I was just wondering at the “fantasy” creatures we have not only in Magic but in the real world. How did man ever think about dragons, elves, dwarves, goblins and all these creatures? Are the humanoid races of dwarves, goblins and halflings just people who are short? How about elves being really tall and thin humans? It probably also depends on the area where the magical creature was thought of.
Take for instance a two headed giant. Is that even possible? Maybe not. However if you think about it, a giant is a person who is extremely large and tall. What if this “giant” had a kid – actually 2 kids – a conjoint twin with 2 heads. People would believe that if this kid grew up, he would be huge, tall and have 2 heads.
Minotaurs are bull men creatures. Centaurs are man-horse. I wonder how these 2 creatures got into history. Centaurs could easily be thought of as men on horses who would think of a bull headed man. Wait! Bullheaded means stupid right? Maybe minotaurs is actually an insult to someone meaning bullhead. The use of the word might have brought about that creature.
Vampires…these creatures are now have a lord with M10. There was a Dracula in history and he drank the blood of his enemies. The concept of vampires probably stemmed from that.
I applaud one of the races in Magic – the cephalids. Cephalids are octopus like creatures who are one of the sentient blue creature types. Octopi are one of the smartest sea creatures in the world. Their intelligence level is at par or even greater with dolphins. The only problem with Octopi are their extremely short life spans which prevent them from fully utilizing their intellect. I wonder if the Magic creative team thought of this when they thought of the Cephalids.
I want to see Magic with more fantasy creatures – like the Loxodon that aren’t in regular mythology and fantasy.
