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He'd be the best double edged sword ever.

He's also have to be mysterious and maybe even mindscrew-y. after all if you know it exist for a fact than that's knowledge not hope. Maybe it go by different names and even pretend to be an adventure or start rumors about something so people will hope that they are true, or hope that they are not.

Dwarves & Elves

Elves are treated exceedingly well by dwarves, recieving a level of preferential treatment unheard of for other races. However, dwarves never deal with elves directly, always acting through proxy agents of other races when involving the elven race. This 'silk glove at an arms length' approach originate from a very strange phenomenon involving dwarves and elves.

When hearing about elves second hand and seeing picture of them, a dwarf will express no trouble about that race, anymore then he does any other race. When meeting an elf face-to-face, a dwarf will be filled with irrational anger towards the elf, an occurence that will deeply bother the dwarf afterwards as he cannot explain the emotion. After the first few diplomatic incidents during first contact with each other, dwarves quickly took to dealing with elves through proxy agents as a precaution and dealing with elves overly favorably as an apology.

Sijo: Dwarves, yes. Elves we'll have to vote on.

edited 4th Dec '11 3:44:07 AM by Exelixi

That sounds more like the God of Hope Spots. Still, interesting take.

OK, I think I'll do a summation on what we have agreed on so far, for the benefit of Vyc and anyone else. Next post I mean.

Thank you. :)

I can smell the rancid breathe of FATAL creeping behind me.

Sorry, but that goes too much into the "Race as Culture" concept for me.

Okay, here I go. This will be brief, for more details check the original posts. And if I get anything wrong please correct me!

Campaign name: "Domhain Sceal" (Trope Land, in Celtic)

Origin of the Universe: Formed by itself from a primal chaos, wasn't created by the gods, those came later.

The Setting: A huge continent that contains examples of every real-life biome eg, thundra, desert etc. It is split in half by a mountain chain from top to bottom. The only native humanoid inhabitants are the Orcs.

Other, smaller lands do exist.

Magic: A great energy from the time of creation is what powers magic, but it seems to be declining, which has even the gods worried (in fact, it is just becoming latent.)

The energy runs across the world in leylines; powerful nodes are under high demand.

Races: The Five Races exist here, except their cultures vary wildly from the standard (see each individual entry for examples.) Also note that the races are not limited to a single culture, just like humans. Also applies to demihumans (Gobins, Orcs, Trolls etc.)

Gods: Two sorts, very different in origin and nature, not that those foolish mortals can tell: Celestials, who are Anthropomorphic Personifications of living beings' desires and beliefs, and Terrestrials, PhysicalGods who are formerly-mortal beings who somehow rose to godhood. Note that each god is unique, and has his/her/its own ideas about being worshiped.

Technology: Schizo Tech, mostly with a Steampunk feel.

Theme: Colonization. The Big Continent is a New Frontier full of resources (including ley nodes) and challenges for the peoples from the others. Overall, think of "Conquest of the Americas" but with different races, magic and technology thrown in.

...And I think that's all so far. Anything I missed?

edited 5th Dec '11 5:58:33 AM by Sijo

Nothing that I can see. Are there any other races that we should go about creating?

So we have Dwarf Dwarves, Nihilistic Budhists Dwarves, Druid Dwarves, a pair of green-skin races with wierd biologies...

What are elves? I know my idea got rejected.

I think I might want to work on a location and magical creature protecting it's leyline.

Try node (Where two ley lines cross), as leylines are fairy long and would be hard to guard.

Okay, I'll work with a node then.

Sounds cool, Vyc!

Sijo, I did see one error. The Orcs have been on the Spine (operating name, by no means final) for as long as anyone can remember. Natives, as it were.

So, God, here's a question, since the Humans are your idea: do they have their own lands and culture, or do they exist within the other races? Or both?

edited 5th Dec '11 2:39:30 AM by Exelixi

Corrected.

"So, God, here's a question, since the Humans are your idea:"

Out of context, that sounds hilarious.

-*Ahem* Back to the Campaign, I got some questions:

• What do the peoples of this world call magic? Both the energy and the art of its use.

• Regarding the God of Faith, I think I would like it better if there were two deities, The God Of True Faith and the God Of False Faith. Who may have been the same entity at some point? Just an idea.

