My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

[Warden]

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.

Awesome. You are correct, this definitely would be the PC I would request to play. A PC with some basis in Mayan history and culture! And basically its an ugly flying hobbit.

It would make sense to give a big reduction in freebie points, I would start with a solid -10 off the top just for the flight (start at 30) just to cover bases. I think the DM could mitigate some unfairness brought about by the flying abilities if they can restrict it somehow, like really tight dungeon or underground settings. Then again being underground or in a cave is their natural habitat, so a reduction at the start would be helpful. No way to really know unless there is some playtesting.

So real bats can hang upside down from the ceilings of caves, I am guessing since kalazotz build their villages in the roofs of giant caves they can hang from the ceiling too? Does this mean their feet have opposable thumbs and potentially manipulate objects? I am wondering if you give a kalazotz a bow and some arrows they could use them in flight, just with their feet. Like a tiny mongol archer flying around pecking at bigger enemies; I could see this being another method they can work together to keep their bigger camazotz enemies on the run.

Living in the ceilings of caves would be a great way to hide from predators. Do they sell their guano to other mortal settlements as fertilizer?

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.

I do like the dwarven friendship connection, that would be a nice angle to get the kalazotz involved with the greater world, even if its just in a limited capacity.

On the subject of Kalazotz and stuff they may have picked up from dwarfs, I do like this idea of adopting ancestor worship customs and writing accounts. Of course I would want to insert mayan-esque glyphs in here somewhere, and I also like Mayan stela. Since kalazotz live on the ceilings in caves I could totally see them carving stalactites in the forms of their ancestors in order to commemorate family members, kings, tribal leaders, or heroes and covering them in glyphic records of their birth, death, or deeds.

 

[Scalenex]

It would make sense to give a big reduction in freebie points, I would start with a solid -10 off the top just for the flight (start at 30) just to cover bases. I think the DM could mitigate some unfairness brought about by the flying abilities if they can restrict it somehow, like really tight dungeon or underground settings. Then again being underground or in a cave is their natural habitat, so a reduction at the start would be helpful. No way to really know unless there is some playtesting.

10 freebie points is probably fair. I dock Metamorphs aka doppelgangers 20 freebie points.

Only three PCs, there is only so much playtesting I can do. I technically haven't playtested humans yet, but this is based off White RPG system so we've played humans before.

So real bats can hang upside down from the ceilings of caves, I am guessing since kalazotz build their villages in the roofs of giant caves they can hang from the ceiling too?

I guess I should write that down. I just sort of assumed it. Kalazotz and Camazotz are comfortable hanging upside for long periods of time. The kalazotz don't need hammocks for themselves but it's a good way to store their stuff. They can also make safety nets when teaching pups to fly.

Does this mean their feet have opposable thumbs and potentially manipulate objects?

Yeah, I suppose this means they would have two sets of opposable thumbs.

I am wondering if you give a kalazotz a bow and some arrows they could use them in flight, just with their feet. Like a tiny mongol archer flying around pecking at bigger enemies; I could see this being another method they can work together to keep their bigger camazotz enemies on the run

I don't agree with Shadiversity on everything, but when he covered what weapons angels and demons (or anyone with wings) would use, he pointed out that a flyer would have to land on solid ground in order to draw a bow back fully. And that is with wings attached to the back directly rather than under their arms. A zotz would have even less ability to pull a bow mid midair than an angel.

Add to this kalazotz get a Strength penalty which applies to damage rolls. They would be as effective with bows as human children because they cannot get as much pull. They probably would use crossbows. Crossbows use the torsion springs for the power, not the muscles of the wielder. Neshik the PC gnomes usually lets his friends do the real fighting and casts supports spells. When he actually fights his own battles, he uses a crossbow.

Kalazotz probably be able to get high quality crossbows from their dwarven friends. Crossbows are slower to reload than bows, but kalazotz travel in large groups. They could easily shoot in volleys taking turns while their friends are reloading. They could still keep camazotz on the run as you say. They certainly wouldn't want to engage Camazotz close up if they can help it. "Hero" characters have ten health levels, "Normal" characters have five. With five health levels, a camazotz could potentially one shot kalazotz to death in close combat.

Shadiversity also pointed out the flachettes from WWI. They are weighted spikes that when dropped from a height they are aerodynamically designed to have the blade always pointed down. Sometimes these were dropped on infantry. Bombs eventually became more popular but Shad pointed out that medieval metal smiths were perfectly capable of designing flachetes like that, they just had no reason to. I imagine kalazotz that serve in the dwarven military would primarily be scouts and flachette units. They fly in and drop their load (ewww) to soften up enemies before the dwarves move in.

If you are on the ground you can raise a shield above your head, but only if you know the attack is coming. Kalazotz fly quietly and favor dark places. Kalazotz that don't have friendly dwarf metal smiths could drop rocks.

I suppose kalazotz would be likely to drop nets. That's something they could theoretically deploy about camazotz under the right circumstances.

Living in the ceilings of caves would be a great way to hide from predators.

That's what I figured. Kalazotz believe the best way to avoid an attack is to not be there, that's why they seek out their homes in the highest places they can find.

Do they sell their guano to other mortal settlements as fertilizer?

Most bat guano used in the real world is from insect eating bats. I figured kalazotz are sort of hybrids between fruit bats and vampire bats though I suppose they could eat insects too. Also because they live underground, they probably eat a lot of fungi plus whatever things grow around life stones. I doubt their guano would be as rich in nitrogen as real world bats.

That said, if the kalazotz do not live in a forest and they are not nomadic they are going to want to do something with their guano. They could probably fertilize a fungus farm or insect hatchery, but it probably wouldn't be that different from dwarves disposing of their own excrement.

Going way back to first edition D&D, bat guano is used as a material component for the Fireball spell. I suppose I could throw in some kalazotz invokers using their own waste products to destroy their enemies but that's too silly. Relatively to D&D, I have de-emphasized material components. In D&D 90% of material components are just for flavor (for instance "Detect Thoughts" requires a copper piece, aka a penny for your thoughts, "Sleep" requires a pinch of sand). I don't bother with it unless the spell effects are permanent or very specialized in which case I require "reagents" to be spent. I figure each magical traditional tradition uses it's own set of reagents. Rather than get into which groups use Eye of Newt and which groups use bezoars, I just created abstract rule system to "search for reagents" "cultivate reagents" or "barter for reagents."

I do like this idea of adopting ancestor worship customs and writing accounts. Of course I would want to insert mayan-esque glyphs in here somewhere, and I also like Mayan stela. Since kalazotz live on the ceilings in caves I could totally see them carving stalactites in the forms of their ancestors in order to commemorate family members, kings, tribal leaders, or heroes and covering them in glyphic records of their birth, death, or deeds.

That's a good idea. Of course kalazotz stella would nearly always be upside down hanging from the ceiling.

You are sort of the resident Mesoamerican expert around L-O. What other Mayan things could be incorporated into either or both Zotz?

 

[Warden]

I don't agree with Shadiversity on everything, but when he covered what weapons angels and demons (or anyone with wings) would use, he pointed out that a flyer would have to land on solid ground in order to draw a bow back fully. And that is with wings attached to the back directly rather than under their arms. A zotz would have even less ability to pull a bow mid midair than an angel.

Add to this kalazotz get a Strength penalty which applies to damage rolls. They would be as effective with bows as human children because they cannot get as much pull. They probably would use crossbows. Crossbows use the torsion springs for the power, not the muscles of the wielder. Neshik the PC gnomes usually lets his friends do the real fighting and casts supports spells. When he actually fights his own battles, he uses a crossbow.

Kalazotz probably be able to get high quality crossbows from their dwarven friends. Crossbows are slower to reload than bows, but kalazotz travel in large groups. They could easily shoot in volleys taking turns while their friends are reloading. They could still keep camazotz on the run as you say. They certainly wouldn't want to engage Camazotz close up if they can help it. "Hero" characters have ten health levels, "Normal" characters have five. With five health levels, a camazotz could potentially one shot kalazotz to death in close combat.

