My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

[Scalenex]

The siren call of World Anvil and similar programs is making me think it's a good idea to use a fantasy family tree builder and sketch out 20 generations of sorcerer nobles to organically figure out what the modern houses would look. Almost certainly a waste of time, but siren calls are seductive even if they lead men to their doom.

It'd probably be better to skip ahead the current houses and work backwards.

When I developed my Fumayan houses. I used some guidelines a wise man on the OotS forums gave me some guidelines. Every house/leading lord should have at least two challenges. One political/geographic, one personal.

Very short summary of how I applied this to the major Fumaya houses.

House Polnoc
External Challenge: Orcs are extorting tribute from the villagers with inpunity.
Personal Challenge: The head of the house has gone mad with grief for losing so many children and grand children.

House Zimoz
External Challenge: The kingdom is in debt and has frequent small scale monster attacks.
Personal Challenge: The duke's son was moonlighting as a brigand to get funds.

House Frymar
External Challenge: Brigands have been robbing his caravans.
Personal Challenge: The other dukes severely dislike Duke Frymar.

House Linijka
External Challenge: Kingdom is broke, still recovering from organized crime.
Personal Challenge: King's court is riddled with spies

House Wiern
External Challenge: If the Swynfaredians invade, this is land is relatively exposed terrain wise.
Personal Challenge: The duke's children are a bunch of spoiled brats, some of them are just lazy but one is truly evil.

House Nerozik/Ravenclaw
External Challenge: If the Swynfaredians invade, this is where the nobles live the Swynfaredians would like to kill.
Personal Challenge: The duke's vassals are feuding with each other.

House Polbuc/Hufflepuff
External Challenge: If the Swynfaredians invade, this land has most of the magic fonts that the Swynfaredians covet.
Personal Challenge: The duke's uncle is plotting to kill him.


House Template
Heraldry:
Motto or Slogan (optional):
Stereotypical House Character Strengths:
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses:
Resources/Advantages:
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities:
Leadership Style:
Magical Aptitudes (if any):

Classic House Fremiss
Heraldry: A red dragon with prominent horns that is usually breathing fire.
Motto or Slogan (optional): Be the fire of life.
Stereotypical House Character Strengths: Brave, generous, gregarious, merciful
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses: Reckless, hedonist, spendthrift, self righteous
Resources/Advantages: Larger population. Due to encouraging adventurous, their nobles tend to be more powerful than the other houses' nobles on average. Fairly potent military
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities: Lots of bastard children and sibling rivalries. Frequently in debt.
Leadership Style: Bread and circuses with militaristic overtones.
Magical Aptitudes (if any): Lords and ladies tend to favor Invocation, Transmutation, and Enchantment.
They rarely learn Necromancy or Abjuration.
Divination, Illusion, and Conjuration fall in the middle.

(that was House Fremiss when it was young. They probably evolved and changed over several generations).

Classic House Goirsonad
Heraldry: Snake like grey dragon, often depicted holding a book or scroll.
Motto or Slogan (optional): Knowledge is strength.
Stereotypical House Character Strengths: Wise, methodical, just, driven
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses: Aloof, cowardly, absent minded academic, harsh
Resources/Advantages: Wise sages and an impressive library. Sorcerers are especially well practiced at crafting magical items. Realm is efficient in producing and distributing resources.
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities: Population of nobles is relatively low. Army is somewhat smaller than the others.
Leadership Style: Micromanaging with a large well-trained bureaucracy.
Magical Aptitudes (if any): Divination is prized above all. Abjuration and Conjuration is also valued.
Necromancy is practically forbidden. Invocation is rare.
Transmutation, Illusion, and Enchantment fall in the middle.

(that was House Goirsonad when it was young. They probably evolved and changed over several generations).

 

[Scalenex]

There's nothing our handsome moderator cannot index.

Perhaps gratuitously. I might be addicted to indexing.

I'm using a program called World Anvil. For the moment I'm using the $4/month version but I think I can get by with the free version.

Anyway, Scarterra has a wiki now. I'd like a few of you guys to visit and at least confirm that this program works for visitors who do not pay the World Anvil people money.

I'm still getting used to the World Anvil, but while I have Hulu playing my favorite re-runs in the background I've been slowly converting my copious notes on Scarterra into this Wiki and hyperlinking the crap out my articles because everything ties to everything.

 

[Scalenex]

I'm having fun with World Anvil trying to organize my disorganized notes.

I noticed that my Creature Compendium and therefore my World Anvil had no definitive entry on "Elves" because I had thus far only covered the three (now four) elf nations separately.

I probably mentioned most of this in passing on this thread, but now all the broad elf information is in one place. I did make one change from before. While my Wood Elves are based off Warhammer's Wood Elves I didn't want them to be carbon plagiarized copies. The Wood Elve's home nation is no longer Loren. It is now called Codenya which I based off the Welsh word for tree "coeden," but I gave it a sort of Slavic twist, so pronouce it like you are faking a Russian accent. Co-dawn-yah.

Elves

Origin: After the First Unmaking, the Nine sat down together and hashed out creating a new mortal race to be the dominant race on Scarterra. After much debate and compromise, they settled on elves believing a weaker smaller race would be easier to manage than dragons.


Second Age History: With the blessing of the Nine and their spirit minions, the ancient elves multiplied and spread to every land mass on Scarterra. They built massive farms and impressive cities. The ancient elves had dozens if not hundreds of separate nations and cultures too diverse to catalog.

Much as with the First Age dragons, other mortal races were created, some to aid the elves and some to hinder them. Like the dragons before them, the elves fought with each other as resources and land became scarce. They also quarreled with the surviving dragons and various other races.

Eventually an elven king sought to become a god by crafting a weapon out of a piece of Turoch’s corpse as the Nine had done ages ago. He ventured into the Void and emerged with a piece of Turoch’s essence though the king died before he could figure out to use his foolishly stolen prize. His act damaged the Barrier to the Void and allowed Void Demons to spill into the Mortal Plane in unprecedented numbers, sparking the Second Unmaking.


Surviving the Second Unmaking: Millions of elves were slain by demons, many had their very souls consumed. The Void Demons turned a large portion of their victims into undead and the undead claimed millions more victims. Those who survived the onslaught struggled to find food and shelter as homes and farms had to be abandoned.

When the Second Unmaking was over, there were tiny scattered pockets of survivors but only four large populations of elves.

Some elves survived the Unmaking by making alliances with forest spirits and Fey creatures. These elves’ descendants are known as Wood Elves today. The wood elves call their nation Codenya.

Some elves survived the Unmaking by pledging their lives and souls to Greymoria to obtain her magical protection. These elves’ descendants are known as Dark Elves today. The Dark Elves call their nation Kahdisteria.

Some elves survived by taking refuge on the island of Lunatus, the most geographically removed and well-fortified location against the Void Demon hordes. These elves’ descendants are known as Grey Elves today. The Grey Elves call their nation the Elven Empire.

Some elves survived by making alliances with Merfolk and other Scaraquan mortals. These elves’ descendants became known as Sea Elves. The Sea Elves call their nation Nerymer.


Third Age History and Distribution: The Sea Elves were isolated and not very numerous. They kept a low profile and did not spread out from their small islands. They were so good at keeping a low profile, to the rest of Scarterra they were little more than a rumor.

The smaller pockets of survivors eventually either died out, bred with humans such that their descendants became full humans, or they joined the Wood Elves, Grey Elves, or Dark Elves.

The Dark Elves and the Grey Elves expanded their reach early in the Third Age dominating the primitive they came across with their superior technology and magic. Even the Wood Elves expanded a little bit beyond their forest. At their peak, the three elf nations directly controlled or dominated roughly half of Scarterra’s land surface.

Within in a relatively short period by elven standards, the humans had assimilated most of the elves’ magical and technological knowledge. With their superior numbers they reclaimed their homelands and drove all three elf nations back.

The Elven Empire controls the island of Lunatus and the smaller islands near it, as well as few minor coastal colonies on the southern coastline West Colassia. Kahdisteria has been pushed back to the eastern coast of East Colassia plus a few very tiny islands. Codenya now claims a large inland forest in West Colassia and nothing else. The elven nations are still forces to be reckoned with, but they are no longer world dominating powers.


Life cycle and Society: Elves reach adolescence around age fifty, they are generally considered adults around the start of their first century. Elf females usually become infertile around three hundred and elf males tend to become infertile around age three fifty. They tend to die of old age around four hundred though a rare few individuals have made it to five hundred.

Most elves are monogamous and they try to settle down before or shortly after their two hundredth birthday, usually with someone around their same age. Societal norms are usually for each married couple to have four or five children.


Religious Practices: These vary widely depending on which nation the elf hails from and elves are often individuals who buck their cultural norms.

The Dark Elves usually worship Greymoria above all else. They respect Phidas, Maylar, and Korus. They tend to dislike Mera and Zarthus.

The Grey Elves usually worship Khemra primarily. They respect Hallisan, Korus, and Phidas. They tend to dislike Nami, Maylar, and Zarthus.

The Wood Elves usually worship Zarthus and Korus primarily. They have a polytheistic bent and rarely try to exclude any deity altogether.

The Sea Elves worship the Scaraquan versions of the Nine. They worship the three Sisters primarily (Mera, Greymoria, and Korus) and view the other deities as lesser beings but they are not shunned or hated.

 

[Scalenex]

- A noble house that is greedy and only cares about money, relatively young house of former merchants
- A noble house that has a long history and lots of priceless artifacts, but is now poor
- A noble house with ties to the priesthood
- A noble house with ties to the underworld
- A noble house who keeps to themselves because they don't trust people, probably because they have a terrible secret
- A noble house whose young master is rumored to be much older than they appear, and has headed the house for some time

The Welsh word for "wealth" is "Masnachwr"

House Manasch

The House Founder Manasch was a commoner born sorcerer, likely the bastard of a dragon blooded sorcerer having a forbidden tryst. Manasch was not very magically skilled but he was good at finding magical reagents and was a shrewd negotiator, so he could nearly always sell his wares at a high price.

Manasch married a fairly respectable sorceress whose parents were strapped for gold. Classic case of an impoverished noble family marrying the nouveau riche. Manasch taught his values and aptitudes to his children and grandchildren allowing House Manasch to buy it's way into existence.

House Manasch nobles are shrewd intelligent merchants that are formidable by themselves but they have access to a wide support network that most Dragon Bloods would not stoop to dealing with. Manasch nobles routinely work with organized crime, wizards, and the Masks of Phidas, the latter of whom are very staunch allies hoping to use House Manasch as a stepping stone to making Phidas the state patron of Swynfaredia eventually.

