A campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, published by White Wolf under their Swords and Sorcery imprint. In 2013, Onyx Path Publishing and Nocturnal Media — both run by White Wolf alumni — bought the rights to Scarred Lands, with plans to re-imagine the setting and system. In January 2016, they ran a Kickstarter
for print versions of the new Player's Guide for Pathfinder and D&D 5e. In 2017, following the death of Nocturnal's Stewart Wieck, Onyx Path bought Nocturnal's half of the rights, becoming sole owners of Scarred Lands.
Scarred Lands takes place on the planet Scarn, 150 years after the second great war. The world is still in ruins from the conflict and its aftermath.
In this world, the Titans created pretty much everything, including the Gods. But just like they created everything, they also destroyed everything — thus making room for new creations. The Gods, who depended on the prayers of mortals for their own sustenance, could not easily accept the wanton slaughter of their followers, and almost all the Titans refused to be told they couldn't do whatever they felt like at any given moment.
For a while, the Gods and Titans coexisted. They even fought the first great war together, united against psionic extradimensional invaders called the Slarecians.
The second great war, known both as the Divine War and the Titanswar, was all of the Gods and one Titan together, picking off the rest of the Titans one by one. It is heavily implied that the Gods and their mortal followers would never have had a chance if the Titans had ever truly united against the threat.
In the end, the world (what was left of it) belonged to what has since then been known as The Nine Victors, each representing one of the nine character alignments. This is now the ruling pantheon of the world, consisting of the eight main Gods and the only remaining Titan, Denev the Earth Mother, a Captain Ersatz for Gaia who sided against her more destructive brethren. Ever since the Titanswar ended, she has been sleeping inside the earth, trying to heal the land from the damage caused by the war. There are also numerous Demigods, either born from the central Gods or with undocumented origins.
The primary gods
- Corean, the Avenger — Lawful Good (son of Denev and Kadum)
- Madriel, the Redeemer — Neutral Good (daughter of Mormo and Mesos, twin of Belsameth)
- Tanil, the Huntress — Chaotic Good (daughter of Denev and Hrinruuk)
- Hedrada, the Lawgiver — Lawful Neutral (son of Denev and Golthain)
- Enkili, The Trickster — Chaotic Neutral (son/daughter of Gulaben and Lethene)
- Chardun, the Slaver — Lawful Evil (son of Mormo and Gormoth)
- Belsameth, the Slayer — Neutral Evil (daughter of Mormo and Mesos, twin of Madriel)
- Vangal, the Reaver — Chaotic Evil (son of Lethene, Chern and Thulkas)
The thirteen titans
- Chern the Scourge
- Denev the Earth Mother — True Neutral
- Gaurak the Glutton
- Golthagga the Shaper
- Golthain the Faceless
- Gormoth the Warper
- Gulaben, Lady of the Winds
- Hrinruuk the Hunter
- Kadum the Mountainshaker
- Lethene, Dame of Storms
- Mesos, Sire of Sorcery
- Mormo, Mother of Serpents and Queen of Witches
- Thulkas the Iron Lord
Most of the setting resolves around Ghelspad, the most civilized continent on Scarn. Later, the setting began detailing Termana, an untamed continent where civilization struggles to survive. The desert continent of Asherak where the Gods were born, the Asian-themed Dragon Lands, and the icy realm of Ferilik have also been mentioned.
This tabletop RPG provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Mormo and Gormoth to Chardun. Hrinruuk raped Tanil. And the Titans in general didn't care that their constant reshaping of the world on a whim was harming the Gods' followers and thus the Gods themselves.
- Abusive Precursors: The Titans.
- Affably Evil:
- Hrinruuk was the most charming of the Titans, and everyone who met him had a hard time not liking him. Even so, he only cared about himself, and would kill and rape at his pleasure, being so self-centered that he gave no thought to their pain.
- Colaxis is said to have the personality of a storytale knight, being witty and courteous even in battle. The weird thing? He's a giant spider who's the champion of Sethris, the demigoddess of revenge.
- After the End: The apocalypse was one hundred and fifty years ago.
- Alien Sky: Scarn has two moons. One is the home of Belsameth, and considered a bad omen.
- All-Loving Hero: Madriel certainly counts. While she wants to destroy undead, it's more as a Mercy Kill, as being undead is implied to be a Fate Worse than Death. She was even nice enough to offer to painlessly annihilate Gulaben, rather than have her be trapped in a box which tortures her to the point of madness, but Gulaben refused.
- Alternative Calendar: Each year has 16 months, two for each god.
- Always Chaotic Evil:
- Not always used. It's pointed out on occasion that some Titanspawn (creatures associated with and main servants of the Titans) have turned to the worship of the gods. For the most part though, it's a non-issue. The monsters in this setting are mean.
- None of the titans other than Denev and Golthain have any redeeming qualities.
