbs, for example, so you'd need to remember that whenever she walked anywhere or grabbed anything. She'd interact with things and people differently than a human would, so you'd need to remember that too.

And the more you have to remember, the worse it is for both you and the reader. Especially if you're writing a longer series over a longer period of time - you'll forget information established earlier on, as will the audience, so if you stick to anthropomorphic characters there's a lot less room for confusion and error. Instead of needing to remember how a character's body works, you can rely on the assumption that it works mostly like a human one and the few things that would be different are notable enough to be easily committed to memory.

All that said, I personally don't care for aliens at all but there's always a need for more good omo content of things other than humans. It's part of why I do what I do the way I do it.

Your post reminded me of both the game, as well as some of the posts I see on the forum, where people are asking for free custom vids etc. I wanna say "If it has coin, Khajiit have wares".

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Personally, I think it depends on the context and how it is handled.

Examples:

Having a non-human with similar reaction(s) (embarrassment, sexual gratification, bodily function, etc.) to a human may give empathy/insight into the character.

Having similar "equipment" (but possibly for different purposes) may cause some story tension and relief. (pun intended).

Having a completely different biological process system could make for a symbiosis (start with humans breathing out CO2 and plants taking in CO2 and producing O2 as a simplistic concept) could make an interesting story, but may be a lot of work, 

These are off the top of my head thoughts. I say go for it and see how it feels. If YOU like the characters and can put into words how they feel, I think that there are people who will be able to feel that in your writing.

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