Worldbuilding Exercise - Get 5 Random Races, Build a Setting


Homebrew and House Rules

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I will say, just as pseudodragons tie the disparate corners of the Silent Ocean together, so they tied it all together for me. There were a lot of times over these months where I was all, "What the f%+! am I doing?"

Radio pseudodragons, KC. You're doing radio pseudodragons. Never forget that core concept.


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That took a bit. Let's see how this first one goes over!

Thelogga, The Land of Geysers

• “Deadlands”, except around geysers resulting from weak planar fabric leading to Arcadia.

• Geysers produce water, plants, light, etc. But they also tend to spew out hostile fey creatures, magical “radiation” that causes either mutations or madness in most races. This necessitates certain defensive measures for the common races, mostly to handle the creatures that can emerge from Geysers.

• Geysers can also “dry up” as more and more creatures gather in one location. As such, it is necessary to send out expeditionary forces to search for more geysers in order to support growing populations, and to create means of safe passage in case of a dry-up.

• Deadlands are Geyser-less areas, and are often colonized by the mad or mutated creatures that Geysers produce. Life in the Deadlands is hard for most creatures, though some races (most notably the Dark Folk) have adapted to the numerous challenges that the Deadlands present.

Nereid (Female Feykin) – Feykin are a sexually dimorphic race, with males and females taking on different unique aspects. All feykin are nigh-immune to the magical energies radiated by Geysers due to a distant fey heritage, and are thus the race most likely to erect an actual community near the turbulent areas. Nereids are female Feykin, though they are rather militant by the standards of most other races. Aside from Spriggans, Nereids are among some of the strongest of the common races, though a bit brash and impulsive. They also near-obsessively prepare to combat the monsters that result from Geysers, and often are looked to for guidance and leadership in times of migration or crisis.

Serpentfolk – Like Feykin, Serpentfolk are largely immune to Geyser energies. However, this doesn’t stem from some distant fey ancestry, but rather from the race’s inherent mental fortitude and hardy physical constitution. This unique combination allowed the Serpentfolk to thrive around Geysers. Viewed by many of the other races as cold-bloodedly pragmatic, Serpentfolk often become the de-facto leaders of Geyser communities due to their skills in planning and organization.

Dark Folk – The only common race to routinely traverse the Deadlands, Dark Folk are uniquely adapted to their environment, able to see quite well outside of the influence of a Geyser. Indeed, they seem to be actively uncomfortable in the presence of a Geyser. This is due to the Dark Folk’s racial mutation in response to Geysers. In short, they are able to spiritually absorb and store the magic from Geysers, allowing them to see in the darkness of the Deadlands beyond the influence of a Geyser and protecting their minds from the adverse effects resulting from this energy. However, this adaptation makes their forms unstable in the long-term presence of a Geyser, thus necessitating a transient lifestyle in order to survive.

Nixie (Male Feykin) – Feykin are a sexually dimorphic race, with males and females taking on different unique aspects. All feykin are nigh-immune to the magical energies radiated by Geysers due to a distant fey heritage, and are thus the race most likely to erect an actual community near the turbulent areas. Nixies tend to be sprightly little thing, more interested in philosophy, art, and music than their female counterparts. However, virtually every nixie possesses a great talent for magic, particularly of the bardic variety, and they are just as keen to help out any community as the Nereids.

Spriggan – Like the Darkfolk, Spriggans are the result of a Geyser mutation that causes storage of Geyser energy within the body. However, Spriggans can “shed” this energy by forcing it outwards, causing them to enlarge to statures that would intimidate some giants. Sadly, while this leaves their bodies largely immune to the effects of a Geyser’s rampant magical radiation, their minds can suffer from the madness induced by over-exposure to the energy. As such, they often band with Dark Folk, in order to maintain their sanity by adopting the same nomadic lifestyle preferred by their distant cousins.


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Welp, time to put this back up closer to the top! Let's see what I roll.

1d100 ⇒ 42 - Satyr
1d100 ⇒ 8 - Orc
1d100 ⇒ 77 - Vishkanya
1d100 ⇒ 26 - Flumph
1d100 ⇒ 67 - Sasquatch

... Welp. This may require some thought. I'll sleep on it, see what I come up with.


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1. Warforged
2. Nixie
3. Nereid
4. Nagaji
5. Human

So we need warm climate and lots of water...

I'm thinking South Pacific.

Awaki and the Seas of the Suns

The World is called Awaki. It's also the word for Ocean, for the people consider it one and the same. It's also a world with two suns, Zanu and Kolo. Awaki is considered their child and their first born. Awaki is a world covered in the water. There is a single continent, about the size of Australia, called Kanatasu, but it is rarely tread upon. It is the north-west and to the south, there are islands inhabited by bird-like dragons and talking stones.

Awaki is a young world. Relatively speaking.

The islands are covered with hundreds of towns and villages, each governed by their own tribe, each with their own history and heroes. Some are banded into small alliances, and sometimes larger tribes draw tribute from smaller, conquered ones. There are also city states, which maybe home to several tribe. Currency comes in the form of beads and copra (dried coconut meat). Currency also comes in the form of Taleswapping. The greatest of the tribes will not only have the great warriors, but also the greatest stories tellers. These men and women will often help chieftains bargain for resources, by telling a story that makes the other tribe look magnificent.

There is another, more rarely used form of taleswapping. When a person needs a new identity, a new future, a new name, they will swap their story (there life basically) for another. This can have interesting outcomes.

They travel from island to island on small ships and canoes, except for the Trogi, whose entire village floats from island to island (they are also expert dragon killers, by necessity). The seas around these isles are called the Seas of the Suns.

To the north lies the Sorporos, the nation of the Nagaji, who worship the Celestial Serpents. It lies on the Island of Tanusu, one of the largest isles on Awaki (It's about the size of Japan). The Nagaji also inhabit several other islands, though the race as a whole is often united in their faith. The Nagaji consider the human tribes very uncivilized, because they worship turtle gods. The Nagaji are a proud race and they do not take insults well. Many humans assume Nagaji are unemotional, but this is untrue. Emotions are expressed through movement and noises. Nagaji art puts emphasis on the movement of the characters, not the expressions of the faces.

A common insult among Nagaji towards humans is Fruit-Face.

Beneath the warm oceans live the Nereids. The Nereids inhabit the coasts and usually the biggest source of beads and pearls for both humans and the Nagaji. In return, nereids request simple forged weapons and fruit. A war was fought once, one of the few times humans and nagaji were allied, fighting again the Nereid who sort to plunder the lands of the Dry (what they call dry land) (as we humans seek the resources of the sea, nereids are just as eager to for those of the land). It ended, however, when all the armies of the nereid were told to retreat back into the oceans. The reason for this is why the nereids are forced to live in huddled tribes along the coast or sell themselves in the towns and city-states.

The nixies were created by nereid mages alchemically adjusting a unborn nereid fetus. The nereid sort to create a caste that could infaltrate the rivers and pools and target leaders and chieftains. The harshness of the alchemical alteration meant the mages made the nixies breed true.

How foolish they were to do so.

Nixies, often mistreated and abused by their nereid overlords, betrayed the them. In return for refuge with the humans and nagaju they assasinated the Conche Queen, her seven generals and all her offspring. Now they live among the humans and nagaju, aiding in fishing as look outs and caring for the temple pools and manatee farms.

However, the final blow for the nereid civilization, was the Fall of Tears. 150 years ago, pieces of a destroy metal crafts came crashing into the sea. Some were tiny, the largest the size of oil tankers. Unfortunately for the nereids, many of these pieces landed in the homelands of their civilization. It was clear that who ever made these pieces were vastly more advanced in technology and magic than any people inhabiting Awaki. Many of these parts only half sunk, allowing exploration within the innards to take place. Soon, tech was being harvested and sent back to the tribes. No successful reconstruction has been made yet, though people whisper Soporos has made plans for a steam ship.

This wasn't the last of it though. 50 years ago, a vessel of metal and magitek, so large it temporarily blocked out the sun, arrived in the atmosphere. And with them, the peoples of Awaki met the Suno.

The Suno are magical sentient automaton. They have been sent by the 'Sky People' (the suno have yet to release their masters true names), primarily for the purposes of study, diplomacy and to explore the wreckage of the fall vessels. The Sky People themselves cannot come down, due to a previous attempt which led the entire party to be infected with disease (a disease the people of Awaki has long since become resistant too). So until a vaccine is made, the Suno will take their place.

The Sky People are forbidden to directly trade with the below peoples, as to avoid significant societal disruption (something to do with the 'Doctrines of Harmony', a suno explained). They can however 'accidentally' allow the suno to leave some blueprints for technology lying around, in the hopes it will allow enough advancement for the Sky People to begin trade (the people of Awaki don't know this, but the magic of their world is very special and different to the Sky People).

So pack up your gear, because instead of ancient temples and cities to explore (there are some, but not many), you've got to explore crash magical space ships.


1d100 ⇒ 26
1d100 ⇒ 23
1d100 ⇒ 18
1d100 ⇒ 68
1d100 ⇒ 61

and an alternate

1d100 ⇒ 7


Came here to dot and complain about how my dog had disappeared; got sucked into spending the last hour reading worlds. Dang it. XD


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1d100 ⇒ 95
1d100 ⇒ 98
1d100 ⇒ 5
1d100 ⇒ 90
1d100 ⇒ 22
So, Half-Elves, Catfolk, Dragonborn, Humanoid Plants and Rogue Modron.
Well this is an odd one, but I'll take it!


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...

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... thought I'd repost this so it's easier for everyone to see when they roll up stuff!

Mikaze wrote:

Here's the rules:

1. Roll a d100 five times, either with real dice or on Invisible Castle or some other dicerolling website if you wish to confirm your numbers here.

2. The corresponding numbers will show you the five races on the list that will be the player races for your setting. These five races are the only "default assumption" choices for your setting's player race options.

3. Write up a setting with those five races! It can be as simple or as highly developed as you want. From a few short paragraphs to an essay. The only requirement is that all five of your races must have a place in the setting. None of them can just be a footnote compared to the rest. You might want to consider the environment, how the races relate to each other, their origins, cultures, etc.

4. Assume that all of your races are "powered down" (or in rare cases, "powered up", so that they are balanced within reason. You can assume this works any number of ways, from the Savage Species route where races start weak "level up" as their race or that they're just watered down variants of those races.

5. If you get the same number more than once, you have two(or more) very different variants of that race, like the divide between elves and drow.

6. Individuals of all five races must be able to be in a party together.

7. Have FUN. Make it a world you would enjoy playing in or running. If you get a race you really don't like, put a new spin on them. You're not bound to flavor, alignment, aesthetics, or setting expectations save for what you want in your new setting. Make these races your own.

Who knows, you might have some new ideas you want to use in your games, or some that someone else may want to use!