Heraldry: No idea, I'm still not sure what the younger houses would use as their heraldry. Manasch valued subtlety and probably wouldn't want his house sigil to flaunt the houses semi-illegitimate wealth.

Motto or Slogan: The strongest magic is gold.

Stereotypical House Character Strengths: Shrewd, clever, thrifty, cautious, subtle
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses: Miserly, arrogant, cowardly, overly fond of complex schemes.

Resources/Advantages: Wealth and connections from dominating the reagent trade. They have more access to divine magic than most other Houses.
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities: Land poor. Not very prestigious. The Office of the Arcane Registry views them as rivals since House Manash is trying to themselves up as a money lending institution.

Leadership Style: They act like tough mafia dons to their lessers. They like act obsequious boot lickers around their superiors.

Magical Aptitudes: Most Manash nobles focus on developing their mundane skills before their magic skills. Manash sorcerers usually focus on Enchantment, Illusion and Divination magic above all others. They normally avoid direct and flashy magic like Invocation and Transmutation.

 

[Scalenex]

- A noble house that is greedy and only cares about money, relatively young house of former merchants
- A noble house that has a long history and lots of priceless artifacts, but is now poor
- A noble house with ties to the priesthood
- A noble house with ties to the underworld
- A noble house who keeps to themselves because they don't trust people, probably because they have a terrible secret
- A noble house whose young master is rumored to be much older than they appear, and has headed the house for some time

Classic House Kovenoth
Heraldry: Majestic Multi-colored dragon with large claws holding a hammer
Motto or Slogan: Something about leaving a lasting legacy, not sure how to phrase it
Stereotypical House Character Strengths: Pragmatic, clever, shrewd, thrifty but not miserly
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses: Vain, condescending, oblivious to the short-term problems, ruthless
Resources/Advantages: Politically savvy; patron to many great artists, engineers, and architects;
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities: Somewhat disliked and distrusted from other houses, disliked by the peasants.
Leadership Style: Imperious and demanding but also detailed oriented and well-organized.
Magical Aptitudes: Fairly versatile with regards to schools of magic with an emphasis on making permanent magical items. Slight preference for Transmutation and Conjuration magic. Slight distaste for Invocation and Illusion magic.

Modern House Kovenoth
Heraldry: Majestic Multi-colored dragon with large claws holding a hammer
Motto or Slogan: Something about leaving a lasting legacy, not sure how to phrase it
Stereotypical House Character Strengths: Clever, shrewd, adaptable, subtle
Stereotypical House Character Weaknesses: ruthless, untrustworthy, cowardly
Resources/Advantages: Lots of powerful magical items. Many castles and buildings with permanent enchantments. Legacy of one of the four founding houses.
Liabilities/Vulnerabilities: Poor reputation, most of their land doesn't produce a lot of income
Leadership Style: Very concerned with "maintaining face." Flowery language and grand gestures hide insecurities.
Magical Aptitudes: Mild preference for illusion and enchantment magic. Extreme disdain for necromancy.


How has the mighty fallen?

House Kovenoth never sought the crown, preferring to play the role of king maker, thus they maintained their power and prestige as Numaness, Goirsonad and Fremiss all fought for the crown at some point.

So far, so good.

The First Swynfaredia Civil War rolls around. Most of the houses are split in two but House Kovenoth 90% of House Kovenoth is united...behind the losing side. House Kovenoth eventually turn-coated on the would-be king they were supporting but by that point it was clear they already lost, so they didn't win much sympathy for joining the winning side so late.

House Kovenoth were still known for being shrewd politicians with silver tongues. When the peace treaty was drawn up and new map lines were drawn, they only lost about 10% of their lands and holdings. The real damage was to their reputation. For generations the royal family did not let Kovenoth forget they were on the losing side. House Kovenoth had to work twice hard to get prized marriages and government appointments for a long time.

By the time the Second Swynfaredian Civil War rolled around, House Kovenoth had mostly recovered and rebuilt their reputation. But then the whole house backed the losing side again. The victorious queen was particularly merciful. They lost another 15% of their lands and holdings, but their losses on paper did not represent everything. The Queen didn't just snip 15% of House Kovenoth's land from border regions, she cherry picked House Kovenoth richest and most prosperous lands and gave them to her core supporters.

A few generations the head of House Kovenoth became a lich or possibly a vampire. She used illusion magic to hide her undead state and periodically faked her death and then reemerged as her "daughter." A few generations later, the ruse was discovered by the up and coming Talon Rajeth.

The undead house head was frantic when exposed and ended up killing almost a dozen nobles, most of them from his own house. House Kovenoth quickly became persona non grata among all the other Houses. Other Kovenoth nobles were put on trial. Two or three were executed for covering up their Lady's dark secret. Many other were fined. Others had their marriages annulled. Some were cleared of all formal charges, but they had they still lost status informally. House Kovenoth lost about 10% of their land holdings and again had their reputation smeared.

The remaining nobles of House Kovenoth started to eat each other figuratively speaking as they fought to hold onto what scraps they could while trying to push blame for the House's misdeeds on their relatives.

Rajeth (who had grown greatly in power and reputation for heroically exposing the undead cancer in the Realm) had said House Kovenoth is a model for the corruption and stagnation of all the Dragon Bloods. It was Rajeth who actually started the Third Swynfaredian Civil War hoping to overturn the corrupt and outdated Dragon Blood system.

This time House Kovenoth was on the winning side. There was no way the House would side Rajeth, but their allies were not particularly grateful for Kovenoth's aid. To others, it looked like Kovenoth was backing the right side for the wrong reasons. Their support was viewed as another act of cowardice from a house of liars and schemers. Also, the House was a disorganized mess, so they couldn't really contribute much to the war effort. Some joked that since Kovenoth had a knack for backing losers that Kovenoth should back Rajeth.

Even though they were on the winning side of the war, House Kovenoth ended up losing another 15% of their lands. This was largely because their losses were so high. Rajeth and his followers targeted Kovenoth lords and ladies with extreme prejudice. Over a quarter of the house's noble members were killed which led to land and titles switching hands, some of these titles passed on to other Houses they were intermarried with. Hence they walked away from the war with less land than they started despite receiving a tiny bit of land held by Rajeth's supporters as a reward for their aid.

To compensate for the damage to their reputation, the current incarnation of House Kovenoth is extremely outspoken against the necromancy and always the first to volunteer their military to deal with the slightest hint of undead. House Kovenoth nobles will publicly venerate Khemra and Hallisan and generally shun Greymoria. They've slowly backpedaled their House's partnership with the Masks of Phidas.

Their reputation has recovered somewhat, but House Kovenoth remains the poorest and the weakest of the four original Houses. They still have a lot of treasures and impressive monuments. Many of their Lords and Ladies literally live in the shadow of the greatness of their forebears.

 

[Scalenex]

Spoiler: Swynfaredian History in 28 words

Swynfaredia nobles are all sorcerers claiming descent from dragons. Their draconic and sorcerer heritage is slowly declining. This led to civil wars.

Spoiler: Swynfaredian History in ~300 words and one picture

Dragons formed the first four noble houses. Half-dragons ruled. They picked a hereditary king somehow, probably with a magical contest. Originally 99% of their children were sorcerers. Now about 50% of their children are sorcerers.


They used to look like this.

Now about two thirds of them look like entirely ordinary humans, and the rest have very minor cosmetic features, usually weird looking eyes or tiny ridges around the eyes. Among the nobility, weird looking eyes are considered a desirable trait.

New Houses formed then the realm expanded and old houses dissolved when their fortunes fell or new laws and events forced them to merge with other houses.

The First Civil War mostly impacted the 9th and 10th generations. It occurred when the eldest son of the previous king was a squib and his younger brother claimed a right to the crown. The succession laws were changed to make all titles go to the eldest male sorcerer child.

The Second Civil War fell mostly on the 13th generation. It occurred when the eldest daughter claimed she should inherit the crown over her cousin whose direct tie to the previous king was indirect. The succession laws were changed to make all titles go to the eldest child with sorcerous powers, regardless of sex.

The Third Civil War fell mainly on the 18th generation. It occurred when the most powerful sorcerer in the realm was a commoner. He wanted to implement a new government based on magical merit, and not on magical bloodline. He failed.

There might be one or two 17th generation old gummer rotting away in the Old Sorcerer’s Home. A few grey haired elders of the 18th generation are alive and kicking still able to assert their power. Most of the movers and shakers are of the 18th generation and they are mostly spry in their middle age. The 19th generation represents the young sharks, and the 20th generation nobles still wet the bed sometimes.

Spoiler: Swynfaredian history in ~4000 words

In every generation, the nobility considered overt dragon features a sign of status and this factored into marriage decisions. In every generation, dragon-like eyes were by far the most common dragon-like feature.

Wings and breath weapons were usually first things to go. Then tails, then horns, then claws, then fangs, then scales. Then were somewhat draconic noses and ears became less common. Dragon-like eyes were very genetically persistent.

Everything is relative. The first “relatively human” Dragon Blooded nobles of the Third Generation had far more draconic features than the “most draconic looking” Dragon Blooded nobles of the tenth generation.


First Generation

The first generation of Dragon bloods really looked more like dragons than humans. They were humanoid but they had draconic heads with snouts and sharp teeth. They had wings on their back and tails. Most had breath weapons.

They had a lot of major difficulties relating to normal humans save for the ones that learned illusion or transmutation to become more human looking when dealing with their subjects. A lot of the first generation of Dragon bloods’ rule was spent with showy displays of force and very elaborate and showy acts of generosity.

Most didn’t die of old age, but they aged much slower than normal humans. The oldest first generation dragon blood survived to 411.


Second Generation

The Second Generation was only slightly more human looking than the first. If anything, this made the Dragon Bloods look more hideous.

The Second Generation witnessed the four Founding Dragons all dying or leaving. The Second Generation may have been the most ironfisted of all generations towards the peasants because they had terrifying appearances and they didn’t have the legitimacy of full dragons backing them up.

This generation saw the young nation of Swynfaredia get in bloody wars with both the Wood Elves of Codenya and the Elven Empire.

Most didn’t die of old age, but they aged much slower than normal humans. The oldest first generation dragon blood survived to 375.


Third Generation

A small number of Dragon Bloods were born with mostly human appearances. The peasants generally reacted better to the more human looking lords, but most of the Dragon Bloods still looked like humanoid dragons, so the human looking dragons were a somewhat discriminated minority among the other nobles. Also, there were still more than a few first generation still alive calling the shots and they favored grand children that looked like they did.

The peasants were very fearful of their terrifying lords, but they were accustomed to the status quo and didn’t make waves very much. On the other hand, the land now had a LOT of dragon bloods and a relatively small amount of land to administer. Infighting among Dragon Bloods was brutal. Lots of murders, betrayals, accidents, whisper campaigns, and scandalous trysts.

