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Josh_Kablack
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:31 am

so the racial descripts are finished aside from proofing and final edits:
Racial Descriptions
Humans:
The three great human kingdoms (Eaglia, Ravensburg and Lyonesse) were shaped into an Empire a few decades ago. The wars and intrigues led to an initially uneasy peace between the three lands imposed by force and threat. But the prosperity brought about by The Lame Tyrant's legal reforms and the recent discovery of airships have led to a gradual easing of the peace during the long reign of Empress Claudia and Consort Theodore. Today the tensions between the nations of the Empire are not mentioned in the homelands, but are instead played out as the nations and houses within the nations jockey to expand the Empire's territory further into the lands accross the sea and beyond the Great Desert.
The recent discovery of Claudia-stone deposits in the hills of Enkopja has caused many intrepid souls to brave this strange and savage land to find fortune.
Human Adventurers: Humans take to adventuring for a wide variety of reasons. Many are merely hunting treasures, others seek to discover new knowledge of this land and its odd peoples, many seek to expand the influence of their nation or house within the Empire, some seek to claim a kingdom for themselves amongst the new land, while others seek merely to escape their pasts.
Human Sayings: The Empress's Petticoat! A reaction to something shocking, that was perhaps better unseen or unsaid
A Dream of the Lame Tyrant: Said of things that are socially unacceptable, but which could be very pragmatic.
Cavor's Choice: A decision for which there is no good answer. References Dr. Cavor's jumping from the gondola of an early airship to his death. This lightened the load enough to save the ship and his assistant.
Changelings:
The common view is that "Changelings use their shapeshifting abilities to hide among normal humans. They replace normal, healthy babies with their spawn. They got away with this for many years, but the Grand Inquisition of Lyonesse has done much to ferret out their dark conspricacies and insidious plots for domination and remove their taint from our great Empire."
Most changelings are raised by normal humans, and remain unaware of their own nature for most of their childhood. They tend to discover their formshifting abilities purely by accident, and those who do so in public face torture by the Inquisition or public execution. There really are small secret cabals of changelings, but such are mainly concerned with their own safety and providing escapes and covers for others of their kind. The largest such cabal is a group known as The False Faces (aka Friendly Faces among changelings) who have openly established an outpost on the Enkojpain peak known as "The General" and dare the wrath of the Inquisition by leaving telltale calling cards behind when they smuggle changelings out of imperial lands and even raiding prisons to free other changelings.
Changeling Adventurers: Changelings are seeking freedom from the persecution of the human lands and acceptance among the nonhuman cultures. Many seek refuge at the sanctuary of the False Faces. While members of the False Faces seek allies amongst the other races in preparation for the day when the Inquisition will move against their sanctum
Changeling sayings: "Tell no one, for you never know who is listening"
"Do not fear, do not hide, for true change you must stand up, be strong and achieve your true potential" - Motto of the False Faces
related human sayings" "Unsolid character comes of unsolid flesh"
"Shifty buggers!"
Dryads
This race seems very alien to humans for a number of reasons. Their life cycle is unlike that of mammals and their worldview gives them a co-operativeness and lack of concern for the individual that humans find startling.
They eat the leaves and the sap of Acacia trees. As a race they are only female and reproduce partogenetically. They do not have distinct childhood and adulthood, in fact a dryad begins to reproduce her own first daughter before she herself is even born of her mother. A pregnant mother dryad shares not merely blood and fluid with her fetal daughter but also thought and memory. Thus a dryad is born with the memories of her mother, including her mother's memories of her grandmother's memories, which in turn include her grandmother's memories of her great-grandmother's memories, all the way back to the hazy uncertain myth-dream memories of The First Mother finding the First Tree and making The Covenant with the Queen of the Hive-Dwellers.
This sharing of thought between mother and daughter means that from her very first awareness up until immediately following the birth of her eldest daughter no dryad is ever completely alone in her head. This first seperation from any other consciousness is known as "the time of loneliness" and is the most difficult time of a young Dryad's life. Traditionally the keepers of the kobold hive that guards the dryad grove will hold a celebration to mark the occasion and to consol a young dryad in her first time of lonliness, emphasizing that despite the lack of shared memories between the races, the kobolds and dryads have a sacred Covenant, and despite the lack of shared memories between the creatures, this dryad and this kobold still honor that Covenant..
Dryad Adventurers: Without the need for mating and with the guardianship of a kobold hive to keep large predators away Dryads can reproduce very rapidly, and it is not uncommon for a dryad population to double each year. But due to their racial memory, each dryad is aware that whenever there get to be more dryads than Acacia trees in a grove, their feeding starts to kill the trees in that grove, resulting in fewer trees to feed the same number of dryads, resulting in more trees dying and leading to a desperate spiral of overgrazing and starvation that leads to mass death for both trees and dryads. But being aware of this danger, the dryads prevent it from ever coming to pass. Whenever there are more dryads than the local Acacia trees can support in an area, the youngest daughters go forth to find new trees. These dryads do not know if they will succeed in finding new trees, but they also don't really care - they can actually remember that everyone in their family dies of starvation if they stay in the grove of their elders, so they are eager to take the chance of establishing new groves. Furthermore, these dryad wanderers make a point to always plant more Acacia seeds as they travel, secure in the knowledge that one day in the future, their great-great-grand-nieces will find the trees that grow from these seeds.