1. Human
2. Elf
3. Dwarf
4. Half-Orc
5. Half-Elf
6. Halfling
7. Gnome
8. Orc
9. Goblin
10. Hobgoblin

11. Drow
12. Tiefling (humanoids with fiend ancestry)
13. Aasimar (humanoids with celestial ancestry)
14. Fetchling (humanoids with shae ancestry)
15. Ifrit (humanoids with efreet ancestry)
16. Undine (humanoids with marid ancestry)
17. Sylph (humanoids with djinn ancestry)
18. Oread (humanoids with shaitan ancestry)
19. Suli (humanoids with jann ancestry)
20. Dhampir (half-humanoid/half-vampire)

21. Changeling (hag-kin) (the children of humanoid males and hags)
22. Catfolk
23. Lizardfolk
24. Ratfolk
25. Vanara (monkey-folk)
26. Vishkanya (humanoids with slight snake-like features and poisonous blood)
27. Strix (black, avian humanoids with harpy-like builds)
28. Tengu
29. Merfolk
30. Gillmen

31. Duergar
32. Derro
33. Svirfneblin
34. Kitsune (shapechanging fox-folk)
35. Nagaji (reptilian humanoids originally created by the naga as a servant race)
36. Samsaran (reincarnated blue-skinned humanoids)
37. Wayang (gnome-like beings with roots in the Shadow Plane)
38. Grippli
39. Kobold
40. Ogre

41. Dryad
42. Satyr
43. Pixie
44. Nymph
45. Sprite
46. Forlarren (bipolar fey born from the unions of nymphs and fiends)
47. Nereid (aquatic nymph-like fey)
48. Nixie
49. Treant
50. Faun

51. Centaur
52. Harpy
53. Medusa
54. Naga
55. Gargoyle
56. Minotaur
57. Troll
58. Gnoll
59. Adlet (barbaric wolf-like humanoids)
60. Vegepygmy

61. Sahuagin
62. Cecaelia (merfolk-like humanoids, with octopus tentacles instead of a fish tail)
63. Grindylow (the goblin equivalent of Cecaelia)
64. Locathah
65. Derhii (winged, intelligent gorillas)
66. Girtablilu (centauroids with a scorpion-like lower half + claws)
67. Sasquatch
68. Tanuki (short raccoon-like humanoids)
69. Thriae (all female-race of bee people)
70. Spriggan

71. Dark Folk
72. Drider
73. Mongrelman
74. Serpentfolk
75. Ettercap
76. Shae (humanoids made of solid shadow)
77. Flumph
78. Vodyanoi (salamander-like humanoids)
79. Ghoul
80. Vampire

81. Gearman/Warforged (mechanical humanoids)
82. Changeling(doppleganger-kin) (descendants of humanoids and dopplegangers)
83. Shifter (descendants of humanoids and lycanthropes)
84. Uldra (small blue-skinned fey adapted for cold environments)
85. Darfellan (powerful humanoids with orca-like skin)
86. Asherati (desert-dwelling hairless elf-like beings capable of swimming through sand)
87. Illumian (human-like beings infused with sorcery with glowing sigils floating around their heads)
88. Raptoran (winged and taloned elf-like race)
89. Goliath (tall, strong humanoids with stony appearances and tough hides)
90. Dragonborn (draconic humanoids)

91. Aberration-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
92. Construct-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
93. Dragon-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
94. Ooze-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
95. Plant-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
96. Thri-Kreen (four armed insectoid race)
97. Bariaur (centauroid with a mountain goat-like lower half)
98. Rogue Modron (free-willed box-like construct)
99. Mul (half-human/half-dwarf hybrid)
00. Pseudodragon

If you need more information on any of these races, just ask!

Credit where credit's due:

Spoiler:

This is based on one of my alltime favorite threads on /tg/ that I really didn't expect to be as cool as it was. Basically, there was a picture posted by the OP with a large number of varied races, each with a name and a number. The rules were pretty much the same as presented here. There were a lot of neat ideas shared, and a couple of campaigns actually kicked off because of it. Good times. And surprising given the nature of the picture.


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... also, 'cause I like templates:

[ dice=race 1]d%[ /dice]
[ dice=race 2]d%[ /dice]
[ dice=race 3]d%[ /dice]
[ dice=race 4]d%[ /dice]
[ dice=race 5]d%[ /dice]

<brief comment?>


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... also, 'cause I like templates:

<brief comment?>

"statement" s/he said
(can be multiple lines of dialogue or other in-character comments or reactions)

introductory conceit/voice-over style text

Detailed Summary

[ spoiler=spoiler name]stuff inside the spoiler, usually for making things readable or navigable, or sometimes limiting information to specific GMs[/spoiler]

[ list]
[ *] used to
[ *] list interesting
[ *] concepts
[ /list]

Enjoy!


And now so put my own thing into action.

Tacticslion wrote:

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... also, 'cause I like templates:

race 1: 1d100 ⇒ 95 -> Plant-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
race 2: 1d100 ⇒ 10 -> Hobgoblin
race 3: 1d100 ⇒ 89 -> Goliath (tall, strong humanoids with stony appearances and tough hides)
race 4: 1d100 ⇒ 89 -> Goliath (tall, strong humanoids with stony appearances and tough hides)
race 5: 1d100 ⇒ 71 -> Dark Folk

<brief comment?> Oh my word, yyyyyyyyyyessssssssssssssssss. This is awesome.


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<brief comment?> Oh, snap! I guess I'd better actually, you know, do this!

"statement" s/he said
(can be multiple lines of dialogue or other in-character comments or reactions)

"You shut your trap, Meatfreak!" the very, large man said.

"I- I- I'm ss-so s-ss-ssooorrrrryyyy-" started the quavering hobgoblin girl in the corner.

"I SAID SHUT YOUR FILTHY MEATFREAK TRAP-!!" the massive goliath demanded, pulling up a big mug to throw. The girl curled into a ball in fear, tears staining her bruised face.

As his hand (and the cup in it) began to move forward, an equally large hand shot out like a dart, halting the forward momentum.

"Listen, fiend-brother." noted the other goliath softly, deflecting, genteel, "Why don't you tell me your naming story, while I buy you another round?" He smiled at the foul-smelling inebriated man before him, winningly.

The other looked at him, his features a mask of fury, disgust for his well-dressed fellow goliath obvious across his mottled features. "WHAT, AND THEN MAYBE A GAME OF GOATBALL?!" he sneered. He seemed to forget the girl in the corner.

Mission accomplished. The other goliath kept smiling, hand not moving. The drunken goliath tried to wrench free.

"YOUR KIND DISGUST ME MORE THAN THE MEATFREAKS~!" shrieked the sot, voice cracking.

"I understand." said the goliath, an anchorite named Sandeep, nodding again. "Perhaps you can help me understand the true ways of our peop-"

He was cut off by a noxious belch, gagging him.

"ALL FRAIL AND REFINED IN YOU GIANT-******' CITIES~! YOU'RE ALL WEAK!" his fellow giant ranted. "**** YOU ******** AND ALL YOUR ***-****** KIN AND CLOUDY FART-GOD OF F- agh!" he was cut off by a cry of pain.

Sandeep was cold, now, smile gone, gripping the other giant more tightly - painfully so. The drunken one struggled to wrench his hand free. Frost began to appear, as breath began to crystalize.

"I see." said Sandeep. "We're the weak ones, while you are unable to loose yourself from my grasp. Indeed, my weakness is apparent; you have found the exact method of offending me. I will have to atone later, while you will have to atone now. You will do so, by refraining from referring to her holiness again, in this conversation."

The other giantkin tried to speak, his second hand attempting to pry Sandeep's off of him, to no avail. "Do. I. Make. My. Self. Clear. Brother. Friend." Sandeep said. The other giant cried a half-sob as he knelt, defeated.

There was a shifting of large chairs behind Sandeep. He payed no attention.

"Gods of dark, can't he ever leave well enough alone." asked a man wrapped in bandages, leaning against the corner. "I was looking forward to an actual and quiet drink tonight, not yet another almost-taste of alcohol, only to be ****-blocked at the last minute. Again. I swear, it's like he's trying to infest us with his teetotla-"

"I can get alcohol for you, master! Allow me to simply slip into the cellar-!" began a smaller figure near him, whispering, only to be interrupted. The figure was with maybe a half-dozen others, all wrapped similarly to the taller shadowy figure, but all foul smelling and more awkward than their taller leader-apparent.

"No, fool. We don't wish to be so brazen, here, yet. Why do I put up with you idiots?!" he hissed, as a chorus of moans and fear of rejection issued in whispers around him.

"You know you love them." added a sultry voice. The radiant blue - and extremely feminine - figure stood. "And him, as well. You would whither away in boredom without his... unique touch." she informed her shadowy comrade, slyly grinning at him. "But let us see what we can do to avoid violence." she continued stepping forward, and putting up her hood. A powerful scent of flowers wafted from her face. "Besides." her scented telepathy wafted into his mind, "That girl you decried as useless is preparing her shank, now. She may be worth helping, as she could perhaps help us, too. We needed both information and a competent local..."

"I don't know why I put up with you, either..." grumbled Nocto, as he carefully examined the swaying figure of the plant-priestess. That robe may not hug her features, but it showed them off, nonetheless. Wow. "Hmp. But I guess, if I have to, I can put up with you for a bit more." he muttered. "We're all anti-violence, here, after all. So I suppose we'll just have to kill that one." he slipped into the shadows conjured by his right hand man (who had shifted into praying for their worthless guardian spirit to come help), with his left slipping into the darkness, quietly, with him.

He could turn this into a profit, after all. He grinned, adding up exactly how much the equipment of the giantkin was worth, how much he'd sell it for, and how much profit he'd make, assuming his friends - er, allies of necessity, and nothing else, yeah - wouldn't object too much, of course...

The world of Eulzaojor is a world on the brink of revolution. It was previously a world divided, and a world of monsters. The giantkin - inheritors of the giants and their legacies handed from the titans - have split into two ideologically opposed factions; the Inheritors or Anchorites, and the Free Ones. The slave race, hobgoblins, fill the land, generally meek and humble, but by far the most numerous. And from the darkest places, stir the shadowkin, the dark folk, their mysterious leaders powerful crime lords and freedom fighters, lovable rogues and cruel tricksters. Each fought and fell to monstrosities beyond counting. But, within the Grand City, a new possibility has emerged - a joint pact of giantkin, hobgoblin, and shadowkin were stirred to action by a new race - a race of priestesses who claim to have been extant for an impossible hundred thousand years, watching and waiting for the right time. They say the time is now, and this new idea of theirs - peace for all - may well tear the world apart.

Detailed Summary The world of Eulzaojor is relatively young, by many standards: it has been around for nearly ten thousand years old, it stands as a testament to the hardiness of its people, and the advanced world-craft of its titanic originators that it is settled and advancing already.

But the Titans were not all-powerful, and the act of worldcrafting broke them, and they quickly faded - within a single generation, they were no more, their children decaying into the mighty giants.

The giants owned the world, and, though divided, respected each other. But they grew lazy and indolent off of their success and might.

To that end, the giants proceeded to make dark folk as a slave race. Though initially successful, within the third millennium of the world, the project failed when bastard children of giant and dark one descent (and probably no small amount of magic) stole the loyalty of the whole race and fled into the shadows - both material and esoteric - making a race-wide pact with shadowy gods for power and survival and freedom.