The war with the Elven Empire died down a lot, but they still saw occasional skirmishes.

Most didn’t die of old age, but they aged slower than normal humans. The oldest second generation dragon blood survived to 353.


Fourth Generation

About one in four Dragon bloods had a mostly human appearance. Roughly one in ten Dragonblood physically resembled the half-dragons of the first generation. Most looked like pretty ugly hybrids combining the worst aesthetic traits of humans and dragons. This generation was the last generation were anyone had a functioning breath weapon (without using a magic spell to mimic a breath weapon of course).

A tiny number of squibs were born this generation. It is rumored that squibs were born in earlier generations but they all suffered “accidents.” Despite people’s educated guess, Dragon Bloods that retained a very draconic look were no more or less likely to be a squib than Dragon Bloods that looked mostly human.

The Fourth Generation King Elgan ordered a major military invasion of a neighboring human kingdom. The first major offensive war Swynfaredia ever engaged. Swynfaredian Historians often view him as the strongest and wisest king Swynfaredia ever had. Not only were his military campaigns generally successful but he managed to quell most of the internal squabbles between Dragon Bloods. He was also the first king to condone the marriages of sorcerers from outside the bloodline of the Founding Dragons into the nobility, though he did not do this often. He was the first King to formally recognize minor houses, creating five. Two of these knew houses were sub-branches of House Freymiss which was eating itself with infighting until King Elgan stepped in with the new houses as a compromise.

Swynfaredia had not fought the elves for many decades but they were still technically under an armistice. What really cemented the reputation of King Elgan I was that “he was wise in the ways of wars and the ways of peace.” While Elgan was warring with nearby human nations he cemented lasting peace treaties with the Elven Empire and Condenya. In future years, the peace treaty Elgan hammered out would evolve into profitable trading partnerships for Swynfaredia and the elves alike.

Needless to say, in every generation that follows. Elgan is a very popular name for boys.

At this point it was discovered that the more draconic a Dragon Blood looked, the greater their expected longevity was. The oldest fourth generation made it 347, but was considered a throwback to the old blood. The king himself was the second longest lived of his generation making it to 338.


Fifth Generation

This generation had zero throwbacks that could have passed physically for a member of the First Generation. Roughly half looked mostly human and roughly half looked like gross scaly humans. This was the last generation where any Dragon Bloods at all had working wings and those that did, the wings were mostly for enhancing jumping instead of true flight (though many learned magic could let them fly). Even the mostly human Dragon bloods had very striking eyes of odd colors that seemed to glow in the dark.

This generation saw a noble girl born with normal human eyes. This was the first time it happened outside of a Dragon Blood-commoner pairing. She was rumored to also be a squib, she committed suicide at age thirteen. Historians believe roughly one in ten children of Dragon Bloods of this generation were Squibs.

King Elgan outlived most of his sons. King Elgan’s successor took the throne as an old man and only ruled roughly a decade before his son Gwydion took over. The men of Fourth Generation may have started major military campaigns but it is mostly young men who fight wars, so the bulk of warriors were of the Fifth Generation. This generation was a very martial minded generation of Dragon Bloods.

The oldest member of the Fifth Generation survived to 299.


Sixth Generation

This is the first generation were mostly human looking Dragon Bloods were the majority. Maybe one in twenty children were born with human-like eyes. This was viewed as a bad omen and such individual faced discrimination though it was rare for these outsiders to commit suicide or suffer “accidents.” Geneologists believe that 12% of the Dragon Blood births of this generation were squibs.

King Gwydion grew up listening to stories his grandfather’s great martial prowess. This made him thirsty to prove himself. Gwydion was the most expansionist king Swynfaredia ever had. King Gwydion conquered slightly more land than his grandfather King Elgan did before him, but Gwydion was not the careful tactician that Elgan was. Losses were heavier both among Dragon Blood sorcerers and common born soldiers. King Gwydion made up for this short coming by recognizing five new Houses and bringing in a lot of powerful foreign born sorcerers and sorceresses via marriage.

King Gwydion led a lot of men to their deaths and he was rocking the status quo. This made him unpopular with the old guard. King Gwydion died in battle, but the circumstances of his battlefield death were fishy. Many suspect he was set up by rival Swynfaredians.

The oldest member of the Sixth Generation survived to 241.



Seventh Generation

About one in four children of this generation had overtly dragon features apart from their eyes. Fewer than one in ten of this generation had dragon features that were utilitarian and not just cosmetic (sharp claws, exceptional senses, protective scales). Roughly one in ten children of this generation had human-like eyes. Prejudices were softening, but human-like eyes were still considered highly undesirable.

A small number of draconic looking nobles began showing noticeable signs of madness attributed to inbreeding. This was rumored to have occurred in earlier generations, but it was carefully hidden and covered up. In this generation, it was too widespread to fully cover up.

Geneologists believe that 15% of the Dragon Blood births were squibs. At the time a prominent genealogist made a controversial claim that was hushed up (and the genealogist died in a suspicious “suicide”, but generations later he was exonerated. He discovered that human-looking Dragon Bloods less likely to be Squibs than overtly draconic looking Dragon Bloods.


King Elgan III rose to the throne at a very young age. Even as adult he was fairly weak willed and easily swayed by his advisers. Some historians called him the Puppet King. Some of his contemporaries called him the Puppet King. A lot of reforms were pushed through that gave the dukes more autonomy reducing the power of the crown. This would lead to increasing tensions as the dukes and counts fought and quarreled without a strong king to keep them in line.

The oldest member of the Sixth Generation survived to 217 though the lady that survived to 217 had a very miserable last three decades requiring divine healing magic every other day to stave off death. This practice became less popular in future generations leading to drastic drop in maximum life span.


Eighth Generation

Roughly one in eight children of this generation had human-like eyes. About one in ten children of this generation had overtly dragon features apart from their eyes. Fewer than one in child in fifty had dragon features that were utilitarian and not just cosmetic, one of these children was Elgan IV, the crown prince of the realm. Elgan IV had superior senses and functional claws. He was also a squib. About 20% of Dragon Blooded births were squibs. Historians estimate that 5% of the Dragon Blood population showed overt signs of physical or mental deformities due to inbreeding though a lot of these individuals were murdered or house imprisoned.

The First Swynfaredian Civil War began when Elgan IV tried to take his birthright to the crown and large segments of the nobility refused to accept a squib king. It was mostly nobles of the ninth and tenth generation that did the actual fighting.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 157.


Ninth Generation

About one in five children of this generation had human-like eyes. About one in twenty children of this generation had overtly draconic features other than eyes. There was no major uptick in the number of squibs recorded BUT many historians believe official records were inaccurate. A lot of squibs were murdered or banished during or after the Civil War.

This generation was defined by the First Swynfaredian Civil. Virtually every sorcerer fought in some capacity and a majority of sorceresses also participated directly in the war.

Several new houses were formed in the aftermath of the Civil War. A few old houses were dissolved.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 117.


Tenth Generation

About one in four children of this generation had human-like eyes. The number of overtly draconic traits remained steady at about one in twenty but that was mostly because new draconic blood from outside the Founding Dragons was married in during the previous generation. Historians figure 24% of the noble births were squibs. This was still a very bad generation to born a squib.

Accusations of madness and inbred deformities spiked five-fold. Historians believe this was wildly inaccurate as noble feuds increases, this was a common accusation to seed through whisper campaigns.

When the tenth generation of nobles the majority of adults, this was a dark time for Swynfaredia. A lot of squibs were banished, imprisoned, or murdered. The First Swynfaredian Civil War was over, but many grudges from the war simmered. Lots of bad blood lead to a lot of cloak and dagger politics. Crop yields were down and there were flare ups of disease.

Neighboring human nations as well as intelligent monsters like orc and goblin tribes took the recent civil war as a sign of weakness and stepped up their attacks and raids. Furious that their leaders seemed so corrupt and impotent, a lot of peasants revolted. The general response of noble leaders to their problems was an iron fist.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 125.


Eleventh Generation

Compared to the previous generation, this generation was only slightly more human looking. The smallest generational change so far. Squibs made up about 30% of all births but this uptick is largely attributed to the fact that cultural norms made it less common for noble houses to figuratively or literally hide their squibs away. Problems with inbreeding seemed to be falling.

This generation saw some reforms for squib rights. Sorcerers had been putting their squib children into minor government offices for many generations, but the practice really took off in this generation. This irked the commoners a bit as it became even harder for commoners to amount to anything when squibs were given preferential treatment over them, but there wasn’t much the average commoner could about this. There was an upsurge of wizards quietly stepping up their recruitment and training among the commoners. The various priesthoods also stepped up their recruitment to try to induct more priests and theurgists. Squibs that manifest draconic cosmetic features are all but guaranteed a cushy government job.

As the realm stabilized, the king and the dukes created reforms that generally pushed the realm into a more militaristic direction. The newly stabilized and strengthened realm began a military campaign to drive out the orcs and goblins nearby and to punish the human nations that tried to take advantage of their weakness earlier. Swynfaredia annexed a fair chunk of new land.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 118.


Twelfth Generation

About one in three children of this generation had human-like eyes. About 4% of the Dragon Blood population had draconic features other than their eyes. Genealogists believe about 32% of the births of this generation were squibs.

Historians argue whether the king was a madman, a fool, or simply a good person who was unlucky. Swynfaredia tried to expand the realm militarily but they suffered several defeats and even their victories were costly. This led to unrest among nobles and commoners alike which would pave the way for the Second Swynfaredian Civil War. Swynfaredia even went back into war with the Elven Empire after a duke tried to back a nearby Imperial colony to secede. One of the major rebel leaders was a half-elf, and the duke in question was hoping to get him to marry his daughter to create a new Swynfaredia province.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 95, and the circumstances of his death were slightly suspicious.


Thirteenth Generation

About 40% of noble children of this generation had human-like eyes. About 3% of the Dragon Blood population had draconic features other than their eyes. Genealogists believe about 35% of the births of this generation were squibs.

By the dumb luck of the genetic lottery, more males were born as squibs than females. Disastrous wars started from the previous generation led to a lot of male sorcerers dying. In this generation, adult sorceresses outnumbered adult sorcerers roughly three-to-two. The royal family’s male line was hit very hard, no direct male heirs at all. The Second Civil War pitted the previous king’s eldest daughter, Eleri against the king’s nephew.

Princess Eleri won and became Swynfaredia’s first true queen. Laws were rewritten in all levels of nobilities titles passed to the eldest child with sorcery regardless of sex.

The oldest member of this generation on record died at the age of 107, Queen Eleri in fact was the longest lived member of her generation. Eleri became an extremely popular name for baby girls for every generation onward.