Dryad Naming Conventions The dryads have only a few score names amongst them, and dryads have long been transliterating these names into the trade tongues, so re-transliterating them into names familiar to human ears was only natural. In addition to her own name, each dryad has a lineage of all of her mother's mother's. When it would cause confusion to use just her own name, a dryad prepends her name with the names of her most immediate forebears. Furthermore, each dryad has a birth location used to identify them. Thus a dryad who might be known simple as "Su" to her human adventuring compatriots might introduce herself as Ahna-Beph-Su from the Small Mossy Tree of the Eastern Dragonskull Hive Southern Grove when encountering a different grove of dryads.
Dryad Sayings: "First mother!" - an exclaimation of surpise or a plea for supernatural help
"If you take half of what you want, you will grow twice what you need" - a proverb
"Lonely Minded" - a term for non-dryad, non-kobold races used to indicate that they cannot see the bigger picture. It is often misinterpreted as an insult, but it is more a term of sympathy.
related Human sayings "As close as Dryads and Kobolds" - used to describe a well functioning team, or highly co-operative orgnaizations.
"If you only take half of what you want, the Home Office will cut your budget"
Gnolls
Taller and lankier than humans, gnolls have heads like dogs and fur coats with various patterns of grey, tan and black. They live in clans of several hundred to a few thousand individuals who make great encampents on the grasslands. Clans are divided into packs, which are often (but not always) associations of family groups. Traditionally, the eldest gnoll has authority and responsibility for a family, but packs are always lead by a Matron and clans are always headed by a Matriarch. The positions of Matron and Matriarch are not at all formal and are held by agreement tempered with fear. While gnoll legends speak of bloody struggles for supremacy within each clan, such conflicts are rare in actuality. It is far more common for a challenger to call a muster - and if more clan members (or more of the most fearsome clan members) muster to the challenger's side the Matron (or Matriarch) steps aside, while if more muster to the Matron's side the challenger backs down and offers up her belly.
The rearing of young is both a familial and communal task, and as pups age they are reared by different members of their family, pack and clan at different stages. Newborn pups are raised by their mother and the other suckling mothers of the clan, pre-adolescent pups are raised in groups by elder brothers or maternal uncles or even sometimes by unrelated mentors appointed by their Matron. (Gnolls do not recognize nor acknowledge fathers). At adolescence, pups are returned to their mothers' tutelage until they can become recognized adults within the pack. The passing through different phases of childhood prepares the young gnoll to accept the multi-layered responsibilities of family, pack and clan.
Any gnoll that falls out of favor with family, with pack or with clan is exiled from all - yet this exile is not as harsh as it might seem, as it is common for gnolls exiled from one clan to find a new home in another. Each clan has elaborate Rites of Acceptance by which outsiders may become members. These rites mirror the progression of a pup to adulthood, but frequently include added tests for the prospective member to prove their worthiness to the new clan. Most Gnoll legends involve the heroine being exiled from a clan and having to pass especially challenging Rites of Acceptance into a new clan - frequently in such myths the seemingly impossible challenge of the Rites prepares the heroine for the even greater challenge she will confront as a Matron within the new clan.
Gnoll Adventurers: Roughly one in four Gnolls is exiled from the clan they were born into. Gnolls commonly adventure to seek out new clans or to complete the Rites of Belonging for a new clan. Occasionally Gnolls established within a clan will undertake adventures for the clan or to improved their own standing within the clan.
Gnoll Sayings: "Family above self, pack above family, clan above pack, but honor above all"
"There is no shame in being a exile - the shame is in being without a clan"
"A pup need not prove itself until it becomes a warrior "
"Your mother was last to eat when she bore you" - a grave insult
related Human sayings: "Family above self, country above self, empire above country, but above all check your ammo"
"Your mother!"
Goblinoids.
The goblinoids are a furry humanoid race with extreme gender dimorphism. The Bugbears are the bull males of the species. They have bright orange or yellow fur and are immediately combative to any other bugbear they encounter and are hostile to any goblin or hobgoblin who does not show them proper defference. Humans stereotype bugbears as angry loners.
Goblins are the smaller males of the species. They have greenish-yellow fur and are intrinsically quarrelsome, but they have learnt to be sneaky and to work in concert in order to protect themselves from and thwart the larger Bugbears. A goblin who aquires enough food, power and may become a Bugbear, although the precise triggers are unknown. Humans sterotype groups of goblins as "streetgangs of green midgets".
The Hobgoblins are the females of the species. Their fur tends to be varying shades of grey. They are highly co-operative and have a very efficient family organization where immediate family members work closely on tasks and extended family members can be called on for aid, and further relations can be traded favors. This is really the basis of goblinoid civilation, but humans don't really understand Hobgoblins enough to stereotype them.
What is of vital importance to the race is that Hobgoblins require snow in order to birth their litters. This means that every year, in advance of the rainy season, there is a racial migration to the slopes of The Great White Mountain. On the slope, the hobgoblins have an arcane system of caste, age, family and favors owed that determinnes who may build nests where, but the bugbears will quite literally fight each other to the death for the right to mate with the hobgoblins nesting in a given territory.
