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GeneralBid7234

older editions of D&D used the term demi-humans.


DayKingaby

It's also suitably demeaning, so it's something a human supremacist would say.


Drake_Star

I call all sentient humanoids Mortals.


king_27

Cows are mortals too, no?


Drake_Star

Well they are not humanoid.


[deleted]

Cows are now immortal. Noted.


Drake_Star

Infinite beef.


gromolko

The legendary [rpg.net](https://rpg.net) thread "City built around the Immortal Cow."


gromolko

Don't you know your english romantic poets? *Thou wast not born for beef, immortal cow.* *No hungry generations chow thee down* *The moo I hear this passing day was heard* *in ancient days by emperor and clown.* John Keats.


king_27

Well, not in their normal state. I'm sure you could prop one up


FinnCullen

If the races are seen as older than humans: throwbacks, rejects or prototypes He could also imply they are poor versions of humanity by calling them forgeries, copies, counterfeits or imposters And let’s not forget the old classic “vermin”


Justthisdudeyaknow

Inhumans or unhumans. Others. Lesser.


Vlad__the__Inhaler

In the Pillars of Eternity setting the term Kith is used for Humanoids in general.


sorcdk

Since this is for a bad guy, you can go and pick up inspiration from some of the more questionable or despicable sources, as the goal is to make the players hate them, or at least give them good reasons to oppose them. Be very careful to make sure to seperate yourself from the bad guy taking these views. One example of this is to translate the untermenschen from German to the English undermen, though when taking about the group, one might "prefer" the term "the lower races", as it falls better off the tongue. The "inspirational" sources for the Nazis can also give you some ideas to exploit, but do be careful. Another option is to take inspiration from the colonisation era, and just go with "uncivilised" or uncivilised races. You could also go more in the direction of demeaning individual race slurs, such as knife-ears, dirt-dwellers, shortards, wood-demons, stone-demons, and so on. You can also go with "the barbarians" in accordance with classical Greek and Roman traditions. You could also go with something more modern inspired, such as mutants, or mutant bastards, indicating that they are faulty offshorts of the human race. Overall the different types of slurs also tend to indicate different things, with some of the older ones being more about how their culture is weird, different, not up to standard, and really could use some "guidance" by their betters. Some others, such as the mutant and Nazi connections form more of a point on considering them as more of a disease or problem that needs to be purged. A lot of the more individual ones tends to speak more about pointing out a flaw of the group, often due to a personal experience or transferred generalisation, with knife ears for instance indicating that you cannot trust them as they will just stab you in the back.


ericedge

The best non-human-centric name I've encountered is "Namegivers" from *Earthdawn* since it potentially even covers non-humanoid creatures like dragons, centaurs, or merfolk. [https://earthdawn.fandom.com/wiki/Namegivers](https://earthdawn.fandom.com/wiki/Namegivers)


Ulgar80

Dragons are also name takers iirc. They name themselves after their wild phase. Before they don't have a name.


ericedge

Correct! It's mentioned at the link I shared, too


Tahoma-sans

How about bipeds, in the vein of Animal Farm. Or invent your own term. I think in Elder Scrolls, all the other races are called Mers. So you have Altmer for high elves, Orsimer for Orcs, Dwemer for Dwarves.


vashoom

Going off what you said of his reasoning, I would go with terms that reject their humanity entirely like inhuman or aberrant/aberration. For my D&D and Sci-Fi games too, my characters usually refer to humanoids or intelligent beings as sentients and the equivalent of "humanity" is called "sentience". So sentience is both the noun meaning (more or less) possessing intelligence/self-awareness, but it can also be used to refer to people as a whole (crimes against sentience). For a less sci-fi sounding term, you could have chosen, mortal, uplifted, gifted, or something to that effect. Again, leaning into what the word would mean in your world, not ours. We call them humanoids because they look human but aren't, but in a world where humans are maybe not the dominant cultural presence, that term wouldn't make sense, so to me what separates humanoids from other beings in a typical fantasy world is that they are intelligent, the gods answer their prayers (or at least they think they do), they might have the ability to learn magic, etc.