Shadiversity also pointed out the flachettes from WWI. They are weighted spikes that when dropped from a height they are aerodynamically designed to have the blade always pointed down. Sometimes these were dropped on infantry. Bombs eventually became more popular but Shad pointed out that medieval metal smiths were perfectly capable of designing flachetes like that, they just had no reason to. I imagine kalazotz that serve in the dwarven military would primarily be scouts and flachette units. They fly in and drop their load (ewww) to soften up enemies before the dwarves move in.

If you are on the ground you can raise a shield above your head, but only if you know the attack is coming. Kalazotz fly quietly and favor dark places. Kalazotz that don't have friendly dwarf metal smiths could drop rocks.

I suppose kalazotz would be likely to drop nets. That's something they could theoretically deploy about camazotz under the right circumstances.

I hadn't considered the draw strength of a small humanoid, that is a great point.

The idea of kalazotz working hand-in-hand with dwarves is really great. It adds a whole new layer of aerial warfare tactics and options to defend dwarven holds. Equipping them with crossbows is fantastic, and I agree while slower they are probably smart enough to develop some kind of volley system which would devastate larger creatures, much like volley warfare in the real world. Fletchlette weapons would also work fantastic from above! Now imagine if technology advanced enough that the dwarves could equip them with guns...

Getting a little ahead of myself, so backtracking a bit now. In less civilized areas without their dwarven patrons, the kalazotz would still need weaponry to defend themselves out in the wild in their secluded communities.

Weighted nets are a great option. The kalazotz probably have some already staged around their homes in the event of an attack by outsiders, maybe at the entrance to their caves.

I think blowpipes are an option here, a very Mesoamerican weapon, and could easily be augmented with poisons readily found in tropical areas. All the kalazotz would have to do is fire continuous streams of darts at their enemies (they could fly away and hold the blowpipes up with their feet or something) and let the poison do its work.

Slings would be another great option. Small, easily portable, and even small pebbles in with large amounts of practice and good accuracy could easily cause considerable damage to the eyes, ears, mouth, or forehead of an unarmored or unprepared opponent.

I am not sure if atlatls would work too? Reload capacity would be a problem, and small spears couldn't do as much as regular sized ones, but they could be thrown much faster than a normal spear could be. Atlatls could be used as a last-ditch charging weapon; a spear thrown at an opponent for a final ranged attack before swooping in with spears.

Camazotz (and kalazotz who are more aggressive) I believe prefer close combat, the Mayans believed bats killed by decapitation (factored in their mythology this way when they decapitate one of the hero twins) so this should definitely be a method they use to fight. Spears are great, some slashing weapons to cut off a foes head is a must. I like the idea of some super-aggressive kalazotz aspiring to be a "headhunter"

That's a good idea. Of course kalazotz stella would nearly always be upside down hanging from the ceiling.

You are sort of the resident Mesoamerican expert around L-O. What other Mayan things could be incorporated into either or both Zotz?

Well we got stela covered. What about a ballgame? The underworld gods would routintely play pok-a-tok in the underworld, sometimes with the heads of slain mortals. Executed mortals aside, the kalazotz could play a version of the game. One of the biggest rules of the game was to not let the ball touch the ground, so that could be something the kalazotz do: don't let the ball touch the ground, and score points through the hoops at either end of the ballcourt. You could even go the lacrosse route and use small netted sticks. This is a more North American than Mesoamerican thing, but could work do to how good the kalazotz are at making ropes and nets.

Next is location. Some kalazotz could live in caves or underground areas near dwarves, that is great. I could also see kalazotz living in big underground cenotes (giant limestone sinkholes filled with water at the bottom). Small caves branch off of these things all the time, and would be easy access to water. They also wouldn't need to build ladders to get down to the bottom either. It also helps that Mera is their prime deity, so it fits as water is essential for life and must be used appropriately.

I do like how you incorporated the idea of kalazotz having twins more often. Single children are great, but the hero-twins archetype was a big one for most Mesoamerican cultures, especially the Maya with the hero twins Xbalanque and Huanphu, who travelled to the underworld, fought the xibalban gods, rescued their father the maize god, and brought life back to the world. Twins can be a sign of good luck/fortune. Do you have a list of kalazotz names? I could probably come up with some.

I think astrology/astronomy would also be a thing for the kalazotz. They might not be as good at charting the passage of the sun in the sky, but would know a great deal about constellations, lore of the moon, paths of the planets, comets, etc. A cyclical calendar system would result from this.

Pollination is something Mesoamerican bats do. The Maya recognized that bats pollinated many food plants, fruits, and flowers, to include many species that only flower at night. The kalazotz could use some of the fruits they cultivate to trade for other resources, and grow flowers just because most mortals like pretty flowers. The fruits of course could supplement their diet (definitely omnivores, mostly filled with hunting bugs probably).

I did find this from the popol vuh:

A messenger from Xibalba, in the form of a man with the wings of a bat, brokers a deal between Lord Tohil and mankind, wherein mankind promises their armpits and their waists (the opening of their breasts in human sacrifice) in exchange for fire.

Would sacrifice be a part of their rituals? Might be a bit much for a "good" race, but I could see the camazotz practicing bloodletting and/or mortal-being sacrifices

On the flip side, the kamazotz could have gifted humans with fire as clerics/messengers from Mera, since her gift was control of fire?

This could easily be explained away in the "modern day" as humans have long forgotten this, but there could be a legend of a bat-like messenger or something.

 

[Scalenex]

Now imagine if technology advanced enough that the dwarves could equip them with guns...

I have no reason other than personal preference to not include gun powder in Scarterra. In any event early firearms were pretty large and bulky. Not good for 40 pound flyers. They would need modern firearms to be truly effective (assuming the other side had technological parity).

Hypothetically, if I published a successful RPG products and a supporting line of novels and Scarterra became REALLY big (so I never had to work a conventional job again) I might create a spin-off setting base on steam punk kind of like Eberron. I don't know if Steamterra would be the future of Scarterra or if it would be an alternate universe. Either way I figure "Steamterra" would have fewer fantasy races and more moral greyness. I'd probably merge the kalazotz and camazotz into a single "neutral" race. They would probably also split the difference size wise. I'd probably hire a ghost writer because my experience with steampunk is limited.

Weighted nets are a great option. The kalazotz probably have some already staged around their homes in the event of an attack by outsiders, maybe at the entrance to their caves.

I hadn't thought about net booby traps, that's a good idea.

I think blowpipes are an option here, a very Mesoamerican weapon, and could easily be augmented with poisons readily found in tropical areas. All the kalazotz would have to do is fire continuous streams of darts at their enemies (they could fly away and hold the blowpipes up with their feet or something) and let the poison do its work.

Blowpipes have pretty short range, but I guess the kalazotz are great stealth fighters. Again going back to Shadiversity. I think smaller races would have to fight dirty if they want to beat larger races.

They'd probably use their "feet" to hold their extra darts and reload while they use their hands to aim and fire. They probably cannot do both at once, they are powerful enough as is, but that's given me some thoughts for Cephlapod people of Scaraqua. I haven't worked out the details yet. Very few of my fantasy creatures are more mentally capable than humans, but Cephlapod people are probably going to have Intelligence and Wits between 2 and 6 rather than 1 and 5. With their limbs and keen minds, they would fantastic multitaskers. If crossbows worked underwater they could dual wield crossbows and loading one while firing another.

Slings would be another great option. Small, easily portable, and even small pebbles in with large amounts of practice and good accuracy could easily cause considerable damage to the eyes, ears, mouth, or forehead of an unarmored or unprepared opponent.

I watch a lot of Youtubers who cover historical weapons either in a realistic or in a fantasy way. They very commonly state that slings are underrepresented in historical fiction and fantasy. They are more effective than people give them credit for.

