How do I make original races and especially original race names that aren't retarded as fuck?

That it appeals to wide spread aesthetics, but doesn't have much substance or character of it's own beyond being inoffensive.

>random latin
>RANDOM
>I.E. NOT PERTAINING TO THE TOPIC OF THE THREAD
Not even that guy, but you should fuck right off.

I'm sick of the witchhunt for bogeymen that seems to be on everyone's minds.
Oh, look, he wrote a post the writing style of which I don't like - IT'S OBVIOUSLY REDDIT. Oh, look, someone casually said something that I disagree with - IT'S OBVIOUSLY /POL/ AND/OR TUMBLR. Oh, look, someone posted an anime picture - IT'S OBVIOUSLY A PEDOPHILE.
No, fuck you. It's because of people like these that associate bogeymen to every single little shit they get triggered about that we can't have nice things.

It's like you are looking for a reason to whine and complain, you fucking waste of air that a decent human being could've been using instead. Instead of encouraging the discussion by providing an argument, you shut it down by labeling your opponent.
Let's me spell it out for you and everyone like you: F U C K Y O U.

Honestly, I try and stick with compound-names of existing words like suggested. Player eyes start to glaze over when you throw long proper nouns at them.

So new to Veeky Forums it hurts

It's "Nihil novum sub sole."

Lol reddit poster tantrum

Study the naming conventions in fables and folk stories in Eurasia. Authenticity may inspire you to think more creatively about the creatures you develop. As long as the tone of the reality you prevent remains consistent, you will create good fiction. Wherever possible, try to make these names and languages from which they stem as organic as possible. For example, each of your creatures likely has both proper words and slang terms for referring to each of your other creatures. Coming up with three or four of these to toss in will help support the connectedness of world building. You want that lived in feeling.

>the reality you present
apologies, autocorrect

Think like you are the player of your game.
If someone tells you about the Skarovians, a race of ratlike humanoids who admire nature, odds are solid you will be calling them "Ratmen", "Rat dudes", or "Rat Hippies" if you are feeling generous. I'm fond of cutting the knot. If players are going to call them ratmen, then I'm going to call them ratmen, or maybe ratfolk if I want to be that bit more formal up front.

Similarly, if you have something like the Shorik-An, and the Shorik-Bin, you can assume your players will avoid referring to "Shorik", and they will probably clip it to "Shark" or something even if they do remember it, which might be troublesome if this is differentiating between arboreal and ground-dwelling mammals.
Giving elaborate names to races usually only works when referring to an ancient and absent species.

Now, I am also fond of squirreling more technical names away in the lore, and maybe give out some candy if someone remembers and can connect some dots, but that's getting off-topic.

As for creating a unique race itself, that I find much more challenging. One method I find useful is to grab a cloth or towel, assemble a loose pile of objects at random, toss the cloth over it, and draw the shape. Decide if this is the face or body, or the front or profile, or upright or prone, then go from there adding and subtracting details and textures to make this thing a living creature.

this.
and add some more thought to it.
Also you thing apple was first top introduce smartphones? Nope. but they did improve on the idea and had better marketing.

I like to take familiar concepts, go back to their roots and then follow them down a different path. For example, it has been suggested that dark elves and dwarfs are the same race in Norse mythology. So you could combine influences from dwarfs and dark elves to create a new interpretation.

But we do this shit all the time.
>random Veeky Forums meme reference to make the poster appear 'smart'
>unoriginal opinion written as greentxt
>written as interjection
>short sentences
>showing how smart
>I
>am
>Repetition of already well known opinion, to jump on the bandwagon and maintain mass appeal to get (you)s
>random smug laughinganimefroggirls.jpg to show how unfazed by all this you are

I don't think your analysis of intent is wrong, but its the same shit here.

Just do your best, OP.

All examples of the second group sound dumb, except for forsaken, which is just lame.

>(animal name)-men
Play some dwarf fortress for ideas

This one speaks the truth.
Listen to this song and embrace its message.

youtube.com/watch?v=gXlfXirQF3A

>How do I make original races....that aren't retarded as fuck?
Focus less on making them "original" and more on making them good. Interesting, compelling, engaging, internally consistent, and more than just humans in monster masks but without them being just some one-note cut-out for the sole purpose of being different.

I'm terrible with names as well but you can get some ideas by looking at the real world, not necessarily at the names of things themselves but the naming conventions that are used to produce the names so you can apply something equivalent to your fictional world.

>you can get some ideas by looking at the real world, not necessarily at the names of things themselves but the naming conventions that are used to produce the names
Well, tough luck, because most names of fictional creatures either don't mean anything or mean something mundane while also referring to this creature.

I don't think you understand.
I was referring to looking at how things are named in the real world, not just mythological creatures, although there can be significance in double meanings associated with mythological creatures that some just aren't educated about.

Use some non-mainstream mythological creatures and twitch them a bit to fit your setting.

Seriously, I don't think you can do an original race. A creative one is more probable.

Even if fantasy, check sci-fi and vice-versa for inspiration. For example, hive species once made me think of a fey race in which every player controled a swarm of pixies as a single character.
>xenology.info/Xeno/14.2.3.htm

Check weird animals, try to mash different details together. Pic related seems a good example. Krogan from Mass Effect have traits of bats and reptiles.
>Unlike any other known animal, ordinary bdelloids routinely "import" pieces of DNA from their food and surroundings, capping their chromosomes with gene fragments from other animals, plants, fungi or even bacteria. These cross-kingdom genetic "patches" may continue to perform the same functions for the rotifer that they did for their original owners - sometimes involved in metabolic or immune defense processes, for instance - and will be passed on to all of the rotifer's cloned daughters. In a purely non technical sense, these creatures have evolved to "mate" with absolutely anything that has DNA; even a mold spore sucked into its grinding innards.

Try to develop them as to live in ecological and environmental niches. But don't make an artic race resistant to cold, make them deal with it in other ways. Like insectoid three-jawed not!-inuits growing dark plants which absorb all light wavelenghts instead of one, using the extra energy to produce heat. Thus their pykrete-walled citadels are artic oasis of life and liquid water, and white is the deadly snow/cold, while black means life.
>alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/lands-of-ice-and-mice-an-alternate-history-of-the-thule.222103/page-8#post-5464133

The cloth thing is neat.

...

Stop taking yourself so seriously. Make a silly race with a silly name and play it straight.

Stop being retarded as fuck.

>Nihil novem sub solem
Nothing nine under the sun (also wrong case).

It's "Nothing sub Sole novum (or novi)" you fucking plebeus.

>Nothing sub Sole novum
Magnum Latin skillums, frater

I instinctively lost interest when I saw "Skarovians" Good advice user.

Don't let truth get in the way of a good witchhunt.

this
shorter names are easier to say, easier to spell, easier to remember, and harder to make sound like word salad

>Random latin to make the user poster appear 'smart'
it's not random though
>Unoriginal opinion.
that's the point
>Written as interjection. Short sentences. Showing how smart. I. Am.
people do that on here all the time
they just use line breaks
instead of periods
>Repetition of already well known opinion,
again, that's kind of the point
>Random cutesy animal fantasy creature not related to the post, as if just to say 'look how unfazed I am by all this'
pic unrelated

You gotta steal so hard that it becomes unrecognizable, and then add new stuff. Nobody's gonna care, and if they do, they're assholes for pointing it out.