In Speculative Fiction, it is very common to have characters who are basically normal humans, except that they aren't human. This Super-Trope/index is intended to cover all situations where a non-human appears to be human, differing only on a few relatively minor points. The Super-Trope of this index is Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes.
Not to be confused with the book series Not Quite Human, which provides an example of this trope, or Not Even Human.
These tropes can be justified in that a species can superficially appear similar to another unrelated species. Humans are no exception.
Sub-tropes:
Sub-indexes:
- Alien Blood: A character bleeds a strangely colored substance that isn't the red blood of humans, usually to either reveal or emphasize that the character isn't actually human.
- Alternative Turing Test
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Otherwise human characters with abnormal skin colors.
- Ambiguously Human: A character appears to be human, but has certain quirks that give the impression that they might actually be something that isn't human.
- Animal Eyes: An otherwise human character's eyes resemble those of an animal.
- Apparently Human Merfolk: Merfolk who outwardly resemble regular humans.
- Artificial Human: A human being who was artificially constructed rather than born.
- Belly Mouth: A being with a mouth on their belly.
- Bishōnen Line: An evil creature transforms into a more humanoid form instead of getting increasingly monstrous.
- The Blank: A humanoid character with no face.
- Cat Girl: Women who resemble female humans but with minor feline traits such as ears and tails.
- Clown Species: Clowns are depicted as being their own species instead of humans wearing costumes and makeup.
- Cthulhumanoid: A monstrous humanoid with a face full of tentacles.
- Cute Monster Girl: A female monster who is strangely human-like... and attractive.
- Divine Parentage: One or more of a person's parents happens to be a god.
- Draconic Humanoid: A humanoid with dragon traits.
- Dragon Ancestry: A human or humanoid with one or more dragons in their family tree.
- Ear Fins: Characters who have fins where ears would be on humans.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Characters with different pupil designs and/or sclera colors than what is usual.
- Expressive Ears: Mobile ears that showcase one's emotion.
- Eyeless Face: A character whose face hasn't got eyes or even eye sockets.
- Fish People: Humanoid fish.
- Frazetta Man: Stereotypical cavemen enemies.
- Frog Men: People with amphibian traits.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Women with abnormal skin colors.
- Half-Human Hybrid: The hybrid offspring of a human and a non-human.
- Heavyworlder: A usually stout, strong human from a high-gravity environment.
- Hellish Pupils: A character has pupils of such unusual design that they seem creepy and frightening.
- Horned Humanoid: A humanoid with horns, almost always either beastly or demonic.
- Human Aliens: Aliens that look exactly like human beings.
- Human-Demon Hybrid: The hybrid of a human and a demon.
- Humanoid Abomination: A twisted creature with a broadly human(oid) appearance.
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: An alien who looks human on the outside, but not on the inside.
- Human Subspecies: Divergent breeds descended from or related to baseline humans.
- Hu Mons: Mons with humanlike appearances.
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Using glasses, blindfolds, eyepatches etc. to cover up your weirdness.
- Lightworlder: Those usually tall and frail humans that fit into a low-gravity environment.
- Little Bit Beastly: Humans with a few animal traits.
- Little People: Super-Trope for all the small people in fantasy.
- Lizard Folk: Humanoid reptiles.
- Looks Like Orlok: A hunched-backed, bald humanoid with rat- or bat-like features.
- Mage Species: Humans + magic.
- Mark of the Supernatural: A unique physical trait a character possesses marks them as being magical or supernatural.
- Mole Men: Parallel developed species that either evolved for the underground or are literally moles.
- Monochromatic Eyes: Characters whose eyes are a single color — no iris, no pupil, just sclerae.
- The Morlocks: Humans who have adapted to subterranean environments, cannibalism a plus.
- Mutants: Humans who are genetically abnormal relative to the norm for the species.
- My Brain Is Big: A character has a large head to indicate that they are highly intelligent.
- People in Rubber Suits
- Pointy Ears: Ears with unusual points to convey to the audience that something or somebody isn't human.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Aliens look like humans with prosthetic makeup.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Robots somehow have the same interests, behavior and needs as human beings.
- Sculpted Physique: A character whose body looks like it's made of stone, metal, mother of pearl, et cetera.
- Snake People: Humanoid snakes.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: The future will let us explore our sexuality.
- Standard Fantasy Races: The traditional races of fantasy.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Supernatural people with yellow and gold-colored eyes.
- Technicolor Eyes: Characters with eye colors outside the range for humans.
- Tentacle Hair: A character has tentacles instead of or complementing hair.
- Third Eye: A character with a third eye, typically in the center of the forehead.
- This Index Has Horns
- Token Heroic Orc: The one member of an Always Chaotic Evil species who isn't evil.
- Token Non-Human: The only member of the group who isn't human.
- Transhuman Aliens: Our future descendants will be alien to us.
- Uneven Hybrid: A character has an uneven mixture of human and nonhuman ancestries.
- Weird Beard: A character with a beard that's made of anything but hair.
- Winged Humanoid: A human/humanoid with wings.