As of yet, I haven't made any substantial effort to rectify this. When I hear about the effectiveness of slings I often hear about large groups of slingers filling the air with flying rocks. I'm not sure how effective one slinger is going to be.

The d10 system of combat I use for my game is very good for dynamic fights between small groups of combatants but it's very inefficient for large battles. I might address this later. I have assorted two different White Wolf books with different systems for conducting large scale battles and I have a D&D source book with suggestions. And I've watched Youtube videos covering it. There is no consensus really.

The best I heard is to give the PCs a specific smaller mission in the scope of the greater battle. The PCs are the stars of the story. If the PCs meet their mission objectives, their allies fighting "off screen" win. If the PC fail to meet their mission objectives, their allies fighting off screen lose.

In any event, swinging a sling takes up a lot of space. I'm not sure how easy this would be do without getting in the way ones flight pattern because kallazotz have their arms attached to their wings. Though I suppose they could fire slings with their feet.

I am not sure if atlatls would work too? Reload capacity would be a problem, and small spears couldn't do as much as regular sized ones, but they could be thrown much faster than a normal spear could be. Atlatls could be used as a last-ditch charging weapon; a spear thrown at an opponent for a final ranged attack before swooping in with spears.

I've only seen two videos where someone demonstrates using an atl-atl. They both seemed to suggest that you trade in accuracy for damage power. That's why anthropologists believe it was used by early humans to hunt very large prey. That doesn't sound like it would make a very good battlefield weapon. Atl-atls are a force multiplier. If you can fly, you can use gravity as your force multiplier with a lot less effort as long as strive to always be attacking downward.

Camazotz (and kalazotz who are more aggressive) I believe prefer close combat, the Mayans believed bats killed by decapitation (factored in their mythology this way when they decapitate one of the hero twins) so this should definitely be a method they use to fight. Spears are great, some slashing weapons to cut off a foes head is a must. I like the idea of some super-aggressive kalazotz aspiring to be a "headhunter"

I cannot think of any logical reason for this, but the Rule of Cool seems to apply. This sounds like something the camazotz might do. It would be very hard for a kalazotz to decapitate a resisting enemy in combat but a kalazotz might take the heads as trophies afterwards. A camazotz would be able to accomplish this somewhat easier.

Maybe a controlled dive could add momentum to a slashing weapon but it would be easier to add momentum to a piercing weapon. Again that's part of the reason Shadiversity thought flyers would like spears. It would be also relatively easy to drop and pick up later if the spear got stuck in a target.

Well we got stela covered. What about a ballgame? The underworld gods would routintely play pok-a-tok in the underworld, sometimes with the heads of slain mortals. Executed mortals aside, the kalazotz could play a version of the game. One of the biggest rules of the game was to not let the ball touch the ground, so that could be something the kalazotz do: don't let the ball touch the ground, and score points through the hoops at either end of the ballcourt. You could even go the lacrosse route and use small netted sticks. This is a more North American than Mesoamerican thing, but could work do to how good the kalazotz are at making ropes and nets.

Neither Zotz can hover very well which I think would make it hard to keep a ball from hitting the ground for long periods unless they are allowed to carry it. I imagine camazotz would enjoy a full contact sport resembling aerial rugby. Kalazotz could do this too. Kalazotz cannot take a hit as well as camasotz but they'd hit a lot softer. They could play over a safety net or a lake so opponents knocked to the ground are less likely to get a severe injury.

There is nothing Mayan about it, but I like the idea of kalazotz playing aerial hackey sack where the main point is not hitting the sack but hitting in very showy ways. Especially since hackey sacks would be very easy to weave.

On the flip side, the kamazotz could have gifted humans with fire as clerics/messengers from Mera, since her gift was control of fire?

This could easily be explained away in the "modern day" as humans have long forgotten this, but there could be a legend of a bat-like messenger or something.

Given that kalazotz are a young race, it's unlikely they would be the prometheon fire bringers. Mera only adopted the bat as one of her holy animals after adopting the kalazotz, not before. Also, since kalazotz like eating their food raw and are comfortable in the dark, they are probably less pro-fire than most of Mera's followers.


I'm still working out how astrology works in my setting. I do like the idea of both kalazotz and camazotz spell casters having a bias towards divinations. Prophesies and Mayan myths go together well. Also, you brought up that Kalazotz vaguely means light bats. And the Werewolf: The Apocalypse version of the Camasotz had them as prophets. Kalazotz would gaze at the stars and meditate, camazotz would rip up people and animals and divine patterns from the entrails splatter.

 

[Warden]

Fantastic stuff. Bats playing hackey sack is a funny mental image.

I do like the prophecy angle. I think that works better than delivering fire, it definitely makes more sense as bat people would not have much use for it being able to see in the dark.

I have no reason other than personal preference to not include gun powder in Scarterra. In any event early firearms were pretty large and bulky. Not good for 40 pound flyers. They would need modern firearms to be truly effective (assuming the other side had technological parity).

Hypothetically, if I published a successful RPG products and a supporting line of novels and Scarterra became REALLY big (so I never had to work a conventional job again) I might create a spin-off setting base on steam punk kind of like Eberron. I don't know if Steamterra would be the future of Scarterra or if it would be an alternate universe. Either way I figure "Steamterra" would have fewer fantasy races and more moral greyness. I'd probably merge the kalazotz and camazotz into a single "neutral" race. They would probably also split the difference size wise. I'd probably hire a ghost writer because my experience with steampunk is limited.

Incorporating firearms is hard in a fantasy setting. The "steamterra" is a great idea though, and would definitely take off in a completely new direction!

 

[Scalenex]

The First Generation of House Fremiss

I got really bored and I wrote a vignette for all 18 children of the half-dragon children of Fremiss the Vibrant.

I can name Fremiss' wives/lovers at some point. House Fremiss has a lot of sibling and cousin rivalry and it's largely believed that they have more family rivalry because so many siblings are half-siblings and so many cousins are "twice removed" or something.

Fremiss’ first wife: 1 One scion grandson
Fremiss’ second wife: 2-7 LOTS of girls, this lineage of Fremiss technically disappeared but ended up bolstering the houses
Fremiss third wife: 8, one scion grandson
Fremiss’ fourth wife: 9-11, three scion grandsons
Fremiss’ fifth wife: 12-14, four scion grandsons.
Fremiss’ sixth wife: 15-18, nine scion grandsons.

At this point, women who marry become part of the house they marry into. Bastard children were never legitimized. Scion grandsons are legitimate males heirs to the Fremiss name.

I rolled the dice 18 times to figure out if the child was a boy or girl. Then I rolled a d10 and approximated. Nobles with low rolls had few kids, high rolls mean lots of kids.

In later generations the intra-House rivalry becomes so bad, the king (or maybe queen) is going to intervene and split House Fremiss into smaller houses. The sub houses may or may not take the name or identity based on which one of Fremiss' mates they hail from or they could be aligned by something else since political divisions don't always fall along family lines.


1-Lord Tecwyn the Eldest: Tecwyn was Fremiss’ first half-dragon or at the very least, the first half-dragon child that he didn’t abandon. Fremiss sired Tecwyn, before he and the other Founders made it a strategic point to sire half-dragon children.

Lord Tecwyn assumed as the eldest half-dragon that he would eventually rule Swynfaredia. The Founding Dragons opted to have each house declare a champion for a series of magical contests and Lord Tecwyn came in last place, defeated by the other three champions all at least a few decades younger than him. Tecwyn was bitter about this and passed the bitterness to his heir.

Tecwyn had three daughters and one son. The descendants of his son (a great many bore the name Tecwyn) were some of the politically ambitious nobles House Fremiss had every seen very hungry for the crown.