- Aversions of the trope play a bigger part in second edition, with four of Ghelspad's core PC races — the asaatthi, ironbred, orcs and slitherin — by and large turning from the Titans.
- While not Titan-worshippers, the manticora lionfolk also qualify in 2e, a good number turning from the service of their creator, the Chaotic Evil god Vangal.
- And I Must Scream: Most of the Titans were punished this way; they couldn't be killed, so most were dismembered or otherwise rendered physically helpless and sealed in some Tailor-Made Prison unique to each, still fully conscious.
- The Archmage: Yugman the Sage, one of the handful of characters in the setting who's past level 20.
- Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Justified — arcane magic causes the body to release extreme heat for the spellcasting (actually a side effect of the Titan Mesos attempting to put himself back together), meaning that heavy armor becomes an oven to any mage stupid enough to wear it.
- Asshole Victim: Most of the Titans are defeated and neutralized in pretty horrific ways such as (being cut to pieces, being cut in half, having their heart ripped out). But considering how evil and cruel they were, its unlikely players will feel any sympathy for them.
- Ax-Crazy: Special mention goes to Vangal and his followers, even more so because his weapon of choice is a pair of axes.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Subverted by the Necromantic Magocracy of Hollowfaust. They're necromancers, but rule one of the safest cities on Ghelspad, and are interested more in knowledge than power. That said, most of them are of a neutral alignment and aren't necessarily nice or fair. A few are even evil, but a restrained evil that the rest find tolerable.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: In this case, the balance exists, but isn't truly necessary. The gods know they aren't invincible, and aren't eager to go the way of the titans. They've all agreed to a Divine Truce that prevents them from directly warring on one another, instead pursuing their goals through their servants, as well as any personal conflict.
- Base on Wheels: The underground dark elf city Dier Drendal is periodically moved by a legion of golems, to keep their dwarven enemies from finding it.
- Beast Man: The Scarred Lands are home to a large number of humanoid animal races. These include the snake-based Asaatthi, the rat-based Slitherin, the horse-based Sutaks, the hyena-based Gnolls, and three races of Cat Folk: two kinds of lion-folk in the bipedal Manticora and the tauric Proud, and a race of leopard-people called the Terali.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted. Corean is often described as being rather plain, with all the other gods, including the Evil ones, being fairly attractive (the only apparent Evil Makes You Ugly case being an Invoked Trope by Belsameth, who is actually a subversion; see Evil Twin and Wicked Witch).
- Bed Trick:
- The mother of Enkili's daughter Drendari, demigoddess of shadows, was supposedly a mortal siren. Only a handful of beings (including Drendari herself but not Enkili) know that the siren was actually Belsameth in disguise.
- Belsameth herself was tricked into conceiving Erias, demigod of dreams, by her father Mesos.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Chardun, who was conceived by Mormo and Gormoth so that they could test the limits of divine endurance. At least, some people attribute his evil to the abuse he suffered. Chardun himself does not, nor does he encourage this view among his followers.
- Black-and-White Morality: Subverted — the alignment system is used, but the good and evil gods are mostly allied to each other. Mostly.
- Black Speech: Justified with Titan Speech; it's a language the Titans made to communicate with even nonsentient creations easily, and thus it incorporates a lot of words that sound like animal hisses, yaps, and growls. Anyone who speaks it can become a Monster Lord if they want, but it's just a language when it comes down to it.
- Blood Magic: Blood Mages use Titansblood to augment their powers, and gain some druidic spell casting ability as well.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Invoked with Yugman the Sage, who is said to not see the world in black and white, but in a color of his choosing.
- Body Horror: Quite a few of the monsters, and some of the spells as well. In particular is Gormoth and his cult called The Twisted. Gormoth was known as the Shaper, and was the first Titan to create sapient life. But after the other Titans poisoned him, imprisoned him and stole his secrets, he was driven insane and began to use his powers to take out his anger on mortal beings. His Twisted continue this tradition, although partially for experimentation and sacrifices instead of just fun.
- Came Back Wrong: What Belsameth tried to do to Jandaveos, the demigod of elves. Had she succeeded, he would've come back evil, and a powerful partner for her.
- Children Are Innocent: Sure, children are innocent. Monsters who look like children are another matter.
- Church Militant: The church of Corean places a lot of emphasis on crusades of good.
- Circus of Fear: The Carnival of Shadows.
- Complete Immortality: Basically the schtick of the Titans. BUT, they can be defeated so utterly it borders on Resurrective Immortality. Example: Mesos. And almost all the other titans, but especially Mesos. Golthain is the only Titan thought to be truly dead for all intents and purposes, having been given a Mercy Kill by Denev, who embraced him and returned him to the earth.
- Crapsack World: Arguable. There are many heroes and active good gods working on repairing the world, but it IS a very dangerous place.
