So what this is going to be is a little look into my thought process as I hammer out my own campaign setting. There's no rhyme or reason behind it other than to share the ideas I have and perhaps get some feedback as I go. Speaking of, feel free to leave feedback on the thread at any point, I'll be updating about once a week and I'm certainly one for taking helpful criticism and opinions into account. So now, without further ado, the diary of a madman's twisted dream unique fantasy world as it is brought into being.
Don't want to wade through a ranting, informal wall of text to see what this mess is about? No problem! Below is a basic, no-nonsense outline of things already established, to be updated alongside the chapters.
Amaranth is a setting based in a schizo-tech world of the same name, drawing heavily on steampunk, dieselpunk, WWII, sci-fi, fantasy, and variable other things. The races of the world used to be very industrial and expansive, but the world itself rebelled against the depletion of its resources in an act of terrible nature and magic known as the Reclamation. It's now 1000 years later, and the races have restored at least some of their grip on the world.
Section 2: Tech
Technology has a lot of strange qualities in this world. Gunpowder and traditional firearms are fairly rare, and mechanical bolt-guns are the ranged weapons of today (they use crossbow stats). Armor is more modernized, comprised of reinforced clothing, light plates of durable metal, and mechanically-aided suits of thick armor. Metallurgy and construction is better in general, and the more rare metals like adamantium and mithril are commonplace nowadays, with different compounds taking their place as ubermetals.
Aesthetically things look like they did in the Victorian era (or the 20s-40s in some cases), though cars exist as the old 30s style, motorcycles look like they did in the 50s, and airplanes/zeppelins look like they did in WWII, with some obviously fantastical airships thrown in for good measure. Large guns (artillery, etc.) generally won't use gunpowder, instead relying on combustible chemicals and/or magic to do the job.
Section 3: Races
Dragonborn- The next step in draconic lineage, created by dragons after they reached a dangerously low level of population. One of the major races, and very well-off. In an odd twist, they have started eliminating their dragon ancestors on account of being 'obsolete'.
Dwarves- As normal dwarves, only gun and air-focused. Driven from their mountains by an unspeakable horror that they unearthed and compelled by a hereditary memory to get as far away from it as possible. They have a strange affinity for cats.
Eladrin- Elves that retreated back to the fey realm during the Reclamation and have only just begun to return to the world. Known for their sleek, alien technology, psionic talents, longevity, and coldness regarding the current Amaranthine nations.
Elves- Elves that stayed behind during the Reclamation, melding into various cultures around the world. There are tales of 'feral' elves deep within the forests of Amaranth and the fey realm. Live slightly longer than humans, but not as long as eladrin. Generally have olive-toned skin, black hair, and brown eyes.
Gnolls- Civilized, smaller, and straighter-postured gnolls that thrive in desert and savannah regions. The founding race of the Salmakian Empire. Known for their interesting weapons and stlyles of combat, as well as their tendency to be a little more dramatic with their emotions. Often regarded as fickle and volatile.
Half-Elves- Should be obvious.
Half-Orcs- Again, obvious.
Humans- Everywhere, part of almost every culture, and come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
Minotaurs- A dying race and victims to slavery and extermination, one of the oldest races in Amaranth. Most are slaves, poor freedmen, or keepers of their amerindian-esque traditions.
Tieflings- Common, mid-level infernals that come to the surface to either live or experience it. Known for being rather lawful and occasionally distrusted for their origins. Reliable as negotiators in the right situations.
Warforged- Robots, created for an assortment of purposes. Most are mindless automatons, but a few have developed sentience by way of a glitch and make an uneasy living amongst the biological races.
Section 4: Countries
The Origin Alliance (Alliance)- Largest country, founded by human, draconic, and dwarven nations. Operates as a constitutional monarchy. Well-rounded in terms of strengths, but prone to high crime and poverty. Has a UK/USA feel. Leader- Emperor Virgil (early thirties, charismatic dragonborn), and one dragonborn, human, and dwarven prime minister.