• Are we going to include Hobbits and Gnomes? If so, what should they be like? Also, Lizardmen.

edited 5th Dec '11 6:15:52 AM by Sijo

I didn't think about how funny that would be until you mentioned that.

Regarding questions:

• Magic I assume. Magicians? Mages? It could be a colloquial thing- different cultures call them different things. Or maybe the magician's guilds (unions?) have a system of advancement, like colleges; instead of associate, bachelor, master, doctor, you have apprentice, mage, sorcerer, wizard or something like that. Possibly even with a similar credentials system, IE "I have a Wizard's Degree in Thaumaturgy and Pyromancy" or something.

• An interesting idea. High chance of paradox there, though. True faith to the god of false faith anyone?

• I see no reason why not; it's certainly an option, if anyone wants to tackle it.

Hey, sorry for dropping off, but I got sucked into Fallout 3.

Ok so nice to see that the idea of Dwarves Vs Elves is dropped, we see that a lot in Fantasy and theres never been a reason for it unless you equate to a bunch of white trash hating on milquetoasts. Which is still unreasonable for a fantasy setting.

Query about the Orc monasteries: Why do they practice martial arts? I mean its very rare for that to occur in monasteries, even in China there were only a few monasteries that maintained a martial arts tradition. Considering that most fantasy settings are grounded in western European contexts, why do we suddenly have kung fu instead of theological scholars and philosophers in other settings? Why do monastic orders of peace practice a system of killing with only one's hands? Now that they're orcs we some reasoning IE Orcs are inherently prone to violence and the ascetic lifestyle of the monk requires the martial art as a way to channel their aggression without engaging destruction, which is normally the end result when two or more Orcs live in the close confines of a monastery. Otherwise they spend most of their time tending to herb gardens and engaging in scholarly pursuits.

For the idea of organized labour meeting Magic:

There exist 2 major organizations that consider themselves the authority on magic.

The Circle of Nine Stars, founded by nine powerful mages way back, its very traditionalist and holds an arrogant view that all beings who wield magic are members of the organisation and should therefore be paying dues from the moment they breathe their first breath. Its very slow to react to political changes and generally keeps out of disputes on the basis that non-magic users rarely have anything they want and can rarely afford to hire/buy those magical services or objects that the circle would actually be concerned about. The Circle has a 9 member ruling council, each councillor is equal to their peers, although female candidates are rarely promoted to a seat. No member of the council has the power to Veto a vote and many serious matters such as warfare are mandated to require a unanimous vote, thus the Circle itself is a nest of viperous politicking and slow to achieve goals that any organisation with proper leadership would achieve on a daily basis. The four key seats on the Circle are The Keeper (leads the Keepers, the smallest and publicly unknown group within the circle, they are devoted to hunting demons, demonic worshippers and would rather brutally use blades and mind rape when words would be just as effective), The Seeker (leads the Seekers, adventure archaeologist mages obsessed with finding artefacts of the past and potential of using them to innovate "Modern" magic, frequently at odds with the Keepers and their constant declaration of HERESY and the rest of the council for being slow) and the Warden (leads the Wardens, the internal and external police force in magical affairs, often clash with literally every other major and minor faction that has magical potential, is currently engaged in trying to frame the Keepers so as to try and rein in their excessive violence).

There is also two unrepresented groups that seek either the addition of new seats to the council or secession from the Circle and either autonomy, an alliance with the Order of Aetherium, or both. They both face an issue as their magical focus was not covered by the original founders, being more recent developments and thus they are mocked as fools who don't know their place or mischievous children that need a good thrashing and a few lost teeth. They are the Cognitives (Mind mages that focus on magic affecting the mind and the idea of racial memory, false personalities, they're main beef is that the Weavers the Circle sect aligned with Illusion are traditionally held to be the masters of manipulating emotions and the mind despite not actually directly affecting either) and the other group is the Mechanicalists (Mages who wish to fuse magic with machinery to create magic that affects machinery, machinery that replicates magic, machinery powered by magic and machinery that makes magic, effectively covering all definitions of Techno-Mancy. Their main gripe with the circle is they have no leader and run a very democratic system where the goal is to make progress as fast as possible, they're frustrated by the slow pace and intense politicking of the Circle, the fact that Artificers (Magic Items and Runes) share the same field as them but consider they're ideas blasphemy and want to annex them and finally they dislike the view point shared by all sects bar the Seekers that technology is a child's trick and will simply fade away as quickly as came around). These two groups are not only likely to split but neither of them holds prejudice towards the Order of Aetherium, in fact for varying reasons they hold the Order in higher regard, the Cognitives because of the Order's emphasis on maintaining an ethical stance and meditation. The Mechanicalists because of the Order's acceptance of outside contributions and the benefits to the community from deeds of The Paupers Arcanic.