Goblinoid adventurers Most bugbears are motivated by a desire for personal power. Bugbear adventurers tend to seek to better themselves and to find anything that will give them an edge over other Bugbears. While they are immediately hostile to other Bugbears, many have found that they can acquire knowledge, power and useful items from other races.
Most goblins who become adventurers do so out of desperation borne from a lack of allies amongst their own kind, but some do so just to thwart others who are larger and stronger than themselves.
Hobgoblins occasionally take up adventuring for status of their family and sometimes as a form of favor-trading. Within the past few years some hobgoblins have become aware of the winter snows of the human lands and are now working to gain passage and the rights to such far off territory far from the crowded slopes.
Goblinoid Naming Conventions: goblins have a given name which can be modified by various suffixes and honorifics used to denote phenotype, degree of familiarity or formality, parentage, ancestry, altitude of birth. While that alone is often perplexing to humans, these various suffixes also have tonal variations that convey additional meanings about one's clan and character.
Goblinoid sayings:"One so puny shoud not try me!" - The most common Bugbear greeting
"An unpaid favor is a debt" - a hobgoblin maxim
related human sayings: "Belligerant as a bull bugbear!"
"Inscrutable as a covey of hobgoblins"
Kobolds
Kobolds are short hive-dwelling humanoids with pale skin and a keen sense of smell. Kobolds have small red eyes and most kobold workers are 2 to 2½ feet tall and weigh 35 to 45 pounds. Kobolds wear little clothing, but are fond of jewelery and ornamentation that identifies their caste and hive. They are burrowing mammals who live in hives they mark with great clay mounds. They defend their hives with elaborate traps and secret magics. Each kobold hive is under the absolute rule of a hivequeen who mates with one to three hive princes. The other kobolds in a hive are sterile and are assigned to castes where they work as tunnelers, soldiers, scouts and dryad keepers.
Kobolds live in a symboitic and co-dependant relationship with Dryads. Kobold burrowing helps to grow the acacia trees that the dryads depend on, and kobold hives defend dryads against predators as they feed on acacia sap. In turn the dryads produce honeydew which the kobolds feed their young and warn the kobolds of the approach of an large predators.
Kobold culture both fears and idolizes Dragons - who are always a threat to both kobold burrows and Dryad groves. They are the gravest danger and therefore a symbol of great power. A hive is accorded great reknown if it repels the attack of a dragon, and some hives have been known to seek dragon bones to mark their mounds.
Kobold Adventurers: All kobold hives send out scouts to bring back food, learning, and treasures. Most kobold adventurers are such scouts.
Kobold Sayings: Without a hive, there is no scout. Without scouts, there are no hives.
Roots for the Kobolds, leaves for the Dryads - equivalent to "one man's trash is another's treasure"
Anything can enter through an untrapped burrow - a saying meant to emphasize the need for caution and commonsense in the current situation
related Human Sayings: As loyal as a lowly kobold - meaning someone loyal enough to value a cause or organization above their own individual life
Kuo-Toa
The Kuo-Toa are a race perhaps best described as frogmen. 11 months out of the year they live in mud and thatch villages in the various climes of the interior where they farm various crops, raise various animals, work wood, work stone or cast bronze, and trade with others as each settlement is able. Within a settlement Kuo-Toa men and women dress differently and perform different tasks, but they may associate freely with each other, for the 'Toa have no context for jealously nor romance within their villages.
But with the coming of the great rains they abandon their settlements, their farms, their industry, their commerce and even their quarrels a every healthy adult of the entire race journeys to the coast in celebration of their holy month. This is a monthlong celebration of singing, dancing and spawning in the brackish tidal pools that are created amongst the coastal rocks.
During the Holy Month of the Swelling of the Sea, kuo-toa settlements are left nearly vacant and vulnerable to raids and razing by other species. The kuo-toa discourage this through traps, alliances with other races and the occasional act of horrific vengeance against those who disrespect the sanctity of the Month of Dance. Usually this works well enough to dissaude others from taking too great an advantage, but just last year Lord Allen of Lyonese saw fit to use the Holy Month to have his troops raze a 'Toa town that was sitting on a vein of Claudia he claimed. Word is now spreading through the Kuo-Toa that another great vengeance must be wrought - but it is unlcear if it is to be a vengence against merely Allen, all of Lyonese or all of Allen's kind.
After spawning, Kuo-Toa abandon their eggs to the tidal pools and return to their settlements, the eggs hatch into tadpoles who live as fish for the first part of their lives. Within a few years the tadpoles develop legs, lungs and arms and climb out of the sea and onto the shores. But when a young 'toa makes its first steps onto land it is unknowing, it speaks no language and cannot even tell right from wrong. It is the sacred duty of all Kuo-Toa to adopt and educate the unknowing so that they may become true Kuo-Toa - they believe that the Spirit of the Sea commanded them such. Every Kuo Toa was basically a wild animal that was caught and domesticated by random Kuo Toa that probably weren't related to them at all.
The 'Toa divide the world up into six categories. From highest to lowest these categories are : kuo-toa, those who-speak-like-kuo-toa, those beasts-who-speak-other langauges, those who-know-not, those who-cannot-know, and beasts. As part of their obligation to the Spirit of the Sea, they must offer hospitality and instruction to all categories equal to or above those who-know-not and they may only enslave or eat the flesh of those who cannot-know or of beasts.