Fourteenth Generation

About 45% of noble children of this generation had human-like eyes. About 2.5% of the Dragon Blood population had draconic features other than their eyes. Genealogists believe about 38% of the births of this generation were squibs.

This was the first generation born into egalitarian succession rules. During this time, nobles quickly realized that if a first born sorcerer from married a first born sorceress, their child could inherit the titles from two houses, essentially merging them. Marriage politics became far more complicated as some nobles sought to merge holdings while others fought against this viciously. This period of history saw many new houses form and old houses change or dissolve. The Office of the Arcane Registry changed from a collection of bored academics into being a collection of savvy power brokers.

Fortunately, Queen Eleri was a very strong and shrewd leader. Without her leadership, the realm probably would have collapsed. She kept her vassals in line, and took a firm hand vetting most noble marriages.

A new reform in succession was pushed through without a civil war. The sorcerer children of squibs were recognized as true Dragon Bloods if they could trace their lineage to ennobled sorcerers. This was also viewed as a useful tool for preserving a house’s power. If you marry your eldest sorcerer to a squib born sorcerer, the royal line is true enough to breed true heirs, but you don’t have to worry about a rival house trying to steal your house’s lands and titles.

At this point, Swynfaredian nobles were only barely outliving the nobles of other nations. This is probably the last generation that benefited from any draconic longevity.


Fifteenth Generation

Roughly equal numbers of dragon blood had human-like eyes. . Fewer than 2% of the Dragon Blood population had draconic features other than their eyes. Genealogists believe about 41% of the births of this generation were squibs.

This era was viewed as Swynfaredia’s Golden Age. Crop yields were good. Trade enriched the noble’s coffers helped by the fact that new treaties were hammered out with the Elven Empire. There were no major wars or monster problems. Relatively few Dragon blood nobles were dying mysterious deaths.

Swynfaredians didn’t realize just how good they had it…


Sixteenth Generation

Roughly 55% of the Dragonblood population had human-like eyes. Only about 1% of the Dragon blood population had draconic features apart from their eyes. Genealogists believe about 43% of the births of this generation were squibs. Quite a few of this generation had mental instability seemingly brought on by inbreeding.

The golden age inadvertently created a generation of spoiled brats. There were exceptions to the rule, but on the whole the lords and ladies wasted a lot of money on hedonistic parties. Relations between nobles and commoners soured. The army fell into a state of neglect. Trade relations with neighbors soured. Monster attacks got worse. Everything got worse and most of the leaders didn’t stir from their drunken stupors to deal with it. Crop yields went relations. Relations soured between the nobilities and the various priesthood.

When the nobles did act for the benefit of the realm, they tended to act in a tyrannical fashion. There were a lot of bastard children with sorcery running around. Worst of all, infighting between noble houses became worse.


Seventeenth Generation

Roughly 55% of the Dragonblood population had human-like eyes. Less than 1% of the Dragon blood population had draconic features apart from their eyes. Genealogists believe about 45% of the births of this generation were squibs though the official records put the number much lower than that.

For the first time in history, the crown heir did not have any overt dragon like physical features, but he was a sorcerer of great power for his age, so few nobles complained, at least not out loud.

Even as prince, he worked tirelessly to reform the corruption growing in Swynfaredia. Historians commonly view him as a good man who was burdened with corrupt advisers and unruly vassals. He had a very short reign of king as he was poisoned within a few years of ascending into the throne.

The king’s cousin took the crown. She wanted to reform the realm too, but she was not a woman courage. Fearing assassination, she mostly sequestered herself away and tried to rule her realm at a distance via written correspondence.

The queen’s efforts were neither complete failures nor complete success. While not as decadent as their parent’s generation. This generation was a Byzantine mess of cloak and dagger intrigue


Eighteenth Generation

Roughly 60% of the Dragonblood population had human-like eyes. Less than 1% of the Dragon blood population had draconic features apart from their eyes. Genealogists believe about 47% of the births of this generation were squibs.

When this generation hit adulthood, they finally managed to make some major strides against the realm’s rampant corruption. It wasn’t just the efforts of reformers. The realm as a whole lost a lot of wealth and prestige and this starved out the decadent party culture Swynfaredia had developed.

The biggest reform was probably giving more rights and status to sorcerers that do not tie their lineage to the Founding Dragons. Marriage mores were softened to reduce inbreeding issues and government appointments to sorcerers became more based on merit and less based on purity of blood.

A rising star was the sorcerer Rajeth, rumored to be a bastard son of one of the major Houses. Rajeth gained fame when exposed that one of the major houses was secretly ruled by a lich for three generation using illusion and enchantment magic to hide her undead state. Rajeth was also, by far, the single most powerful sorcerer in the world.

Rajeth became popular and wealthy but he wanted more. Rajeth stated that the old Dragon Bloods were corrupt and Swynfaredia should reform into a magical meritocracy. Rajeth started the Third Swynaredia almost singled handedly.

Rajeth and his followers were severely outnumbered. Very few conventional armies mobilized during this civil war. Almost all of the fighting was sorcerer-on-sorcerer fighting. Relative to the previous civil wars, far fewer commoners died, those that did were usually subject to mass executions for “disloyalty” for whichever side cornered them. To his credit, Rajeth tried to minimize commoner deaths, though not all of his followers were so high-minded

Proportionally, the nobles were hit much harder than the peasantry. Rajeth was eventually slain as were most of his followers, but three or four loyalist sorcerers died for every one of Rajeth rebels that was killed. This created a lot of power vacuums.

There are a fair number of grey haired members of this generation still alive and kicking. Many of them are still in positions of great power.

Nineteenth Generation

Roughly 65% of the Dragonblood population had human-like eyes. Less than 1% of the Dragon blood population had draconic features apart from their eyes. Genealogists believe about 50% of the births of this generation were squibs. Following the cue from the queen, many Dragon Blood have started using illusion magic or even simple cosmetics to fake draconic features. This was done for many generations, but now it is no longer taboo to get caught faking it. It’s no worse than someone noticing you died your grey hair.

The 20th generation is mostly too young to fully classify and the 21st generation of nobles is mostly in diapers.

Because so many Dragon Blood died in the last civil war, there is a general push by nearly all the house leaders to put the kibosh on noble-on-noble murders. But there were still a lot of power vacuums that need filling. Infighting is still intense as inter-house rivalries are stronger than ever but great effort is spent to catch and punish anyone caught murdering a Dragon Blooded noble, so murder is down…for now.

The current queen is 19 generations removed from the Founding Dragons. She is hoping she can stabilize the realm and quell the infighting by finding her vassals an exterior foe to unite against. She is quietly probing all the neighboring nations for weaknesses.

I only have three full on civil wars, but I'd like the royal crown to have passed between nobles houses or almost pass between different houses. At least for the big four: Kovenoth, Numaness, Freymis, and Goirsonad a few times.


I am embarrassingly verbose. Over 4000 words and there is still more I feel compelled to do. It's probably unnecessary for me to place the formation and possible dissolution of all houses that ever existed. It's certainly unnecessary for me to fill out a full family tree.


At some point I'd like to include a younger house that was founded by an elf or a half-elf sorcerer expatriate from the Elven Empire and/or Codenya.


Over the course of 20 human generations, at some point full dragons or half-dragons are going to decide to stick their snout in Swynfaredia's business. I want to figure out what the lasting implications of these events were.


In broad terms, Swynfaredia conquered a lot of other human nations. At some point, I want to figure out what these realms were called and what cultural remnants of these conquered nations remain.


Swynfaredia is currently in a subdued cold war with the nation of Uskala. At some point over their very long histories Swynfaredia and Uskala must have fought directly.


I could easily write even more if I wanted to fill out a family tree. As of now I only named five historical figures. King Elgan the First is a mighty wise king who really got the ball rolling on making Swynfaredia a super power. Queen Eleri the First was the one who pulled Swynfaredia out of it's worst nose dive. King Gwydion and King Elgan the Fourth are major screw ups who nearly destroyed the realm sewing the seeds of future civil wars. Rajeth is the controversial figure who deliberately started the Third Civil War and ended up losing.

I probably don't need to go into a detailed family tree covering all nobles ever, but at the very least I need to figure out which houses exist now. Which are powerful and which are weak. Which houses hate/love which rival houses and why? I should probably name the current queen. I could be lazy and make her Queen Eleri the Fifth.

Lots of people think King Richard the First, has a son Richard the Second who has a son Richard the Third. That's not the only way to do it. Richard the First could have a son Tim the Second (named after Richard's grandfather) and Tim could have a son he names Richard the Second.

There are probably at least four or five Eleris and four five Elgans spread among the nobility which would be realistic but it would also be very confusing for readers and players.

 

[Warden]

Here is my rough draft for the four founding houses. If someone suggests a good character concept for a dragon, I can boost this to five or six founding houses, but for now it's four. Maybe a fifth dragon that loves the sea, or maybe not. Swynfaredia has a lot of coastline now but they probably didn't when they were founded.

The four dragons: Framiss the Vibrant, Goirsonad the Wise, Numaness the Mystic, and Kovenoth the Builder.

All four of these dragons were at least somewhat concerned with the human houses that bore their names. All four wrote treatsies on their philosophies, ethics, and preferred style of rule. These treatsies have been copied down and translated a lot. Framiss probably wrote one or two books while Goirsonad probably penned dozens of tomes. In any event, most of the tomes have been copied a bunch, so most Swynfaredians of means have copies of tomes of all four of the dragons, not just their house's dragon.

Academic scholars probably debate minutiae of the writings of all four.

@Warden is all heraldry. I'm sure there are very intricate paintings and statues of the Founding dragons but I guess in heraldry it has to be simplified a bit. They physical descriptions are not set in stone, I can adjust them later.

Framiss the Vibrant

I figure Framiss was bright red. He was bigger and more muscular than the other Founders. Sort of stocky by dragon standards. Very prominent horns. In some ways he is a quintessential western dragon. Maybe I'll play up the feline traits of Framiss.

Framiss was a strong proponent of being kind to the lowly. Framiss was a bit of a hedonist. He certainly sired more half dragons than the other Founders. I’m likely to have given him around 20 half-dragon children with seven or eight human lovers.

Framiss was a bit of a hedonist. He sired more half-dragons than any of the other Founders. This attitude carried over to Framiss descendants. House Framiss has a reputation for infidelity and promiscuity. Because so many siblings are half-siblings, House Framiss has more fratricide than the other Houses.

House Framiss tries to brand themselves as the “princes of the people.” They have an annual festival where the Lord or Lady is ceremonially mocked by the commoners. They have another more somber festival where commoners can present the Lord or Lady anonymous complains about the ruler. The lords and ladies also love to boast about commoner friendly they are. Sometimes they can be condescending about it.