2-Lord Carwyn the Merry: Lord Carwyn was a social butterfly (dragon fly?). In a lot of ways he is credited with creating precedents for House Fremiss’ penchant for throwing festivals and other treats for the commoners. He had two daughters. There were rumors that he sired a lot of bastards, but his own journals said he didn’t want to do that. None of the sorcerers that popped up later claiming to be his legacy were legitimized.


3-Lady Osian the Shifter: The eldest Fremiss daughter was the first Swynfaredian noble to regularly use illusion magic and transmutation magic to regularly impersonate an ordinary human. Lady Osian also impersonated a commoner a lot. When she saw good people suffering, she would often use her magic and wealth to help out, sort of like Undercover Boss.

She married a noble from House Kovenoth. She had two sons and a daughter before she disappeared. Her descendants retained her aptitude for transmutation and illusion for many generations and they also impersonated commoners a lot. Not all of them did this out of benevolence.

Her disappearance remains a source of idle speculation for generations to come. She often left court under disguise without telling anyone. One time she left and didn’t come back. Did she run away? Was she killed?


4-Lady Gethine the Sage: Lady Gethine did not fit in very well with the carefree gregarious Fremiss mold very well. She married a Numaness lord, but sort of fit the Numaness mold before joining the family. She spent most of her time in a library or the laboratory. Copies of her treatsies on alchemy are popular in Swynfaredia. Elsewhere, scroll heads say “she was an okay alchemist…for a sorceress.” She had three daughters and two sons.


5- Lady Braith the Unfortunate: Lots of first generation half-dragons felt isolated from humans and dragons a like. This led Braith to take her own life when she was young. At the time, this was swept under the rug and the family made up of stories about an accident.


6-Lady Gwyn of the Locks: Lady Sioned was most famous for having long luxurious very human hair. Her political career was not very memorable but she was fertile. She had six sons and five daughters. More legitimate children than any half-dragon. Of course, all of these children were born into House Numaness. House Numaness was the least prolific of the founding houses and it’s joked that Lady Gwyn single-handedly shored up their numbers.


7-Lady Siniod the Idealist: Lady Siniod married a lord of House Goirsonad and adopted the Goirsonad philosophy as her own. She wrote a lot of political treatises and was considered radical for her day. Among other things, she endorsed that titles shouldn’t be patrimonial. Her writings became very popular during and after the Second Swynfaredian Civil War. She had three daughters and one son.


8-Lord Maelog the Strategist: Lord Maelog spent most of his time rubbing elbows with the common soldiers. He was a popular leader beloved by his men and he was shrewd at organizing the military hierarchy. Much of House Fremiss’ Swynfaredia's enduring military traditions and protocols were set by Maelog.

Maelog had two true born daughters and a son. He had at least five bastard children on record. One of these children had a lineage of children that served in the army and they happened to back the winning side of the First Swynfaredian Civil War, earning recognition as a minor house generations as a reward for their loyalty.


9-Lord Mabon the Tall: Mabon’s political accomplishments were not impressive. He was mostly well known for his large size. While this could have made him formidable, this was actual a hindrance. Most Swynfaredian nobles of this generation had fully functional wings. Lord Mabon was too big to fly. He was the first dragon blooded noble whose wings were vestigial. He had three sons and a daughter.


10-Lady Rhoswen the Brave: Lady Rhoswen became an adventurer and is the most remembered and beloved Fremiss of her generation. Officially she had no children, but many, many peasant sorcerers claim to be her long lost descendants. This is probably not true. Since Rhoswen was the best known old name among the peasantry, it makes sense that reaching peasants would claim her.


11-Lord Robat the Hunter: Lord Rabat refused to marry and have children. (Rumor is that he was infertile or homosexual). Robat was an adventurer but he wasn’t exactly a noble adventurer. He wanted exotic trophies (not of dragons of course!). Some of his trophies still linger in some Fremiss halls though it’s been so long his trophies are all bones now. He died fighting a Chimera (the Chimera died too), they were buried together.


12-Lord Cadwy the Red: Lord Cadwy was called the “red” because Fremiss was red and Cadwy was probably the reddest of his children. He never actually did anything so his title was based on his appearance. Lord Cadwy sought the life of an adventurer and he died within his first year.


13-Lord Alun the Unlucky: Lord Alun was killed by his younger half-brother the Cenwyn the Kinslayer. Alun fathered one son before he died. Alun’s grandchildren continued feuding with Cenwyn’s grandchildren. Sadly, in generations to come House Fremiss would have a lot of kinslayers, not just between Cenwyn’s and Alun’s lineage.


14-Lady Rhian the Promiscuous: Lady Rhian had three known bastard children (they were way too human looking to have been sired by her husband). She had three supposedly legitimate sons and two daughters, but a cloud of suspicion hung over their parentage. She was believed to have many illicit romances with other half-dragon nobles.


15-Lord Cenwyn the Kinslayer: Lord Cenwyn almost got away with his brother’s murder. He was the first Swynfaredian noble to be executed by the state. He had four sons and two daughters. They and their descendants were not formally punished but other nobles did not let them forget their lineage. Lord Cenwyn the Second renounced his title and joined the Guardians of Hallisan and (at least for the Guardians) is venerated as a hero who managed to put his family’s dark legacy behind him.


16-Lord Rhodri the High: Most of the Founders direct children had functional wings and could fly. Rhodri was one of the few that could fly for a full day before landing like a true dragon. He spent as much time as he could in the clouds. He was flighty in other ways and was not very interested in ruling. He did leave a lasting genetic imprint on House Fremiss by bestowing the House with many heirs. He had five sons and a daughter.


17-Lady Armess the Diviner: Lady Armess was known for her great aptitude in divination magic. She styled herself as an elusive shadow nudging political events from a distance. She had two sons and a daughter who picked up their mother’s magical aptitudes and political strategies.


18-Lady Lilbet the Lost: Lady Lilbet never married and never bore any recorded bastards. She ran away from home. No one is sure why though she left shortly after the Founders left, so it’s speculated that she went looking for them.

 

[Warden]

I like this method of figuring out descendants, I may do something similar in the future.

Have you considered making a family tree? I used to have a drafting program that was very useful (name escapes me at the moment) but it was useful to chart families/descendants.

 

[Scalenex]

I like this method of figuring out descendants, I may do something similar in the future.

You are free to steal the method it's pretty informal. "High" and "low" amount of children is pretty relative.

On one hand, figuring out this kind of detail is pretty fun. On the other hand, the odds of a family tree needing this sort of detail for an RPG or a novel is pretty light. Maybe if a PC was playing a Swynfaredian noble or if a novel protagonist was a Swynfaredia this might matter, but it's a lot of ink to write about all these people.

World Anvil has a family tree generator but I cannot just make a family tree and slap a bunch of names onto it. If I made a separate article for every noble and filled out the drop fields for "son or daughter of _____" brother of "_____" Married to "______" it can fill out a family tree automatically. That's a lot of articles though.

Swynfaredia has a lot dragon bloods over generations so it'd be a very messy tree.

Granted House Fremiss is the messiest family of all because they are more fertile than the other house and less monogamous.

I guess I'll start and see if it feels like finishing. I actually met up with some of my friends informally today, you know staying 6 feet away and all that. An actual player of mine says my wiki needs some pictures so I might go hunting for suitable images and/or drift into making maps.

We'll see where my boredom filled world building takes me. Still I just had an iota of human contact. I talked about camazotz and kalazotz...in person. I still am feeling a warm glow of that.

 

[Scalenex]

I saw a video on fake martial arts being exposed by the MMA. And it discussed how lots of ancient martial arts were not very practical because for centuries the practitioners only fought other practitioners of the same arts.

Every time a master who was said to have supernatural power (which they can demonstrate against their own disciples) goes against a fighter trained in something else they get their face planted in the floor.

I wondered if I should let Scarterrans have mystical martial arts. None of my player base is especially fond of kung fu.