Kuo-Toa Adventurers: Kuo-Toa adventurers are often curious to learn more about far-off places, but many also undertake adventures to earn or return a favor from members of other races. It is of vital import for each Kuo-Toa settlement to have allies amongst the other beasts-who-speak.
Kuo-Toa Naming Conventions All proper nouns to the Kuo-Toa are a combination of a single-syllable adjective with a single-syllable noun. However, when rendering such into other tongues, an additional word is borrowed from that tongue for clarity. So a 'Toa speaking another language might introduce himself as Greenthroat the Tanner from Hotfire Village upon the Softsnail River,
Kuo-Toa Sayings: "Instruction is just as sacred as the Dance"
"By the Spirit of the Sea! - an exclamation of surprise.
related Human sayings: "As distracted as a 'Toa on pilgrimmage."
Lamia:
The lamia are a bipedal race like humans, but otherwise much like the great cats. They have golden fur, lithe forms, short tails and eyes that widen and narrow to slits. They live in various settlements throughout the plains, veldts, savannahs, forests and jungle of Enkopja. These settlements range from a single pride who claims the game at a small water hole to the reknownedWicker City of Sisalbloom.
To a human observer, the ways of the lamia prides seem strange . The father is kept hidden in a large hut and performs indoor work such as weaving and carving while the mothers share the various outdoor tasks or building, hunting, farming, tanning and teaching the cubs - with the mothers' duties changing at each new moon. What is particularily jarring to many human newcomers is how the play of the cubs frequently turns deadly - it is said that less than half of all cubs reach adolescence, and that fewer than that survive to adulthood. At adolescence, each female undergoes a rite of passage of leading her first hunt - if the hunt is successful she receives her pride mark and is allowed to remain - but if the hunt fails, she is exiled and must wander until she can find or found a new pride. More shockingly, males undergo a rite of passage that involves gladitorial combat with other adolescent males from nearby prides and/or exile from the land of their birth. Such exile is not alway permenant, lamia females who bring especially worthy hunt trophies home may be reaccepted into the pride, and exiled males may return to demand gladitorial rematches in hopes of winning the rite of return. The extent of gladitorial matches amongst the males is such that the adult females vastly outnumber the males
The Wicker City of Sisalbloom in the Sky(to)Sky Hole is ruled by the Sun Pride, a famility consisting of the Moon King and his Twelve Queens of the Stars. Unique about this monarchy is that the membership in the royal pride is not decided by lineage, as amongst the humans, but is open to challengers - for both King and Queens. On the night of the each full moon a designated queen or king must defend their continued fitness against a gladitorial challenger in the great arena. The contests are supposedly to the death, but defending royals have been know to show mercy and accept surrender. Should the challenger win, they replace the King or Queen they slew and are coronated into the royal family.
Lamia Adventurers: Most lamia adventurers are young adults who have been exiled from the pride of their birth and who are seeking a new home or enough improvement to return to their home
Lamia Naming Conventions Most lamia names tend to be multisyllabic and have many sibilant sounds (s, z, v, f, sh). Each Lamia has only a single name, but recently humans have begun to use various descriptive adjectives (such loudmouth, brightmane, leaper, longtail, narrow-eyes) to differentiate in their dealings Lamia, and this use of strange words from the human tongue is just beginning to become a fad in the Wicker City.
Lamia sayings: Be fleet of foot, strong of heart and quick of wit and your hunts will end well.
There may be two fathers in the brush, but there is only one father in a den
related Human sayings: honest like a lamia - said of an enemy who does not hide their hostility.
Lizardfolk:
Proportioned like crocodiles with shortened snouts and elongated limbs, lizardfolk are bit larger than humans. They live in small villages along waterways, usually making their dwelling huts of mud and thatch. They are natural swimmers and most live by fishing. They use tools of wood, rope and bone. What is most striking to the human observer is the utter lack of distinction between males and females - both are of similar stature, any member of the village may perform any job and wear any garment - each according to the individual. It is said that during mating the egg passes from the female to the male's pouch , so each gneder swells with their young, and after the egg hatches, both parents will "mother" the young for several years. Their men and women cannot be told apart, and their language does not have any form of gender - instead of pronouns for "he" and "she", they have pronouns that include simple adjectives, translating roughly as "the big one", "the little one", "the dark one", "the light one", "the hot one" "the cold one", "the one with the egg", and "the other one"
The lizardfolk have a strong tradition of honoring the spirits of the world and of their ancestors, and speak of it in an oral tradition centered around their Promise Epics. These are tales of their ancestors and of interactions with spirits, and these tales always include a bargain made with a spirit at the price of an obligation to recount the tale. Sometimes it is a bargain as simple as "For so long as the children of our village recount this tale, the river spirit shall keep to its bargain and allow the tigerfish to return to us each new spring". and other times it is a much more complex bargain. Lizardfolk who wish to make friends or alliances will recount their most important Promise Epic as a form introduction and it is expected that the other party will respond in kind. The Epic told tells the other party much about the Lizardfolk who keeps it and also extends both the protection of and obligation to the spirit in the Epic so recounted to the other party.