The United Korschev Republic (UKR)- Second largest power in the world, founded by humans with heavy dragonborn and gnoll influence. Operates as a Communist State. Powerful military and industry, but reduced nation size due to a recent cataclysm. Bases heavily off of Soviet Russia. Leader- Alexei Belikov (mid-fourties, grandfatherly human).
The Kingdom of Salmakia- A relatively large kingdom expanding across the entirety of the Salmakian Dunes and a good part of the Gold Coast and Badlands. Operates as a Sultanate. Diplomatic and economically-strong, with a powerful defensive military. Leader- Atasi (early twenties, duty-bound gnoll).
The Free Territories- A group of free territories in the Badlands and Gloamingdale. Operate as a confederacy. Decently powerful with a strong military when united, but animosity generally keeps that from happening. Leaders- Several state leaders of different races.
The Trader's Conglomerate- A nation that spans across the Bay of Valjean and its islands, while having several outposts and embassies in nations across the world. Operates as a conglomeration, and is based solely on economic standard as a massive trading company. Leaders- A council of elected ship captains (generally the ones who made the most profit the previous five years).
Before we get to the meat of this chapter first, I want to take the time to think about the general idea a little bit more. We've got a bit to go on, but I want to do one last little exercise courtesy of OotS's Rich Burlew: Taking the core assumptions of D&D and turning them on their noggin. Now according to him (and he's a pretty trustworthy source), there are about eleven of these core assumptions if you follow the vanilla rules.
1Humans dominate the world.
2Gods are real and active.
3Magic is real and can be used by anyone who learns it.
4Opposite alignments fight each other.
5Arcane and divine magic are inherently separate.
6The wilderness is separate enough from the cities to justify 3 wilderness-oriented classes.
7There are hundreds of intelligent species of creatures, but 99% of them are considered "monsters".
8Arcane magic is impersonal and requires no "deal" with a supernatural being.
9Beings from other planes of existence try to influence the mortal world, usually on behalf of gods/alignments.
10Magic items are assumed to be available, and game balance proceeds from that assumption.
11Magic is consequence-free.
Now let's see what I can tinker with, here. The first things that come directly into focus are numbers 1, 2, 4, and 11. Let's check them out in order, shall we?
1. Humans dominate the world. Well, that's the general consensus. We are human, after all, and we like seeing our ugly mugs plastered everywhere. But what if we weren't entirely the ambitious, expansionist jerks that we usually wind up being? What if we didn't have the spotlight, or at least shared it? For the sake of marketing, I think I'm going to go with the latter. So humans are still one of the dominant species on the planet, but they aren't the dominant species. Coo'.
2. Gods are real and active. As much as I liked this when I was younger, I'm kind of turned off on it. There's only so many deus exes one can pull before it gets old. I consider perhaps eliminating them entirely, but that doesn't feel quite right. We may be in an age of progress, but faith is a very hard habit to just throw out. But are they real? Yes and no, I eventually decide. There are ascended beings that exist up in the heavens, and they're certainly very powerful, and some of them resemble the gods that the material realm worships, but they're not gods. Just extremely awakened beings with powers beyond the grasp of any other person. The notion of no gods and hence no treaties severely borks the Divine power system, I know, but I'll get to that. Now even if there are kinda sorta gods, are they active? No, I decide. Simple as that. Some lesser ascended beings may decide to drop in from time-to-time, but the big daddies are more keen to simply kick back in their celestial armchairs and worry about their own celestial business.
4. Opposite alignments fight each other. I never liked this one. As much a fan as I am of high fantasy, I prefer a world that's shades of grey.