- Darker and Edgier: The setting is a fair amount darker than most of the mainstream D&D settings, with the exception of Ravenloft (which is set in a literal demiplane of horror) and possibly the post-apocalyptic Dark Sun.
- Deal with the Devil: Inverted. A story tells how a man once sold his soul so he could become a sorcerer. He spent the rest of his life being as good a man as possible, treating his friends and enemies with respect and donating much of his income to those who needed it. Despite this, he still knew that one day his soul would be claimed. On his death bed, the stranger he sold his soul to comes to claim him. The man laments that he tried to leave a good life so others wouldn't have to damn themselves the way he did. The stranger chuckles, and as white wings envelope the man, he says that the world would be a much darker place if fiends were the only ones who heard desperate prayers.
- Not that it doesn't happen, mind - see Was Once a Man.
- Defiled Forever: The goddess Tanil, who is permanently depressed. If it's because her own father raped her, if it's because she got her revenge by pretending to let him join the Gods in the war and then murdered him, or if it's because of how the war destroyed the land... well, take your pick.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: 1e's setting actually discouraged this. The books emphasized that the Gods are likely to be far more powerful than any player character, and they're nearly all-powerful on their home planes, which they never leave. The Titans are so powerful that they aren't even given statistics. Because of this, epic level characters and feats were rarely used in the setting, although not directly taken out.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Some theology claims that Chardun became the Evil Overlord he is due to having some of the absolute worst treatment by his parents out of all the gods. Said theology is never hawked by Chardun's church by his own demand; while it's true that he was abused by Mormo and Gormoth and hates them, he claims he was always a greedy, ambitious deity by nature and the Titans were right to fear him.
- Draco in Leather Pants: In-universe, probably the reason the Titan Hirinruuk has a cult, despite his abhorrent personality and habit of creating powerful monsters to hunt (he made the Tarrasque so he could have something to stop being bored after the excitement of the Divine War ended). He even looks the part, seeming for all the world like a normal, if Bishōnen, man who is stated to be the most charismatic of the Titans. His lead cultist is implied to be an ex-girlfriend.
- Dream Land: A plane called the Dreamlands, ruled by the demigod of dreams Erias. The main location of his mortal worshippers, the Drifting Isle, is also influenced by dreams. Blood Bayou is also revealed to be a dream land, which is why reality keeps shifting there.
- Dying Race: The Forsaken Elves, formerly known as the High Elves. They somehow managed to kill a Titan. Unfortunately, the Titan cursed the High Elves by killing their patron deity, killing all the young members of their race, and preventing any more High Elves from being born. It's speculated that they could easily reverse this situation by finding another patron deity, but they are too stubborn to do so. They also try to create viable offspring with humans, some of whom are little better than Sex Slaves, but although this works, they hate and resent the resulting half-elves so deeply for their vitality that most of them leg it to other nations where they'll be treated better.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: Many followers of the Lawful Evil God Chardun are fighting to create a global Police State where everyone is under the feet of the hierarchy. Then again, they'd be free to be... ambitious, and thus advance in the hierarchy. As an added bonus, they will all go to Hell when they die, starting out at the bottom of its food chain.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- Most of the Titans.
- The Slarecians as well, who were originally beings of pure thought before they got trapped during the Titans' creation of the world. That's why they want to destroy it.
- Eternal English: Justified in regards to Titan Speech. The Titans developed the language as a way to communicate with their followers, but they weren't interested in keeping up with changes so their worshippers were ordered to keep it the same.
- Ethical Slut: The demigoddess Idra and her followers. Idra's mother Tanil may have been this, before her rape at the hands of her father and the scarring of the land. Tanil was the original goddess of love and sensuality (among her other roles as huntress and patron of spring and growing things), and Idra absorbed those aspects that would otherwise have been destroyed by Hrinruuk's rape of her.
- Everyone Has Standards: Shelzar is widely renowned throughout the world for its devotion to decadence and hedonism, earning it the in-universe moniker of "The City of Sin". But its sourcebook for the first edition of the setting makes it clear that whilst Shelzar may have lax morals by some standards, what with the casual sex and open acceptance of drug use and prostitution, it has plenty of standards:
- Rape is illegal. You can have sex with as many partners of any gender or race you like, so long as your partner(s) consent to the coupling. Rapists are castrated — or, if they used non-genital means of committing the act, then the "offending appendage" (hand or tongue, for example) is amputated.
- Whilst sintaurs are considered perfectly respectable, slavering orificers — a related breed of sex construct most easily described as a Blob Monster made of meat studded with countless female genitalia — are a distinctly underground phenomena.
- Knife dens, gladiatorial pits where the fighters wield daggers and fight to draw out the defeat (or kill) as long and painfully as possible, are forced to operate underground because they are too bloody and savage even for public Shelzari taste to countenance. They do enjoy a devoted secret following, however.