Lizardfolk Adventurers: Lizardfolk may wander away from their home for a wide variety of reasons - ranging from inability to fit into their home village to material want to sacred obligation to the spirits. Lizardfolk villages are often destroyed by flooding or rendered unsuitable due to changing courses of the waterways and the members of a village so ruined will choose to disperse as often as they choose to rebuild. It is also noteworthy that in recent years, some of the lizardfolk have found that the many of the humans will pay quite well for pearls and salvage of lost ships that can be found by sea-diving.
Lizardfolk Sayings: A tale of promise must contain the promise of a tale.
related Human Sayings Quit with the lizardpoem already - meaning to cut the story short and get to the point
Pixies
The Enkopjain Pixie bears a slight resemblence to the old fairy stories and loooks more like a large mantis or foot-long wasp than like a tiny human. They are naturally coloured like jungle flowers and possessed of veined transparent wings and a prominent stinger.
They live as nomadic tribes or in small villages, and herding is central to their life and culture. Each male of the tribe must maintain a herd of kalulu, and status is determined by the size of a tribesman's kalulu herd. Recently some have branched into raise the cattle of the humans for trade and slaughter, but such herds do not confer the status of the kalulu.
Their legend is that all of the world's kalulu were gathered by the sky-godess and gifted to the pixies so that they would no longer need to hunt. But gift was nearly lost due to the chase-lust of their first princess, who bargained with the nightmare-demons for the greatest hunt ever. The nightmare-demons taught kalulu to run faster than the wind and to burrow into the dark places, and then they unleashed the great terror on the great court of the gods scattering the gods, the pixies, and all the herds of kalulu over the land. The demons had kept their bargain, for the hunt was so great that it continues to the present day. The pixies believe that their gods will not return to them until they have finished the hunt and recaptured every escaped kalulu in existance. This causes some strife, as they do not recognize any other races' ownership of to kalulu.
During their mating rite, the husband presents his kalulu herd to the wife, and a wife is expected to reject the proposal if the herd is insufficient. This is not merely a point of culture, but also of biology, as the female pixies must lay their eggs inside paralyzed kalulu so that their young may incubate by eating the animal from the inside out. The pixies do not distinguish between immediate and extended family groups and a whole tribe or village will share in rearing the young instars when they first emerge from the kalulu.
Pixie Adventurers: Despite their existance as herders, the race has a strong predatory streak and a tradition of an ongoing great hunt, so it is not at all uncommon for pixies to leave their tribe to hunt kalulu to increase their herd or lay their eggs in. In the course of such hunts, some pixies have learnt that gold can be exchanged for many rabiits and have therefore broadened the scope of their activities to become adventurers.
Pixie Naming Conventions:Pixy naming conventions are <name> <descriptor> <flower word> for females and <name> <descriptor> <rabbit word> for males. Examples: Mrende of the Thousand Petals, Ashanti Stolen Pollen, Bem of the Remote Cottontail, Amadi Long Ears.
Pixie Sayings: "There was a touch of the nightmares left in that one's host" - said of an especially fearsome individual
"You measure a husband by how many kalulu are in his herd. You measure a wife by how many kalulu she stings."
"Do not waste your venom on a rival with no herd."
related Human Sayings: "One rabbit is not worth taking a sting"
Slaad
The Slaadi are are race of bipedal, yet toadlike desert dwellers. To the human eye, and adult Slaad looks much like an adult Kuo-Toa, but the appearance is all the two races have in common. Slaad do not have nor need permenant homes and instead form loose and transient communities centered around their seasonal hunting of the fearsome Behemoths who head to drier climes in the rainy season in order to avoid their great bulk becoming mired in mudpits.
The Slaad refer to the seasonal groupings of their males as a hunt, and each hunt forms when the first hint of rain is on the winds. Each hunt will stalk the Behemoth herds and wait for an oppurtunity to ambush a weaker or slower behomoth by itself. Yet, even the weakest of Behomoths is a still a collosal beast with a nearly impenetrable carapace and swordlike claws, so it is only with great difficulty and loss of life that even an well-organzied hunt can bring one down.
If the hunt is succesful, the hunt then works together to drag the behemoth carcass far into the arid desert until they find a receptive female and her brood burrow. The members of the hunt each enlarge the burrow and each mates with the female, who then lays her eggs into the giant behemoth carcass as the males conceal the entrance. The hunt splits up until the following year, while the female remains behind in the burrow to instruct her larva as they emerge from the carcass. The mother bears sole responsibility for rearing the Slaadi young, and instructs her brood in surviving the desert and in hunting for several years after they emerge.
At least that is the tradition. Recently some Slaad have tried adopting ways from other races, with females participating in hunts and males building aboveground manors for the victory orgy. Such experiments have not been terribly succesful as of yet, but the slaad are known to try anything and go with what works best.
Slaad Adventurers: Slaad see adventuring with other races as a useful way to practice behemoth hunting and to acquire new methods and equipment.
Slaadi Sayings Rare is the mother who does not lose one of her brood also Rare is the hunt which does not lose one of its members - a saying that misfortune is a part of life
That one ate his brothers - an insult indicating that one has acheived success via uncooperativeness
related Human Sayings You probably don't want to know what happens when they do catch one
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:26 pm, edited 29 times in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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JigokuBosatsu
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Post by JigokuBosatsu » Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:13 pm