And finally, 11. Magic is consequence-free. I never liked this either. I can understand it from a mechanical point-of-view, but at the same time it doesn't quite feel right. But at the same time, I don't want to spend hours drafting a way to make a magic system with actual consequences for its use, so I think a bit. Suddenly, it comes to me. This is the 20s. The age of Prohibition. What if it wasn't booze and smokes that were prohibited, but magic? Arcane and psionic power users are heavily monitored and regulated, and any unlicensed magic user was dealt with severely. It would make sense: After all, the Reclamation taught the world that magic can get rather cheesed off if it wants to. I like this idea.
The rest of the rules seem pretty solid, so I'll let them be. 9 needs to lose its 'gods/deities' qualifier, but that's easy enough. Now that we've got that overwith, let's get to the populating the world.
Now, I'm generally fond of somewhere between seven to ten major races. I like simplicity and fewer races makes things much more simple. We obviously want humans, since they're almost always here and they're easy to make. Want an example of what a human is? Look in the mirror. But who else? Elves and Dwarves are the token Tolkein races and are everywhere you look. Now, I'm pretty elved out and dwarves were always in that awkward zone of 'I like them, but I don't like playing them.' But at the same time, I can do some pretty fun things with them if I put my mind to it. So let's start with Elves.
Elves are almost always in three main varieties: Treehugging nature elves, snooty magic elves, and psychotic dark elves. As someone who was never into drow, using three as a springboard is right out. Number one is pretty overused as it is, and though it's the one I like most I also want to try some new horizons here. So that leaves number two: The bookish, snooty type. No thanks. What else is there? A recent stream of anti-elf movements has led many geeks to make their elves evil barbarians as well, and I want to stray from that partly because it's becoming a cliche in and of itself. Well, what about techy elves? They're generally reserved for sci-fi things, but I think I'd like to put them in here: A race of enigmatic, militarized elves with sleek alien tech and architecture and a knack for being entirely too cold and calculating. I'd make their arms and armor different to the rest of the world's in aesthetic only: Perhaps it shoots crystals or lasers instead of bullets, but the effect is close to the same. I like what I see. I think I'll give them a Japanese aesthetic, too. It would fit with the seclusion and the warrior culture, and giving them some zen buddhism on top of it is something I take a liking to. I'll also give them some innate psionic talent, because I like that as well and I want it to run parallel to the eladrin's arcane talent. All in all, a solid, interesting race. Right then, moving on.
Now, dwarves. Dwarves, dwarves, dwarves. Dwarves... Are pretty good as they are, to a point. I'm a fan of the whole 'hardy, tradition-filled artisans and craftsmen' and I also want to give them a focus on firearms, though that may be because I played a lot of Warcraft 3 as a child and the dwarven riflemen were one of my favorite units. Either way, they're cool. Now, I want something to be different about them. Something odd for dwarves. Well, dwarves are subterranean mountain men. What if we took away the subterranean mountain part? Perhaps these dwarves are natural aeronauts? The thought of a stout, bearded man in a fighter plane with goggles and a flight cap makes me chuckle but seems pretty cool at the same time. But what made them forsake their underground vistas? Perhaps it was just expansion. No, that's not good enough. Perhaps... Perhaps they dug too deep before the reclamation hit. Maybe they unearthed something so terrible that a hereditary memory compels them to get as far away from it as possible. A single, terrible sentence from an old ASCII game pops into my head:
"Horrifying screams come from the darkness below."
Yes. Very yes.
So we have standard issue humans, techy elves, sky dwarves, what else? Halflings? Gnomes? As cute as they are, I don't think I'm fond of the little races all that much. Half-orcs, tieflings, goliaths, dragonborn... Dragonborn. They'd be fun. But dragonborn are almost always the survivors of a once-glorious empire that was blown all to tartarus. And like the rest of my races, I want something different. So this time, the dragonborn aren't the last of a dying breed, struggling to keep their memory alive. They're in their prime, in fact they rival humans in diversity and number. I like the idea of a shining draconic empire instead of a bunch of lizards at the side of the road. They may even be the backbone and founders of the most influential group in the setting.