One thing I thought was interesting is the video taed about krav maga. It's supposed to be practical and deadly but it's very hard to test. You can test two styles of martial arts in an MMA tournament but krav maga involves stabbing people in the groin and eye. You cannot properly test it without killing or maiming someone.

In Scarterra no one can resurrect the dead, but it's not that hard to find someone who can regrow a gouged out eye. In a such a world, you could test out fighting styles to truly figure out which is the most practical. Even without supernatural kung fu monks, Scarterran humanoids could train some brutal brawlers.

 

[Scalenex]

I was told the Scarterra Wiki needs more visuals.

My imagination conjures beautiful illustrations that could make the Sistine Chapel jealous, but I'm not that good with pen or paper or digital art programs.

Perfection is the enemy of the good. I have spent most of today google image searching for good images to put in my Wiki.

View attachment 55520
Had another go with a fatter pen.

I hope you don't mind @pendrake , but I'm going to use this a lot. It's not only the official symbol for the Cult of the Compact, but for the foreseeable future, this is now the brand icon for Scarterra.

If I have the article for something the Nine did, I'd really love to have a beautiful illustration of gods doing godly things, but since I cannot always have this, throwing up the symbol for the Nine is better than having no visuals at all.

This is an artist's depiction of Sol, the Norse sun goddess. This is not exactly how I picture Khemra taking human form, but this is very close. If could omission this artist to make Khemra to my exact specifications, she would a little bit older looking, a bit more stern and matronly looking, have clothing that is vaguely Egyptian and be holding a book or scroll instead of a flower.

I did the best I could finding portraits for all the Nine.

Now the majority of my articles have a thumbnail picture of some sort. Admittedly two sections remain very un-thumbnailed. Languages and locations.

Languages isn't a big deal, they are very short articles. "This is the name of the language and this is who speaks it." But locations are important. I'm using Pendrakes map for the Borderland region. Other than this, I have nothing. I do plan to make more maps eventually. In the time it takes me to make one half-decent map, I could write twelve fluff articles.

One thing I could do is try to take a page out of @Warden 's book. I don't have to make a full map for a visual, I could create heraldry. Not my strong suit, but a lot easier than map design.

And of course when I go through articles to add pictures I discover spelling and formatting errors I missed the first time so this is a good exercise for me all around.

 

[Scalenex]

I'm having a lot of fun editing my wiki, but I need more visuals...

Let's talk heraldry and standards

Rome was big on eagle motiffs. I don't know what a good eagle equivalent for Water Rome would be. At the moment I'm thinking to use a sting ray.

Sting rays are fairly formidable sea creatures and sting rays do not have a direct association with any of the Nine. I also don't have a sentient sting ray creature yet. Since I have fish, sharks, squids, and crustacean and Water Rome in theory encompasses all of them, it would not be good if the universal symbol was a shark or something that resonated especially with ONE member of the empire.

Sting rays even kind of have wings. I'm thinking of using this as a template for their sigil. Make the laurel wreaths a bit more sea-weed like and figure out what I want to do for SPQR. I don't want to go too deep into developing the fictional language known as Scaraquan or colloquially "Sea Common" but SPQR Senātus Populusque Rōmānus, "the Senate and People of Rome."

I'm still not sure what their written script is going to look like. Contemporary Water Rome might have access to alchemists that can make a reasonable facsimile of pen and paper, but when Water Rome was young, all writing would have to be on clay tablets, so I'm thinking something like Cuneform.

I figure they would have a motto that means something similar. If I want to make then even bolder than Rome, it could "The Senate and the entirety of the Sea"

The words on the banner would be on a stylistic sea shell of course.

For simplicity a stingray could work on it's own.

Swynfaredia: Their national icon is probably a composite of all four founding dragons. They probably have some flags and banners with a full artist's rendition of all four in their full glory, but the basic heraldry would probably be four dragon heads sharing one neck. I'm thinking the heads are all looking sideways, two to the right and to the left.

I'm sure there would be a giant hoopla over which heads are one top and which heads are looking left or right. I suppose they could be generic dragon heads in a neutral color (not purple, not red, not grey, not rainbow). Maybe gold or black or some combination there of. According to this link, that would convey what the Swynfaredians would like to convey.

Fumaya: I have ZERO idea what the symbol of their nation would be and that's a problem because Fumaya is the primary setting of my RPG and if and when I start my novel, I'm likely to either set in Fumaya or the Border Baronies.

The major house sigils are a Silverwood tree, blazing arrow, red owl, a raven, a badger, and a griffin but it might be a little too Hogwartz so I might want to replace the griffin, raven and/or badger with something else. Admittedly the three houses are the least important houses. The northern houses are driving my story and the southern houses are also there. That's why I based two of them on Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

Kantoc: Some kind of majestic horse. Maybe a pegasus or a unicorn. Maybe a horse in majestic armor. As of right now Kantoc is a very one-dimensional nation. "Knights come from here."

Uskala: I haven't gotten much further developing Uskala other than their ruler, King Drosst, is evil. He is a dragon trapped in human form for his hubris. Now he's pretending to be a vampire pretending to be a human.

If I wanted to be obvious the symbol of the nation could be a blood dragon, but King Drosst doesn't want to even hint at his true nature. He is ashamed of not being what he once was. I do like the idea that their national icon is blood red. A bat might be too obvious. Maybe a manticore or a raptor of some kind. How about the Uskalan icon be a blood red griffin?

That'd make his soldiers look pretty bad ass. Imagine a bunch of infantry clad in black steel with blood red griffin emblazoned on their chest plates and shields. It would project menace and competence.

Elves: Way back on page one @Warden asked about the heraldry of my three elf nations. Now they are four since I added sea elves.

I could go with his suggestion of using the four seasons. In that case the Dark Elves would be winter because winter is dark. The Grey Elves would be autumn because they are desperately clinging to a vibrant past that's crumbling away. The Wood Elves would be Summer because they celebrate life in all it's form. The Sea Elves would be Spring because they embody a bold new change.

I still don't like the idea of seasonal heraldry for the four nations because that implies my four elf cultures are all tightly connected. My elf nations are not connected. For many centuries, the Wood Elves, Grey Elves, and Dark Elves were unaware that the other enclaves of elves still survived. For well over a thousand years, the Sea Elves were not aware of the other elves and visa versa.

I could go a four elements. Obvious the Sea Elves would be associated with water even though the Dark Elves and Grey Elves have strong maritime traditions. The Grey Elves are very close to equator. That would make them fiery. The Dark Elves are up far to the north, that would make them airy and the Wood Elves are landlocked which would make them earthy. That has a greater impact on their physiology than their banners and icons. Though I could run with this color wise. The Grey Elves would favor orange and gold, the wood elves would favor brown and green, the Sea Elves would favor blue and silver, and the Dark Elves would favor white and black.

Note that the Grey Elves, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves all have noble houses that would each have thier own iconography. One of the Wood Elf houses is made up by one of my PCs, House Anastasia. House Anastasia can have whatever mascot the player wants.

I like the idea of making the symbol of the Elven Empire a majestic falcon. I've thought that for a while. I even thought of the minor detail that the Elven Empire's Cyclopes allies would fly a flag with a one eyed falcon. In fact, I'm very set on this. The other elves, I'm less firm on.

The leading contender for the Wood Elf/Condenya national icon is a unicorn. But like a bad ass unicorn, not a cuddly unicorn.

The leading contender for the Dark Elf/Kahdisteria national icon is a spider. But not like an ugly spider, a majestic spider.

The Sea Elves, I'm less sure of. Not a stingray though. I'm 90% sure I want the Sea Elves to be on the fringes of Scaraqua and outside the purview of Water Rome. They are going to be allied to one of the lesser Scaraquan powers which could cause interesting stories later if Water Rome decides the Sea Elves are a threat. Maybe I'll give a land animal a fish tail like a merfolk. Only it's an animal that DOESN'T exist, so not a hippocampus.