Their second attempt, a process that required another thousand years of experimentation, and a thousand more to perfect - was much more successful - the hobgoblins became the perfect slaves. With this new slave labor, they began to be able to live like the kings they truly were.

In the sixth millennium, the monsters appeared. None can say where they came from, or why they showed up, but what is known is that they were extremely powerful, shockingly destructive, and phenomenally deadly.

Hordes of giants assaulted them and destroyed them slowly, one-by-one... but their own numbers dwindled, too, and their children were increasingly smaller and more mottled.

The war continued for nearly two thousand years, with the giants finally finding the "womb of the beasts" - a deep and horrible hole - and assaulting it. This last assault nearly broke the giants, and, in fact, many who left were effectively dead, anyway, their immortality all but snuffed out... and bearing diseases that devastated giants, but left their children untouched, save for mottling the skin.

During the following thousand years many things were lost. Children without parents struggled in extreme environments and fractured into warring and squabbling clans; while slaves without lords fell into arguments and in-fighting, slowly becoming militaristic and savage; and people bound to the shadows stayed there, always avoiding the civilization that made them, but silently fighting the monstrous invasion.

But slowly, culture and learning returned to the world.

As nations rose, one sect of... blah, blah, I'm suddenly very sleepy. Wow.

Blah-blah, potential war, discovery of city, deep distrust of the plantfolk (they are hairless and blue with sweet-tasting but mildly toxic/intoxicating white sap-blood, this should go in a spoiler).

Anyway, super-sexy, representative of both genders, but also dangerous, and not trusted, though persuasive.

More later, when I'm not so sleepy-time.

spoiler name talkin' 'bout stuff:
stuff inside the spoiler, usually for making things readable or navigable, or sometimes limiting information to specific GMs

The plant people didn't do it. They were around for longer than the age of the planet by way of being created in a demiplane by the last titan.


  • plant
  • giantkin (goliath, anchorite)
  • giant kin (goliath, freedom)
  • shadow kind {'stalker, 'person, 'dancer, 'chanter, owb}

There you go: an example.


Gotta admit - I was kind of phoning-it-in, even though I actually think the setting is pretty cool.

I mean, I certainly didn't model the plant people off of Virginia Hey (nope nnnnooooooooope; also definitely not aasari from mass effect, chlorvian from legendary planet or psionics with an olfactory manifestation), or name the giant after Zaboo's actor (which was most definitely not even roughly related to imagery from this video), and I definitely didn't name the last one after the Japanese pronunciation (in the anime, anyway) of this guy just because they both dress in dark colors. Also, they certainly have nothing to do with FR-style shades.

Nopers.

Just in case you were curious.

So daggum tired.

Something about a cloud-and-or-storm-or-frost giant or something still alive and immortal.

Something else about a whole different thing.

The anchorites living in cloud fortresses and mountain citadels.

The others forging their way to freedom on the solid earth.

And the metaphorical flowering of plant-folk across the ground.

Delvian. Delvian Devlani Devilan Devil An. Yeah, plant people are believed to be devils by some. Delvehaven. Hey, look, I stumbled on an AP (Council of Thieves, book 3, What Lies in Dust).

Heh. I'm kind of out of it...

Als literally just found this which might be a thing. Maybe dryads, too.

Something, something about the strictly lawful, highly civilized anchorites as opposed to the flourishing but anarchic free ones, and how it is consistently the free ones who manage to raise up grand heroes who thwart monsters, while the anchorites tend to literally look down on the world.

Hobgoblins (more this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this (also a good look for anchorites), this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and (on the right)this; rather than this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this,
this,
this (though they have wolf-mounts),
this, or this; but there are plenty that resemble either) have managed to flourish and organize into a large number of military states, generally centered around fortresses in strategic possessions, usually within a minor radius of settlements, if not just city-states.

To look at when my contacts are not literally trying to leave my face, preventing me from seeing, what, exactly, the images are on-screen (sorry for typos): one, two, three, four, five, six; hobgoblin, hobgoblin, goliath, delvian, and dark folk.

EDIT: too many urls; I fixed them, but the formatting is off. I'm done, though... XD


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Third time attempting this post...

Okay!

One more quick thing about the one above, before probably moving on to the next project!

... maybe!

(Unless I succumb to temptation to tinker more; but I want to stop afflicting the thread with cleverly hidden bumps to increase its view-count er, I mean, a bunch of little posts all on the same topic.)

(Note: the template is intended to let you do all of this in one post. I literally just started blacking out, or having my contacts exit my eyes, so that didn't work out so well for me. Normally, though, I'd have copy/pasted the thing to fix it later; I just wanted to grant an example post.)

Some minor details about the races, as a whole:


  • hobgoblin: (dusky blue-ish, orange-ish, or olive-ish); honroable disciplined, tenacious, mild, service-oriented
    < = = = = > {related: oni (spirit), monkey goblin, goblins and variants (see below), mites (and pesties), bugbears} < = = = = >
    < = = = = > {variants: nilbog, silid, orgen (ogre), wayang, troblin (troll)} < = = = = >
    < = = = = > {related: worg (and winter wolves), phycomid, rorkoun, goblin dog, goblin snake, goblin naga, giant vermin, spider eater, ghoul, charau-ka, naga} < = = = = >
    < = = = = > {templates: mutant goblin, fleshwarped, two-headed} < = = = = >
  • goliath: (free one); earthy, spontaneous, passionate, hardy, honorable
    < = = = = > {related: shadow giant, ogres (enemies)} < = = = = >
  • goliath: (anchorite); religious, ordered, reserved, spiritual, refined
    < = = = = > {related: storm/cloud/frost giant; genie} < = = = = >
  • dark folk: anarchic, shadowy, sly, adaptable, clever
    - - - - dark caller: religious, calculating, methodical, dependent
    - - - - dark creeper: servile, eager, confident, devoted
    - - - - dark dancer: emotional, inspirational, whimsical, loyal
    - - - - dark empath: unpredictable, calm, infectious, addicted
    - - - - dark stalker: independent, ambitious, commanding, larcenous
    < = = = = > {related: owb, shae, nihiloi, fetchlings} < = = = = >
  • alraune: (blue or green); sensuous, passionate, religious, manipulative, psychic
    < = = = = > {related: various plant creatures} < = = = = >

It's worth noting that this is not a description of every individual of that race, merely a generally broad "this is their over-all cultural mein" instead.

Classes Available:


  • alchemist: alraune, dark folk (caller, stalker), goliath (anchorite)
  • barbarian: alraune, dark folk (empath, stalker), goliath (free one), hobgoblin (rare)
  • cavalier: alraune ([outrider] only), goliath (free one), hobgoblin (<samurai> only)
  • cleric: alraune, dark folk (caller, empath)
  • druid: alraune, dark folk (caller, creeper), goliath (anchorite)
  • fighter: goliath (free one), hobgoblin
  • gunslinger: goliath (both), hobgoblin
  • hunter: alraune, goliath (free one)
  • investigator: alraune, dark folk (empath, stalker), hobgoblin
  • kineticist: golaith (anchorite), hobgoblin
  • medium: alraune, dark folk (caller, dancer, empath), golaith (free one), hobgoblin
  • mesmerist: alraune, dark folk (dancer, empath), goliath (anchorite)
  • monk: alraune, goliath (anchorite), hobgoblin
  • ninja: alraune, dark folk (all), goliath (anchorite), hobgoblin
  • psion (telepath): alraune, dark folk (empath)
  • ranger: dark folk (creeper, stalker), goliath (free one), hobgoblin
  • rogue: dark folk (creeper, dancer, stalker), goliath (free one)
  • shaman: alraune, dark folk (caller, dancer), goliath (anchorite, free one), hobgoblin
  • skald: alraune, dark folk (dancer, empath), goliath (free one)
  • slayer: alraune, dark folk (all)
  • summoner: dark folk (caller), golaith (anchorite)
  • swashbuckler: dark folk (dancer, stalker), goliath (any)
  • vigilante: all
  • wilder: alraune, dark folk (dancer, empath, stalker)

By Race:


  • alraune: alchemist, barbarian, cavalier ([outrider]), cleric, druid, hunter, investigator, medium, mesmerist, monk, ninja, psion (telepath), shaman, skald, slayer, vigilante, wilder
  • dark folk: ninja, slayer, vigilante
    - - - - dark caller: alchemist, cleric, druid, medium, shaman, summoner
    - - - - dark creeper: druid, ranger, rogue
    - - - - dark dancer: medium, mesmerist, rogue, shaman, skald, swashbuckler, wilder
    - - - - dark empath: barbarian, cleric, investigator, medium, mesmerist, psion (telepath), skald, wilder
    - - - - dark stalker: alchemist, barbarian, investigator, ranger, rogue, swashbuckler, wilder,
  • goliath (anchorite): alchemist, druid, gunslinger, kineticist, mesmerist, monk, ninja, shaman, summoner, swashbuckler, vigilante,
  • goliath (free one): barbarian, cavalier, gunslinger, hunter, medium, ranger, rogue, shaman, skald, swashbuckler, vigilante,
  • hobgoblin: barbarian, cavalier <samurai>, fighter, gunslinger, investigator, kineticist, medium, monk, ninja, ranger, shaman, vigilante

EDIT: It worked!

Anyway, the setting is built to be a vague combination of Roman era, Imperial Japan, Mongol hordes, D&D fantasy (but not European), North American native cultures, Conan-style barbarism, and a vague pastiche of Mass Effect, Babylon-5, Farscape, Final Fantasy Tactics, Kaer Maega/Varisia, 3.5 Psionics, vagrant Story, and a few other influences that I can't recall right now.


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Incoming wall of text!
Corprust, The Cosmonaut Colossus

Yong Duskenae-Dyar, Scholar of the Nihil Expanse wrote:
We are all born from chaos. How much of that chaos makes us up is up for questioning.

With all things, something can come from nothing. Just as malediction can spawn from illusory spite, altruism can be born from the weakest hope. The Nihil Expanse shows this to be true: a void from which nothing is certain or to be expected. Within that emptiness bears a cataclysmic power: a force of creation in which all manner of possibilities and impossibilities can be created and uncreated. At any given moment, life can be birthed into existence or made extinct, and new worlds can be inhabited and annihilated. The source of this ability is unknown; is this simply a spontaneous phenomenon or can it be the work of sentient beings? If it is the case of the latter, then can there truly be the possibility of gods?

Even if they are not deific entities, something of immense capability had to have created the Colossi. These titans are completely mechanical, built with metals that, even after millennia of research, continue to yield new discoveries. Spanning over 2000 astronomical units long and counting, the colossi traverse the Nihil Expanse in search of new occurrences, whether they are life forms or cosmological events. In any case, the colossi attempt to collect the occurrences within their own bodies. For what purpose is still uncertain, even to the modron that once serviced our colossus, Corprust. Yet there are sites scattered throughout all of Corprust known as Aediles that possess vast pools of knowledge regarding all things regarding the colossi, including their purpose, how many there are, and their capabilities.

