Fantasy Writers and Readers discussion

I like the Chimera because even though it is traditionally made from the parts of a goat, lion, and dragon, I like the idea of a chimera being any creature that is made parts from ANY animal. For example, you could combine parts from a lion, a bull, and a scorpion to create the chimera in question. What do you think? If you were to create a chimera for a fantasy story, what animal parts would you choose?

Apart from the phoenix, the gryphon is my other favorite mythical creature that has bird features. Traditionally, a gryphon possesses the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. With its ability to fly and impressive arsenal of weapons such as claws and hooked beak, I thought this creature would be a formidable beast to face.

I am toying with the idea of having dragons take human form in my fantasy book. There have been cases in which dragons do this such as World of Warcraft and Dragonlance. When I think of a dragon in human form, I envision them being similar to high elves in that they are tall and inhumanly beautiful. However, they would be covered in soot and smell like ash. I will tinker with this further as I continue writing.

As for chimeras, I was reading and there a bunch of humans (mostly deserters) happened to be cursed into chimeras, each in completely unique shape by some forgotten magic, which was quite interesting.

For my own work, I chose to change the usual approach to phoenixes a bit. Instead of their lifecycles being infinite, they can only do it a few times. Each time they are reborn, some portion of the elemental energy that created them is expanded in the process and when they don't have enough of it left, they'll die forever. Likewise, they can only lay eggs (and thus procreate) during the first two cycles for the same reason. Before their death, they are losing some of their feathers which still have some lingering elemental power within them and masterful shaman or mage could use them to bolster their powers if he was lucky enough to find one.

When people think of unicorns, they think of horses with a straight horn growing from their heads. However, I am thinking of including a different kind of unicorn in future fantasy books. Like every other mythical creature, I will be very scientific when it comes to unicorns. Instead of a horse with a fancy horn, I am envisioning unicorns as resembling large reindeer or caribou with silver fur and a single, recurved horn made of polished ivory instead of antlers. There will not be anything magical about them. They will just be overly exotic animals that look magical. What do you think?

I am thinking of including some prehistoric wildlife in my fantasy world as I continue to write. Here is an example: the Entelodont, ancestor of the pig. This was the biggest pig who ever lived and was about four feet tall at the shoulder. If you think wild boars are dangerous and aggressive wait until you come face-to-face with this beast! Like modern pigs, Entelodonts were omnivores and ate everything in sight. If you go spear hunting for this creature, you are going to need two to three times as many teammates, weapons, and hounds than you would a normal hog. On the upside, imagine how much pork and bacon you would get from this hogzilla and how much BBQ sauce you would need. It is a fun thought to toy with as I write the next volume of my fantasy series.