I'd also like to come up with national heraldry for the three dwarf nations/cultures. Kalazotz get along well with dwarves in general and Meckelorn in particular, but I don't think their national emblem should be based on a bat. There are probably some younger noble houses that incorporate bats into their heraldry but not entire bat nations.

My problem with making heraldry for the dwarves is that my three dwarf cultures (Meckelorn, Stahlheim and Mondert) are pretty similar. All three dwarf cultures like Hallisan a lot. Hallisan's most common symbol is an axe and hammer crossed. I would want heraldry that showcases their similarities and differences. It'd be a little redundant to make that a national symbol for any of the dwarves.

On paper there is a fourth dwarf nation with only a couple hundred citizens. The Temple of Stone. Meckelorn and Stahlheim couldn't agree on how to share the Great Stone as a national territory so the Temple of the Stone is a sovereign nation much like how the Vatican is a sovereign nation. Their symbol is probably an axe and hammer criss-crossed over a stone, or stuck in a stone excalibur style. I'm still not sure what shape the Great Stone is in. A round boulder, a slab, a split slab, a stalagmite. Lots of options. All I know is the dwarves believe their ancestors rose out of it and that the Great Stone is a magical conduit for food producing plants. Aesthetically speaking, what shape of rock would look best on heraldry?

Just a recap. Meckelorn is Dwarf Original Recipe. They hate orcs and goblins, they drink a lot, they like hammers and axes, are distrustful of arcane magic, dislike the sea, and are isolationist. They are militaristic because they believe they are constantly fighting for their lives which is mostly true.

Their demographics are 89% Dwarves, 5% gnomes, 4% kalazotz, 1% humans, 1% Other

Stahlheim is a just a little bit more friendly to outsiders because they like trade. They are slightly less militaristic, slightly less isolationist, slightly less phobic of the sea, slightly more willing to accept arcane magic.

Their demographics are 84% Dwarves, 6% humans, 5% gnomes, 2% tengku 1% kalazotz , 2% other

Mondert is the weird sea faring dwarves. They still like booze, drinking, family ties, and working with their hands but they also are skilled fishermen and boaters. They live in volcanic tropical islands, vaguely polynesian.

I haven't figured out the demographics for Mondert. I'm not sure if I want to give them a Kalazotz minority or any other minorities but they are probably going to be 54% human, 45% dwarf, 1% man-dwarves. Mondert was founded by dwarf pilgrims who left Meckelorn BEFORE the dwarves became staunch allies of the kalazotz, but kalazotz would probably be welcome in Meckelorn since both Mondarians and kalazotz like Mera. It's just highly unlikely that a colony of kalazotz would charter a ship and sail thousands of miles to settle a volcanic island because they heard it probably has friendly dwarves there. Given that Mondert is in the tropics it MIGHT house some old school camazotz in the jungles. That might be enough to discourage adventurous kalazotz from migrating to Mondert.

 

[pendrake]

I hope you don't mind @pendrake , but I'm going to use this a lot. It's not only the official symbol for the Cult of the Compact, but for the foreseeable future, this is now the brand icon for Scarterra

Cool. Go for it. Feel free.

I will have to make the attempt to draw some better ones.
This one looks like it could be a pictograph on a cliff somewhere. You’ll need a better one to use in-print.

 

[Scalenex]

I will have to make the attempt to draw some better ones.
This one looks like it could be a pictograph on a cliff somewhere. You’ll need a better one to use in-print.

It's not in print yet. Maybe I do need to figure out a way to legally put this on a rock somewhere and use that photo.

I have replaced your second drawing of this icon with this your third. Note 75% of my articles don't use this icon. 80% use things I found via Google searches. I just this icon for the Nine stuff and for any article that has zero picture, this is now the default.

 

[Scalenex]

One page from a sketchbook has been sacrificed:


View attachment 58355

Big red dashed lines correspond to thin pencil lines on certain world maps.

This map is so beautiful it cannot be improved in anyway.

Unless it were made into a digitally interactive map where you can hover the mouse over a location to get the name of the nation and a link to an article about said nation.

EDIT: Okay when I look at the map as an administrator of my wiki, it's perfect. When I visit my wiki as a visitor it's awful. I need to figure out why it's stuck on an extreme zoom.

EDIT EDIT: I figured out what was throwing the view off, Scolenex confirms he can peruse the map now.

World Anvil does not have map creation software, but if I downloaded from elsewhere I could link them. This is a long way off, but if I made a broad world map of Scarterra, you could click on a continent to pull up a detailed continent map which could have marker pins to show national maps which could have marker pins to show city and maps which can go all the way down to as their spokeswoman says "the cupboard under the stairs."

There isn't an immediate need to do this, but I am suddenly seized by a desire to come up with national concepts for the nine Border Baronies that are as of yet uncharted. I have a tendency to change my mind on which number which Baronies should go on and this editing software makes moving pins and markers very easy.

Maybe a nation where humans and goblins get along. Maybe that was the idea but the goblins took over because they are jerks. Now they have to fend off dwarf military sorties who are offended by the nations very existence.

Maybe a nation dominated by tengku. Maybe a nation dominated by kalazotz. Maybe a nation with both. In practical terms, the tengku and kallazotz should get along, but the tengku are pretty sensitive about not being able to fly, so they would grow envious watching the ugly little batmen zipping around.

I probably want to throw in a few more nations that seem crazy with very odd governments and means of succession.

 

[pendrake]

The Tengku are the bird people? If I remember..?
+1 to that.

And a Goblin King sounds like a fun idea.

Both of these ideas sound like baronies that would be centered on a peak rather than being centered on a valley in between several peaks.

 

[Scalenex]

The Tengku are the bird people? If I remember..?
+1 to that.

Tengku are bird people. They cannot fly, but they have hollow bones which make them a little faster than humans and they have great eye sight. They are bigger than gnomes but smaller than humans. Culturally they like Star Ferengi.

If you are not familiar with Ferengi they are very driven towards the acquisition of wealth but they (usually) steer clear of outright theft.

Most, though not all tengku aspire to be merchants. They like to buy, sell, and trade so they usually immerse themselves in the culture of non-tengku. A tengku micro-nation would either be a collection of non-conformists or it would be like a gate community where tengku who are great successes in mercantile endeavors cloister away in while sending directives to the lesser tengku elsewhere.

I like the later idea more than the former, but I'm not sure how a tengku ivory tower would "govern" lesser tengku, given that tengku are widely scattered around all of Scarterra and subject to human, elf, and dwarf rulers.

 

[Scalenex]

Brainstorming Tree People

So I've been pondering if I want to adapt/steal my friends idea for his fantasy. Any I think he has 14 gods. They created three races, merfolk, humans, and dwarves together, and each of the 14 gods made one race by themselves. The god of plants made a plant based humanoid. The plant people were the expendable soldiers of the elves (who were the children of the Time god).

I don't remember why the plant god was okay with this, but the elves liked having expendable soldiers. They have really long spans and low fertility rates so they don't want to die if they can avoid dying.

I kind of want to make more plant based monsters in my world. I like the idea of plant based soldiers grown to fight and die in lieu of elves. My Second Age elves were selfish expansionists after all. The Third Age elves aren't really any better.

So if Scarterra could grow humanoid plant creatures to fight their battles, they would. I'm leaning towards making these creatures look like dryads, but with an equal portion of males and females. We'll call them Druss Elves as a working title. I looked up the entomology of dryads and it's based on the word for tree "Druss" "ad" I think is a shortening of a word for nymph. There wasn't just dryads, but naiads, and neriads.

We can adjust these number later, but lets say Druss Elves become adults in five years and die of old age in their late twenties, early thirties if they are lucky. I've even pondered shortening their childhood to two years and their total life span to fifteen. I'm thinking adulthood is marked by being able to eat "elf food" and not having to be rooted to the ground and adolescence is marked by limited need to be rooted to the ground.