- Skin dens are truly hideous places forced to operate in secret as too horrible even for the Shelzari to tolerate openly. Their name comes because the primary entertainment is having living beings — animals, monsters, humanoids and titanspawn alike — skinned alive for the amusement of a sadistic crowd. Other entertainments on offer include people being Eaten Alive, people being burned to death, and people being forced to have sex with animals, monsters and titanspawn (often being killed horribly in the process).
- Shelzari see nothing particularly wrong with Stebec Faun staffing his brothel with prostitutes that include titanspawn and even undead, but if it got out that he was abducting people off the street and selling them to wealthy patrons to do whatever they like to them, they would recoil. It's stated directly that the normally lenient and laughable Shelzari legal system would skin him alive for that act.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Vangal in regards to Madriel the Healer. Being a god of destruction, Vangal finds the notion of healing others to be alien, and even disturbing.
- Evil Overlord: Chardun is the patron god of evil overlords. The main mortal example is King Virduk, ruler of Calastia and quite possibly the most dangerous man on Ghelspad.
- Evil Twin: The goddesses of Good and Evil are twins. With Madriel being the good twin and Belsameth being the evil twin. They often impersonate each other (especially with Belsameth impersonating Madriel, but the reverse also happens sometimes). Belsameth's true form, therefore, is a blonde angelic figure identical to Madriel. However, she prefers to appear as either an old hag or a dark-haired Lady of Black Magic.
- Experience Points: Actually given a justification. Every person has a thaumaturgic field, which grows as they gain power. This field is what lets wizards store their spells, and is also the source for the almost supernatural abilities that classes like rogues and monks gain. Whenever a character does something that costs XP, they're actually just bleeding off part of their field.
- Expy: Erias, the demigod of dreams, is quite similar in both looks and personality to Dream/Morpheus from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.
- Extreme Omnivore: Gaurak the Glutton. He ate every living thing on the moon. Also, his creations the fatlings and gauntlings, both of which are afflicted by supernatural hunger.
- Eyeless Face:
- The late Titan Golthain and many of his followers: Golthain got his face mutilated by his fellow Titans, and his followers tend to remove their own eyes in his honor.
- Also the Blood Maidens: After the gods won the war against their parent Titans, they sealed them since they could never be killed. One of the Titans, Kadum the Mountain Shaker, was chained and flung into the deepest oceans, where the sea now runs red from his constantly bleeding wound where his heart was cut out. As a result of the exposure, all nearby sea life became tainted by the Titan's blood. Among the resulting monsters were the Blood Maidens, former nymphs who look like beautiful women with long black hair and pale skin. When seeing their faces, the creature's monstrous nature becomes clear. Instead of a normal face, the Blood Maiden has only a giant circular, eyeless maw, like a lamprey.
- Extra Parent Conception: The god Vangal was conceived in a convergence between the Titans Chern, Lethene and Thulkas.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- The northern realm of Albadia is your basic Nordic/Scandinavian culture, with berserkers and fair-haired barbarians.
- The nation of Zathiske and the city-state of Shelzar show strong Arabian/Persian influence.
- The city-states of Asherak are all based on Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, like the Assyrians and Sumerians. There's even a region on Asherak called the Fertile Crescent.
- The culture of the Dragon Lands is closely modeled after Feudal Japan.
- Fantastic Racism: There is a fair amount between the "divine races" (those following the gods) and the "titanspawn" (those associated with the Titans). That said, all of the standard D&D player races like humans, elves, dwarves and halflings were created by the Titans before turning en masse to worshiping the gods and calling themselves "divine races" (though fanatics have destroyed the records of which Titans created them); only a few races like the manticora were actually created by gods. One book points out that the gods themselves were created by the titans, meaning everyone is technically titanspawn ultimately.
- Fate Worse than Death: Zig-zagged in Hollowfaust, where the highest punishment is "Final Forfeiture", i.e.: the condemned's body becomes the property of a random member of The Magocracy. If they're lucky, they're immediately killed and their body is used as Human Resources. If they're unlucky, they're not killed.
- For Happiness: One character interpretation of the Titan Gulaben.
- Freudian Excuse: In-universe, this is sometimes applied to the Lawful Evil god Chardun, who is believed by some to have become evil because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his Titan parents. His followers, who consider mercy a weakness, think this is nonsense, and that the torment only brought his true nature to the surface.
