Fantasy world needs to be populated...

So, I have this idea for a fantasy world, not sure if I want to use for a homebrew RPG setting or write a story in it, probably both.

However, here is the basic gist of it:

Background:

At the first, there was the Void. It was empty, until Ancients Ones became to be. Their existence set off ripples across the Void, forming the first Gods.

Over time, these ripples formed more and more of the universe. Until one day, Gods rose to impose order upon the universe, to give it a form.

After a long and bloody battle, they defeat an Ancient One. After such event, they imposed their will upon the Void and formed the world, [Name Pending]. However, this was more taxing than they had expected. However, they realized that they could sustain themselves as long as someone provided them with the power.

So, gods set out to create species to worship them. Each one made one for his image. Life went on, civilizations rose and fell, different races fought over petty things and worshiped their gods who protected and guided them.

Then, one day, a race of hairless apes was found. No god claimed them, nor did they seemed to worship any, instead directly worshiping the world itself. Since they were not under a guidance or were created by a god, they were consider lower than other races, "earth born". They called themselves "humans".

Still, humans weren't mindless animals. You could easily teach them and lead them. They were also relatively strong. So they were perfect cheap workforce. Since no god protected them, they were an easy prey to other species.

So time went on and humanity came to be known as a slave race. Until one day, when humans rose in a bloody rebellion in one of the minor race kingdoms and killed it's inhabitants to last male, female and child. This was not even the worst part, for somehow humans slew the god that had created the inhabitants of the said kingdom.

12 battles were fought against this new human kingdom and 12 times humans won. Survivors were driven mad, leaving everyone in dark what humans had done and how. After those 12 battles, a peace was signed with the new human kingdom recognized officially. Humans swore that the peace was nothing but a ceasefire and one day, they would free rest of their kin and slay rest of the gods.

This was, naturally, taken quite seriously.

Now, 80 years after the War on Humans, the isolated and reclusive kingdom of humans has sent people to other kingdoms. What their goal is, nobody knows, but everyone expects a new war to begin any time soon.

Races - God:

Elves - Silinthor

Elves are more or less your standard fantasy elves. Nothing really special about them in the end, except for having strong magic ability. Their god, Silinthor, wanted to create a world where everything was in balance and harmony and thus gave them strong affinity with the nature itself. Surprisingly, they have relatively good relations with the dwarves.

Dwarves - Koraki

Dwarves are industrious bunch of short people. They are driving force of technology, as their god Koraki didn't want world to stagnate. Dwarves have primitive muskets and their society is very mercantile. They are divided to mountain clans and plain clans, with mountain clans digging deep into the earth in search of valuable minerals for their industry, while plain clans do most of the trading on the surface world. Surprisingly, they have relatively good relations with the elves.

Lizandri - Freich

Lizandri were once a race of lizard people. Keyword were, they are mere shadow of their former might. After disastrous destruction of their homelands by humans, alongside the death of their god, they travel in small bands, trying to survive day to day. They are very much immune to diseases and poisons, but don't fare well in the extreme temperatures.

Humans - Unknown

A relatively new race in the World. Not much is known about them, since they tend to stick to themselves or are slaves.

Gods never truly defeat an Ancient One. Merely put it into a sleep and formed it into the world. Humans are figments of fleeting dreams of said Ancient One. Each humans has their "thought" written in their heart. If they learn it and speak it, they can sacrifice their body to become a small part of the Ancient One until they lose their individuality and disappear into the Ancient One itself.

Human Kingdom currently seeks how to awaken the Ancient One and undo the world itself. They have very limited number of people who know their "thought" and are considered weapons of last resort. Humans lack any special abilities, so having a human survive being opened, their "thought" exposed to them and then stitched back up and remain sane is quite difficult for them

Those are what I got at the moment, but I can't figure what else to put in to the world. I rather not use too many cliche fantasy creatures, but rather something more interesting.

Anyone have ideas of sort of races and/or societies to use?

edited 19th Jun '14 9:32:53 AM by Mandemo

An insect folk that doesn't have a hive structure, perhaps?

An ocean dwelling one, based on jellyfish (or whatever you like). They could be traders and pirates. Don't know how much ocean your world has but I think it's odd when the large oceans never have a civilization when the landmasses have several.

A race based on raptors or birds. May or may not be able to fly.

Well, most of an ocean is basically lifeless desert. Life is concentrated along the coastlines and following certain currents.

In any case, aquatic civilizations face a bunch of added challenges that make it very unlikely they'll ever leave the paleolithic hunter-gatherer stage.

My suggestion: An insectoid species based on stick insects. Very shy and almost entirely unknown...

A

If they were created through evolution you'd be right. But they were directly created by gods and have their protection and guidance.

With mere evolution, it would be even more unlikely to have several intelligent species on a planet than it would be for a civilization in the ocean.

Hmm, maybe half-aquatic race. One that mainly lives on the coasts.

Then again, gods are explicitly active in this world, so one creating a race that lives in the seas is not impossible. One of the main things I am running that gods do exist and are active.

Hmm, maybe like Trilarians?

We actually had that for a while on Earth. A surprising number of hominid species were active around the same time, it's just that the Homo sapiens branch is the only one left now. And Homo floresiensis (a.k.a. "Hobbits") may just have made it into historical times...at least there was still a decently-sized population around 12k years ago.

Can they talk to each other? Can they build settlements? Even temporary settlements? Can they build tools? Can they leave behind lasting messages?

I don't think aquatic civilization is particularly hard, maybe marine due to the scope of the ocean but it shouldn't be that hard, especially not with the existence of active gods who could provide means to make it more like land civilization if needed. But I could see a hunter gatherer or pastoral society working easily if you just provide the lifeforms for it.

As for "societies". I why not multiple aquatic/marine species? Seals, cuttlefish and jellyfish (well, jellyfish like). If you want something that walks around you could even use something like Brittlestars or crabs. Also, there should be a parrot civilization seed distrust and resentment among everyone else and then tell their children stories about it.

I'm a sucker for a creepy-but-good-at-heart race...

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

a nomadic aquatic race who get anything they cant get on their own via trading?

two castes, the amphibians being the traders and the fully aquatic ones being the hunters maybe?

The ocean is alive. As in sapient, through a hive mind or as a single organism mostly spread out through the 'barren desert' areas, or as that thing that got spoilered. The Gods would be out of their goddamned minds to try and kill off the thing most responsible for the continuation of life on their planet, after all.