If you have the Unapproachable East book, I would start with that. Though it's not Kara-Tur, exactly, it will give you a feel for some of the races and cultures you encounter as you head east.
As for specific races, humans of course, there are analogs for just about every asian culture in Kara-Tur, so if there is a particular Earthly culture you want to emulate, there is a place for it in Kara-Tur.
As for non-human races, well, there are taer (an intelligent yeti offshoot), spirit folk, yak-men, tako (if you are near any port city), korobokuru (dwarves), hags of all kinds, rakshasas, oni, ogre magi, kenkus, tengus, and a whole lot of hengeyokai.
Hengeyokai are animal folk. In 2e they were shapeshifters and could shift back and forth between a human form, an animal form, and an intermediate bipedal animal form. They are not afflicted with lycanthropy and cannot infect others, they are just born that way. The most common types are: carp, cat, crab, crane, dog, drake, fox, hare, monkey, raccoon dog, rat, and sparrow.
They have dryads (called bisan), goblins (called bakemono), talking carp, kirin, elementals, genies, foo dogs/foo lions, were-rats, were-tigers, kappas, Lung dragons, nagas and yuan-ti. There are also the giant monsters called Gargantuas, which come in many flavors (think King Kong, Godzilla, and Cthulhu).
There are also scads of weird undead and spirits and fey that are particular to Kara-Tur. Too many to go into in specific, I recommend picking up the Kara-Tur monstrous compendium for reference. Also the 3e Oriental Adventures and 3e Rokugan Campaign Setting sourcebooks are good places to find interesting encounters and lore that can be adapted for Kara-Tur.
Lastly, you could really use any creature from the monster manual. Kara-Tur is also filled with monsters of the more mundane, western variety. There are oozes, constructs, gnomes, snakes, bats, rats, spiders, etc. Or you could take any monster from the monster manual, change it up a bit, give it an oriental twist, enough to make it slightly unfamiliar, and your players will be thrilled and maybe a little freaked out.
Drow are not technically present (nor are Elves), but there is at least one mention of Ninja Elves (don't ask), and another in Guge concerning a group of 'half-Elves' that dwell in giant ant-mound like affairs. This leads me to believe that there were some Drow in the east at one point (both of those things I mentioned do not sound like things the surface Elves would do). As for surface Elves, there are non-canon in the far east, but there are at least two seperate groups mentioned in The Horde stuff - the Lythari of the Wastes, and a settlement called The Pleasant Valley Gateway Oasis (Elves don't believe in simple names).
There are also two sepearte kingdoms of 'western' dwarves in The Hordelands as well (Siremun, and ones form The Glittering Spires).
There is at least one halfling living right on the border of Shou-Lung in another oasis, so one can assume that a few 'wanderers' have gotten that far east. In the Kara-Tur Netbook project, we have taken an Oriental Mythological race - the Shojo - and applied it to the halfling. Just think 'water halfling' for these guys, which fits even better in 4e. They like to drink large amounts of alchohal, and have prehensile hair (I'd make that a background feat, useable once per day).
There are tons of Fey/spirit creatures also in K-T, ranging anywhere from 1-3' in height, with various weird features (bird feet, or cat-eyes, for example).
Frostmen have also become part of the east, thanks to the novel Frostfell. The far north was always known as The Land of the Snow demons, and it turns out that most of those are frostfolk. Another group for this region are the ferocious Kala.
There is also a race of giants (don't have the name handy) that are neither good nor evil - like humans they can go either way. They are more like very large ogres - like small hill giants - but not as stupid. I use the Goliaths for them, from Races of Stone, and just add in a pinch of oriental flavoring.
And of course you have your Ogre-Magi, called Wang liang in OA material.
As for monsters, you have a plethora, and nearly all of them have human-like intelligence. Dragons are the most powerful of those, but you have all sorts of creatures ranging from the powerful to the miniscule that can all speak and have dealings with humans.
There are also at least one canon race of apemen, but I've added several others in as well - they fit nicely in the jungles. Two are Spelljamming races, and its easilly explained-away considering the largest starport on Toril is in the Yehimals. The canon one - looking very much like Silverback Gorillas - is called Hising-sing, and there is another psuedo-canon one in the 3rd edition OA called Vanara.
Like Gray said, there are tons of shapeshifting races, and besides the Hengeyokai we have the Goblin Rat, which does not appear to be a Goblin species, strangely enough. They seem to be akin to Wererats, but have become a race unto themselves, combining features of both in a repulsive creature about the size of a Dwarf (I suppose this is as close as a 'Shifter' the FR comes).
Other fun ones are the Hannya - a combination of Yuan-ti and Hag - and the Hai Nu, which looks very much like The Creature form the Black Lagoon, but are peaceful. There is yet another water-dweller called the Kappa - with different varieties - which is sort-of like the Ninja-Turtles 'gone-bad'.
...which is exactly why I'm getting the Grand History of the Realms :D
Naw but seriously, if you're confused about what races are to be encountered, either take the above recommendations or just make them up. Asian dwarves anyone? (YES, I know they're in Kozakura. Stop pestering me you lore-fanatics.)
...ah, Forgotten Realms lore. You take one look at it and declare it "complicated".
-Yeah, I'm pretty sure no one in the thread even said the word 'complicated'.
Kara-Tur is it's own setting, just like Zakhara - whereas the first was made for Oriental Adventures, the second was made for Al-Qadim (don't get rules and settings mixed up here).
I have seen K-T tacked onto other worlds - usually a mirror-image of itself gets added to Oerth (GH) - and I have seen likewise for Zakhara. Officially, both have been shoe-horned onto the same world as the Realms, but they are still considered seperate settings (FR had SIX official seetings). In fact, Kara-Tur predated FR as a commercial setting by about a year (not counting Ed's 'home campaign' here).
So please don't consider this 'Realmslore' - it is Kara-Turan Lore, and can be used with FR, but is not exclusive to it (well... maybe the Horde material is...).
- Kara-Tur
- Zakhara
- Maztica
- Anchorome
- Osse
- Katashaka
-So, information on any of these in their respective sourcebooks would be Realmslore.
The only thing you need to know about to run a good FR game is Faerûn - knowledge of the other areas may help, but is certainly not necessary.
The six settings are -
1) The Forgotten Realms (The Heartlands)
2) Kara-Tur
3) Zakhara
4) Maztica
5) The Hordelands
6) Malatra (LFR)
-There is a Tibetan Buddhist train of thought that goes something like this (I believe it is attributed to a Dalai Lama): To men, mountains are mighty. To giants, mountains are an afterthought.
"When one first follows Zen, we see just a mountain. As one learns and grows in Zen, we come to realize the mountain is much more then a mountain. When we have truly mastered Zen, one realizes the mountain was just a mountain all along"
I remember thinking that was so deep back then... now, not so much. ;)
It's all a bunch of psycho-babble designed to get you to wear an Orange dress and jump around with a tambourine at airports. :P
I was into Zen for awhile
-I don't like Zen Buddhism too much. It's a...'corruption' of Tibetan Buddhism.
It's all abunch of psycho-babble designed to get you to wear an Orange dress and jump around with a tambourine at airports. :P
-The Hare Krishna mantra is Hinduism, not Buddhism!
I prefer to learn everything I know about Tibet and Buddhism from Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child.