- Gender Bender: As the prime Chaotic Neutral deity, Enkili has two main forms: a storm goddess and a trickster god. Second edition explains that Enkili is genderfluid; born with a male body, they shift between presenting as male, female, both or neither.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The other character interpretation of the Titan Gulaben.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Usually averted with some attempt at justifying some more questionable examples. The Gods did free the world from the Titans, and have a close relationship with their followers. Because they can only manifest one avatar in the world at a time, they usually save them for truly important emergencies. They're also said to be busy with keeping the universe functioning, and sometimes can't take action unless a situation relates to their sphere of influence. But it's not satisfactorily explained why they don't take care of some of the bigger threats to save their followers the trouble.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly:
- The big difference between gods and titans. While the titans do have cults of worshippers, titans don't derive power from their followers but rather from the planet itself and can wipe out the races who worship them without suffering any ill effects (which they've done, repeatedly, throughout history). As such, the titans do not grant divine magic to their followers and are served by druids rather than clerics.
- Also a main motivation for most of the major conflicts in the world, from the Titanswar itself to the powerhunger of the evil gods: they need worship just as much as the good gods do, but mortals are more inclined to worship the good gods since these have more positive energy (healings, blessings, etc.) to offer. The evil gods are often prayed to in order to prevent being harmed by their associated bad things, but sometimes to bless some activity that falls in their purview (praying to Belsameth for success moving unseen at night, for example), regardless of one's alignment.
- A variation is found in Vangal, the Chaotic Evil god of slaughter. He doesn't draw his power from prayer, but from violence, especially violence committed by his followers. Technically he does need worship too, the worship just takes the form of mass murder.
- Great Big Library of Everything: The Library of Lokil. It is the only remaining part of the city of Lokil, which was destroyed during the Divine War, and its destruction may have been prevented by the god of knowledge Hedrada himself. They're very careful regarding visitors, and the sages constantly work to expand the knowledge held by the library.
- The Grim Reaper: This is one interpretation of the demigod of death, Nemorga. It's not necessarily his true form, but it's how most common people visualize him.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Vode Nulan was a warrior mage obsessed with ridding the world of evil. When he spent a year empowering a blade for that exact purpose, he called on Madriel to give it one final blessing. Instead, Belsameth disguised herself as Madriel, and cursed the blade to drive him to become incredibly destructive in his quest. When he finally realized what he had become, Vode took one final step to rid the world of evil—by killing himself.
- There are other examples in the series. Oberyn Amethyst fights against the oppressive Calastia regime, but actually hates all humans equally because it was humans who killed her family. Thadorius the Titanstalker hates everyone, and will kill any titanspawn he encounters, regardless of alignment.
- He Who Must Not Be Named: The fallen demigod of the forsaken elves is refered to as "That Which Abides". But it's not that people are afraid to speak his name, it's that they can't remember his name. Chern erased knowledge of his name from the world as one final "screw you" before he was killed. It's Jandaveos.
- Heteronormative Crusader: The Lawful Neutral God Hedrada and Lawful Evil God Chardun are both merciless bastards with harsh and arbitrary laws condemning love, sexuality, and, well, positive emotions in general. Hedrada is the one most prone to discriminate against homosexuals and promiscuous people. The laws of Hedrada's holy city Hedrad consider homosexual love and heterosexual promiscuity to be crimes punishable by death. It even has strict punishments for public hugging. Granted, this city also kills monogamous heterosexuals who enter relationships without getting the blessing of the church first. However, as a monogamous heterosexual, you CAN get the blessing of the church, while homosexuals and promiscuous people cannot. Storytelling-wise, the blatantly homophobic etc. laws of Hedrad are used to highlight that the God Hedrada is in fact NOT a good God.
- It should also be noted that Hedrada is usually written as having good tendencies; it's mostly in Hedrad that his negative aspects are in full force.
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: The gods made their own calendar after the Divine War ended.
- Homosexual Reproduction: The god Enkili is the result of a union between two female Titans with air-based bodies, Lethene and Gulaben.
- Horror Hunger: Many of Gaurak's servants are afflicted by this. His fatlings are so obese that they can only move because they sweat oil, and the gauntlings are cursed to be forever tormented with agonizing hunger. Both eat constantly.
- Humans Are Ugly: In the short story anthology "Champions of the Scarred Lands", a slitherin remarks to his captive that as he understands it, she's an ideal example of human beauty. He himself finds her smooth, hairless skin disgusting and her non-hunched over body ridiculous.
- Humble Hero: Barconius, leader of the city of Mithril and Corean's main paladin. An anecdote in a spell that allows the caster to create a clone of an enemy's shadow relates when Barconius was told after defeating a cabal of shadow casters that one of the shadows might have been his, laughed and responded "Then it's no wonder the villains were felled with such ease".
- I Did What I Had to Do: Sadly unavoidable in such a nasty setting. One prime example is the Order of the Morning Sky, who are often forced to burn villages infected with a virus that changes the populace into monsters to prevent the virus from spreading.
- Jerkass Gods: Some gods can be very cruel and abusive, and some are just straight-up evil. However, they at least have a vested interest in keeping mortals around, unlike the Titans, who by and large were even worse.