The lamia are "bipedal like the great cats"?

> Omegonthesane wrote:a glass armonica which causes a target city to have horrific nightmares that prevent sleep

> JigokuBosatsu wrote:so a regular glass armonica?

You can buy my books, yes you can. Out of print and retired, sorry.
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Josh_Kablack
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:31 pm

Thank you, second pair of eyes - that was not what I meant to say and has been corrected.
I'm sure there are a couple more such issues in that wall o' text - feel free to point 'em out.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Username17
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Post by Username17 » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:46 pm

Whether Cavor was a Mr. or a Dr., you wouldn't actually include the honorific in the referential exclamation. You'd just call it a "Cavor's Choice".
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JigokuBosatsu
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Post by JigokuBosatsu » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:47 pm

I just decided I would love to try some Dr. Cavor's soda.

> Omegonthesane wrote:a glass armonica which causes a target city to have horrific nightmares that prevent sleep

> JigokuBosatsu wrote:so a regular glass armonica?

You can buy my books, yes you can. Out of print and retired, sorry.
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:03 pm

> JigokuBosatsu wrote:I just decided I would love to try some Dr. Cavor's soda.

Awesome, I'll go with that.
The humans named a cocktail after him and it gets to be the analog of the real-world British Gin and Tonic (with Quinine to ward off Malaria).
"Barkeep, a Round of Dr. Cavor's Soda for my friends! We must keep the Cackle Fever at bay."
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by JonSetanta » Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:44 pm

> JigokuBosatsu wrote:The lamia are "bipedal like the great cats"?

As long as it's not a "mass of insects" like in Pathfinder, fine by me.
Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking. They got The Mummy mix in with Arab myth.
I've seen plenty of "snake bodied" Lamia in fantasy art over the years, but I could have sworn those were generally "naga", or a "gorgon" if there's snake hair. Ignore Gygax's mistake of calling the breed a "Medusa"...

> The Adventurer's Almanac wrote: ↑
> Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:25 pm
> Nobody gives a flying fuck about Tordek and Regdar.

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Post by PoliteNewb » Wed Dec 01, 2010 5:23 pm

> sigma999 wrote: I've seen plenty of "snake bodied" Lamia in fantasy art over the years, but I could have sworn those were generally "naga", or a "gorgon" if there's snake hair. Ignore Gygax's mistake of calling the breed a "Medusa"...

Lamia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamia_%28mythology%29
Naga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga
The way I learned it (back when I was into mythology as a kid) was:
The Naga are snake-people from India.
The Lamia are snake-women from Greece (who drink blood).
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Post by Username17 » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:07 pm

The original Lamia is basically interchangeable for Sphinx. It is part woman, part beast, and it runs around the desert eating children. The snake parts were added in later stories. So the D&D Lamia, who is basically a tauric leopard, is actually mythologically pretty accurate.
If you want to have them be one flavor or another of cat people, that is reasonable.
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:53 pm

I went with Lamia for the lion people, precisely because the Mythological to Pop-Fantasy version of Lamia has more wiggle room than Sphinx.
If I tell a group of D&D players "lamia are lion-people" I can expect people to say "but aren't some of them snakes?" and "I thought they were swarms of beetles in the new edition". But if I tell the same group of D&D players that "sphinxes are lion people" they will expect riddles and the wings of an eagle
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by Username17 » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:56 pm

Or at least GI Joe References.
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Post by JonSetanta » Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:26 am

Lamia, cats, it works. You could throw in some shapeshifting but that's just handled with Arcane or Druid powers.

> The Adventurer's Almanac wrote: ↑
> Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:25 pm
> Nobody gives a flying fuck about Tordek and Regdar.

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Post by Josh_Kablack » Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:40 am

Okay, racial descripts are just-about-finished. Anyone want to point out the typos and such that are in that post so I can edit it and send it off to my players.
(Okay, I know I couldn't pick a capitalization for Kuo-Toa, so look for the other errors I made)
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by JonSetanta » Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:46 am

Your players could do the typo search

> The Adventurer's Almanac wrote: ↑
> Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:25 pm
> Nobody gives a flying fuck about Tordek and Regdar.

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Post by Josh_Kablack » Thu Dec 02, 2010 3:39 am

What I really I want to know is does it make sense with no glaring errors to someone who hasn't been staring at it all damn day?
Edit: okay copied stuff to the player reference thread. This thread remains open for discussion of general ideas, abstract rules arguments and other stuff that is not a direct concern for my players.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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### Lion People, and Tiger Land Sharks and Owlbears, Oh My.

