In this world, demi-humans (not just elves or orcs, but also other races like lamias, centaurs, minotaurs, driders, lizardman, alraune, vampires, etc.) have always existed but they did not start living together with humans until certain point in history, which would be beneficial for their coexistence.

The main story would take place in present days (from the 80's until now), in which humans and demi-humans live together in coexistence and are fully integrated into most societies (like workforce, politics, police, sports, etc.), similar to Shepherd0821's Modern Mogal webcomic.

In my case, I had imagined that demi-humans would be seen from time to time during human evolution (which would originate the various mythological legends), but with the increasing territorial expansion of humans, it would conflict with the interests of the demi-humans who wanted to protect their homes and the nature, which would lead them to want to have a role in the humans' political decisions. The integration process would be gradual, more conflicting in some countries, less in others, but would lead to the creations of Natural Rights (humans and demi-humans as having the same rights as citizens) and full coexistence between the humans and demi-humans in current societies.

My question is: in which time of the history would have been ideal for the reveal of demi-humans' existence and the start of their integration into human society?

And the "ideal time" criteria for coexistence is: Moment in history that would have overally less tension, and humanity would be more receptive to demi-humans, I mean, conditions that would lead to future coexistence between all races in present days. Example: JBH quoted in his answer that the invention of firearms would bring difficulties for the integration of demi-humans into society, so this should have started some time before that.

Note: The concept of "Natural Rights" can seen in this post, which also applies here.

First attempt ever at world building, so please, if there are any errors, constructive criticism is very appreciated! Thanks a lot.

  • $\begingroup$ welcome to worldbuilding. If you take the tour and visit the help center, you will see that we prefer to solve well defined problem, which can get measurable answers. Here, in the way you are formulating your question, you are asking for opinions. Nothing wrong in opinions, but there is no objective way to rank them if your don't provide one. As such, you question might be closed. Please try to rework it to fit our standards. $\endgroup$ – L.Dutch Jun 1 at 18:52
  • $\begingroup$ Alright, i'll rework my question! $\endgroup$ – KLTKGK Jun 1 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ They had newspapers in 1820... Both proposed dates are very much too late. There is no way to have an entire population of sapient non-human species living on Earth unknown to science in the 19th century. Without much thinking I would say that the latest possible dates are late 18th century if the non-human sapient species lived in Australia or New Zealand, or late 17th century if they lived in the Americas, or the 13th or 14th century if they lived in the Old World. The point being that the question should not be what is a good time, the question should be what is the latest possible time. $\endgroup$ – AlexP Jun 1 at 19:25
  • $\begingroup$ Hello Kltkgk. We're delighted you've joined us. For future question, please note that our help center states, "To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where ... your answer is provided along with the question." We understand that you're just trying to clarify where you've gone, but if you think about it, you've either (a) answered your own question or (b) biased ours. Don't worry about it this round, it's cool with new users. Just keep it in mind. Cheers! $\endgroup$ – JBH Jun 1 at 21:29
  • $\begingroup$ You could help us out by explaining the goals of the integration or reasons for it taking place. Are the demi-humans being forced to reveal themselves (e.g., habitat reduction :-)), or are they making a conscious choice based on unstated goals? (in which case, what are the goals) or something else? The best time period would have a lot to do with the specific reasons why they'll be integrating. $\endgroup$ – JBH Jun 1 at 21:35

Anytime before 1100 A.D., but the earlier the better

You've provided a basic explanation driving integration, but I believe you're ignoring basic human psychology. We really hate anything that's different from ourselves. We like to think we're not that way, but any liberal strongly opinionated person in the U.S. today would prove that we're perfectly happy to be violent in an effort to espouse peace and tolerance.

There are wars going on right now that have to do with ethnic background. Picking a time period that's conducive to a "Universal Declaration of the Natural Rights" (basically the U.N. mandate for human rights) would be unlikely to exist any earlier than our world's current evolution of "getting alongedness." You're just adding more targets people to history.

That being said, you want to introduce the demi-humans at a time when they have a chance at surviving to live in an enlightened day and age when we're willing to shed blood to love them rather than shed blood to hate them.1 That means they need the chance to keep up technologically, and that means they need to appear on the Human stage before the invention of firearms — better known as, "an effective way to rid the world of people who aren't like us."

And China started using firearms in battle in about 1132 A.D.

If you pick a number after that date, then you have bigger problems the later you go. Remember, Hitler stuffed gazillions of people into ovens because of their religion. Stalin purged gazillions more for similar reasons. Frankly, genocide has been going on forever, all over the world, and is still going on today, regardless the eloquent pieces of paper declaring that it shouldn't be so.

So, if you want your demi-humans to have a fighting chance, they need to show up at a time when they can easily absorb the technology of war into their own societies. And I believe that's before the advent of firearms.