I've been watching a lot of Star Trek and they have lots of episodes with pinnochio plots. Can robots be truly "human." Can energy beings related to corporeal beings? Can holograms be alive? Those kind of questions could apply to Druss elves. I'm not 100% sure whether Druss elves should have souls or not, but they will be fully sapient. One thing is that the Druss elves were essentially created as a slave race, at least initially, the Druss were content with this. Fodder for philosophical and ethical debate there.

When the Second Unmaking hit, it would be likely that all the elf leaders who had Druss soldiers would throw all of them against the demon hordes in desperation. If the Druss elves have souls, then the demons would attack them with gusto. If the demons don't have souls, the demons would still kill them out of pragmatism because they are obstacles to them getting to their elf masters' souls.

Druss elves are fierce warriors that are strong and very brave. They know they have short life spans, so they are not afraid of death on the battlefield. I even am toying with the idea that they release a bunch of seeds when they die, so they are aware that death is not truly the end.

The real vulnerability of Druss elves would be their childhood stage. Druss grow up very quickly but when they are children they extremely limited mobility options so it would be pretty easy for a squadron of Void Demons to genocide a Druss nursery.

But there is little point in creating a fantasy race if they are wiped out entirely, so some Druss elves would survive into the Third Age. They could have hidden a few plant nurseries where the Void Demons couldn't find them. Another option is that the Druss elves were actually wiped out to the last man, but someone saved a few seeds and started the race anew later.

I suppose I could give the dark elves or grey elves a few druss elves auxillery troops, but it would make the most sense that the wood elves would be the most likely modern elf group to retain some druss elf servants, but I'm leaning towards the idea that modern elves don't have any druss among them.

When the elf kingdoms that tended the druss plant nurseries collapsed, the surviving druss elves might have gone feral and now have a taste for freedom. Or maybe, the last druss seeds wound up in the hands of Korus priests and now most druss serve human masters.

The 2011 remake of the Thundercats was far from a perfect show, but I thought the episode called "Song of the Petalars" was a perfect episode. I would recommend any fan of fantasy try to find a way to legally stream that particular episode. I bring it up now, because they are short lived plant people. But they don't know they are short lived. To their perspective they live long rich full lives.

The rest of the series, you can take or leave. I liked it well enough. It ran two seasons. It seems like the story was designed to cover three or four seasons because they had a good set up but no completion. But "Song of the Petalars" stands alone and you don't have to watch the rest of the series to understand it.


I need to figure out what theme and stories I want to tell with the Druss elves by my dirty dirty mind keeps turning to reproduction. Dryads were very sensual creatures being avatars of fertility. My current thought is that Druss Elves they do reproduce from seeds but they can only make seeds after they undergo the normal humanoid act of love first. I'm not sure if I want their sees to be random seeds on the wind (where they make hundreds of seeds but only a tiny portion successfully sprout) or if they produce a relatively small number of seeds which the parents then deliberately plant in specific areas they believe are safe.

The options for reproduction in a fantasy world are vast indeed.

 

[Scalenex]

I had some minor world building thoughts.


Thoughts on Sorcery

Culturally, in my world it makes a huge difference if a mage is a sorcerer or a wizard. In game terms, it makes zero difference.

This is a minor problem at least in Swynfaredia where being a sorcerer is a key to being in a higher social class. What's to stop a wizard from pretending to be a sorcerer.

I came up with a test. So far in my world, mages can replenish their magical power by meditating (rolling Wits + Enigmas), studying spellbooks (rolling Intelligence + Spellcraft), or sleeping near a magical font (no roll needed).

Since dragons are the world's alpha sorcerers and dragons regain magical power just by sleeping, I figure sorcerers can regain magic power just by sleeping (though not nearly as fast as dragons). Most sorcerers augment their sleep gains by learning to meditate or dabbling in Spellcraft, unless they take the Flaw "Lazy Sorcerer" in which case they can only regain their magical power by sleeping.

Thoughts on Language in Scaraqua

Now some thoughts on language. A realistic world the size of Scarterra with so many diverse cultures would have at least a hundred languages. A realistic world should not have "Common" but playability takes a back seat to common.

Common is effectively "Human" as the Nine taught all humans this language regardless of which continent they started out. Because humans are common, the language is called "Common." Back when elves ruled the world, the Elven language was called "Common."

Lots of non-humans have reason to learn Common so they can talk to humans. That also means it helps them communicate with each other. If a tribe of goblins and kobolds wants to communicate they probably speak in Common to each other out of convenience.

In Scaraqua they speak "Sea Common." I decided to flesh it out a bit more. Scaraqua does not have a dominant race the way that Scarterra does. Merfolk are probably the most numerous but they make up about 30% of the known sea world not like humans who make up 70% of the known surface world. I'm going to make Sea Common a combination of Sea Latin and Sea Esperanto.

I'm going to give Merfolk, Karakhai, Scuttlers, and my as of yet unnamed squid people their own native language. These races are so physiological different that they cannot physically pronounce every phoneme in the other groups language. Sea Common is going to an artificial language created by Water Rome scholars that Water Rome has been pushing to make the official language of everyone and it is made up of phonemes that all Scaraquans can pronounce. It's going to borrow a lot of words from all the major Scaraquan groups but it is going to be mostly based on Mermish with over half the words taken directly from it. The merfolk are arguably the dominant group within Water Rome and they certainly were the dominant group when Water Rome was young and this language was developed.


I have yet to decide if Scarcaverna/Hollow Earth is going to have "Under Common" or not. In most cases they would have no problem using the same languages spoken in Scarterra. Scarcaverna is also going to be geographically and demographically smaller than the other two Scarbiomes.


On a note related to Water Rome, I'm getting tired of calling it "Water Rome" and figure it could use a real name. Might as well base it on Latin. Right now the leading candidate is Oceanum, which is Latin for Ocean. Omni is Latin for "all." Summa is Latin for "total." "Whole" is totius.

How do you guys like Oshamni Empire?

 

[Scalenex]

I'm consolidating and fleshing out my Scaraquan notes and posting them on my wiki. I got tired of saying Water Rome so I combined Latin for ocean "Oceanum" with Omni for all. Water Rome is Oshamnus. And Water Romans are Oshamni.


I'm getting tired of saying "Cephlapod" until I come up with something better they are Ojiongo. (Oge-jee-ong-go) Based on the Korean word for squid "ojing-eo" and Latin is "lolligo."

I'm never going to find a perfect picture until I can commission the work of a great artist, but in the mean time an imperfect picture is better than no picture at all.

I'm not sure what I want Ojiongo to look like on the continuum from very human to very Lovecraftian.



Here is an extreme example that I would call Very Human

And this one is very Lovecraftian

I suppose Ojiongo could have substantial genetic variation or they could have subspecies. I'm pretty arbitrary, sometimes I shameless copy other fantasy tropes and sometimes I avoid them. At this point I'm thinking to avoid them.

The D&D Yaunti are snake people and they range from this:

to this:

And in Yuanti society, the more snake like someone is, the higher their status.

In other fantasy setting, the more human like variants are given higher status. In other fantasy setting a beautiful or human like appearance is a sign of morality where beauty = good. Sometimes if someone wants to teach lesson, the ugly variants are the good guys.

I kind of want to avoid all these tropes. I don't want people to be able to gauge a Ojiongo's morality or social status just by looking.

This is probably want I want them to look like. Maybe with fewer tentacles.

Most humanoids have a 1 to 5 min/max spread on all my attributes, I'm thinking of giving Ojiongo a 2 to 6 range for Manipulation, Wits, and Intelligence. When it comes to Strength they aren't any stronger than merfolk when it comes to hitting things with spears, but they could utilize their tentacles for very strong grappling attracts. I'm not sure if I want to give them an ink blast or camoflage.

