Ok, launch of the game will probably come out within a week but I still have a few things to iron out. First on the list is I changed some racial stats:
Humans: +1 divine magic, +1 INT
*Orc: +1 STR, +10% XP gain for combat skills when competing
High Elves: +2 INT, +1 AGI, +1 DEX
Goblins: -3 STR, SPD halved, INT halved, +2 stealth
I swapped out the Orc-blooded Human's +1 combat skills for a +10% combat XP gain since it was OP compared to other Humans, especially in the face of the Great Elf's stats. I buffed the High Elves to have more DEX so they can be better at bows while I nerfed the Goblins by removing their DEX bonus so they wouldn't be better archers than High Elves, plus I didn't think they were sufficiently underpowered enough (Goblins are meant to be 'Hard' mode). Their stealth bonus should still help in regards to lockpicking and stuff so it's not as severe as it initially seems to be.
Now, originally I had this game in mind as a Suggestion Game where players pick a race and do whatever, maybe unravel what happened to Time or become a pseudo-demigod or attain rulership or something. The problem is that I intend for the players to unlock new races they can play as as they play the game, which they can then play as once they retire their character or die. I feel that if I play it as an SG people will drop out once the character that they've
all invested their time in will die, or will simply never retire the character and play as a new race. For this reason, I've decided to open up this game to 3 players at a time.
While all gameplay will take place on the same world (a more precise description would be 'planet'), the players can choose to play in very different areas. There will be a default area that players can play in or they can request to play in a different part of the world (specified by them) where the geography is different, such as one where Humans are wiped out or where Dryads and Dwarves are the two major powers of the world (Dryads are basically super elves).
There were three big events in the world, the middle one being the most dramatic and universe-changing (literally) by far. First, the Orcs were created by the Competition god to fight the High Elves (at this point just called Elves). It was supposed to determine either mundane or magic as the better form of fighting. The Orcs were winning in most parts of the world but it was pretty obvious it was due to their combat stats and their too-high starting numbers together. To fix this and make it a fair fight, Competition planned to genocide the Orcs to match their numbers with the Elves and then nerf their stats (more efficient in that order). While he didn't manage the latter, he certainly managed the former and most Orcs ended up dead. Now, Competition wasn't the smartest of gods, nor the most well-liked, so when he was tried for breaking two Council rules with his genocide it was quickly decided For imprisoning him. It was there that he was secretly assassinated but most gods didn't like him so no one really cared. What was important, however, was the Orc's change of opinion of their god and their general attitude after the genocide. With the aid of a certain god (I dunno, maybe Love? Trade?), permanent peace was established between the Orcs and the Elves. The Elves' hatred for the Orcs was balanced by their pity over getting genocided by their own creator god and the Orcs kinda felt guilty about being the initial genociders coupled with their respect over the Elves fighting the Human empires relatively well.
Ok, the second big event. Within the span of a few years to a couple dozen years, the universe went from having several dozens of gods, to six. It started with a large amount of gods going to war with one-another (a little less than a quarter), but there were only two casualties and it was unlikely there would be many more. What ended up killing oh so many of the gods was Time going on a rampage and killing everyone before the six remaining gods finally imprisoned and executed him. The gods of the universe didn't all have relatively boring spheres like the ones mentioned earlier in this thread, there was a god of magic, a god of weapons, a god of knowledge, and there was even a time where three different fire gods were active at once! While the effects of the deaths of so many gods is fairly obvious, it affected one group of people more than anyone else.
The third big event: the collapse of the Human empires. First, a bit of background knowledge. The Humans were an experiment by the gods to create a better worshipper race. The idea was that the worship of a member an unaligned race would be worth more than that of an aligned race (i.e. literally every other race ever). It was found that no, it wasn't worth any more, but rather than create a boring, mundane race that wasn't special in the least, their unaligned nature gave them an edge in two specific areas. One, they weren't influenced into any specific mode of thinking and so were generally better at it (their INT bonus comes from this). Two, and much more importantly, they got a noticable boost to divine magic. Remember, there were dozens of gods active at this time which means that humans god bonuses to a huge variety of bonuses to choose from, assuming they applied their magic in those areas. With Technology, Fire, Blood, and Divination magic, to name a few, they basically conquered a whole bunch of land and were confirmed dominant race of the world. When most of the gods died, they lost pretty much all their important bonuses and were unable to hold their lands. Counter-conquests by other races led to collapses of empires, kingdoms, city-states...everything.
Eventually, with the help of the gods (help - even they couldn't save it all by themselves, especially in their weakened state after dealing with Time), peace emerged and things settled. The decline didn't stop here, however, and wouldn't stop for several more decades. This was due to the Humans having basically no racial advantages which meant they really couldn't compete against the others.
The decline finally ended due to a combination of three things: first, as Humans emigrated outside of Human lands to work in the cities of other races, relations between them grew slightly and trade opened up to a decent degree on the non-Humans' ends. Second, this new openness to trade plus the Human settlements' central locations (they were once the centres of empires, after all) made them more important in terms of trade. Third, as traders and immigrants went both into and out of Human lands, many Humans found themselves having the blood of another race within them so Humans eventually managed to get some decent racial bonuses so they can properly compete. Great Elves and Nature Elves started appearing during this time as hybrids mated with other (same type) hybrids, their descendents eventually becoming new types of Elves (long lifespans and Elven appearance with minor differences).
Just to make it clear, the situation in the above history is merely how it is in the default area. If a player wants, they can be put in an area where Humans managed to hold on to power or one where Orcs took over everything or one where Dwarves are extinct because of magma-related shenanigans. A planet is a big place, after all, and history unfolds differently in different areas. Also, the reason why I call gods based on domains rather than names is because they have different names depending on race and location.
Difference between the elves:
Nature Elves - attractive Humans with pointy ears
High Elves - Nature Elves except taller (that's where the 'High' comes from)
Great Elves - Nature Elves except green and more muscular (that's where the 'Great' comes from)
The default area will be very standard but should allow for some decent experiences. All the races start off at peace with each-other (except for Goblins, being
Always Chaotic Evil they're at war with everyone) with some ruins to uncover, wilderness to explore, and monsters to fight.