Rivals to the circle are Order of Aetherium. Born out of a monastic order that experienced a major surge in magic using membership at roughly the same time as the Circle was founded, the Order views its rival as between puppet master trying to rule everyone on a string, and playground bully that wants something simply because another child has it. The Order place a major emphasis on the ethical use of magic and the philosophical quandaries that arise from being to twist reality. The Order has sub-group dedicated to altruistic causes, known as The Paupers Arcanic mages who perform services for communities at the cost only for a bed and meal, and another sub-group known as The Hand whose existence is dedicated to thwarting Circle schemes. The Hand is currently working on convincing the Cognitives and Mechanicalists to defect and has a strong infiltration presence in the Seekers.

As well as these two major groups that have presence everywhere there are other smaller groups with a wide-spread. Here are two:

The Aetherium Crafters Guild is a Dwarven group of mages with some presence outside of the Dwarven League, inside the city-states of the league it is overwhelming more powerful then either guilds and exists mostly on the basis of the Merchant Princes being unable to tolerate the idea of their magic users being in an organized labour guild that is under direct foreign control. The ACG is not a puppet of the Princes however, but will often interfere in any affair involving the other two, trumpeting patriotic ideals and jingoistic rants. Their general view is that the big 2 are effectively foreign trade corporations trying to masquerade as unionists in order to control the magic market.

The Ghaz Druul are a loose alliance of nomadic Orc shamans, mages and other arcanists who divide their time between the monasteries and providing magical assistance to the tribes. They only recently acquired a physical presence by opening small "underground" safehouses in so-called "Orc-towns" small districts in non-Orc cities where orcs often dwell in poverty, even in their own cities the Ghaz Druul never owned houses or the like as their belief is that by "spending time settling down here they're not where they're needed most; Out there". The Ghaz Druul are never spoken of to non-Orcs, in fact most Orcs are well into their adulthood before they learn the organisations name, they grew up knowing that this old Wise Elder would come and go and only be around when help was needed with the strange, but in effort to protect the Ghaz Druul the actual size and capabilities of the group are known only to the members of the group and select few outside who represent and assist group members, these Orcs are called the Knowers, for only they may "Know" truly the Ghaz Druul. Note that not all Orc arcanists are Ghaz Druul, the Ghaz Druul are a group that work towards specific goals, sort of like Yoda and Obi Wan in episodes 4-6 of Star Wars, but mixed with Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel type of heroic rebels.

edited 5th Dec '11 9:07:27 AM by Eyclonus

I wondered that myself, really. Come to think of it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would they have monasteries, anyway?

Also, pet peeve, neither "Celtic" nor "Gaelic" are language. Irish, Welsh, and Scots Gaelic are separate languages that don't sound remotely similar.

edited 5th Dec '11 8:29:07 AM by Exelixi

Because it's "TV Tropes builds a campaign setting!" and not " TV Tropes recycles the same fanatsy cliches that are already used thousands of times". I came up with idea, exactly because it is not based on western culture. Also, who said anything about peace? That depends entirely on what gods the Orcs, specifically the Orcs in that monastery, worship.

For the martial arts part, it is simply that a settled community has a lot more spare time on their hands that they can spend on non essential skills than a traveling one. So I would image that after the monasteries were established in the orcish culture as places were one could spend a lot of time mastering a talent above the level that is needed in a tribe, other scholars flocked to them.

For your question Exelixi, why would they have cities then? It is the exact same concept, a settlement that fulfills a specific purpose that is hard to do while traveling, only this time not a political one, but a spiritual one.

For a in world explanation:

A nomadic life is a very demanding life, that doesn't leave a lot of time for intellectual exercise. Orcs have to live a frugal, practical life, because everything that doesn't directly benefits the tribe is dead weight. A shaman/priest who seeks a deeper connection to his god, that goes beyond the simple spiritual needs of tribe, is only a hindrance to his fellow orcs, taking valuable work force away from important tasks and offering little in return.

