Magical penguin geologists in scifi is fine. Magical werepenguin geologists is fantasy or the kind of science fantasy that can have werewolves. Also, magical nudibranches?
I reiterate. Leave my sapient penguin geologists alone. If I want werepenguins I will have werepenguins in my sci-fi and I won't hear any shit about it.
yeah [vague gesture over at worldbuilding thread] the various children-of-the-Deeps races are based off sea critters and the ones associated with the core of the planet are nudibranch based. They're telepathic nudibranches, no less.
Chicken people would also be rad. Especially if they had the pecking order in some fashion. Give me the alpha roosters, dammit. And their alpha rooster space ships.
Weird fact about chickens: since they were originally domesticated for cockfighting, modern roosters are all predisposed to anxiety and deal with anxiety by trying to fight whatever they're anxious about.
oh jesus i dont even know But we need the ceyam ayami or whatever that one is. The goth chicken. So goth its skin is black. Also like the jungle fowls. The wild bros we need too. There can be like. Rooster war between these things. ...and now I am just thinking about hatoful boyfriend. God dammit. Away from birds...I always wish there were more sapient octopus type things. Or like cuttlefishes. With advanced color changing languages and like massive poetry traditions based on colors or some shit. And human linguists are just like holy fuck wow what even is this after we FINALLY figure out that yes it is in fact a language.
Had a race of feline humanoids in one story, but things have changed enough since then that they're no longer in the story. The shapeshifters are the real focus of that story... But I might eventually find a use for my cat people again. Since they weren't the primary focus, they weren't as well developed. I remember I had them almost always give birth to twins, though, because something between the human typical one and the cat typical litter. Also so I could have the cat person be like "what, you only had one kid? Have another as soon as possible! I mean what, not having a sibling? Your child will be deprived and grow up weird." Now with the shapeshifters... Well, I guess they wouldn't count as an uplifted animal since they're just an alien animal that can change into other animals. But because of them cross-breeding with a lot of other species, that leads to weird hybrids and lots of animals on their home planet with what we would consider high level intelligence (like, crow level or something?). But now hmm, what animals would I like to see an uplifted humanoid race of? Some sort of reptile probably. Their needs would be so different from the typical mammal animal humans, like the chimps and dogs. And like, I am 100% for humans being baffled because how do we tell who is male and who is female? And the reptile people looking at humans and their boobs and being like uh, what are those? And dew flaps and weird head bob mating displays and stuff.
An uplifted cat is a major character in Girl Genius. I think there are bears later on, too. Also, fuck yeah we need more uplifted cephalopods. Corvids would also be acceptable. Or rats. ...what about elephants?
If eating magical garbage counts as uplifted, apparently Terry Pratchett put uplifted rats in a Discworld book.
I'd say so personally? It's definitely sci-fi. The book in particular, which lacks the more mystical bit seen in the film.
I read some ya books with uplifted prehistoric cats. Some of the species were uplifted, some not, and some only partway.