Lessee, that's four. Fifth... Let's throw some gnolls in the fray. Now, I had an idea for gnolls that I've filed away for some time now: I want to make them civilized, a combination of diplomatic and economic players with some military fun peppered in. Perhaps unsavage and shrink them a bit, make them less monsters and more people but let them keep a little bit of their innate savagery. I almost want to give them a middle-eastern/indian vibe and hey, why not?
Sixth, and one of my favorites, I think I'll go with minotaurs. As unoriginal as it is considering the rest of the world, I absolutely adore Blizzard's tauren and I plan on taking a lot from them. A lot, but not everything. I like the idea of throwing their amerindian culture a good many decades into the future. Slavery and extermination have officially handed them the 'dying race' crown. Some are still unofficial servants, some are freedmen scraping a bare living amongst the rest of the world, and some managed to rebase and continue their traditions. It would be fun to give one or two of the last tribes some serious aggression against the kingdoms. Modeling one after the apache would be fun. Maybe throw in some mongol influence as well.
I want a designated trader race, one with some definite naval prowess. As someone who like anthropomorphic animals, otters immediately come to mind. I like this. A bunch of bold, capricious, luck-loving explorers is appealing. I get a bit of an irish feel from them, and that's perfectly fine by me. I also briefly consider them having distant and slightly mystical origins, perhaps an atlantean civilization or something. Maybe it still exists. I'll get back to that. Also, they need a name. Aquarians sounds catchy if not a little long. It'll do for now.
What's that now, seven? Hm, I could do with a couple more. Robots. Yes, especially in a tech-friendly setting. This doesn't have to be strictly WWII era, after all. Perhaps there's been a lot of invention in the ways of robotics and programming (which would require computers, but again that's perfectly alright by me). I think I'll stick with the basics here and make it to where a handful of otherwise subservient machines have developed sentience and walk among the other 'true' races as an uneasy third class. Given the rest of the setting, I'm reminded of Penny Arcade's Automata. I think I'll use that as inspiration, since it's an awesome idea.
So we've got humans, elves, dwarves, gnolls, minotaurs, dragonborn, aquarians, and robots. I think that's a pretty good roster, and I can always come back in and meddle some more if I feel like it.
Phew, that was a lot to type. I think I'm going to take a bit of a break. See you folks soon!
This is pretty good stuff so far.
I like what you did with the dwarves; you completely turned their underground culture upside down and made the inversion plausible. Good work.
For the robots, I can easily see you using the warforged write-up. It's rather obvious, but hey, it works.
However' I can't say that I care for the way you decided to remove the gods; the way you described it makes them seem like uncaring, fallible beings. If you want to have a god be distant, yet worthy of worship, you could have him or her value free will. He or she gave the characters the ability to choose their own paths. Now, some people will abuse that choice, but for the most part, people choose the moral path. A divine being who gives you that choice and protects you from the consequences of your own foulups invalidates that choice.
I don't think that I am explaining it as well as I should, so I recommend looking at The Problem of Pain, but C.S. Lewis. It is intended to solve a real-world discrepancy, but you could easily adapt it to suit your needs.
www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apolo...
Oh, and the concepts of an age of progress and being faithful to a god are not mutually exclusive. Many revolutionary scientists professed a belief in some form of faith; the only reason that you don't hear about it nowadays is because it is unpopular with the politically-motivated scientists who use their degrees to advance their agendas. I won't go further into detail for fear of derailing the thread.
