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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30517
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30517
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think you can use the traditional ones if you do not stray far from what readers would expect. Don't call them "elves" if they are ogres, or have extra arms.

As you note for yourself, when you encounter "elves" in a new book you want to see what the author has done with them: you have a basic mental model of what an "elf" is, and expect the author to accessorize it with skills, personality traits, etc. But some changes that violate your basic mental model make them NOT elves! Wings, perhaps, or covered in scales like a reptile, or laying eggs to reproduce.

If your species require new skills or physical assets or whatever that do not fit in the canon of 'regular' fantasy, create them for your book. Do not make them ogres or giants or dragons unless you can stick to the reader expectations of ogres, giants or dragons, with minor original "decorations" that do not jerk the reader out of their basic model of the canon.

For example, your ogre can love chocolate and still be an ogre. Your giant can recite poetry. Your dragon may enjoy swimming, and dry herself afterward by breathing fire upon herself.

Original score: 3