But the Aediles have stood silent, their secrets unwhispered to the inhabitants of Corprust. For the past 14 millennia, Corprust has stood still in the Nihil Expanse, powerless and isolated from the other colossi. Throughout the past millennia, the situation within Corprust has atrophied immensely. Once there used to be audible life and visible strength among the colossi’s systems; now there is only the crumbling of decrepit gears, ferrous mechanisms collapsing under their own weight. Worse still, the flora and fauna that Corprust collected before its stagnation is running sparse: Where there used to be millions of unique forms of life, only five races remain in populous numbers. All others have either become endangered or gone extinct.

Of the five, the Modron remain the most suspecting of their fellow races and always keep them at arm’s length. Once the servitors of Corprust, they carried out every function that the colossus required, storing information on all of the wonders of the Nihil Expanse. Before they were severed from Corprust’s systems, an event they deem “The Null End”, the modron were entirely focused on the complex executions of Corprust’s everyday existence. Now a philosophical schism as divided the modron; there are the “rogue” modron that believe in a co-existence with the other races and appreciate their separation from Corprust’s strict regiment, and the common modron who worship the Corprustian way of life. Obsessed with the other members of the big five, the common modron believe that the other four civilized races are the cause of Corprust’s shutdown.

In the eyes of the common modron, the Half-Elves are proof of a eugenicist conspiracy. Before the Null End, the progenitor races of the half-elves lived harmoniously with each other, but chafed with all other races. Humans were physically robust, but their mental and magical defenses left them vulnerable. Elves were humanity’s polar opposite: physically frail, but magically and mentally resilient. They each believed themselves to be the apexes of one half of survival, focusing on physical and mental prowess. In a mutual agreement, the races interbred to create half-elves, compromising their natural expertise to nullify their glaring weaknesses. But once the half-elves began to become populous, the progenitors literally disappeared. Had their numbers simply dwindled to extinction, that would have not raised much question. But to vanish before everyone’s eyes with no explanation inspired curiosity in the rest of Corprust’s denizens.

With mysteries such as the disappearances of two major races and the stagnancy of Corprust, it is inevitable that some of the population would try to investigate. The Catfolk, formally known as the Eloniu, lead the charge against the unknown answers of Corprust. Numerous, even among the five races, their short life spans and natural curiosity at all things dangerous keep them from overshadowing their neighbors in size. Already bearing multiple breeds of catfolk even before being brought onto Corprust, the catfolk are one of the most diverse races in Corprust. With subraces such as the stoic and sleek Jaug, the proud and matriarchal Ion’Ha, the Napoleonic and temperamental Salpas, and the bright but jaded Nynx, the catfolk as a whole are capable adventurers and responsible for many of the discoveries and rediscoveries of Corprustian knowledge.

Unfortunately, not every discovery was beneficial to the denizens of Corprust. During 11th millennium PNE (Post Null End), a group of catfolk adventurers unearthed a vast array of diseased plant life that was corrupted by one of Corprust’s many broken pipes. The ensuing leak infected the plants with base intelligence, allowing them the ability to mimic their discoverers. Taking a bipedal humanoid form, the murky black flora called themselves the Suh-Xha, after the first noises they were able to make and recognize they were making. After recognizing their freedom at the hands of the explorers, the Suh-Xha followed them back to the capital city of Absolute One. Upon learning about the city, the Suh-Xha returned to their home, now calling it The Clutch, mounted an attack on Absolute One. Though they possessed superior strength and caused immense damage to the city, the Suh-Xha were quickly outsmarted and driven back from Absolute One. Nobody knows why they did it, even among Suh-Xha’s historians, although there are sources from both sides implying that there was an outside force pushing the Suh-Xha. After some millennia, the Suh-Xha made amends and have proven their usefulness to the community through evolutions such as quadrupedal forms and past life connections, but animosity is still rampant regarding the short war.

While some hostility between the races can be justified, there are few excuses for blatant prejudice. Such is the case for the Dragonborn, who are a sub-evolution of the dragon species. The dragons that inhabit Corprust have been an active danger since they were first gathered into Corprust, where they considered themselves above all other races. As more races were gathered into Corprust, the dragons began to fear for their position within Corprust and went to war against not only the other races, but against Corprust itself. They slaughtered races wholesale and committed sabotage against Corprust’s systems en masse, all while their own numbers were being overpowered against the new races. In a last ditch effort to preserve their species, the dragons created a magical disease called Maldraconic Fetalism to infect their foes and their offspring. This disease causes the children of the afflicted a 50/50 chance of being born as a dragonborn. While the resulting spawn might have no natural inclination to follow their draconic forebears, this doesn’t stop sections of the population from vilifying the dragonborn, seeing them as literal manifestations of disease and metaphorical parasites on society. Others do not hate them, however, seeing the dragonborn condition as an involuntary cruelty and just as much victims of the dragon’s cruelty as everyone else. Still, their resistance to the elements and their unique genetic abilities grant them some minor privileges within society.

But even with the strength they all possess, the dangers of the derelict Corprust surround the last five races. The dragons still exist, having fled deep within the bowels of the colossus to leech on its residual energy. Other creatures and phenomena exist within the body of Corprust, having been collected and stored safely within its self-formatting cavities. But now Corprust’s systems are inactive; the various biomes containing the races are becoming inhabitable, forcing the creatures to roam and hunt to survive. The procedures to contain the phenomena are inactive, allowing the phenomena to become violently unstable. Whether grand Corprust lies dormant or destroyed is unknown, but regardless, the last five must work together to survive and rediscover the lost knowledge within the deepest recesses of the colossus, lest they expire altogether.


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Wow, that took me long enough. I actually lost the file a few times and had to rewrite the thing from memory!


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Reduxist wrote:

Incoming wall of text!

Corprust, The Cosmonaut Colossus
Yong Duskenae-Dyar, Scholar of the Nihil Expanse wrote:
We are all born from chaos. How much of that chaos makes us up is up for questioning.
<Snip>

Sweet! I'm ready to play in it--when's the hardcover version coming out?


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Maneuvermoose wrote:
Reduxist wrote:

Incoming wall of text!

Corprust, The Cosmonaut Colossus
Yong Duskenae-Dyar, Scholar of the Nihil Expanse wrote:
We are all born from chaos. How much of that chaos makes us up is up for questioning.
<Snip>
Sweet! I'm ready to play in it--when's the hardcover version coming out?

That's a good question! I'd like to know that as well!

On a more serious note, I think I might actually expand more of this, although I would prefer more input from other readers before I really jump in on this.


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1d100 ⇒ 34
1d100 ⇒ 72
1d100 ⇒ 65
1d100 ⇒ 74
1d100 ⇒ 76

1d100 ⇒ 87


Aest wrote:

34

72
65
74
76
87

... ssssooooooooooooooo... you got:

34. Kitsune (shapechanging fox-folk)
72. Drider
65. Derhii (winged, intelligent gorillas)
74. Serpentfolk
76. Shae (humanoids made of solid shadow)
87. Illumian (human-like beings infused with sorcery with glowing sigils floating around their heads)

...! :D

So cool!


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Yeah. I'm working on something swampy. Kitsune as nomadic swamp-crossers. Driders living in the trees above. Dropping the Derhii because I have an alternate for races I can't deal with. Serpentfolk empire in the swamps. Shae and Illumian as alternate branches of Human that adapted to perpetual twilight in different ways.

I'm about a page in, so it'll be a while before I'm happy with it, but it's probably the most cohesive draw I've gotten so far.


Nice~!


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Kitsune, Drider, Illumian, Serpentfolk, and Shae.

The mottled dance of gold and green light filtering through the trees. The sound of a brook burbling down its course. The brightly-colored flags flying over a coastal city. Generations ago, these might have been truths, but today, they’re myths.

Drelven is a land of twilight. The days come in a pale, sickly half-light, pushing through low-hanging clouds and moss-covered tree branches, while the nights are heralded by waves of fog rolling in around the ruins of those coastal cities. Treacherous paths cross the huge swamps that once were rivers and valleys, and mountaintops are lost among the grey skies above. The world has changed, and so have those who live there.

The Illumians were human, once. Their cities were places of trade, learning, peace...and secrets. Beneath their halls and towers, they built massive vaults, and filled them with the knowledge of bygone ages. There, these secrets rotted until the clouds blotted out the sun and the seas rose around their city walls. Since then, those humans fortunate enough to be within the walls have found themselves...changed. As their leaders put ancient magicks to use in an attempt to keep out the twilight, the people found themselves dependent on that magic for everything from their daily meals to light, and gradually, a sort of relationship between the magic and their bodies and minds emerged.

Those outside of the walls faced a far different fate. Their fields flooded, their villages ruined, and the cities sealed, these humans fled the swamps for the only refuge left to them; the mountains. At first, they simply climbed, but when the highest peaks were summitted and still clouds filled the air above, they dug. Their caves and tunnels became cities in their own right, their food whatever fish and fungi they could grow in the true darkness, and bit by bit, they found themselves changing. When they came out of the mountain caves, their bodies were insubstantial, wispy, and dark, and their eyes had grown huge and pale. The Shae, as they called themselves, were no longer human.

The Kitsune had long followed the patterns of the stars across the forests of Drelven, and without their light, many of the roving clans lost their way and perished in the new swamps. Others, faced with the prospect of a world without guidance, created their own, and today, the Kitsune way of life centers around a clan’s starbearer; the white-furred first daughter of the clan’s alpha. No one is sure why the first daughter always has white fur, or why they can guide the clan’s lanterns down safe paths no one can see, but it’s rare to see one fail. The Kitsune clans travel between the coastal citadels of the Illumians and the mountain dwellings of the Shae, bringing trade and news between the otherwise isolated races.

The Serpentfolk, for the most part, have found the world’s changes much to their liking, and today they dominate most of the inland regions. They find themselves relatively unhindered by the swamps, often using the most mired places to make their stilted towns, and until recently, were considered a threat by the other races of Drelven. However, their territory’s expansion has stopped short of the Illumian citadels, and they seem uninterested in the Shaes’ mountain holds, so an uneasy and unofficial peace has settled between the three.

The other major denizens of the forest have also adjusted well to the world’s changes. Or, rather, the Drider haven’t adjusted at all, and it’s suited them just fine. Always tree-dwellers, the six-legged, spiderlike Drider simply continued fishing, hunting, and living in their treetop, web-and-wood villages. For the most part, Drider communities tend to seem reclusive, though trusted outsiders are welcomed up into the trees.

Between working on transitioning my PbP Kingmaker game to Book Two, work, and building a real setting, this has sort of been on the backburner. Here it is, though.


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1d100 ⇒ 17 Sylph
1d100 ⇒ 66 Derhii
1d100 ⇒ 20 Dhampir
1d100 ⇒ 8 Orc
1d100 ⇒ 34 Kitsune

Backup

1d100 ⇒ 41 Dryad

Rerolling Kitsune because I did it already

1d100 ⇒ 50 Faun


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88 Raptoran
23 Lizardfolk
39 Kobold
78 Vodyanoi
24 Ratfolk

Looks like a warm, tropical world. I think that the Aarakocra, Grippli, Vanara, and Locathah are probably going to be here too. I'm going to try and think up more details.