First and foremost, I agree with you on the gods issue, RKemp. I'd been looking for something better to do with them. I've thought on it a bit more, and the more I do the more I really feel like they could possibly do to be at least a little involved with the world at hand. At the same time, though, I want things to be pretty muted in that regard. I kind of mulled over the idea of the gods being worshipped but not necessarily present, and said worshippers don't necessarily need to know that. From what we puny mortals believe, the gods are doing all they can to aid us and fulfill our prayers, but in actuality, the big seats are empty and the lower offices are in disarray upstairs. Maybe the other celestial castes are autonomous now, just doing what they can in their masters' place. Maybe they still have some semblance of order complete with commands from an enigmatic higher-up that no one really knows the true identity of and plenty of conspiracy and corruption. So where are the actual gods? Are they dead? Did they flee during a revolt? Did they turn their back on the world in a striking gesture of apathy? Are they walking among the mortals and tending their little ant farm from inside the glass? I think I'm going to leave it open and have all those options be supposed answers to the ultimate question. Heck, this could even be a campaign plot. Either way they're well-known and widely worshipped, but not exactly there to take our calls.
Next up, expounding on the elves. I like the direction that I want to take with them, but I need a way to legitimize it. Looking back at the Eladrin, I like how they've got their own little realm that they inhabit. That would also give me a good opportunity for some development. So if the elves are from a fey realm (to be discussed later), they could have fled back to it during the apocalypse. So with their resources intact and presented with a place where no other civilizations could challenge them for dominance, they could flourish to the point where they're far more advanced than the rest of the world and all the more disdainful for it when they start returning to find that the other species have hardly changed past shooting bits of metal at each other. This also means I can just directly rip the eladrin rules from the book and use them here, perhaps replacing any mention of arcane with psionic. Because of the superior technology, this also gives me an opportunity to provide an alternate assessment of why elves live so long: It's not some innate magical force or a natural occurrence, their medicine keeps them healthy enough to far outlive their expiration dates. Before the advance they lived just about as long as humans, and were never particularly powerful or numerous on account of their low birth rate. Now they have strong numbers and the long lifespan that elves are always known for. This could also lend itself to the classic legend that elves lose their long lives when they abandon their homes: If the medicine is keeping them alive and the elves guard it with zealously, then any runaway elves would be just as weak and susceptible as any other amaranthian. Perhaps this makes exile one of the worst possible punishments amongst elves for this regard alone.
And now to the core of today's entry: The new content. Let's take a look at politics, first. Now when all is said and done this world is going to be fairly large scale, but the addition of faster air, land, and sea travel shrinks it considerably. Which I'm okay with: I'd rather have a small but fascinating world than a rolling expanse of boredom. But in order to have interesting things, you generally need people. And people have the odd habit of teaming together and leaving someone in charge. I feel like the world could stand to have a small number of major countries, maybe 5-6 at most.
The first thing that comes to mind is an alliance of powers whose major skills compliment each other and turn their country into an outright beast. A dragonborn nation that owns the bulk of the land and combine their natural diplomatic and cultural talent with decent military and technological skills, a human nation that has great militaristic and expansionary talent with a decent grasp on technology and diplomatic skills, and the better part of the surviving dwarves who have great technological and economic prowess, a strong military, and decent diplomatic skills. Those three races would make roughly 75% of the population, with the others making the other 25%. Altogether you've got an alliance that has no major weakness on paper. Not that I want them to be overpowered, but I like the idea of three nations that were always friendly before the apocalypse teaming together to help each other overcome it and honoring that bond for years to come. Being more or less the biggest player on the field, they should have no trouble with resources, either. I like the idea of giving them a facade, though: A shiny campaign of progress and a better future masking some of the darker aspects of that sort of utopia. Perhaps they as a nation have taken a bit more than they can manage, and corruption and crime are becoming problems. Perhaps even with their resources, they are short of being able to provide for everyone and poverty joins the list while the upper class sits smugly in their penthouses. It definitely adds a depression-era vibe, and I like that. Maybe this also explains why so many adventurers running about are from this nation: It's actually one of the more reliable sources of income at this point. I'm naming it the Origin Alliance, after their capital city. The Alliance I decide will be a constitutional monarchy, passing under the rule of three prime ministers, a member of each of the founding nations, with a fairly powerless figurehead to serve as the nation's icon. Rather than go for an old lady with a bunch of corgis, however, I'm going to go with a charismatic and relatively young dragonborn. We'll name him Virgil, and decide that he's an emperor. All in all I get the feeling like I'll be taking a lot of cues from america and the UK for this one.