1If you get the feeling that I don't have a lot of tolerance for people who so much as raise their voice to advocate tolerance... you're right.

  • $\begingroup$ Thanks again for explaining this to me, I really appreciate that! I just have a doubt: With demi-humans starting to integrate society since 'before 1100 A.D.', would there be a document that officialy stablishes the Natural and Civil Rights for all races? And if so, in which period of time would be ideal? Because at first, I had as a reference the UN Declaration of Human Rights from 1948, but i thought now about the english Magna Carta from 1215, as it served to end conflicts between Royalist and Rebel Factions at that time in England. $\endgroup$ – KLTKGK Jun 2 at 2:20
  • $\begingroup$ Anyway thanks a lot for your answer, now i have directions to go with the my story with a plausible and accurate coexistence between humans and demi-humans! :) $\endgroup$ – KLTKGK Jun 2 at 2:30
  • $\begingroup$ @KLTKGK: The Magna Charta had nothing to do with human rights, and most definitely absolutely nothing to do with "races", whatever that may be. First, it was a document specifically limited to the Kingdom of England, and had nothing to say about humans who were not subjects of the English crown. And second, the ideas about human diversity in the 13th century were very much different from what happened later. P.S. Hitler did not "stuff gazillions of people into ovens because of their religion" -- religion was irrelevant; what counted was blood. $\endgroup$ – AlexP Jun 2 at 16:28
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexP is correct from the perspective of history, although it's a bit simplistic. Magna Carta was a footstep on the path of modern human rights (it began the development of legal limits for the monarchy and legal rights for, well "others," in its case, the land owners. It didn't do bumpkis for the surfs). However, keep track of what history has already done. Important milestones included the Code of Hammurabi, Magna Carta, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. There are others. (*continued*) $\endgroup$ – JBH Jun 2 at 18:16
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    $\begingroup$ Note, also, that it's really, really, really hard to speed up history. In other words, history brought the U.N. declaration to be in 1948. You're complicating history by introducing demi-humans. It's more likely that it will take longer to get to a comprehensive human+demi-human declaration of rights, not shorter. $\endgroup$ – JBH Jun 2 at 18:18

I wouldn't try to introduce them in a modern setting. There are way too many problems if you want to try to have them get along peacefully, but we can address this later. This is going to be really Euro-centric, but working backwards:

Digital Age:

You could use the late 20th to 21st centuries if monsters have no way to replicate the digital age. If they chose now to reveal themselves, they would probably get more than a few advocacy groups, awareness would spread fairly quickly, but they also have the potential for being used as quick tourist trappings, cyber bullying, etc. You can deal with this in the story.

Early 1900s:

A period of high tension and mutual distrust, probably not the best time to reveal something that literally isn't human when people were dehumanizing each other.

On the other hand, they could reveal themselves in countries that aren't hostile to everyone else.


Same old story.


The 1700s mark the end of the Enlightenment, the period in which thoughts about God, reason, and humanity were synthesized into worldviews. This could be a good spot as long as it was in countries that outlawed slavery and the demihumans worked hard to establish cordial relations. Otherwise, due to distinctly superior physical characteristics, demihumans would become prime targets for the slave trade.

Revealing oneself here would be best in Eastern Europe, where minimal things were going down. This would be difficult for Lamias, though...


The renaissance was defined by focusing on the philosophy of Ancient Greeks. It was also focused on humans as supreme creation, strong roots in religion, and, also importantly for your idea, witch burnings. If women with herbs were being burned at the stake, what would happen if literal vampires showed up?

This also raises problems if your demihumans are a) in the Americas, Southeast Asia, Africa, or Australia, or b) are not stronger than guns and viruses.

You might be able to get away with East Asia, where the Ming empire sent out exploratory vessels, at which point demihumans have an easy route to Chinese civilization, though this causes problems when England comes knocking.


Similar problems as with the Renaissance, although a particularly strong band of Centaurs could probably establish a fiefdom. Focus on the Church, the collapse of the Mongol Empire, rise of Islam, all could contribute to a very nonpositive environment


Very broad sense as in "Before Christianity," but cultures like the Romans, Greeks, and Persians have all manner of demihumans (what hasn't Zeus fathered a child with?). This also allows for demihumans to exist before cultural memory, meaning that they have a higher chance of being accepted. Some races would be better received in some places than others, but at this point humans may actually worship them instead of integrating them. This also means people have limited ability to kill them all.


There is no good time to introduce humans in a manner you are looking at. If you introduce them now, you have the same story as any modern alien story. If you introduce them in the near past, there is still a sense of "otherness" that exists between races of human to this day. If they get introduced in the distant past, then you either get a demihuman-worshipping society until the humans decide they don't need them anymore and oust their false gods, or you get a world I which the demihumans are just kind of there.


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