House Framiss loves to throw a lot of festivals, tournaments, and feasts. This combines their hedonism with their desire to be nice to commoners. This also gives Framiss a reputation for being spendthrifts.

House Framiss encourages their sorcerers to be battle ready. Cowardice is detested. Risk taking behavior is generally looked on favorable. This and the hedonism leads to House Framiss is often stereotyped to be reckless people who live hard and die young.

House Framiss frequently endorses Zarthus, Nami, and Mera. They are usually leery of Phidas and Maylar.


Goirsonad the Wise

Goirsonad was skinnier than the other dragons, but tail to snout, Goirsonad was the longest dragon. That means he's going to kind of be snake-like, maybe have a crest that resembles a sages beard like a stereotypical Eastern dragon. Probably make him a relatively unassuming color like stony grey.

Goirsonad’s central philosophy was summed up by “The dragons must bestow their wisdom on the ignorant humans for the humans own good.” I’m likely to have given him around 8 half-dragon children with one or two human lovers.

House Gorisonad values education and learning. They also are fairly hidebound in traditions. They tend to be a little more tolerant of wizards than the other Founding Houses.

House Goirsonad is a bit more pious than the other Founding Houses. Among other things, Goirsonad himself believed that it is the dragons’ responsibility to educate humans so they don’t create a Third Unmaking. House Goirsonad is very aggressive against Void minions and to a lesser extant The Fair Folk. House Goirsonad also is generally anti-necromancy, not that many nobles are publicly pro-necromancy.

Between their fear of the Dark and their love of traditions, House Goirsonad tends to favor harsh policing.

There is a stereotype that House Goirsonad will bury their heads in ancient books and ignore the world around them.

House Goirsonad frequently endorses Khemra a lot. They also tend to be fond of Hallisan and Korus. They are usually leery of Zarthus and Nami. They are extremely hostile towards Maylar worshipers.



Numaness the Mystic

In my world, dragons that focus on their mystic power more than their physical might or mental acuity tend to be shiny, so Numaness is definitely going to be shiny. I'm thinking a medium purple. A little bit stockier than Gorisonad, but still on the long and lanky side. I'm thinking of giving her a crown-like frill.

Numaness was only the female dragon among the Founders. She had fewer half-dragon children than the all males, if only because carrying half-human children is time consuming and irksome.. I’m likely to have given her around 6 half-dragon children with one or two human lovers

House Numaness has a higher percentage of sorcerer births than the other houses. Not a lot higher, but high enough to notice.

Numaness herself talked about the weak should serve the strong, and nothing proves strength like magic. House Numaness really pushes their sons and daughters to excel at magic as much as possible. This has led to a stereotype House Numaness are helpless without magic. They don’t learn swordplay, diplomacy, useful crafts, or any mundane skills that aren’t directly tied to spell-casting.

House Numaness is reputed to be more contemptuous of the peasantry than the other Houses. They will often counter back, “The peasants benefit from our properly managed realms, we don’t feel the need to show off how commoner friendly we are like the drunkards of House Framiss.”

House Numaness believe in making hay while the sun shines. They identify with Aesop’s ant, not the grasshopper. House Numaness is reputed to be the most miserly and tight-fisted of the Houses. They spin this as a positive saying they can handle the hard times better than the others houses.

House Numaness frequently endorses Greymoria. They also tend to be fond of Phidas and Korus. They are rumored to be closet Maylar worshipers. They are usually leery of Hallisan and Zarthus.



Kovenoth the Builder

Kovenoth is going to have an "average" build for a dragon somewhere between stocky and muscular like a lion and long and lanky like a snake. He was probably one of the rare burrowing dragons. Burrowing dragons tend to have shorter necks. So maybe a longish body and a shortish neck. Since he's a builder I'm thinking of making his claws proportionally bigger compared to the rest of his body. He's extra vain, so maybe I might make him multi-colored like a coatl.

Kovenoth’s main goal was to create a grand lasting legacy. I’m likely to have given him around 12 half-dragon children with two or three human lovers.

House Kovenoth really loves to build grand things. Monuments, castles, fortresses. This attitude has rubbed off on the other Houses over time. This has lead to a reputation for House Kovenoth being vain though that attitude has also rubbed off the other Houses.

Kovenoth was the most Machiavellian of all the dragons. He wrote the most political treatises. House Kovenoth nobles are very concerned about the various aspects of rulership. House Kovenoth view themselves as wise and detail oriented. They have a reputation for being intrusive micromanagers.

House Kovenoth frequently endorses Phidas, Hallisan, and Khemra. They have a love-hate relationship with Zarthus. They love art and music Zarthus encourages but loathe Zarthus’ revolutionary spirit.



Anyway, those are the original houses. I haven't meshed out the history in detail but Swynfaredia is going to be somewhere between 500 and 1500 years old. That's a lot of time for a house philosophy to evolve and change, or warp and devolve. Even if the Houses intended to follow their Founder's principles to the letter, this could change over time.

Swynfaredia annexed neighboring lands several times. They had three major civil wars that enveloped the whole nation. They had a lot of minor civil wars that was just between two or three houses. They might have had to face an invasion from outsiders a few times. They absorbed a lot of sorcerers from outside the original bloodlines to avoid atrophying. Most of the dragon Founders were polygamous so there could be distinctive subhouses based on which branch of the dragon's bloodline someone hails from.

So there is a lot of room for new houses to be formed, old houses to die off, current houses to split in two, or houses to merge. At this point due to intermarriages, most Swynfaredian nobles have at least a little bit of the blood of all four Founding dragons.



Hopefully this foundation of the four founding dragons can get the ball rolling.

I like the houses and the dragon descriptions. Some additional notes: ​

Heraldry summed up: Dragons and Details

• Dragons: pretty obvious; any noble has a dragon in their heraldry. No nobles of non-draconic blood are permitted dragons in their heraldry (though by now, everyone claims to have dragon blood, even if it doesn’t manifest in innate magical talent
  
• Details: often within a single house, use the base heraldry for the dragon itself but add tiny details to differentiate between various lines within the noble family. Large differences only come into play with large breaks between the families. Minor details can include adding an extra set of toes to the dragon, a second tail, second or third head, wings/no wings, arms/no arms, legs/no legs, etc.
  
• Non-magical members of the family are often differentiated by making the dragon-emblem on the heraldry physically smaller, normally “in chief,” a miniature version in the top left, right, or center of the shield. This designates the noble as a member of the house, but visibly at a glance they are designated as non-magical due to the smaller prominence of the dragon

1. Framiss the Vibrant
   
   • Red dragon, wings, prominent horns, potentially felinid traits
     
   • Colors- primary dragon color is gules (red), with secondary heraldic colors of or/argent (yellow or white), often sable (black) or vert (green) details
     
   • Other symbols used in heraldry: swords/weapons, stars, fire
2. Goirsonad the Wise
   
   • Stony Grey, skinniest, long/snakelike dragon, possibly bearded
     
   • Colors- primary dragon color is argent (white), with secondary heraldic colors of BLUE (blue), details in gules (red)
     
   • Other symbols: books/scroll, coils, candles, letters, eye
3. Numaness the Mystic
   
   • Medium purple/shiny scales, crown-like frill, stockier than Goirsonad but still skinny
     
   • Other symbols: frog (magical symbol), eye/hands, the sun, a crown
     
   • Colors: primary dragon color is PURPLE (purple), with secondary colors of sable (black) or gules (red), details in or/argent (gold/white)
4. Kovenoth the Builder
   
   • Rare burrowing dragon, short neck, large claws, multicolored scales
     
   • Colors: this one is tricky, I see two options here:
     
   • Primary dragon color is vert (green, going coatl colors here) with or (yellow) features, with gules (red) feathers/scales. Maybe even PURPLE (purple) feathers. Backgrounds could be or (yellow) or argent (white)
     
   • Second version could do one of the furs from heraldry (vair, ermine, etc) but make the colors more vibrant somehow. Backgrounds could vary based on what looks best.
     
   • Other symbols: castles, gables, bridges, often several colors in heraldry

Perhaps gratuitously. I might be addicted to indexing.

I'm using a program called World Anvil. For the moment I'm using the $4/month version but I think I can get by with the free version.

Anyway, Scarterra has a wiki now. I'd like a few of you guys to visit and at least confirm that this program works for visitors who do not pay the World Anvil people money.

I'm still getting used to the World Anvil, but while I have Hulu playing my favorite re-runs in the background I've been slowly converting my copious notes on Scarterra into this Wiki and hyperlinking the crap out my articles because everything ties to everything.

Ultimate index potential here!

 

[Scalenex]

I'm still focusing on Swynfaredia but I am easily distracted by side topics. I waffled on different takes for how to use Unicorns in Scarterra.

Then I watched this video. A little wordy but they had a good idea. Unicorns are angels of nature that are somewhat distant from human

To me this sounds like I should make unicorns the ultimate champions of Korus. Korus is also the god of horses, sot hat fits. Unicorns represent Korus' better nature.

However Korus is a dualistic being. Korus gets along equally well with Mera and Greymoria.

If the unicorn represents the earthly apex of Korus' gentle side. What would be the ultimate apex of Korus' harsher side. I want an anti-unicorn.

Instead of a guardian of nature, an anti-unicorn would embody nature's wrath

What kind of baseline creature should I use for that?

 

[Scalenex]

It's probably a waste of time for me to write a biography for every single Synfaredian noble that ever existed, but this idea sprung my head, so I had to write it down.

Lady Rhoswen, daughter Fremiss the Vibrant and the human Eira.
Originally Rhoswen the Brash. Now called Rhoswen the Brave

Lady Rhoswen Fremiss’ legacy in death far outstrips her legacy in life. Lady Rhoswen never married, allegedly never had any children and was not interesting in politics. She was an adventurer. Opinions differ on whether she became an adventurer because she was bored, out of altruism, to avoid an unwanted arranged marriage, or because she secretly had a death wish. She showed open contempt for the day-to-day issues of running a realm and resisted attempts to be married off. Think of Merida from Pixar’s Brave, but make her half dragon.

Rhoswen had some sorcerous abilities but she rarely used them. She had big muscles, functional wings, and a fiery breath weapon. She was far more likely to fight with her magical battle axe, Fremiss’ Bite, than to rely on her magic. The legend of Fremiss’ Bite is almost as big as Lady Rhoswen’s legend.

In life, she was considered an embarrassment to her House. When she died around age 70 (old for a human, but young for a half-dragon), House Fremiss discovered that decades of adventuring has made Lady Rhoswen a folk hero to the commoners. Tales of her great deeds became embellished over multiple re-tellings. After all, in the stories she is the knight, the princess, and the dragon. She became even more beloved generations later. Most Swynfaredian nobles were forced to memorize a lengthy family tree and recite hundreds of names on command. Most commoners can only name one First Generation Dragon Blood, they can name Rhoswen.