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Post by Josh_Kablack » Sat Dec 11, 2010 4:52 am

The real Afriica is full of interesting and potentially deadly critters all the way from protozoa up to megafauna. So to use that as a jumping-off point for a D&D setting, I'm going to add some fantasy elements to some of the more noteworthy african creatures. Sometimes this will just be a reskinning of an existing D&D monster or an ecological note. Sometimes it will be a setting idea or an idea for a new monster. This is mostly brainstorming, although I have a couple of loose design goals:
* End up with stuff that's recognizable to players, or at least is a mish-mash of recognizable critters.
* If something is supposed to be a threat, it needs an ability that's a potential threat to PCs with heavy range capabilities. D&D is overloaded with closet trolls and way too thin on archery monsters as it is. The wide-open-spaces type setting, availability of firearms in the setting make range an even more likely PC tactic than it normally is in D&D games.
Hippopotami - these are semi-aquatic relations of the whales. It seems a very obvious extension to include bulette (or something like them) as semi-aquatic relations of sharks. Burrowing is effective in closing against ranged fire. And heck, bulette can cause hippo stampedes. Fun Fact: a group of hippos is called a bloat.
Zebra - like horses but more stripey and supposedly harder to tame. This is D&D, we get to have herds of zebra who have wings and take to the air to avoid predators. Stats just like pegasi, possibly add penalties to Ride or Handle Animal to represent temper, but some people in setting still use as steeds - would be good for a whole group of airship bandits.
Kudu - this type of antelope has a horn which is a big deal in making ritual instruments. This is D&D, ritual instruments get to mean some sort of real magic. Possibly along the lines of shout or maybe an amplifier for any sonic attack - which makes it useful to the lamia.
Crocodile - In the interest of making these a ranged threat, we get the frog-tongued crocodile, which can pull prey into its jaws from afar. The better to catch Zebrasi with. (I half remember seeing something like this in one of the MMs I think)
Wildebeast - large migratory herds, an important and challenging prey species. These don't change much, but they likely get some sort of hivemind or herd spirit or something as a group defense, making it even more essential that hunters single individuals out from the herd.
boomslang, puff adder, black mamba, cobra - the real africa has a number of different variates of deadly poisonous snake. So does the Monster Manual. Ranging from normal snakes, to giant snakes (oddly listed under animals but not Dire animals for the huge ones) thru yuan-ti, naga and purple worms. Snakelikes, spiderlikes and carniverous ape variants account for like half of all D&D monsters. Anyways, in the interest of ranged threat, some of these need to be spitting cobras - and some of those get their poison spit upgraded to be a meaningful range weapon.
Mongoose - this critter is fast and good at killing snakes. Maybe it gets upgraded to some sort of high-dex magical beastie that no only hunts snakes, but actually has snake venom as a key part of its diet. Or maybe that's too silly and I just reskin the Dire Weasel to a Dire Mongoose. Whatever this is, Naga/Yuan-Ti and any of the other intelligent snake monsters get to be afraid of it.
Giraffe - they reach greens others can't with their long necks. In D&D, the obvious thing to do is give them an ability to graze ethereal, and they can eat the spirits of the leaves as well as the leaves themselves. This possibly interacts oddly with the Dryad PC race.
Elephant - the big deal in the real world is that they are the largest land animal, and among the largest animals on earth. In D&D, there get to be similar critters that are even bigger, tarrasquelike Behemoths are around, and likely so are Dire Animals and even some Dinosaurs. So I guess the tusks, prehensile trunk and memory saying matter here. Or maybe the ability to put a houda on top as a firing platform for lighting wands and shock arbalests just makes them the Koa-Toa version of the tank.
Rhino - they have a horn that is hunted as an aprhodesiac, they have a cool threat display and they charge stuff. I think they are fine as is. I kinda want to make the horn into a ranged attack, but I think Herculoids proved that is a totally lame idea. Maybe, just maybe upgrade the threat display and have a "Frilled Rhino" that displays a ruff before charging and gets an actual fear effect for it. But then again, the Krensher illustrates how that can be a lame idea....
plasmodium / trypanosomes - these microbes are responsible for horrible and endemic diseases that have plagued humanity for longer than history. But in the context of a D&D game, you can stab them right in the face. There get to be actual Plague Spirits or something that either spread the disease or are made manifest when enough victims in an area are infected.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:37 am, edited 3 times in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by DragonChild » Sat Dec 11, 2010 5:08 am

> Crocodile - In the interest of making these a ranged threat, we get the frog-tongued crocodile, which can pull prey into its jaws from afar. The better to catch Zebrasi with. (I half remember seeing something like this in one of the MMs I think)

Mudmaw, MM2 p.153. Tentacles are melee, however. And oddly enough it casts stuff like slow.
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:35 am

> DragonChild wrote:Mudmaw, MM2 p.153. Tentacles are melee, however. And oddly enough it casts stuff like slow.

