So recently I did something I normally don't do; and that is look at indie RPGs coming out. Lands of Eem was one such game. Personally, I don't really vibe with the overly nice, colorful, or "cute" type of games like this based on art style and approach, but I think the design of some of the creatures and races are cute. Nothing too remarkable; UNTIL I got to the Wug.
I fucking love Wugs. Just the name is perfect for what it is. But there is another reason. Archetypal fantasy races tend to fall into categories. Elder Scrolls Elves and Tolkien Elves are very different from each other but still feel "elvish" due to a similar overlap of commonalities and cultural traits. Same goes for Dwarves, Gnomes, and a few others. But what about "that" creature?
I don't think it's at all the creator's intention; but to me the "Wug" is kinda the perfect, archetypal name for this "kind" of fantasy creature. The intelligent, usually good natured race of kinda dumb, big, kinda animal person that isn't a furry but isn't an enkidu-type hairy beast man creature. It's that final last category you really see on the "Big Five" table of races; the "gentle giant" types who oust the human as the tallest and strongest race, but tend to not be as capable of agility or spellcasting type of things. Sometimes Half-Orcs fill this role too, but it kinda has its own specific baggage.
It's hard to describe, hence why this is a Vaguepost. I'm also going to be excusing myself at crediting the artists, because there are just so many pieces of commissioned artwork and AI shit I have to sift through to find what I'm talking about; sorry.
This archetypal role is often named something else, but the names never fit perfectly. Sometimes they're Bugbears but I hate that name, both for the weirdness of being goblins but big(?) but not being green??? And they aren't part bear or bug at all??? I know fantasy games have tons of folklore names turned into species which don't make sense but for some reason I just do not like this for "bugbears" at all.
Sometimes people call them troll/ogres but that's usually a monster. And if you make them dumb and lovable it takes away a lot of the mystic wilderness that a big scary troll (that's smart and can talk but just lives under a bridge and eats people instead of working a job and paying taxes).
Sometimes they are firbolgs, but firbolgs have their weird different mythological connotation and doesn't really roll off the tongue as well. Plus you got that one weirdo who is like "firbolgs aren't cow people they're scottish giants!!!" as if a single fucking person EVER had the specific intention to use a "firbolg" in place of a generic giant encounter in their game ever in the history of D&D other then because it had more hit points.
Sometimes they're Goliaths but Goliaths are weird D&D invention and usually more humanoid.
We need a name for them. The issue with making up new weird fantasy names is they have no cultural background. That's why it's easier to make your own elves and orcs and goblins, but if you make yours too weird they cease to be that fantasy archetype and fall into the scrimblo-bimblo worldbuilding discourse. It's not that you're not allowed to do that but nobody else will want to interact with it on face value because they have zero cultural overlap with your vision. But this "kind" of creature I feel is just right for the cultural overlap zone; just iconic enough with enough examples and relevance it could be codified into a "thing", like when kobolds went from little men sprites to yappy doggish things into little dragon-minions and before they became a sex thing; they went from this vague soup of "have your own interpretation" into "everyone draws them like this now". Critical Roll tried with its Firbolgs but I don't think it was super successful.
Now I want to make it clear I'm not delusional enough that my own ideas for Wugs, nor do I think "Eem", have the cultural staying power or memetic potential to overhaul this entire fantasy archetype the same way kobolds did. But I feel like there is something to this archetype that is still in its larval stages; All Elves are Legolas, all Dwarves are Gimli, all Wugs(?) are... Torbek?
The hairy, tusked, big-man who is not an orc and is connected to nature but is not a troll or giant or god forbid a satyr; perfect to fill the spot of "human but stronger" without being an off-shoot orc or stepping on the toes of dragonborn with their dragon and elemental aspects or orcs and their "dark mirror to humanity" aspect or gnolls and their savage beastfolk aspect which is also not a furry but has elf ears and shows up all the time in fanart as some weird thing?
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