Next in line on the power list, since we've got a well-rounded but largely diplomatic force, I want the opposite: I want a nation of iron rivets and smoke-belching factories that makes everything big and industrialized and has an impressive military power and agenda. And since Origin already has blue as their color, I might as well make them red. I also like the idea of it being based in a cold location. Pretty cool, but it seems kind of familiar.
Oh. Right. Well, even if it has been done to death, I've always loved soviet russia as a basis for fictional nations so out of personal preference alone, in the pot we go. Since we're already heading in this direction, I'll go ahead and give them a very russian feel in terms of culture and names, and situate them in a nation of mountains and tundra. They'll be primarily human and dwarven, with some acclimatized gnolls and dragonborn as well. We'll call them the United Korschev Republic (or UKR) and make name their leader a mid-fourties human named Alexei Belikov, more commonly known just by his surname. It will be a communist state, of course, but I think I'll give them a reason besides revolution: When the Reclamation hit them, they were trapped in an environment with sparse resources behind a mountain range. As such, their leader proposed that they shared what they had in order to better facilitate his followers and keep them all strong for when they fully developed as a nation. Centuries later and it's still in effect. Perhaps the leaders have been truthful and pure in their handling of the nation's resources, or perhaps they fell prey to the greed and corruption that grips most real-world communist leaders and the nation has been suffering for it. I decide on a bit of a middle ground: They're not honest saints, but they do keep to their word well enough for the country to exist and flourish in sort of an industrial, tanks and factories kind of way.
Third, I mentioned that I wanted the gnolls to have their own country, and for it to be desert-based. Since I've been working a little on the map as well and the desert region is named Salmakia, The Kingdom of Salmakia is an easy choice and one that sounds nice. I think that while the Alliance is a primarily diplomatic and militaristic, and the UKR is almost solely militaristic, Salmakia will be diplomatic and economic with a military raised from the ground up to be a defense force: They're happy with the land they have, they don't need any more, but gods help you if you try to take what's theirs. I think I'll give them a little backstory: Before the apocalypse, the gnolls were just as they were in vanilla D&D: Barbaric, demon-worshipping raiders. During the reclamation however, they found out that being a loosely-unified string of barbarians wasn't the best approach to survival. So the better part of them died out... Except for a splinter group that had already fled to the desert under a revolutionary and adventurer named Fang. Under his guidance they started their own empire with a focus on peace and diplomacy with a little bit of military tradition to keep their innate aggression in check. And from that little splinter group they've managed to blossom into a fully-fledged empire. I definitely feel like they deserve an indian vibe, perhaps with a bit of middle-east as well. From that I think I'll make them a sultanate, presided over by a young gnoll woman named Atasi, who stumbled onto the throne quite by accident but seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping things well-run as it is.
I'd like another specialist nation, this one with a definite economic focus. A trader's conglemerate, which would be a good name for it in the first place. The Trader's Conglemerate I feel should be largely naval, with some air and land-trade on the side. They run things through the rivers and across the sea to the many island chains they control as well as the other nations. They'll be founded by the aquarians, but will have almost an equal number of them, humans, dragonborn, and gnolls. It'll have an almost autonomous law system, but major decisions will be made by a council of elected captains, usually the ones that made the most profit from their trades. Considering that these would change every four years or shorter depending on the circumstances, I'll leave the current leaders anonymous for now. Since they're less an actual country and more a large collection of people with a similar goal, their culture will be pretty diverse, though I have this notion of making them slightly irish overall. We'll take it and roll with it.
I also think I'm going to throw in a handful of independent territories that have no unified leader and are more or less a collection of neutral cities scattered about in places where the other nations' territories end.