Eventually House Fremiss opted to lean into her legend. They named many of their daughters Rhoswen. They built monuments to Rhoswen in public places. They created a Rhoswen Medal to bestow on adventurers who provide a service for the House.

It just so happens that at least two Swynfaredian nobles are claiming that their magical battle axe is actually the "real" Fremiss’ Bite while others insist the axe was lost and are still looking for it. Greymoria’s Children in Swynfaredia leaked rumors that they found the axe and are saving it for a rainy day. Later a dwarf adventurer claimed to have found the shattered remnants of Fremiss’ Bite and re-forged it into an axe he named Rhoswen’s Memory, which was used in battle in the liberation of the Great Stone, but is now quietly sitting in the ancestral vault of one of Stahlheim’s richer clans. Among other things, Lady Rhoswen was one of few early Swynfaredians that got along well with the dwarves of the era having had adventured with dwarves many times.

Lady Rhoswen never married and she is quoted in family texts as saying she never wanted children. Over the many decades of her adventuring career, she worked with many famous human male heroes. A lot of minstrels like to imply or outright state that Rhoswen had steamy love affairs with her comrades in arms. A lot of peasant born sorcerers claim that Rhoswen was actually their distant ancestor. In fact, there are more unsubstantiated genetic legacies of Rhoswen than any other Swynfaredian noble.

 

[Scalenex]

I've been having a lot of fun putting the stuff in my Players Handbook and Creature Compendium and the stuff on this thread onto the Scarterra Wiki.

I'm trying to keep the articles relatively short but Kahdisteria, the first Wiki article I made about a powerful nation is really unwieldy. I'm trying to figure out how to logically split into sub articles.

Anyway, more importantly, I noticed I don't have many Third Age creatures compared to Second and First Age creatures.

While reviewing old entries I thought of a way I could kill several birds with one stone.

I want more Korus creatures.
I want more Third Age creatures
I want to develop Hollow Earth/Scar Caverna more
I am intrigued by the Nezumi of the fantasy world Rokugan.


So I'm thinking Korus, tired of being figuratively and literally in the dark about what goes on underground decided to create a race of Korus loyal humanoid to be his eyes, ears, and hands paws underground.

I haven't gotten farther than this. What would good or neutral Skaven look like? What would they want? What should they be called?

 

[Scalenex]

I have finally created an official creature entry for the Camazotz. The Kalazotz will follow soon.

Camazotz
Camazotz, also called death bats, are humanoids with large bat like wings analogous to the Man Bat from Batman the Animated Series in appearance.

Origin: Camazotz were created by Greymoria in the Second Age to harass and prey on elves that lived in tropical areas.


Second Age History: Originally, Camazotz dwelled almost exclusive in tropical and subtropical forests. Camazotz stayed loyal to Greymoria and attacked elves near their territory when they could. Eventually the elves became so numerous and organized that they were able to force the Camazotz on the defensive. As flyers, the Camazotz could cover large distances quickly and they spread throughout Scarterra, but with nearly every other humanoid hostile to them, the Camazotz were not able to truly put roots down anywhere apart from underground.


Surviving the Second Unmaking: Unsurprisingly, most of the Camazotz died in the Second Unmaking. The Camazotz fought or fled from the demons as best they could. Their impact was not great and there are no mentions of them in surviving written accounts of the Second Unmaking. It is widely believed that the entirety of the survivors of the Camazotz race were those who dwelled below ground.


Recent History and Distribution: Early in the Third Age, the Camazotz began spreading. Initially cautious, they did not immediately resume their war on Greymoria’s enemies. They focused on shoring up their numbers and establishing new homes. The Camazotz began reclaiming territory above ground once again, especially in warmer climates.

The Camazotz had to deal with the Kalazotz. The Kalazotz are an offshoot of Camazotz that adopted Mera as their patron. It’s unclear whether the Kalazotz diverged before, during, or after the Unmaking but reactions between the Camazotz and Kalazotz were immediately hostile.

While individually weaker, the Kalazotz had greater numbers and better ability to work in groups than the Camazotz and usually got the better of bat-on-bat violence. It also didn’t help that the Camazotz got in frequent fights with humans, elves, and dwarves while the Kalazotz were generally able to peacefully coexist with the “nonflyers.”


Lifecycle and Society: Adult Camazotz average just under six feet tall and have roughly ten foot wing spans. Females are slightly smaller than males. Few Camazotz live long enough to die of old age; those that do tend to max out around sixty years. Juvenile Camazotz can fly unaided around age two. They enter adolescence around ten years and are fully grown by age fifteen. Females remain fertile through age thirty-five while males tend to remain fertile for life.

Most females give birth to single offspring, but twin births are far more common among the Camazotz than they are among humans, roughly one in four births. If food is plentiful, most Camazotz will practice monogamy. If food is scarce the strongest males will kill or drive way the weaker males and then practive polygamy.

Camazotz usually live in colonies of 10 to 30 adults with 5 to 15 juveniles and adolescents. Camazotz are territorial as a rule, but they are pragmatic enough to relocate if their chosen territory becomes unsuitable.

Camazotz are omnivores, but they prefer a carnivorous diet, especially blood. Camazotz are especially fond of drinking blood from mortal humanoids but they are not suicidal. They will forgo feeding from humanoids if they believe the humanoids are capable of lethal retribution.


Religious Practices: The Camazotz were once fervent worshipers of Greymoria. During the Second Unmaking, the Camazotz believed Greymoria has largely abandoned them. The Camazotz still worship Greymoria as their primary deity, but they are not very pious generally only truly worshiping Greymoria once or twice a year.


Camazotz Character Creation

Camazotz have the same 1-5 attribute spread that humans have.

Very Strong: Camazotz get -1 all non-magical Strength rolls, including inflicting damage. They get a -1 bonus on Willpower rolls when making feat of Strength checks

Flight: Camazotz can fly assuming there is enough room to spread their wings. Camazotz ability to fly is seriously impaired when they carry loads greater than their own weight, the best they can do is manage a slow fall. Camazotz have trouble flying long distances while carrying loads exceeding half their own weight. “Injured” Camazotz are limited to carrying half their weight while staying airborne. “Wounded” Camazotz cannot carry more than a quarter of their weight. “Mauled” Camazotz can barely carry anything while remaining airborn and “Crippled” Camazotz cannot fly at all.

Flight maneuvers based on agility roll Dexterity + Athletics. Flight maneuvers over long distances roll Stamina + Athletics. Most Camazotz take an Athletics specialty in flight to get a bonus die on flying rolls.

If the Camazotz want to fight foes while airborne, a Camazotz’ Dodge, Melee, Brawl, and Archery abilities are capped at his or her Athletics rating much like how a humanoid riding a horse has his/her combat abilities capped by his Ride ability.

Accustomed to Pain: All Camazotz have the Pain Tolerance Merit for free meaning they can forgo all wound penalties for an entire scene by spending a temporary Willpower point. Most characters can only forgo wound penalties for one turn by spending a Willpower point.

Thick Skinned: Camazotz receive a bonus soak die against all forms of damage, stackable with worn armor if any.

Night Senses: Camazotz suffer no penalty in darkness and receive a -1 difficulty bonus to all Alertness rolls when in absolute or relative darkness.

Terrifying Visage: Camazotz use “Inverse Appearance” mechanics when dealing with other humanoids. Among their own kind, “scary” is “attractive.”

Claws and Fangs: Camazotz can inflict their Strength rating in lethal damage with their claws. They can inflict Strength +2 damage with their bites, but they have to grapple opponents first in order to land a bite.


Ill-tempered: +1 difficulty penalty all non-magical Charisma and Manipulation rolls when dealing with non-Camazotz.

Light Sensitivity: Camazotz receive a +1 difficulty penalty on all non-magical Perception rolls when operating in sun light or magical approximations of sunlight but they are far from blind and they are not literally harmed by sunlight. They also receive a +1 penalty to Intelligence and Wits rolls due to impaired concentration.

EDIT: I guess I have not figured out what language they speak. Should they speak Grauen, the default language of Greymoria's creations or would have they have adapted to pick up Common or Elven. Or would their physiology be weird enough that they essentially have to have to speak "Zotz" as a language.

If the Camazotz speak Grauen, the Kalazotz would probably abandon Zotz in order to speak something else. Either Common because it's common or Dwarven because they tend to get along well with dwarves, or Gnomish because it shows solidarity with Mera. If the Camazotz speak "Zotz" than the Kalazotz probably kept the language. Kalazotz would probably put more effort into learning foreign languages than Camazotz would.

It might be more realistic for the bat people to have their own language, but in story terms every new language I create is a potential barrier to role playing.

 

[Warden]

Enjoyed your info on the Camazotz!

I am intrigued by the Nezumi of the fantasy world Rokugan

I haven't gotten farther than this. What would good or neutral Skaven look like? What would they want? What should they be called?

Definitely want to see more of the Hollow Earth/Scarcaverna/Underworld.

I had to look up the Nezumi, but samurai rat-people (aka an entire race of SPLINTERS) would be pretty epic. You could definitely go both ways for these guys.

If you wanted to go the samurai route, you could easily make them a "neutral" faction, with both good or evil alignments pending on their motivations. Maybe the rats have been fighting a centuries-long Sengoku-style war for dominance in their under empire? Pitting many daimyo rats against each other vying for dominance over control of the rat-emperor throne? (Maybe empress?) Samurai had a code of bushido, kinda like chivalry, even though it seems that the concept didn't come to be until after samurai really stopped being a thing. Samurai and the daimyo were very motivated by their own concerns/self interest, worried about the survival of their clan (and person) and fought against other clans in order to preserve their control over their territory and way of life.

...if you wanted to go a more "good" route, would Redwall work as inspiration? That might be a bit too far in that direction. I think I would prefer the more "grey" approach that inspiration from samurai culture could bring.

 

[Scalenex]

Enjoyed your info on the Camazotz!

You gave me a lot of feedback on the Zotz before. What do you think about their language? Should they have their own language?

I see I have some views on my wiki . Were some of them yours?

 

[Scalenex]

Definitely want to see more of the Hollow Earth/Scarcaverna/Underworld.

I had to look up the Nezumi, but samurai rat-people (aka an entire race of SPLINTERS) would be pretty epic. You could definitely go both ways for these guys.

