So in my universe 1 race created a few others: 1 insect 1 lizard 1 monkey (us) [And] 1 a mix I was wanting to put in some mythical creatures like werewolves and possibly vampires who hide in the shadows of societies. I was wondering: How would I do this? My first thought is for them to be just side projects that the original race (the Greys) created but that seems too easy and I don't like taking the easy route on things. So I was wondering if you guys had any ideas that might be better.
How advanced is your technology, I was thinking experimentation, unless that is what you mean by side project. Did they create them by breeding and genetic mutation like in real life, or by magic?
Breeding and Mutation. I'm not a big "magic" fan when I write my own stories. And yeah experimentation is what I meant as side projects. It seems too... already done. I guess. Too easy to get away with.
For vampires, maybe humans mutated in one area of the world after years of darkness. (I don't know how to explain that) If you wanted to go the garlic route (of them being harmed by them) maybe the first person to mutate was allergic. As for werewolves, I have come up blank.
Made by who? Humans aren't that crazy, neither are the lizards or giants. And insects aren't good enough to make that at least. And the Grey's well, they want peace and knowledge.
And if I do make creatures out of folklore real should I focus on one group? Like Celtic Folklore, or Native American Folklore, or should I just be broad about it and include all different types. I don't want to go over board with adding in creatures.
You'd be surprised Some of the more sadistic human military leaders throughout history would often leave traps that injure enemy soldiers, rather than kill them, so that the victims' allies have to spend time and resources treating them instead of just burying them and getting it over with. Those types of militarists would probably jump on the idea of viruses that would compel enemy soldiers to kill each other. I personally would try to use as much variety as possible.
You'd like to explain these creatures with science? In that case, I think they'd be called werewolves and vampires only metaphorically, but in reality they'd suffer of conditions like hypertrichosis and porphyria. If you go down the mutation route, I suppose you could look into plausible real-life mutations and then intensify them. Take the science to the fiction department, so to speak. What you should or shouldn't do kind of depends on what you want to do and say with your story.
There could be a rival species to the Greys, though without full knowledge of the human genome, their bio-weapon causes humans to sun-burn easily and crave blood. The Greys are unable to cure the infected, but are able to neutralise the airborne infection, leaving the disease to spread through bites.