Finally, the elves get a country, and because of the aforementioned exodus it will be almost entirely elven. Also mentioned before, I think I'm going to give them some feudal japanese cues, if not in aesthetic than at least in some aspects of their culture. They're isolationist and prefer their own plane of existence, they rely very heavily on tradition, and they have a military with superior weaponry, armor, and technique. They almost sound like they should be the villains of the setting, but since I don't want to make the elves necessarily evil and I've already decided that everything is more shades of grey than good vs. evil, I think they're much more lawful neutral. We'll make this a shogunate, with the shogun being an older, experienced woman. A kind of matriarch that rules with benevolence and has a remarkably kind-hearted nature but at the same time has a great potential for being cold and ruthless. We'll call her Yukimura.
You could make the gods a gigantic diesel/ magic powered machines that also serve as power generators for most of the cities. They can have their own type of magic - diesel magic which in turn could be accepted among the people instead of the arcane magic or you can make diesel=divine. These gods don't have to be active, they can be passive (hibernating/ stand by) but still produce enough power for the cities to run.
Anyway, I like what you're doing here.
Also, Tenkazu: While I'm not going to use that idea word for word, it gave me an awesome idea for a plot hook. Many thanks for the input and ideas, as always. See you kids in a few!
Alright! So, everything's successfully unpacked and I've got a bunch of stuff to blather on about. Welp, allons-y!
First off, before we get to any new content, I want to go back and tinker with some already-established stuff. Namely, races and some tech.
Now most of my races work well, and I plan on keeping them. However, as much as I like the aquarians, I can't help but shake the feeling that they don't quite mesh. I love the idea of them, and I love anthropomorphics, but the rest of the setting has a bit of a serious tone to it, and I can't help but feel that they're a little too cute to fit. So I guess that for now I'll go ahead and shelve them with the bears, coyotes, and rabbit-folk that I'd made ages before. Maybe I'll make a lighter setting specifically for talking animals someday. I dunno.
So that brings us down to seven again, but I think I'll reintroduce a few more vanilla races into the world: classic elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.
Elves are easy enough, since they and vanilla eladrin already have a serviceable relationship: In this world, elves are simply eladrin who didn't evacuate to the fey realm during the Reclamation, whether by their own choice or not. Regardless, they're now walking amongst the other races with relative ease, and probably feel about the same sense of distrust at their 1000-year removed cousins as everyone else. They're kind of the middle child between eladrin and humans, seen as fallen peers by one and regarded at least as equals by the other. They won't live as long as their fey counterparts, but they will live a bit longer than humans. I don't think they'll have their own major nation, as even now their birthrate would be slow and their numbers aren't large enough, but they're common and respectable. I also like the idea of the traditional nature-y elves, so I think I'll throw in some 'feral' tribes deep in the untamed forests of the world, though as rarity goes they'd probably be little more than a legend to most. I also think I'll tinker with their looks some, making them tend towards olive skin, black hair, and brown eyes in contrast to their fair, blonde, and blue-eyed cousins.
Next up, half-orcs. Now I never really cared for greenskins (except bugbears, whom I love to death), but I dunno, something gave me a new respect for them out of nowhere. So now we're going to have half-orcs. I think I'll give them a similar backstory to their vanilla cousins and just make them a part of society through that regard (though why anyone would want to bed an orc of either gender is still something I've never really come to understand). I don't really have much to tinker with them, really. Though I would like to bring up bugbears soon. Maybe I'll touch on them and other common monster races next time.