Liberty's Edge

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This looks interesting, may as well give this a try and go ahead and roll up a number of worlds to develop.

World
Race 1 1d100 ⇒ 59 Adlet
Race 2 1d100 ⇒ 29 Merfolk
Race 3 1d100 ⇒ 15 Ifrit
Race 4 1d100 ⇒ 67 Sasquatch
Race 5 1d100 ⇒ 67 Sasquatch

World
Race 1 1d100 ⇒ 92 Construct-based humanoids
Race 2 1d100 ⇒ 13 Aasimar
Race 3 1d100 ⇒ 51 Centaur
Race 4 1d100 ⇒ 84 Uldra
Race 5 1d100 ⇒ 25 Vanara

World
Race 1 1d100 ⇒ 12 Tiefling
Race 2 1d100 ⇒ 8 Orc
Race 3 1d100 ⇒ 99 Mul
Race 4 1d100 ⇒ 60 Vegepygmy
Race 5 1d100 ⇒ 51 Centaur

All of these are interesting worlds that will most likely be interesting to work up.


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Why not try?

1d100 ⇒ 11
1d100 ⇒ 68
1d100 ⇒ 1
1d100 ⇒ 29
1d100 ⇒ 76
Human, drow, merfolk, tanuki and... flumphs. Ow. Still, this can be done.

The drow were the first to come to the shores of the Sea of Noum, deep beneath the earth. They stayed for its riches of fish and the gold that came down the subterranean rivers that feed it. Merfolk and human slaves were brought in to harvest these resources while the drow concentrated on arts of magic, craft and war.

In time the drow founded four cities, Vesperr, Haladrathil, Deldis and Delderr. As is natural for them, they fell to war; during a particularly destructive war, the War of Red Chimes, many of their slaves escaped, the city of Deldis fell into ruin and the youngest city of Delderr was captured by a human uprising.

A number of tanuki appeared in Delderr and claimed responsibility for setting up the war to free the slaves. While not everyone believed them, enough did that they were made welcome and over time many settled there. The elected council ruling Delderr has a plurality of tanuki among their number despite their population being smaller than that of humans, if larger than the number of merfolk in the city.

Most merfolk left to live as loosely allied tribes in the Sea of Noum. There they met a strange race of creatures who fly as adults and swim as larvae, the flumphs. The flumphs' warnings of monstrous creatures coming from strange stars meant little to the merfolk who had forgotten the skies of the surface by now, but the tales sounded mystical and impressive. The flumphs became shamans to the merfolk and leaders in times of peace; merfolk tribal leaders fight for the right to lead in times of war.

Liberty's Edge

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Jace Nailo wrote:

World
Race 1 1d100 Adlet
Race 2 1d100 Merfolk
Race 3 1d100 Ifrit
Race 4 1d100 Sasquatch
Race 5 1d100 Sasquatch

Acaenian Archipelago

Upon the great island of Crathus in the Acaenian Archipelago, the gods placed the Sasquatch. They were a simple and peaceful people, living in the forested coastlands on the edges of Crathus. Most traveled the island living in hunter-gatherer family groups. Not having any want to leave the rich forests they called home, they avoided the mountainous, dry, and cold interior of Crathus, considering it to be incapable of supporting life past the plains and swamps bordering their forests. In a similar fashion, they avoided the deeper waters of the ocean surrounding their island for fear that the god would punish them for leaving the lands they had given to the Sasquatch.

In time, however, they encountered the Merfolk, a race from the depths of the sea who spoke of strange gods and distant lands. These tales at first estranged them from the Sasquatch, who until now had only seen other islands in dreams or as distant smudges on the far horizon. However, eventually the two races began to trade with each other the riches of their home regions for those of the other. In these deals, the Merfolk often supplied shells, pearls, and fish while the Sasquatch provided meats and woods that even the water of the ocean would not warp or stain. After many years, some Sasquatch even ceased their constant travels to stay in one location in an attept to facilitate more trade between the two races, with these tradepoints eventually growing to be large coastal towns or even cities. This would result in a split among the Sasquatch between the Treeborn and the Townwalkers. The Treeborn considered those who settled down to trade weak and unable to fend for themselves, while the Townwalkers thought that those who continued the old ways amongst the trees were being idiots for not seeing the advantages living in towns could provide.

However, the relations between these now three groups continued to grow. That is until the balance was shattered when the first Adlets came down from the mountains to slaughter, pillage, and burn down cities, towns, and even nomadic Treeborn gathering sites. At the beginning of this war, the Adlets possesed an advantage in the form of metal weapons and armor, neither of which the other races had yet developed. This advantage was soon negated when the Sasquatch and Merfolk realized that the Adlets had greatly reduced magical capabilities, many to the point of virtual non-existence. Over time, the Sasquatch and Merfolk won out over the Adlets, driving them back to their distant mountains. This peace would turn out to be lasting, if tenuous, peace. Occasional warbands of Adlets still gather, but even other Adlets despise them, believing that the other races could finish what they had started if overly provoked. In addition, many Adlets have begun trading their ores and gems in the large trade cities, and some have even begun to learn more than simple magics.

Decades after the end of the war between the races, what appeared to be a single floating tree appeared in the harbor of one of the greatest trade cities. Upon in, there were strange people, smaller than even the Merfolk, the smallest of the people of Crathus, and with not hair but flame on their head. These people called theselves Ifrits, a people fleeing from a faraway land of sand, heat, and monsters. originally, they said that they had looked closer to a finless Merfolk with the legs of a Sasquatch, but had changed with their land into what they are now. They called their floating tree a ship, and said that more of them would be coming sometime in the next year. True to their word, hundreds upon hundreds of the Ifrits ships aproached trade city harbors across Crathus over the next year, bringing thousands of Ifrit refugees. In return for being allowed to live on the plains between the mountains in the middle of Crathus and the forests along its coasts, the Ifrits revealed to the other races the methods of building ships worthy of crossing the ocean to near or distant island, thus opening a new age on Crathus, and even the rest of the Acaenian Archipelago.

An age of discovery and exploration.


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avr wrote:
Human, drow, merfolk, tanuki and... flumphs.

Thinking about it again the xenophobic scorpion-worshipping Eberron drow are easier to work with in a game than the downright psycho Golarion drow. That requires a different setting though.

The tanuki call themselves the People Before People. They lived in the jungles already when the giants (and their elf and drow servants) arrived and built their fortresses and largely hid rather than fight. They remained hiding when merfolk colonised the swamps and lakes. Only when the giants were recalled to the cities they came from generations ago in the wake of plagues and dragon attacks, did the tanuki stand up and claim land and rights.

The elves and drow were concerned with overthrowing their rulers and later their internal differences when the tanuki made their demands. The merfolk were willing to make treaties of non-interference at least.

Following skirmishes with the tanuki a prophet arrived to lead the elves and drow to a promised land where they would be safe. The elves, originally servants in the fields and forests, who had taken the brunt of the fighting largely followed; the drow, originally house servants, largely stayed. They tried to make treaties then but the tanuki saw their weakness and attacked in all-out war, scattering them and burning their fortresses. Treachery became the drow's expectation of outsiders.

As the drow sought shelter in the least inhabited parts of the land - the darkest jungles, the high desert behind the Thunder Mountains - most of the tanuki moved into the cleared fields of the giant's former lands. A couple of centuries and change later they were in a good position to see as a blinding light descended from the heavens. When it cleared a fortified city centred on a tall white tower had appeared where none had been before.

The inhabitants mostly call themselves 'true humans', though there are strange floating advisors that call themselves 'flumphs'. In the hundred years since their arrival their Star Soldiers have sought out the monsters from beyond the stars that their advisors told them of without success. While they have not sought to rule beyond the immediate vicinity of their City of the Beacon, the lack of success has caused some loss of faith and there are rumblings among the soldiers of turning their skills to extending the benefits of civilisation to the ungrateful savages.

Spoiler:
The mind flayers are being concealed by elements of the merfolk.


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1d100 = 5 Half-Elf with Kindred-Raised alternate racial trait
1d100 = 7 Gnome with Bond to the Land alternate racial trait
1d100 = 24 Ratfolk
1d100 = 60 Vegepygmy
1d100 = 84 Uldra

Novos-Ellaman

When the exiled half-elves spotted the lands that would be their home, they had no idea that others had once lived there. Landing in their weather-beaten air-ships, they found sophisticated ruins of a once thriving humanoid culture. On-foot and areal exploration uncovered a vast number of ruined cities almost fully reclaimed by nature.
Among those ruins and forests, the explorers encountered gnomes, ratfolk and tribes of savage but peaceful vegepygmies. The gnomes and ratfolk told of a great calamity orchestrated by the gnomes hated enemies: spriggans and goblins that lead to the destruction of the lands they new. Only by going into hiding had they survived. The vegepygmies were simply pleased that their lands were once again thriving as the forests crept back into once-cultivated lands.
Being who they were, the half-elves knew the best ways to ingratiate themselves among these unusual folk and soon the bonds of alliance were formed. They established colonies and soon found themselves face to face with Goblin, Spriggan, and Worg threats; plus a host of hungry plant-like creatures from the invading forests. A consolidated from of the 4 peoples allowed the half-elves to settle and lands were divided; the ratfolk keeping much of the lands beneath the ancient ruins and the others understanding a respect for nature must be maintained within their respective regions.
After almost a decade, the Half-elves (with their allies) were able to travel further north than ever; they found to their delight a cold-loving fey gnomish cousin-race calling themselves the Uldra. The Gnomes were quick to establish trade and cultural exchanges with this new friendly people.
Now exploration has turned to excavation; unearthing the knowledge of the old culture that occupied Novos-Ellaman. The Half-elves in a few generations have become a race unto their own; once exiled by their kin simply for their blood, they now are masters of their own fate.
The Gnomes and Ratfolk have found allies and are working to reestablish their own societies in this land made anew. The Vegepygmies have been able to find similar minded folk who respect their habitat allowing them to live as naturally as possible while gaining allies to defend their tribes against predation.
The once-isolated Uldra now live in a wider world with new sights to explore.

Liberty's Edge

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Jace Nailo wrote:

Race 1 1d100 Construct-based humanoids
Race 2 1d100 Aasimar
Race 3 1d100 Centaur
Race 4 1d100 Uldra
Race 5 1d100 Vanara

Tryn

The world of Tryn is a world without stars. That is not to say that there is no sky, but rather that the sky is not an empty black void above the horizon at night. This is caused by the fact that Tryn is not a spherical floating body in the depths of space, but is a pair of flat discs connected in only two places; at the dawnspire, a massive crystalline tower which pierces the center of each disc, and the frozen oceans, massive glaciers that stretch between the edges. Nobody knows for sure how far apart the two discs are, but many people estimate that they are around half as far apart as they are wide. The best estimate for the distance of the diameter of Tryn is approximately 3,000 miles.

