The idea started with a question: What would it be like if all mammals were humanoid intelligent beings? I decided against including reptiles or bird folk (even though they sound cool). I wanted a clear distinction on which animals evolved into intelligent beings.
In many fantasy worlds with humanoid animals as intelligent races, there are still normal animals of the same kind. I don't want the odd situation where a mouse person owns a dog, while their best friend is a dog person. That's why I think I will remove all mammal animals and keep them solely as humanoid races. This creates many empty niches in nature—no large herbivores like elk, horses, buffalo, or gazelle, and no major predators like wolves or lions. Birds, reptiles, fish, bugs, or possibly even dinosaurs could fill these niches, but I'm undecided. This is the first problem I need to solve when creating this world.
The second problem revolves around the relationship between classical predators and prey mammals. Did foxes and rabbit folk live as peaceful neighbors in this world, or were there lands ruled by wolfmen and other countries governed by horse people? Currently, I'm leaning toward a scenario where in ancient times, there were conflicts between predators and more herbivorous races. However, as civilization developed, perhaps influenced by religion or political movements, the inhabitants of the fable world began to live in harmony. I still want conflict, but envisioning more traditional wars and distrust between nations—more complex than a simple notion that all lions secretly want to kill all the elephants.
I have a list of questions that I need to address to shape this world:
What is the general theme and atmosphere of the world?
What level of civilization and technology exists? Is there gunpowder, or is this an iron age world?
How are nations governed? Are there nobles, farmers, and bourgeoisie classes among the animals?
How does religion manifest in this world? Do all animals share the same gods, or are deities specific to each race?
Are there fantastical creatures such as dragons and demons in this world?
Does magic exist, and if so, how does it function? Who has access to it?
How are the various animal races distributed across the world? Are there only Rhino people in the hot southern plains and exclusively Polar bear folk in the icy north? probably mostly, but how extensively do they travel and spread?
I will continue thinking of this and I will be back exploring the fable world more.
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