- Kill One, Others Get Stronger: The demonic outsiders known as ferals possess this trait.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: The Order of the Closed Book, who can multiclass as wizards and monks without penalty.
- Lack of Empathy: The main difference between the Titans and the gods, even the Evil gods, who are at least capable of honor and kinship. All the titans minus Denev and Golthain were simply incapable of considering the emotions or agency of others. In Golthain's case he averted this because seeing through others' senses was his main power.
- Land of One City: Due to the devastation of the Divine War, half of the countries on Ghelspad are city states.
- Love Goddess: Idra. Sex forms a big part of her religion, but a lot of value is placed on genuine love.
- Magic Knight: The most prominent examples are the Calastian battle-mages. A few other prestige classes are this too. The Asaatthi are a whole race of these guys.
- The Magocracy: Several, including Hollowfaust the City of Necromancers (largely neutral-aligned and not a crappy place to live despite the security forces being undead), and its rival city-state Glivid Autel (the one that does fulfill all the evil necromancer stereotypes).
- Massive Race Selection: Being a Dungeons & Dragons setting that took form in the 3rd edition era, the Scarred Lands has a wide variety of playable races outside of just humans (who, of course, have myriad different ethnic groups and origins):
- Dwarves consist of two major ethnic groups. Standard "mountain" dwarves are largely the format, except they are also one of the world's foremost practitioners of wizardry. The Charduni are evil dwarves created as the chosen race of Chardun, God of Tyranny. They embrace slavery and necromancy, and are naturally hierarchical, but struggle with independent thought and action, which ultimately caused him to abandon them as being unworthy of him. Forsaken Dwarves are mountain dwarves whose homes were destroyed in the opening volleys of the Divine War, and who have begun to devolve into madness in their paranoid isolation from the rest of the world.
- Elves are divided into Wood Elves (standard elves, save for the love of tattooing as a racial art form), Dark Elves (mysterious black-skinned conquerors from the underworld at war with the mountain dwarves), and Forsaken Elves, who were left a Dying Race after their patron god Jandeveos was slain in a battle with the Titan Chern. Half-elves are largely born of experiments by the forsaken elves to get around their racial sterility curse; whilst successful, their racist progenitors also hold their human blood agaisnt them, causing many to flee the forsaken elf homelands in Termana to seek shelter in Ghelspad.
- Halflings are a peaceful and agrarian people who have often been enslaved.
- Orcs are a warlike but not implacable evil titanspawn race in the 1st edition of the Scarred Lands, with a growing faction arguing for peace with the humanoids. In this same edition, half-orcs are quite widely accepted in humanoid society, despite — or perhaps because — most of them being either force-bred to be slaves or being the products of orcish raids. In the 2nd edition, the orcs have largely abandoned their Titan progenitors and allied themselves with the humanoids.
- Gnomes are semi-nomadic, xenophobic tribals native to the jungles of southern Termana. Their animistic beliefs means that whilst most are vegetarians, many see the meat of monsters, titanspawn and humanoids as being acceptable where animal flesh is taboo.
- Gnolls have a deeply spiritual and peaceful nation of their own in Termana that is closely allied to the Forsaken Elves, though there are many warbands who pursue the traditional D&D gnollish lifestyle.
- Terali are a race of humanoid leopards from Termana's southern jungles with a deeply spiritual and complex culture.
- The 2nd edition of the Scarred Lands saw several titanspawn races abandon their Abusive Progenitors and become allies with the humanoids, namely the Asaatthi, a Sutak (horse-people) breakaway culture called the "Ironbred", and the Slitherin. Also the Manticora, who were created by the evil god Vangal.
- 2nd edition also saw the invention of the Hollow Legionnaires, a race of humanoid spirits bound to suits of armor.
- Metaplot: The "Dead God" trilogy of novels deals with the efforts of the high priest of the elven demigod's efforts to resurrect his deity. He succeeds, and a follow-up supplement details how his return has affected the elven kingdoms of Termana, and the rest of the world. However, the series always emphasized that the final decision on anything was up to the DM, and encouraged them to ignore whatever they didn't like. There were a few other alterations to the series as time went on.
- Moral Guardians: Spoofed in the supplement Mithril: City of the Golem. Coffee is a controversial subject, with some believing that it's a gift from Corean to keep the people awake and alert. Objectors claim that it's a curse sent by Vangal to disrupt the city.
- Well, sort-of spoofed. Unbelievably enough, medieval Middle-Eastern civilization and then early-Rennaissance Europe each took this controversy very seriously. Modern Mormons still consider coffee verboten.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Mesos, Titan of magic, had six arms and wasn't above using swords. The spider-eye goblins and narleth are monsters with multiple appendages.