The dawnspire, which is at least ten miles wide at its base, is the source of all light in Tryn. At dawn, the spire begins to glow, beginning from both of the bases and spreading to the middle, at which point it glows fully for an hour before noon. After noon, the spire starts to stop glowing, darkening from the bottoms up to the center. Once the glow is only at the center, it stays that way for one hour before darkening completely. Surrounding the Dawnspire for 250 miles is a desert that consists of almost nothing of sand, rocks, and cacti. On the far edge of the world are the Frozen Oceans, and the tundra terrain that "surrounds" them. The tundra extends for 250 miles out from the Oceans, and are almost entirely snow and ice, with the occasional tree or bush.

Between these two extremes of terrain are the lands where most of the people of Tryn make their lives. There are two major continents on Tryn, Wegrune and Aisul. Wegrune is a warmer land, with large portions of it being either desert, savannah, or jungle. Its closest point to the Frozen Oceans is roughly 200 miles distant from them, and the Dawnspire is located on the opposite end of Wegrune. Aisul, meanwhile, is a much cooler land on average, but is physically larger than Wegrune. It has more terrains types that Wegrune, but tends towards forests, tundra, and grasslands. It is connected to Wegrune by two land bridges, one halfway between the Dawnspire and the Frozen Oceans and the other leading directly towards the Dawnspire. Between the two continents is an inland sea called the Sea of Kelm.

The races of Tryn are quite diverse, but have blended very well. The first race, the Aasimar, originated on the continent of Wegrune, living primarily on the vast savannahs. Originally, they called themselves humans, but after a great plague ravaged their lands, a god came down and gifted a large amount of them with divine grace, which granted them immunity to the plague. There was a consequence that the god did not foresee with this gift however, and that was that the Aasimar, as he had named them, were now masters of their own destiny, and could not be controlled through prophecy.

The next race, the Centaurs, originated on the continent of Aisul. They are a noble and powerful race, with many clans now spread across the two continents. Their preferred land to live on is either lightly forested land or rolling grasslands. Before the mingling of the various races, the Centaurs by far controlled the most amount of land. Natural born travelers and explorers, they quickly met the other races and spread to their lands. However, this same instinct leads many Centaurs to shun the "civilized method" of living in cities and farming, instead always being on the move from place to place and subsisting on the land around them.

The third race of Tryn are the Uldra, a small fey race native to the tundra and pine forests near the Frozen Oceans on the continent of Aisul. In addition, there are a scattering of their villages on the end of Wegrune's landmass closest to the Frozen Oceans. They are a very spiritual people, with each village being led by at least one shaman or priest. Other than this, their religion and culture are relatively unknown amongst the other races, due in part to three things; the Uldra do not discuss themselves very often, few individuals frm other races are particularly willing to travel to, let alone permanently live in, an snow-covered Uldra village, and the Uldra themselves do not enjoy living anywhere that is not snow-covered.

Vanara, Tryn's fourth race, are native to the vast jungles of Wegrune. Out of all the races of Tryn, the Vanara are the ones most gifted at city building. As such, the other races respect them for this, and for the most part let them do it instead of determining it themselves. This resulted in most of the large cities on Wegrune, and many on Aisul, being originally built by the Vanara. They are also natural scholars, with many libraries, schools, and universities of higher learning are built in Vanara cities, which also tends to include most other large cities of other races as well. In addition, the Vanara were the first race to develop arcane magic, meaning that many of their universities and libraries also function as magical schools and magical repositories.

The final race living on the world of Tryn are the Silverlings. They are a mercurial people, and in more than one definition of the word. They stand taller than all the races except the Centaurs, and appear to have a roughly humanoid body of molten, ever-shifting silvery metal and eyes that appear to be made of glowing crystals. Their curved legs end in two toes, their long arms end with four extremely flexible fingers, and their body shifts and flows almost like water. They can occasionally use this to change the way that their body is structured, and sometimes even make themselves into weapons, which are especially dangerous considering their flesh and blood are toxic to most living beings. The Silverlings live almost exclusively in the desert surrounding the Dawnspire, and some scholars claim they are even created by it. The Silverlings themselves have no idea where they came from, just that they are not natural like the other races, and that they must protect the Dawnspire at all costs. However, all the races can be found in any sufficiently large enough settlement.

As for the disc opposite Tryn, nobody knows who or what lives there, just that something or somebody does. This knowledge comes from the fact that at night, lights from towns and cities can be observed on the surface of the far disc. Attempts have been made to get to the opposing discs, through either magic, flight, or climbing up either the Dawnspire or the Frozen Oceans. All of these attempts have failed however. Spells of teleportation simply fail to function, and at a certain height the air gets thin enough that people flying or climbing eventually pass out and fall back to the surface.

Liberty's Edge

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Jace Nailo wrote:

Race 1 1d100 Tiefling
Race 2 1d100 Orc
Race 3 1d100 Mul
Race 4 1d100 Vegepygmy
Race 5 1d100 Centaur

Zivothis

Zivothis is a dying world, one wracked by war and death. However, it was originally a lush world, with many forests, grasslands, and jungles, amongst other places, where life could thrive. Originally, there were only three races on Zivothis, with those being the Humans, the Orcs, and the Dwarves. The Dwarves were the eldest race, noble of bearing and mighty in stature, and carved cities into the mountains and hills of the world. Humans, the middle race, settled the plains and forests with many villages and cities seperated by vast farmlands and orchards. As the most versatile race of Zivothis, the Humans could achieve many things that the Dwarves could not, such as building ships to cross the oceans and traverse the rivers of the world. The Orcs, the youngest race, were a barbaric people that spread like a plague across the land, living in places most would have though unlivable.

This uneasy balance beteen the races was broken when the Orcs invaded all of the various Dwarven fortresses simultaneously, slaughtering almost the entirety of the Dwarven population. At the same time, the Orcish gods destroyed all of the Human deities, leaving the humans without divine protection or support. This fractured the various human nations, leading to internal conflicts among them and creating a vast sense of suspicion inside the hearts of men.

The Dwarven pantheon was weakened from their lack of followers. In a desperate moment, they decided to attempt to increase their number of followers by attracting a selection of humans. Many humans, now having no divine power to worship, accepted the Dwarven gods offer and fled to the mighty halls of the dwarves to meet with the final members of the Dwaren race. Over the next couple of decades, due to interbreeding between the two races, the Mul race developed. Neither Human nor Dwarf, they combined a strange combination of both the worst and best qualities of their parent races.

However, many humans had not fled to the Dwarven holds, instead choosing to not abandon their homes on the plains and in the forests. Due to their lack of divine protection, however, they quickly began to succumb to disease and other ailments. Those humans who lived upon the vast plains of the world were eventually approached by fey spirits, offering them strength, resilience against disease, and the magic of nature. Their only condition was that the humans must abandon their ways of living in a single location for long periods of time. Of the humans who accepted and embraced this power, some grew larger, hairier, more bestial, and some even developed a second set of legs and a tail. Over time, these traits condensed into a single form, that of a mans torso, arms, and head over the body and legs of a clawed horse. They now called themselves Centaurs, and used their new strength to defend themselves from the Orc hordes.

As for those few Humans who continued to reside in the forests, they were in constant conflict with the Orcs. Instead of accepting the offerings of either the Dwarven gods or the fey spirits, they attempted to withstand the Orcs without assistance. However, they were eventually approached by dark forces from beyond this world offering revenge against the Orcs, more specifically their gods who had killed the Human deities. All they needed was the worship of themselves, in addition to small portions of the Humans souls, in return. The humans quickly agreed to this deal, seeing their souls of little import when compared to the ability to strike against their hated foes. Once the pacts were signed, the beings withdrew from the conferences and attacked many of the Orcish gods, killing many and greatly wounding those they did not. After they did this, they returned to the forests of the Humans and revealed themselves to be Demonic lords from the Abyss. Many quickly set themselves as the rulers of select towns, villages, and cities. In addition, the act of the transfer of souls tainted the Humans, twisting them into forms that they no longer recognized. Many of them began to show the signs of the demonic forces that now owned them, including growing horns, clawed or cloven-hooved feet, claws, tails, or even vestigial wings. This new race began to call themselves Tieflings, which meant "tainted ones" in their old language.

The Orcs, now having to deal with three different races instead of only two, and without assistance from any deities, began to turn towards technology to give them an edge in this war. The result of all their efforts was the invention of black powder and the associated weaponry with which to use it. However, the advantage which these weapons gave the Orcs did not last long. This was because each of the other races individually stole te secrets to both the black powder and the weapons. In addition, the Orcs brought industialization to this world, and with it factories, which the other races also stole. In an arms race to determine which race could make the most weapons in the shortest amount of time, entire forests were burned in forges, mountains were mined out to the point of collapse, and plains were stripped of their native flora and fauna. Eventually, this escalated to full-blown war betwee all of the four races, with all four sides using both black powder weaponry and magic, resulting in devastation to both the enemy armies and the encironment intself. The end result was that the lands of Zivothis, once lush and beautiful, were now a battered wasteland almost totally devoid of life.

An unforeseen result of all the magical energies produced during the war was the Vegepygmies. Originally, they were simply a mold in one of the forests of Zivothis, they are now a result of a new fungus called Russet Mold. As the mold grows on the dead bodies of the other races of the world, it produces Vegepygmies from the corpses. In turn, the as the Vegepygmies spread around the world, they are planting trees and spreading the forests, with the result that the forests of the world are actually spreading now instead of shrinking. Considered pests and anoyances by the other races of Zivothis, the Vegepygmies are the last hope for the planet itself to survive.

Liberty's Edge

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Now, for my next world.

1d100 ⇒ 18 Oread
1d100 ⇒ 3 Dwarf
1d100 ⇒ 96 Thri-Kreen
1d100 ⇒ 68 Tanuki
1d100 ⇒ 54 Naga

Liberty's Edge

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Going to roll up two more now while I have the chance.

1d100 ⇒ 11 Drow
1d100 ⇒ 92 Construct-based Humanoid
1d100 ⇒ 86 Asherati
1d100 ⇒ 51 Centaur (going to reroll for this one as I have already done enough centaurs for now)
1d100 ⇒ 52 Harpy

1d100 ⇒ 70 Spriggan
1d100 ⇒ 5 Half-elf
1d100 ⇒ 94 Ooze-based Humanoid
1d100 ⇒ 82 Changeling (Doppleganger-kin)
1d100 ⇒ 52 Harpy

Reroll: 1d100 ⇒ 52 Harpy (again!)


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My first time, let's see what I get...
race: 1d100 ⇒ 54 Naga
race: 1d100 ⇒ 72 Drider
race: 1d100 ⇒ 63 Grindylow (the goblin equivalent of Cecaelia)
race: 1d100 ⇒ 82 Changeling
race: 1d100 ⇒ 29 Merfolk
Interesting.


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1d100 ⇒ 41 Dryads
1d100 ⇒ 4 Half-Orc
1d100 ⇒ 72 Driders
1d100 ⇒ 4 Half-Orc
1d100 ⇒ 24 Ratfolk

This is interesting indeed.

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
legoguy4492 wrote:

My first time, let's see what I get...

[dice=race]1d100 Naga
[dice=race]1d100 Drider
[dice=race]1d100 Grindylow (the goblin equivalent of Cecaelia)
[dice=race]1d100 Changeling
[dice=race]1d100 Merfolk
Interesting.