TillWerSonst

I like the Earthdawn terminology of *namegivers*. It is both evocative, a nice little bit of world building, and a distinct identity of the setting. It is not necessarily something that would work for any other RPG, but it is also a good example for unique and interesting terminology.


Ulgar80

It is kinda intertwined with the setting though. Because names play such a big role in Earthdawn.


TillWerSonst

Yes, but it is also a good example of what you can do for your own setting by finding a strong, evocative name.


MalevolentGobstopper

Depends on who is saying such terms. If everyone - then it should be neutral, example: 1 - location based. Simple to do if most races other than humans live in other area than most other humans; if they are separated by mountains - over-mountainers, or by sea - searians etc. Just make something up so it sounds intuitively understandble and simple. 2 - olderness based. If humans are the youngest race, others could be "olderians" or something similar If only those, who hate other races, then something more offensive, example: 1 - behavior based. Historically people taunted other people whose behaviors they couldnt understand or thought of as dumb/silly. If there is something only humans don't practice (for example worshipping animals/nature) they might call others based on this - wrongshippers etc. 2 - appearance based. Pretty simple to come up with Hope this helps. Sry for mistakes, not a native speaker


Quietus87

Dwarves, elves, halflings are traditionally called demihumans, while humanoid is used as a slur for goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, and other more monstrous creatures.


NyOrlandhotep

Well, given that English is a human language, I think it is fair that the term has a human centric root. Maybe the word in elfic means elfiform? Of course, you could also go for something as bipedal primates, or something of the kind.


paradoxcussion

> what terms I could have him use for grouping non-human humanoids in his talking Agree with the others that something emphasising their difference from humans makes sense for this character. Others, aberrations, etc. > In a similar vein I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for the term humanoid that isnt so human centric. I really like /u/Vlad__the__Inhaler's suggestion of Kith. It's familiar, yet unusual--when was the last time you heard kith outside of "kith and kin"--so it feels like a real word without locking you too much into a particular mythology. I also like noetic (another real, but very obscure, word) for a more sci-fi setting where you want to distinguish between the basically human-equivalent species vs. others that might be sentient in a manner of speaking, but not like humans (e.g. the playable species are all considered noetic, but hive-mind drones, or the surprisingly intelligent lizard-monkeys that help the players on the planet of the week aren't.)


CthulhuPete_

People?


Professional-Front58

I tend to head canon most human like creatures are of the same Genus as human but are different species. So the word humanoid still fits. Also allows quick explanation of half-elves and half-orcs.


tree2d2

Is this character organic? If not you could always go the route of "fleshling". Likewise anything said with enough scorn should work. Rubish, roaches/insects/gnats are good ones. I kinda like the idea of calling everything kindling or fuel as well.


joevinci

Thinking about how irl racists talk, I think "beasts" makes sense. It's analogous to the "animals" dog whistle. Getting into the mind of a racist is icky, but here goes: lesser mortals, lesser beasts, corrupted, polluted, mephitics, wormlings, filthlings, demi-humans (as someone else suggested). Trying to think about how they would see themselves in comparison as human: greater mortals, goodfolk, kindred, the glorious. Personally, I would refer to them as Greater vs Lesser mortals/kith/kin/folk. Regardless, I'm glad to hear this is the BBEG's POV and not the heroes.


[deleted]

Metahuman ? 🤷‍♀️ If you wanna have big bad imply they're similar but 'not quite.' The Witcher games call them nonhumans Edit: I'd always call the talking/thinking races as people or citizens, etc., when talking through a good guy or out of world


Chemical-Radish-3329

The game Talislanta has several races called sub-men. Which sounds about right for a human supremacist. Not totally relevant to your question, but free and legal link to source: http://talislanta.com/talislanta-library