- Nay-Theist: Due to the destruction that the Divine Wars caused, there're some people who feel that the world would be better off without gods or titans. The other variant is mentioned, people who acknowledge the gods' existence, but question by what standard they are "gods," a philosophy most people in the setting take a dim view of.
- Neglectful Precursors: While the Titans can't be killed, the Gods were still pretty sloppy in disposing of their remains, which have tainted the land and its creatures. However, the worst examples apply to Titans who were killed by the evil gods. One passage believed to be written by Chardun says that the aforementioned Blood Sea was the fault of Vangal, who decided to chuck Kadum into the ocean after they bound him.
- Noodle Incident: The first god Vangal was created by a "union" of the titans Chern, Lethene and Thulkas. How they accomplished this is not explained, aside from a general You Do Not Want To Know.
- Ominous Floating Castle: You can make your own!
- Our Centaurs Are Different:
- The Proud are basically an Always Chaotic Evil spin on the wemics from the Forgotten Realms, resembling large lions with the upper torso of an anthropomorphic lion replacing their head.
- Sintaurs are "sex constructs" found in Shelzar, which are flesh golems made to a centaur-like body plan as living sex toys. A sintaur consists of a human body with a second lower torso attached to the base of its spine to create a horse-like lower torso, with a set of genitalia between both the "forelimbs" and the "hindlimbs". The legs are replaced with arms ending in supple, dextrous, long-fingered hands. Sintaurs modeled from female bodies are given four or six huge breasts. Wealthy Shelzari keep them as status symbols, sometimes keeping whole stables of the things, and they are often decorated and paraded during the Shelzari festival known as the Night of Masks.
- Our Orcs Are Different: In first edition, orcs are a titanspawn race, and whilst largely similar to the standard orc of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, there is a growing movement within their lands promoting peace since their Titan patrons were beaten in the Divine Wars. Second edition makes orcs a core PC race. Physically, they stand on average about a foot taller than humans, with dark leathery skin (often with a greenish cast) and tusks. They decorate their skin with celestial tattoos, resembling constellations or starscapes, marking a 'star' on their skin when they reach a significant achievement or failure. They have a tribal society, a preference for animism and shamanism over worship of the gods and titans, a fascination with astrology, and are known for their leatherwork and metalwork.
- Parental Incest: Hrinruuk raped his daughter Tanil, resulting in the birth of Idra. Mesos also tricked his daughter Belsameth into coupling with him while he was in disguise, conceiving Erias, the demigod of dreams.
- Plaguemaster: Chern, a titan who was a giant humanoid mass of disease and filth. His sorcerers and druids as well. Vangal, as the son of Chern, is the god of pestilence. However, his preferred method of killing is a bit less... subtle.
- Power Tattoo: Tattoo magic (introduced in the Relics and Rituals sourcebooks) allows useful tattoos to be implanted into the user's skin and activated as needed. They include Chardun's Might (+4 to Strength and Dexterity), Coreans' Forge (Stoneskin spell on user) and Dragon (gain a dragon's breath weapon attack).
- Priceless Paperweight: The pantheon of Gods managed to slay the titan Kadum (aka The Mountainshaker). The mighty titan's source of power was his heart, so the goddess Belsameth (aka The Slayer) ripped it out... and has since used it as a footstool.
- Psychopathic Manchild: When you get right down to it, the Titans are basically glorified versions of this, as they basically view their creations as nothing but living toys to play with, and, as such, see no reason to be nice to them if tormenting and killing them shouldn't prove more entertaining. Kadum is probably the most extreme example: he really hates cities for some reason and had a massive temper tantrum where he destroyed a great city built by Hedrada's followers.
- Rape and Revenge: The goddess Tanil and her father, the Titan Hirinruuk.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
- Idra is one of the gentler deities, but shows no mercy to rapists. She should know, being the product of one.
- Shelzar is openly tolerant and even welcoming of prostitution, polygamy and homosexuality, unlike most cities in the Scarred Lands, but rape is absolutely not tolerated, and punished with castration.
- Ritual Magic: Introduced in the first Relics & Rituals book.
- Rat Men: The Slitheren, rats who were mutated by feeding on the remains of the fallen titans. Some are just generic Rat Men, but there exist tribes who have powers based upon which titan's flesh their ancestors consumed.
- Reincarnation: This was the standard fate of souls before the gods set up afterlives on the outer planes, and is what followers of Denev still aspire to.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: As grim as things may seem on the surface, the developers tend to emphasize the hope of the setting. The devastation of the land? Denev is slowly knitting the world back together, and her druids are hard at work as well. The millions of monsters running around? All of them can be killed, and there are many organizations devoted to doing just that. The seemingly unstoppable advance of the Calastian empire? The possibility that the tide could turn against them is brought up several times, and they have a lot of enemies. There's a lot of work to be done, but the ultimate fate of the world is in the players' hands.