On a character weakness I'm going to give them one few health level than everyone else. That's not a huge weakness compared to all their other abilities. The main disadvantage is that they would start with fewer freebie points to "pay" for their extra abilities.


They are going to be prone to scheming. That doesn't mean they are all evil (though many are). But even good or neutral Ojiongo favor complicated plans to further their goals. I don't remember where I heard this from, I think it's a video game story or maybe it's a political allegory, but I heard about a bunch of millionaire industrialists that wanted to create their own society where they could create a libertarian paradise with unbridled capitalism but when you have a self contained society, someone has to mop the floors and empty the trash. If you have 5000 CEOs creating a society that means you are going to have to fill the lower rolls with ambitious CEOs and they are going to be resentful. They played with this on RIck and Morty where a society of Rick Sanchezes ended up with Ricks doing lowly work beneath them because some one had to do it.

Essentially that is why the Ojiongo have not managed to take over Scaraqua with their superior intellect. They all think they are the smartest mortal under the sea and they are loathe to follow orders from someone else.

The Ojiongo are smarter and have a higher percentage of spell casters among their population than all the other Scaraquan races but they cannot project their strength because all the other aquatic races are more communally focused.

There is another thing holding the Ojiongo back. They are naturally master manipulators but over centuries of dealing with Ojiongo, everyone knows the Ojiongo are master manipulators. That means Merfolk, Karkhai, and Scuttlers are always on guard when an Ojiongo is talking to them.

Some are too vain to be the power behind the throne, but the Ojiongo that are most successful at advancing their schemes are the ones who use a Merfolk as a figurehead/mouthpiece. This is what most Ojiongo associated with the Oshamni do.

Hmmm, not that I see Ojiongo and Oshamni in the same sentence maybe I should come up with names that are not so similar, that could be confusing. The first time I read Lord of the Rings it confused me that the primary villain was Sauron and the secondary villain was Sarumon. To make things more confusing, Sarumon was kind of supporting Sauron and kind of opposing him.

 

[Scalenex]

I decided to set a calendar. Unless someone finds a glaring plot hole in this, my plan is for the human race to be 1836 years old. Note the first humans emerged as full adults and they had a small army of spirits teaching them agriculture, metalworking, writing, etc.

Scarterra does not have a universal calendar excepted by everyone. The most widely accepted is the calendar of the Third Age. It’s unofficially backed by the Nine. Year 1 is the emergence of the first humans. The Nine dropped clusters of mortals all over the world simultaneously. The abbreviation is FA 1.

In the Second Age, the various powers that be did not agree what Year 1 was either, so if you find an ancient document, it’s very difficult to figure out what the date is from. Scholars estimate the Second Age lasted somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 years. There are even fewer surviving records from the First Age. The ancient dragons didn’t agree either, so good look figuring out their calendars. Modern dragons cannot even agree on whether the First Age last 20,000 years or 200,000 years.

For the record, in my world, stubborn dragons max out at 1500 years, typical dragons die around 1200 years (assuming they survive to adulthood, adolescent and young adult dragons have a high attrition rate). For 1100 years, dragons just get stronger as they age. The last 400 years are a downhill slide which is terrifying to them. Thus most dragons choose to die around 1200. They have a ritual that lets them pass away peacefully and literally fly into the afterlife. Most dragons have their first offspring around age 250 and their last offspring around 800 meaning a generation is hard to measure. This might change. Originally dragons maxed out at 2500 years, meaning there are living dragons that remember a time before humans existed, but I nerfed them and also made them a lot smaller. The largest dragons are merely the weight of real world's earth's largest elephants around 1400 pounds, 636 kg. The longest dragons max out around 40 feet or roughly 13 meters, which is about twice as long as elephants. Therefore, dragons aren't as proportionally beefy as elephants. If you want more "facts" about dragons, I put a lot of time and effort into my dragon article.


Most Scarterran elves kick the bucket shortly after their fourth century. Very lucky elves make it slightly past their fifth century. A generation is effectively 100 years.


Most Scarterran humans kick the bucket in their early sixties. Lucky humans kick the bucket in their eighties. If a human has regular access to magical healing he or she can add twenty-odd years to their life span. A generation is effectively 25 years.


The dark elves of Kahdisteria mark their calendars with the death of the last Demon Lord which is 50 years before the FA 1. The elves also mark their calendars with the death of the last Demon Lord which is 47 years before FA 1. Both are convinced they are right. The wood elves make their calendars by the formation of their current alliance with the forest creatures of Codenya which they peg at 82 years before FA 1.
Another note about the death of the last Demon Lord. Remember at the end of Lord of the Rings, most of the orcs just kind of run away or die after Sauron and the One Ring are destroyed. Well it didn't work out this way in Scarterra. The demon armies stopped fighting in an organized fashion but they didn't stop killing everything in sight. Demons were a common threat for many centuries to come. New demons still cross into the material plane every year in small numbers. There are still deep undiscovered dungeons and catacombs with tiny remnants from the original demon armies of the Second Unmaking.



FA 1 First humans emerge (as adults) all around the world. The zodiac year was the year of Maylar.


FA 207, the dragon now known as Drosst was trapped in human form.


FA 607, Drosst seizes control of the insignificant city state of Uskala. Centuries later, he sets this as calendar date 1 though it would still be many centuries before Uskala becomes the super power it is now. He didn't start pretending to be a vampire 884 but given that history is written by the victors and Drosst was usually a victor he retroactively made it seem like he was always a vampire. A very diligent scholar might be able to piece together that Drosst was walking in sunlight freely for over 200 years, well past the maximum human life span.


FA 750-820, the three major elven powers discover each other then they fight a bunch of wars. This is viewed as a tipping point where the balance of power tips away from elves and towards humans.


FA 907, the four founding dragons make a pact to guide the emerging human nation of Swynfaredia. Swynfaredian set their calendar to 1.


FA 971, the dwarves and humans of Mondert formalize their alliance and set their calendar to 1.


FA 1053, Modreck the Conqueror seizes the Great Stone of Meckelorn.


FA 1140, the nation of Khemarok is founded ending a long period of chaos and instability in the land. Note this was during the year of Khemra Ascendant (her strongest point in an 81 year cycle).


FA 1255, the dwarves retake the Great Stone of Meckelorn and the dwarves of Meckelorn and Stahlheim set their calendars to 1. By the dwarves reckoning, their original year 1 was the emergence of the first dwarves which occurred roughly 2500 years before FA 1.


FA 1205, the nation of Fumaya is founded when a party of adventurers overthrows a corrupt evil despot. At least that’s the story that got put in the history books. Also, the retroactively set their calendars marking this as year 1.


FA 1252, three human nations in East Colassia agree to form an alliance against dark elf and gnoll raiders, essentially birthing the Colassian Confederacy. Musseland sets their calendar 1 and this marks the beginning of East Colassians bickering about what the real calendar should be.

FA 1414 the city state of Apseldia claims independence. It took them over 40 years to adopt their current government system they have now, but this is what they set their calendars to 1 retroactively.

FA 1449, the Elven Empire is driven out of the continent of Umera completely. The Elven Empire is reduced more or less to the point it is today.


FA 1512, Marginaland becomes the last human nation in East Colassia to join the Colassian Confederacy.


FA 1530, the dark elves of Kahdisteria sign the treaty of Delas and outlaw slavery of gnomes.


FA 1681, the Colassian Confederacy and the dark elves of Kahdisteria sign a ceasefire, but never sign a peace treaty. Hardliners on both sides have violated the ceasefire a lot since then but neither side wants to resume full on war, so both sides overlook it.


FA 1837, “present day.”


I haven't developed the southern hemisphere much. Other than the founding of Mondert and Apseldia. I'm sure I'll stick some major historical events in their later. But my RPG game is set in West Colassia, my hypothetical WIP novel is set in West Colassia, so I'm going to concentrate my fluff on West Colassia and to a lesser extant East Colassia.