Yup. That's the pic I remember. That said the 10 ft reach isn't what I want here - it needs to be like the roper or giant squid reach, at least.
And as cute as the soften earth + water walk combo is, that doesn't even require tactical adjustment for a party of archers, musketeers and spellcasters.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by Eikre » Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:25 am

You should do something cute with cone snails. Their shells can be used to make a spiral ndoro talisman which were/are attested to have some manner of spiritual power, which says to me that there's an opportunity to have a creature with some overtly magical mechanics that you like but couldn't otherwise find a real-world biological analogue for. And then when you kill one you get, like, I dunno, a holy symbol or something.
Last edited by Eikre on Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Surgo » Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:34 pm

If you're interested, I can help move this to the wiki </blatant advertisement>
http://www.dnd-wiki.org -- the wiki
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:48 pm

Cone Snails - Awesome idea. Already reflected in one of the puns I snuck onto my armor tweaks. But as they are a real-world animal with magic associations who shoot poison darts, the D&D version probably shoots magic poison darts or something.
Wiki - if by "help" you mean repost stuff - go right on ahead. I post this stuff so that other people can appropriate parts for their games. However, if by "help" you mean that you would just help, and I would have to do some of the markup and catch more of the typos I made, that's gonna require an unrealistic time commitment from me.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by Surgo » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:30 pm

When it's in a 3/5 or so completeness state, I'd upload it myself. I only ask that you maintain the wiki version if you add anything new or make any changes (which you may not want to do, in which case forget I said anything).
http://www.dnd-wiki.org -- the wiki
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Post by PhaedrusXY » Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:01 pm

> Josh_Kablack wrote:Cone Snails - Awesome idea. Already reflected in one of the puns I snuck onto my armor tweaks. But as they are a real-world animal with magic associations who shoot poison darts, the D&D version probably shoots magic poison darts or something.

Those things are crazy. When I was interviewing for graduate schools, one of the labs I visited studied the neuro-toxins they produce. (I decided not to go to that school, though.)
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:15 pm

Very quick collection of existing and brainstorming on Places of Import
Stone Town on Black Coast Isle - a rip of Zanzibar, this is a city with many stone buildings situation on an Isle that commands the Black Coast (there's an in-setting dispute for whether the coast is called Black for the stones of the shores, the empty spaces on the map, the ledgers of the Royal Expeditions Company or the swamp dragons). This is a major port and has Skydocks for airships, it's also the a regional center of Human power and may be the largest human population in the setting. This is the default starting location for campaigns.
Within and near the city we have

- the Harbor, with it's "On the nail" marketplace,
- The Foxcliff Skydocks. The Airship port, high above and outside of town proper. These are named for the Flying Fox that's native to the twin isles - it's a lemur-like creature with flying squirrel style glider flaps. The height of the cliffs saves the airships from expending cavorite to re-ascend. New human arrivals are often aghast at just how many stairs they need to navigate to reach ground level. Wealthier travelers hire the team of goblin porters that's always around.
- The Pit: a shady harbour bar, named for the 5' deep hole in the back room which is used to hold fights between flying foxes with crimped wingflaps
- The Governer's Manor - currently inhabited by Lord Allen and his wife the Lady Ada (they have a son away at school in the human lands, and another son buried prominently on the grounds)
- The main offices of the Royal Expeditions Company
- Court Square: where proclamations are made and pirates are hanged.

In addition to being a center of trade and human colonialism, Black Coast Isle is known for raffia growth and working, as well as the production of spices such as cinnamon, pepper and cloves. Doubtless, there is a guild jealously guarding the secret of cinnamon and disseminating misinformation just like in real world history.
The rest of Black Coast Isle which is not cultivated consists of tropical forests, beaches, and mangrove swamps.
Then there is Green Isle - the sister isle to Black Coast Isle. It's smaller and has much worse harborage - reefs and rocks - so you can only get there by small boat or adventurer stuff (zebrasi, lizardfolk swimming, featherfall from an airship, etc) It's also got more hostile wildlife - boars, sea cats, maybe a chuul or something. But it's only a few hours rowing from Black Coast Isle, so it's a hideout for pirates and escapees and the like. This is pretty much the first adventure locale for PCs - they can have to track down a pirate or rescue someone, or hunt a rare animal, or just map a cove
moving on to the even less fleshed out locations we have:
The Great White Peak aka The Lonely Peak aka Bugbear Bloodspike - a rip of Kilamanjaro, this is where the goblinoids breed
"The General" - a mountain in a more northerly range, this is where the False Face have their stronghold.
Hotfire village - a small Kuo-Toa settlement somewhere within the Black Coast region
Soft Snail River - a river from inland in the Black Coast region.
Queen's Falls - a rip of Victoria Falls. This needs to have some crazy fantasy stuff happen here, but as of now I got nuthin. Ancient hydro-magical power generation stations? Great Spirit of the falls? Region know as dangerous to airships? Something else?
Spikefish River - just a name so far
Sky(to)Sky Hole - a rip of the Ngorongoro_Crater, this is the only true Kingdom of the Lamia.
The Wicker City of Sisalbloom - the Lamia capital. So called for a unique architectural style consisting of buildings faced or made entirely from wicker.
Echoless Chambers - term the kobolds use to describe certain large underground caverns and the ancient ruins found within
Rutlands - just a name so far
Trek, Veldt - words I need to steal for stuff to come.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Post by Username17 » Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:22 pm

In the real world, Zanzibar was a huge slave trading hub, are you going to have flesh markets there?
On a lighter note: under no circumstances should you ever call anything "Rutlands". That is totally a name that would be used in rural themed pornography or the scenic English countryside.
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