- Snake People: The asaatthi. They largely worshipped Mormo, used to rule the world, and had unparalleled skill in magical and martial arts.
- The Dog Bites Back: The whole Divine War was pretty much one big example: The Titans basically viewed their creations as their playthings they could treat any way they wanted, the gods included. The gods eventually rebelled, and, while less powerful in general, they were able to beat the Titans with the help of a Titan who joined them.
- The Starscream: One of the villains is a mysterious being called Momus, AKA the Jack of Tears, who rules over the Carnival of Shadows in Blood Bayou. He has four lieutenants, and all but one of them is planning to usurp him and betray each other. Momus is well aware of this, but he lets them continue their machinations just because it amuses him.
- Stripperiffic: Justified — using arcane magic releases heat within the spellcaster's body, explaining the core rule systems ban on wizards using armor while also giving the caster the buff protection from cold with the side effect of making any heavy clothing really uncomfortable to wear. Some cultures embrace the skimpy garb this situation tends to require, while some with more modesty wear scant clothing under loose fitting robes that they can quickly cast aside when they need to use magic.
- Suddenly Sober: There's a low level spell that allows you to do this. Sometimes, young sorcerers will instinctively cast it on a drunken parent.
- Super Wheelchair: Danar, one of the seven necromancers who rule the city of Hollowfaust, built a mobile chair for herself with multiple arms. It can even crawl along walls and ceilings (with some of the arms holding Danar in place), and can also dress and undress her and assist her with her bodily functions.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: Both the god Corean and the titan Golthagga have this trait. In Golthagga's case, he didn't mind using his forge to reshape living beings with metal as well.
- Unperson:
- You may be asking yourself why the setting doesn't technically have a True Neutral god, with the Titan Denev fulfilling that role instead. Well, it did. His name was Urkanthus (son of Denev and Thulkas), and he was the only god who objected to the Divine War, foreseeing the damage it would cause. While most of the gods were willing to continue the debate, the evil gods... weren't. After murdering him, they destroyed his writings, his temples and all memories of him. His mother Denev hesitated for a while to throw in her lot with the gods as a result. This was also the fate of Gulaben, because her pleasure-inducing powers would've been too tempting for others to try to release her.
- Denev has a bardic order that can do this, if someone angers them enough.
- Vice City: Shelzar, the aptly named City of Sins.
- Villainous Glutton: Gaurak. He's said to have devoured all the life on the planet's moon, and when the gods imprisoned him, they had to break out all his teeth, before burying him alive so he couldn't just chew his way out. Many of his worshippers also fit the Trope, becoming horribly obese creatures called fatlings.
- War God: All the Evil gods are lords of different kinds of war; Lawful Evil Chardun is the lord of tactics and conquest, Neutral Evil Belsameth war magic and assassination, and Chaotic Evil Vangal battle fury and bravery. Lawful Good Corean likewise is the god of honor and just war.
- Was Once a Man: The power of the Titans tends to turn people into that Titan's idea of perfection - fatlings are priests of Gaurak who ate a sacred melon that is only palatable to his chosen, and hags are women who desired Mormo's dark magic, which gave them Age Without Youth.
- Wicked Witch: Belsameth has this general appearance in her favored form. Note the word "favored"; she's actually Madriel's identical twin, and thus actually a Hot Witch. She, however, hates her sister with a passion and only takes her true form if she thinks there's a large gain she can get from it.
- The Wonka: Yugman the Sage. Very powerful? Yes. Extremely knowledgeable? Definitely. Comes off as a complete kook? Oh yeah.
- World Half Empty / World Half Full: The setting is not strictly in either category. The world has been torn apart, the Titans' remains taint the world, there are thousands of monsters everywhere, the evil gods are as active in the world as the good gods, and the possibility remains that the titans could be resurrected. However, despite the dangers of the setting, it's rarely suggested that those dangers are insurmountable in the long run, and there are plenty of heroes and hope to be found.
- Worm That Walks: One of the monsters described in the "Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie" are vermin hosts, former human vagrants who were cursed by one of the evil gods who was angry that they happened to pray to another god other than him to let them live another day in their dismal squalor. From this Disproportionate Retribution he had various vermin (rats, roaches, leeches, spiders) burrow into their skin, giving them Cursed with Awesome powers as they are able to use their new abilities to control their own swarm of vermin, turn into giant anthropomorphic versions of those vermin, and disintegrate into swarms to help escape enemies or commit espionage (which the spider vermin hosts do most of the time). As a side note, they're able to reproduce The Virus style by allowing one of their vermin to infect a person, whose whispers of power and whatnot usually cause them to accept them thereby summoning a larger swarm of that vermin which turns them into new vermin hosts while inheriting some of the memories of the previous ones. This is also squicky because, mind you, the vermin are always moving under the host's skin to find more comfortable areas to rest (which includes large rats!).