Tieflings, however, are going to be a bit of fun. The classic devils/demons no longer exist in this world, because of a celestial war that lowered their numbers to a negligible amount (I really need to post a history chapter eventually). Not to say that infernal beings no longer exist, they're just not the dark monsters of fire and brimstone that wage war against all that is good anymore. Instead, they've become fairly neutral, with maybe a slight lawful tinge. Sure, they still do faustian bargains, but they're fair about it and collected souls are less toys for them to play with and more indentured servants, working under their fiendish business partners for an amount of time determined at the time of transaction. They've also adapted quite a bit, hence the tieflings. So tieflings in this world aren't half-infernal, they are the infernals, or at least their most common form. And occasionally a few decide to leave the lower realms for some time up top. How does this sit with the surface-dwellers? Probably reasonably well, since the infernals have made it clear that their intentions are completely neutral at this point. Suspicion due to their heritage is probably to be expected from case to case, but I don't think they'll have to live in the shadows as abominations.
Alright, well, that's those three wrapped up, and that brings us to a healthy ten (eleven, counting half-elves) races. I think we're good there.
Lessee, I was going to do tech next, wasn't I? Hrm, yes. So the more I look at it, the more that I think this is going to be a very schizo-tech setting, drawing from a number of genres and -punks. Now I like the idea of giving things a general early 1900s feel, where things were still reasonably victorian in style but beginning to change. That way of life will probably be prevalent on the surface, while things in Sky Country-
Wait, I did mention there would be flying cities, right?
... Huh. Well then, yes. There will be flying cities, under Alliance control. The whole network is known as Sky Country.
Anyway, while things in Sky Country will take a more 20s-40s and noir feel to it. Now here's where things get a bit odd: Cars will be more advanced than early-1900s ones, more akin to the old 30s style mobster cars than model Ts. Motorcycles exist, and they're more akin to the 50s bikes, in that they look fairly retro but have the same basic shape as today's. Airplanes exist, and they're very WWII in construction. It's kind of a hodgepodge, but it works. I think that does it for vehicles. The second major oddity given the time period would be robotics (warforged), and by that thought, computers. It gives a bit of sci-fi to the world (along with the alien-ish tech that the eladrin have), but it does work. I may want to toss a 'mechanics' and 'computer use' skill into the list at some point.
And lastly, we've got weapons and armor. Armor I've decided I'm leaving fairly open, keeping the original classifications and just leaving how it looks aesthetically up to the players, so long as it's in keeping. Reinforced clothing, light, durable armor plates, regular plate mail in some cases, and perhaps even heavy suits of thick, mechanically-aided armor for flavor's sake. I might make the incredibly rare uber-materials (mithril, etc.) more commonplace at this point. Weapons on the other hand... Well, they're going to be something fun to tinker with.
Now most of the melee weapons can stay where they are, and just be better-made and stronger versions of themselves (much in the same way that armor is). But ranged is going to have an entirely new face. Now I mentioned before that I want firearms, and I'm definitely throwing them in there, but I had an idea that I liked and would really help the setting keep some of its fantasy roots. Essentially, I'm thinking of a world where gunpowder is a rarity in most areas, exported from one spot (the deserts, mainly) that generally likes to keep their firearms to themselves. What would the world create instead? Well, since there have already been great examples of mechanical prowess, I'm thinking of really souped-up crossbows. Mechanically aided, semi-automatic, perhaps not even requiring the old bow attachment. I suppose one could say they're more mechanical bolt guns than actual crossbows, but the stats would likely still stand. I like the idea of high-powered mechanical devices that fire flechettes or bolts (depending on size) at velocities that make them just about as deadly as firearms. It would also be cool, since we're on the subject of neat tech, to have shinier models fold up for carrying purposes. There's a little rectangle with a handle on your hip, and when you draw it and press a button it slides out into a pistol, etc.
Now I mentioned that gunpowder (or more specifically nitre, one of the key ingredients of gunpowder) would be a rarity except in the desert. That being said, firearms would probably be everywhere around the world, just not as common as the bolt-throwers. For mechanics' sake I think I'll make them comparable in power, and hence mainly an aesthetic choice (so if you want a revolver and not a bolt pistol, knock yourself out), with the exception of shotguns, who I'll likely have to put something together for.
Hrm... I think that does it for now.