Rakugan is a fantasy world. There was a card game for it and a couple 3.5 D&D books. My friend has the D&D and I borrowed them. Rakugan can easily be used as a base for a very customizeable Eastern Adventures world with rules for samurai and ninjas, etc. What makes Rakugan somewhat unique is that they have a permanently tainted region called the Shadowlands that spawns a bunch of monsters. The Shadowlands will also mutate anyone who enters them and eventually turn them deformed and evil. There are magic items characters can take to let them go on relatively brief quests in the Shadowlands but Nezumi are the only non-evil that is completely immune to Shadowlands taint.

The ruling classes of Rakugan are generally very stuff very Lawful types, but they make allowances for the Nezumi, who while generally good natured, are still course mannered. It's sort of an interesting contrast.

Scarterra/Scaraqua/Scarcaverna has good guys and bad guys but it doesn't have a Pure Evil. Okay maybe the Void, but the Void is not evil, it's just hungry. Void Demons don't want to spread misery or corruption like D&D demons and devils, they just want to eat souls and destroy warmth.

After watching Flash Gordon (2007) I was intrigued by the "grey water" which turns those who drink it into mutants. I thought about adding a large swamp full of "black water" which is like grey water but more EVIIIL incorporating the 3.5 D&D rules for "corrupted template." Then I watched The Hills Have Eyes and got squicked out

Scarcaverna has not been fleshed out much. I toyed with several different ideas for the baseline.

The baseline of Scarterra is that there are feuding feudalistic nations locked in power deadlocks and having brushfire wars and cold war intrigue. Vaguely parallels to the Nine's proxy war with each other.


The baseline of Scaraqua is that Water Rome (name will be changed) is trying to take over everything and some areas on the outside are resisting while Water Rome has to do with corruption and rot from within. I still have figured out what analogous era Water Rome is in. Are they expanding aggressively taking out Water Carthage right now? Are they at their Pax Romana Peak? Are they on start of their decline? Are they already split between Water Rome and Water Byzantium?


I'm still working out what the main metaplot of Scarcaverna/Hollow Earth is. In nearly every official D&D setting, the Underdark is a cesspool of scum and villainy because all the evil creatures were literally driven underground in days of yore and pretty much everyone either eats people or practices especially cruel forms of slavery (or they are getting stoned on their own spores). The Drow, Illthids, Aboleths, Derro and who knows what else fight with each other when they aren't raiding the surface world for slaves.

I'm kicking around three ideas that are not mutually exclusive, but I'm still looking for a fourth or fifth idea.

Scarcaverna is Australia: Much like how D&D drives the bad guys underground, Scarterra does too. But they don't drive the villainous evil bad guys, it's more like how Australia used to be a penal colony for debtors.

Turoch's strongest servants were the Nine (plus the Traitor makes ten), but he had gazillions of lesser servants. Some of them fought for Turoch and died. Some of them fought for the Nine and mostly died, with the survivors joining the spirit entourages of the Nine. A lot of Turoch's minions decided to sit the fight out. The Nine were like. "You didn't help us. We don't like you. We aren't going to kill you, but you should mostly stay underground."

Just like real world Australia, the natural world is dangerous here.


Scarcaverna is a testing ground: If the Nine are trying something truly new, they will put their new creation underground to test it out first. If they don't like it, it literally never sees the light of day. If a creation of the Nine is abandoned (like many of Greymoria's "Children" they ultimately get pressured underground. In other words, it's where the Nine hold their mistakes.


Scarcaverna is the frontier of the Elemental Plane: The Elemental Plane is a the core of the planet.

...if you wanted to go a more "good" route, would Redwall work as inspiration? That might be a bit too far in that direction. I think I would prefer the more "grey" approach that inspiration from samurai culture could bring.

I have not Redwall yet though I have heard of it. Perhaps I should read it.

Because my current (though CCP virus impaired) RPG is set in West Colassia and my broad outline for a novel is also set in West Colassia, I focusing on West Colassia.

Because the very phrase "West Colassia" brings up the question "Is there an East Colassia," East Colassia is my second most developed nation.

The southern hemisphere has the continents Umera and Penarchia and the large islands Khemarok and Lunatus (which is northern focused politically therefore it's more developed). None of my southern lands are half as developed as the two Colassias. Umera is definitely going to be a land of samurai, ninjas, and terracotta golem warriors. I'm tempted to make the entire southern hemisphere analogous to fantasy depictions of medieval Asia and the entire northern hemisphere analogous to fantasy medieval Europe.

I know know this leaves out Mesoamerica and Africa but I can stick Aztec Lizards in somewhere.

Anyway I could make Nezumi exclusively a southern creature if they are going to be a race of Splinters, or I can give them faux European and faux Asian variants.

 

[Warden]

You gave me a lot of feedback on the Zotz before. What do you think about their language? Should they have their own language?

I see I have some views on my wiki . Were some of them yours?

You are correct some of these are definitely mine. I don't have an account over there or else I would be a follower too.

I like the idea of the bat-people having their own language, although I am curious if any echo-location stuff would comprise part of it? Clicks and chirps? Maybe some ear wiggles?

Of course you could also go a more historical/cultural route and take words from a mayan/Aztec dictionary and change them up a bit (that is what I normally do when I make phrases for my lizardmen fluff).

The baseline of Scaraqua is that Water Rome (name will be changed) is trying to take over everything and some areas on the outside are resisting while Water Rome has to do with corruption and rot from within. I still have figured out what analogous era Water Rome is in. Are they expanding aggressively taking out Water Carthage right now? Are they at their Pax Romana Peak? Are they on start of their decline? Are they already split between Water Rome and Water Byzantium?

I do love the idea of an underwater Rome; question is which of the varying underwater factions are the not-Romans? I like the idea of a not-Rome just past its peak: still very powerful, lots of armies, but rife with corruption, issues, ills, gladiatorial fights, injustice, and rampaging barbarian hordes for any would-be player character to have to deal with.


All you ideas for Scarcaverna look like they could work. The "Australia" concept looks interesting, outcasts/prisoners eeking out an existence in a harsh landscape.

 

[Scalenex]

You are correct some of these are definitely mine. I don't have an account over there or else I would be a follower too.

Thanks. I don't see a whole lot of reasons for non-creators to join though there is a free version. In theory I could use it as an aid to my players in my RPG but even if/when I transition into video conferencing RPGs I think it's easier just to send people documents via email than to use World Anvil. Especially since they don't carry my character sheet.

I'm not sure what followers get. I have the option to give alerts to my followers when I complete an article but since I'm constantly making edits to everything I'm never done. Scolenex refuses to follow me.

I like the idea of the bat-people having their own language, although I am curious if any echo-location stuff would comprise part of it? Clicks and chirps? Maybe some ear wiggles?

Given that the Zotz are creatures of darkness ear wiggles as sign language would not work well. Granted, the Camazotz already have more special abilities than just about every other race I've created so far. But echo location could let them "talk" over very long distances. Though I am likely to limit long range talking to very simple ideas like "FOOD!" or "DANGER!"

I do love the idea of an underwater Rome; question is which of the varying underwater factions are the not-Romans?

At Rome's peak, people from as far south as Africa to as far north as Hadrian's Wall, people as far west as Ibera and as far east as Jerusalem considered themselves "Roman."

I figure Water Rome would actually encompass Merfolk, Karakhai, Cephalapod people, and Scuttlers among others. That said, the original Water Romans are probably going to be Merfolk. The least assimilated group is probably going to be the Karakhai. Remember when the Huns and other barbarians really tore into Rome, some of the Huns were originally auxiliary troops to Rome and trained in their ways. When Water Rome begins to fall, their Karakhai subjects are likely to turn on them.

 

[Warden]

At Rome's peak, people from as far south as Africa to as far north as Hadrian's Wall, people as far west as Ibera and as far east as Jerusalem considered themselves "Roman."

I figure Water Rome would actually encompass Merfolk, Karakhai, Cephalapod people, and Scuttlers among others. That said, the original Water Romans are probably going to be Merfolk. The least assimilated group is probably going to be the Karakhai. Remember when the Huns and other barbarians really tore into Rome, some of the Huns were originally auxiliary troops to Rome and trained in their ways. When Water Rome begins to fall, their Karakhai subjects are likely to turn on them.

Fantastic, that makes sense. Giant multicultural empire (true to form) and a host of different auxiliaries to draw upon.

Given that the Zotz are creatures of darkness ear wiggles as sign language would not work well. Granted, the Camazotz already have more special abilities than just about every other race I've created so far. But echo location could let them "talk" over very long distances. Though I am likely to limit long range talking to very simple ideas like "FOOD!" or "DANGER!"

Pardon my facepalming when I read this, but I didn't even think about it being dark!

Visible cues don't make sense after all. Long distances is probably the safest way to do it.



Separate question, but one that always had me curious about any D&D/roleplaying-esque game, why do we call them races instead of species?

For instance, humans of different shades/colors are considered the same species, but perhaps not the same race as they have different outward appearances, but functionally they are the same.

And elf or a dwarf, or say, and orc, are definitely not the same race as a normal human, but are they the same species? Would a zotz be the same species as a human too?


...then you get into all the issues with half-elves/other half-races (interbreeding). Taxonomically a species traditionally can only reproduce with another member of the same species, but subspecies (= race?) can copulate and reproduce just fine. Neanderthals (homo neandertals), precursors to modern humans and traditionally an entirely different species and modern day human species (homo sapiens) are now hypothesized to not have died out, but rather interbred with the more-dominant humans and simply were subsumed into human society, culture, and ultimately the species itself.

So in terms of fantasy "races," is race the right word to use? Or is species? There seem to be pros and cons to each of them, I don't know which is the right one to use.

 

[Scalenex]

Separate question, but one that always had me curious about any D&D/roleplaying-esque game, why do we call them races instead of species?

I think its because Gary Gygax did it and the tradition carried on. He set a lot of precedent without trying to.

I would say that "species" is a fairly modern term. I've never seen the word "species" used before the Industrial Revolution.

World Anvil has templates for a bunch of things. They have templates for "species" and "ethnicity" but no template for "race" which is fine by me. There is very little difference between a "species template" or a "natural law template" or whatever. There are about 20 templates and there isn't a whole lot difference between any of them.