I really like this mix because it lends itself to a wonderful humid setting full of Jungles and Rivers, and half-sunk ruins.

I could even see a Water-Drider variant, capable of walking on water on its 8 spindly legs.


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Or the spiders that bring air with them underwater in little web nets.


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1d100 ⇒ 58 Gnoll
1d100 ⇒ 28 Tengu
1d100 ⇒ 40 Ogre
1d100 ⇒ 7 Gnome
1d100 ⇒ 76 Shae (already did this one, will reroll)
1d100 ⇒ 34 Kitsune (already did this one, will reroll)
1d100 ⇒ 31 Duergar

And a spare

1d100 ⇒ 4 Half-orc


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Alrighty, it's been two years to the day and to the hour, let's f&&$ing do this.

Naga, Half-Elf, Changeling, Dragonborn, Tengu

Introduction:
When the knock came at the door, the hermit Deena was getting ready to enjoy a very pleasant dinner of jack mushrooms and cow entrails. She tilted her head, black eyes darting about towards her hut's one visible entrance. It wasn't her wife—she knew Sylvia was still in the den working. Maybe she could just... ignore it.

The knock came again, louder, and Deena gave a low croak of annoyance. The kenku hopped down from her perch-chair and walked over to the door. Her ebon talons clacked against the wooden floorboards, and she ducked to avoid rattling the dangling cages of ward turtles.

"Who? Who is it-it-it?" She tried not to sound cross, even though she was. It was always risky to be rude to an unknown visitor. Especially when their knocks were strong enough to crack the door.

She was answered by a gutteral hissing in Wyrmspeak.

"Oh, is that all? That all?" The kenku reached a claw forward tentatively and slid open a slot in the door, peering out.

Two brilliant golden eyes peered back at her, imperious and impatient.

The kenku gave a shrill, panicked laugh. "Yes-yes-yes! Terribly sorry-sorry, Inquisitor, yes-yes-yes!" She practically slammed the door open in her haste to allow this very special visitor inside.

The dragonborn—a great, cloaked, looming thing with a back like a wildcat and whiskers like a catfish—ducked her head and entered. Colorful bells on fine silver chains dangled from her jewelry, and Deena wondered that she hadn't heard this tinkling earlier. She bowed to Deena, who noticed she gripped a thick iron loop attached to an equally thick silken rope, trailing off behind her into the darkness of the swamp. "I apologize for the disturbance," she rasped. "Rest assured, you are not in trouble. I am simply escorting several troublesome wards, and require shelter."

"Cool. Cool-cool-cool." Deena nodded, hurrying back to her dinner table to pull up a chair. She did bump her head on the cages this time, and the turtles squeaked angrily above her. "Any idea how long you'll be—"

"THEY'RE HERE!" hissed a voice from outside.

The dragonborn's eyes lit up in fire, and in a sudden motion, she gave the chain a harsh yank. In Wyrmspeak, she rasped a command—a command Deena promptly realized was not directed at her, as the door slammed shut. So the Inquisitor was a witch of some sort. Oh, as if Deena didn't have enough problems.

In tumbled a pair of notelves, all tied by their hands to the long rope. The notelf who landed on top had long curly hair spilling over their face, and as they looked up sharply, Deena caught a glimpse of a violent eye and a green eye.

"Changeling!" she shrieked, unnecessarily. "Changeling-ling-ling!"

"I am aware." The dragonborn sounded rather cross as the notelf and the abomination picked themselves up. "Believe me, I would not generally transport wards such as these so flippantly, but as it happens—"

"Pardon me." A soft, whispery voice came from the dragonborn's feet, and a woman's face rose up on a serpentine body to coil around her legs. The Inquisitor gave a snarl of surprise, but the naga was already comfortable, and if Deena knew anything about her wife, it was that nothing sort of hag magic could move a snake once it was comfortable and warm. "Might I ask why there is a Hag Procession coming towards our home right now?"

The Demiplane of Somna originated as something of a prison, designed by a long-dead triad of archmages to hold their most deadly enemies who had secrets worth keeping alive. Its prisoners included a coven of extremely powerful hags, several demigods, a clutch of assorted dragon eggs the archmages wanted to preserve in stasis until they could be safely hatched, and a menagerie of beasts one of the archmages was fond of. Now, the prison held quite well for a while, but the archmages were only human, and humans have a tendency to die.

And once they died, all hell broke loose.

At some point down the line, the hags hacked into the very weave of the world and escaped. Nobody is sure how it happened, but what is sure is that they were the first to break loose. The hags managed to take control of the demiplane shortly thereafter, and, realizing they still could not escape it, decided to make their new home their own personal empire. They warped and perverted the dragon eggs into a servitor race, used the menagerie as their personal grounds for experimentation, and twisted the world itself into something out of a dark fairytale, or a nightmare.

But they didn't know about the demigods. There were seven in total, each individually much weaker than any one hag—the most powerful (and least malicious) was Turtle, a humble god of trinkets, placebos and superstitions, who was able to use the still-raw nature of the demiplane to make some of the folk remedies and superstitions they controlled quasi-effective. The demigods escaped during this period, and after binding one of their number away—a murderous elven god of spite named Gemini who was locked within the Plane of Shadow—the remaining six allied to incite a rebellion among the hags' slaves and defeat the tyrants.

They were crushed, and all but Turtle and a will o' wisp god named Soph were killed. Turtle managed to hide, while Soph was imprisoned within the lead hag's lantern. These two gods are all that remain of divinity, aside from Gemini.

Despite the total failure, though, the hags grew paranoid, and began frantically bolstering their ranks—using their fell magic, and deals with daemons, to birth scores of new hags as well as hundreds of changelings. Many slaves escaped during the revolt, and now they sought the protections of Turtle's charms to safeguard their communities. The magic of the demiplane remains amorphous, and many discovered just how slapdash the planar reality was as they started to rediscover magic. Now, the escapees hide desperately from Hag Processions, even as some continue to plot a stronger, better-planned revolution.

But strange pockets of shadowy emptiness keep appearing, and nobody who ventures into one returns unchanged. Is this the effect of the hateful Gemini, trying with all his might to tear the world apart?

Or was the world simply never meant to last this long?

The notelves are the creation of the spiteful Gemini, and the sole species of the world not created by the hags. Gemini is trapped in shadows, now—the shadow that follows you everywhere? That's your boy Gemini watching over you. At least, so the notelves say. Notelves are... not exactly elves. They aren't as nimble, nor are they as graceful or long-lived. They're a lot like half-elves, or even half-people, wispy on the edges. Not all worship the dangeroyus Gemini, but most know to fear him, and symbols of him tend to decorate the posts around the notelves' small villages.

The tengu, created from the menagerie's corvids by hag magic, are a race of warriors and spies still servile to the hags. They are aggressively anti-theist, and many truly believe that the hags hold the keys to escape from this bizarre, unstable half-world. "The weave is loosening," as they say. "If we don't cut our way out soon, we will be ensnared and choked to death. You think the hags are spiders? Well, even a spider can get caught in its own web. The weave is loosening, and the world is dying." Whether that's true, or just what the hags tell them to keep them loyal, is up for debate. Deserter tengu are called kenku, and have a reputation as thieves and reprobates (and, of course, as secret spies for the hags). Kenku aren't trusted by much anyone, and they know it, but they know Turtles' tricks better than any other. Because, the dragonborn growl, they stole them.

The nagas, transmuted serpents originally designed by the hags to serve as entertainers and assistants, are the masters of the hags' magic. They were quick to join the revolt, some out of hate for the tyrants, some out of greed for the tyrants' hidden knowledge. As a consequence, the nagas were hit hardest of all in the retaliation. They lurk out in the swamps now, often hunted for sport by the Hag Processions, but are seen as good luck to have around in any notelf village, dragonborn lair, or kenku cottage.

The dragonborn were the leaders of the revolt, the original perverted dragon eggs from every dragon species. Dragonborn are much closer to dragon than humanoid, and sometimes drop to all fours when they need to get somewhere in a hurry. After the great escape, the dragonborn began to study the ways of the demiplane and realized how malleable it was. Many dragonborn became monks skilled at exploiting the plane's uniquely dreamlike qualities. Some even believe that this is all one great dream. After uncovering an archmage's diary, the dragonborn turned it into something like gospel, and now see upholding and restoring the original conditions of the demiplane—as a prison—as a literally species-wide obligation. Not all dragonborn agree, but the Inquisitors among them can be quite persuasive.

The changelings are the most feared of the common races for their ties to the hags, but the truth is that most of them are themselves terrified of their parents and desperate for a way out. Most march in the macabre parades known as the Processions, but those who escape tend to disguise themselves as normal notelves, seeking out ordinary lives as hermit witches and the like. Most communities will tolerate the presence of a neighboring changeling. Whenever anything goes wrong, though, a formerly accepting village will likely ask itself one key question: What did the changeling do?

And the changeling had better pray there is a kenku nearby to pin it on.

Gods:
As in settings like Eberron, clerics can worship gods that don't match their alignment in a sense of, "I really only follow this aspect of them," or keeping them "appeased".

Soph (CE)
Domains: Chaos (Entropy, Whimsy), Evil (Fear, Demon), Trickery (Ambush, Deception), Sun (Light, Revelation)
Soph is fairly mild-mannered as evil gods go—she can be a bit of a trickster, and quite sadistic, but her time in prison has mellowed her out a little bit and she's described in tales as being quite conversational now. She has to be—she's trapped in a lantern right now.

Gemini (CE)
Domains: Chaos (Entropy, Protean), Evil (Corruption, Kyton), Darkness (Loss, Night), Destruction (Hatred, Torture), Void (Dark Tapestry, Isolation)
Gemini was the most powerful of all the seven, and may even no longer be a true demigod at this point. His time on the Plane of Shadow has changed him.

Turtle (N)
Domains: Healing (Medicine, Restoration), Luck (Fate, Imagination), Magic (Rites, Arcane), Protection (Purity, Solitude)
Turtle was always a clever god, and to escape the hags, he transformed into a swarm of thousands and thousands of ward turtles. Now, any ward turtle you see contains a tiny spark of divinity. The hags kill them on site, of course, but his thousands of little charms and tricks continue to drive the hags absolutely up a wall with frustration. If you've ever wondered why trolls can't cross a bridge if there's a rooster on the other side, or why the sound of silver, brass and iron bells repels behirs, Turtle is why.

I see this as a sort of Ravenloft-like world, but with a stronger fairy tale feel and a constant question of, "Is the world literally falling apart around us?". Funny enough, the film 9 influenced it a little bit—think about the little survivors hiding out from patrolling monsters, trying to avoid being taken to the insidious hags. The world's monsters are mostly the creations of the hags, though there's room for Gemini's horrors and the like.


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I miss Mikaze.
5d100 ⇒ (3, 71, 58, 62, 16) = 210

Dwarf, Undine, Gnoll, Cecaelia, Dark Folk.

Ooh, this is a strong batch. Two aquatic races, two underground races. And I do love gnolls.


