Idea Idea for a fantasy race of creatures

[Fangs9090]

So, I've got this idea that I'm working on, and I felt the need to share it. Maybe get a little advice on the finer details.

The basic idea that I started with is EXPLOSIONS!? and the rest kinda went from there. What I've got so far is a sort of reptilian-looking race that are all born with some kind of thing inside them that is highly explosive. Each member of the race has a single, long, bright feather on their head that tells what kind of explosive they have. Green feathers indicate a stable explosive. The individual can run around, trip and fall, and jump off of stuff without risk of detonating. Their explosive would have to take direct damage in order for it to go off. The resulting explosion would have a wide radius but would be mostly fire with little force. Yellow feathers are mildly unstable. They can run and trip with little risk, but if they get hit exceptionally hard, there's a chance they will detonate. The resulting explosion has a smaller radius from green feathers but a bit more force and hotter fire. Red feathers are very dangerous. They have to be cautious because if they trip and land wrong, they're likely to go boom. Their explosions are smaller than the others but are the most deadly. Anything close to them will die with them. Also, regardless of their type, when an individual dies, for whatever reason, the explosive will detonate. Traditional burial among the race happens before the individual has died and basically just involves getting them away from everyone else to avoid a chain reaction. Thankfully, they're a very peaceful race, so fighting and premature deaths are not much of a problem.




I don't know how I came up with this, but there may be something wrong with me...

 

[Axel The Englishman]

Does someone need my expertise once more?

>Dons nerd glasses<

 

[Fangs9090]

I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Le Foxe]

Excusez-moi.

Have you considered reducing the amount of le explosif and adding more foxes to the equation? But my suggestion may be biased. Ha-ha!

 

[Fletchawk]

You could make them really small and hyper, that would be funny to watch. Or possibly make them titan sized and venerable. That way when one of them dies it impacts the world they live on a topographical scale.

 

[augmentedspartan]

I think the problem is that a race that can explode so easily would die off immediately. I can't really picture any form of stable civilization if one accident can lead to a chain reaction and wipe off the entire area. Instead of exploding when falling or hitting something, they could just explode when they die, making it less likely for them to go extinct from clumsiness. You could also make it so that the explosion's strength is proportional to their age. The younger they are, the smaller the explosion, while really old ones can level an entire city. This could also work with Galain's second idea. They start out small and relatively fragile, but as they get old they grow immensely and become really hard to kill (you could even go the crocodile route and make it so they don't die of old age). You could do a lot of interesting stuff with this. They might be treated with respect and left alone, or with fear and killed as soon as possible to lower potential damage. They could be the equivalent of legendary dragons in whatever setting you use them, but instead of the danger coming from them attacking random cities, it would be because of the possibility of the big one living near a mountain dying and making a Grand Canyon of the area. It would give you a lot more options than just "exploding lizards".

Also, instead of a single feather you could do something like this.

 

[Umbrie]

i actually developed a roleplay around a militarized faction of undead cyborg magical girls that resembled little girls clad in gothic lolita fashion, they were actually sustained by a hydrogen powered core in their chest that transmuted hydrogen from a stored cell into ether. they had the gimmick of Exploding like a Hydrogen Bomb when they died if you ruptured the core within their chest, which was a replacement for their heart. the issues i had with running such a faction was that with that many nukes going off at once, most planets wouldn't survive and the program would logically be shut down by any person with a brain, so it relied on a Galaxy where common sense was in extremely short supply to work. but essentially, it wasn't too different in concept from Strike Witches or Kantai Collection. send Preteen Girls armed with massive weapons and fanservicey clothes to fight a massive supernatural threat. as undead cyborgs, they were expendable and their physiology was completely irrelevant, meaning anybody could theoretically become a member of the Assault Faeries.

the roleplay didn't turn out well, because it was dependent on roleplayers abandoning common sense to make it even playable.

 

[Fangs9090]

I think the problem is that a race that can explode so easily would die off immediately. I can't really picture any form of stable civilization if one accident can lead to a chain reaction and wipe off the entire area. Instead of exploding when falling or hitting something, they could just explode when they die, making it less likely for them to go extinct from clumsiness. You could also make it so that the explosion's strength is proportional to their age. The younger they are, the smaller the explosion, while really old ones can level an entire city. This could also work with Galain's second idea. They start out small and relatively fragile, but as they get old they grow immensely and become really hard to kill (you could even go the crocodile route and make it so they don't die of old age). You could do a lot of interesting stuff with this. They might be treated with respect and left alone, or with fear and killed as soon as possible to lower potential damage. They could be the equivalent of legendary dragons in whatever setting you use them, but instead of the danger coming from them attacking random cities, it would be because of the possibility of the big one living near a mountain dying and making a Grand Canyon of the area. It would give you a lot more options than just "exploding lizards".

Also, instead of a single feather you could do something like this.

Hm....that's actually a good point. I'll definitely keep that in consideration. As for the feather, one of the reasons I decided on only one is because I'm not that great at drawing large masses of feathers. Though if I take off the stability issue, they wouldn't need to be color coded anymore, especially if the size of the blast is dependent on their age.

 

[augmentedspartan]

Though if I take off the stability issue, they wouldn't need to be color coded anymore, especially if the size of the blast is dependent on their age.

You could always make it so that the color of the feather changes with age as well.

 

[Fangs9090]

You could always make it so that the color of the feather changes with age as well.

That would work too. I'd have to figure out a color pattern though, which shouldn't be too hard with the colors I have available.

 

[Communist]

I would give some ideas but it seems you don't need my expertise here.

*gives back the nerd glasses that I stole from Axel*

 

[Beckoncall]

I love them.

To make sure they survived to propagate the species, I would have the ones that are in modestly unstable form exude a hormone that makes them highly desirable, while the highly unstable emit a phermone that make them highly unattractive. That way, the explosive tendency remains in the gene pool by selection, but they aren't all blown up in brazen gatherings.