So in time, those Orcs that heard the call of the gods loudest would break away from their tribe, band together to form communities based around the exploration and understanding of the aether and its in habitants. Against their usual life style, they established settlements where they felt closest to their god, forming a society very different from the ever wandering tribes.

Over the years, not only religious scholars sought out these settlements, but knowledges seekers of all kinds would take up residence, for a life of studying and self improvement over the more harsh life of the wandering tribes. But the original purpose never changed and the dedication to their gods is the condition for all Orcs who want to choose this life.

edited 5th Dec '11 10:41:13 AM by eX

Aether Denizens: The Fae, The Aengel, The Daemon

The Celestial Gods are not the only beings of the Aether, their are those born less of actual thought and more of the natural confluences of Material life against Immaterial. From here, protolife formed and eventually evolved quite rapidly into fully intelligent entities capable of procreation with each other. They have their own collective name for each other, but generally they are categorized as the Fae, the Aengel and the Daemon or improperly fairy, angels and demons. This has less to with actually physical make-up for such thing doesn't exist that well in the Aether and more to do with attitude towards Materials. Fae are apathetic, Aengel are benevolent and Daemon are hostile.

Of course, one man's Aengel is another man's Daemon, or so the saying goes. Some interfere with mortal affairs frequently and when they take sides they may do so with utter totality, showing undying love to their chosen mortals and such hellish hatred to their enemies that even frightens their mortal friends. Their are cases, enough to be alarming, of an Immaterial losing all of her mortal friends and blaming all other mortals, ruins of ancient civilizations may house Daemon of terrible wrath who will try to wreak vengeance for that ancient civilization against everything else. The breadth of emotion Immaterials are capable of feeling is extreme and daunting and often alien.

-I don't have a real problem with magic terminology; it's just that most campaigns tends to use terms like "mana" or "sorcery". Just for flavor.

-A God of False Faith would either not have any worshipers (but rather go around undermining other's) or have a cult that has no idea of his true nature. (Or perhaps, have utterly pragmatic followers who know he's a cad, but he's a cad they can count on, as long as they do his bidding.) Btw I'd like to recommend the excellent The Gods Of Arr Kelaan webcomic for its interesting takes on gods and their duties.

-Since our setting has such cultural diversity, I don't mind Kung Fu Orc Monks, though they might be a minority.

For the campaign overall, it seems to me like it could be described this way:

"In a World… where the magic is dying and technology is rising, the gods, both ancient and young, manipulate the mortal races into unleashing more, even if for that, they must invade the wondrous, mysterious, faraway land inhabited by peaceful Orcs." How's that?

edited 5th Dec '11 12:44:56 PM by Sijo

eX: Ah, now I see it.

Of course, not all tribes are hunter-gatherers. There are traveling merchants and the like, which have plenty of time on their hands sitting around in caravans.

I wouldn't call the Orcs "peaceful". In a world where aggressiveness is on a sliding scale rather than defined in absolutes. . .

God: -Twitch-

Phantasy Spelling. . . too. . . much. . . Can't. . . Repress. . . urge to examine phonemes. . .

edited 5th Dec '11 2:37:38 PM by Exelixi

I was going with the 'Ae' theme from Aether.

The snowy isle of Teidearic

In the waters to the north exists a small island blanketed in snow, year round. It is mostly stone and sand and has little dirt but some trees do grow along it's banks. The island is special in that three LeyLines, cross over the very edge of it's flat top.

They island is rich in resources, which several nations would find valuable if they news they existed beneath the snow. Raw ores for weapons, and Jewels without a single dangerous creature in sight.

Until it attacks, the island seems to be protected by a mass of snow and ice, the very snow and ice that's covers the island is it's greatest protector. The island will not attack however until it's visitors are away from it's beaches and on the rocks themselves, where it will animate itself into a massive giant of snow and ice and chase any intruder from the island.

I hope this is alright. :3

Also bit of note; the -mancy in fantasy is greatly misused. -Mancy means talking to or foretelling of. So Pyromancy is talking to fire or foretelling of fire.

edited 5th Dec '11 4:57:56 PM by Vyctorian