I am inclined to use "race" just because "species" does not sound medieval but that's not set in stone yet. I like science, but I don't always want to mix it with my fantasy. When Game of Throne was adapted to TV, they de-scienced George R. Martin's stuff but he loves to put science in his fantasy. The giants are actually based on homo erectus. The "children" are based on hobbit like early homo answers. They never made it to the show, but there pockets of neanderthals is Essos, and Southeros has populations based on whatever "Lucy" was. They just don't impact the story much. I think Martin falls into the trap of liking world building too much. I have not read his books yet. I am a completionist and it seems like he will never finish the last two books from his series. My friends who have read his books say the first two books are pretty solid. The then the third one dips in quality and the fourth and fifth really nose dive. Lots and lots of side plots that are realistic and show us more of the world but have no real impact on "who is going to sit on the Iron Throne." Oh here's three chapters where "Danerys is lost in Southeros and interacting with some primitive humanoids she cannot communicate with and will never look back on again"

But anyway, "elves" and "dwarves" use the species template. "Dark elves" and "Meckelorn dwarves" use the ethnicity template. And my ethnicities are all linked to their parent species. Though I guess Camazotz and Kalazotz are species not ethnicities. They are substantially different physiologically. Unlike dark elves and grey elves that look near identical if they were dressed alike. The wood elves look a little different because they are very "earthy" whereas both dark elves and grey elves are mostly watery and fiery.

For Scarterra, living things from the material plane are either mortals or beasts. Mortals have a soul, beasts do not. As of yet, I have not come up with any beasts of human intelligence. I'm not sure whether to make Chokers (a dungeon monster) on the high end of beast or the low end of mortal. I suppose a racist person can insult another race and say they have no souls, but in Scarterra there is actually proof the soul exists. Though the test is not easy. A Void Demon or undead creature powered by the Void will ignore beasts to attack mortals. Due to the Second Unmaking, every single creature that emerged in the First or Second Age, it's clear to everyone whether they have souls or not.

Fair Folk have full human intelligence but they don't have true mortal souls. Spirits could have animal-like, human-like or super genius intelligence but they don't have souls, they ARE souls.

Void Demons are kind of like anti-souls. Elementals don't have souls either. They are purely made up of Animus, which is the metaphysical equivalent of kinetic energy plus it's the glue that holds souls together. It's still vague, but rest assured metachlorines are not involved.

Golems and most artificially created undead are basically puppets or robots.

 

[Scalenex]

...then you get into all the issues with half-elves/other half-races (interbreeding). Taxonomically a species traditionally can only reproduce with another member of the same species, but subspecies (= race?) can copulate and reproduce just fine. Neanderthals (homo neandertals), precursors to modern humans and traditionally an entirely different species and modern day human species (homo sapiens) are now hypothesized to not have died out, but rather interbred with the more-dominant humans and simply were subsumed into human society, culture, and ultimately the species itself.

So in terms of fantasy "races," is race the right word to use? Or is species? There seem to be pros and cons to each of them, I don't know which is the right one to use.

I just put an article on this on my wiki!

Most mortals were created by one, two, or three of the Nine. Humans, elves, and dragons were created by all nine of the Nine. Therefore they can produce half-breeds with almost any mortal assuming they are vaguely compatible in form. Though the only half-breeds that are not infertile are human-elf, elf-dragon, and human-dragon.

It's not based on science, interbreeding is based on SCIENCE! To make viable offspring, mortals have to have compatible souls with the same stamp of the gods.

 

[Scalenex]

Kalazotz

Origin: The Kallazotz are an offshoot from the Camazotz that abandoned the ways of violence and they forsook Greymoria in place of Mera. By their own legends, their founder was a Camazotz who prophesized the Second Unmaking and predicted the Camazotz would need to change their ways to survive the coming cataclysm. Mera made them smaller over successive generations and gradually pulled the inherit rage from their souls while this happened.

Most outsiders aware of legend doubt it. There is no record of any penitent Camazotz during the Second Unmaking. There is no record of any oracle of any race predicting the Second Unmaking and the oldest recorded sightings of the Kalazotz by others races were several centuries after the Unmaking.


Recent History and Distribution: Early in the Third Age, the kalazotz spread among many underground realms. While not harmed by sunlight or any other common environmental aspect of the surface world, kalazotz generally feel safer underground and rarely venture above ground for long. When kalazotz do venture above ground long term, they favor areas with very tall trees.

Originally the kalazotz thought the camazotz were driven extinct by the Second Unmaking and the camazotz were unaware the kalazotz existed at all. When they discovered each other, they immediately began fighting. While individually weaker, the kalazotz had greater numbers and better ability to work in groups than the camazotz and usually got the better of bat-on-bat violence. Unfortunately, the camazotz had developed a foul reputation and many humanoids that spotted kalazotz assumed they were some kind of camazotz. It took the kalazotz a long time to get over the bad press they inherited. The legacy of the camazotz figuratively and literally drove the kalazotz deeper underground.

When Mordreck the conqueror drove the dwarves out of Meckelorn, Mordreck had a huge variety of different creatures in his army. The kalazotz were virtually the only “monster race” that sided with the dwarves. The kalazotz provided shelter to dwarven refugees, especially children. Many generations later, the dwarves have not forgotten that the kalazotz were a friend when friends were all too few. Kalazotz and dwarf relations are very cordial. Admittedly, the dwarves find the kalazotz weird and gross, but they still recognize them as weird and gross friends.

This has helped the kalazotz improve their reputation among other civilized races as word from the dwarves spread.

Lifecycle and Society: Adult kamazotz average around three and a half feet tall and have roughly five foot wing spans. Females are slightly smaller than males. Kalazotz can live upwards of sixty-five yearss. Kalazotz pups can fly unaided around age two. They enter adolescence around ten years and are fully grown by age fifteen. Females remain fertile through age thirty-five while males tend to remain fertile for life.

Most females give birth to single offspring, but twin births are far more common among the kalazotz than they are among humans, roughly one in four births. Kalazotz couples are usually monogamous mating for life. Kalazotz believe very much that it takes a “colony to raise a pup.” Young kalazotz grow up with a lot of attention not only from their parents but from their aunts and uncles.

Kalazotz usually live in colonies of 40 to 50 adults with roughly 20 pups and adolescents in tow. Kalazotz show great deference to their elders who are in charge of most aspect of colony life. Most colonies maintain infrequent contact with three or four other colonies. Periodically they will meet to swap mating partners and to meet o keep apprised of events that affect them all.

Kalazotz have an extensive oral history, but Kalazotz that live in or near dwarf holdings have begun keeping written accounts of their colony history. They have also adopted ancestor worship customs from the dwarves and this is slowly spreading among Kalazotz everywhere.

Kalazotz are omnivores, but they prefer a carnivorous diet, especially blood. Kalazotz will not normally feed from mortals. They tell other humanoids this all the time and avoid eating messy bloody meals in plain sight to flightless humanoids. Note, they call most other humanoids “the Flightless”

Kalazotz practice some basic metalworking and other common crafts, but their forte in handiwork is in rope making and weaving. A common thing they make are carrying harness. “An individual kalazotz is not very strong, but a colony of kalazotz is strong.” It’s very common that they make harnesses to let several kalazotz work in tandem to carry heavy loads while flying. They also weave massive hammocks in tall trees or the stalactites of cavern ceilings which they use as homes.

In the northern lands, kalazotz are springboarding off their friendship with the dwarves to establish friendly ties with other peaceful humanoids. Often trading their woven goods for items they cannot make or obtain themselves. In the southern lands, there are far fewer dwarves and there are more camazotz. In these places, kalazotz are generally not welcome. Usually when they face armed humanoid opponents the kalazotz will fly away. Some maverick kalazotz have said maybe the camazotz have the right idea. If the flightless are going to treat like kalazotz like monsters, then the kalazotz should act like monsters. So far this is just a topic for philosophical debates, the kalazotz still live peacefully…for now. Some elders have noticed that the pups of those who endorse the potential of violence against the Flightless are a just a little bit bigger than average and have slightly larger claws and fangs and slightly fussier tempers.

Religious Practices: The kalazotz worship Mera primarily. She is their protector and guide. Contact with other races has led to them incorporate minor worship of the rest of the Nine, especially Hallisan. Greymoria is distrusted but the kalazotz do not automatically shun Greymoria worshipers unless they suspect they are in league with the camazotz.

Kalazotz Character Creation

Kamazotz have the same 1-5 attribute spread that humans have.


Stealthy: Kalazotz are small and nimble and they fly silently as owls. Kalazotz receive a -1 difficulty bonus on all Stealth rolls even in well-lit areas. Kalazotz are near undetectable in the dark.

Flight: Kalazotz can fly assuming there is enough room to spread their wings. A Kalazotz ability to fly is seriously impaired when they carry loads greater than their own weight, the best they can do is manage a slow fall. Kalazotz have trouble flying long distances while carrying loads exceeding half their own weight. “Injured” kalazotz are limited to carrying half their weight while staying airborne. “Wounded” kalazotz cannot carry more than a quarter of their weight. “Mauled” kalazotz can barely carry anything and “Crippled” kalazotz cannot fly at all.

Flight maneuvers based on agility roll Dexterity + Athletics. Flight maneuvers over long distances roll Stamina + Athletics. Most kalazotz take an Athletics specialty in flight to get a bonus die on flying rolls.

If the kalazotz want to fight foes while airborne, a Kalazotz’s Dodge, Melee, Brawl, and Archery abilities are capped at his or her Athletics rating much like how a humanoid riding a horse has his/her combat abilities capped by his Ride ability.

Keen Senses: Kalazotz suffer no penalty in darkness and receive a -1 difficulty bonus to all situations, even in well lit areas.

Claws and Fangs: Kalazotz can inflict their Strength -1 lethal damage with their claws. They can inflict Strength +1 lethal damage with their bites, but they have to grapple opponents first in order to land a bite.


Gross to outsiders: Appearance rolls and first impression Charisma and Manipulation rolls are +2 difficulty when dealing with humanoids who are not accustomed to kalazotz.

Puny: Kalazotz receive a +1 difficulty penalty on Strength rolls, including damage rolls. They receive a +1 difficulty penalty on Willpower rolls when making feat of Strength checks.


I'm nor sure if I want to allow kalazotz PCs. I am unlikely to have anyone request to play a kalazotz (because most players would not know it exists) unless I somehow ran a game where @Warden was a PC.

Humans start out with 40 freebie points. If someone wants to play a an elf, they only 36 freebie points because an elf's special abilities are slightly better than than their special weaknesses. Playtesting has told me this is fair.

Gnomes start out with 40 freebie points because I judged their bonuses and penalties are fairly balanced ("Puny" and "Silver Tongue" seem to cancel each other out). Playtesting has told me this fair. Half-orcs also get 40 freebie points. The half-orc character is very effective but I don't know if she is unfairly effective. The bonus to strength rolls is nice but it's worthy noting that she played a non-spell caster and sunk max points in combat abilities. Also, the half-orc and the gnome are perfect compliments. A bruiser who has no diplomacy and a weakling with lots of diplomacy.

I have no idea how many freebie points "flight" is worth. Flight is very powerful. Even if I was playing an "evil" campaign I would not allow player characters to play camazotz. I've seen in other games that a strong character that flies is extremely formidable. I have no idea how useful a weak character that flies would be.