Kobold Cleaver wrote:
I miss Mikaze.

A lot, yeah. :/

...

Using my template:

race 1: 1d100 ⇒ 74
race 2: 1d100 ⇒ 31
race 3: 1d100 ⇒ 100
race 4: 1d100 ⇒ 4
race 5: 1d100 ⇒ 28

Serpentfolk
Duergar
Pseudodragon
Half-orc
Tengu

Woof. What a combination!

So, let's do something rather... disastrous.

https://manana.cz/slovnik/nahuaco_en.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Men
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth-Amon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Great_Old_Ones#Yig
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(comics)
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Merrshaulk
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Serpentfolk
... plus elves, dwarves, giants, orcs, and all that jazz.

In an ancient age, there were once mythical creatures - the most ancient "elder things" (no other real name is known), the elusive air-borne yehyehkhami, the brutal mersseaulthk, the ever-tinkering shapeshifting elemental jwyarn, the extremely long-lived elaa'dri, and the deep-dwelling ah'bhi-srah.

And then someone got stupid and summoned infni-slaves; then the world died.


(I'm making more of a post then that, it's just taking time.)
(Using my second template!)

The Exchange

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I think this is going to be a disaster...*tugs out fur*

race 1: 1d100 ⇒ 55 - Gargoyle
race 2: 1d100 ⇒ 39 - Kobolds
race 3: 1d100 ⇒ 88 - Raptoran
race 4: 1d100 ⇒ 3 - Dwarf
race 5: 1d100 ⇒ 26 - Vishkanya


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It's been a while. Let's see what strange world I can come up with here.

1d100 ⇒ 16
1d100 ⇒ 7
1d100 ⇒ 28
1d100 ⇒ 65
1d100 ⇒ 80
Undines, gnomes, tengu, derhii and vampires. Not a lot in common there.

The Exchange

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Long ago there was large explosion of matter from a dying star that begin to slowly cool and coalesce into a giant planet. From the sea came tiny little things named bacteria, which slowly evolved into more complex life forms such as fish, crustaceans, reptiles. And then they slowly began to move on land.

Most of them stayed on land, but some of the reptiles took to the trees, becoming adept climbers, and even later grew wings to enable them to glide among the trees, forming the first ancestors of the raptorans. They too developed hands like their groundboundcousins, and developed into a hunting society, with their favourite food as snakes…and other snake like creatures.

Those that took to the land developed in different ways. They became larger bipeds growing hands so that they could make tools out of their surroundings. They banded together for survival, hunting in packs, and eventually building warcamps together, but still retained reptailian characteristics – those of snakes. Farming was done underground - mushrooms – due to the constant harrying by aerial predators such as the raptorans. Only within the war camps were the Vishkayans truly safe from being harried. There was first a caste allocated to that, but the Vishkanya, which prized the caste system – where one’s caste was determined from birth – and could not ever be changed, realized that the castes that were assigned to farming mushrooms and mining underground were evolving. They grew shorter, to allow their easier navigation of the mushroom and mining tunnels, and became sensitive to sunlight due to their lack of exposure of it underground, becoming the first kobolds.

The kobolds, considering themselves as part of Vishkayan society, despite the growing physical differences between both tribes, and have been supplying the Vishkayans with mushrooms and iron from the ground.
The Vishkayans, through having excess to better materials for weapons – like steel arrowheads, compared to the Raptorans, and learning that the Raptorans laid eggs in trees, started manufacturing steel axes to chase their ancient enemies from the forest and claiming the surface world for their own. Forcing their ancient enemies out of the forests they once lived in, the Vishakayans now could farm above ground, and grow plants such as spices, herbs and flax, in which now they traded with their kobolds underground.

The Raptorans, now being forced away from their forests, which were no longer safe due to logging Vishkayans, fled to the mountains. Many of them could not adapt to the harsh mountain slides, with far less food then their old forest homes and died from starvation. Realizing their technological disadvantage due to the Vishakayans having better arms, they assigned some of their people to work the mountain for better materials for war – so they could chase the Vishakayans out of their forest homes, like how the Vishkayans had done to them millennium ago.

Those that worked in the mountains became stouter and shorter, evolving so that they could mine more materials out of the mountains. They also lost their wings, as they were not required in the small confines of the mountain tunnels, becoming the first dwarves. The mountain ranges were abundant in stone, but not so much in metal, so the Raptorans have not been able to match the Vishkayans in their weaponry. However in working with the stone, some of those dwarves learnt the secret of stonecharming, a form of stone magic, where they could work the stone, to create stone guardians. They made the guardians in the form of horned, wing demons, granted the power of flight like their raptoran ancestors. These guardians, due to the magic involved in their creation, gained sentience – becoming the first gargoyles.

The gargoyles are still loyal to their creators, the dwarves – and have proven effective in guarding the Raptoran nests from Vishkayan hunters – who seek to take Raptoran eggs- which are a prized delicacy. Their stony hides are nearly impervious to the Vishkayan steel arrows. Though the process of creating a gargoyle is extremely long and pain staking, requiring many mage-smith dwarves working over decades to create one, so the Raptorans are loathe to risk their new sentient stone guardians in large scale battle with the Vishkayans.

Only time can tell which race, if any will gain domination over the world, Eon.


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Hmmm.
Think I might have a crack at it, though I might need a nap first ^^'
I'll generate a set and we'll see...

race 1 : 1d100 ⇒ 20 -> Dhampir (half-humanoid/half-vampire)
race 2 : 1d100 ⇒ 75 -> Ettercap
race 3 : 1d100 ⇒ 65 -> Derhii (winged, intelligent gorillas)
race 4 : 1d100 ⇒ 21 -> Changeling (hag-kin) (the children of humanoid males and hags)
race 5 : 1d100 ⇒ 43 -> Pixie


So basically all over the place.
>_<'
Yea this'll require a nap and some thinking.

(I'll make a back-up roster if my brain fails me)

race 1 : 1d100 ⇒ 91 -> Aberration-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
race 2 : 1d100 ⇒ 88 -> Raptoran (winged and taloned elf-like race)
race 3 : 1d100 ⇒ 59 -> Adlet (barbaric wolf-like humanoids)
race 4 : 1d100 ⇒ 37 -> Wayang (gnome-like beings with roots in the Shadow Plane)
race 5 : 1d100 ⇒ 15 -> Ifrit (humanoids with efreet ancestry)


That's…
Not that bad actually…
God(s) dammit!
We'll see


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Cover Turtle wrote:

Hmmm.

Think I might have a crack at it, though I might need a nap first ^^'
I'll generate a set and we'll see...

[dice=race 1 ]1d100 -> Dhampir (half-humanoid/half-vampire)
[dice=race 2 ]1d100 -> Ettercap
[dice=race 3 ]1d100 -> Derhii (winged, intelligent gorillas)
[dice=race 4 ]1d100 -> Changeling (hag-kin) (the children of humanoid males and hags)
[dice=race 5 ]1d100 -> Pixie


So basically all over the place.
>_<'
Yea this'll require a nap and some thinking.

(I'll make a back-up roster if my brain fails me)

[dice=race 1 ]1d100 -> Aberration-based Humanoid (wildcard, make your own!)
[dice=race 2 ]1d100 -> Raptoran (winged and taloned elf-like race)
[dice=race 3 ]1d100 -> Adlet (barbaric wolf-like humanoids)
[dice=race 4 ]1d100 -> Wayang (gnome-like beings with roots in the Shadow Plane)
[dice=race 5 ]1d100 -> Ifrit (humanoids with efreet ancestry)


That's…
Not that bad actually…
God(s) dammit!
We'll see

So.

lets give it a shake. I'll probably make this in small burst as my ADD probably can't keep me on topic for long.

In some distant corner of the Sea of Stars, an ancient rock clings stubbornly to its obit of a dimming star. This is Faron, an world who's seen billions of years come and go, seen its star flare and burn brightly, though now its reduced a smoldering ember.
The forth planet in its system, Faron is flanked by two orbiting asteroid belt, the results of some ancient planetary collisions or simply detritus from the formation of the solar system.

Faron itself host a strange amalgamation of environments, seeming to hint at both the great age of the planet and at the possibility of an early intelligent hands influence at shaping the very earth and sky.
The first thing one notices that, there are no seas doting the planet. Instead the planet is dominated by towering mountain ranges, these criss-cross surface creating a labyrinth of valleys, closed off to each other by incredibly tall peaks.
Snow-melt from these peaks filters down into valleys creating roaring rivers that feed the fetid swamps and jungles that cling to the equatorial valleys on Faron. Further from the equator, the valleys are dominated by temperate forests and patches of wet-moors, marshes and shrub highlands. At northern and southern poles the valleys are mostly composed of taigas, with patches of cold bogs.
Another thing one notice about Faron's biomes are, that greenery clings tenaciously to life here, despite the harshness of the environment. On the tallest peaks one can find juniper-like tree-bushes, in the equatorial swamps trees grow to great heights half-submerged in the fetid waters and on the poles ones can find snow-pines growing on little more then bare rock and snow.

The various valleys of Faron, are mostly isolated enclaves, that have only minimal contact with each other. The reason for this are multitude, the first being the relative isolation of most the valleys. All of the them are surrounded på tall peaks, with mountain pass between them being suspiciously rare, if any can be found at all. A further strange complication to this is quickly discovered by those who possess magical talent. Transportation magic seems unreliable on Faron, with attempts to travel father then one can clearly see resulting in the disappearance of the travelers, reappearing a few paces from the point of origin or other strange mishaps.
The hostility of the flora and fauna on Faron, adds another factor to the difficulty of travel between valleys. Outside most settlements, tribal camps or occupied ruin's of former civilizations, the wilds rule, with "untamed nature" quickly reclaiming any space left by the civilized races. Thus most enclaves are often in a continuing struggle to simply keep their particular valley safe and treverseble, which means most, though by no means all, of them tend to focus inwards rather then outwards, add a somewhat insular feel to most of the valleys civilized inhabitants.

I think that's it for tonight.
With a short presentation (not quite finished I think…)in place we'll get to the races in the next update.

The Exchange

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There was a little addendum to TL's questions on races working together...and this was my answer:

I would say both sides are pretty divided and nothing short of species ahnilation would force them together. Maybe aliens from outer space coming to nom everything on the planet. Those aliens could have been called in by some misguided idiot from any of the two factions trying to get a "Superweapon"

Or just do the how you get your faction to take over the world, Civilization style. The thing is that there's no good nor evil per se, both sides are to blame for their current respective messes.


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Race 1: 1d100 ⇒ 11 Drow
Race 2: 1d100 ⇒ 3 Dwarf
Race 3: 1d100 ⇒ 55 Gargoyle
Race 4: 1d100 ⇒ 17 Sylph
Race 5: 1d100 ⇒ 15 Ifrit

My initial thoughts: a very "vertical" setting, with a maze of underground chambers beneath a vast city of massive cathedral-like structures that were abandoned long ago by their mysterious creators. The drow and dwarves generally live underground, the gargoyles and sylphs inhabit the high structures and the ifrit are at home in both areas, perhaps acting as messengers and heralds between the other groups.

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